Chicken Tandoori

In one my early posts, I said one of my new definitions of hell was not being able to eat cheese in Paris. One of my other definitions of hell is being on a low-residue diet when there are 8 curry houses at the end of my road. That’s right, 8. Not that they are all good, but there’s lots to chose from. And every evening coming home from work, all I can smell is the wonderful aroma of curry. And I haven’t eaten it for months and months and months. Sigh.

I keep meaning to ask the dietitian what she tells her South Asian patients to eat on this low-residue diet thing. Eating Western food on it is bad enough, but I often wonder how someone who primarily eats a South Asian diet manages, especially with the amount of onions and lentils that are such a big part of that cuisine.

I came across this recipe when I was searching for low-residue recipes several months ago and had book marked it for future reference. http://www.musgroveparkhospital.nhs.uk/wards-and-departments/departments-services/diagnostic-imaging-%28scans-and-x-rays%29/low-residue-recipes/chicken-tandoori/
As I wasn’t getting dairy down until fairly recently, I didn’t give it a try until last week.

As the recipe is for four, I quartered the quantities to make it for one. Here’s what I did.

I used 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast. In a bowl, I mixed the marinade. I only had Greek yogurt, so I spooned a bunch of that into a bowl (I didn’t measure). I added 1/8 tsp of ground ginger, 1/8 tsp paprika, 1 tsp of mild curry powder, 1 ½ tsp of lemon juice, 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/8 tsp of garlic powder.

I pricked the chicken breast all over with a fork, then poured the marinade over the chicken. I put a lid on it and put it in the fridge for 24 hours.

The next day, I preheated the oven to 160C/325F. I removed the chicken from the marinade and put in on a rack over a pan (I just used the grill pan). I spooned over the remaining marinade and cooked it for 1 ½ hours.

I served it with a big pile of rice.

It wasn’t bad. I definitely used way too much yogurt and there was tons of marinade left over. It was very very mild, so I didn’t find it particularly flavourful. Not that I like my curry hot, but I like it to have a bit of kick. I would probably use more curry powder and paprika next time. But overall, it was good enough and I think that I will give this one another try some time soon.

Growing Pains

It’s been a month since I parted ways with my ‘frenemy’ Prednisolone. I’m very glad to see the back of that. I feel slightly more human. My chipmunk cheeks are pretty much gone, and the thrush infection in my throat has cleared up. The hair on my head is still falling out, but not at quite the speed it was before. It’s also growing really fast like my nails. I had it dyed four weeks ago and I’m already sporting some serious roots and the new hair is coming in seriously grey. The new hair I’ve been sporting in places I don’t want still hasn’t fallen out though. Sigh. Oh well, it’s only hair.

I’ve had some pretty nasty body aches over the past few weeks, especially in my hips and upper thighs. Trying to get a handle on the problem, and despite the fatigue I’m battling, I started swimming again over Easter. This is proving that I’m a serious weakling as I needed floats to get myself from one end of the pool to the other! I’ve had to buy new swimsuits because the old ones really don’t fit anymore. I ordered one from Speedo, and then managed to score a Zoggs suit at TK Max for a tenner. I would have sent back the Speedo if it didn’t fit so well.

I was back to the osteopath again this week, and was describing what the aching feels like. “It kind of sounds like growing pains”, he said. Seriously?! His theory is that my body is regaining bone mass and muscle tone and so it’s kind of like the pains kids get when they grow quickly. Great, something else to add to the list of weird things going on with my body! The good news is that he thinks that I'm about 1/3 of the way through the "rehabilitation phase".

This week also saw yet another trip to Bravissimo to be re-fitted for bras. This is the third time in 8 weeks. While I’m thrilled that I’m beginning to get some of body shape back, and that is helping the body image issue, I’m not thrilled by how much this has been costing! I’ve gone up 3 cup sizes since the end of February. Not that I’m fitting back into any of my old ones. My shape has completely changed. I have a drawer full of Panache Tango bras that are unlikely to ever fit right again. Sigh.

As for my mental health in the post-Prednisolone world . . . well, that’s another story.

Beef Mince Hot Pot

I had taken some mince out of the freezer last weekend and couldn’t decide what to do with it. While trying to take a badly needed nap (and once again, failing to sleep), I thought that I would have a go at doing a low-residue version of hot pot. I don’t want to call this Lancashire Hot Pot, as I am nowhere near Lancashire and I suspect that anyone from those parts would consider a low-residue version rather sacrilege.

So I looked around for some beef mince hot pot recipes and decided to adapt this one -http://goodfoodshared.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/minced-lamb-hot-pot.html

I made this just for me, so I altered the portions for one person.

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F.

I chopped a carrot and cooked it in a bit of olive oil for about 5 minutes.

I browned about 125g of extra lean beef mince in a frying pan. I added some onion and garlic powder, some thyme, rosemary and some fresh ground pepper.

I then tossed in about ½ tbsp of flour, then added ½ cup beef stock from part of a stock cube. I stirred it until all of the flour was dissolved and let it cook until it thickened, for about 10 minutes.

I then transferred it all to a small casserole dish. I peeled and cut a potato into very thin slices and topped the beef with those.

I melted some margarine and brushed the potatoes with it.

I put everything in the oven for 35 minutes until the potatoes are starting to brown.

And there you go, Beef Mince Hot Pot.

It wasn’t bad, although I had far too much potato for the size of the dish. I may do this one again.

Chicken and Dumplings

I have been seriously lacking spoons over the past week. I’m back up to working full days (almost) at work and it is taking a lot out of me. The fatigue is absolutely brutal and I’m requiring naps most days when I get home. So I haven’t been doing a lot of interesting cooking, nor have I found much in the way of energy to update this blog. But this being a four day weekend, I did manage a few things in the kitchen.

One thing that I have been meaning to try out is figuring out a way to “low-residue” my chicken and dumpling recipe. Chicken and dumplings is serious comfort food for me, especially in winter. But as it involves onions, celery (stringy bits mean it isn’t low residue) and milk in the dumplings, I wasn’t sure how I would adapt this, but I managed it with success on Friday.

As I was only feeding myself, this recipe is for one person. I took two skinless, bone-in pieces of chicken (I prefer thighs and drumsticks for this recipe) and put them in a pot. Rather than using onions, I used onion powder (I still resent having to do that), and added a bit of salt, ground pepper, thyme, rosemary and a bay leaf to the pot.

I poured in enough water just to cover the chicken. I put the lid on and brought it to a boil, then reduced the heat and let it simmer for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, I chopped a carrot. Usually, I also add chopped celery, but not being allowed that, I used a few dashes of celery salt. I put the carrot and the celery salt in the pot, put the lid back on, and let it cook for another 10 minutes.

Then I made the dumplings. For dumplings for one, I stirred just short of ½ cup of flour, 1/8 tsp of salt, 1/8 tsp of baking powder, 1/8 tsp of baking soda in a bowl. I cut in 1 tbsp of butter until the mixture resembled crumbs.

Usually I use milk, but thought I would try rice milk to see if that would work instead, which thankfully it did. I used about 1/6 of a cup (ish) and mixed it with a fork until the dough was a big sticky mess.

I added the dumplings to the pot by very carefully dropping them on top of the chicken. It’s really important not to cook this style of dumpling directly in the liquid because it just turns the liquid to (tasty) goo.

It’s also important to make sure that there is still enough water in the pot (about halfway up the chicken), because the dumplings absorb a lot of the moisture and more than once I have ended up with a rather large clean-up job afterwards.

Once I added the dumplings. I put the lid back on and let it simmer for 12 minutes. It’s really important not to lift the lid and peak because it will cause the dumplings to collapse. At 12 minutes, I lifted the lid and checked that the dumplings were done with a toothpick (like cake, it should come out clean).

Considering the changes I had to make, this came out pretty tasty. I still begrudge not being able to use proper onions (I’m less fussed about celery), but at least this is one more thing I can do with chicken!

Experimenting with V8 Juice

I’ve always been a reluctant vegetable eater, so over the years I’ve needed to be creative in how I got them into me. Of course, this whole “low-residue” thing has thrown a spanner into how I used to do this. Most veg are on the “no-go” list now, and although I generally prefer veg raw, that is now out of the question. I never actually thought I would see the day when I began to miss vegetables. Well, actually, I don’t miss vegetables, I miss variety.

Either way, a lot of Crohnie types swear by “juicing” their veg. I’m not sold on this idea as I’m not plunking down £400 on the Vitamix Juicer everyone recommends http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vitamix-TNC-Black-010231-Blender/dp/B005KQ2TYO/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1397419578&sr=1-1&keywords=vitamix. If I’m going to spend £400 on kitchen porn stuff, I’m going to spend it on this - http://www.amazon.co.uk/KitchenAid-Artisan-KSM150BOB-Stand-Mixer/dp/B000094U5F/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1397419740&sr=1-3&keywords=kitchenaid+mixer

So, in an attempt to find some way to work with this, I thought I would try out cooking with V8 juice. Now I know those of you who do juicing will be barking about this because of the salt content of V8 juice, but I really can’t justify buying a juicer. And £1.69 was a better cost to experiment with than £400.

One thought that I would use my trusty tomato soup recipe with V8. Here’s what I did -

I melted 1 tbsp of dairy free margarine in a saucepan, then stirred in 2 tsp of plain flour. I then added 1 cup of V8 juice and 1/4 cup of water. I brought it to a boil, and boiled it for 2 minutes while stirring with a whisk. Then I added 2 tsp of sugar, a dash of sea salt and a dash of pepper.

I’ve discovered that V8 is much sweeter than the plain tomato juice I use in the recipe (probably the beet root in it), so I really didn’t need the sugar, or at least not so much. ½ tsp probably would have been enough to cut the acidity. And V8 juice is bloody salty, I really didn’t need the extra salt. Overall, it was okay, but nothing to write home about, and really, I prefer my tomato soup instead.

Trying to decide what else I could do with the rest of carton, I search V8 recipes, and amongst the many recipes for making homemade V8, I found that the company has a whole website of recipes of stuff you can make with it - http://www.v8juice.com/recipes.aspx

So I tried the Cajun Chicken Fettuccine recipe here - http://www.v8juice.com/RecipeDetail.aspx?recipeId=24923&catId=851

I had to adapt it a bit, especially as I was only making it for me. I didn’t have Fettuccine noodles, so just used penne. And not having any Cajun spice, I kind of had to make my own. And I had some leftover chicken from roasting one last Sunday, so I just used that rather than cooking chicken especially for the recipe.

Here’s what I did. I boiled the pasta as one would. In a measuring cup, I mixed ½ tbsp of plain flour, ½ cup of V8 juice and various seasonings to make Cajun spice. Not really knowing what to do with that, I scoured around and adapted this one - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/simple-cajun-seasoning/. So I pretty much just used several dashes of salt, dash of oregano, dash of paprika, dash of cayenne pepper and a few dashes of fresh ground black pepper. As I can’t use onions, I also added onion powder.

I chopped some of the leftover chicken and put it in a saucepan, and covered it with the V8 mixture. I left out the green pepper the recipe called for. I cooked it on medium-high until the mixture boiled and thickened, stirring frequently.

 
Then I put the cover on and turned it down to a simmer while the pasta finished cooking.

It turned okay. Ish. Possibly if I had put more spice in it, it would have been nicer, but generally, it was just really bland and tasted like, well, V8 juice poured over chicken and pasta. I don’t think I will try this one again.

So I can’t say that these experiments have been a success. Really, I suspect that the Arrogant Worms had it right about veg all along.

I Am Most Metal!

I am Metal!!

Or was!

This quiz showed up today on an Endo board I'm a member of. Hilarity has ensued!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/erinchack/how-metal-is-your-period?bffb

I got 70 out of 105.

For that, it said -

If Satan himself sacrificed a thousand demon goats, it wouldn’t be half as bloody as what your uterus expels each month. You are the most metal, my friend.

Of course, the quiz missed out the question "Did you asked to have your organs removed to free yourself from this nightmare?". I think extra points need to go to those of us who have.

And on that note, I'm off to listen to some metal - 

Ginger Nut Biscuits

I haven’t been doing much experimental cooking the past few weeks. Between going back to work and other things, I’ve just been sticking to making stuff that I already know works. I’ve also been raiding all of that stuff I put in the freezer as I have rather lacked spoons this week.

After a day of girlie shopping with a friend today that involved a trip to Lakeland, I was in a baking mood tonight. I found a recipe for making ginger nut biscuits in the Co-op’s Food Magazine last month that I wanted to try, so I thought I would make them. Like most biscuits, they should be low-residue and low-fibre. I made a few adjustments to the original recipe, so here’s mine.

I preheated the oven to 180C/350F.

I melted 125g of dairy-free margarine and 5 tbsp of golden syrup in the microwave on high for 1 ½ minutes. In another bowl, I mixed 350g of flour, 3g of salt, 9g of baking powder, 200g of caster sugar, 1 tbsp of ground ginger, ½ tsp of cinnamon, ½ tsp of nutmeg and ½ of cloves.

Then I added the melted margarine and golden syrup and mixed them together.

Once it was all mixed. I rolled the dough into little balls and baked them for about 12 minutes.

They turned out rather nice. However, I realised several hours later that I forgot to add the egg that the recipe calls for.

And the 1tsp of baking soda.

Ten days off the steroids and I clearly still have Pred brain.

Oh well. They turned out okay and I can add them to the egg-free recipe list.

What Having a Hysterectomy Taught Me About Crohn’s Disease Part 11 - Beware of Desperation

Anyone who has ever dealt with chronic pain or illness is on good terms with desperation. We have all had those points when things are so bad that we would do anything, ANYTHING, to make it stop.

Trouble is, desperation can lead you down some very dicey roads, and sometimes leads you to make decisions that you might regret later.

Having a hysterectomy was on the back of my mind for years before I actually had it done. I knew that it was inevitable, but I didn’t think that the time would come at the age of 33. 38 maybe, but not 33. My first serious discussion about a hyst with my surgeon came the day after he did an exploratory laparoscopy that didn’t find the endometriosis we both knew was in there. I was kept in overnight after having a bad reaction to Tramdol, and we had the discussion the next morning while I was hung over from painkillers. “I’m not really sure what you want me to do from here,” he said to me. “Honestly,” I said, “I really just wish you could rip the fucker out.” Once he composed himself after laughing his head off, he said “I could do that for you. But let’s talk about that in clinic in 6 weeks”.

I probably had four follow appointments with him, going through loads of questions and talking it through. I knew this was going to be life-changing, and although I have never had the desire to have children, I knew that I was trading in the right to change my mind on the subject, never mind to potentially end up with a whole host of new problems. But I was desperate. And the pain got worse and worse over those months. And got even worse while I sat on an 8 month long waiting list once I said “go”. Desperation meant that I had to accept the consequences of whatever laid on the other side of that surgery, and whether I liked it or not, those 8 months on the waiting list gave me plenty of time to change my mind and back out. I was desperate, but I wasn’t going to make a decision like that without thinking it through first. Fortunately, once I woke up from the surgery, I knew that I had made the right decision. And it is the best decision I ever made.

Alas, desperation can also lead us down some dangerous roads. I tried hormone treatments recommended by doctors that turned out to be very bad for me. But I was desperate and was willing to give it a go despite better judgement. I, and most other Endo women, will admit to having mixed opiates (and sometimes alcohol) knowing full well how stupid that is in a desperate attempt to make the pain go away, at least for a little while.

When I was desperate for answers, I agreed to an investigation that caused me harm and which turned out to be unnecessary. I have stuck out treatments I knew weren’t working in the vain hope that might help. I’ve also stuck out treatments that kind of worked (a bit) for ages because a little was better than nothing. This was despite serious side effects that I really needed to get away from. The benefits did not outweigh the risks, but I was desperate, so I kept at it. Interesting to come across this on the CBC today on this topic - http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/why-more-medical-tests-and-treatments-aren-t-always-better-1.2594843

I have witnessed many Endo Women part ways with their money and sometimes their sanity in the pursuit of anything that might help. It’s one thing when it’s giving a complementary or alternative therapy a try and finding out that it isn’t for you. It’s another thing when you are re-mortgaging the house to plunk down thousands of pounds to seek treatment in the US with a doctor you never met who has a vested financial interest in having you go along with whatever they recommend.

It’s sad to say, but even the medical profession has its types who prey on those who are desperate. Sometimes the “do no harm” ethos gets replaced with “I don’t know what to do so we’ll try this even though I don’t know if it will work”. Sometimes “do no harm” is replaced with “wow, what an interesting patient to try out my new, soon-to-be-patented-but-so-far-unproven theory on. I’ll get this paper published, no problem!”. And worse, the ones that full well know what they have to offer probably won’t work, but will do it anyway because your private insurance will pay for it.

I was at a pretty desperate point with the Crohn’s at the beginning of the year. I was slow to fully respond to the steroids and was really beginning to suffer from the side effects, especially the sleep deprivation and mental health issues. I had a bad reaction to the Azathioprine. I felt truly awful, and got myself backed into a corner by a bullying consultant. I saw my ever-sensible osteopath that same day who upon hearing this said, “Whatever happens, DO NOT let them try and run experiments on you!” Fortunately, that snapped me out of the desperation and I put my foot down on that consultant (and then later fired him for being an asshole). I know that I made the absolute right decision for me, but I had to haul myself out of a place of desperation to get to a place of strength of stand up for myself.

Desperation clouds your judgement. It's a dangerous place for patients. Beware.