Hello there. In keeping up with my blogging outline, I have dedicated today as Recipe Thursday. Wohoo! I reason I picked Thursday is because I figure by the time Thursday rolls around, I have come across and tried at least one new recipe. Sometimes I will post old favorites but today I have a new recipe that I have made a few times and let me tell you, it's SOOO hard not to just have one.
Because of my sulfite allergy, I cannot tolerate chocolate. Saddest.sentence.ever. I have searched high and low for a "sulfite free" chocolate or chocolate chip and am happy to report that there is a brand found at Kroger that is completely sulfite free! I picked a bag up last weekend when I went grocery shopping. I had been eying the bag for some time but I was patient and eventually it went on sale (it was like it knew I wanted to try it and this just gave me all the more reason). I went through my Pinterest to find a good chocolate chip cookie recipe to tweak. My favorite thing to do is to take recipes and see how healthy I can make them. I understand that some recipes are not meant to be healthy but it's kind of a weird passion of mine and it keeps me entertained. I have posted the link to the regular recipe below and obviously given credit where credit is due (I don't steal!).
Also noted is that this recipe is egg free for all your egg haters out there. Just kidding. I actually used to be able to tolerate eggs but found that with my allergy, it's becoming more difficult. Major sad face. I love eggs - I seriously could eat them all day everyday and not get tired of them. So I have pretty much cut eggs out of my diet except for special treats like if I am dying for some sunny side up eggs.
But back to the cookies....
These cookies have come out so good. You're in for a real treat if you like soft, chewy cookies, even days after they've been baked. My batch yields about a dozen and a half but really it depends on how big you like your cookies to be. I don't like to make too many or I feel like I have to eat them all before they go bad. First world problems. Enjoy!
Sulfite Free & Guilt Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 1-2 dozen
Ingredients:
3/4 cup 0% Greek yogurt
3/4 cup all natural organic applesauce
1/4 cup organic blue agave nectar
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups plus 3 tablespoons organic oat flour (the kind I used so happened to be gluten free but any kind will due)
1 cup of Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips (sulfite free chocolate chips - I just pour in and mix until I think there's enough)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper or spray with non-stick spray. In a large bowl, mix Greek yogurt, apple sauce, agave nectar, and sugar until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add in chocolate chips and stir until well-mixed.
Use a tablespoon to scoop and place dough on cookie sheets. Bake cookies for about 15 minutes or until cooked through completely. Let cool and keep refrigerated afterwards.
Original Recipe From: http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2012/01/cream-cheese-chocolate-chip-cookies-egg-free.html
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Hi...My Name is
It was that a-ha moment I will never forget for the rest of my life. Sitting in the living room, Googling away while working from home during a warm March day in 2011, I believed to have found the answer I had been searching for in the past three years of my life: sulfites. You see, it wasn't that long ago that I was a depressed and chubby, albeit athletic, young woman. I had been going through rounds and rounds of testing and doctors appointments attempting to figure out what possibly could be causing this unsolicited weight gain over the last few years. And it wasn't just a few pounds here and there; we are talking a good 30 pounds of weight had slowly crept up my way, no matter how hard I worked out, how much I limited my food intake (bad I know....please don't remind me!), and how conscience I was about eating healthy. Doctors initially thought it was diabetes, then they thought maybe it was my thyroid, and finally they threw their hands up and said, "well I guess it's a gluten intolerance."
So here I was spending two years of my life living gluten free, still gaining weight and still feeling miserable, knowing that there was something else going on. I swore up and down I had a metabolism disorder but every test imaginable came back negative. In a round about way, I ended up seeing a very good local endocrinologist, who, long story short, helped me determine that part of the weight issue stemmed from a generic birth control I had been taking that caused my cortisol levels to sky rocket. So off that medication I went and onto something else that was much better for my body's hormonal balance and so we thought yay problem solved! About 10 pounds came off within two months but something else started to happen - swelling, weird 6 pound overnight weight swings, a puffy face, insomnia, tiredness, red and itchy skin, and shooting pains up my arms. It was only after a night of heavy white wine drinking that I noticed the severe swelling in my hands and recognized that I had miraculously gained 6 pounds in a span of 6 hours.
As I googled "wine allergies," a bevy of information about sulfite intolerance immediately popped up. I started reading the webpage results and sat in shock - all these things that have sulfites are things I eat! They are things I drink and they are medications I have taken (with weird side effects). So I set on a mission - eat specific sulfated foods and watch my body swell to epic proportions. Sad, right? I felt horrible but I had to see for myself if this really what was causing my problems. It also helped me gauge how I react to certain foods. From there, I was able to start compiling a list of things I could and could not tolerate, along with lists I found online of foods and drinks known to have sulfites in them. Slowly, my list has grown but as time went on, I started to feel better and lose weight.
My stomach issues disappeared. I have lost 33 pounds to date (going from a size 12 to a size 2). I have been able to put muscle on again (something I had lost because of the high cortisol levels). I am sleeping better and I stopped having weird mood swings. For the first time in close to four years, I feel normal again....more like myself than ever before. I knew that all the time I was waiting to figure out what was causing the issues, if I kept working out, at some point, something would click and then it would be smooth sailing. It was working out that kept me sane during all those years. Although frustrating when I knew I would eat right and work out like a mad woman and still gain weight, I knew I had willpower and was not going to let myself give up.
In a nutshell, that is my story. This blog is a place for me to pretty much talk to myself about the different things I am doing, eating, and want to do/see/eat/try. It's a place for me to dump all my thoughts and also keep track of recipes I find and tweak. My goal is to keep up a 5-day a week outline listed as such:
So here I was spending two years of my life living gluten free, still gaining weight and still feeling miserable, knowing that there was something else going on. I swore up and down I had a metabolism disorder but every test imaginable came back negative. In a round about way, I ended up seeing a very good local endocrinologist, who, long story short, helped me determine that part of the weight issue stemmed from a generic birth control I had been taking that caused my cortisol levels to sky rocket. So off that medication I went and onto something else that was much better for my body's hormonal balance and so we thought yay problem solved! About 10 pounds came off within two months but something else started to happen - swelling, weird 6 pound overnight weight swings, a puffy face, insomnia, tiredness, red and itchy skin, and shooting pains up my arms. It was only after a night of heavy white wine drinking that I noticed the severe swelling in my hands and recognized that I had miraculously gained 6 pounds in a span of 6 hours.
As I googled "wine allergies," a bevy of information about sulfite intolerance immediately popped up. I started reading the webpage results and sat in shock - all these things that have sulfites are things I eat! They are things I drink and they are medications I have taken (with weird side effects). So I set on a mission - eat specific sulfated foods and watch my body swell to epic proportions. Sad, right? I felt horrible but I had to see for myself if this really what was causing my problems. It also helped me gauge how I react to certain foods. From there, I was able to start compiling a list of things I could and could not tolerate, along with lists I found online of foods and drinks known to have sulfites in them. Slowly, my list has grown but as time went on, I started to feel better and lose weight.
My stomach issues disappeared. I have lost 33 pounds to date (going from a size 12 to a size 2). I have been able to put muscle on again (something I had lost because of the high cortisol levels). I am sleeping better and I stopped having weird mood swings. For the first time in close to four years, I feel normal again....more like myself than ever before. I knew that all the time I was waiting to figure out what was causing the issues, if I kept working out, at some point, something would click and then it would be smooth sailing. It was working out that kept me sane during all those years. Although frustrating when I knew I would eat right and work out like a mad woman and still gain weight, I knew I had willpower and was not going to let myself give up.
In a nutshell, that is my story. This blog is a place for me to pretty much talk to myself about the different things I am doing, eating, and want to do/see/eat/try. It's a place for me to dump all my thoughts and also keep track of recipes I find and tweak. My goal is to keep up a 5-day a week outline listed as such:
- Manic Mondays - basically a mish mash of stuff that went on during the weekend and what is going on this week
- Try It Tuesdays - I really like to try new things, particularly hair products, beauty products, hygiene and all that fun stuff in between. I will try to review a new product I have been using
- Work Out Wednesdays - My work outs pretty much are consistent throughout the week but if I come across a grueling or fun work out, I will make mention of it here or talk about some new stuff I am looking to do. I run in a lot of local races as well so I will mention that here
- Recipe Thursday - I love to cook and having a sulfite allergy means everything has to be fresh fresh fresh and from scratch. I spend hours looking at recipes until I find the perfect one I can tweak. I will post those adventures here
- What I Look Forward to Friday - Anything coming up on the weekend that I am looking forward to
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