I Be a fooDie has undergone some recent website changes and we are now back to our wonderful WordPress site. We have been busy cooking, studying, eating and doing everything BUT blogging. Forgive us. We are in the process of moving over all of our recent blog posts but given how busy we are, it may take a little while.
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We have blogged dozens of recipes, most of which we have thoroughly enjoyed. Some of the recipes were incredible (Blintz Souffle), some were surprisingly good (Sweet Potato Gnocchi) while others were a bit disappointing (Greek Moussaka). We have done our best to give you some of the the recipes that have turned out well, but alas, we are guilty of witholding a recipe that we have selfishly enjoyed for years now. We hope you can forgive us…we know you will after you try a bite of this dish.
Marnina and I are proud to introduce the newest member of our I Be a fooDie team…. Gutsy! Our new mascot Gutsy is a stuffed intestine created by our logo designer Shari Bodofsky. While Gutsy may not enjoy long walks on the beach, he does enjoy educating and raising awareness about IBD. We decided to unveil Gutsy in honor of IBD Awareness Week (Dec. 1 – Dec. 7). (more…)
Fresh herbs can make or break a dish. In the past, we have often used dried herbs as a substitute for fresh herbs. We turned to the fresh variety when we felt it would truly enhance the taste, but we often substituted dried herbs because of the convenience factor, and because we could never use up the entire bunch of fresh herbs before it went bad. But now, after consistently cooking with fresh herbs for a few weeks, we may never turn back. Needless to say we thoroughly enjoy the fact that our refrigerator is constantly stocked with an assortment of fresh herbs, whether it be dill, parsley, cilantro, or thyme.
As Fall sets in and the leaves begin to change colors, the chilly weather signals one thing: really really really cold weather is coming. In a gloomy and sometimes arctic region like New England, it is necessary to find the bright spots that accompany the arrival of Fall. For us foodies, that would be apple picking, the abundance of certain root vegetables, and of course, our favorite group of foods: winter squash. If you can recall, we once packed a stuffing into a pumpkin, baked it until it was soft, and then took a trip to food heaven as we enjoyed one of the best meals ever (Happiness in a Pumpkin). Marnina jokes that I am so much in love with squash, especially butternut and buttercup, that I should have her engagement ring resized so that it can be given to a squash.
We have recently gone on a pumpkin craze, and we would like to share two recipes that have been indulgent but still relatively healthy due to pumpkin’s nutritional content. For dinner on Friday night we made a dairy-free pumpkin custard, a light dessert that takes like pumpkin pie filling. Then, for Sunday morning brunch, we cooked up a baked pumpkin french toast dish that was off the charts good. While we enjoyed the smell of our apartment during the cooking process of both of these dishes, we REALLY enjoyed the buttery pumpkin sweetness that infused our custard and french toast.
When limited to a restrictive diet, one must get creative with the foods that can be tolerated…digestively speaking. Eggs and most vegetables (cooked of course!) are usually tolerated by the average person with IBD. But despite the numerous ways of incorporating eggs as a main ingredient, the available dishes are not limitless. There are only so many times you can eat plain eggs, an omelet or a quiche. Eggs are extremely versatile, and so we wanted to reincarnate eggs as more than just a breakfast food. For this blogpost we want to focus on frittatas. A healthier alternative to a quiche, a frittata omits a pastry crust (high in saturated fats) and milk usually replaces cream. The frittata filling is also less custard-like, and has more of the consistency of a hardened omelet.
One of the (many) blessings of Passover is that we see some delicious dishes that are traditionally made only once a year….not from a lack of access to particular ingredients (who doesn’t keep matzah in their pantry year-round??), but because the dietary restrictions of Passover require us to utilize ingredients that we don’t generally use year-round. For many, this means the holiday is the one time a year we see the Passover dishes that we remember our parents making since we were children. This year, Marnina made her mom’s peach kugel that was so good that we were scraping the sides of the 9 x 13 baking dish to salvage all of the caked-on pieces. And for the Seder, my mom made a flanken tzimmes with carrots, sweet potatoes, and prunes – the meat and veggies are slow-cooked with honey and sugar to the point where they are so tender and sweet that they just instantly melt in your mouth (don’t worry, we avoided the prunes at all costs). (more…)
Enter...the Exodus from Egypt!
For those with gastrointestinal issues, Passover presents a conundrum. On the one hand, we are commanded to avoid eating leavened bread, and we are also not allowed to consume many types of additives, preservatives, and other artificial ingredients that are ubiquitous in today’s food supply. As a result, Passover is almost like going on a detox diet. We are essentially eliminating the wheat/gluten products from our diet, a boon to our health. We toss everything that is made with white flour and loaded with sugar, and we fill our kitchen with fruits, vegetables, proteins, some matzah, and only a modest amount of artificial ingredients. (more…)
On numerous occasions, Marnina has declared that soufflés are her favorite food. Soufflés combine some of her favorite aspects of food: a savory dish that is soft, easy to digest, has cinnamon (one of her favorite spices!), and is just fun to eat because of its multi-layered nature. The ingredients are almost always on-hand (who doesn’t stock their freezer full of cheese blintzes?!?), and the aroma that wafts out of the kitchen during the baking process is heavenly. The soufflé is like an omelet on puffed-up steroids (PUN INTENDED 🙂 ); it has an egg base, and while the base provides the flavor, the beaten eggs provide the ‘lift’ during the cooking process. (more…)
A strange thing happened last Tuesday. Marnina and I looked out our window and noticed one lone tree that had a streak of orange leaves near its top branches. During our four years at Brandeis University in Boston, the Fall foliage always seemed to quickly appear; within the span of a week or two, most of the leaves would be a beautiful mixture of yellow, orange, red, and every color in between. Here in Maryland, we had forgotten how slowly the foliage arrives. It might take weeks for the foliage to really be noticeable. At first we were saddened by the inevitable arrival of the Fall season, but our sadness quickly diminished when we thought of the many Fall-inspired dishes we would be cooking in the near future. While Marnina will still go through peaches (peeling each one prior to eating them) and other late-summer fruit until the very last one is harvested, we wanted to cook a ‘transitional’ dish that incorporated some elements of both Summer and Fall. In the end, the finished product definitely recalls the colors of Fall, which is appropriate as we must acknowledge the arrival of a new season. We decided on a Sweet Potato-Apple Breakfast – there is nothing like breakfast for dinner!
The Chefs!
I Be a fooDie: Cooking with Crohn's and Colitis 