Jamie Oliver's Fiery Tomato & Chilli Pasta Sauce

I am pleased to say that Jamie Oliver's Fiery Tomato & Chilli Pasta Sauce (available in Tescos) is entirely Candida diet a-okay, and jolly tasty too. Kudos to Jamie!

Tesco Healthy Living Tomato and Basil Soup

I had high hopes for this one...ready-made tomato soup with no added sugar and available in small, one person/portion-sized cartons (300 g). Here's a pic, so you know what to look out for.



It contains:


tomatoes (59%)
tomato puree (30%)
onion
vegetable oil
cornflour
basil (0.6%)
garlic puree
salt
oregano - N.B. a powerful anti-fungal!
black pepper


Nothing that should antagonise (encourage?) any lingering yeasty-beasties. But, for me, the flavour was too sharp and slightly bitter (really needs sugar sadly), and I didn't get on well with the large chunks of tomato (I prefer a smooth texture). Still, others might disagree - it's worth giving it a go.

Sourdough bread now available at Tescos!

My local Tescos (and, hopefully, those nationally) have started to stock their own freshly baked sourdough bread. They have three different varieties, including a baguette. Oh, happy day!

Organic Artichoke Tapas Spread

Just recently, one of my most favourite lunches has been a sort of meze plate: oatcakes, goats cheese, perhaps some parma ham and olives, and apple slices. Continuing the theme I recently came across Sierra Rica organic Artichoke Tapas Spread at Tescos. The ingredients are very simple;

Artichoke
Onion
Olive oil
Marjoram
Sea salt
Black pepper

There were a couple of other varieties on the shelf, but they contained raisins and red wine vinegar (if my memory serves me well).

I haven't tried it yet, but thought it would make a nice change from hummous, or spreadable goats cheese.

***UPDATE***

Very subtle, yet tasty. But gets a little monotonous after four days!

Hurrah...

...for Delamere Spreadable Goats Cheese! Great on oatcakes. Bought mine at Tescos (selected stores only).

Good stuff from Tescos

I've just got back to Leicester after a week and a half or so at home, via a trip to Tescos, where I picked up loads of good anti-Candida diet friendly stuff.

I haven't had a chance to try out any of this stuff yet...will keep you posted.

First up is something which I think is going to revolutionise my cooking (or at the very least, make it a damn sight easier): 'Thai Taste Green Curry Paste', a fairly large (400g) tub of curry paste, the ingredients of which are:

Garlic
Green Chilli
Onion
Salt
Lemon Grass
Rhizome Galangal (ginger, I suppose)
Fennel Seed
Kaffir Lime Skin
Coriander
Water

- so nothing there which is prohibited on the diet. According to the instructions on the tub, all you need to do is add 50g (enough for 4 people?) to coconut milk to make up an authentic sauce. Have got some king prawns and tofu to try it out. I didn't buy it this time round, but their Red Curry Paste looked okay too.

'Orgran Gluten-free Falafel Mix' - makes up five servings. Ingredients are:

Yellow Peas
Onion
Parsley
Garlic
Salt
Turmeric
Traditional herbs and spices
Sodium bicarbonate

Just add water to the mix, form falafels and fry until crisp. I have tried this mix before, but it was a while ago, so I can't remember how successful it was. Obviously didn't leave too bad an impression though!

'Kohinoor Rice Treat' - a good store cupboard standby. Ready to eat Indian-style vegetarian meals in a microwaveable pouch. I've got the Hyderabadi Vegetable Biryani* and Paneer Tikka Biryani# to try. Both contain white basmati rice, but I remember reading somewhere that basmati has a lower GI than other white rice varieties, which suggests it is converted to sugar more slowly by the body than, say, American Long Grain. Good for emergencies (I hope!)

*Cooked basmati rice 70%
french beans 6%
yoghurt 5%
onion 4%
vegetable oil (refined sunflower) 3%
green peas 3%
Indian cottage cheese (paneer) 3%
carrot 3%
salt
tomato
garlic
ginger
coriander leaves
green chilli
mint leaves
cumin
coriander powder
cardamom
red chilli powder
fennel
kewra (flavour)
cloves
cinnamon
black pepper
bay leaves
rose petals
mace
nutmeg

# cooked basmati rice 65%
Indian Cottage cheese (paneer) 15%
yoghurt 5%
onion 5%
tomato 3%
vegetable oil (refined sunflower) 3%
salt
ginger paste
garlic paste
lemon juice
fresh coriander
fresh mint
cardamom
kewra (flavour)
cinnamon
clove black pepper
fennel
rose petals
bay leaves
mace
nutmeg
dry mango powder
melon seeds
pomegranate seeds
dry ginger
bishop weed
caraway
asafoetida

This all begs the question, why - when it is clearly possible to produce ready-meals without all the added crap - most manufacturers persist in including artificial colours and flavourings, flavour enhancers and sugars?

Quick and tasty lunch idea

Wholewheat pasta tubes;
Olive salad mix (capers, sliced green olives and strips of roasted red pepper, in brine - comes in jars from Tescos);
Shavings of hard goat's cheese; and
Freshly ground black pepper.

Delicious! :)

Fructose

As long promised I experimented with fructose over Christmas and the results were pretty good. The type I used was Fruisana (available from Tescos) and you simply use it as you would 'normal' sugar in recipes, except you reduce the amount by a third. Tried it in a red cabbage and apple recipe and cranberry relish, as well as a lemon steamed pudding (yum - first pudding I've had in two years!). Admittedly I cannot accurately determine whether it had any adverse affect, or resulted in the current flare-up of symptoms I'm experiencing (boo), as I also pigged out on illicit chocolate gingers, turkish delight, Roses chocs and chocolate trifle over Christmas Day and Boxing Day (I shan't be doing that again in a hurry)! But, for the occasional treat (birthday cake, anyone?!), fructose would seem to be a good solution to those 'maintaining'.

Mother Hemp Red Pesto

Another of my finds at Tescos was 'Motherhemp' Red Pesto. It's fairly strong and flavoursome, so you only need a little bit to liven up pasta. For dinner this evening, I had it with oven-roasted vegetables (red pepper, courgettes, onion and aubergine) on Orgran Tricolour corn pasta, topped with crumbled feta for protein.

Here's a pic (from the Motherhemp website).

There was also green pesto version, but I believe that included Parmesan in the ingredient. Shame :(

Bty, the oils in hemp seed are supposed to be good for inflammatory skin conditions. And I'm sure we're all familiar with the sort of nasty inflammatory skin conditions Candida overgrowth can cause!

Frozen smoothie mix

I'm very penitent. Following my refined sugar slip-up the day before yesterday I've just been eating pure, unadulterated, healthy food. Though having said that, it was the first sugar I'd knowingly imbibed since 20th May. That's not bad going!

In my continued quest for something anti-Candida friendly and sweet I've discovered frozen smoothie mix from Tescos (see pic - from the Tescos website). I'm trying the Strawberry and Banana flavour at the moment, but they also do a tropical fruit and red berries version. The smoothie mix consists of just fruit, basically; chopped and frozen and packaged in individual bags. The directions suggest you defrost it slightly in the microwave and then whizz it up with fruit juice. I've been trying it with goats milk and plain yoghurt instead, and very good is it too!

A great find

During my very successful trip to Tescos last Friday I came across 'Clearspring' Organic Apple and Apricot Fruit Puree Dessert (see pic). They also do Apple & Blueberry and Apple & Strawberry varieties: two 100g tin foil trays of pureed fruit per pack, great mixed into yoghurt with a sprinkling of cinnamon. And they contain nothing but fruit...even better!

Flare-up :(

I've suffering a major flare-up of my symptoms at the moment, which is very disappointing because I'd been making some good progress recently. On looking back over my posts I've realised it's nearly a fortnight since I had that pizza and tapas slip-up. I remember my nutritional therapist saying something about it taking around fifteen days for any reactions to become apparent. Interesting. I'm not always 100% convinced that this diet really helps, but for want of any other suggestions (I've given up on the conventional medicine profession COMPLETELY) and while I'm still pretty certain that stress and 'mental buoyancy' have the biggest impact, I'm sticking with it. But, perhaps this shows that there really is a definite connection between what I eat and how bad my symptoms are. Would be fantastic in I could get to the point where I could identify exactly what, or what combinations of food, give me problems.

Anyway, in other news, a friend took me to Tescos last night (in his car!) and I stocked up on about a month's worth of food in one go (rather than my usual couple of shopping trips a week). I had a great time in the 'free-from' aisle and found lots of interesting, anti-Candida diet friendly products which I'll blog about as as when, over the next couple of weeks. Incidentally, I'm really busy with loads of writing and reports and organising events and stuff like that at the moment, so 'The Cardboard Diet' might be a little quiet, perhaps until the end of October. In the meantime, please bear with me. And if you have any comments, or suggestions, or experiences you would like to share, don't hold back! ;)