New supplement regime

A couple of weeks ago I gave my nutritional therapist a list of all the supplement left-overs I've accumulated over the last couple of years. She emailed back to say that she'd taken note. Which is a good thing. Not so good is that she hasn't seemed to grasp the concept of only prescribing me the bare minimum to fight my candida problems. Nevertheless her bill, this month, was half of what it was the previous month, which is another good thing. Here's my new regime:

One a day multivitamins and minerals - One tablet with breakfast and evening meals (I actually only take one of these - it's called 'one-a-day' for a reason IMHO).

Mycopyrl 400 - One capsule with breakfast and evening meals.

Nutricell caretenoid - One capsule with breakfast and evening meals (Again, just take one in the morning following the recommended dosage on the pot).

Bioacidophillus - One capsule with breakfast and evening meals.

Mega GLA - One capsule with breakfast and evening meals.

Floraguard - One capsule with Lunch (this is a new one - apparently a broad spectrum candida supplement to support the Mycopyrl 400, and replaces the Oxy-pro I had been using for the last couple of months. Feel that this rotation of anti-fungals is an all round positive move).

St John's Wort - One capsule with breakfast and evening meals (to help anxiety and stress levels).

BioMagnesium - One capsule with breakfast and evening meals.

Fridge Fruit

Leading on from my previous post, at Somerfield today I discovered 'Fridge Fruit', manufactured by SPC, a 1 kg pot of pear, peach and pineapple in apple juice, and crucially, no citric acid (though it does contain ascorbic acid - no one has ever said to me, 'Djinn, you can't have ascorbic acid', so I don't worry about it!). Once opened it needs to be kept in the fridge and eaten within seven days. Good with yoghurt. Not personally keen on pear (don't like the gritty texture), but I lurve peach and pineapple. :)

A tasty lunch idea

Last weekend I had lunch at a cafe in town. Perusing the menu to see what I could eat within the bounds of the anti-candida diet, I hit upon a jacket potato topped with cottage cheese and pineapple. I don't know if that's a peculiarly British combination; it sounds strange, but it works well. So, I recreated it this lunchtime. I added a sprinkle of paprika and freshly ground black pepper to make it a little more exciting.

Yum!

A week of eating badly

The last week has seen me eat Chinese once, Indian twice, refined pasta, egg mayonnaise and brie and grape sandwiches. I've drunk black tea with milk and neat orange juice. To summarise, I've had a bad week. But I have an excuse. Not only was it my birthday last Sunday (hence the Chinese - a birthday ritual), it was my Department's research week and my food choices were, thus, limited. To compensate I'm going to eat nothing but pure, unadulterated food for the next few days (she says, sweeping the diabetic chocolate and shortbread fingers she bought from Boots this morning, well under the carpet).

It'll be interesting to see what happens with regard to flare-ups...

Recipe: Chilli and soy-glazed chicken with garlicky-herb couscous

Devised this for tonight's dinner. Very tasty. Very quick. Very garlicky! Should be kicking the arse of that candida as I type. ;)

Chilli and soy-glazed chicken

(serves 1)

1 free-range, organic chicken breast
soy sauce
lemon juice
chilli flakes
freshly ground black pepper
sesame oil

Trim and cut the chicken into goujon-sized strips. Make a marinade of soy sauce, lemon juice (just a splash of both), a sprinkle of red chilli flakes and black pepper to taste. Add the chicken and coat well in the marinade. Leave to infuse for a few minutes. In the meantime prepare the couscous (see below).

Heat the oil in a small pan. Shallow fry the chicken until the marinade has formed a glaze over the chicken (and the chicken is cooked).

Serve with couscous (see below) and a green salad.

* * * * *

Garlicky-herb couscous

(serves one)

1 portion of couscous (cooked according to the instructions on the packed)
1 clove of garlic, grated
handful of fresh parsley, chopped finely.
olive oil

Stir a dash of oil, the garlic and parsley into the couscous. Leave to stand (covered) for a few minutes to ensure that the garlic and parsley is warmed through.

Recipe: Yoghurt 'soured cream'

Well, less a recipe and more a handy hint really. A couple of weeks ago I really started to crave MEAT! So, I bought some superior beef mince and made a vat of chilli, which I've been slowly eating my way through since (I should add that I froze several portions!). I had it with tacos last night (Old El Paso ones are anti-candida diet friendly). I thought up a quick - and delicious - substitute for soured cream to accompany the dish (which is pretty obvious when you think of it):

Yoghurt 'soured cream'

2-3 tbs goats yoghurt
juice of half a lemon
freshly ground pepper

Spoon the yoghurt into a bowl. Add the lemon juice and mix until the yoghurt is runny. Add pepper to taste. Drizzle over meat filling.

Would work as a salad dressing and (sloppy) dip. Very tasty.

A setback

So, the Doctor suggested I did some cardio-vascular exercise in my quest to maintain a cheery disposition. I hate most exercise, but I'm not bad at swimming, so I have started doing a few lengths down the pool a couple of times a week. And guess what? Yeah, that's right, it's caused a flare-up of my candida symptoms. I can't win! It's so blinking frustrating, especially as I'm certain the exercise really had started to boost my mood.

Though, having said that, my tongue and mouth are sore, so I suppose the flare-up could just be coincidental. Nevertheless, I'm feeling quite downbeat about the whole thing. I suppose it's back to the rigid diet for me, though that's going to be difficult with my birthday coming up.

Out, damn fungus!

Mars Bars no longer veggie-friendly

I can't profess to being vegetarian, but - frankly - Mars' decision to start using animal-derived rennet puts me right off (not that I could eat normal choc in the first place, but it's the principle of the thing!).

BBC NEWS Business Mars starts using animal products

Know Your Onions

Serendipitous, it seems, that I've just started to use shallots in place of onions.

Choose a Sharper, Stronger Onion - RealAge Tip of the Day

Dumping my nutritional therapist

A little while ago I wrote about how I was thinking I might ditch my nutritional therapist, but I chickened out (background here). I finally go up the courage to email her this morning. Actually, I haven't dumped her, but have informed her that, due to cash-flow problems, I'm going to have to reduce the number of supplements I'm taking to the barest minimum. I've also given her a list of the supplements I have enormous quantities of already (like 200+ capsules). I've calculated that, at current doses, I've got enough of some things (like multivitamins, caprylic acid and MegaGLA) to last me six months at least! I have to make some savings over the summer (when I'll have no money coming in), and my supplement regime is the most obvious candidate for the chop. I await her reply with baited breath...

Tried my recipes?

I've been receiving masses more hits to this blog recently, mainly thanks to Migelooch/Jul's 'Candida Candour'. If anyone has tried my recipes, or has any suggestions how to improve them, I'd be really pleased to hear from you. Why not leave me a comment?! Thanks. :)

Cooking With Monkey

This is great. And I like this recipe for chocolate truffles. Am thinking it might be possible to do a Candida diet-friendly version with maltitol or fructose-sweetened dark chocolate and goats cream (available in UHT cartons from some health food stores). But how to replace the icing sugar? A spot of corn flour perhaps?

I must experiment...

Recipe: Finnan Haddie

I bought a couple of pieces of smoked haddock this afternoon, with the thought of making kedgeree. Until, that is, I later realised that I had eaten rice last night. So, I had a quick look on the Internet for another haddock recipe and found this. I made a few changes...I didn't have a spring onion or fresh parsley, so left those out, and used shallots instead of onion. And, of course, I substituted cows milk for goats, olive oil spread for butter and plain flour for wholemeal. But it was still very yummy served with boiled new potatoes and purple sprouting broccoli.