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I Was Infected with Listeria When I Was Pregnant

September 20, 2013

camel riding with my son who survived listeria in the womb — Here is my son today, a healthy survivor of listeria infection in the womb.

About eleven years ago, when I was nine months pregnant with my first child, I accidentally became infected with listeria, a bacteria that spreads through unhygienic food handling practices. Since listeriosis (listeria infection) can cause stillbirth, I was treated with massive doses of i.v. antibiotics over several days. Thankfully, my baby was born alive, but we have been dealing with the consequences ever since.

You can ready the whole story here as it has been posted on the Stop Foodborne Illness wall.

Listeria is the same bacteria that killed a bunch of people who ate unwashed cantaloupe a few summers ago. Here are some tips on how you can stay safe from foodborne illness.

Those life-saving antibiotics given to a developing fetus killed the listeria in the placenta but also destroyed my son’s digestive system before he even emerged from the womb. No one had mentioned the long-term effects this treatment might have on the baby that survived it.

The quest to heal his body led me on a direct path to the dietary management therapies I employ today as a naturopathic doctor (ND) and Certified LEAP Therapist. It’s fair to say that getting listeria irrevocably changed my life, my career, and my passions.

I’m thankful to have found a way to heal my son and turn him from a failure-to-thrive baby into a healthy and robust almost-11-year-old, and to be able to use the knowledge gained from my journey to help others heal and recover their health.

I could not have foreseen the path my life has taken, and I thank you all for reading and taking me along on your own journey toward health.

Namaste.

Chicken Split Pea Soup Recipe

September 19, 2013

Last week I saw a bin of yellow split peas at the grocery store and thought: I should make a split pea soup! So, when our freezer thawed and I had a bunch of thawed chicken on my hands, that’s exactly what I did.

I’m sorry to say that I can’t give you exact measurements for this recipe because I was really winging it on the fly, but I can give you the general idea of how I made it.

First I chopped up an onion and a few cloves of garlic and sauteed them in olive oil in a large soup pot.

After a few minutes, I added about 2 quarts of cold water, around 4 cups of dried yellow split peas, 6 whole chicken breasts, and 2 bunches of fresh multi-hued carrots from the farmer’s market.

I brought it up to a boil and then reduced it to a simmer for almost two hours, until the split peas were softened and the chicken was cooked.

Using a slotted spoon, I removed the chicken and carrots to a dish while used my immersion blender to pureé the soup to a smooth consistency. I sliced up the chicken and carrots and returned them to the soup and seasoned with sea salt, white pepper, and turmeric.

My goal was to make enough to freeze for the winter nights ahead, so keep that in mind when considering amounts to use.

Can You Prepare Glorious One-Pot Meals in a Crock Pot?

September 18, 2013

Reader question: The one-pot holiday meal sounds great! If you had no oven available and were to make this in a crock pot how long would you cook it on high for? Four hours? Thanks! ~Katee, Calgary, AB, Canada

Hi Kate. I do love the Holiday in One Pot recipe Glorious One-Pot Meal, too! In fact, you can even watch a video demonstration of that recipe here. But when it comes to tossing it into a crock pot, that’s a different story because crock pots cook so differently than do Dutch ovens at high heat.

The main differences between the infusion cooking used in a Glorious One-Pot Meal and a the slow cooking in a crock pot are:

1. Glorious One-Pot Meals cook fast and at high heat while crock pots cook slowly at low heat. Even the High option on a crock pot is nowhere near the 450 F degrees needed to cook a Glorious One-Pot Meal in less than one hour.

2. GOPMs are layered and the ingredients maintain their integrity during the cooking process. Crock pot meals are stirred and cooked until the cellular walls of the ingredients have broken down.

3. GOPMs only need water or other liquid when they include dry goods like rice or pasta that need to by hydrated; crock pot cooking requires liquid and results in a stew or stew-like meal.

If you do not have access to an oven to cook your GOPM, you do have other options such as the stovetop method or a toaster oven.

To come back to your question, the answer is: I have no idea how long it would take, how it would turn out, what it would look like, or if it would even work in a crock pot. While I do utilize a crock pot occasionally, I am by no means a crock pot expert because I get bored of the predictable stewy results.

Sorry that I can’t be more helpful, but perhaps others have converted GOPMs into crock pot meals and will leave their experiences in the comments below.

Gluten-free Crunchy Coconut Chicken Drumsticks

September 16, 2013

Coconut crusted gluten-free Chicken Legs — Gluten-free Crunchy Coconut Chicken Drumsticks

I wasn’t sure what to do with a bunch of chicken drumsticks that had thawed during our freezer disaster but I knew I wanted to do something gluten-free and out of the ordinary, and these coconut-quinoa encrusted drumsticks fit the bill.

I got inspired while searching the internet for chicken leg recipes and came across this one for Crunchy Coconut & Lime Drumsticks from The Family Feedbag, so I took the recipe and tweaked it a bit to meet my wheat-free household’s needs. And, I didn’t have a lime but I did have a lemon, so that filled in. Instead of the chile powder called for, I used a Cajun spice mix. Just a small change.

The bigger changes came from making the drumsticks wheat-free by substituting spelt flour for wheat flour, and quinoa flakes for Panko bread crumbs. While spelt does contain a gluten protein, it is different enough from wheat gluten that many gluten-intolerant people can tolerate spelt just fine. To make this recipe completely gluten-free, swap out the spelt flour for almond flour. In fact, next time I’m going to make these with almond meal and I think they would be even better.

I love using quinoa flakes in place of bread crumbs in lots of recipes. Quinoa flakes make a very simple gluten-free breadcrumb solution.

I also skinned the drumsticks simply because I don’t like chicken skin. You can leave it on, of course, when you make your own version..

My family gave this recipe a double thumbs up for deliciousness and has already asked me to make it again.

Here’s the recipe for fun and different chicken legs.

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Gluten-free Crunchy Coconut Chicken Drumsticks.

3 lbs. chicken drumsticks (about 12), skinned
1 lemon
3/4 cup spelt flour or almond flour/almond meal
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. Cajun spice mix (I use a blend from the Savory Spice Shop. You can also use plain chile powder.)

Place the skinned (or not) chicken into a dish. Zest the lemon and reserve the zest, then slice the fruit and squeeze lemon juice over the chicken. The acid will start marinating the chicken. If you have time, cover and place in the fridge for a few hours.

Spread the flour or a plate. Beat the eggs in a bowl large enough to fit a drumstick.

In a medium bowl, mix together the lemon zest, shredded coconut, sea salt, and spice mix.

Create an assembly line:

Roll the drumstick in flour.
Dip it in the egg.
Roll the drumstick in the coconut mixture.

Place the drumsticks on a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet leaving space between each one. Put the sheet into the oven and bake for about 40 minutes or until the chicken brings a meat thermometer up to 180 degrees F. For best results, turn the drumsticks after around 25-30 minutes to brown all sides.

Making Meals to Stock Your Freezer

September 11, 2013

What do you do when you’re faced with hundreds of dollars of thawing meat?

I haven’t been posting much this week because on Sunday morning I went to the basement to do laundry and stepped into a puddle of cold water: the freezer door had been left open overnight! !Quel horror!

We belong to a frozen food co-op, Town and Country Foods, and they come and load our freezer with vacuum-sealed organic foods every six months or so. Luckily, it has been a few months since we were last re-stocked, or it could have been much worse. As it was, we still faced close to 100 lbs. of thawing meat, mostly chicken.

My husband advocated for calling up everyone we know and offering them free organic chicken. But I’m the one who balances the family budget and the thought of losing all of that meat that was meant to feed us for another few months was heartbreaking. There had to be a better solution.

First, I immediately put all of the partially thawed meat and veggies into the fridge. All of the processed foods like ravioli and frozen burritos had to go into the trash, but most of the meat was still partially frozen and hadn’t gone bad yet. My husband pointed out that if we cooked the meat we could freeze it again as a part of a dish. I just needed a plan.

I hit the internet for inspiration and then went to the farmer’s market and grocery store to load up on veggies, herbs, and other complimentary ingredients.

Then I started cooking and freezing. I’ve been in a cooking frenzy all week and I’m still not through it all.

Over the next few posts I’ll share with you some of the meals I’ve been cooking up and preserving for quick and easy dinners later in the winter.

Finally, we’re going to use up the rest of the meat by throwing a party and feting our friends and family.

I Was Infected with Listeria When I Was Pregnant

Chicken Split Pea Soup Recipe

Can You Prepare Glorious One-Pot Meals in a Crock Pot?

Gluten-free Crunchy Coconut Chicken Drumsticks

Making Meals to Stock Your Freezer

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