Hinamatsuri or Girl's Day is by far my favorite holiday. Held on the third day of the third month, it's a Japanese traditional celebration that's also called The Doll Festival. When Japanese girls are young they receive special gorgeous figures to display and the day is spent focusing on bringing the girl love and happiness in the future.

The best part about Hinamatsuri is the food. Oh, the glorious food. But with food allergies, what do you eat?

PLENTY.



I used this recipe to make Hamaguri Ushiojiru (Clam Soup). Just substitute the Soy Sauce for San-J's Wheat-Free Tamari and make sure the Sake you get is straight Sake without other ingredients in it. Sake is made from rice and is pretty allergy friendly if you get the right kind. I also used Mizuna (Japanese Mustard Leaf) instead of Nanohana (Rape Flower) or Mitsuba (Fresh Parsley). I accidentally bought the wrong thing but it turned out to be a lovely mistake. The soup is supposed to bring about a happy marriage. Some superstitions say that it's important to put two clams in the soup to represent you and the one you will someday marry.



The traditional Hishi-Mochi (Rice Cakes) tended to have eggs or dairy in them, but I found this delicious Sakura-Mochi and Domyouji. (I'm not ambitious enough to make my own.) They are dyed glutenous rice (they are gluten-free, just prepared glutenous) with Azuki (Sweet Red Bean) Paste filling and wrapped in a Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Leaf. Honestly, I think these are better.



Plus one of my favorites for any time of the year, Sekihan Onigiri (Azuki Bean Rice Balls). I used a flower rice mold I picked up at the grocery store today to make them into cute little Sakura shapes. Recipe for these will be up tomorrow!



And last but not least, the Hina Arare (Flower Rice Crackers). Delicious, but made out of wheat. If you can't handle wheat once and a while like I can, a great substitute is Konpeito Star Candy. Available at any Japanese market, it's rock candy but is very similar in sweetness and appearance to the Hina Arare.

Happy Feasting!

The lovely Gala Darling is putting on her iCiNG Transformation Challege and I'm and 100% on board! I'm way excited, especially after getting the results of my latest allergy panel back, I know exactly what I'm going to do.

The purpose the the challenge is to transform your life for the better, so here are my pledges for the next month:

Follow My Diet!



It sounds simple, but it's not. I had to put a sheet up on my fridge to remind me what not to eat! (I forget sometimes, there's so much.) I'm going to be really good and not even eat gluten, which is hard, but I want to see how I feel when I'm strict about it all. No more sneaking off to the California Pizza Kitchen for me and then spending the night in the bathroom with impending vomit. (Yes, their pizza is that good.) I'm really going to have to get creative though; I'm more intolerant to brown rice than I am to even gluten, and when was the last time you saw a gluten-free snack that didn't have brown rice as the core ingredient? (Answer: Not recently.)

Exercise Every Day!



I've gotten so bad about this since I moved. But today I unpacked the Wii Fit and I'm ready to get going again! (I even changed my stamp to be the iCiNG icon... and for V-Day February too!) Between that, the Dance Dance Revolution mat that I got out of storage, the free Yoga classes in my building and at my school and going to physical therapy, I have absolutely no excuse! Even if I just walk around the city for a while, that counts! (Plus some nice Vitamin D. :) )

Love More!



Since it's the month that contains V-Day, my personal goal is to love more, in general. That includes myself by exercising and eating right and expressing it to others every day.

Want to get in on the action? Go here to learn how to start!

xoxo,
L

When I'm just not that hungry, I like to throw together salads to eat because they are quick, easy and satisfying. It's especially great for when you have a bunch of things that need to be used up in the fridge.

What's in it:

• Baby Spinich Leaves


• Raspberry Walnut Dressing from Trader Joe's


• Sliced Cucumbers


• Blood Oranges, Peeled and Cubed


• Gluten-Free Vegan Granola

It made for a nice and tart but refreshing salad. Recipe for Granola coming up soon!

One of the questions I get all the time is people wondering how I figured out such a long list of foods I shouldn't be eating. It's all thanks to the fabulous Meridian Valley Laboratory.

Unlike regular allergy tests that test for anaphylaxis (when a food will kill you), these tests look for intolerances in the body. But as my food allergist always insists, intolerances are an allergy in their own right, with the way they can destroy people's health. For example, I've had standard allergy testing for eggs that said that eating eggs wouldn't kill me. But the level of intolerance that my Meridian Valley tests showed made my doctor strongly advise me to never eat eggs again. I can eat them without dying, but it wreaks incredible havoc on my system.

There are two sets of tests that each see how tolerant you are of 95 common foods. The best thing about it is that you get a scale of how tolerant you are. They let you know if your intolerance is significant (completely avoid), moderate (rotate every four days), or insignificant (eat freely). But the scales show a bar that shows you where exactly in these three categories that you land. So if your sensitive like me, my doctor advised me to cut out even the moderate ones and then rotate the ones that were at the end of the moderate section or showed a high insignificance. You can use the tests to modify your diet in a way that is comfortable for you.

It's really fascinating stuff.

Of course, insurance companies aren't big on preventative medicine yet so it is out of pocket. Because they'd rather pay tens of thousands of dollars for you to spend on unnecessary Gastroenterology procedures (true story). These in comparison, are about $150 a test and are a simple blood draw. It was worth every cent for me. I found out about foods I never thought I had a problem with, but once I cut them out, I realized they were a significant issue. I lost seven pounds in just a week in retained water. Not to mention my fatigue improved, my GI symptoms began to resolve and my pain and headaches went down a notch. There's just no comparison in the difference in how I feel.

I highly recommend having both these tests done. I gave myself one test for Christmas and one for my Birthday. It's the best gift I've ever given to my body.

I wish I could take credit for this brilliant idea, but it all goes to the mom of the awesome kids I used to babysit for.

All you do it cut off the top of a kiwi and then eat the insides with a spoon. No endless peeling, significantly less mess, totally fun. I like to cut the top part off almost all the way but not quite like Nearly Headless Nick (excuse the Harry Potter reference), wrap it in saran wrap and take it with me to eat later when I'm on the go. Super healthy and way easy snack.

Thank you, Mrs. Wallick!

Telling a little part Japanese girl that she can't have SOY SAUCE is like stealing a Bible from a church. You just don't do it. So when my food allergist declared that this little gluten issue was the end of my soy sauce loving days, I scoured Google through glassy eyes until I found this lovely:

Good thing there's San-J and their Wheat-Free Tamari. Yes, it costs a little more, but it also is the best tasting soy sauce ever. My Mummy uses it now in all her cooking, and she doesn't have a lick of food allergy in her!

This is pretty readily available, which kind of shocked me. (They also have a low sodium kind because even I think this product is salty, but delicious.) In Minnesota, I found it Cub (!) and just about every co-op around. Here in San Francisco, I've also had great luck finding it in the Nijiya Market, Rainbow Grocery and Real Food Co. Safeway, however, loses because they don't carry it. Boo.

Celiacs rejoice, Asian cooking is back on the table!

My name is L and I'm a born and raised Minnesotan now living in San Francisco. The reason I started this blog is because I was recently diagnosed with multiple food intolerances and allergies. Like anyone who suddenly gets this news, it's a mixed sense of relief, and what the hell do I do now?

I used to be the self-proclaimed worst cook ever. But out of necessity, I learned since I have so much trouble eating out. The point of this site is for dummies like myself to learn how to make and find allergen-free food in the easiest, most accessible way possible. Or even for those who do it well to get a couple ideas. Because seriously, cooking for yourself and eating foods that don't make you sick doesn't have to suck. It can be fun and delicious, I swear.

As much as I love all the Gluten-Free and Vegan blogs out there, as far as I've found, they are cooking for their families. Which is awesome because I couldn't have gotten started eating right without them, but is always way too much food for a single city gal to consume! So the focus of this blog lies in the coveted single-serving and the endless search for TAKE-OUT.

Here's where you come in. Something I'm huge of is substitutions. Have any great ideas for substitutions for something you are allergic to? Let me know if you come up with something cool, and I'll post it. Or even if you discover any products that rocket you out of your socks. Just e-mail me at LWStenmoe(at)gmail(dot)com. And make sure you comment if you change a recipe to omit an allergen, I'm sure others will want to know! We food-allergy sufferers got to stick together, you know?

You can do this, I believe in you!

xoxo,
L

PS: Here are the major foods that you will NEVER see on this site:

• Dairy


• Eggs


• Shrimp


• Red Peppers


• Grapes (Wine)


• Pineapple


• Brewer's Yeast


• Brown Rice


• Buckwheat


• Ginger


• Turmeric

I eat gluten-free most of the time as well, so I will try to incorporate that as much as possible. But, since I only have a mild intolerance and can eat it sometimes without issue, it may show up here. But no worries, it will be clearly labeled as being contaminated with gluten. *^_^*