Author: trubblemaker

This isn’t necessarily a low FODMAP post as much as a new to cooking post. If you have an old non-stick frying pan you should consider throwing it out. The teflon that is used contains a chemical that basically can cause various cancers. Any quick google of “why is non stick cookware dangerous” will help you understand why I am suggesting it’s time to throw them out.

So if you are throwing them out what should you replace it with? Well ceramic non-stick are good, they don’t have a long life of non-stick and slowly get worse over time. A more attractive alternative might be to use either a Cast Iron or a Carbon Steel Pan. Both have great thermal properties(They evenly distribute heat), but Carbon Steel is a little more nimble with temperature adjustments. It heats up faster and will respond faster to changes from your range/oven than traditional cast iron. And an added bonus is both of these pans can be thrown in the oven if a recipe calls for it. Something you definitely can’t do with a “non-stick” pan.

I recently purchased two and threw out my non stick. I have to say that there is some work to be done to season them properly. But once you have done that they cook beautifully. I definitely would suggest them as a part of your kitchen tooling.

Summer essentials:

• Fody’s BBQ sauce (see our review on it). It definitely is worth the trouble if you want to have something ready to go on hand.
• Fody’s Ketchup
• If you have time you can make your own Smoked Hickory sauce.
• Buys some bamboo skewers.
  • You can do “make your own Kabob” (LOW FODMAP ingredient suggestions here) this is a fun way to have none FODMAP people integrate with FODMAP people. You pick what you can eat and let them pick what they can /want to eat. It’s a ton of fun and choose your own adventure is always fun.
    • Pork Kabob suggestion for the meet
  • They are great to make desert (Fruit on a stick)
• Curve Ball recipe for the BBQ: Pat in the Hat Thai Turkey Burgers.

If you saw our last post on breaking down a pork tenderloin you might say to yourself, now that I have all this pork what should I do with it. Well it’s summertime and their are some great marinades you can use. I do suggest all of these marinades taste better with at least 2 hours of time to soak into the meat. Their is nothing wrong with adding the marinade to the meat as you freeze it. This just make it super easy when grabbing it out so that it’s ready to go for you. With that said here are some super easy and delicious marinade recipes.

• BBQ sauce. You got go wrong with the simplest of strategies. I think that it’s hard the flavour of BBQ sauce. And it’s just so simple to make and flavourful. It’s a crowd winner and you don’t have to really stretch yourself to make the sauce.
• Citrus (Carnitas) Marinade. If you are looking for fresh flavours this is a great choice. It’s has the pizzaz that you are looking for and can be made from regular ingredients in your fridge. This can be a life saver recipe that can be wiped up in a hurry to make your feel the flavours of summer. I do suggest that you don’t freeze this recipe with the pork. The acidity will dry out the meat, so stick to a more strict 2 hour marinade. I do freeze the marinade separately from the meat and mix them together when thawed.
• Savory Soy Marinade. Saving the best for last this is my goto pork marinade. I love this, it has the salty savoriness that speaks to my sole. I love how the flavours come together. Totally worth the 2 hour wait to eat this. I have also been known to chop up the pork chops so even more of they soy mixture penetrates the pork. Then I take the meat, stab it with a bamboo skewer and have a little pork shish kabob.

Saving money is a really good strategy. If you are new to cooking, (and a lot of people that become low FODMAP are new to it), maybe you haven’t broken down a pork loin before. We like to shop costco and we thought maybe a video of how to do it might be helpful. So here’s our video documentary of how to break down a pork loin.

You will get 3 pork products from breaking down a loin.

• Boneless”Pork Chops”
• Pork Loin Roast
• Pork Kabob

See our video’s below on how to do it:

Kabob’s tasting amazing when they are marinaded. Check out out recipe for them.

When we tie a roast, we are looking to make it uniform in size. The below video doesn’t mention that but that’s why we tie up a roast, is to make it as uniform as possible so it cooks as evenly as possible.

This is actually just a blog post to tell you to go over to FODMAPeveryday.com. They have a great article on How to Read Food Labels so you do not get bitten by hidden FODMAPS that are hidden in prepared food. I won’t go into it as I would like you to go over and read it yourselves. FODMAPeveryday.com helps explain the different USDA laws and their actual meaning when it comes to FODMAPS, and when in your FODMAP journey you can/cannot have “spices” or “natural Flavours.”

P.S. Oh, yeah I should mention that they make one of my favourite rib rubs. … Totally worth a shot!

Ok enough teasing on the article. Go check out FODMAPeveryday.com and their article on How to Read Food Labels.

OK, we did not make this up. There actually is a Simplified Low FODMAP “diet.” This diet has nothing to do with our website. It was created by Monash University (The authority on FODMAP). This approach is somewhat the opposite of the elimination diet. Instead of starting by dropping off everything (every high FODMAP food) from your diet. Instead we start with just dropping off the biggest and worst High FODMAP foods. This is actually a FANTASTIC list to give to someone that wants to cook for you, even if you are on FODMAP. Sure there is still a risk they might unknowingly make a poor choice but at least this is a list of only 12 things and will generally guide them to safer food. I’ve wanted to create a list like this for years and I’m glad Monash finally has recommended one.

Here’s what you DO NOT EAT on Simplified FODMAP diet.

• Grains
  • Wheat and rye-based products
• Vegetables
  • Onion, garlic, leek, cauliflower and mushrooms
• Fruit
  • Apple, pear, dried fruit, stone fruit, watermelon
• Dairy
  • Milk and yoghurt
• Meat/alternatives
  • Legumes

So what does not eat mean?

It means that instead of eating these items you substitute something low FODMAP. For instance “Lactose free milk” instead of milk.

It means you cannot eat these items even if they’re incorporated in a dish. This is what I generally call “eating clean.” Of course you can always cheat but that means you need to restart the clock on your eating clean.

How do I get started?

Really, even though I watch a lot of “House” and “General Hospital” I’m told that doesn’t make me a doctor. What I strongly suggest is you consult a doctor or a nutritionist. If you want to know if you are a good choice for this diet, read about it on the Monash University’s website. It outlines if this diet is a good choice for a person or not. It also lists the steps on how to go about implementing the diet.

Here’s some extra resources if you have more questions:

• Great facebook interview talking through Simplified FODMAP with a MONASH nutritionist and Alana from alittlebityummy. (A great site for all things low FODMAP).

• The initial post on simplified FODMAP from Monash univeristy.

Ok, so you maybe never heard of Hing. Hing is also call Asafoetida. Wikipedia says “The resin-like gum comes from the dried sap extracted from the stem and roots and is used as a spice. ” It a secret weapon to give an leak/onion/garlic flavour when used in small quantities. Literally, you should only ever have a pinch of it. (I suggest you start with 1/2 a teaspoon in a pot of food until you learn if it’s for you.) In large quantities it’s quite pungent so avoid this. It’s often used in vegetarian curry dish to give the umami/savory component. Totally, ads some zip to your dish. I found it on amazon and had to wait for it to show up but I really like adding a pinch to my bowl of chilli as I find it give me those flavours I miss on a low FODMAP diet.

Here’s a discussion thread on reddit about it.

Things are still a little scary. Right now it’s a great time to practice saving a dollar or maybe you just want to reduce on waste. Here’s a quick tip that I learned recently.

I like to make potatoes. I typically boil them. (I definitely usually add stock to the water.) But for the sake of this argument lets pretend I don’t. When you are done with your potato water what do you do with it? If you are like me you probably dump it down the sink. Here are some alternative uses to help use it up.

Use it in whipped potatoes. Don’t have a lot of extra’s in your fridge at the moment? Skip adding milk to your potatoes and instead add the potato water back in. This changes the flavour slightly but it saves a little economically. It also saves on calories, so if you are trying to trim off a couple pounds give it a shot. Or even consider 1/2 water and 1/2 milk.

Are you trying to be gluten free? Potato water makes a great thickener. You can use it in gravy or soups as a natural thickener and flavouring agent.

Potato water is best used within 24 hours or frozen and thawed later. I know I’m going to be making potato water ice cubes so that I can keep it for when I need it and have it in a ready to use format.

In this day and age, (with COVID-19) are you thinking about doing more self-sufficient cooking? Here’s some tips to help you get through leaner times.

Stock is your survival tool.

Make and use Stock. Stock is just food flavoured water. It’s super simple to make and incredibly versatile for adding flavour. It makes a great substitute for water in almost all recipes. I am a huge advocate for adding 1 cup of stock for boiling potatoes or rice, to enhance the flavour. A ton of recipes call for it and unless you have a good low FODMAP source, you need to be making it yourself. And lets not forget it’s the basis for almost all soups. Soup is the cheapest, most filling thing you can make on a budget.

Why is Soup the cheapest thing to make? Water is free, stock is mostly free. The most expensive part of it is the heating of it. To make stock you literally just need to add all of your vegetable scraps to a bag…just keep it refrigerated, or store in the freezer, and keep adding more to it. You peel a vegetable? Those peels go in your stock bag. Cut off the top of a carrot, celery, or parsnip? Put it in the stock bag. You have vegetables that are old but you don’t want to eat them? …cut them up and put in the stock bag. Bones from tonight’s low FODMAP dinner? Put them in your stock bag.

When you need a batch of stock, check the contents of the stock bag. Then in a large pot add veggies from the scrap bag and add water to cover ingredients (one or 2 liters of water, 1 or 2 tsp of salt, a teaspoon of black pepper corns, 1 teaspoon of thyme. Bring to a boil, skim off and discard any top foam, turn heat to low and simmer a few hours uncovered (2-4 hours). Taste for salt. Simmer longer for improved flavour. Strain and discard the solid ingredients. Keeps 3 days in fridge and freezes well.

This means of course to still obey FODMAP rules, so watch your quantities (i.e. Celery). Everything will boil down so don’t worry about ‘germs.’ If you are low on money this really is something you can do to stretch out your food dollars. Once you have stock, you can make soup, and just add some extra spices, chopped fresh herbs and vegetables and you are good to go. Super easy and super in-expensive.

Here our some of our recipes for stock:

• Chicken
• Vegetable
• Beef