Food again...

[fajrdrako]

I figured out why I felt miserable last week. I was struggling with allergies and exhaustion, and couldn't figure out why. It was getting worse, despite antihistamines. Add to that memory lapses, pain in the lower back, and - well, I'll spare you all the symptoms. Sunday I was so tired I just sat and read (and napped) all day.

What clued me in was the sugar binges.

Classic symptoms of candidiasis. I know them well - especially the sense of exhaustion right after eating. And a craving for sweets - that really isn't like me. I should have recognized them. But it's been so long that I've been symptom-free that I tend to think of myself as 'cured' of candidiasis and heck, one little donut can't hurt, right?

Well, it did. Or... it leads to things that do. Stupidity and slowness to figure it out is actually a symptom of the disease. I have to remember this.

I've been three days on the Ayurvedic diet again (almost identical to the medical diet for candidiasis, by no coincidence) and the symptoms disappeared the first day I started eating properly again. Except the itchy skin. Ah well, that will go too. I dropped by the comic book shop (the Silver Snail on Bank St.), and the health food store down the block from it (Herb & Spice) and stocked up on organic vegetables. Then I made a gorgeous soup of organic, mushrooms, kale, cilantro, carrots, cauliflower, and a purple potato, and it was delicious.

I'd never had a purple potato before. Why purple, I wonder? It had a lovely, strong, distinctive taste - I mean, it tasted like a potato, but like an incredibly good potato. I couldn't figure out whether the good flavour was because it was organic, or because it was purple, or both.

I wonder where in town I can find organic meats. I thought the Loeb at Bank and Second carried them, but I checked, and they don'e. Maybe one of the butchers? And soy milk - I'll have to make my own, I think; the kind they sell in the stores has sugar in it. It tastes great but the kind I make (when I take the time to make it) tastes even better. It's a bit of a nuisance, though. It takes time.

So I'm back on the Ayurvedic diet with a firm resolve not to mess it up this time. Sure, I can vary what I eat, it's a very forgiving and elastic diet. But candidiasis isn't forgiving at all.

And I hate being sick. I particularly hate a sickness that makes me stupid.

Comments

[msilverstar]

That's relatively good news about food -- at least there's something you can do. *hugs*

I have a tendre for purple potatoes -- they're the first ones my kid would eat.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, if they're all as good as the one I had last night, I'm not surprised the kid liked them!

Yes, the sense of being able to do something - dietary or otherwise - to fight the illness is good. I wish the diet was more convenient - eating with friends becomes problematic. But still better than being sick and depressed. (Yes, depression is another candidiasis symptom - and the worst.)

[laitosto.livejournal.com]

Was it a Tim Horton donut? I love donuts, but haven't had one in a long time due to weight/cholesteral worries. You have now planted the idea...

How do you make your soy milk? When I use to make tofu, I would run the cooked soy beans through the food processor. The cut-up soy beans (don't the Japanese call it 'okara'?) was then used for granola and "burgers". yum-yum.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Was it a Tim Horton donut? I

As a matter of fact - it was!

And sadly, due to weight, cholesterol and candidiasis worries, it's a rare treat. But all the more precious for it.

I have only made soy milk with one recipe so far, but I was thinking of trying a few others. I found this one online - can send it to you, if you like. It involves soaking the soybeans (but not cooking them), then blending them, then straining them with cheesecloth, then simmering the liquid. I thought it was delicious.

I haven't tried making anything out of the leftover bean debris. Did you improvise, or do you have any recipes for the burgers?

[laitosto.livejournal.com]

I'll have to look up the recipe. I haven't done it in literally decades. I know it doesn't do you any good because of the brown sugar and the honey, but the granola was great. The tofu yield was small, but I ended up with enough breakfast cereal for a week.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

enough breakfast cereal for a week

That's great - it seems such a shame to just throw away the leftover bits of soybeans. But I can never think of much to do with them!

Okara Burgers

[laitosto.livejournal.com]

1 cup okara
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup minced onion
1/4 cup grated carrot
1 clove of garlic, minced or crushed
1 tablesppon shoyu
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
dash of pepper
Oil for deep-frying

Combine the first nine ingredients, mixing week, and shape into patties. Heat the oil to 350F in a wok, skillet, or deep-fryer. Drop in patties and deep fry until crisp and golden brown. If deep-frying is inconvenient, patties may be fried or broiled. Also, try adding cooked brown rice.

from the Book of Tofu

I don't remember how it came out.

Good luck.

L.

Re: Okara Burgers

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for the recipe! I'll use it, since I'm planning to make soy milk this evening. What is shoyu? Does the recipe work without it, do you know?

Re: Okara Burgers

[laitosto.livejournal.com]

Shoyu is natural Japanese soy sauce. It is fermented, where most commerical soy sauce is not. I don't know what leaving it out will do -- I imagine it is just a flavoring and not necessary for keeping the stuff from hanging together (like the egg and flour).

Let me know how it worked!

Re: Okara Burgers

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I imagine I could use Tamari or regular soy sauce and get a similar flavour. I'll try it and see what happens.

organic beef in Ottawa...

[laitosto.livejournal.com]

running the words "Organic Beef" and Ottawa through google resulted in this...

http://www.cog.ca/ottawa/ottlist.htm
http://perc.ca/PEN/1999-07-08/s-jack.html

The cog site mentions an organic street market at Huron and Bank, Sat. 10-2. The second link is dated (1999), but sparked the idea of an Amish market as a source...

btw english: esperanto
doughnut: benjeto

Re: organic beef in Ottawa...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for this! I went to some of those places today - bought organic bison, chicken and lamb at a really nice meat market in the west end. (Unfortunately an hour away by bus.) I know the place at Huron and bank; I went there once last year. It's good, but not open in the winter.

Bejneto - sounds like New Oleans!

[blackbyrde.livejournal.com]

And soy milk - I'll have to make my own, I think; the kind they sell in the stores has sugar in it. It tastes great but the kind I make (when I take the time to make it) tastes even better. It's a bit of a nuisance, though. It takes time.


I find the kind they have in Chinese groceries are less sweet, and less thick. More like the homemade kind. And I agree, making it at home is quite a nuisance. Someone needs to invent a machine, some sort of press, so squeeze out the milk from the bean pulp. :D

Yesterday, I discovered that I like beets. I've never had beets before. :D

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

They do sell machines for making soy milk. I've seen them at Nature's Pantry. Kind of expensive- I don't know how they work.

I love beets. I'd have them a lot more often if they werent' so messy to prepare. They stain everything!

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Stupidity and slowness to figure it out is actually a symptom of the disease. I have to remember this.

And I hate being sick. I particularly hate a sickness that makes me stupid.

I have had the same problem, with the low-grade sinus infections that I now get with my allergic reactions to environmental toxins (detergent scents, stale cigarette smoke on smokers' clothing, people's cologne and perfume, some soaps and shampoos and -- especially -- shaving cream). I end up stumbling through the first two days of the illness without even realizing that I'm sick, if you can believe that -- I just get all frustrated and impatient with myself. Then it usually dawns on me that I'm sick, and things all make sense again. One time, I actually sat down on my first break at work and wrote out all the key indications in the back of my little notebook: loss of attention, loss of short-term memory, impatience with other people speaking to me, certain physical symptoms, all of it. I had to -- because if you don't know you're sick, you can't remember to take the steps to alleviate it!

So, you're not alone. Don't be too hard on yourself for the "stupidity and slowness." Just make yourself a list, and put it somewhere where you'll see it -- say, on your bookshelf by the bed. Just a gentle reminder, for those times that you won't be thinking clearly and you'll need a little bit of a helping hand from your more rational self [g]. Think of it as a message in a bottle to yourself!

(Or, I could refer to the delightful closing scenes in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, were I sure that you've seen the movie. The scenes where they're zipping through the police station, among other places, trying to assemble all the parts of their puzzle so that things work out the way they want them to work out. They keep running into things they need, because they've remembered, later, to go back in time again and leave these little notes and hints and all for themselves.)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not angry with myself for the stupidity and slowness, just with the disease. Hopefully the circumstance won't recur for a long time.