AIP week 2: my week in food

It’s the end of my second week following the Autoimmune Protocol, and to be honest, this diet has not gotten any easier to follow. It’s hard, but I’m comforted by the reminder that it’s only temporary. Nuts and nut butters are usually my fall backs for convenient, healthy snacks, but since I cannot eat nuts on the AIP diet, I’ve been struggling to find enough options of foods to eat throughout the day.

Breakfasts this week were more or less still experimental moments of me trying to find creative alternatives to coconut in my cauliflower porridge. I know it sounds and maybe looks odd, but I added an avocado one morning to my porridge. I talked myself into believing it was green cookie dough – obviously, it wasn’t the most delicious meal in the world, but it wasn’t too bad either. It was just the caloric breakfast I needed to keep me going throughout the day. My breakfasts are clearly not high in protein, so one morning, I played around and added nutritional yeast with a drizzle of olive oil to my puree of banana and cauliflower……fail. I will not be making that combination again. Other mornings, I tested my luck with coconut again, but used coconut oil instead, and then topped my cauliflower-banana mash with cinnamon. This version was creamy and tasty, but, still an inadequate source of protein. Another morning, I indulged in a mash-up of kabocha squash and banana with olive oil. My father-in-law introduced me to steamed kabocha squash (or Japanese pumpkin) even before I started the AIP diet, and thankfully, squashes are AIP-compliant!! I bought three whole pumpkins this week to feast off of for a delicious load of carbohydrates. Kabocha squash has a tough green skin, which you can actually eat when the pumpkin is steamed, and a fluffy, potato-like, delicately sweet orange flesh. I absolutely LOVE kabocha squash! So, yes, breakfasts are still a work in progress, as I’m aiming to get more protein in my morning meal. I’m not a savory breakfast girl, so the thought of eating chicken or fish in the morning repulses me. My whole day just feels off if I don’t eat my banana in the morning.

While I haven’t mastered breakfast yet, I did make some excellent meals for dinner! I admittedly had a rough start to the week, so at the beginning of the week, I steeped large chunks of dried kelp in organic vegetable stock and ate this mineral-rich broth with a side of steamed kabocha squash topped with avocado. Sea vegetables are incredible sources of calcium, magnesium, iron, and iodine, amongst many other minerals, and can also be a decent source of protein if eaten in larger quantities.

Since I was on a sea-veggie kick, I also had the ambition to make miyeok guk, a Korean seaweed soup. Traditional miyeok guk is not AIP-compliant, as it contains sesame oil, soy sauce, and many other no-nos, but I modified it to make it compatible for my new diet. I also kept it vegan! Much to my chagrin, I realized the store-bought vegetable stocks I purchased contained tomato puree….whoops!!….so needless to say, I took on the task of making homemade vegetable stock for my miyeok guk. I brought a large pot of water to a boil and added in onion skins, thinly sliced onion, sliced garlic, bay leaves, large chunks of carrots, and lots of salt. As the broth boiled down, I kept adding more water and salt to create a rich, aromatic stock. While the broth was simmering, I soaked some dried wakame. Wakame, known for it’s vibrant green color, is another nutrient-dense sea vegetable that is used in many Asian dishes. Once my broth was ready, I removed the onion skins, and gently added in the re-hydrated wakame, which more than tripled in size. I brought the soup to a low simmer again, then added in coconut aminos, which is a great substitute to soy sauce, and sliced homegrown oyster mushrooms I grew in my very own kitchen! I was very skeptical about eating these, fearing I might either start foaming from the mouth or start seeing blue smurfs. Not only did I live to tell the tale of my mushroom garden, but I will also tell you those mushrooms were unbelievably robust, earthy, and nutty-sweet. I watered my little garden box again, desperately hoping more will grow! We will see!

This week I also excitingly discovered that nutritional yeast is AIP-friendly (a HUGE win for me!), so I made the “cheesy” broccoli soup from Alaena Haber’s “Healing Kitchen” cookbook. This cookbook is filled with so amazing AIP recipes, I didn’t even know where to begin! I prepared the soup with vegetable broth, instead of the prescribed chicken broth, and pureed in the steamed broccoli, avocado, a few spices, and nutritional yeast. It was fantastic!! Creamy, salty, “cheesy” goodness! About three bowls of this and a few sides helpings of steamed kabocha with olive oil made for one satisfying meal.

Finally, I finished off the week with a gold-medal ribbon meal: chicken meatballs with avocado-cilantro chimuchurri. Absolutely stellar! Who said meatballs need eggs and a binder? I made these chicken ones with none such ingredients! I simply ground my own organic chicken breasts in my food processor with fresh garlic and salt – that’s it, plain and simple. I rolled the chicken mixture into balls and baked them on a foil-lined baking sheet at 350 F for about 20 minutes. While the meatballs were in the oven, I prepared my chimichurri and steamed fresh lacinato kale. For the chimichurri, I pureed an avocado with fresh cilantro, lime zest, lime juice, apple cider vinegar, salt, and touch of water to thin it down. Hubby got to enjoy his meatballs and chimichurri over brown rice, but I ate mine over diced roasted sweet potatoes, and both of us of course rounded our plates with the freshly steamed kale. I will no doubt be making this meal again, even when I’m finished with my run on the AIP diet.

Now that I’ve given you the rundown of my delicious week in food, I thought I would also share with you about some of the supplements I am taking to enhance my healing process. I started to take digestive enzymes more regularly again, understanding that right now my body just cannot produce adequate digestive enzymes to break down food. I began taking these intermittently, or as needed, about a year ago when the naturopathic doctor I had been seeing detected through my lab work that I was deficient in digestive enzymes. She suggested a combination enzyme supplement to help break down fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. I have also been taking a supplement called L-glutamine. L-glutamine is the most abundant essential amino acid the body makes on it’s own, but many autoimmune sufferers actually don’t produce enough of it. L-glutamine is an amazing amino acid, as it plays a crucial role in building and repairing lean muscle tissue. In fact, in many sports performance-enhancing and recovery drinks, powders, etc. contain small amounts of this amino acid for this very purpose. While L-glutamine is ideal for building muscle, it also is a miracle worker in healing a damaged and inflamed gut. L-glutamine supplements, such as the one I am taking, contain much higher doses of the amino acid, and are best taken on an empty stomach. So I try to take 2-3 tablets each day, between meals and at night. Lastly, in addition to a multi-vitamin and a vitamin D3 capsule, I am also taking a very potent probiotic called VSL#3. VSL#3, considered a medical food, is commonly prescribed for colitis and IBD (irritable bowel diseases)-patients and can only be purchased from a pharmacy, although it does not require a prescription. One capsule of VSP#3 contains over 112 billion bacteria strains, so it floods the gut with beneficial bacteria, which is crucial for the microbiome.

Here are my AIP recipes for this week:

Cauli-banana porridge (variations)

2 cups steamed cauliflower
1 large banana
variations:
1 tsp. coconut oil + sprinkle of cinnamon
OR
1 avocado, peeled and pitted

Puree the steamed cauliflower with the banana. Option to add in the avocado (for green cookie dough!). Reheat in the microwave to enjoy hot. If no avocado is desired, simply add the coconut oil and cinnamon to the cauliflower and banana.

“Cheesy” broccoli soup (adapted from The Healing Kitchen cookbook)

1 avocado, peeled and pitted
1 lb. fresh or frozen broccoli
4 cups vegetable stock
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp. salt

In a large stock pot, bring the broccoli and vegetable broth to a low boil and cook until broccoli is soft. Using an immersion hand blender, puree the soup. Add in diced avocado and puree again until smooth and creamy. Add in the salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and apple cider vinegar. Stir to combine. Then add in the nutritional yeast and stir again. Keep soup on low heat until ready to serve.

Miyeok guk (Korean seaweed soup)

1 oz. dried wakame
1 recipe of homemade vegetable stock (recipe below)
1/2 cup fresh oyster mushrooms, sliced
1/3 cup coconut aminos

Soak the wakame for at least two hours in cold water. Rinse and drain, and set aside until ready to use. Bring the vegetable broth to a low simmer in a large stock pot. Add in the soaked wakame and stir, then add in the coconut aminos. About 5 minutes before serving, add in the sliced mushrooms and stir. Serve hot.

Homemade vegetable broth

6 quarts of water, plus more as needed
1 large onion, thinly sliced, and skins
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 dried bay leaves
3 Tbsp. sea salt, more or less to taste
6 large carrots, cut into large chunks
variation Kelp broth:
1 oz. dried kelp

Bring all ingredients to a boil in a large stock pot. Continue to add water and salt as needed. The broth should develop a rich orange-brown tinge from the onion skins and carrots. Allow the broth to cook for a total of about 3 hours, removing the onion skins at the very last moment before ready to use in a recipe.
If making kelp broth, add the kelp to the broth after removing the onion skins and allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Chicken meatballs with avocado-cilantro chimichurri

for the chicken:
1 lb. organic chicken breasts
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp. salt

for the chimichurri:
1 avocado, peeled and pitted
1 1/2 cups fresh cilantro
1 lime, zest and juice
3 Tbsp. cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 salt
4-5 Tbps. water, as needed

Prepare the meatballs. In the bowl of a large food processor, grind up the garlic, chicken and salt. Roll the chicken mixture into golf-ball sized rounds, and bake on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet at 350 F for about 20 minutes. While the meatballs bake, prepare the chimichurri. In a clean food processor, puree the avocado, cilantro, lime zest and juice, apple cider vinegar, salt, and 2 tablespoons of water. Continue to add more water, one tablespoon at a time, as needed to thin out the sauce. Serve the meatballs over diced roasted sweet potatoes with steamed kale, all drizzled with the chimichurri.