Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken

This week has gone by so fast for me! I'm finally getting around to editing photos and getting some posts up. I feel like I'm so far behind; I need an assistant. I have missed reading my favorite blogs, and I plan to catch up on that this weekend.

I've been going through a lot of my recipes to see if I can deem them low oxalate. I have made this chicken many times, we really like it. I’m not sure if this is an ideal dish for a low oxalate diet. The soy sauce is on my list of foods to avoid, but I figured using just low sodium would be fine.Besides, I dilute it with pineapple juice, which is on my “good” list. J

I've made this with fresh pineapple and canned. Canned is obviously less work and tastes just as good. I really love sweet and spicy combinations. Don’t substitute cooking sherry for the dry sherry, they are different and cooking sherry is loaded with sodium (which is bad for a low oxalate diet). I have grilled it, cooked it in a skillet, and one time I even just tossed everything in an 8x8" glass dish and baked it at 375F. Just depends on my mood, and how tired/lazy I'm feeling.

You can serve this with rice, couscous, millet, almost any grain. I chose orzo since it's a pasta, which is on my "good" oxalate list.

Lemon Glazed Brown Sugar Shortbread

I have to admit, this low oxalate diet is one of the hardest elimination diets I have ever done. Mostly because all my favorite foods are on the “foods to avoid” list. But, this forces me to become more creative in planning out my meals. I’m thinking of ingredient combinations I never would have considered otherwise. I wanted to tap into my creative side via this blog, and now I’m really being forced into it.

One thing I’m really struggling with is dessert. Ever since losing too much weight, my doctor keeps encouraging me to eat sugary, fatty desserts. And now I’ve developed a sweet tooth. I can’t help it; you try eating cakes and browines, cookies and ice cream everyday for a year, then all of a sudden being cut off. My biggest challenge right now is finding low oxalate desserts. Is there anything that tastes like chocolate, but isn’t chocolate nor cocoa, and would be low oxalate? If someone knows of something please let me know. It’s only been about a week and I’m craving and missing my good friend chocolate terribly.

Since I haven’t been feeling well lately, I wanted to make an easy dessert. I decided to make a simple shortbread and add a lemon glaze to sweeten it. I made a small batch because this was an experiment, and now I wish I had made more. I’ve already eaten almost half the batch I made. Luckily, these are so easy to make I can make a bigger batch tomorrow. The lemon glaze adds that perfect extra 'something'.

I’d like to experiment more with this by adding different spices and glazes. I’d like to try some kind of orange blossom water glaze. This is a great basic, recipe to play around with.

Apple Mustard Chicken with Dates

I haven’t been in the kitchen much recently. Instead, I’ve been studying up on low oxalate foods and trying to come up with ideas of low oxalate dishes to make. One night I decided to throw together some “good” oxalate foods I like for dinner. I just made it up as I went along. I can’t find dates on any "good", "bad" or "limit" list, so I figured they’d be fine. Golden raisins are on the good list, but regular dark raisins aren’t on any list, so I don’t know if it’s a safe oxalate substitution. Doesn’t matter for me, since I prefer golden raisins.

Also I didn’t salt and pepper my chicken since I’m not supposed to have salt nor black pepper. I used wild rice because that is a “good” food for me; brown rice is on my “limit” list.

I think sliced almonds would be a great addition to this dish at the end. Unfortunately for me I cannot have nuts. But if I could I totally would have garnish with some sliced, toasted almonds.

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I meant to post these earlier, but have just been feeling really run down and lethargic lately. I have some pictures I need to edit and posts I need to write. I woke up this morning and didn’t realize until I went to the grocery store that it was St. Patrick’s Day. Ooops. So I hurried to get this recipe posted today.

I originally wanted to make chocolate stout cupcakes for St. Patrick’s Day, but I didn’t have all the ingredients. So, instead, I decided to make these mint cupcakes. I figured the green icing would be Irish enough.

I knew I would not be allowed to eat these, since chocolate is on my “foods to avoid” list. Let me tell you, it’s really hard to give up chocolate and cocoa. But, if it makes me feel better, it may be worth it. I’m still trying to figure out the whole low oxalate thing, so I decided to cheat and eat one of these cupcakes. I mean, how could I post a dessert I hadn’t even tried? Yum, it was delicious. I love the combination of chocolate and mint.

You must add the ganache to these cupcakes, trust me. Mr. Surly, being eager to eat this tasty treat, grabbed one of the iced cupcakes before I had added the ganache. He said it was just ok. Once I gave him the ganached topped cupcake to try, he declared them perfect; the ganache just tied all the flavors together. He really liked theses cupcakes a lot, he asked me if I had done anything different when making these. I told him I just followed the recipe. He just seemed to like these better than the previous cupcakes I’ve made. I think it’s just how all the flavors come together, complimenting each other.

Chai Biscotti

Well, my low oxalate diet has begun. It’s going to take some time to fully adjust to it, and I have to reference my "good", "bad", and "limit" lists. Black tea is on my “foods to avoid” list, so my daily cup of chai tea (made from black tea) is out. So I had to find a new way to get my chai fix. I’ve been thinking a lot about biscotti recently, I’m not sure why, so I decided to try to come up with some kind of chai flavor biscotti. I wanted to make them vegan, and that took some adjusting to make sure the texture came out right.

It took a few attempts to get the right flavor ratio and dry to liquid ratio. The almonds are on my list of “bad” foods, but I figured ¼ c of thin slices spread throughout the whole loaf wouldn’t be too harmful for my diet. And flax is on my “limit” list, and I figure 2 Tbl is limiting.

I made a small batch, because I wasn’t sure if Mr. Surly would be into eating them. It’s a nice treat, and for me, it was the right amount. But feel free to double the recipe if you’re really into biscotti.