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.

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.

Kefir Smoothies and Greek Quinoa Salad

Originally posted on January 25th, 2011 also before I knew I had GERD. (I found out in late May 2011).

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Mmm, Smoothie

Peach Kefir Smoothie: I call this a smoothie even though its really just peach kefir, because it's refreshing like a smoothie. The kefir has just enough tang to be refreshing while the peaches don't bombard you with sweetness. All my measurements are rough because I just eyeball it. If it tastes good then you've done it right.

About 8 ounces Helios Vanilla Kefir (low fat kefir will probably feel the best)

About 1 ounce Pureed tinned Peaches

Stir the two together and enjoy.

Heres the main event gastronomically speaking; Greek Quinoa Salad.

I can't take full credit for this as a friend introduced me to the recipe but I did tweak it a bit by adding tomatoes instead of red pepper and using sheep's milk feta. Once again all the measurements are approximate because I don't actually measure.

1 cup quinoa made with chicken broth instead of water

6 kalamata olives

2 cherry tomatos

2 tablespoons sheep's milk feta 

A trip to Starbucks

Picture this. Standing in line at a coffee shop (today it was Starbucks) trying to decide which drink is going to cause you the least problems, there aren't any. Then, in your perusal of the menu you see a section labeled customize your drink and it comes to you in a flash of hope. You can make your drink low fat! How marvelous, you can have your drink and drink it too! So exciting. So you go up to the counter and embarrassedly order your nonfat pumpkin spice latte and even more embarrassedly you refuse the whip cream. (Even though you love that stuff! Being a Gerdie is hard sometimes.)

Why was I embarrassed? Well, that's really the subject of this post. In my experience it always a glamourous and extremely fit woman, or a powerful business man that order nonfat stuff. Those people who you know would have no problem working off the calories, but they are just too good for them. In essence they are snubbing calories. I am embarrassed at the thought of being mistaken for a calorie snob.

So I declare it here and now, I only drink nonfat drinks for medicinal purposes!