Potato and Egg Muffins

What you will need:

  • 6 large or 8 medium potatoes
  • 12 eggs
  • salt and pepper
  • 6 tablespoons goat cheese (optional)
  • salt, pepper and paprika to taste

I have made many variations of this recipe and trust me this version works the best. Most recipes will call for cooked potatoes but I find it turns into mushy potato whereas I like the graininess of the potato shreds. If you prefer softer or mushier potato, cook them first (3 min in the microwave or parboiled) and then let cool before shredding.

Preheat oven to 350C

Grease a muffin tin with coconut oil. Spray works best.

Wash the potatoes well if you prefer to keep the skin on like I do. Shred the potatoes. Once shredded take a handful of potato and squeeze out as much water as you can. Place in a separate bowl. Repeat this for the remaining potato.

To the potato, add salt, pepper and paprika to taste. Make sure to mix well, with your hands.

In the muffin tin, fill each slot almost fully, leaving room for the egg to sit on top.

If you are using goat cheese, put a 1/2 tablespoon dollop on top of the potato and try to spread it into a thin layer.

Crack an egg right on top of the potato, and place tin in the oven for 25min. If you prefer your eggs to be less cooked, try 20min and make sure egg is not too runny.

Let cool slightly and enjoy.

What is the ‘residue’ in a low residue diet?

Being a science major I thought for sure ‘residue’ was implying some sort of metabolic by-product produced by certain foods that would upset the lining of my colon. Nope… the residue is simply the poop mass. Not very technical at all. And therefore the diet is geared around reducing the amount of poop that is produced after all the nutrients are absorbed into your body. Specifically, reducing the fiber in your diet helps to reduce the poop mass and therefore controls the pain and inflammation associated during flare ups.

As I am on a low reside diet as we speak, I dont have to tell you how boring it can get. However, lets go over the things that are in the safe zone so that there is no confusion.

  • bread  – white, unwholesome bread with no whole wheat. The wheat is a no no.
  • bananas – not only nice and mushy but if you feel dizzy from the meds it could be from low potassium so its nice to just have bananas on hand.
  • pasta – not the fancy kind. Just the unwholesome, ‘things your two year old loves to throw at walls’ kind of pasta.
  • avocado – you will come to love avocado. They are very gentle on your stomach while providing some nutritional value. Great on toast, great on things, with things, or on its own.
  • apple sauce – not the greatest sweet thing BUT the grocery store as the school snack version where there are variations of apple sauce. Apple with blueberry, apple with peach, apple and carrot. Fill your boots. At this consistency you are golden.
  • squash – take this one with a grain of salt … not literally. I find squash while in flare up mode is good as a soup or a mash but not ‘as is’. So those fancy squash boats might upset your stomach if you introduce it too quickly.
  • rice – the end all be all to the flare up diet. Some days all you will feel like is rice. Other days, you will want to jazz it up with some broth or some chicken. It is the saviour of your flare up.
  • meat – you can do chicken, pork or turkey but it should be low fat, and cooked as is, with some seasoning or nothing at all.

The diet lies on the framework of the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast) as this is what would help you reduce your diarrhoea if you had an infection. Same theory, but allowing some more flexibility as your stool begins to form while your colon is still swollen. It is recommended to have small portions of foods with low fiber and therefore would create low residue. Stay tuned, I have some great recipes that got me through so far.

Cabbage Soup

I got on a cabbage kick when I first cut wheat out of my diet. I wanted to make sure that I wasnt replacing wheat with crap, so I looked for very healthy, very pure recipes. Like most soups you make at home, it will last for a long time (the amount, not the shelf life) so make sure to choose soups you like. And you can always freeze them.

For this soup, which I chose to keep vegetarian, is very endo-friendly.

What you will need:

  • 5 carrots, chopped (or halved if baby carrots)
  • 1 head cabbage, grated or cut into very thin slices
  • (2 medium white onions, or 1 of those ridiculously large ones, chopped)
  • 2 celery stocks, chopped
  • 1 leek, chopped
  • 2 lemons, squeezed
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 6-8 small garlic cloves
  • 1 tbsp turmeric powder
  • cayenne and/or black pepper to taste
  • chili flakes to taste
  • 2-3 liters of water

Pour olive oil in a large soup on high. Add garlic, onions, leek, salt and turmeric, and let cook until onions are soft.

Add carrots and celery, stirring occasionally. Add lemon juice.

When vegetables are getting soft add the cabbage.

After a few minutes add the water. Add seasoning to taste.

Bring to a boil and let simmer 1.5-2 hours.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and grated cheddar cheese 🙂

Slightly curried meatless french lentils (Endo)

I took a spin on french lentils and added some curry powder for taste. Sometimes I add sausage to this dish but not always. This is a great endo-friendly meal. Not sure this will jive well for UC as I know lentils would kill me right now.

To make this dish all you need are (serves 4):

  • 2 cups uncooked green lentils
  • 1 large tomato, diced
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • curry powder
  • salt and pepper

To start, make lentils as per package directions.

While lentils are cooking, take a sauce pan and cook onions until they sweat. Just before fully cooked, add the tomatoes and cook gently. After about 4-5 minutes, turn off heat and set aside until lentils are cooked. You want this part to be cooked before adding to the lentils so that they dont turn into boiled onions – yuck!

When the lentils are of desired consistency you can choose to either leave the amount of water in the pot, or drain some of it out. Add the tomato and onion mixture, and all the seasoning to taste.

Make sure not to overcook or squish the lentils.

Serve and enjoy.