Day One, Volume Two--doing it right this time

Breakfast: quinoa w/ organic raisins and brown sugar
Lunch: boiled potatoes w/ margarine, salt, and pepper
Snack: a banana, rice crackers w/ sweetened almond mash (spiced w/ cinnamon, cloves)
Supper: lentil soup (onions, turmeric, canned toms, garlic, chili peppers, lentils)
Snack: an apple, rice crackers w/ more mash, craisins, raisins.

i may have stumbled upon the two most perfect weeks for an allergy elimination diet. i have a shit-ton of sewing to finish before August and who has time to miss bread when they have Medieval costumes to assemble? i cut out the first dress and ironed the material for the second, but since i also had to do some grocery shopping, make almond milk, go for a run, and, well, eat, i didn't finish much else. probably a good thing since my back is killing me today and i'm not sure i could handle much leaning over.

my plan consists of eliminating soy, corn, cumin, coriander, oats, and wheat from my diet for two weeks. then, for one week each, i will bring them back in the order listed. hopefully, the elimination period will allow my body to accustom itself to the lack of these foods and, if one is the culprit, i will have symptoms once i reintroduce it. i planned a menu for the first two weeks and that has made a big difference in my general outlook. knowing that i have food in the house to eat and having planned ahead to include snacks has reduced the stress of this whole crazy business down to almost nothing.

the almond milk turned out well. i used a recipe from Vegweb which goes somewhat as follows:

2 cups raw, unblanched almonds, soaked for at least an hour, preferably overnight
8 cups fresh water
(calls for vanilla and sugar, both of which i left out)

place almonds and 1/2 water into food processor. turn on high. turn off immediately. mop up water and curse the lid for a total lack of seal. determine that the food processor might not be the best tool anyway because for the short while that the almonds were in there, they appeared to be just bouncing around. dump the water, pour almonds into the blender, and add fresh water (this time, all of it).

turn on high. discover why this particular blender/food processor was sold for so cheap and turn off blender. strain out 2/3 of the water and try again. turn off blender so as to place a tea towel under the base to soak up the steady stream of liquid pouring out of the spout. try again. once the almonds seem pretty munched up, strain them with metal strainer (next time i will use cheese cloth) and replace them in the blender with just enough water to cover. turn blender on high again and reduce almonds to mush. again, strain out as much water as possible and set mash aside.

pour milk into a jug and top up with fresh water to 2L. refridgerate. mop counter and floor. stare at the leftover ground up almonds and wonder for a moment what to do with them. taste test. discover the light and fluffy goodness that is almond mash. sweeten with 30 mL of sugar and add spices. refrigerate that too.

apparently, you can dry the mash and use the resulting meal as flour. i thought i might try using it in cake at some point. all in all, aside from the mess and the realisation that i need a higher quality blender/food processor, almond milk was easy-peasy and i would definitely make it again. looking forward to trying it tomorrow on my rice puff cereal.