Quick Cook Steel Cut Oats

My kitchen hiatus continues; I still have no energy for making food. My condition persists in perplexing my doctor. At our last appointment he told me he wrote the textbook chapter on fat malabsorption, yet he cannot figure out why I’m not absorbing fat. Great. For this reason, he has decided to bring in another specialist, all the way from Colorado, to meet with me at our next appointment. Apparently this guy is one the top GI specialists in the country and has helped my doctor in the past with difficult-to-diagnose cases. Let’s hope he can figure out my issue.

Since I haven’t been doing much cooking, I thought I would post about my favorite breakfast—steel cut oats. I love the chewy texture of steel cut oats, I just don’t like the long, 30 minute cooking time. I noticed that Trader Joe’s had quick cook steel cut oats, ready in only 8 minutes. I bought them and ever since haven’t turned back. After being spoiled with an 8 minute cook time, there was no way I could go back to 30 minutes. I know you could make a big batch and reheat throughout the week, but I like to make mine fresh every morning. For these quick cook oats I cook mine in the microwave. I microwave the water for 2 minutes, pour it over the oats, nuke it for 3 minutes, stir, then heat for 2 minutes more. While it’s cooking I usually put away the clean dishes. If you make it in the microwave, make sure to use a large bowl, with tall sides, if you don’t want to be cleaning oatmeal out of your microwave (I may or may not have learned that the hard way). I use a small serving bowl. I have made them on the stove, but I find the microwave more convenient.

I add brown sugar, maple syrup, ground flaxseed meal, cinnamon and walnuts. I stir in heavy cream or half-n-half to get a nice, smooth consistency. Normally, I would just use skim milk, but my nutritionist has me sneaking fat into my diet, hoping some of it will get absorbed. Sometimes I add fruit, bananas, blueberries, strawberries. If I’m using frozen berries I pour a handful into a strainer and let them thaw while the oats cook. Other times I add shredded coconut to get in more fat. Usually, it’s too much food for me to eat at once, so I eat what I can, let it digest, then rewarm and eat the rest later. I love when healthy food is easy, quick, and inexpensive. If you are a fan of steel cut oats, give these a try sometime.

Creole Chicken with Rice

Don’t let the unappetizing photo scare you off from this dish. It doesn’t look like much, but the taste is out-of-this-world phenomenal.

Back before I got sick, I read the book Eat to Live by Dr. Fuhrman. I have always tried to eat as healthfully as possible and heard his book was informative. Basically, he maps out a caloric restriction diet/lifestyle. He recommends eating lots of fresh, raw veggies and eating meat sparingly, thinking of it as a condiment. I used the book as mainly a diet guideline and for some of the recipes--caloric restriction is a bit too extreme for me, I'm not really into counting calories. Some of the recipes are really good so I went online to Dr. Furhman's blog to find more. I saw this one and decided to try it. I’m so glad I did because this has become one of our top 5 favorite recipes. A word of warning, if you don’t like hot and spicy food this is not the meal for you. It definitely cleans out the sinuses.

I made this a lot when I had to eliminate gluten from my diet. I use Trader Joe’s brand chili sauce because it is gluten free and I love it. I’m not sure if all chili sauce is gluten free so if you have celiac disease or a gluten intolerance be sure to check the ingredients of the sauce you use.

Spicy Mexican Pulled Chicken and Vegetables

I love this chicken so much I made myself sick eating too much of it. Since my stomach has trouble emptying I have to eat my meals spaced out. Because a few bites of anything causes my stomach to blow up like a balloon, my nutritionist suggested spacing out each part of my meals. I eat the vegetable, wait an hour or so, then eat the meat/protein, wait an hour or so and eat the potato/grain, etc. It’s frustrating, but I’m getting used to it. However, when it came to taco night I couldn’t help myself, I ate 3 tacos, knowing I should only have had two. I should have waited an hour before eating that third one, but it was so tasty I couldn’t wait. My stomach was painfully distended, but it was so worth it.

For lunch the next day I made nachos covered in the chicken and topped with homemade salsa. You can use this chicken as a topping for nachos, a filling for burritos, tacos, or just eat it as is. Less chipotle chiles can be used if you don’t want too much spice. It also freezes well. I usually just freeze it as is, but you could add the filling to some burritos and make frozen burritos. Unfortunately, this was gone in 2 days, with no leftovers to for me to freeze. Speaking of tacos, have you ever tried the Trader Joe’s organic hard taco shells? They are to-die-for. I will never buy the supermarket ones again. The flavor is unbelievable. If you find yourself at TJ’s, do yourself a favor and get a box.

Thai Yellow Curry Chicken and Rice

I love, love, love, curry; especially yellow curry. There was a Thai restaurant near my old office and I would often get their yellow curry with chicken for lunch. I was so excited recently when I saw this yellow curry sauce at Trader Joe’s.

Now I could attempt to recreate this delicious dish at home. The restaurant curry sauce was pretty thin and flavorful, almost like a soup. It was served with white basmati rice on the side so you could add the rice to the sauce to, allowing the rice to soak up all the delicious sauce. When I’m adding the bottled sauce to the pan I put a little bit of water (a Tbl or two) in the bottle, shake it up, and dump it in the pot so that I get all the sauce out. I suppose that if you feel like you need to you could add water or chicken broth to stretch out the sauce. I don't because I don’t want to risk diluting the flavor. Of course you could use any rice that you want, but I prefer brown basmati rice, since it has a low glycemic index. Also, you don’t have to add the sweet potato; you could use all white potatoes. But sweet potatoes are so nutritious that I try to mix them in with white potatoes any chance I get. I prefer using baby yukons because all you have to do is wash and cut them in half. I have used russets before, just peel them before cubing. I debated whether or not to add garlic, but decided against it this time. I think I have added garlic in the past. Of course vegetarians/vegans could use tofu instead of chicken.