Moving to the Safe List....I think?

This summer I have been diligent about reading labels, cooking from scratch, and gently testing certain foods for reactions.  In the last couple weeks in particular, I haven't had a breakout of hives at all! Here's what I've learned:

CORN:  Yep, definitely react to this.  Especially, corn syrup, cornstarch, maltodextrin, and modified food starch.  It seems however that some of the derivatives don't bother me.  I'm not as worried about citric acid, guargum, xantham, etc.  They don't seem to bother me.

SOY:  The jury is still out.  I seem to do fine with Soy Lecithin and haven't noticed reactions from Soy Oil in products.  I will still limit it's consumption anyways since it's not supposed to be beneficial for thyroid function.

EGG:  This was extremely borderline in my testing.  The technician told me she only added it to the list because it was one of the ones that I came in questioning.  My reaction was 5/8.  Not even close to my reactions with all the other allergens.  I'm definitely moving EGG to the safe list.  This is such a relief as far as breakfast goes.  But I still won't have it everyday.

I think this is good progress.  I'm feeling better, have learned lots in the kitchen, and am leading a generally healthier life.

What a week away can do.

I just got back from a week visiting my sister in St. Kitts.  I left my garden in the hands of my husband.  I knew he could do a good job, but was a little concerned since I knew he was super busy with work.  To top things off, I have been combating a case of powdery mildew on my pumpkins.  I was a little concerned that my garden would not be the same when I returned.

Well I was right!  It wasn't the same.  It was even BETTER!

The eggplant has taken off.  There were two more large pumpkins.  The tomato plants have replenished their leaves.  A whole new batch of tomatillos were ready.  And three bell peppers are taunting me.

Oh and remember the basil that I had so many problems with?  The earwigs attacked it.  I transplanted it after it was overshadowed by the huge tomato plants.  It hung to life with one half eaten leaf.  Well, it has gotten over its shock and is now flourishing.

We also got our first fig harvest.  I had never had fresh figs before.  They are DELICIOUS!

Maltodextrin is a NO!

So I'm still doing trial and error with the whole food allergy thing.  If you go to a corn allergy website you will find a list a million miles long of all the products that are derived from corn.  At first I was trying to stay away from all of them.  That was overwhelming and frustrating.  Now I am learning which ones seem to cause a reaction and which ones don't.

I have clear evidence now that Maltodextrin is a big NO for me.  I have already learned that I can't use Splenda powder.  I was pretty sure it was the maltodextrin, but not totally.  I have recently been testing two different water flavors that you can add on the go.  One is Aquafusion and the other is Crystal Light PureFitness.  The Aquafusion has Maltodextrin as its first ingredient.  The PureFitness uses evaporated cane juice and stevia.  Well it's official, on the days that I only used PureFitness, no hives.  On the days that I only used Aquafusion, hives.  They both have other ingredients that could possibly be corn derivatives but if those were bothering me, I would get hives on both days.

So yay for me!  This is a big help.  Now I know that corn syrup, cornstarch, and maltodextrin all give me hives.  I'm so happy that more products are using stevia and real sugar.  Now I know which ones to choose, instead of having to skip them altogether.

I'm going to test eggs next.  They were very borderline on my skin test.  Last time I tested eggs, I was having Splenda everyday, not realizing about the maltodextrin.  Maybe I'll be able to take eggs off my list to avoid.  Boy that would make breakfasts a lot easier!

Pickles...easy, but how will they taste?

Today I made pickles with a bunch of cucumbers that my friend gave me from her garden.  My cucumber plant only is producing about 2 cucumbers a week, so I doubt I will ever get enough to pickle my own cucumbers.

I followed the directions laid out in my Whole Living magazine but I'm a little anxious to find out how they are going to taste.  Before I started, I didn't even think about how many varieties of pickles there are.  I have no idea if the pickles I made are going to be sweet or dill.  I'm pretty sure they won't be any other variety since I didn't seek out a recipe.  The magazine says that the recipe is for Sour Pickles, but I used apple cider vinegar and the pickling spices smell very sweet.  We'll see.  It was fun and easy. 

Here's the video!

Canning Tomatoes and much more!

Oh my goodness! Today I learned and did so much!  I made my first attempt at canning tomatoes and learned about a local CSA that I'm gonna try out, a farm that gives out free mushroom compost, and a local elementary school that has an organic garden to teach the kids how to grow and cook organic!

I made a video of my canning adventure today!  Enjoy!

After I finished, I read that I was supposed to use bottled lemon juice and not fresh because it has a more consistent pH value. But hopefully it isn't a problem.  I guess we'll find out if the tomatoes spoil in the jar.

I also froze some yellow zucchini today.  I'm pretty much sick of zucchini at this point.  I plan on freezing most of what grows from now on.

Tomorrow I will be making pickles!

I had a great time today.  I'm proud of myself for learning so many new things and excited about how easy and fun it is to make little changes towards living more sustainably.

Creole Pork Round 2

Tonight I made Creole Pork for the second time.  It was delicious as ever.  This time I made a salsa from my vine ripened tomatoes, mini peppers, Italian parsley, and red onion.  This meal is a perfect summer dish. 

The tomatoes have arrived!

This is today's harvest.  The tomatoes have officially arrived.  There are at least twice this many on the vines that are still orange and twice that many that are still green.

Even though there are tons of tomatoes, I am concerned that my tomato plants are in distress.  First, I forgot that I was watering the plants and left the water on for 2 hours.  That turned a couple plants yellow.  They seem to be recovering though.  Then we had a heat wave this week.  The plants definitely struggled through that.  The grape tomato plant is so huge that it is breaking and leaves are dying.  But it is still producing so many tomatoes that I'm just letting it do it's thing. Next year, I'll give the tomatoes much better supports.  Some of the Early Bird tomatoes are getting this weird gray patch on the bottom of the fruit (see below) and the Mountain variety has these weird translucent patches on lots of the fruit (see below).  I have no idea what either of those are from. 

I love having so much fresh stuff from the garden.  For dinner tonight we put some turkey burgers and yellow zucchini on the grill.  Then I chopped up some just picked tomatoes and a cucumber with some red onion and Italian parsley.  So fresh.  So yummy!

Oh, and here's the pumpkin update.  It's doing fantastic!

No new pumpkins yet, but this one looks pretty healthy.  I wonder how long I keep it on the vine now that it's turning orange?  I guess I have some research to do!