Why Organic? Beware of the "Dirty Dozen"

I don't normally buy everything organic, but I do when I can. There was an article in the most recent edition of Energy Times that told about the "Dirty Dozen" of produce...the fruits and veggies that should be bought organic because of how many pesticides remain on them when not grown organically. You can read the article here.

You can get information on the pesticide residues on other foods here. (Click here for a printable shopper's guide.)

If you care to get a free online subscription to Energy Times, you can do so here.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

Grapeseed oil
2-3 teaspoons dried minced onion
4 teaspoons dried minced garlic
2 cans (15 oz. each) black beans
2 cans (15 oz. each) sweet potato puree
1 cup water
2 tablespoons cumin
2 tablespoons taco seasoning (or chili powder for a bit more spice)
Chopped cilantro
Shredded cheese
10 whole wheat tortillas

1. Put dried minced onion and dried minced garlic in a small amount of water until "puffy". (Or you can skip this step and use a fresh onion, diced, and 3-4 cloves of fresh garlic, minced.)
2. Heat oil in a skillet over medium/high heat.
3. Cook onion and garlic until fragrant.
4. Add black beans, water, cumin, and taco seasoning to skillet.
5. Cook, stirring often, until most of the water has evaporated and the spices have made a paste/sauce.
6. Put some bean mixture and sweet potato puree in each tortilla. Add a pinch of chopped cilantro and a pinch of shredded cheese.
7. Roll each enchilada and line them up in a slightly oiled baking pan/casserole dish.
8. Top the rolled enchiladas with shredded cheese and chopped cilantro (and any left over sweet potato puree or bean mixture you may have).
9. Bake in a 350 degree oven (preheated) until enchiladas are heated through and cheese is melted. Tortillas may be a bit brown and crispy.
10. Top with sour cream and guacamole, if desired. (I make a simple guacamole with mashed avocados, salt, garlic powder, lemon juice, and lime juice.)

Yummy and inflammation free!!!

Food allergies

In reading many things about autoimmune disorders and anti-inflammatory diets, it seems that it all boils down to what foods in particular you may be allergic to that can set off your symptoms. I recently had a blood test to determine what foods I may be allergic to (I am hoping this will be a quick route to the things that can be discovered through something like an elimination diet), and I wanted to share some information I found about how they do allergy testing via blood. You can read up on it at labtestsonline.org.

What's a gluten?

I've been hearing a lot about Celiac Disease and gluten-free diets. I know that gluten is found in wheat, but wasn't sure what else contained gluten...so I thought I'd look it up. Gluten-free and wheat-free are not the same thing. A gluten-free diet excludes more than wheat...and actually some gluten-free products may not be wheat-free. Here are some foods that contain gluten and should be excluded from your diet if you are told to eat "gluten-free" (unless of course they are prepared and labeled as "gluten-free"):

Bread
Baked goods
Crackers
Baking mixes
Pasta
Couscous
Cereal
Pizza
Stuffing
Pretzels

In addition to that, there are some lesser known ingredients that may contain gluten:

Starch
Autolyzed wheat protein
Brewer’s yeast
Malt
Farina
Kamut
Dextrimaltose or maltodextrin
Textured vegetable protein
Vegetable starch or meal

Look out for some of these foods that may contain those ingredients:

Malt vinegar
Malted cereal or farina cereal
Gravy
Soup
Baked beans
Chili
Salad dressing
Sausage
Pate
Stock cubes or bouillon
Cold cuts
Beer
Wine

(Information in this post was taken from WiseGeek and other websites.)