Wah! Where did I go?

The blog disappeared for a few days when Blogger's automated system decided seemingly arbitrarily that it convened the terms and conditions. After a bit of foot stamping, I got an apology and the blog was reinstated. Phew! My apologies for any inconvenience caused while The Cardboard Diet was offline.

Apologies from me

Many apologies if you recently left a comment on the blog recently and it's gone unmoderated (until now). Just discovered that Gmail has been sending all notifications to my junk mail filter. Doh! Will do better in the future, promise.

Candida diet bloggers

Calling all candida diet bloggers!

Am I'm linking to you yet (see the right-hand sidebar)? If not, drop a note in the comments and let me know your URL. No commercial sites please.

New Blog: Rabbit Hole Wonderland

Just come across a great little candida (amongst other medical complaints) blog, Rabbit Hole Wonderland. Some delicious-sounding recipes with an East Asian twist. Really keen to try some of them out. Not sure where I'll get me some minced bison in Leicester though. ;)

I'm working - bleurgh

Just a quick post to explain my continued absence.  I'm writing up my thesis at the moment (when I'm not wallowing in the depths of hell wondering why I ever bothered - chapter just got a mauling from my supervisor), which leaves little time for anything else.  I will probably only blog intermittently over the next couple of months, but don't let that stop you from commenting.  I read all my mail.  :)

Back to Basics

FLARE-UP ALERT! I've been just too naughty and lax about my diet recently. So, it's back to basics for me. I guess that means I'll be posting here more frequently. And eating lots of yogurt. Yuck!

Blueberry Muffins - yum!

I'm making candida diet friendly muffins for a party tomorrow. I found this great recipe for the blueberry variety on the BBC Food website. Just substitute sugar for xylitol. The muffins don't rise very high (perhaps I should have left the batter over night as the recipe recommends), but taste LUSCIOUS! And I love the way the blueberries pop as the muffins cook and leech purple juice everywhere. Not something for everyday consumption, but perfect as an occasional treat.

Oh, and I can definitely recommend the silicon muffin tray I rescued from TK Maxx on Monday.

In other news, this blog has been, and is likely to remain, fairly quiet for a bit, cos my thesis has to take top priority at the moment...

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. :)

Blog alert: Book of Yum

Food blogger and doctoral student like me! Lots of yummy sounding gluten-free recipes here.

Book of Yum

N.B. Might have (Might have? No definitely!) inadvertently commented on someone else's blog, who shall reman nameless - *cough* .H - recently using the 'wrong' profile which links to my research blog, thus revealing my true identity! Pssst - don't tell anyone!! Not that I'm ashamed of this little blog. Just not keen on all and sundry knowing about my problems - to put it coyly - 'down below'. ;)

Newish blog: Fighting Candida: Body Ecology

Found another new Candida diet blog this evening - Fighting Candida: Body Ecology. There's a nice little - growing - community of Candida fighters out there in the blogosphere. ;) Hurrah!

Watercress Soup

Apologies for my recent absence. I've been up to my neck in it recently and not feeling terribly positive, so I've been trying to cut back on the myriad of extraneous stuff I do just to relieve the pressure a bit; this blog being one one of them.

Having said all that, I had a bit of exciting news recently: I can have cakes and biscuits made with fructose now! Just need to find some good recipes and time to try them out now. Will post the results as soon as I'm able.

Continuing working my way through Miriam Polunin's book at the moment. Made Watercress Soup (p. 103) yesterday and about to have the second serving for my lunch. Pretty good, but quite gloopy, probably because I didn't add the soured cream recommended in the recipe. Perhaps a spot of goats milk will slacken the texture a bit...?

Hokkaido-style corn, chicken and cabbage soup with miso

Have just made the most FANTASTIC soup for lunch, which is perfectly anti-Candida diet* compatible - courtesy of Maki at 'I was just really very hungry'. I substituted the chicken for firm tofu.

Highly recommended!

* just make sure that, if you're using tinned sweetcorn, it isn't sweetened.

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! ;)

A make-over

I've changed my blog template (stating the blinking obvious). All that pink was giving me a headache. This is much more soothing...

Soya: pros and cons

Following on from my earlier post - ostensibly about breakfasts, but also about how I've recently gone off soya milk for a number of ethical and health reasons - there's been some really illuminating posts about the pros and cons of soya products on the Fanatic Cook blog recently. To summarise (and I know this is simplifying the debate somewhat) fermented soya products (e.g. tofu, soy sauce and miso) are good, while unfermented soya products (like soya milk) are potentially harmful, if consumed in large quantities. I, for one, have decided to give up soya milk in preference for UHT goats milk (which doesn't cause me any problems).

Why does life have to be so complicated?!

A temporary hiatus

Blimey! You wait ages for a blog entry and then three come along at once. ;-)

When I'm not worrying about what I'm eating, I'm a research student and, at the moment, I'm heavily engaged in a bit of writing that I must get done for my supervisor by the middle of next week. So today's posts are likely to be the last for some time.

So, here's me, signing off for a little while. Bye bye...

Share your experiences with the world!

Well, maybe just me and whoever is out there reading this blog!

I would be delighted to hear your comments, suggestions, tips and experiences. Just drop me a line...

Introduction and mission statement

The aim of this blog is to gather together recipes and tips for people following a restricted diet, with a focus on the anti-candida programme, which I've been on since December 2004.

There are loads of recipes online and cookery books available specifically designed for those on the anti-candida diet, but they are very US-oriented, and quite frankly, many of the recipes resemble and taste little better than cardboard (hence the title of this blog!).

My mission is, therefore, to share my experiences, recipes and tips, so that others just starting a strict elimination diet, or maintaining their symptoms through diet, can save time and continue to enjoy food.

In the coming weeks I will introduce some of the easy and quick recipes I've devised, give links to useful websites, publish cookery book reviews and give tips about which supermarkets stock the best anti-candida friendly products.