Autoimmune Paleo: Week 6

Meatloaf, carob cupcakes, ice cream, sauerkraut…this has been a delicious week!

Saia has taken his lunches to work lately, and he says that his coworkers are always jealous…until they find out what he is actually eating. Ha ha! He brought meatloaf a couple of times this week, and everyone was salivating over it until he let them know that it included liver. Then they didn’t want to have anything to do with it. So sad. My own aversion to liver has lessened greatly since we have started including it regularly in our diet.

His coworkers also seem really curious about why he always brings large portions of meat, fish or chicken along with tons of veggies and not the sandwiches the rest of them are eating. I guess you could say he is really just eating a bread-less, cheese-less, condiment-less sandwich, which really just comes down to the meat and veggies, right?

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It is really hard to believe that we are six weeks into this diet. So many of the early struggles have lessened, and I realized the other day that my pantry is almost complete. I can make pretty much any AIP recipe these days because I have most of the staples: coconut aminos, coconut milk, pink Himalayan salt, carob powder, cassava flour, coconut flour, grass fed gelatin, real honey, real maple syrup, apple cider vinegar with the mother, and more.

I was so overwhelmed when we started, because I had to essentially buy a completely new pantry full of items, but little by little we have fleshed out our supplies. I did so much research in the beginning, and now I know my favorite places (both online and in store) to get most items.

It is nice to think back, and see a bit of progress. Especially when I begin to doubt this entire diet like I did this week.

What Saved us This Week

Hubby’s last week of work: Hubs has been working twelve-hour shifts six days a week for the last month. He has worked all summer at a local seed company, and his long hours have been a result of the corn harvest. All the corn dust he is constantly surrounded by has really inflamed his skin both during and after work. He has worked so hard, and I have missed having him around! I am hopeful that once he is done with this job, that his skin will heal a bit faster since it won’t be irritated by all that dust any longer.

Rotisserie chicken: twice this week, we drove out to the local grocery store and grabbed a chicken. Buying a rotisserie chicken is so cheap, and an excellent way to stick to AIP when we just don’t have the time to come up with a meal.

Hope: sometimes it really does come down to just maintaining hope, and pushing forward. This week was a bit discouraging for me, but I’ve been really just relying on hope that we are on the right path, and that his skin will eventually heal.

Recipes that Succeeded

Waffles: I found an AIP-approved waffle recipe (here). It was tasty, but a bit gummy. It definitely helped my craving subside, but I wasn’t incredibly impressed. Hubs, however, loved this recipe. He snarfed up those waffles like nobody’s business. He has become less picky the further we get into this diet. Probably because he is hungry, poor lad.

Sauerkraut: I FINALLY made sauerkraut (more on that in the goals section). It was fun! Now to wait until it ferments…

Gummies: I whipped up some gummies using just a cup of fruit juice, and two tablespoons of grass-fed gelatin. Such a quick snack!

Chicken with olives and artichokes: I cooked chicken, lemon, olives, and artichokes in my beloved dutch oven. It turned it really delicious!

Pork roast: threw a roast in the crockpot. Went really well with the tomato-less ketchup I made earlier in the week.

Carob “Chocolate” Cupcakes: hubs had a terrible craving for something chocolate. I used this carob powder to make these yummy cupcakes (here!). They tasted like real, homemade chocolate cake!! They were dense, sweet, and moist. So delicious. I did not make the date frosting, but I might try that next time.

Coconut Ice Cream: of course we had to have ice cream to go with the “chocolate” cake. So I threw a can full of coconut milk and a bit of maple syrup in my beloved ice cream maker, and voilà! It was so creamy and lightly sweet. Absolute perfection.

What failed: I made this Chicken Pesto Pizza. I grabbed the basil and cilantro from the garden, and whipped this up. I think my cilantro was a little bitter, and so the pesto wasn’t very mild. Overall, I did not like the pizza, but hubby (in his pizza-less state) enjoyed it (better than nothing!). The crust was really more like a cracker, so I am going to tweak it a little and see if I can come up with a cracker recipe to use with guacamole.

Hubby’s Psoriasis

I bought a new book this week called Healing Psoriasis: The Natural Alternative (check it out here). I have been reading through it this week, and it really hasn’t done much more than confirm that we are on the right path. I am hoping I can glean a few more tips to try in the coming weeks.

I mentioned last week that I felt like I feel as if I am on a roller coaster: one week I feel that we are making improvements in his skin, and the next week I am discouraged. This week is the latter, I just wish I could heal his skin quickly rather than being hopeful. I am ready to see some real, definable results. I hate seeing him suffer.

I actually broke down, and started researching dermatologists in our area. Sometimes I really do wonder if we just need to go see a specialist, but then I always come back to thinking that we need  to reduce inflammation in his body, heal his gut, and remove any allergens to heal his skin for the long run.

I read somewhere that often times the skin is the last organ to heal. So it could be that he has internal healing going on, and eventually his skin will heal as well. That is what I’m hoping for. I wish I knew someone personally who had walked this path or even a holistic doctor who lived nearby and specialized in skin conditions. Sometimes I worry about all the information I have pieced together from anecdotal accounts, autoimmune paleo books, and countless blog posts.

Since sunlight exposure to the psoriasis seems to be an important aspect of healing, sometimes I wonder if this doesn’t work if sending him to Maui for part of the summer would help him heal up. He feels as if everyone time he goes home to Hawaii his psoriasis heals, so I don’t know if a big trigger for him is something here in Nebraska or if just the added sun exposure (and the healing island air? I don’t know) helped.

All I can do is keep researching, trying new things, and praying.

Goals from Last Week

• Ferment. Something. You guys, I am jumping up and down right now (or I would be if I wasn’t typing on my laptop), because I FINALLY fermented something! That something was sauerkraut, and my sweet blogger friend Lis sent me the recipe. I don’t know why I have put it off for so long, because it was a fun process! Shredding the cabbage (the red cabbage that has been sitting in my fridge waiting to be sauerkraut-ed (may I make sauerkraut into a verb? I say yes.), pounding it into a jar, and then staring at its gorgeousness on the counter. So lovely.
• Cut back on fruit, and double our veggie intake.Yes, we did! I thought about cutting out fruit, but after some research I decided that fruit is okay in moderation. Besides, it is so yummy.
• Have one designated cooking day, where most the meal prep gets done. Yep! I wish I would have done this sooner. Both last week and this week I spent a couple hours in the middle of the week cooking. Filling up the fridge all at once is such a good feeling. This week I made chicken pizza, roast chicken, Thai pork, Applie-Kiwi gummies, and sauerkraut.
• Publish an AIP recipe on the blog: I have a recipe that I have come up with that I want to publish, but I just didn’t get it done this week.
• Go on a walk with hubs: we had the best of intentions, but a walk didn’t happen this week!

Goals for This Week

• Purchase some grass-fed beef bones, and use more homemade broth.
• Have kombucha bottled up and ready for him daily.
• Push the leafy greens.
• Run a humidifier at night
• Buy him a large water bottle

Bye-Bye Week Six! It has been fun.

A month and a half down!

Have you ever been on an elimination diet? Has anyone you know ever struggled with psoriasis?