IC Friendly Grilled Portobello with Teriyaki-Like "Glaze"

Well, I think that I have found something worse for my Interstitial Cystitis then tomato sauce - Fra Diovlo, a spicy tomato sauce!  If you have IC, or are knowledgeable about it, you probably think I was crazy for even thinking of trying it...and I was!  But I kinda had no choice!

I was visiting with my 90 year old Nana.  She is very driven to remain independent and refuses to sell her house, so she lives on her own.  She has dementia, which we suspected was going on for a little while as some of the signs were there, but it was only recently diagnosed.  She is not currently being treated for it (she really needs Aricept!) and her memory is awful.  After seeing her yesterday I'm not sure how she even functions from day to day.  I have to give her a lot of credit!  

Anyway, I had gone to her to help her pick up one of her meds and to take her food shopping as we don't let her drive anymore.  She claims that she is only forgetful with some names but is otherwise healthy and as such doesn't understand why she can't drive.  Oh Nana!  I thought I was just going down to help her shop and then leave as I wanted to get home to take care of mine and Andrew's zoo, but she expected that I was staying for dinner.  How could I say no to Nana, especially since she also asked me to spend the night but I couldn't as I didn't have any of my meds (I take something like 10 or 11 of them).  She had some leftover spaghetti that she wanted us to eat and the only sauce that she will buy is Victoria's Fradiavolo.  

After having to explain numerous times that I was a vegetarian and don't eat meat (she even offered it to me like three times while we were eating), I decided that it wasn't worth throwing her off anymore and it would just be best to appease the Nana and eat the sauce.  Of course she was worried about protein for me so we also got Gardein Meatless Balls to go with the spaghetti.  I love them, but my bladder does not!  I can only eat the balls in small amounts and I'm sure that they didn't help things.  Nana was happy though and that was all that really mattered to me.  I hurt today, but my Pyridium seems to be keeping it mostly at bay for now.  Hopefully it will pass and not become worse because I'm out of pain pills and while my primary care doctor will usually give me a script if I really need it, I'm not sure if I will have time to pick it up before the weekend.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my love for Nana didn't throw me into a big flare!  I'm uncomfortable enough with this heat, I don't need anything adding to my discomfort.

Speaking of heat, it is of course summertime, which means that it's prime grilling time!  As I promised a series of grilling posts for the summer, here is grilling post #2.  I love mushrooms and often have cravings for them (which Andrew finds weird as he hates mushrooms), so of course I had to create a mushroom dish.  The following recipe is for a single serving so if planning for more, remember to double (or triple or quadruple) the recipe.  As always, if any of the ingredients don't agree with your bladder then be sure to keep them out.  Good day and happy grilling!!

Ingredients:

*Green = Bladder Friendly foods; *Orange = Foods to try wih Caution; *Red = Foods to Avoid

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*1 Portobello Mushroom Top, stem removed 

*1 Handful Baby Spinach (optional)
*1 bun (optional - choose one that you know won't flare your IC)

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For Marinade:

*4 Tbsp Coconut Aminos

*4 Tbsp water

*2 Tbsp blueberry juice

*3/4 tsp garlic powder

*1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger

*Pinch of brown sugar

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For "Glaze":

*1/2 tbsp water

*1/2 tbsp cornstarch

*1 scallion, sliced thin

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Method: 

In a shallow bowl (or anything else that you have that your Portobello will fit in - like a plastic sandwhich container - to marinate), mix together all ingredients for the marinade.  Place your portobello in the marinade, cover, and let sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours, flipping it over halfway through.   After letting it marinate, remove the mushroom and cook on a pre-heated grill, about 5 minutes each side or until fully cooked.

Meanwhile, prepare the "glaze" - pour the marinade in a small saucepan and add the scallion.  Heat on medium - high heat untill just coming to a boil.  Mix the cornstarch  and water together and stir the mixture into the rest of the marinade.  Reduce heat and simmer until thickened to about the consistency of jelly.  

Place your portobello on a bun, top with the "glaze" (there may be a little glaze left over), and baby spinach.  Enjoy!

Nutrition information is based on a 2,000 calorie diet. The figures were obtained through the MyFitnessPal app.  Since the information was put in manually, please allow room for human error.

Tried the recipe out? Comment below to share your thoughts!

Cheesy Zucchini Quiche

So it's been a while since I last posted.  What have I been up to you may ask?  I've been so busy with work, physical therapy (still for my shoulder), exercise, and doctor's appointments that I just haven't had the time or energy to sit down to type.  Plus, I now have to wear a splint on my right hand which makes doing anything difficult!  I was referred to a hand specialist who diagnosed tendinitis in my thumb, carpal tunnel syndrome, a small ganglion cyst, and a possible pulled ligament in my wrist (I still have to go for another x-ray series to know for sure).  Yes, that's a lot to have going on in just one wrist, but such is my luck in life.  Hopefully the two injections that they gave me will kick in soon (3-6 weeks is a long time to wait for an effect!).  Oh yeah, and I was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia (I had been working on that diagnosis for probably 8 months or so) and I've been asked to do low-impact aerobic exercise (either walking, swimming, or biking, the later of which is not an option due to the IC) for a half hour every day as keeping your body in motion is supposed to help the FM.  You know, because I have plenty of time to do that!  Although, I had actually been doing fairly well with my exercise until one day I went to the Y and the only free treadmills were being reserved for a kids cardio class.  I was already just barely able to squeeze the workout into my very busy schedule as it is, and this now meant that I could not get my walk in that day.  This lead to a small anxiety attack and a poor unsuspecting trainer who was only trying to find a way to help got the brunt of my bad mood that day!  Anyway, I got discouraged and haven't gone back; I found other ways to get my exercise in, although as it is supposed to rain all day, I think today will be the day that I actually have no choice but to go back.  I give the Y a lot of credit for what they do, but sometimes it seems as if they are trying to do too much with too little!

As I said, the splint that I have to wear, called a Long Thumb Spica Splint, makes it hard to do many things, but I am learning to adjust and things that I could not do at all at first (like using a computer mouse, for instance) are getting easier to do.  I have found a way to use a knife with my first two fingers but it puts pressure on the splint in the wrong places which causes it to dig into my wrist and forearm and I wind up hurting, so I can only do this for short periods of time.  Needless to say, my inability to cook for myself right now means that I have not been following the IC diet as I should and my bladder seems to be getting angrier and angrier.  I've had to rely on take out and prepared food more often lately, but as I get more used to this splint I am becoming more and more eager to try to cook more things.  Since I have not been able to cook well, I also have not been able to create new recipes to share.  As a compromise, I thought that I would share a recipe with you that I have tried and loved!

Like many people just diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis, the IC diet seemed very daunting and being a vegetarian made it even harder.  I was quite scared to eat any food as my bladder was at its most upset and I felt the effects of trigger foods either very shortly after eating them or the very next day.  Not wanting to incur the wrath of my bladder, I tried not to experiment with cooking and only followed recipes that I found online that were either IC specific or had little to no problem ingredients.  This recipe for Cheesy Zucchini  Quiche, which fell into the later list if only because of the onions (which I do not think that I am sensitive to), was one of those first recipes that I had tried and it was so good that it spurred a small period where I was obsessed with trying different Quiches.  I always seemed to have pie dough ready to defrost in the freezer and there were even a couple of times that I put all of the ingredients together for this quiche over the weekend and froze it for use later in the week!  Both Andrew and myself absolutely loved this recipe!  (In fact, as I am sitting here typing this, I am becoming more and more tempted to get up and run to the store for some zucchini!)

Before I leave you with the recipe, I do want to give you a couple of tips.  First off, pre-made pie dough from the grocery store will seem very tempting for this recipe.  If you do go this route, don't forget to first check the ingredients to make sure there are no problem ingredients; I'm sure store-made dough must have some preservatives that may bother your bladder.  For that reason, I use a homemade 3-2-1 pie crust that I found here and is included below as part of the recipe.  Secondly, this recipe is much easier to make if you have a mandolin; it makes it easier to finely slice the veggies.  If you don't have a mandolin, try to cut as thin as you can.  Also, I have found that once cooked, the zucchini and onion create a lot of liquid.  Each time I have made this quiche I have forgotten about that and my end product becomes extra liquidy (even though draining the liquid is in the recipe - stupid fibro fog!).  I imagine that if you were to follow the recipe the right way and you drain some of the liquid from the vegetables before adding the rest of the ingredients, it would prevent this from happening and your end result will be much more quiche-like.  And Lastly, if you are sensitive to onions, remember that you can either leave them out or substitute with either chives or scallions.  Anyway, enjoy and happy cooking!

Ingredients: 

*Green = Bladder Friendly foods; *Orange = Foods to try wih Caution; *Red = Foods to Avoid

-Pie Crust: 

*1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

*1/4 tsp Salt

*1 tsp Sugar

*1 stick (8 Tbsp) Cold, Unsalted Butter, cut into small peices

*4-5 Tbsp ice water

-Filling: 

*3 Tbsp Butter

*4 cups Thinly Sliced Zucchini (about 3 medium)

*1 Large Onion, thinly sliced

*2 Large Eggs

*2 tsp Dried Parsley

*1/2 tsp Dried Oregano

*1/2 tsp Dried Basil

*1/4 tsp Black Pepper

*2 cups Part Skim Shredded Mozzarella 

Method:

-Pie Crust:

Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl and stir briefly until the mixture is aerated. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it’s in pea-size pieces that are slightly yellow in color, about 4 to 5 minutes.  Drizzle in 4 tablespoons of the ice water and mix just until the dough comes together.  (Add the last tablespoon of ice water if necessary, but don’t overwork the dough or it’ll become tough).  Shape the dough into a flat disk, cover it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, then use it in the pie or tart recipe of your choice. 

-Filling:

Preheat your oven to 400°. On a lightly floured surface, roll pie crust into a 1/8-in.-thick circle before transferring to a 9-inch pie plate. Trim the crust to 1/2 inch beyond the rim of the plate and flute the edge. Refrigerate the crust while preparing the filling. 

In a large skillet, heat the butter over medium heat until melted and beginning to bubble.  Add the zucchini and the onion; cook, stirring frequently, until both are tender - the onion will become translucent and the zucchini will change color slightly.  Drain the liquid off as best as you can and let the mixture cool for a bit.  In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and seasonings until they are well blended. Stir in the cheese and then mix it with the cooked zucchini and onion.  Once everything is well mixed, add the completed filling to the prepared crust.  Bake on a lower oven rack for 35-40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean and the crust is golden brown.  Cover the edge of the quiche loosely with foil during the last 15 minutes of cooking, only if needed to prevent over-browning. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.   

This recipe will make 8 servings.

**Original Recipe found from Taste Of Home.

Bean Burgers

Bean Burgers made with black beans

This recipe was originally given to me by my mother over the phone one day; she had made these burgers for me a couple of times and I just had to try to make them on my own, so I had called her for it.  I wrote the ingredients down on a note pad shaped like Jack Skellington's head and I still have that note years later.  Sometimes it's hanging out on the fridge and sometimes I have to hunt it down, but both the recipe and that peice of paper feel like they have become a part of me and this recipe is always something I refer back to.  When I finally made them on my own, my burgers came out a bit different then my mothers.  We compared notes and eventually decided that the difference was in the processing of the vegetables.  Even though the instructions that my mother had given me were to process the vegetables in a food processor, it turns out that she had always hand chopped them.  When put in the food processor, the vegetables create extra liquid and I found that due to this I had to add more dry ingredients in order to be able to better form the patties.  Due to this, I'm not sure that I ever completely followed that recipe even once before tweaking it and retweaking it over time.  In a way I'm thankful for this as it helped me to be open to the possibilities that this recipe can hold.

Serving suggestion!

Over time, I have added the green bell pepper (which was jalapeño before the IC diagnosis) and the flour and i have increased the amount of breadcrumbs and I love the results.  Another thing that I love about his recipe is its versatility.  While the original recipe called for black beans, over the years I have also used kidney beans, white beans, red beans, and of course pinto beans (since they are bladder friendly) as you see below.  Besides working well with any bean that you may have on hand, you can change up the veggies and seasonings, the shape, and cooking method to make it into other things.  In the past, I have adapted this recipe to make bean balls (both Italian style and sweedish) and my boyfriend and I once turned this recipe into a really tasty loaf.  We had written that recipe down, but I think it got lost in a move as I haven't seen it, which is really a shame.  I have to talk to him about it because I'm hoping that our combined memories can recreate what we once made.

As always, if you have IC and are making this, please keep your personal triggers in mind.  If something is bothersome to you, leave it out or replace it.  If you need to leave out the onion and would like to keep the flavor, scallions and chives are more bladder friendly options.  Red orange and yellow bell peppers seem to be more tolerable then green and the seasoning can be changed.  The original recipe called for Cajun seasoning, but I don't think I've ever had that.  I've always replaced it with Mexican favors, as you can see below that I've replaced it with my IC Friendly Taco Seasoning.  Also, before using any breadcrumbs, read the label first to make sure that they don't contain any trigger ingredients. 

Happily, after about a month and a half of flaring up, my IC has finally calmed down.  The migraine in my bladder is gone and my frequency has decreased.  I believe that this is due in large part to sticking to the IC diet and using Preleif those few times that I've had to stray.  I have posted some of the recipes that I had made during this time period and I have a few more to come.  I look forward to continue sharing my efforts on this journey of mine.  Until next time, happy eats!

Ingredients: 

*Green = Bladder Friendly foods; *Orange = Foods to try wih Caution; *Red = Foods to Avoid

*1 can Pinto Beans, rinsed and drained well 

*2 cloves Garlic

*1 medium Onion

*1/2 Green Bell Pepper 

*1 Egg

*1 cup Flour

*1 cup Breadcrumbs (either seasoned or plain)

*2 tsp IC Friendly Taco Seasoning 

*2 Tbsp Olive Oil

Method:

Place rinsed beans in a bowl and mash with a potato masher.  Some beans can be left whole for aesthetic value, but you are looking to turn the beans into a paste.  Process the garlic, onion, and bell pepper in a food processor until very finely chopped (it will look like mush) and stir into the beans.  Add the egg, flour, breadcrumbs, and seasoning and stir together well.  Pour oil onto a skillet and heat on medium heat.  Using your hands, scoop out balls of mixture and flatten them slightly (this will get a little bit messy).  Place the flattened ball on the heated skillet and finish flattening with either your hands or the back of a spatula.  If you use your hands, be very careful not to touch the surface of he skillet so as not to get burnt!  Cook until both sides are browned.  Serve as you would any other burger and top with your favorite burger toppings.

Nutrition facts are based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet and are computed using the MyFitnessPal app.  As I have entered the ingredients by hand and picked he best matches from a list, some human error may exist in their calculations.