chug-a chug-a chew chew.

As of late, I have been contemplating the addition of a cooking blog to my current blog repertoire. I do a lot of experimenting in the kitchen and I want a way to document the things I try. Furthermore, I am currently working with a pretty restricted diet. As more and more people are becoming aware of intolerances and allergies that they have to the foods that are staples of our cuisine, it's important to have resources for working around these foods. Another problem I run into with the resources that are available is that many raw, food intolerance, or allergy websites present these extravagant recipes that, while delicious, may cost an arm and a leg. Sometimes the barrier is simply that since I'm cooking for one, I can't keep a large assortment of vegetables in my refrigerator at all times.

However, building an additional blog for that seemed unnecessary since I have a hard enough time keeping these two updated. Plus, my cooking is very inexact and doesn't really warrent it's own following. Plus plus, cooking, like blogging and everything else I do, is a very tangential process... so putting it on my random informal blog seemed like the best way.

Last Summer I experimented with raw food. It was awesome. A friend lent (and then gave) me Ani Phyo's Raw Food Kitchen which is a super fantastic book with a number of easy and cheap recipes (and a number of complicated expensive ones). Since then, I've been making my own nut milk, significantly reduced the amount of bread and other fillers I eat, and consequently felt awesome. A skeptical friend commented "you probably are just allergic to one of the foods that you happened to cut out by eating raw." Well, he was right, and I like warm food, so I tend not to keep raw. However, I've gotten into the habit of just frying up everything I eat, so I'm trying to integrate a little more rawness into my diet.

In the spirit of trying to keep a cheap, small kitchen, here are the foods and tools i find useful.
appliances.

• blender
• food processor (fought with myself on this one for awhile... gave in. great decision)
• dehydrator
• ice cream maker (haven't totally figured this one out yet)

If you're fancy, you can get a vitamix food processor and an xcaliber dehydrator &c. I, however, got all my appliances off of craigslist. This is great for someone like myself who a) is on a budget and b) keeps moving between coasts.

foods.

• almonds
• sunflower seeds
• flax seeds (ground and whole)
• spinach
• grapeseed/olive oil
• sea salt
• sweet potatoes
• xylitol
• coconut milk
• way too many eggs
• what ever vegetables are fresh and not too expensive
• any and all spices that i love.

Other than peanuts (which supposedly don't taste good raw and are a problem for many folks) almonds and sunflower seeds are the cheapest nuts/seeds (along with pepitas, or pumpkin seeds) that I can find and make a great base for butters, milk, breads, and pates.
I keep spinach around because I don't eat a lot of meat and, without something like spinach or red meat, my iron dips low and i get really super tired. It's easy to throw into any savory meal.
Xylitol is expensive, but used sparingly it's not bad. And dammit I like dessert.
A note on spices: keeping a well stocked spice cabinet can be the difference between being complete bored with your cooking and feeling pleased about the new adventures you're going on. When you don't have time to innovate in your cooking or, in the interest of not getting so many vegetables that will spoil before you can eat them, you're eating the same stuff for two or three days at a time, using different spices to mix up with your food can keep you from lamenting your unfortunate circumstance.

To provide the rhyme/reason for what i choose to include or exclude from my meals, here's my list, at the moment.

Foods I cannot eat.

• most root vegetables
• most fruit
• most dairy
• sugar, most sweeteners
• beans
• wheat, corn, gluten

Getting a list of foods you can't eat at the beginning can be a little scary, but instead of looking at the foods you can't eat, look at the foods you can eat...

• meat, poultry, fish, eggs
• nuts and seeds
• vegetables
• sweet potatoes
• goat cheese
• stevia, xylitol
• sparingly: low-sugar fruits (berries, apples, pears, etc.)
• sparingly: whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, etc.)

It's a little bit paleo-diet but, quite honestly, when you think about all the random fillers and difficult to digest foods it cuts out to eat this way, you're getting a lot more energy and sustenance out of your food.