This past weekend I attended the annual Weston A. Price Foundation’s conference Wise Traditions. Wow did I ever have a fun time!

I learned so much at the conference but the best part was all the great people I had the chance to meet. Ann Marie of Cheeseslave, was one of the first bloggers I found doing the GAPS diet a couple years ago. She started the Real Food Media, a network of bloggers spreading the word about real food. I had the opportunity to meet quite a few of the RFM bloggers including Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Lisa from Real Food Digest, Raine from Agriculture Society, Jenny from Nourished Kitchen, Kim from the Nourishing Cook, Kimberly Hartke from Hartke Is Online, Alex from Feed Me Like You Mean It, Elizabeth from Nourishing Creations, Sarah Pope from The Healthy Home Economist. What a great group of people and I’m quite excited to say that I’m joining the Real Food Media as a featured blogger! I can’t wait to get to work with such inspiring, dedicated people.

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I thought about taking a nice picture of some fancy liver pâté, cooked liver and onions, or coconut battered fried liver strips. But if you’re going to add liver to your diet and will be preparing it yourself, you might as well see what it really looks like. Pretty isn’t it?
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I did a little interview with Jordan from SCD Lifestyle answering some common questions about the diet. Check it out here!

Also make sure to read the spotlight posts with other SCDers. One of the things I found very helpful early on in SCD was to follow other people’s blogs and connect with those who had been on the diet for a long time.

Check out:
Arden Eats
Matt from Digestive Healing
Mrs Ed from Mrs Eds Research and Recipes
Christina from Organically Autoimmune
Susan from The SCD Girl and her Kid
Jan the Food Lady

They also have a weekly SCD podcast. I love this idea, since most of us are spending a lot of time in the kitchen and might not have the chance to read all these blogs, you can listen instead.

Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday of October and is probably my new favorite holiday. As a kid I never liked traditional fall foods like pumpkin pie, stuffing, and sweet potatoes but now I can’t get enough! I wanted to share here what my 2010 Thanksgiving meal looked like. Turkey, stuffing, sweet potato & apple casserole, green beans, carrots, with gravy and cranberry sauce on the side and pumpkin pie for dessert.

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This is a SCD pumpkin pie-like snack I have been enjoying now that pumpkins are in season. I’m not eating nuts in any large amount and I avoid baking with them, so I didn’t feel like making a full pie crust. Also, I’ve been trying to have more raw egg yolks for extra nutrients so I wanted something I could mix them into. This was quite delicious but you can play around with the ingredient amounts to suit your taste.

For SCD pumpkin puree, I bought a whole pumpkin, cut it in half and baked it cut side down in a glass pan for 1 hour at 350F. For the nut milks, just use a small amount of almond flour, cashews or coconut chips and blend with 1/2 cup water.
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That’s a picture of an oyster I shucked, with some horseradish. Mmmmm

Fish & seafood, especially mollusks, are very nutrient-dense foods. I have been eating fish and shrimp since before SCD but lately I have been trying things like mussels, scallops, fish eggs, and oysters.

Oysters are a great source of nutrients that many people with digestive problems lack. Iron, vitamin D and B12 are often low in people with autoimmune or gut problems and oysters are a great source. Another important nutrient is zinc, which also helps with acne. As someone with a history of low iron, B12 and still struggling with acne, this is a good option for me.

Maybe coming from my experiences eating organ meats once a week, I was expecting it to have a strong (gross) flavour but they were tasty. When I first tried oysters I was scared to eat them raw so I steamed them. They were ok, taste was good but they were a little chewy. Once I got the courage up to have them raw, I loved them. The texture was great, not at all slimy like I thought it would be. Just soft, easy to chew, with the perfect amount of saltiness. Yum!

If you’re not eating organ meats, you should be eating oysters. And if you’re not eating organ meats or seafood, you’re missing out on the best foods!

Nutrition Info

Although they are relatively low in fat, the fats oysters do contain are excellent with more Omega 3 than 6. Here is a sample Omega fats content of 6 medium oysters:
Omega-3 fatty acids 565mg
Omega-6 fatty acids 48.7mg

Check out the vitamin and mineral levels, again for 6 oysters:

See full nutrition information on the Nutrition Data site: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/finfish-and-shellfish-products/4189/2

That’s quite a high amount of Vitamin D, B12, iron, zinc, copper, and selenium. Magnesium and other B vitamins are in decent amounts as well. Something that may come as a surprise is the Vitamin C content. Some organ meat and seafood are pretty good sources if eaten raw.

Where to Get Them

If you want to eat them at home, find a good fish market and ask them when they get their shipments in. Live oysters will keep over a week at refrigerated temperatures but it’s best to get them as fresh as possible. Also ask them where the oysters are from and how they are caught. Wild oysters are best for nutrient levels, and it’s always best to support sustainable catch methods. I get mine in Ottawa from the Whalesbone Sustainable Oyster and Fish Supply or at restaurants that are supplied by them. If you live near the coast, you might even be able to get them fresh at farmers markets. If you can’t get them fresh, you might want to look for smoked and canned oysters, which have a long shelf life.

How to Eat Them Raw

If you have an oyster knife and know how to shuck them properly (without slicing your hand open) then they’re pretty easy to do at home. If once open they smell bad or are black, they aren’t safe to eat (it’s pretty easy to tell). Here’s an example video showing how to shuck them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzWvvyfB4tw&feature=player_embedded (found through Nutrition and Physical Regeneration).

If you’re squeamish or don’t have an oyster knife, it’s easiest to go to a good restaurant and try them there. Look for a place with oyster happy hour.

Raw oysters are usually served at restaurants with a few choices of spicy sauces. The restaurant I went to told me the ingredients of each and there were none completely SCD-legal (most had sugar, or Worcestershire sauce) so I had them with grated horseradish and a squeeze of lemon juice. They were delicious just like that.

How to Eat Them Cooked

The first few times I tried oysters I just didn’t want to try them raw so I steamed them. Place them all in a steaming pot for about 3-4 minutes. Let them cool enough to handle them. They should be just opened enough to be able to grab with your hands to open them fully. You can use a spoon to scrape out the oyster into a bowl or plate. If they don’t open easily, it’s best not to have them as they might be spoiled. You can cook oysters pretty much any way, grilling, baking etc, I just found steaming them to be the easiest for me. I also like to make a little sauce to go with them if they’re cooked.

Garlic butter sauce
2 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, chopped
dash lemon juice
Melt butter in a pan, add garlic and saute a few minutes. Add lemon juice and pour over oysters.

Tomato Sauce
1 tomato, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tbsp butter
salt & pepper
Saute tomato and garlic in butter, add salt & pepper to taste. Pour over oysters.

Check out http://girlgoneprimal.blogspot.com/2009/08/primal-by-beach.html (4th picture down) for a different method and topping. Broiled with bacon and cheese! Can’t go wrong with that.

And if you don’t think kids would like oysters, check out this: http://www.cheeseslave.com/2009/03/22/these-toddlers-love-raw-oysters/

I bought a bunch of over-ripe perfect SCD bananas the other day. Rather than just eat them plain I wanted to have more ‘snacky’ things to satisfy cravings. So, I made two of my now favorite banana recipes. The pancakes I had originally seen on Pecanbread‘s site which has many kid-friendly SCD recipes. Honestly I’ve liked every recipe I tried from that site, so it’s worth having a look! Lots of dairy-free ones too. I had heard about banana ice cream a long time ago but had never tried it. Instead I kept making ice cream with SCD yogurt. Since I’m dairy-free right now I wanted to try it out and it was pretty good!

Banana Pancakes
1 banana
2 eggs

Mash the banana in a bowl. Add the eggs and whisk until it’s pretty smooth. Heat butter or lard in a pan over medium-low heat. Drop a spoonful of batter at a time onto the pan. The smaller you make these the easier it is to flip them. Cook on one side until firm enough to flip, then finish on the other side a couple minutes.

Serve with bacon and some berries.

Banana Ice Cream
Bananas

Peel and cut up the bananas into chunks. Place in the freezer for a few hours (maybe while you’re cooking and eating dinner). Put the pieces in a blender of food processor and blend until smooth.

Scoop into a bowl and put in the freezer for a while if you need to harden it up a bit. I left a portion of mine overnight in the freezer and it was perfect ice cream even the next morning.

You can also add things to the banana ice cream. I made it a second time with 1 tbsp vanilla per banana (I love vanilla) and it was delicious! Strawberries mixed in would be nice too.

If you need more step-by-step instructions, How to Cook Like Your Grandmother has a nice post. You don’t need to use milk or any liquid to get the banana to blend perfectly smooth.

Gotta love simple 1 or 2 ingredient recipes!

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This post is part of Two for Tuesdays recipe blog hop, Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop, and Wheatless Wednesday over at Naturally Knocked Up.

I am super excited about an upcoming e-course! Ann Marie of Cheeseslave has a cooking course entirely devoted to meat and seafood. She will cover how to cook a bunch of different cuts including bones, organs, tough cuts and various seafood. This course is great for anyone on  SCD, GAPS or Primal diets. There will be 13 classes (one each week) starting August 18, 2010 for $120.

Check out the syllabus:

1. Overview – how much protein we need, how protein builds neurotransmitters for healthy moods, etc.
2. Stocking Up – how to buy grass-fed meats and store in freezer, how to shop for fish
3. Grilling - how to set up a BBQ (gas or grill) and grilling steaks and chops
4. Raw fish – ceviche & sushi, shucking oysters
5. Cooked fish – fast & easy family-friendly recipes like moules frites and broiled salmon
6. Bone broths – meat, fish and chicken
7. Soups & stews – How to incorporate bone broth and healthy fats into yummy soups – Thai coconut soup, Honduran tapado
8. Roasts, reduction sauces & gravies – Roast duck with cherry reduction sauce, pot roast with simple gravy
9. Frying – pan-frying and deep-frying – Grass-fed flank steak w/ chimichurri sauce, healthy chicken nuggets
10. Sandwiches & salads – Using leftover meat to make sandwiches – Coconut flour bread, chicken salad, Southwestern Cobb salad
11. Organ meats 1 – How to grind organs, beef heart chili, beef tongue, roasted bone marrow
12. Organ meats 2 – Chicken liver pate, chopped liver, liver & onions, homemade liverwurst
13. Appetizers, side dishes & snacks – deviled eggs w/ salmon roe, bacon wrapped scallops & dates, beef jerky, homemade clam dip

The course is gluten- and grain-free, and there are substitutes like coconut milk and coconut oil in place of dairy so it’s both SCD & GAPS legal.

The following video introduction gives a great overview of the course and what you can expect to get out of it.

I am pretty excited about taking the e-course. After following Cheeseslave’s blog for many years and seeing all the nutritious foods she has prepared, I always wanted to learn techniques to help me do that at home. I have figured out through YouTube videos and a whole lot of trial and error how to handle some cuts of meat. To participate in an online course would be a fun experience. Not only will we be learning from the master, but it serves as a great way to bring everyone together to help each other learn. I personally can’t wait for the organ meat weeks! I’m always encouraging people to eat liver and eat it often myself, but I can’t wait to learn proper techniques and recipes.

If you’re interested in learning how to cook meat and seafood, then click here to check out the Surf & Turf e-course.

First I acquired the raw materials. At the RT-Mart I got what I thought was plain milk as it just said “High quality milk” on the side. I also thought I saw 3.5% written on the carton but it may have been 35% (oops – yum!). I studied the yogurts fanatically and settled on one that didn’t seem to have any thickeners in it. There were a lot to choose from (these are about half of the yogurts that were out on display) and a few said plain but had artificial sweeteners added. I chose one with a bit of regular sugar added and no thickener (it’s the one with the girl’s picture on the front).

Back home I put the milk (heavy cream) in a pot and heated it up until little bubbles started to form. I didn’t have a thermometer, but you can boil cow’s milk without harming your yogurt so I let it come to at least a simmer.

I then set it aside and let it cool until the pot felt about lukewarm to the touch. Now this was the first time I ever tried setting it in a larger bowl with cold water to cool it faster. Wow did that ever work! It only took about 5-10 minutes when normally it would take an hour. I will be doing this at home now, rather than having to wait an hour to mix in the starter. I tried it once at home and just set it in the sink with cold water since I didn’t have a big wide pot to set it in. Anyways, once the milk had cooled, I mixed in one 6oz yogurt pack. Then came the tricky part, I didn’t have a heating pad, oven, slow-cooker(the only one was busy making my soup), ‘warm area’, or yogurt maker. So I put some hot boiling water in the larger bowl the pot was sitting in. I set the pot of milk in that. I changed the water adding fresh hot boiling water about every 6 hours.

After 24 hours it was definitely set, and that’s when I realized it was probably 35% heavy cream. It was SO thick. I tasted it and it wasn’t nearly as tangy as I’ve made it in the past so I left it overnight again. The next morning it was perfect.

It was so good and I absolutely coated it in honey (why not? I’m on vacation) hoping to gain back a bit of weight lost from the sickness. I tried not to eat it too fast since I only made 1 liter and managed to keep a cup of it for the last few days of traveling in Beijing. I’m very glad I attempted to make yogurt even though I had nothing with me. It can be done!

I was feeling invincible. The SCDiet has a way of doing that. You start to feel wonderful and then you start to experiment. I believe that because the amount of healing SCDiet brings, when you start to experiment, you actually do ok. Your body handles it alright for a little while. Your digestive system stays unusually quiet, your mind clear and ignorant. You see, I’ve had quite a leap in healing over the past 6 months, maybe even more than the previous 2 years. I credit this to eating tons of nutrient dense food (liver, pastured eggs, pastured butter, oysters) and getting off the birth control pill. I’ve had months of no rashes, no stomach upsets at all, not worrying about gluten cross-contamination even. I thought maybe I never had Celiac, maybe the rash was a coincidence. That’s what I thought while I was in China. My body was doing just fine with tiny amounts of wheat in marinades, sauces, and cross-contamination. I didn’t have any stomach pain or rashes, although I did notice a bit of strange gurgling noises. It was probably just my system working a little overtime to deal with all the nasties I was eating. I felt fine. I felt great. I even felt a strange high. I kept telling my family and in-laws how great I felt, and everyone agreed I was doing well.

Our second day in Xian we were combining lunch and dinner because of an evening train ride to Hong’s hometown, Changzhou. We decided to eat at a famous dumpling place to sample the last of the 4 local dishes. Since we were there in between lunch and dinner time they didn’t have as much selection as they normally do. My selection for SCD-legal fare was quite limited but doable. I got a plate of shrimp with cucumbers, a plate of greens and some broad beans (not even sure if those are legal). I was starving. I ate every shrimp but knew that was not nearly enough food to last me a 14 hour train ride. I filled up on some veggies but those don’t provide much energy either. Rather than order more shrimp, I decided to try the dumplings. I had this great plan to bite them once, then eat the middle, so I was only getting a mouthful of wheat per dumpling. Somehow at the time this seemed like a great idea. I had no pressure from anyone to eat these. I had enough cheese and Larabars with me to last the train ride. I just felt invincible.

I ate two dumplings. Then more plates of dumplings came through to our table. Hong actually dropped one plate and they spilled onto the table top. I avoided those dumplings, thinking I’d better be safe and not get food poisoning from something that fell on a dirty table top. I ate two more ‘safe’ dumplings. They were pretty good, but honestly I thought as I was eating them that I really didn’t miss not eating food like this. I would have traded them for bacon or SCD yogurt any day.

The pain started within about 45 minutes. It was upper GI pain, just above the belly button, deep inside. Last time I had pain like that was when I was eating wheat constantly (and sick constantly), so this time all I was thinking was that I would be sick right away. But the sickness didn’t hit. The stomach pain continued. We went to the City Wall in Xian before heading to the train station. I didn’t even realize I was bloated until I reviewed my pictures. Here I am 1 hour after the dumplings. It got worse later.

The massive headache started on the train. I took Gravol to try and sleep. I woke up every hour anyway. A strange old symptom I had forgotten about came back; I had to pee a lot and felt awful trying to hold it. By this time I was just hoping for the sickness to hit knowing it would relieve me of the pain. I didn’t care if I was sick on a train, I just wanted it to be over with. The train ride was 14 hours. I slept fitfully for most of it. I ate one little package of cheese, a banana and drank water in that time, I just couldn’t bring myself to eat anything else. No sickness yet. The Rash was starting to appear.

We arrived in Hong’s hometown and I was so relieved. Finally access to home cooked food. I was still not sick yet and still in pain. Hong’s aunt made us breakfast with congee, eggs and pickled veggies. I knew the congee and eggs would be a bad idea but was starving so I ate it. I would later find out I didn’t digest any of that.. (tmi? sorry haha) Rash started getting itchier and spread across my entire chest.

Here’s where things get a little fuzzy. I know we all got a chance to shower after the late breakfast. I know we went for lunch, and dinner, and I think I had a nap in between? I think I went to bed early while others looked at pictures? We took family pictures at some point too (proof below). Hong’s aunt did laundry and I remember bringing her a bag of my clothes. I remember complaining the mattress was too hard and getting a blanket to fold up and sleep on. Or was that the next night? When did the sickness hit? I think it was that night, about 24 hours since the dumplings. Why is my memory of this so fuzzy? I can remember every detail of the first week, and the last few days, but not the sickness in between. I could ask my family, but I think I’ll leave this as a reminder. <-This is your brain on gluten.

The next morning the pain was all gone and I was left with some pretty intense stomach upset. I ate congee and fresh eggs for breakfast. I tried to drink enough water as we toured around the city that day. We visited Hong’s great aunt and then went to Dinosaur Land. By then I was just looking for a bathroom. I wanted to go back to the house but decided to go to lunch anyway. I ordered chicken soup but it’s obvious they had put something in it since it didn’t taste like homemade. I didn’t really care as I was so dehydrated and weak from being sick. I drank/ate 5 small bowls of it. I was sick at the restaurant too and decided that going home for the afternoon was best. I went straight to bed.

I missed dinner that night and was home alone. I almost passed out from dehydration/weakness but managed to crawl downstairs and get a banana and some water. I felt better enough to sit up at the computer but had trouble getting to sites and downloading files (so much of the Internet is blocked in China, and trying to open attachments/documents on Chinese Windows proved impossible). I turned to the BTVC-SCD and GAPShelp Yahoo groups and got some great advice including the electrolyte drink recipe. *HUGE* thank you to everyone on the boards, I tried to reply to all and hope I didn’t miss any! A bunch of people also mentioned activated charcoal and said you could make it usually by burning some kind of starch. I would try this once well enough. Turns out I missed the nicest dinner of the trip at a restaurant in a park. A local news team was there and wanted Hong’s family to be on TV. The park was beautiful and they all took wonderful pictures. They came home and told me this. I broke down sobbing. I knew I was going to miss the last leg of the trip, 4 days touring around the most beautiful cities and a mountain. I did get a chance to visit most of these places on my last trip to China, so I wasn’t too upset about it. The down feeling just seems to always accompany the stomach upset.

Hong’s mother stayed with me at his aunt’s house since she had to work during the day. The last half day or so of sickness Min took me to a Chinese Traditional doctor. I was very excited and hoping Chinese doctors were more helpful than Western doctors. At the very least it was an interesting experience. Let’s just say Chinese hospitals are a scene of organized chaos. I’ve never had an appointment with a doctor with about 20 other people in the room! They were talking all excitedly and I hoped that meant they knew exactly what to do. Turns out, both the nurse and doctor had never heard of Celiac disease, couldn’t even begin to comprehend why I would not be able to eat wheat, and spent most of the time asking Min about it. Well, the doctor was somewhat helpful in that he prescribed a bunch of herbs and charcoal mix that you make into a tea. I only tried one dose though and it made me feel funny. The doctor also said to only eat homemade food (hurrah!) so I used that as an excuse the rest of the trip to not eat anything in restaurants. I made banana pancakes (eggs and banana) and burnt some bits on purpose. The burnt pieces did taste like charcoal so hopefully I did it right. It seemed to work quite well, either that or by then my system was done with the gluten attack. I made chicken soup and ox tail soup and homemade SCD yogurt for the rest of the week. SCD intro in China, it can be done! It had been 3 days of pain then sickness, but once over I was recovering quickly.

Finally I was feeling better and I even got to experience daily life in China. I went to supermarkets, fresh markets, clothes shopping, visited Hong’s grandparents and got to nap like 4 hours a day. It was wonderful! I’ll cover all that with pics in another post, it was really fun. Unfortunately the rash I got was really bad and stuck around for a good 6 days, but at least my stomach, head and energy were doing well. I’m not happy I got sick on my trip, but it happened, could have been worse, and definitely taught me some very valuable lessons.

I do have Celiac disease. And Dermatitis Herpetiformis. I am not invincible. I will never eat gluten again. I will do my best to prevent cross-contamination in my daily life, just in case. I will stay grain-free (no the congee didn’t help!) and as close to SCD as I have to. I will experiment only with food that might contribute to good health – raw milk, sweet potatoes, chocolate (mental health counts, right?). SCD heals me, that I am sure. SCD intro helped me recover from the glutening faster than I have ever recovered from a severe digestive upset. And next time I go to China – there will be a next time – I will not eat the dumplings.

Stay tuned for some fun pictures of my time living SCD in Hong’s hometown.

BTW Thank you to Terry from who I stole the title for this post