Sylvia's Scenario

Tonight, the weather was cooler and I was eager to try a gluten-free, low lectin recipe that is more hardy and similar to a normal meal we might have on an average evening when we're just hanging at home. I got some ground beef out of the freezer to thaw and decided to make meatballs with it.  Then I found this recipe for noodles and meatballs from one of the low lectin blogs I mentioned earlier, called  Lectin Free Foodie . Just like the  low lectin chocolate cake  I posted over the weekend, we could not tell this was any different from a wheat-containing meal.  I'm reading the book  The Plant Paradox  which is a diet trend called the P.P. Diet.  It's more than just a low lectin diet, as it also limits sugar and meat intake. I was looking for an anti-inflammatory diet when I ran into the The Plant Paradox and it spurred my curiosity. Here's what I learned making this recipe, as recommended by the author of the P.P. diet: 1.  Sea...

It's been too hot to cook around here so last night I  made this easy salad using a wild sockeye salmon fillet that we got from a "buy one, get one free" offer at our local grocery store.   There are some variations to this salad so you can add or subtract items depending on your preferences that I'll add to the recipe. I'm still experimenting with the low lectin diet that I talked about in my last post and this recipe is low  lectin.  I am reading the bo ok  The Plant Paradox   that basically goes beyond a gluten-free diet and eliminates foods with lectins which the author claims is the cause of a lot of health problems.  I'm realizing that The Plant Paradox book is a diet itself because the author outlines other dietary restrictions besides low lectin when following his regimen like limiting sugar and only 4 ounces of meat daily.  So, the P.P. diet (Plant Paradox diet) is actually more than a low lectin diet. (My chocolate cake from my last...

This year, I made a gluten-free, low-lectin chocolate cake for Lauren's birthday and it was amazing!  What is lectin, you ask?   I've been reading the book  The Plant Paradox  about lectin in foods so I wanted to experiment and Lauren agreed to let me experiment on her for her birthday celebration last night.  What a girl! I think it was the best chocolate cake I've ever made.   Seriously.  It was so good; moist, fluffy, sweet, flavorful.  You couldn't tell it was gluten-free at all.  In a nutshell, lectin is a protein in foods that the author of The Plant Paradox , Dr. Steven Gundry, (a cardiac surgeon) claims are hard for many people to digest.  There are different kinds of lectins and different foods contain different levels of lectin, from high levels to low levels and how we cook food can effect the levels of lectin.  We have been so bombarded with lectin in our food chain (because of the Standa...

As if my birthday celebration(s) wasn't enough, this is July so that means another week is another celebration in our family.  And this week was our 37th wedding anniversary.  It's hard to believe that 37 years ago we were celebrating our wedding day at our reception that is just a few blocks from here.  Bruce was living with roommates here in West Seattle and we had our reception at their house.  We drove passed it last night after finishing a lovely dinner at   Salty's  and then "cruised" Alki beach like so many people do on summer evenings.  Salty's is close enough to walk to from our house but we opted for a nice relaxing evening (going back home  up the hill is NOT relaxing).  And Salty's did not disappoint.  We asked for an outside table when we got there so we had to wait about 15 minutes which was a good time to order our drinks.    We haven't eaten dinner outside before at Salty's but they have a ...

Last week was my birthday and I ended up celebrating two days in a row.  Why?  Because one day just isn't enough.  The older you get, the more days you get to celebrate, right?  I'm sure I've heard that somewhere...Anyway,  I wanted Lauren and Ari to celebrate with me so I picked a date I knew they could join us for dinner which was the day after my birthday.  And we had a wonderful dinner at a Seattle classic:   Il Terrazzo Carmine   in Pioneer Square.  The owner was Carmine Smeraldo who passed away in 2012 but he was one of Seattle's finest restauranteurs.  Much is still done his way or "old school" at the restaurant he founded in 1984.  The servers wear black neckties and white jackets that are as starched and pressed as the napkins they drape over their wrists to serve.   Matching white cloths are layered to cover the tables and the tables are spaced far enough apart to assure conversations can'...