Low Iodine Diaries-Day 8--needed Ca and Fe

I think not having Calcium and Iron in my diet really got to me. I woke up really feeling crappy and was totally off today.  I had a couple Tums and an Iron pill with lunch, rested for a bit and I felt much better. I was messing up things at work all day long.

Day 8-I can't believe that I made it this long.  It's getting easier and harder at the same time.  I am totally bored with  food.  I keep trying to kick up the seasoning, change the culture, change the ingredients to jazz things up.  But it's not working.  I am not a meat and potatoes eater.  I want a tuna fish sandwich, cole slaw and some melted cheese.

I am very happy I found the Simply Fiber cereal.  It's made a big difference to me and my "transit time" as my GI calls it.
Breakfast-1 cup Simply Fiber, pineapple and blueberries, hemp milk, cinnamon. 

I may have had more protein today than the diet allows, or I maxed out the amount I can have. I felt  I really needed more today after being so wiped out.
Lunch-1/2 of a chicken breast, roasted apricot and plums, 1/2 of a skinless baked potato, left over peppers, onions and zucchini from last night's dinner. 

Snack-"buttered" homemade bread. 

Dinner wasn't so adventurous tonight.  I steamed green beans and nuked my side dishes from left overs.
I boiled some potatoes, steamed green beans.  The amount of cooking I am doing is much more that I am used to.

Dinner-BBQ'd pork chop, frozen mixed vegetables, salt free soup with a small boiled potato, steamed green beans. 

Every day after lunch I had a couple of squares of 85% Cocoa Chocolate, for the all the health benefits. :-)

It's very easy to have this treat on the LID diet, there are so many brands that only use ingredients that we can have. I also made some sugar free lemon jello.  I shot an email off to the people who make Coffee Rich, they make something called Whip Rich.  If the salt is not iodized, I can make some whip cream. That might be enough of a treat on my jello or chocolate zucchini bread.  Yum!

It's been threatening rain for the past couple of hours, my scar is itching like crazy. 

Today's bird picture is a video of "Frick and Frack"

We have named the turkeys that stop by a few times a day to graze. 

Test your knowledge

Which picture doesn't belong in the series?

I am going to keep you in suspense until tomorrow. 

Low Iodine Diet Diaries-Day 7--It's been a long week!

Finally the rains have arrived and maybe this heatwave will break.  It's been really hard for me. I am NOT a summer person.  Instead of being 98 degrees outside today, it was 92.  My weight was up again today.  I feel like all I have to do is breathe to gain weight.  But I haven't "cheated" on the LID diet and I right now that is what matters the most.

I started the day early. My hormones are so screwed up, I can't really sleep well, unless I take a Tylenol PM. I got bread started, diced all the plum tomatoes I bought, did laundry, all before 8am. I decided to give hemp milk in cold cereal a try. I didn't want to use a lot of it because it is very fattening,  full of "natural sweeteners".  Sugar by any other name is still sugar.  I have been missing cold cereal.  I bought a box of Simply Fiber at the health food store.  No salt, no sugar. Tastes like the box it's in, but it's okay for the LID and that's good enough for me. It looks like elbow macaroni made of compressed bran.

Breakfast-1c Simply Fiber, a splash of hemp milk, blueberries and pineapple. 

I went to the Lakehurst Farmer's Market and bought a few ears of corn, blueberries to freeze, Jersey tomatoes and green beans.  I was going to make creamy corn soup from Martha Shulman's cookbook, More Recipes for Health, but I really didn't want to work that hard today.  I just shucked the corn, froze the kernels and made some stock from the corn cobs and Pacific Salt free chicken broth.  It came out really good.
Snack-a piece of fresh baked bread with stewed plum tomatoes. 
Lunch, 2 1/2oz left over steak, 1/8 c. chickpeas, salad. 

Dinner was an impromptu skillet creation.  I wanted to grilledchicken thighs, but didn't thaw them in time to marinate, and then it started to rain when I wanted to grill them.  I browned them instead.  Then I de-greased the pan with dry sherry, added some gram marsala, salt and pepper and cooked onions and red bell peppers in the skillet.  When they softened, I add about 1/2c or more of the stewed plum tomatoes, let that cook a bit and then put back the chicken for the chicken to finish cooking. I also oven roasted yellow summer squash, because after I re-read the recipe for Zucchini Tian I saw it had a 45 min. prep time and needed  1 1/2hrs baking time. I didn't want to make something that labor intensive.

Dinner, 1 serving Health Valley salt free, mushroom barley soup.  1/2 chicken thigh, grilled zucchini and peppers and onions. 

No Peeve standing guard tonight.

We had a special surprise visitor today!
Casey, the cutest Yorkie I know.

Look at that face, he's adorable!!! 

Look at that face, it's adorable
American Oystercatcher
Bird of the day!

Low Iodine Diet Diaries/Day 6--The birth of Jer-Zi Pickles!

In the Necessity being the Mother of Invention category, tonight was the birth of Jer-Zi Pickles!  Jerry's newly harvested cucumbers. tomatoes, and peppers lovingly pickled by Shari Zirlin's water, salt, dill and garlic. Labels by Label Zirlin (naturally!).

They will be ready for eating in 3-5 days!

My diet today was better than yesterday. When I go on birding field trips I usually take my breakfast and lunch in the cooler.  Breakfast is always yogurt, fresh fruit, and Fiber One mixed together.  On the LID, that isn't possible.  There isn't much alternative. 

My view of the field trip from the Gull Tower. 

Breakfast-2 rice cakes, 2 tsp. salt free peanut butter, sugar free apricot spread and a plum. 

It wasn't enough, about an hour later I was really hungry, I needed my apple fast. 

Snack-apple

Lunch-salad, babaganoush, quiona tabouleh, chick peas, eggplant salad. Slice of Sugar Free, LID chocolate zucchini bread. 

After the trip, we made our way (as usual) to Wa-Wa, I always buy a cup of coffee with Irish Cream or Vanilla creamer. But for the next few weeks, that's a no-no.  One of the ingredients is carrageenan. I just had 1/2 of a mixed fruit salad.  

I made a turkey meatloaf for dinner tonight. 

Dinner-5.5oz turkey meatloaf, skinless baked sweet potato, and broccoli.  

Peeve making sure there are no iodine-ladened items on my plate. 

My weight is creeping up. I have been eating less meat and more veggies.  I have been really trying to limit my starches.  I don't know what potatoes are on the LID.  But on my diet they are a starch, so are the rice cakes and zucchini bread.  I am trying to limit my starches to 4 a day.  Grains and starchy vegetables, like potatoes and corn are considered starches on my diet.

I am also very weary, I am getting dizzy a lot.  I don't know if it is from the heat or being hypothyroid for the ablation, but either way, it's getting to me.  My sleep patterns are shot.  The only way I get a good nights sleep is by taking a Tylenol PM, otherwise I am up at 5am.
Also I am not used to cooking so much.  We don't eat much processed foods, but lunch and breakfasts are much easier.  I can go to the store and pick up a ready made salad, or have a low cal sandwich.

Bird Picture of the Day.

Little Blue Herons and Roseate Spoonbills. 

Ding Darling NWR, Dec.2009

Low Iodine Diet Diaries-Day 5

Today was my 3rd official LID day.
I decided that I absolutely have to take my Stress Complex B+C vitamins.  I don't have food cravings and I feel emotionally calmer on them.  I am one of those that really need to take B vitamins in large doses.  The ones that I take are Kosher and are soy free, dairy free and all fish and crustacean free. So they will be okay to take.

I was also glad to read on the Thyca.org message boards, others are getting dizzy in the heat. Several times over the past few days, I stood up and got so dizzy.  I thought it was the LID and checked my blood pressure. I found out it could be caused by out of whack thyroid hormones.  The heat is supposed to break over the weekend.

I didn't cook anything today.  I ate the things that I made yesterday.  I did make some bread crumbs for tomorrow's turkey loaf.  And I went to the supermarket to get some things that we need to make pickles. My neighbor is growing cucumbers and the NY Times had a article about how to make your own sour pickles. They said that the best pickles are made with cucumbers that are just picked.  Jerry said that he is going to pick them in the morning. By the evening they will be sitting in brine on my counter.  The best pickles I ever had were wasabi dills.  I think that I may make some when this diet is over.  I love mixing pickles in my tuna fish and egg salads. The wasabi dills were great in there.  The first batch of sour pickles will be ready while I am still LID'ing. FYI the articles says that you can only use un-iodized salt to make pickles, the iodine in table salt messes up the brining process.  Pickles on LID, who would have thunk it!

Tomorrow will be my first weekend of LID. We are going on a birding field trip to Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge-Brigantine Division (A.K.A. Brig). The big challenge won't be eating, but being eaten by the Green Head Flies.

Breakfast-oatmeal, pineapple, hemp milk
Lunch-salad with the babaganoush, quiona tabouleh, and eggplant salad.  Along side 1/2 a sweet potato with 1/2c curried chick peas
Snack-1/2 rice cake with no sugar added blueberry preserves and an orange
Dinner-3 1/2 oz London Broil with grilled red peppers and summer squash. 

Peeve is guarding my dinner to make sure on Iodine sneaks in!

Bird picture of the day

OH! R.O.M.E.O, OH! R.O.M.E.O
Wherefore at thou?
(Randy Old Men Eating Out)

And Just because there are flowers in my garden (finally!)

Cross Line Skipper
ID'd by Harry Zirlin

Peck's Skipper

ID'd by Harry Zirlin

And because I am in a very good mood today because I ID'd the Peck's Skipper correctly!

Ruby Throated Hummingbird at feeder

Low Iodine Diet Day 4

I made it through today. I worked all day and then spent time in the kitchen. It was a busy, busy day!

I made croutons with some of the bread that I baked.  I cut the bread into 1/2 cubes. I mixed together, some Mrs Dash Salt free seasoning, with kosher salt and olive oil.  Toss the bread in it and then baked it on a cookie sheet for about 10 mins.  I tossed them around about mid-way.  Now I have enough croutons to last this whole diet.

From the eggplant I roasted yesterday I made Babaganoush and Eggplant salad.
The Babaganoush is easy, I scoop out the insides of the eggplant and then chop with a mezzaluna.  I take the chopped eggplant, put it in a food processor bowl with the chopping blade, add tahini, lemon juice, salt, pepper and I throw in some fresh parsley.  Let it rip! Taste, adjust seasonings. I only eat a little babaganoush, at a time because the tahini is very fattening.

Eggplant salad, this is based on the Roasted Russian Eggplant salad, but not so labor intensive, and I don't like raw onions and I can't eat garlic.  Garlic is in none of my recipes, so it's up to you to use it where you want to.  I took part of the eggplant that I didn't use, mixed in grape tomatoes that were cut into small pieces and cucumber cut into small pieces.  I use those long seedless cucumbers, but you can use regular, just take out the seeds.  Mixed it up by hand and put in some balsamic vinegar.  I didn't like how it tasted, some thing was missing...so I tried something different.  There is an olive oil/vinegar store in NJ, that I **LOVE**.
Carter and Cavero.  They import the best balsamic vinegars that I have ever had.  I like the raspberry.  Today I added the Sicilian Lemon White Balsamic Vinegar to the eggplant salad.  That was it. The salad was great...here is the link
https://carterandcavero.com/?SID=dt6sinv8qt6tt32onoai33j937

I had a ton of left over parsley, Larry bought me extra lemons...I think that there is some Tabouleh in my future. I went into the pantry, found the bulgar, open the bag and phew!!! it stunk!! The oils in the grain went rancid.  I still had all these ingredients...and quinoa.  Keeping the Mediterranean  theme going.  I made Quinoa Tabouleh.  Tabouleh is really simple to make. Follow the package instructions to prepare the quiona and then let it cool to room temperature.  I mixed the cooked quinoa with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  That's it.

Here's what I ate on my second official day, 4th including the 2 practice, ease into LID days.
Breakfast-Fried Egg whites, home made bread and a banana.
I got really sick of oatmeal and it doesn't hold me until lunch.  Now in my 8th year, of Weight Watchers, I haven't made an omelet with egg yolks in all that time. I missed the cheese I usually put in the omelets, that's about it.

Lunch-salad with Eggplant salad and Quinoa, and Homemade Croutons. Curried Chickpeas and left over pasta with zuchinni and tomato.   Sounds a lot of food, but it was 1/4c Quinoa, 1/2c chick peas, 1/4c pasta.

Snack-plum

Dinner-4 1/2oz hamburger with Sauteed Mushrooms in Marsala wine and Sweet and Sour Cabbage.  

I made it through another day. Not bad as days on a a restricted diet go. 

Bird Dropping of the day...

Need a lift?

Low Iodine Diet-Day 3-This time it's for real

Today was the first official day that I needed to be on the Low Iodine Diet (LID) for the Radioactive Iodine (RAI) Ablation I am having done on 8/1. Next I will start singing SSZ on the LID for the RAI on 8-1-2013-eee.  You have to be of a "certain age" to get that, yeah..the age of Aquarius.

Breakfast- oatmeal, hemp milk, blue berries and a nectarine. 
As noted yesterday, I put Hemp milk in my oatmeal.  It tasted okay there, but I wouldn't drink the stuff or use it for coffee.  First it's full of sugar, second it doesn't taste that good.  I wouldn't use it as a milk substitute in cold cereal either. It's going down the drain on 8/4, when this diet is over.

I made roasted apricots and plums this morning from the NY Times recipe this morning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/health/pan-cooked-chicken-scaloppine-with-spiced-roasted-apricots.html?ref=dining&_r=0

Roasted plums and apricots right out of the oven.

I am not used to cooking with so much sugar! I'm a Splenda girl!  This recipe called for honey, I substituted the butter with salt free margarine (see yesterday's post) and I didn't have ground ginger, I used ground cloves instead. 

Still stumped what to eat for lunch on this diet, I made Curried Chick Peas for tomorrow. 

This is my own recipe. 

8 oz. dried chick peas, soaked the fast way-in boiling salted water and then left in the hot water, covered for a couple of hours

1 can of Muir Glen Salt free diced tomatoes

black pepper, non iodized salt 

Frontier No Salt added Curry powder

water

1/2 tsp. baking soda. 

1/2 large onion chopped. 

oil

1)Saute onions in hot oil, until browned

2)pour the liquid from the diced tomatoes, into a 2 cup measuring cup, then add enough water for a full 2 cups, set aside

3)add the diced tomatoes. Then the salt, pepper and curry powder to taste. Stir to combine and then add the soaked chick peas.  Cook for a few minutes.

4)add the tomato water and baking soda. let boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed.  This can take a long time, over 60 minutes, closer to 90 minutes, maybe more, be patient. Don't let it burn, check and stir frequently. 

Shari's curried chick peas. 

Lunch-left over zuchinni with 1/2 cup pasta, 2.5 oz left over pork, salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette.  A slice of homemade bread with margarine

What can I tell you, I eat a lot. 

Snack-slice of chocolate zucchini bread with salt free peanut butter.

Before I left for the gym. I roasted 2 sweet potatoes and an eggplant. I might make some Babaganoush with 1/2 of the roasted eggplant, but I need lemons and parsley and I really don't feel like going to the supermarket AGAIN!!!

I did 1/2 hour of weight lighting and then a really intense hour long aqua aerobics class. 

Snack-banana

Drove home and had...

Dinner-4 oz BBQ chicken skinless breast with Mike's Sugar Free Buffalo Style Wing sauce (that my wonderful husband,lovingly prepared for me), with some of the spiced roasted apricots and frozen vegetables-not still frozen  D-UH!

Who knows how many calories I had today.  All I know is that I stuck to the Low Iodine Diet, which is the most important thing I can do right now. 

A big PS...for the most part this is how I normally eat.  

New Resources found!!! Penzey's has a ton of no salt spice mixtures. I ran out of their Shallot Pepper, since the store at Grand Central Station closed, I have to go back to ordering on line.  

here is their list...Go Crazy!

http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/c-Salt_Free.html?id=IcByxPUz

Here's the Frontier Spices List. 

Their Oganic Curry Powder Seasoning is salt free

http://www.frontiercoop.com/ourproducts.php

and finally

Flipping you the bird...

Male Kirtland's Warbler...there is no more to say!
Photographed by me at Magee Marsh,  Oak Harbor, OH
in May.

A New Culinary Adventure-the Low Iodine Diet

On May 28th 2013 I had a total thyroidectomy.  My doctors were fairly certain that everything would be benign. Wrong...I had 2 malignant tumors, one was 3.7 centimeters, the other much smaller.

And so began the search for information about thyroid cancer.  I culled through many websites and much information since the second week in June.  First I had to separate the personal horror on the web from the facts. Statistically my odds are good. The cure rate for the type of cancer I had is like in the way upper 90's. The recurrence is high and that rate is scary and it can happen decades later.  I will be going for screenings for the rest of my life.  Which brings me to the LOW IODINE DIET.  The information out there about the diet is so confusing!!! What can I eat, what do I have to avoid.

After surgery the treatment for thyroid cancer is a dose of  Radioactive Iodine (RAI). The RAI should  kill all the remaining thyroid cells and thyroid cancer cells (it's called an ablation). Thyroid cells suck up iodine and you don't want  non-radioactive iodine competing with the radioactive iodine for that precious spot in the thyroid/thyroid cancer cells, therefore for two weeks before the ablation and for a few days afterward, there is the Low Iodine Diet. From the way people make the diet out to be-even the doctor doing my ablation-you would think that I was going to have to eat cardboard and drink stagnant, eutriphied water for two and a half weeks.

I am real good at dieting. I have been better, but this is for 2 weeks and my life depends on it.  To all those people out there who complain about the diet. I say to you-Suck it up so your thyroid cells can.

I can't have any products from the sea, no dairy, iodized salt, packaged commercial baked goods, soy products, some kinds of beans, no dark leafy green vegetables, no foods containing added salt (you don't know if it's iodized), no cured meats, and a few other things.  Also you can only have 4 servings of grains and 6-8 servings of protein a day.  Hey no problem!

Thanks to my handy dandy internet search engine, I found free low iodine cookbooks with a combined total of about 500 pages of recipes.
http://www.thyca.org/download/document/231/Cookbook.pdf
http://www.thyroidcancercanada.org/userfiles/files/LID_recipes_Mar_14_2012.pdf

Also I have tweaked a few other recipes to make them low iodine and diet friendly.  I don't know why the major concentration of any diet lately is recipes for snacks, cakes, cookies and treats.  I want food, I don't want to waste my calories on empty ones. It took two years to lose 75 pounds and for the past 5 years I've kept 70 of them off!

So for the next few weeks I am dedicating my blog to my Low Iodine Culinary Adventure.

First and most important to me was coffee and diet soda, in that order.  I found that I can have Rich's Non-Dairy Creamer and Original Coffee Mate in moderation. Diet soda was okay also! Whew!!!!! An easy hurdle.

Off to the Kosher Experience at Shoprite in Lakewood, because one thing you can be certain of, if it's Glatt Kosher and it says Dairy Free, it absolutely is.  I got the coffee creamer and the my salt free, dairy free, soy free, carrageenan margarine there.

Next was no salt added chicken broth, because I didn't feel like making my own from scratch. I only found one brand that didn't have added soy and god knows what other unappetizing shit you wouldn't expect in chicken broth, Pacific.

Much to my surprise, already in my pantry was Mikes Sugar Free Buffalo Wing Sauce!  A BBQ miracle sauce.  It is as good on pork as it is on chicken breast...

My couple of practice days have left me wondering about lunch.  There was really nothing for me to eat, and I didn't relish (hahah!) the idea of alternating between egg white omelets and chicken breast.  When we lived in Brooklyn, I was around the corner from the health food store.  Here in Whiting, NJ, I have to drive about 14 miles to the only Health Food store in Tom's River.  I spent about 40 minutes reading labels.  I found
a few good things.  Salt free, soy free soup! Woo-hoo.  Salt free curry powder! Hemp milk for my morning oatmeal. Hemp milk will be an new experience.  I found some high fiber cereal cold cereal at the health food store also, so I can have something else besides shredded wheat.

At Stop and Shop, they had no salt added rice cakes and salt free peanut butter.  I was also able to get Heinz salt free ketchup and Muir Glen no salt added diced tomatoes.

This diet suddenly became "doable".

Today I tweaked a recipe for chocolate zucchini bread from Marlene Koch's website.   http://www.marlenekoch.com/zucchini-recipes-chocolate-zucchini-bread-and-oven-fried-zucchini-rounds/

It's the second recipe on the page, I used 3 egg whites instead of 1 whole egg and one egg white, a minor change.  I put a little peanut butter on a slice of chocolate bread.  OMG!!!! was it good.  

A lot of people would be at a loss if they were told that the can't have commercial bread products, not me...I have been baking bread since I was 9 years old.  Got some yeast and made some milk and egg free bread.  It's artisanal  bread now, but before that it was just plain old peasant bread. 

I have been busy reading labels on fresh meat.  Many chicken products have "natural seasonings" added. I found that Perdue ground chicken, just said rosemary...into the cart and then the skillet.  For dinner tonight we had Ground Chicken Kofta Kebobs no tweaking necessary, and Zucchini with the no salt added diced tomatoes. 

http://greek.food.com/recipe/ground-chicken-kofta-kebabs-415146

Stay tuned for tomorrow's meals. 

I have chicken defrosted and fresh apricots...

Lunch will be left of zucchini with pasta

Breakfast is the big hemp milk experiment...will it or won't it go in the garbage! 

No more practice runs, tomorrow is the real deal!

Mommy!!!!
American Oyster Catcher with chick.
Too Cute for Words