Hard cooked eggs

On my anti-inflammatory diet, I am not supposed to eat eggs. But periodically Pineapple gets a craving for them.

Before I started this diet, I loved cooking eggs. Alton Brown has a good recipe which produces consistent awesome results. Unfortunately, his approach also leaves little marks on the whites of the hard-cooked eggs wherever the egg touched the baking pan.

Now that I have some skills with a sous vide, I wondered if there was a way I could cook eggs instead of boiling them. That way I don't need to use precise timing to get the quality of egg that I want.

Histamine Intolerance and MTHFR

A few months ago while browsing around through books, I discovered a book titled Could it be Histamine Intolerance? I read the summary and thought "Maybe" so I bought the book and devoured it. The book is a quick read, but afterward I found that the same data can be found on the web for free. Oh well.

Basically, Histamine Intolerance (HIT) occurs when a body is slow to break down histamines. It manifests as chronic inflammation (mucus, cough, persistent seasonal allergies) which I can notice from whether or not my ring slips easily off of my ring finger and onto my index or middle finger; If I can get it onto my middle finger, then I consider it a low-inflammation day, while if I can barely get it off of my ring finger I can tell that I am dealing with a lot of inflammation.

Green Beans

I recently learned that green beans and snap peas are allowed on the Paleo AIP diet. I've been so grateful that I can now eat snap peas. I love to buy bags of snap peas and eat them with breakfast or lunch.

Green beans are also a great addition to my diet and now that I can eat them I am more likely to prepare them with dinner. However, for Pineapple's palate, I must make sure to get them just right; if they don't have the right texture, or are slimy, she absolutely will not eat them. And to be honest, now that I know what good green beans are like, I don't enjoy them any other way.

Watermelon Smoothie

This is late in the season, but during the summer I would make this smoothie periodically.

Tools

• Fine-weave strainer (fine enough to catch small seeds)
• Professional blender with jar
• Second blender jar or a bowl
• Rubber scraper

Ingredients

• Lime juice from 2 medium limes
• A watermelon (I usually employ a small seedless watermelon)
• 1/2 to 1 fully ripe avocado
• Approximately 3 to 5 heaping tablespoons cane sugar (or more or less to taste)
• Ice
• Water
• Optional: desired amount of unflavored protein/collagen powder

Grilled Pineapple

When I first embarked on this diet, I would eat pineapple quite frequently. I put it in nearly all of the smoothies I concocted. Once in a while, when I ran out of fresh pineapple, I would use canned pineapple, but I found that my stomach got a little upset whenever I did that.

When I had my hernia surgery during my recovery period I stopped making smoothies. When I started up again I found that my stomach got upset whenever I used pineapple. 🙁 Dang! Another food eliminated...

...Or is it?

Black Currant Smoothie

I love this time of year. All sorts of exotic fruits start to show up in the store (although, only at my special market which is more like an upscale farmer's market...regular stores don't tend to carry these seasonal items).

One of Pineapple's favorites is black currant. The store also carries red and golden currants, but we prefer the flavor of the black currants.

Perfect Broccoli

Growing up and through my 30s I've always eaten what I've been given. Consequently, my pallet has a wide tolerance for strange flavors and I've never really cared about texture (other than chips which must have crunch). Pineapple, however, is very sensitive to texture and flavor. If a vegetable doesn't have the right texture, or is slimy, she absolutely will not eat it.

Thankfully for the first several years of our marriage I rarely cooked. I didn't have the sense or the skills so I regularly ruined vegetables. Frozen veggies steamed in the microwave tended to come out okay, but often mushy.