Bring the potatoes!

Once I knew I needed to change my diet, I started thinking... Hmmm, what can I eat now?!! Because I had no idea, I ate rice and pasta almost everyday... I got tired! So, I bought a book with like a 100 potatoes recipes :) Of course, I can only use the recipes with the peeled potatoes... Or just not eat the skin... You should see me eating potatoes skins at Irish bars... Yep, I do just what you are thinking, patiently I take the skins off... Or just eat everything inside except for the skin :).

For those who are with me most of the time is not a problem when I do this... They are used to it. But you should see the faces of the people beside me in restaurants jajajaja. I once remember attending this fancy meal. The menu was already chosen for us. It was a business meal. They asked: meat or fish?... Come on, you thought it was going to be: Chicken or lasagna?... :)  Long story short, I asked for meat... It was delicious... But, it came with this nicely cooked baby red potatoes!!!! So, I patiently started peeling with my knife and fork some of the potatoes... Yeap! Imagine you are at a restaurant, and when you look at the other table, you see this lady trying to take the skin off baby red potatoes!

It took me forever to eat at least 3 !! Well, I guess it was ok if you are going for a low carb diet jajaja

Anyway, from all the recipes I will post here, the fancier one so far... Gnocchi!!! Who does not like gnocchi?!! Is not that potatoes does not have fiber, but if you peel them, they have less fiber compared to other foods... Ok, the recipe is from foodnetwork/mariobatali. To do this recipe, one most be patient... So, take a Sunday afternoon, open a bottle of wine, put some music and start working with potatoes, flour and a mess! But, if you have company... It can get interesting... BTW, the gnocchi in the pictures are the one I cooked... Looks delicious :)

Ingredients

• 3 pounds russet potatoes
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 egg, extra large
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup canola oil

Directions

Boil the whole potatoes until they are soft (about 45 minutes). While still warm, peel and pass through vegetable mill onto clean pasta board.

Set 6 quarts of water to boil in a large spaghetti pot. Set up ice bath with 6 cups ice and 6 cups water near boiling water.

Make well in center of potatoes and sprinkle all over with flour, using all the flour. Place egg and salt in center of well and using a fork, stir into flour and potatoes, just like making normal pasta. Once egg is mixed in, bring dough together, kneading gently until a ball is formed. Knead gently another 4 minutes until ball is dry to touch.

Roll baseball-sized ball of dough into 3/4-inch diameter dowels and cut dowels into 1-inch long pieces. Flick pieces off of fork or concave side of cheese grater until dowel is finished. Drop these pieces into boiling water and cook until they float (about 1 minute). Meanwhile, continue with remaining dough, forming dowels, cutting into 1-inch pieces and flicking off of fork. As gnocchi float to top of boiling water, remove them to ice bath. Continue until all have been cooled off. Let sit several minutes in bath and drain from ice and water. Toss with 1/2 cup canola oil and store covered in refrigerator up to 48 hours until ready to serve.

Just me...

What low fiber diet means to me?

            As a Crohn’s disease patient, I cannot eat food with fiber. This varies from patient to patient. But in my case, I have to live with a low fiber diet every day. So, I decided to learn what a low fiber diet is. Of course, starting a diet is difficult, especially if it requires stopping eating all the things you love. Well, I started doing some research and here it is… According to Wikipedia, there are two types of fiber: the soluble and the insoluble ones. The soluble fiber is the one that can be dissolved in water and the insoluble is the one that cannot be dissolved. All food that comes from a plant HAS fiber. Everything that says WHOLE WHEAT has fiber. Seeds have fiber. However, there are some foods that have a low content of fiber, which are the ones you can eat. For example, I was reading the other day from the MayoClinic web site, they have a list of the low fiber food we are allowed to eat, for example: pancakes, bread, white pasta, yogurts, milk, crackers… Ok, hold it there!!! All the things I can eat make me gain weight!! I gained almost 20lb in a year eating like this… I got frustrated because I wanted to loose weight and I realized that I was only allowed to eat pasta, rice and potatoes (no skin). Yeap, thank you! Things I cannot eat: seed, salads, fruits, vegetables, beans and wheat…

            Every time I go to a restaurant is an adventure… I have to detailed look at the menu… And I start in my head: Hmmm, lets see what can I eat, what can I eat… Some times I have to start changing things around… Today I will tell you a little story that happened to me in a restaurant. I love Mexican food… You have no idea how much I love it… However, I can only eat some stuff… for example, I can only eat white flour tortillas… nothing with corn…no beans, only avocado no guacamole (guacamole has tomato, and onions… FIBER!). So, I went to this Mexican restaurant, crossing my fingers expecting everything to be all right… EH!! WRONG! I asked for a flour tortilla burrito, no beans, no salad, no guacamole but avocado, meat, cheese and sour cream. Simple, right? When the burrito came, it had guacamole… So, I ask the waiter to take it back and change the guacamole for avocado. Of course, all my friends started eating. The guys in the kitchen where kind enough to do the burrito new for me… meat, cheese, sour cream, avocado…and beans!! They forgot I asked for no beans!!! So… I asked the waiter to take the burrito back… He looked at me like: This lady is sooooo picky… I saw the look and I told him: I know I know… It seems that I am being picky… But I am not, I wish I could eat that… But I can’t. Long story short, he came back with the burrito and it was the way I wanted. However, all my friends were done with their food, the guys at the kitchen were looking at me like: lets see if we did it right and the waiter was like: I hope is right because I am new here and they already told me I might be fired if this is not right… Oh man!

            Anyway, I will soon write down a list of low fiber content food for those who are like me… and new recipes for a low fiber food so you do not get bore with the same plate every day!!!  

Welcome! I can believe I finally did it...