Hello, and happy Monday! I'm FINALLY starting to feel back to normal after that no-joke bout of the flu. My appetite has been really off since I got sick two weeks ago. I had absolutely no appetite for a few days there, and then even when my appetite did come back, it was difficult to find foods that actually sounded good. I threw caution to the winds and ate broth cooked rice as one of my first foods after I got back on my feet, and fortunately, it didn't seem to affect me negatively. I'm still evaluating the big picture of histamine though, because even though I've been following a LH diet for 3-4 weeks now, I've been sick for half of it! One of the only other things that has sounded good to me is almond butter and apples, so I've been eating plenty of both. Sometimes you just have to make it work! Speaking of apples, they used to be totally off limits due to their high FODMAP content. (Bloat city!) I'm thrilled that I've been tolerating them better, and have added some other higher FODMAP foods into my meals this week too! Fingers crossed that I do as well with them. I've had issues with FODMAPs for over two years now, so any progress is hugely encouraging.
Breakfast: Protein Shake // 1 scoop Vanilla Build protein by PureWOD mixed with homemade almond milk frozen into ice cubes, 1 tsp Bulletproof Brain Octane, and 1 cup frozen blueberries, cherries, or peaches.
Lunch: Ginger Cilantro Chicken Meatballs with Roasted Sweet Potato and Shredded Radish // These meatballs are pretty similar to what I made last week. 1# chicken, about 2 cups of chopped green onions, 2 cups minced cilantro, 1/2 cup minced ginger, and 1 tsp salt. I mixed everything together, scooped them out using a 1 oz scoop onto a parchment lined baking sheet, and baked at 425 for 12 minutes. I source my meat from two places: US Wellness Meats or Da-Le Ranch at my local farmer's market. At the same time, I roasted two large sweet potatoes cut into cubes and some shredded radish. (I love shredded radish!! My favorite is with ghee, cinnamon, and salt, but this time I used garlic to keep it LH.)
Dinner: Smoky Chicken Meatballs with Toasted Collards and Creamy Cauli Rice // All the meatballs this week, apparently! When I was doing my meat shopping last week all that sounded good was chicken, so that's what was in my freezer. I mixed 1# of meat with 1 tsp salt, a couple cups of chopped green onions, and about 1/4 tsp liquid smoke. Most smoked foods are off limits with LH (I miss bacon!), and truthfully I have no idea where liquid smoke would fall on the scale, but it's just water and smoke flavor, so I decided to give it a try. I also toasted up some collards using my recipe for Perfect Kale Chips and sautéed a bag of Trader Joe's riced cauliflower on the stovetop with some ghee and salt. I stirred in some creamed coconut at the end to make it extra delicious!
Snacks: Artisana Coconut Butter // I'll also keep a Primal Kitchen Collagen Bar on hand just in case. These bars are overall pretty low in histamine, but I'll only be using them as a backup this week as I continue to test the absence of collagen/gelatin.
Have a great week!