Yeast Free Living

Archive for January, 2010

This poppy seed cake was delicious.  There is a bit of prep work to do as you have to soak the poppy seeds in soy milk  for about 4-6 hours so plan accordingly.  I noticed this recipe in Gail Burton’s Candida Control Cookbook a long time ago and always said that I would try it one day.  I figured there was not better time the present and went out to get poppy seeds which I did not have.  Poppy seeds are a little pricey and the recipe calls for a whole lot of them so this is not something I would like to reserve for special occasions.  The recipe does recommend a pecan custard topping but I was not comfortable with all of the ingredients required to make this topping and I was not confident on how to substitute them.  I will search for an adequate topping and save this for special occasions. 

Poppy Seed Cake Ingredients
1/4 cup unsweetened soy milk
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup clarified butter
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring no alcohol
2 large eggs
1/4 cup stevia extract

Poppy Seed Cake Directions
Prep
Mix poppy seeds with soy milk in a small bowl
Cover and soak 4- 6 hours
Cooking
Preheat oven to 375F
Combine arrowroot powder, baking powder, butter, stevia, flour and vanilla flavoring in large bowl
Mix in eggs
Add poppy seed and milk mixture
Pour batter into a well-greased, 8 inch square or round bake pan
Bake for 20 minutes

So the first thing that I attempted in my weekend of yeast free baking was corn muffins.  I have been craving them for quite a while.  The was a period last year when I was working in an office that I would go to Dunkin Donuts nearly every morning for one of these.  The challenge will be to create a muffin that is tasty enough to help me alleviate this craving. 

I found a great recipe for Celiac.com for Gluten Free corn muffins and just adapted it to fit the candida diet specifications.  The muffins came out pretty good.  They were moist and but stayed together well.  I was able to slice it without it crumbling and then toast it and add a little bit of clarified butter.  I really enjoyed having a corn muffin with my herbal tea again. 

I would love to report that the corn muffin was as sweet as its sugar filled relative but that would be a lie.  I do however believe that once my sugar cravings completely subside (I pray that they eventually will) I hope that my brain will learn that this level of sweetness is now the new the norm.  I froze the remaining muffins so that I can defrost, toast and enjoy them as needed.  If you are using stevia to bake these amounts may differ.  I have listed the amount of sugar that the original recipe called for.  Adapt according to directions on your stevia package or on the packaging of another acceptable candida diet sweetener.

Corn Muffin or Corn Bread Ingredients (Recipe adapted from Celiac.com)
1 cup yellow corn meal
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup canola, olive and safflower oil
½ cup sugar (I used 8 teaspoons of stevia extract)
1 large egg
2 teaspoons xanthan gum or guar gum
1 cup unsweetend soy or nut milk
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 cup water

Corn Muffin or Cornbread Directions
Preheat oven to 350F
Combine all ingredients in bowl
Mix together thoroughly
Spray muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray or use muffin backing cups or
spray an 8″ x 8″ baking pan for to cook cornbread
Bake muffins for approximately 35 minutes
Bake bread for approximately 40 minutes
Recipe makes 6 large or 12 medium muffins or one 8″ x 8″ cornbread

It is about 9:35 AM on Saturday, January 30 here in New Jersey and my yeast free baking has been underway for almost an hour and a half.  I am two dishes in with my first batch of corn muffins completed and my sesame rolls underway.  Additionally, I have poppy seeds soaking in a container of soy milk in the refridgerator for a poppy seed cake that I will try this afternoon.  I will let the kids help me bake this one.  They will not be able to eat it because I the soy milk and I did not feel like rice milk would be a adequate substitute but I am sure that they would still enjoy helping.  They are still asleep now and that is the main reason I was able to get two dishes in so early.  Once they get up the day usually takes on a life of its own but if I plan to let them help me bake later in the day this is seen as an activity to look forward to rather than something that is distracting mommy. 

So I have found so many great recipes and I am going to try out as many as I can this weekend.  It is rare that I have a weekend with only one commitment, coaching a youth basketball game, and I am going to capitalize on this.  I feel the biggest challenge with yeast free baking is the inability to duplicate the powerful taste of regular sugar.  I use stevia in my yeast free baking and while I feel this is a good substitute I am not delusional and realize that it does not taste like sugar.  I think that this is the where re-training your brain a bit comes in.  Maybe we can’t think of using stevia as replacing sugar, but maybe we have to learn to accept the new taste of our baked goods without comparing it.  Stevia is sweet in it’s own right and is great for baking.  I will write a post about each dish that I bake and provide links to those posts below throughout the weekend, so please check back.  If you are looking for candida diet baking recipes I hope that these will help you discover a world of new tasty treats. 

Tennille

Corn Muffin or Cornbread – Candida Diet Recipe
Poppy Seed Cake – Candida Diet Recipe
Pumpkin Cookie Recipe – Candida Diet Recipe
Sesame Seed Rolls -Candida Diet Recipe

Creating a Candida Diet Recipe might seem like a tall task at first especially when you keep thinking about all of the things you cannot eat.  Although I agree that creating candida diet recipes can be involved, and by involved I mean you will find very little assistance from boxed, canned or frozen items, it does not need to be so difficult.  “Keep it Simple” is a saying that I try to apply to all aspects of my life but especially when preparing foods that cater to the many dietary restrictions we adhere to in my home.  In addition to the candida diet that I follow my two children have multiple food allergies which forces me to stretch my imagination when preparing meals.  The following are few ideas on how approach the task of creating yeast free recipes. 

Become very familiar with the list of foods you can eat
The list of foods that you can eat is the backbone of the candida diet.  It is true that you must be aware of what you cannot eat so you do not accidentally consume it but by focusing on what you can eat a whole new world of possibilities will open up to you.  I realize you might think that I am being overly optimistic but there are so many good things that you can still eat.  They are probably not the things that you are used to but it is for the better.  The candida diet is an opportunity to get out of our comfort zone and experience a wide range of taste.  Yes, your vegetable intake may triple but this is not a bad thing.  I never knew how to cook with fresh herbs before I went on the candida diet, but today I know that fresh herbs make everything taste so much better.  

Become familiar with common candida friendly substitutes
I have found that there are so many ingredients that can be substituted in order to adapt recipes.  Any recipe that calls for vinegar I just use lemon juice instead.  If you can tolerate plain unsweetened yogurt this makes a great sour cream substitute.  Instead of sugar or artificial sweeteners I use stevia.  There are many other substitutes and I find them on an as needed basis.  You often do not need to disregard an old recipe but with proper substitutions you might be able to make it yeast free. 

Look for recipes that are naturally yeast free
There are so many recipes that are naturally yeast free.  I find many of my recipes on sites like Recipezaar and All Recipes.  I also find cookbooks at the library.  They often have many specific to the candida diet and food allergies.  I look for recipes with few ingredients and/or without troublesome ingredients.  If there are only 1 or 2 troublesome ingredients I substitute yeast free ingredients or omit if possible.  Sometimes an omission will not alter the recipe too much.  Use your judgement and take some chances. 

Don’t be afraid to experiment
To be completely honest some things that you make will taste nasty.  You may be mad that you wasted time, money and ingredients to put such a disgusting dish together.  I have been there and I frequently visit there when trying to find a new recipe that works.  This is all part of the process.  It took me 3 tries to master gluten and yeast free chicken nuggets and 4 tries to master gluten and yeast free pancakes and these are just my most recent failures.  I assure you that there will be many more.  It is part of the process and once you nail it the recipe becomes part of your weekly and/or monthly candida diet plan. 

Be Patient
I don’t know about you but I was not much of a cook before this yeast free journey.  I found out that preparing Hamburger Helper and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is not consider really cooking.  It took me a lot of patience to transition from all prepared food to actually cooking.  It takes patience and learning to get there.  So be patient with yourself.

I am feeling much better today.  My cravings have subsided and I am once again adjusting to being on the candida diet.  I am so happy it is Friday and I can slow down a bit this weekend and do some candida diet planning for next week.  We have a Girl Scout meeting tonight and a basketball game tomorrow but I will avoid making any other commitments in order to sneak in  some yeast free baking time.  I have a few recipes on hand that I am anxious to try out.  These include corn muffins, pumpkin pie and cookies.  Oh boy do I miss cookies.   I am looking forward to a weekend of experimenting in the kitchen.  I have found that being on the candida diet is a lot of experimentation.  You experiment with what foods are causing symptoms, you experiment with new foods, you experiment with different recipes until you finally find something that taste good.   It is a lot of work and requires most of us learning to approach food in a totally different way. 

I will try to post all of my experiments from this weekend.  Wish me luck!  Today’s menu is below.  The kids are very excited for Taco Night. 

Tennille

Candida Diet Menu – January 29, 2010
Breakfast
1 Bowl of oatmeal with 1 packet of stevia
1 cup of herbal tea

Mid-Morning Snack
Cucumber with sea salt
Lunch
Grilled Chicken Breast, Avocado Salad and tomato salad
Spaghetti with marinara sauce for the kids

Afternoon Snack
2 Cups Air Popped Popcorn
Kids have 1 bag of Cape Cod Potato Chips

Dinner
Taco Night (with all yeast free fixins of course)
Cabbage Salad

Dessert
1 cup herbal tea

I was not sure what ratatouille was aside from a Disney movie of course, that my oldest enjoyed watching with her father a couple of years back.  Upon watching the movie with her recently on DVD I saw a rat create ratatouille that so impressed a food critic, that the food critic opened his own restaurant and made the rat head chef.  “This must be an amazing dish for it to help pull off all of that,” I thought to myself, so I decided to explore it a bit. 

Upon searching for recipes on the web I found that many recipes for ratatouille are extremely candida diet friendly in their original states or at least very easy to adapt to make candida diet friendly.  I decided to try a recipe by Jacques Pepin.  I do not consider myself a foodie so please forgive me in advance for having no idea who this guy is.  A friend passed along this recipe to me after watching a cooking show and I Googled a few of the words to track down the owner.  It is a very easy recipe and I used a crock pot to make it even easier.  I paired it with brown rice but brown rice pasta or even spaghetti squash may be a nice yeast free accompaniment. 

Ratatouille Ingredients
1 long Japanese eggplant or small regular eggplant (about 10 ounces), cut into 1-inch pieces
2 small firm zucchini (about 1/2 pound total), cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 cubanelle or long Italian peppers (about 1/2 pound total), seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cups cubed (3/4-inch) onions
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped garlic
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes in sauce  (I could not find a canned variety without citric acid.  I used Pomi Chopped Tomatoes which contained about 25 ounces)
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup olive oil

Ratatouille Directions
Combine all ingredients in crock pot.  Cook on low 5 hours or high 2.5 hours. 
For stove top directions please see the original Ratatouille and Penne recipe on Jacques Pepin’s website.

Today did not go so well.  I was just so angry from the start and complained and moaned all day that things were just not going my way.  I was late getting my daughter to school, she didn’t finish her homework so I provoked an argument in the car, yes with a 7 year old.   I know I am the adult but I am really not feeling like one today.  I just want to curl up somewhere and be left alone.  I am sure that I am cranky because of yeast and sugar withdrawal but I just want to feel better already.  I have no patience for this today. 

Anyway, yesterday’s Crock Pot Ratatouille came out great, but the rest of the household was not too fond of it.  It turns out that they are really not eggplant people.  I am lucky that I had a dinner guest last night who enjoyed it as much as I did, otherwise I would have had to eat leftovers all day.   As a general rule I refrigerate leftovers immediately after cooking and eat them within 24 hours of cooking them as they begin to deteriorate and are conducive to mold growth.  It has been suggested in many candida diet resources that ingesting mold from leftovers may add to our candida overgrowth problem.  If I do want to save leftovers for more than a day I freeze them right away.

Well even though it was a bad start to the day I will try to regroup and turn my frown upside down.  We are doing a yeast free take on chicken cacciatore tonight.  This recipe is a piece of cake and one of my favorites!  I even used the crock pot this time to make it completely effortless. 

Candida Diet Menu – January 28, 2010
Breakfast
1 Bowl of Puffed Rice Cereal with Unsweetened Soy Milk and a pack of Sweet Leaf Stevia (The kids use rice milk due to a soy allergy, I would use it too but it has more sugar and carbohydrates than soy and I would rather add carbohydrates in other ways)

Mid-Morning Snack
Tortilla Chips with Hummus
Kids have a piece of fruit

Lunch
Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Spaghetti with olive oil, sea salt and basil for my 7 year old

Afternoon Snack
Cucumber with sea salt
Kids have 1 bag of Cape Cod Potato Chips

Dinner
Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore over Brown Rice
Spinach

Dessert
1 cup herbal tea

Yesterday was good.  Stuck to the menu and I was able to fight off the cravings.  I almost lost it as I drove past a few Dunkin Donuts and really wanted a corn muffin with butter but I managed to keep my cool.  I really need to bake some candida friendly treats this weekend.  I struggle when I am not prepared.  It is when I can’t grab something I want quickly that I falter.   I can bake muffins, cookies and even cakes using non-glutenous grains and stevia and these would be acceptable for yeast free living.  Planning is so important in this process and I will strive to get better at it so I can succeed on the candida diet.   Today’s candida diet menu below is a little boring but with talent show and basketball practice tonight I welcome boring.  Make it a great day!

Tennille

Candida Diet Menu – January 27, 2010
Breakfast
2 scrambled eggs and grits
Kids ate Bowl of Oatmeal with some organic brown sugar

Mid-Morning Snack
Tortilla Chips with Hummus
Kids have a piece of fruit

Lunch
Baked Chicken, Brown Rice and Kidney Beans for me and the 2 year old
Spaghetti with olive oil, sea salt and basil for my 7 year old

Afternoon Snack
Cucumber with sea salt
Kids have 1 bag of Cape Cod Potato Chips

Dinner
Crock Pot Ratatouille over Brown Rice
String Beans

Dessert
1 cup herbal tea

The last time that I successfully did the candida diet many years ago I gave up salad.  I hate eating salad without dressing and could not find a salad dressing that did not include vinegar, sugar or some other ingredient not allowed on a yeast free diet.  This time around with the hopes of bringing salad back into my diet, especially since it is a great way to eat raw vegetables I searched for a salad dressing recipe.  The recipe below is the by far my favorite salad dressing and it seems to go well with a variety of salads that I have prepared.  It is pretty easy to make.  I am not use to cooking with fresh herbs so it did take me a little while to add the fresh thyme and tarragon to the dressing.  Other than this I found the recipe extremely easy to execute.  I hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.  This is from the The Candida Control Cookbook: What You Should Know and What You Should Eat to Manage Yeast Infections (New Revised & Updated Edition) by Gail Burton.

 Creamy Herb Salad Dressing Ingredients
1/2 cup safflower oil (This may not be in the supermarket, I get it from Wholefoods) 
1 large tomato
1/4 cup lemon juice (Use fresh lemons and juice, instead of lemon juice at the store)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 packet stevia
1 tablespoons sesame seeds

Creamy Herb Salad Dressing Directions
Combine all ingredients in a a blender or food processor
Mix well

Recipe by Gail Burton The Candida Control Cookbook: What You Should Know and What You Should Eat to Manage Yeast Infections (New Revised & Updated Edition)

I have to admit that yesterday was just not a good day.  I gave in to every craving that I had.  I stuck to the menu but I ate in addition to it, which is never good.  I have had such a sweet tooth the last few days and I just could not take it anymore.  My oldest daughter is going to hula hoop for a school talent show so we had to go to Toys ‘R” Us and get 2 hula hoops.  I remembered that they had a pretty good candy selection and went to check it out.  I found a jumbo candy necklace and could not resist.  I opened it as soon as I got in the car and about half of it fell apart.  The necklace had been crushed.  I immediately thought to myself, “That’s what you get for cheating” but then I proceeded to eat the remaining half of the necklace.  I felt terrible afterwards but instead of correcting course I decided to continue indulging these cravings.  After dinner when the kids were asleep I curled up with a hot bowl of cream of wheat.  This probably would not have been so bad if I hadn’t added such an exorbitant amount of granulated sugar to it.  It was so tasty but I went to bed guilt ridden and just plain defeated.  While I am trying not to let those feelings of guilt and defeat linger it is difficult because I feel like crap today.  It is amazing what one bad day can do to you.  Well let me try to focus on succeeding today.  Today’s candida diet menu is below.  Have a great day! 

Tennille

Candida Diet Menu – January 26, 2010

Breakfast
Left over spaghetti and meat sauce from last night’s dinner
Kids ate Bowl of Oatmeal with some organic brown sugar

Mid-Morning Snack
Bowl of cucumbers with a little bit of sea salt
Kids have a piece of fruit

Lunch
Rice wrap with turkey slices, avocado and salsa
Kids have left over spaghetti and meat sauce

Afternoon Snack
Tortilla Chips with Salsa
Kids have 1 bag of Cape Cod Potato Chips

Dinner
Homemade Chicken Nuggets
Homemade French Fries
Broccoli

Dessert
1 cup herbal tea