I love stuffed mushrooms, but because of gluten/grain content in most commercial varieties, I don't eat them anymore. Tonight I was craving them, so I created this recipe for myself. I ate it as an entree, but it would also make a great app for any occasion. Several tablespoons olive oil or butter (I used a mix of both) 12 Mushrooms (I used baby portobellas) 1/2 onion, chopped 1/2 cup chopped red pepper 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 cup grated parmesan (optional ifyou are dairy-free) 2 Tbsp corn meal OR tapioca starch 1. Preheat oven to 425. Cut the stem out of the mushrooms, slightly hollowing out the cap. Chop the stems and set aside. 2. Place hollow caps on a cookie sheet. 3. Heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook for 5 minutes, until soft. 4. Add red pepper, chopped mushroom stems, garlic, and salt and cook for 5 more minutes. until all vegetables are soft.. 5. Put cooked veggies in a bowl. Add parmesan and corn meal or tapioca starch. Mix well to combine. 6. Spoon mixture into mushroom caps. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned.
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The chicken in this recipe is lightly breaded with a gluten-free blend of rice flour and seasonings that lend it a savory Mexican flavor. Minimizing the amount of flour coating keeps the carb count lower, but still offers a crunchy coating. The main thing with pan frying is to not shy away from using oil. A lot of it isn't actually absorbed into the breading if you cook it at the proper heat (hot enough that it's not a gentle saute, but not so hot that it reaches its smoking point.) I've been cooking with an olive oil/butter blend lately. The butter adds a nice richness to any recipe.
The recipes below are enough to serve 2-3 people. Chicken 2 boneless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2 inch thickness 2 eggs 1/2 cup rice flour or GF flour blend 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp coriander 1 tsp paprika 1 tsp garlic powder oil/butter for frying - about 3/4 cup total 1. Pound chicken breast to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Cut into smaller pieces - 2-3 per breast. 2. Beat eggs in a bowl and set aside. Combine flour and seasonings in another bowl and set aside. 3. In a large skillet, heat oil and butter over medium heat. 4. Dip chicken breast into eggs, then in flour mixture. Place in skillet. Cook for 4-6 minutes, or until lightly browned on one side. Turn and cook for another 4-6 minutes on the other side, until lightly browned. 5. Cover skillet and turn heat down to low. Let it cook gently for another 8-10 minutes, being careful not to let it burn. If the skillet is too hot, take it off the heat but leave it covered. Mushroom Rice 1/2 cup chopped onion 2 cloves minced garlic 1 cup chopped mushroom 1 cup brown rice (use 2 cups grated cauliflower to make this grain-free and low carb) 3 cups water or broth 1/2 tsp salt 4 Tbsp oil/butter 1. In a saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. (I used half oil and half butter.) Add onions, garlic, salt, and mushrooms. Saute until onions are soft, 5-10 minutes. 2. Add brown rice. Stir to combine ingredients. (If you use cauliflower, just add it in and stir fry, skipping the next step. Once its cooked, it's ready to eat.) 3. Add 3 cups of water. Bring to a simmer, then turn burner to low. Allow to gently steam for 45 minutes. If water level looks low and rice is still crunchy, add more water 1/2 cup at a time and continue to steam. The rice will start to look creamy when it's close to done, as it releases its starch. I did a lot of stirring, almost as if this were a risotto. Avocado Salsa Dice an avocado. Stir in 1/4 cup of salsa verde. Serve over chicken. I've had this post on my mind for a long time. I would like to share more of my story of having had a severe eating disorder on this blog, mainly because I have had a relatively successful recovery and believe that I have a lot of hope to offer to those who are struggling. There is fallout that haunts me, however, even 25 years later. While some may consider this a private matter, I have had enough conversations with others to know that my struggles are fairly common, and sometimes it's nice to have someone reach out and share in the midst of the craziness. It's grounding. And it's always nice to know you're not alone. So here goes. Body dysmorphia is a serious disorder. It takes a number of forms, but one is viewing oneself very inaccurately. This could have to do with weight, or the size of your nose, or the positioning of your eyes. For some, it becomes an obsession. Often in anorexics, it manifests as an inability to see accurately the weight loss that is occurring. For some, when they look in a mirror, they don't see an accurate reflection, kind of like looking in a funhouse mirror where your body gets all distorted. You see fat that isn't there, or a head that's too large, or a nose that's too big. For me, since the onset of my eating disorder, it has always been an inability to see myself accurately - thin or otherwise - in mirrors and in photos. I have thought many times over the years that I feel like I live in a house of mirrors with crazy distortions all around. Let me say this: you don't have to have suffered through an eating disorder to have a variant of body dysmorphia, or at least a sense that you aren't good enough in some way. I would posit that our media with its crazy distorted presentation of what is beautiful/attractive/sexy has seeped into the subconscious of most of us, and the conclusion must be, for 98% of the population, "I don't measure up". Some people shrug off the images and don't care so much. Others figure that if they can't attain perfection, they may as well just not care at all and stop taking care of themselves. And others, a minority, really care, internalize those images as a personal standard, and feel genuinely bad about themselves. This can be devastating to self esteem, interpersonal relationships, and daily functioning, this preoccupation with perfection. And bear in mind that this affects men as well as women. Back to my story: I don't remember much from that year, my 8th grade year. That is probably partly due to the passage of time. But it is also due to the fact that I was starving myself and I'm quite sure that my poor developing adolescent brain was not functioning properly. I was on a strict, self-imposed, low-calorie diet, with no fat, little protein, mostly carbohydrates, and way too much exercise. From the beginning of 8th grade in September 1988 until May 1989, I went from 125 healthy pounds to 75 emaciated pounds. Here's a memory I DO have. It's winter of 1988. I'm standing in front of a mirror, with my sister standing behind me. At this point, I have lost nearly 30 pounds and currently weigh around 95 pounds, but I literally can not see myself as thin. My sister is worried. She is trying to help me see what I can not. I am standing in a bra and underwear looking in the mirror and she is pointing out bones to me. "See your ribs, Em? And see that?" she asks as she points to my highly visible rib cage and my xyphoid process, a sharp little bone that pokes out at the base of my sternum between my breasts. I look, fascinated. I see the bones, I see the ribs, I see the xyphoid process...it actually grosses me out a little bit...but I can NOT see thin. I see normal, healthy, maybe even chubby. But I do not see thin. This perception persisted as I hit 90 pounds, then 85, then 80, then 75. I would have sworn to anyone who asked that I was still heavy, even as I wasted away. Even as my hair fell out, and my fingernails grew ridged, and my lips turned blue from cold by the end of the day in my middle school. I knew, from the responses of others, that was a little crazy. Well, okay, more than a little. I learned not to say much about it. But I still believed it. Once I started to recover, and re-feed, and my brain function normalized, I began to recognize my thinness. I could see it in photos, and sometimes in the mirror. It was strange - there were good mirrors and bad mirrors. Some were safe, some were not. I wrote in another post about my abandonment of weighing myself for years after my disorder, as I was scared about that starting a relapse. Without my weight as an index, I was reliant upon my perception of myself based on mirrors, photos, and what others told me throughout high school and college. Unfortunately, I couldn't depend on mirrors. My lack of a clear image continued. Looking back at photos now, I can see that my weight fluctuated a good deal, and I was slightly overweight through high school and college. I felt okay, though. I fought hard to accept myself as I was. As much as I would have liked to be thinner, I also knew that I was not interested in returning to the prison of obsession that was the hallmark of my acute anorexia. I learned to put less stock in what I saw in the mirror and go, instead, by how I felt and how my clothes fit. I managed just fine - I'm strong and stubborn (or tenacious). Having a full life had become more important to me than obsession about my weight. But the sense of never really knowing how I appeared persisted. The reflection in the mirror would change throughout the day. When I was hungry or had just worked out, the girl in the mirror looked smaller. When I was full from a meal, she looked really large. It was weird, that fluctuation. I could never quite come to terms with it. It is still with me, yes, even 25 years later. Even as I am pushing 40. Even as a mom of two adolescent boys. I weigh less now than I did in high school, but I still see myself quite often as I looked in pictures where I was at my heaviest. I am often surprised (yes, even to this day) when someone refers to me as small or thin. My perception of myself is so distorted that I have trouble believing it. Again, I know not to say much, lest I'm branded the crazy lady, or people start to believe that I'm just full of false modesty. But when I look shocked at someone saying I'm small, or thin, or tiny, or fit, honest to God, I am. Weird? Yes. Crazy? A little. But it's part of me. It's fallout from a serious illness. I'm aware of it, and I fight it. And I have learned some great coping skills. I hope these might be helpful to anyone struggling with similar issues. 1. Reality testing: This can be done using photos, the scale, or how clothes fit. Some days when I feel particularly large, I literally have to put on a pair of jeans that I have worn in a picture where I looked thin to myself. Some days I am sure I have gained 10 pounds and I need to weigh myself for reassurance. Or I look back at a photo and remind myself that I my weight is fine and my current perception of myself is false. 2. Self-acceptance, regardless of how I feel: I need to remind myself that I'm okay, and that I have lots of great qualities that aren't dependent on my weight or size. I would rather put effort and thought into my job or my family or my relationships than, again, obsessing about weight. I think about the legacy I want to leave as a mom, a woman, a friend, and I realize that I just don't want to waste time feeling bad about myself. 3. Physical activity: Exercise always works to adjust my perceptions. It also serves as a reminder that regardless of how I feel, I have an incredibly capable, pain-free, functional body. And at the end of the day, that is so much more important than what size I am. Accomplishments that indicate that I'm growing stronger or faster or even just that I can maintain a certain level of fitness help a lot to boost my body image. 4. Perfect doesn't exist: No, the perfect body so many strive for will never happen. I will never be good enough for the image in my mind, because our media has so distorted not only the importance of a perfect body, but even the idea of what that looks like. So I try to stop striving and accept where I'm at today, and then move on with my life. 5. Awareness and mindfulness: I recognize that the distorted thoughts are there. I, in no way, accept them as normal or healthy. This allows me to talk back to that critical voice, in a sense. "Look at yourself - you're huge. And hideous," says the voice. I can respond..."No, I'm not actually. I feel that way at this moment, but it's not true." Letting those thoughts become a pattern of mind is dangerous, so resisting them is important. I've also learned to breathe deeply and stay grounded in the present, real moment. Sometimes I literally tell myself that "my breath is real, but my thoughts are not". I use this tool in any number of stressful or anxiety-provoking situations, but it's effective against my crazy body thoughts, too. I hope this helps someone. If you struggle with this and are comfortable commenting, I'd love to hear some other strategies if you have them. I often advise those who are looking to lose weight, particularly around their middle, and improve blood sugar control to eat a low-carbohydrate diet. This typically causes people to think of the Atkins diet, piles of bacon and steak, and no fruits or veggies. Which is not at all what I'm talking about. I think of my way of eating as modified low carbohydrate. I first heard of this when I read Syndrome W, an excellent book by Dr.Harriet Mogul. She details a modified low carb diet which is not extremely low carb like the Atkins diet, but does cut way back on carbs in general. As a result of reading her book, I tried cutting out the toast with my breakfast and the bread on my sandwiches at lunch, along with other forms of sugar that can sneak in during the day. I've been eating this way for 7 years now and have maintained a 40-pound weight loss with a fluctuation of 3-5 pounds over those 7 years. It works. The one place I disagree with the Syndrome W plan is that it is low fat. After losing some weight, I also started to increase my fat intake due to personal research and also reading about both paleo diets and The Primal Blueprint. This helped to increase my satiety levels and I actually continued to lose weight, much to my surprise. Also, my blood pressure normalized, my cholesterol levels improved significantly, and some hormonal issues I was having resolved when I made this change. I don't have joint pain in the morning when I wake up anymore, I am more fit than I ever was in my 20s or early 30s, and I don't get crazy hunger swings and stomach pains anymore. I know - I sound like an infomercial. But it's all true. So how do I do it? The short story is I try to keep my total carbohydrate intake for the whole day below 100 grams. Most days, it is between 50 and 75 grams. If my intake starts creeping up above 100 grams, so do my weight and my blood pressure. And, in my book, a carb is a carb is a carb, whether it comes from a fruit, vegetable, nut, rice, or a piece of chocolate. I don't count fiber differently, and I'm not meticulous about counting - I just have a general sense of where I'm at. The longer story details how I actually do this. So here's what a typical day looks like for me: Breakfast - 2 eggs, any style, sometimes with vegetables or salsa or breakfast meat, but not most days. Snack - 1-2 oz nuts Lunch - 2-3 cups chopped fresh veggies (typically a salad) and a serving (3-4 oz) of protein (usually chicken). Oil and vinegar as a dressing. Snack - sometimes after work, I will have some form of nut butter on rice crackers or celery, but generally I try to work out and skip the snack altogether. Dinner - This is where things can get tricky and budgeting comes into play. One of us cooks most nights and we have dinner as a family so it's important to me that I eat something that I enjoy, while staying low carb. I try to get at least 2 more vegetable servings in - often oven-roasted vegetables of some form. If I'm hungry, I'll have some protein. And I usually have some carbs with dinner - rice, sweet potatoes, rice pasta - something starchy. I don't cook specifically low carb for the family, so I make modifications. I might have a pasta sauce over vegetables instead of pasta, or cauliflower rice instead of regular rice. Treats - Fruit (1 piece at the most) or dark chocolate (1-2 oz) Alcohol counts - it's worth about 5 grams for a serving of dry red wine or unsweetened liquor. If I want a glass of wine, I skip the rice. If I eat extra potatoes, I skip the chocolate. I like to have some spontaneity in my choices, but can only afford a little bit of wiggle room. Some tips/tools that have helped me: -I save most of my carbs gram for the evening when we eat a meal as a family and I'm more likely to want to indulge. I would rather have a serving of homemade risotto at dinner with the family than eat a bag of pretzels by myself for a morning snack. -Don't focus on calories - but they still count. Nuts are great, for instance. One ounce has 4-6 grams of carbs, depending on the nut. But low carb doesn't mean no impact. They still have lots of calories, and I could easily down several ounces without realizing it. I measure myself a serving for each day at work and put it in a baggie to avoid overeating. I do find that I can eat more calories and maintain a much lower weight on a lower carb diet than I ever did when I was eating low fat/high carb. -Use a tracker until you get accustomed to the carb content of foods you enjoy. This is my favorite so far. -Understand the science behind why low carb works for so many people. I love this infographic. It's more motivating when you think about what you are doing to your body biochemically. This is NOT just about aesthetics or attaining some ridiculous physical goal - it's about caring for your body, inside and out. |
AuthorI'm Emily. I currently work in online education management, but I also have a Masters degree in Nutritional Sciences (my true passion). In addition, I am a mom, cook, avid reader, novice gardener, and enjoy all kinds of outdoor activities. On my blog, you will find articles on food, fitness, weight management, and eating issues. ALL recipes on my blog are gluten-free. Many are low-carbohydrate. Most are grain free. Enjoy! Categories
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