One of the hardest dishes to make once you’ve removed gluten and dairy is macaroni and cheese. Even more so as you work to reduce glutamate since nutritional yeast is a source of free glutamate. This recipe is good, but it does not taste like your typical mac and cheese, rather a comfort food replacement that looks like it. That being said, our son loves it! We commonly serve it with a bit of protein and broccoli. The Defined Dish inspired this recipe. […]
This White Chicken Chili might be my most favorite soup recipe of all time. I’m not even joking when I say that we have probably made the recipe over 30 times and still don’t get tired of it. However, if you do not omit the jalapeno pepper from the soup, it will pack a lot of heat. My husband and I jokingly call this “cough-soup” because those seeds can induce a little cough in response to the heat. If serving little ones, you will definitely want to omit the jalapeno seeds and potentially scale back on the [...]
Shortly after we started our journey with low glutamate foods, one of my closest friends in Charlotte had us over for dinner, and she made the most delicious oven-baked kale chips. Up until that point, I hadn’t eaten much kale, and I was delightfully surprised to see it prepared in this way. Instead of choking down the soggy bitter green, we inhaled the crispy potato-like chips, leaving only crumbs. From this dinner on, we started consuming kale chips on the regular. These Crispy Kale Chips only take a few minutes to make and are an easy way [...]
Are you looking for an easy, nutrient-packed recipe to keep on hand? This chia seed pudding can quickly be served for breakfast, snack, or even dessert. Better yet, there are so many different ways that you can top-it, that you can put a unique spin on each serving. We love to top our chia seed pudding with granola, fresh fruit, fresh compote, microgreens (major nutrient boost), bee pollen, goji berries, and even thicker smoothies to make a parfait. […]
When we first started diet changes, I was overwhelmed by excitement and fear. Things were great. We had hope and direction. I felt excited and empowered to continue removing glutamate foods because we finally saw progress-not huge progress, but progress. Not to mention I was researching like a fool and connecting excess glutamate to so many of our son's symptoms. At the same time, I was also overwhelmed with the new food sensitives, underlying issues we were uncovering, and the genuine fear of how we would sustain this lifestyle for our son as he grew older. How [...]
We occasionally get letters or comments from parents that have seen improvements in health with REID. To help provide hope to so many still in the trenches, I’ve decided to make more of an effort to share some of these comments (with their permission, of course). Many of us don’t have it all figured out, but we cling to the hope and words of progress. Everyone’s journey is different, diet changes may not reap huge changes for all, but it is absolutely helping some. Thank you for giving us hope… "12 weeks. Such a short amount of [...]
We occasionally get letters or comments from parents that have seen improvements in health. To help provide hope to so many still in the trenches, I’ve decided to make more of an effort to share some of these comments (with their permission, of course). Many of us don’t have it all figured out, but we cling to the hope and words of progress. Everyone’s journey is different, diet changes may not reap huge changes for all, but it is absolutely helping some. Like this family, glutamate and diet have been a huge piece to our puzzle. Thank [...]
Looking for a delicious Meatless-Monday meal? I’ve found it! One of my closest friends (and if I’m being honest, more like my therapist), Maggie sent this, Host the Toast recipe to me a year ago and we’ve been making it ever since. My whole family LOVES this recipe and it is a great way to sneak in some extra vegetables, especially if you’re trying to cut back on meat. The recipe below has been modified from the Host the Tost original recipe to keep it lower in glutamate. I subbed lime juice for the vinegar, used clean [...]
More and more studies are coming out linking the damaging effects of dietary free glutamate, excitotoxins, and aspartame to the symptoms of Fibromyalgia. Studies quoting, "dramatic results", "84% reported that over 30% of their symptoms resolved", and "the removal of aspartame was followed by a complete regression of pain, without recurrence". So what are these dietary sources of excitotoxins and where can they be found? These eye-opening studies should shed some light on the importance of whole food and low-glutamate diet. "The elimination of MSG and other excitotoxins from the diets of patients with fibromyalgia offers a [...]
Let’s be honest, my family tires of salads and I find myself frequently looking for ways to spice them up a bit. I was inspired to make our own “croutons” about a year or two ago after purchasing the Laura Lea Balanced Cookbook and decided to put our own spin on her recipe. One of my additions to the recipe was to include one of our favorite herbs, milk thistle. See this post as to why we love milk thistle. Milk thistle is great and is known to help calm microglial activation, which produces inflammatory cytokines and [...]
