Finally the haze of a medical setback has lifted for me and I can make my food in regular clothing! And that is a bonus for fans of the Do It Sick Chef! Sweats have been replaced by a flannel shirt and jeans. Woot! Woot!
First and the best of the bunch are tips for making salad for one or more 1) meals or 2) people, conserving energy and resources as you go.
Next up are subjects important to those planning meals while restricted in dietary choices and dealing with a serious illness. Not quite sure how I remained upright for the taping of this one! (See the Six Deer and a Skunk post for the reason!) Check out these simple tips for freezing food portions to help your meal planning when time and energy are lacking:
And third is a quick take on making your own ghee butter. That’s butter without the milk solids for those who must be dairy free for health reasons. It tastes very mild and tends not to burn when used for sautéing too.
To keep closer tabs on upcoming foodie tips from the Do It Sick Chef (yours truly!), “Like” the Facebook page Hope Beyond or Subscribe to my YouTube channel directly. I will do summary blogs periodically here that will be filed under the “Do It Sick Chef” category at the end of this webpage. Future topics will include fabulous 5-ingredient Vitamix soups, kitchen organization & simplification, and more.
Remember that food is fuel, food is medicine, and Lord willing we are going to get well! I will be praying for you Gentle Reader. Take care, JJ
No, this entire blog is not being overcome by a crazy foodie! :J
We all gotta eat and preparing meals can be challenging when recovering from a serious illness. Enter here another strategy to keep myself sane while the yada, yada, yada nightmare over here continues. (Yes, made another visit to my fav Emergency Room last night!) So let’s forget about all that and make some food, eh?
I’ll be adding a few more videos from Vimeo and You Tube to catch up the blog here so please bear with me! You are invited to follow the Do It Sick Chef videos on Facebook at Hope Beyond too.
Or, by following this blog and clicking on the Do It Sick Chef category, you can also keep track of the latest meals, tips, and survival strategies.
In the meantime, my belly is now full and it’s time for a nap. The IV fluids helped last night too, by the way. More testing will be coming regarding the lower right belly ache. Thankfully it’s not from the fabulous lettuce wraps created above . . .
Hey there Gentle Reader: we all gotta eat right? Well who likes a one-bowl meal that will satisfy your cravings for something sweet, savory, fatty/rich, and satisfying? Me!
Check out this version of oatmeal that is good enough for a breakfast, lunch or dinner feast from the Do It Sick Chef (aka Just Julie).
To follow all of the Do It Self Chef videos and join in the chat, “Like” my Facebook page at Hope Beyond. I’d love to hear from you and the strategies that are working for you while recovering from serious illness or just life in general, eh?
By following this blog and clicking on the Do It Sick Chef category, you can also keep track of the latest meals, tips, and survival strategies.
The first video of my Do It Sick Chef series is now available on Vimeo!
In “Let’s make something that resembles lunch,” I literally get out of bed to make real food in a real kitchen that includes: a veggie-n-meat entrée, ghee butter, and roasted turnips. Roasted turnips? Yes, you got that right! Special diets require new and sometimes unusual food choices. Just Julie will show you not only how to make these dishes but how to prepare the food saving money, time and energy.
Future videos that are already in the works will cover the topics of freezing foods for easier meal planning, a stand-alone segment on ghee butter, kitchen organization to save energy, and more. You are invited to “Like” my Hope Beyond Facebook page to keep up with future videos and share your meal planning, preparation, sanity tips too.
Take care, Gentle Reader. Lord willing, those of us battling serious illness are going to get well! JJ
Special diets can be maddening, time consuming, expensive and an all-around bite in the shorts (if you know what I mean)! Instead of stressing, I apply a few basic food prep principles, start with what I can eat, and whip something up from there. After a few weird entrees and sauces, things will start to taste more palatable and even kind of good as you gain confidence. Who needs recipes anyways?
My husband went shopping at a big box store this evening for basic groceries including grated cheese, fruit, a few veggies, and the only meat I’ll buy there for a rare convenience: canned chicken. Since I haven’t been able to shop very much lately, preparing dinner tonight required some very special creativity! Gratefully there were onions and cabbage from our garden in the frig, a loaf of multi-grain bread in the freezer for hubby, some sliced almonds in the pantry and a few other staples here or there. Now to make a gluten/dairy/sugar free meal plus a full flavor meal for the two of us . . .
His and Hers Salads began with Canned Chicken!
Not bad, eh? Gratefully it was yummy! The base started with spring greens in both bowls with oven toasted almonds (sprayed with grapeseed oil, sprinked with celtic salt and roasted about 7 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees, stirred once halfway through the baking time). The chopped chicken salad-and-vegetable mix included all the veggies we now had in the house: cucumber, cabbage, radishes, onion, and the canned chicken.
For Him: I garnished the ceramic bowl and base of salad greens with sliced pears and grated cheese. I made a 1/3 batch of homemade mayonnaise in the Vita-Mix using sunflower and olive oils instead of GMO-laden canola oil listed in the recipe. (Yes, here’s the one exception: ya gotta follow a recipe exactly from the Vita-Mix manual for mayo to turn out right!) I mixed the mayo with half of the canned chicken-and-vegetable mix and dolloped it over the cheese and spring greens. He got a topping of toasted almonds with a little extra dressing on the side, just in case.
Basic Parmesan breads: I thawed and sliced a loaf of multi-grain bread about 3/4 inches (2 cm) thick and placed them on a cookie sheet lined with foil and brushed with melted butter. I brushed the tops of the bread liberally with butter then sprinkled on some parmesan cheese. (For garlic butter, sprinkle some garlic powder or chopped garlic into the cup before microwaving the butter, about 23 seconds.) Broil on low for about 6 minutes checking it often near the 6 minute mark. I find that the low setting allows the pan to heat up and toast the underside in addition to both melting and browning the cheese on top.
For Her: I garnished the ceramic bowl of spring greens with a non-cheese alternative (e.g. Goya shredded mozzarella). Next I made a dressing with almond butter, unsweetened. coconut milk, Mrs. Bragg’s Liquid Aminos and a pinch of celtic sea salt. This requires some minimal adjustments for taste and consistency. Then I placed the other half of the plain chopped chicken salad-and-vegetable mix on top of the remaining bowl of spring greens and poured the almond coconut dressing of it, mixing it into chopped salad slightly to coat it. I finished it off with a topping of toasted almonds as well.
Sure, this meal took a little extra time to prepare and it was worth it. To make it even more worthwhile, during the assembly phase of this meal and next to the ceramic salad bowls were two large plastic containers that are not pictured above. I made duplicate salads with every ingredient listed above except the sliced pears (since they would turn brown by lunchtime tomorrow). So we not only had a yummy dinner tonight but will look forward to a “repeat performance” for lunch tomorrow! I usually make dinner this way: setting out the storage containers for lunch and serving them up right alongside the dinner plates to save time the next day. Cool beans.
That’s it! And it’s not all bad following a protein-oil-vegetable diet, with a tiny bit of optional, extra carbs from the cheese substitute, when it tastes good too. ‘Twas tough avoiding the cheesy breads I must confess . . . ;J
Jesus is for the Wounded 
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