Sweet Potato Oatmeal

Ever heard of the total elimination diet?  Well, my doctor put me on that because I was having an allergic reaction to something.  It basically eliminates everything.  There is no red meat, shell fish or warm water fish, no sugar, no gluten, no dairy, no eggs, no peanuts, no caffeine, no alcohol, no citrus or strawberries.  It's is a super healthy, very lean diet.  At first it was super hard and I could not figure out what to eat and I was always hungry.  :-P But I'm almost through my third week of it, and I've slowly come up with different ideas of things to eat.  My biggest struggle was sweet stuff.  I used to put honey on my oatmeal in the morning but I can't have honey anymore.   So I tried to think of things that were sweet to put on my oatmeal... sweet potatoes!  So I found this recipe on this really cool blog called Noms For The Poor.  It turned out pretty good for having no sweetener what so ever.  I think I'm going to do it a little bit differently next time because my sweet potatoes didn't cook all the way and my oatmeal had a consistency that was very slimy.  Here is my version of the recipe, and you can get the original recipe from this page on Noms For The Poor... Sweet Potato Oatmeal.  

Recipe:

1/3 Cup Rolled Oats

1/4 tsp Salt

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

1 1/3 Cup Coconut Milk (Any kind of milk will do)

1 Cup Shredded Sweet Potato

1 Mashed Banana

Coconut Flakes

In medium sauce pan combine milk, spices, and sweet potato.  Cook until the sweet potato is no longer crunchy.  Then add the Mashed banana and oatmeal and cook until you have your desired consistency.  Serve and sprinkle with coconut flakes.  You can add a little coconut milk to the top too.  :-)

Yummm!

Dad's Lunch

This weekend, my dad made a really yummy lunch!  It was black beans, corn salsa from Trader Joes, hot and sweet cherry peppers from Trader Joes, little heirloom tomatoes, green onion, a little bit of the juice from the cherry peppers, a little oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  We put it in a tortilla and wrapped it up like a burrito.  It was sooo good!

Marinated Artichoke Hearts

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of frozen artichoke hearts
• 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
• Zest and Juice of 1 lemon
• Olive Oil
• Fresh basil
• salt
• Pepper
• Airtight container

(Some of my ingredients including one huge clove of garlic instead of two regular)

Directions:

Thaw artichokes in a bowl of water.  While those are thawing, finely chop garlic and basil, and zest the whole lemon.  After artichokes are thawed, cut them into bite sized pieces.  Drizzle olive oil in pan, and over medium heat, add garlic (don't over cook, it browns really fast).  Then add artichokes, lemon zest, and basil.  Season with salt and pepper. 

While the atrichokes cook, juice the lemon into the container you will be storing them in.  After this, take artichokes off the heat and scoop them into your container.  Add a little more olive oil.  Stir up the ingredients. (Or if you use a jar like I did, put the lid on and shake it up a little to incorporate ingredients) 

Let sit over night in the fridge before eating and enjoying.  :-)