And the testing goes on...

Yep that's right, more tests for me. In the middle of March I'm having a Manometry study and a 24 hour Ph Impedance Monitoring study. I get to test out the latest in tube-down-nose fashion wear. So glamorous! And what is the reason for my VIP treatment? My Gerd-iness is potentially in question and my acid reflux is certainly in question. I am on a fairly high does of acid reducers right now and they, along with lifestyle changes, aren't enough to control my rampant symptoms. Hopefully this will give us a clearer answer.

Chocolate Chip Biscotti

As Gerdies biscotti is our best friend in the cookie world. Why? It's naturally vary low in fat which means it tastes the same as it did before we had GERD and we don't need to adapt the recipe, and best of all, it's easy! If hard crunchy biscotti isn't your thing you can always make once-baked biscotti, one of my personal favorites.

Chocolate Chip Biscotti With Less Fat from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunch Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
2 large eggs
1/4 cup plus 2 tbs granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tbs packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup coarsely chipped walnuts
2/3 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat oven to 300°F.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and whisk together thoroughly.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar and vanilla until well combined. Mix in the flour. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. The mixture will be think and gooey.

Scrape the batter onto the lined or greased pan in 2 skinny strips 16 to17 inches long and at least 3 inches apart (feel free to play with shapes, it's more fun that way). Use a spatula to even up the strips.

Back for 35 minutes until firm but springy when pressed with your fingers. Set pan on a rack to cool for at least 15 minutes.

Transfer the loaves to a cutting board. Use a sharp serrated knife to slice the loaves in a diagonal into 1/2-inch slices. If your making once-baked biscotti stop here.
 Stand the cookies up on the unlined baking sheet at least 1/2 in apart. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown. Cook biscotti completely before staking and storing. The  flavor develops and cookies become more tender after 2 or 3 days, and biscotti will remain dry and very crunchy after that. May keep in an airtight container for several weeks.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I'll start with a little update on my condition. I had a gastric emptying study done on Monday, because I've been feeling bloated, but it came back normal. I'm going back to my GI doctor in February to see what else we can do. I may have found one piece of the puzzle already, I found out I'm lactose intolerant. I don't think is very bad because I can eat cultured dairy without noticing side effects, although I'll be looking closer now, and it may get better when I get a normal level of probiotics in my intestines. Two doses of antibiotics (one for pneumonia and one for bronchitis) in the past six months have killed off most of the probiotic population.

And now on to the main event! We all love cookies, right? Now, we can love cookies worry-free. These are a bit denser than ordinary cookies, but I think it works with a stick-to-your-ribs kind of cookie like oatmeal raisin cookies. Also, I would recommend making these cookies only when you have some time on your hands because they have to sit for an hour, or two, or overnight.

I found out my blender works better than I thought so be expecting smoothie recipes very soon!

Oatmeal Cookies adapted from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies

2 cups rolled oats

1/4 cup water

3/4 cup white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 cup applesauce

1 stick of unsalted butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt (optional. I usually leave out salt)

1 large egg

1 cup walnuts, chopped

1 cup raisins

Place the oats in a small bowl and sprinkle with water. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl and mix together throughly with a whisk or fork.

Melt butter and stir in the sugar, vanilla, and salt (if using). Add egg and stir briskly. Stir in applesauce. Stir in the flour mixture just until all of the dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in walnuts, raisins, and oats. Let dough stand for at least 1 but preferably 2 hours or (better still) overnight.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.

For large cookies, scoop about 2 level tablespoons of dough and place the cookies about 3 inches apart on the ungreased or lined pans, For small cookies, scoop 1 level tablespoon of dough. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes for large cookies, 10 to 12 minutes for small cookies, or until the cookies are golden brown on top. For unlined pans, use a metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a cooling rack; for lined pans, set the pans or just the liners on the rack. cool cookies completely before storing or stacking. May be kept in an airtight container for several days.

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Happy Halloween Everyone!

I love Halloween, making the costumes (my brother and I always made our costumes instead of buying them), going trick or treating, the parties, the requisite watching of Nightmare Before Christmas, and this year is my first year handing out candy (I haven't been home before). I love it all! However if you have GERD the candy bit can get tricky, instead of treaty. All the literature I've read says you can have hard candy, or gummy candy, or pretty much non chocolate candy. What's the point in candy if it isn't chocolate?!

Well, I don't have a chocolate or a candy option for you yet, but I do have some mighty fine pumpkin bread.

Recipe very sightly adapted from Fat Free Baking. I'll be referring to this book a lot. Most fat free books consider something to be fat free if it has less than 10 G of fat, but this one hardly gets above 1 G. This recipe for example has 0.4 G of fat, that's comfortable of just about everyone!

1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup cooked mashed pumpkin (I used canned pumpkin pie filling and omitted the pumpkin pie spice)

1/2 cup apple or orange juice

1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional) (I used walnuts)

Preheat oven for 350° F.

In an electric mixer combine the flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and baking powder, and stir to mix well. Add the pumpkin and apple or orange juice, and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in the nuts if desired.

Coat an 8-x-4 inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Spread the mixture evenly in the pan, and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or just until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Remove the bread from the oven, and let sit for 10 minutes. Invert the loaf onto a wire rack, turn right side up, and cool before slicing and serving.

GERD Flair Up

Originally posted on September 20th, 2011

Valkyrie is a Guide Dogs for the Blind puppy in training whom I'm currently raising.

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When I got Valkyrie I was so busy with her that I didn't watch what I ate and I have been paying dearly for it this week. I've been trying to avoid gluten, cow dairy, white rice, white sugar (mostly), and as usual excess fat. This is as hard as it sounds, so I've decided I need a plan for the next time this happens. This will include a special folder with recipes that fit those requirements, freezing foods, and finding products that are useful. Two useful products I've found just recently are Gluteno pretzels, a great snack that is gluten and dairy free, and Newman's Own makes cookies that are also gluten and dairy free.

Yesterday and today I've been feeling better so I think I'm getting back to normal.

And as always I've had great support to get through the hard times.

Free cuddles from a sleeping puppy.

Free cuddles from two doggies; that's even better. :P

Lesson in eating that GERD is trying to teach me

Originally posted on June 21st, 2011

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I was eating breakfast this morning and reflecting on how I eat now compared with 6 months ago and was really surprised at what I found. Some of this is advise I picked up from what few website and books are dedicated to GERD and some of it I learned by doing.
The first is: Take your vitamins. I don't feel bad when I don't take them, but I feel better when I do.
#2: If there is something specific that you want, eat it because you won't stop eating until you find that flavor. This becomes more significant when your stomach has shrunk to the size of a runty grapefruit, but it's good advise for everyone.
#3: EAT SLOWLY. There's really not much more that needs to be said on this one.
#4: When you eat, just eat. I don't remember where I picked up this great piece of advise but I'm glad I did. The theory behind it is that you don't feel satisfied if you haven't taken to time to really look at, taste and consciously know your eating. Using myself as an example, I have a habit of eating while watching TV which is unsatisfying because I am not focused on what I'm eating or what I'm watching so I feel I haven't done either.
#5: It's okay to put things back. I'm a member of the clean your plate brigade, I don't know how that happened because my mother was too smart to resort to the old "eat everything on your plate or you don't get dessert" line. She knows dessert is important. But it happened, so now (with my stomach the size of a grapefruit) if my eyes are bigger than my stomach I'm learning, all be it slowly, that I don't have to stretch my stomach to fit my eyes.
I'm sure this list will get longer as time goes on.

Preparing for my EGD.

Originally published on May 21st, 2011

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     Next Thursday I finally have an appointment that will help make a definite diagnosis of GERD. The procedure is called an Endoscopy also called and EGD. They put a flexible tube with a camera on it down my throat and look at my esophagus and maybe stomach and duodenum. As far as I know they're looking for signs of damage in my esophagus from stomach acid refluxing. Sounds fun right? I'm glad that I'll be half way sedated. I have two problems with this procedure besides the obvious, the obvious being that there will be a tube down my throat. One; Half the time this test in inconclusive. Even if there are no signs of damage in the esophagus doesn't mean that the patient doesn't have GERD. Two; it's so counter intuitive that I have to damage my esophagus more to find out whether I'm damaging my esophagus.