Lindsay's blog

My diet is pretty restrictive: no grain, no lactose, no sugar or sweetners (except for honey), no flour, no starchy vegetables, and no milk products except my own homemade yogurt. The thing is, often times it doesn't feel restrictive to me because usually I can get the tastes I crave by introducing a homemade version. Mixing my own spices has been an amazing experience for me, and it's really made me aware of the variety of flavors I can have on this diet. This is my third homemade spice mix, inspired by my friends C&S. They kept bragging about this commercial bought Cajun Spice mix they love, and I didn't want to be left out, so I made this chicken with my own homemade Cajun Spice mix, topped with a thick yogurt cheese that substitutes for sour cream.

Cajun Seasoning:
3 T Paprika
2 T Salt
2 T Garlic Powder
1 T Black Pepper
1 T Onion Powder
1 T Cayenne Powder
1 T Oregano
1 T Basil (Thyme could work too)

Cajun Chicken:
2/3 C Olive Oil
6 T Vinegar
2 t Italian Seasoning
2 t Garlic Powder
1/2 t Black Pepper
2 T Cajun Seasoning
1/2 t Salt
4 Chicken Breasts

Mix all ingredients except for chicken in a large bowl. Add chicken to marinade, let sit in fridge for 30 minutes to an hour. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes turning once. There should be enough left over marinade to put on veggies or pasta.

This week has been pretty crazy. It didn't start off being all that notable. It's the second to last week of the school quarter and I'm ahead in my classes, so no stress there. I had set up a phone interview with a company web company to maybe do some contract work with them, but it was a company I've worked with before so there wasn't much pressure there either. Then on Tuesday I was contacted by a friend working at a social mmo (massively multi-player online, i.e. lots of frigin people playing over the Internet all in the same virtual world). I went in for a rushed interview Wednesday, since I didn't have much time Thursday or Friday. By Wednesday night I was a member of their team and had two meetings set up for Thursday! Thursday was my first official day.

I'm am acting as a producer there, mostly a liaison between the community team and the dev team and tracking dev and community tasks and events. It was a crazy whirlwind experience. And especially crazy with a backpacking trip coming up this weekend, and you all know how much food prep that involves. At the time of writing it's 7 am, just an hour and a half until we leave for our trip and I'm still dehydrating food for the trip.

On that note, I should get going so I can pack up the car. I am really looking forward to the relaxation and the solitude this weekend. I leave you with a link to the website of the company that I now work for: Real Life Plus.

And mayo too.

Today during lunch I made some condiments which are sorely lacking in my diet.
Peanut Butter
Yum, yum! 1 pound of peanuts, salt, peanut oil and honey to taste. Ground up in the Cuisinart until creamy. Very easy and very delicious.
Jam
Strawberries, blueberries and blackberries (I just bought a frozen mix of fruit), apple sauce, lemon and some honey (maybe a 1/4of a cup).
Mayonnaise
I used this recipe without the whey. Next time I'll use whey from my yogurt, but I just didn't have any on hand. 1 cup oil, 3 egg yolks, 5 tablespoons of lemon (too much, I'll use 3 next time), salt and a 1/4 tsp of dry mustard.
Mayonnaise is my nemesis. I've only been successful making it 2 out of the 5 times I've tried.

On the SCD forums there is this long thread going on right now about cinnamon rolls. Three different recipes were posted and everyone is making them taste testing, posting pictures and giving their opinions about which ones are best. There is one recipe for this bread, and two others for muffins. I tried this recipe first for two reason. 1) I'm familiar with the base recipe that was used to create this bread, and 2) I liked the idea of having a swirl in the bread over a solid colored muffin. Kind of weird that I made the decision based on looks, but the swirl was just really appealing to me.
The taste turned out really good, it wasn't too sweet, which I preferred because you can always add a sweeter frosting or butter mix to the top if you want to make it sweeter. And the swirl was very aesthetically pleasing :) As usual the bread fell when I pulled it out of the oven, that is so frustrating.

Cinnamon Twist Bread (<-- click to see original recipe)

• 1 cup Dry Curd Cottage Cheese (DCCC)
  
• 3 Eggs
• 2 1/2 cups Almond Flour (plus some extra for the counter)
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 Tbls Ground Cinnamon
• 2 Tbls Honey (I prefer honey without a flowery after taste)

Set oven to 350 degrees. Coat the inside of a 9x3 loaf pan with butter and then roll some almond flour around on the inside, dump the extra flour. Combine DCCC, eggs, salt and melted butter in food processor. Blend until creamy, it doesn't take long. Slowly add almond flour, maybe 1 cup at a time. When the mixture is consistent, add baking soda and blend briefly, just enough to get it mixed in. On large cutting board or counter top evenly distribute some almond flour on the counter to avoid dough sticking. Dash some cinnamon on top of the flour. Roll the dough out over the board about 1 cm thick, making sure it dough doesn't get wider than your pan. Coat dough with cinnamon and squeeze (or drip) a bunch of honey evenly over the top. Roll up the dough and put it in your greased pan. The dough is pretty moist, it's not like normal bread dough, I roll it up and then put the pan over the top, then flip my cutting board upside down (do it over the sink or you'll make a mess all over you counter!) holding the pan firmly against the board. Your dough roll should drop right in. Cook at 350 for 28-30 minutes.