Cooking for Wellness

Esther is feeling confident enough in her diet and in her ability to cook that she is finding other girls with special diets and sharing her recipes with them. Her roommate this year is a vegan, and another good friend has multiple food allergies, so maybe there is a camaraderie in the unusual food consumption. I’m glad they are cooking together and enjoying it! She wants to bring them all home with her some weekend, which will stretch my creative powers considerably…and Steve may need to order out pizza while we girls cook without meat and dairy! Cuban black beans and rice, anyone?

Well, we have passed the one year anniversary of this diet. Esther shed a few tears and had a rough day, but for me it was a welcome milestone. One whole year away from that illness; one whole year closer to health; one whole year we have come through, stronger and still intact.

Looking back over the past year, it has been one of the hardest years of our lives– and not just because of Esther’s illness– but we survived with God’s help, and we have learned so much. As we cooked together over Christmas break, the conversation in the kitchen had to do with cooking vegetables to retain the vitamins, and grain consumption in different areas of the world, and studies into the cause of Celiac Disease. We have a stash of recipes that make meal preparation much easier than it was when we were starting out. Best of all, Esther is now interested in cooking and nutrition, and will readily join me in the kitchen, something she never wanted to do when she was younger!

More milestones over break included Esther’s trying Breyer’s Lactose Free Vanilla ice cream (real dairy, but treated with lactate)– she said it tasted sooo good, but was surprised by how dairy smelled. She tried some yogurt in cooking, in a yummy new recipe for Maple, Walnut, and Flaxseed Pancakes. She even tried a couple teaspoons finely grated cheese on a quesadilla.

No ill effects from the bits of dairy! That is really exciting in terms of progress. And have I mentioned that we can use normal Quaker Oats again in our kitchen?? Much easier on the budget, and yet more evidence of a strengthened digestive system.