It's been way too long since I last wrote in here. I was so ready to attack my allergies, invest several years to getting rid of this huge nuissance, and then life happened. I just got overwhelmed with finally living on my own again - I rented a house! then had to deal with an expensive water bill from a toilet that was always running, a leaky basement, and a GIANT heating bill due to a window being broken that I didn't discover until AFTER several months of freezing temps and snow. To add insult to injury, my overtime ended and the money spigot got shut off real quick. And my landlord ended up being shady as shit. Looking back that whole time I was struggling to be independent again and self sufficient. Before moving back to Kansas and living with my dad, I had lived with a man for 2 1/2 years. Without getting into an entirely new topic, living alone was not what I had bargained for. The house was a piece of shit and I was lonely. To fill that void? Drinking and eating regardless of the damage and pain I was inflicting on myself.
Nearly 2 1/2 years later and I'm back to where I started. I'm at the tail end of day 1 in my 2nd rotation. I've got 170 days until my 6 months are up - from there I do blood tests and then prepare for 1 1/2 more years of the rotation diet or at least until my body stops having allergic reactions to so many freaking foods.
In trying to add some variety to my diet I'm always on the lookout for things that use milk substitutes like yogurt made with coconut milk or almond milk. Oh look! There's finally an option that doesn't contain milk or soy!!! Yay!! The back of the damn container tells a story that isn't so yay, though. This yay f'ing yogurt is made with pectin. Pectin is the bain of my existence. Er, one of the bains. (Holy shit, is that even a word?) Pectin is typically made with apples. I'm allergic to apples. If I eat the almond milk yogurt I'm reintroducing apple into my body which makes weeks or months of no apples in my system completely worthless. I can see my weird, needs to clear his throat BADLY allergist wooking at me and saywing "wewll, the cwock stahts over." Son of a turd.
Pectin, citric acid (no, this shit is NOT from lemons or citric fruits), celery salt, whey. At this point in my life I genuinely hate these ingredients or additives. I'm an obsessive label reader - I hate looking at labels when other people are around though because I feel like they're looking at me thinking I'm looking at fat and calorie content, I realize I need to lose weight but my rotation diet is not a diet to lose weight, it's a diet to rid my body of allergens and allergic reactions. Jesus, writing that out and admitting it is kind of refreshing but also a little mad. Oh, weird hangups, you keep me entertained especially when I'm talking to myself about them.
I digress. I use more amaranth than I ever thought I would - I didn't even know this wonderful grain even existed until these stupid allergies appeared. Regardless, a bag of Amaranth flour can be pricey so I always thought about making my own. I read a blog post about how to make flour at home and how easy it is. Whoever wrote that shit is either stupid or cruel. I was at TJMaxx a few months ago and picked up a bag of Amaranth seeds - what a bargain at $5.99!!! - and now that I'm comitted to this rotation again I decided it was time to test out the recipe. Holy Jesus. I'm still not done blending a cup of the seeds and I started last night. I decided to give my blender another day of rest and moved onto homemade yogurt.
I've been researching the yogurt for some time and even bought a yogurt maker. I couldn't find an exact recipe that utilized a yogurt maker - pictures of a goddamn crockpot stuffed with jars and towels has created a screwed up conditioned response of rage, like I can't even stay on the page. I can't use a store bought yogurt starter because it either has dairy or it's going to have pectin. I have to pretty much use substitutes all over the place - tapioca flour for thickening or arrowroot flour- and a $35 bottle of live culture. While I hate that these allergies make my life so f'ed up, I will admit they have opened a new world of food and healthy living. The fact that I know pretty much everything that goes into my body - foodwise, k?- makes for a healthier body. So here we go. I'm making almond milk in 2 jars and 2 jars of hemp milk yogurt. I'll post the recipe and how it turned out in my next post. Wish me luck.
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