Healing the Body

2019 was the year of food allergies for me.

One of the things I had to drop over the new moon was clinging to unhealthy ways of eating and putting things in my body that caused inflammation. Every time I turned around, I was sick again from what I ate. As a response, I made up a simple table of what I’m allergic to and what I can still eat. It makes life simpler.

The main photo above is of some chicken soup I made today. It is not being processed for storage. I’m putting it in the fridge as soon as the jars are cool enough. This will be my meals for as long as it lasts.

Moringa Spearmint Sage Tea 16 bags

I had to toss my plastic containers. They aren’t good for cooking in and mine were stained and old. I need to find an alternative. Meanwhile, glass jars work well. Most of the jars are quarts. I re-used one smaller jar from some coconut oil. I expect that my body will heal a lot while I eat this chicken soup, and then I will move back to solid foods.

The recipe is simple:

Get out your soup pot. Put in some olive oil till you have a scant 1/4 inch film at the bottom of the pan and add 2 roughly chopped onions. Put over low heat with about a teaspoon of salt and stir.

While the onions are getting soft, peel and chop 3 carrots and 4 celery stalks into smallish pieces. Smaller than you would normally cut them. Add the meat from 2 chicken leg quarters which have been roasted plain in the oven till done. Mine were frozen together, so this is a double batch of soup. Skin the chicken and chop the skins into small pieces and then de-bone the chicken. Cut it into small pieces.  The skin adds a nice touch of chicken fat to the soup, which adds silkiness to the finished product.

Add the prepared vegetables to the pot and stir to coat with oil. Then add the chicken and skins. Add a 1/2 teaspoon of granulated garlic or 2 minced or pressed cloves, and stir everything well. Add 3-4 quarts of warm water and bring the heat up to medium-low.

Add a teaspoon each of thyme, sage, turmeric, ground cumin, and white pepper; and about 2-3 tablespoons of granulated chicken bouillon. I use Knorr’s brand. The only thing that is not optional is the bouillon. Cook at a medium simmer for 90 minutes and serve.

The soup is cleansing, healthy and filling. The turmeric fights inflammation, the cumin and pepper add a little heat without adding chiles (on my allergic foods list).  The sage and thyme are traditional with poultry.

I don’t add rice, pasta, or any other grains to my soup because of my food allergies. This recipe will probably last me for a week, so maybe 14 servings?

Now, you may ask, what else can I eat?

I’ve uploaded a document that you can download if you have the same problem as me. The foods on it are all freshly prepared, not pre-cooked at the market or other sources. Here is the list I’m working with:

Approved-Foods-List

It is a Word document and you can adjust it for your own allergies.

I’ve not left a lot of room for error. For sweeteners, I use Monkfruit, Erythritol and pure stevia without dextrose added. Read the labels. You can source these at a natural foods market or on Amazon.

I take my list to the store when I shop and read labels. I compare it to recipes I’ll cook, and made substitutions of things I can have for the things I can’t have. The hardest part is baking, but I’ve found that Keto recipes generally work well.

I know it seems weird to not post a turkey soup recipe at this time of year. I saved the bones and will be making some stock later this week. If I don’t get around to it, that’s OK, too. Everything is in the freezer.

For my leftover fresh cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving, I’ll be making a coffee cake this week, once I get some more sour cream. I’ll post that, too. It’s a nice Keto recipe that uses most of what is already in the cranberry sauce and puts on a crumb topping with walnuts. Yum! And yes, I’ll have some of that. I’m taking it to a pot luck lunch on Thursday.

I hope this helps others with food allergies. If my list doesn’t work for you, change it up to what does.

The hardest part is learning how to cook all over again.