Into the Home Stretch

My mom and I are on Day 18 of the Elimination Diet and folks, we are into the home stretch! The food add ins we decided to test this time around are:

Lemons

Tree Nuts

Strawberries

Chocolate (praying this is not a problem!)

Eggs

Dairy

We began our add ins with one new food over the course of three days to see if there were any changes in digestion or how we felt overall. Lemons were quick and easy to test by adding a little fresh squeezed juice to our smoothies and salads. We even made a tart lemon and lentil soup.

The real treat came on Sunday with the addition of tree nuts. I made a cashew cream pie with a pecan and almond crust. This also had a splash of lemon juice and was a rich, smooth, cool dessert topped with fresh berries.

We do like to complete our meals with a little something sweet. So later in the week I made truffles with walnuts, almond butter, dates, raisins, cinnamon and gave them a little roll in flaked coconut, a perfectly sweet bite to end a meal.

I was perhaps most excited for Tuesday evening when we added in meat for the first time in 15 days! We turned wild caught salmon filets into salmon burgers seasoned with Herbamare, fresh ginger and fresh parsley. I was pleased to find organic cauliflower at the local co-op for us to have mashed cauliflower as a side.

We’ve started nearly every day of the diet with a variation of quinoa and berries. One morning in addition to the cinnamon and flax we added walnuts for a little extra crunch. And yes, there is quinoa under all of those berries!

One of the many benefits of this diet is that we are eating green foods (collards, kale, broccoli, cabbage, bok choy) every day and oftentimes more than once a day.

Greens are the most nutrient dense foods and are cleansing and healing foods for the digestive system and body. They are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals like vitamin A, vitamin K, vitamin C, calcium, iron, folic acid and potassium. All of these benefits add up to some serious antioxidant cancer-fighting properties. It's no surprise that one of the first blessings given to us by God was the abundance of green things to eat.

Then God said..."to everything that has the breath of life in it, I give every green plant for food." - Genesis 1:30