Homemade Guacamole Recipe

Apr 132012

This is a very basic recipe. You can add lime juice, radishes, corn… anything, actually!

The most important part of making guacamole is choosing your avocados! They can’t be too green, or too smooshy, you see. Less than perfect avocados make less than perfect guacamole, and nobody wants that.

Here’s a photo of the perfect avocado:

It’s black on the outside, and has no signs of bruising. When you cut the avocado you want to see a lot of yellow and green, not a lot of black.

I spent a lot of time standing in the grocery store feeling avocados so I could tell you what they feel like when they are ripe (just for you, Denise!) , and I have decided that it feels kind of like a banana. Firm, but not too smooshy.

Slice the avocado in half, but be careful for the seed. It’s big, and you can’t cut through it. Next, slice off any black areas, like I did at the very top.

Next, remove the seed. The only way I know how to do it is the way I won’t let my kids do it…

Whack the seed with the knife, then turn the knife (and the seed) to remove.

Now, for the fun part.

Homemade Guacamole

You’ll need:

2 perfect avocados

one bunch of cilantro

1/4 cup diced onions

1/4 cup tomatoes

kosher salt

Now, let’s get to work:

1. Dice tomato and onion, set aside in a bowl.

2. Chop at least 1/2 cup of cilantro, add to the tomato and onion.

3. Add a pinch of salt (I use kosher). Don’t use too much salt until you try the guacamole with your tortilla chips. If your chips are salty, you’ll want to add less salt to your guacamole.

4. Start smooshing your avocado! Using a fork, smoosh gently and not too much. You want some chunks – trust me.

5. Mix it all together…

Don’t go crazy with the mixing part. Just enough to mix the ingredients is fine. Remember, you don’t want baby food – you want guacamole!

And if you can find a cutie to share your guacamole with, it tastes 10 times better.

If you were in my kitchen right now?

I’d tell you that green avocados can be stored on the counter in a brown paper bag until they ripen.

Homemade Limeade Concentrate with Swerve Sweetener

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Mar 282012

Do you know what I have spent the last three nights doing?

Perfecting homemade limeade. For you.

Why for you?

Because it’s a key ingredient in my White Trash Margarita recipe and I want you to be able to make them without high fructose corn syrup, if you so choose.

Since one of my food sensitivities is sugar I’d rather stay away from it, as well as high fructose corn syrup, as much as I can. The folks at Swerve Sweetener saw me post about my recent food issues on Twitter and were kind enough to send me a wonderful package full of their all-natural sugar substitute.

When I say package, I don’t even mean one package of their sweetener. These folks know how to spoil a gal…

As if three packages of sugar (sugar, powered sugar, and little packets of sugar) weren’t enough, the folks at Swerve sent something the boys are SO excited about:

Cupcake cups, candles, and baking tools. And? The folks at Swerve call everyone sweetie, which just makes me smile. I’m all about a down to earth, friendly and personal company that has a great product.

I’m not an expert about sugar, so I’ll let you read about Swerve on their website, but I do know that Swerve isn’t a manufactured substitute. It doesn’t contain saccharin, and can be used as a one-to-one substitue for sugar. I have made cookies, sweetened iced tea, and used Swerve for my homemade limeade concentrate, and can tell you that it’s awesome. There is no aftertaste (like other natural sweeteners)!

Anyway… I just wanted to share that quick, since I used it in this fabulous recipe:

Homemade Limeade Concentrate (makes 4 cups, or 2 store bought cans worth)

1 1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 8 limes)

1 1/4 cups Swerve Sweetener (or sugar)

1 1/2 cups water

—–

1. Slice in half and juice limes. It usually takes me 8 to get 1 1/4 cup of juice.

Those who are super observant will see 1 1/2 cups sweetener and 1 C lime juice. You’re right – I changed the recipe :)

2. Heat sweetener/sugar and water in a small pot, stirring until no granules remain.

3. Add lime juice. Divide into 2 equal containers and freeze until needed.

4. If using for actual limeade instead of margaritas (I don’t understand why you would do that, but ok…), thaw the limeade concentrate and add it to 2 cups of cold water.

Yum. And even more important than yum is no processed sugar!

<—–>

If you were in my kitchen right now?

I’d tell you that rolling lemons and limes on the counter softens them up a bit so you can get more juice out with less pressure.

I was kindly sent samples of Swerve Sweetener from the Swerve Sweeties. I was not, however, asked to review or blog about the product. I am impressed by the product and wanted to help spread the word!

My Gluten Story… Part Two

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Feb 292012

Looking for part one of my story?

There is a blood test for food allergies. It’s not 100% reliable, but blood tests do a good job of giving you an idea of what you’re sensitive/intolerant/allergic to. The preferred method of finding out what’s bothering you is to cut everything out of your diet and slowly add things back in.

Since I was getting so sick and we had no idea what was causing it, we decided on the blood test.

Needing some immediate relief, my doctor and I decided that I should stop eating the top three allergens (wheat – which I was already avoiding – dairy, and eggs) right away in hopes that I would begin feeling better. She said that the bloating (even my yoga pants were uncomfortable some days) was caused by my inflamed and irritated intestine. Most days it felt like there was a tennis ball right under my rib cage when I felt it – it was that hard.

She also gave me Perm-A-Vite powder that would help to repair my intestinal tract, and a homeopathic medicine for the bloating. Within one day of taking these, I was able to eat again.

I have pretty severe seasonal (well, in Arizona, they don’t ever really stop…) allergies, so I take Zyrtec. Antihistamines like Zyrtec interfere with allergy tests, so I needed to stay off of them for three weeks prior to my blood test. The first week was ok, the second week had me feeling like I was sick with a cold, and the third week? I thought I was dying. I brought Zyrtec to the doctor’s office with me and as soon as they drew blood, I started taking my trusty antihistamines again.

The waited three {yes, THREE!} long weeks for the results. So, six weeks from doctor’s appointment to results.

And the results were nothing like what I had prepared myself for. Out of the 98 foods that were tests, I was intolerant on some level to 38 of them. Twenty-two of them were significant.

My current list of foods to avoid:

Dairy (casein, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, milk, goat’s milk, whey, and yogurt)

I scored low but significant on beef, lamb, pork, and turkey

Cocoa beans (YES. CHOCOLATE.)

Coffee beans (COFFEE!)

Honey

Sugar cane

Baker’s yeast and brewer’s yeast

Seafood (crab, scallops, shrimp, tuna, sole)

Fruits (bananas, cranberries, pineapple)

Grains (kidney beans, lima beans, soy beans, gliadin, gluten, oats, pecans, white rice, rye, sesame seed, spelt, whole wheat)

I’m not even kidding.

The funny things…

1. Bananas were off the charts. Do you know what I ate every morning while I was waiting to take the allergy test, since I couldn’t have eggs or dairy? A banana and peanut butter. Every. single. day.

2. Gluten scored lower than gliadin, which means that I am more sensitive to gliadin. Ready for the funny part? Gliadin is one of the proteins found in gluten.

3. Just last week, a friend who also suffers through awful migraines told me about this amazing supplement she was taking that has drastically decreased her migraines. The supplement was gliadin.

At this point, I think it would be beneficial to make a “foods I can eat” list. Obviously, clean foods are now my friend. During this past weekend at Blissdom, I had a difficult time finding foods that I could safely eat – it was a rude awakening and a crash course in eating while traveling. I’ve been home for three days and am still having stomach pains from the things that I ate. I hope to be better prepared during our vacation in April.

Many of you know that I have migraines. It actually sounds funny saying that because they’re not typical migraines, they’re awful. They come between 2-5 times a week and if I can’t quickly get rid of them, they become debilitating. I was hoping that not eating gluten would help them, but I haven’t noticed much of a difference. I have found that if I mistakenly eat gluten, I get an immediate migraine that feels similar to an ice cream headache (or brain freeze…what do you call it?) at the base of my skull. These headaches don’t respond to medication, and I can’t even describe how awful they are.

So, the plan of action?

I’ll cut all of these foods out of my diet (sugar? chocolate? I don’t even know how that’s possible for me) and slowly add them back in. I’ll cross my fingers that one day I’ll be able to go out to eat with my family and not have to have a serious discussion with our server at the table.

It seems that now, because I am not eating some of these foods, when I do eat some of the “dangerous” foods, my reactions are worse than they were 6 months ago when I was happily eating all foods. I’d almost trade the issues, to be honest.

So, there’s my story. It’s ongoing, and I’ll keep updating everyone because I think it’s important. I searched for hours and hours to learn other people’s stories, and there aren’t many out there.

It’s not fun to talk about your health, especially when some of the symptoms are so personal.

Up next in the kitchen? We need to lighten it up a little, so we’ll be all over margaritas. I can still drink them, right?!

My Gluten Story… Part One.

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Feb 282012

Is this something I every thought I would share for the world to see? No. But it’s something that I have lived through, researched, and come across bit by bit, from doctors and trusted sources on the internet. If someone had posted this and I had come across it at the beginning of my gluten-free journey, I would have felt much better knowing I wasn’t the only person dealing with these things. I am hoping this helps just one person.

Last summer I really noticed a difference in how I felt. I couldn’t lose weight, despite going down at one point to a 1,100 calorie a day diet and daily P90X. I was always tired, sometimes even pulling over on the side of the road on my way home to get out for a minute and try to shake it off. And my belly issues? Ugh. I had plenty of belly issues.

I can’t remember a time in my adult life that I didn’t have stomach issues. Cramps, pains, gurgling… I’ll stop there. I remember being a little nervous before BlogHer knowing that I would be rooming with others and making a mental note to watch what I eat – though I didn’t really know what to watch for.

I made it through BlogHer, and when I got home I noticed that my friend Alysa had been diagnosed with Celiac disease while I was gone. I asked about her symptoms and they were eerily similar to my own. I thought, “If Alysa stopped eating gluten and felt better, maybe I should try it…” And I did. After four days, I felt better. No more bloating, no more other symptoms.

After about ten days, I thought I should try to eat something with gluten – just to see what happened. I ate a mini-cupcake from a batch that I had made for the boys. With five minutes, I had stomach cramps. That night, I was pretty miserable.

I felt great for about one month, then noticed that it seemed as if I also had an issue with dairy. I now know that this is common after eliminating gluten from your diet – the gluten acts as a barrier in your intestine and even though it is also making you ill, the gluten is protecting it against foods that are even harsher {is that a word?} on your GI tract, such as dairy (and I would later find out, fruit).

In November, I saw an allergist. He tested me for Celiac disease (negative) and told me that if I was having issues with gluten, I was sensitive to it. “Stay away from it, but sneak some in every month or so to see if you can introduce it back into your diet. It won’t last long.”

Not so helpful.

And also? Most foods that contain yeast contain gluten, so when I stopped eating gluten cold turkey, I also stopped eating most yeast. Your intestine tries to maintain a balance of healthy yeast and when it is low, it tries to compensate for the lack of yeast by producing more. And more. And more. The rapid decrease of yeast in my intestine caused a number of gynecological issues that I’d rather not go into detail about. My doctor knew that the issues were happening because of the change in my diet, but had no idea how to stop them. After four months, she finally cried “Uncle!” and I headed to see a Naturopath.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see her before the end of December, when my body turned against me and rejected everything {yes, everything} I tried to eat. Eating fruit and dairy were the worst. The stomach pains were awful, and it seemed that everything I ate caused them. It got to the point that on the day of my appointment, I ate three bites of a banana and had to lie down on the couch while the boys got ready for school because my stomach pains were so bad.

She was amazing. She set aside 90 minutes to talk to me. And she listened. Do you know what she said after I gave her my entire life history?

“You have classic food allergy symptoms. We just need to find out what those allergies are.”

I’m not one to post a cliffhanger, but I am tired. And this post is much, much longer than my usual posts. I am going to stop here so this doesn’t end up being a book :)

Bare with me for a few days, and feel free to ask questions in the comment section or email me at beccaATourcrazyboysDOTcom

My gluten story… part two

My Ten Fun Facts About Gluten Intolerances

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Feb 172012

As many of you know, I have a gluten intolerance. This means I become sick after eating gluten. I am slowly finding out that my gluten issues have been around for a while, and though maybe not the root cause, gluten negatively interacts with the awful migraines that I get a few times a week and can be blamed for many of my foot issues.

My friend Alysa has a Celiac disease, a gluten allergy. I have a gluten intolerance. The difference?

Alysa needs a completely separate set of kitchen utensils and cookware. Just a dusting of flour can make her very, very ill.

I can use the same kitchen utensils as the rest of my family. Eating bread, baked goods, or something that was fried in the same oil as something breaded will make me very uncomfortable for a few days.

Now that we have that out of the way… Let’s get to the “fun” facts :)

1. Gluten is a protein found in wheat. It is responsible for it’s soft texture.

2. Several items in stores that have gluten free labels have always been gluten free (potato chips, peanuts, most ice cream, most chocolate).

3. Being gluten free does not mean you will lose weight (See #3).

4. Eating gluten (usually referred to as being “glutened”) can cause migraine headaches, stomach issues that you don’t want to read about, and an overwhelming loss of energy.

5. Right after one stops eating gluten, it is common to notice a “false” dairy allergy. I’ll tell you more about that in my next post.

6. Eating “just a little bit” of gluten isn’t something you want to offer to someone who is intolerant to it.

7. Servers in restaurants know wayyyyyy too little about food allergies and intolerances.

8. Pamela’s is an amazing gluten free baking mix. It’s a little pricey, but worth every penny.

9. Not eating gluten will cause your husband to declare “gluten is YUMMY!” on a daily basis. It’ll also cause your kids to ask “is this gluten free?” at the beginning of every meal.

10. Being gluten free means buying a lot of Sharpies to label containers, bags, and canisters.

Older Entries

Homemade Guacamole Recipe

Homemade Limeade Concentrate with Swerve Sweetener

My Gluten Story… Part Two

My Gluten Story… Part One.

*My* Ten Fun Facts About Gluten Intolerances

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My Ten Fun Facts About Gluten Intolerances