Recently, Marnina and I have been on a spree of making new dishes that we have never made before. Our latest dish was Shepherd’s Pie, a type of savory pie that is popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Traditionally, it is a dish made with ground meat or ground lamb (hence ‘Shepherd’) and mashed potatoes. How Marnina stumbled upon this recipe is beyond me, but she came home the other day and declared that one of our weekday meals would be Shepherd’s Pie. (more…)
During our senior year at Brandeis University, Marnina and I made veggie calzones using Trader Joe’s herbed pizza dough. We chose Trader Joe’s because the dough was kosher (a necessity!), cheap and delicious. Trader Joe’s has three types of dough—whole wheat, plain (white) and herbed. The calzones were melt-in-your-mouth good, and so we decided to recreate a similar dish using an online recipe. Feel free to make your own dough or use your favorite kind of store-bought dough. Calzones are especially friendly for IBD sufferers because most of the filling is usually cooked (to death!) on the skillet, and then the entire calzone is baked, meaning the entire dish is easier to digest. Plus, veggies are full of antioxidants, and antioxidants improve circulation and digestion and also naturally reduce inflammation in the body. We also try to vary the color of our veggies because different colors provide different types of antioxidants (broccoli, carrots, and mushrooms are a staple in our kitchen). (more…)
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a silent disease that does not get a lot of press because of the unpleasant nature of the disease, and what it does to the people that are afflicted with it. Many people are uncomfortable talking about their disease, while others are entirely open to sharing their story and experiences. Marnina falls into the latter category. She was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease (one of the two diseases that falls under IBD) at the age of 15. Her story will be available to read soon. In short, Crohn’s Disease sufferers have inflammation in some part of their GI tract, which can cause diarrhea, intestinal discomfort/pain, weight loss and other unpleasant symptoms. Often, the symptoms can be so severe that patients require hospitalization and surgery. Some IBD sufferers are tube-fed because their body cannot absorb nutrients from regular food, some follow a restricted diet and others can eat almost anything until their Crohn’s “flares.” Marnina falls somewhere in the middle. (more…)
Marnina and Seth are two young professionals working in the DC area aspiring to apply to graduate schools in the near future. They are both easy going, friendly, and passionate individuals. They are also both foodies who are in love with cooking delicious meals from scratch. One of them has inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which makes cooking an….adventure. Our kitchen tools are not your typical tools; we have an excess of tools that peel, smash, puree, and well, cook things to death. Our pantry and refrigerator are filled with fiber-free foods. Cooking for someone with IBD requires diligence, perseverance, and a lot of arm strength. All of the food we cook must be de-seeded, de-skinned, and sometimes even de-flavorized (never try to make Crohn’s friendly spinach rice cakes – they taste like air). But without sounding too conceited, we manage to create some fantastic dishes that represent many ethnicities and regions of the world.
Every week we will blog about our adventures in the kitchen; anything ranging from an exciting new ingredient that we have discovered, a scrumptious meal that we prepared, or even something educational about nutrition, health and IBD. We will always include eye-catching pictures (to the best of our ability), recipes, and some ideas on how to modify the dish to your liking.
