Broiled Artichokes and Garlic Aioli
Adjusting to a new diet requires adjusting my entire outlook on food. There’s a grieving process: Denial (“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not allergic to anything.”); Anger (“Why is there soy in EVERYTHING!?!?!”); Bargaining (“If I eat kale for the next three weeks, I can eat cheeseburgers every day for the next month”); Depression (“Clearly, I’m going to starve.”); and finally, Acceptance.
I’ve realized that my relationship to food was unhealthy, at best. I used food to self-sooth and reward myself for hard work and success in other parts of my life. I was so disciplined everywhere else– ashtanga, taking the LSAT, applying to law schools, working overtime– trying to limit what I ate felt like I was imposing painful restrictions on the one thing I had that didn’t require self-control. I could see myself gaining weight and feeling sluggish, but I couldn’t stop eating comfort foods that made me feel even worse. Needless to say, there were almost no vegetables involved. Despite the illusion of freedom, I felt completely out of control. If there is a silver lining to this elimination diet, it’s that it has made me re-evaluate my relationship to food and shown me that there’s more to food than frozen pizza and take-out Chinese. This week has proven that I can eat good, relatively cheap food if I put in a teensy bit of effort, and that it’s not as much effort as I thought it would be in the first place.
It helps that I have awesome friends. I spent all day yesterday shopping, wandering around the farmer’s market and picking out vegetables that I haven’t ever bought un-frozen, let alone cooked properly (microwave doesn’t count). Today, we gathered after practice to whip up some GDECSF-free, vegan meals for the week.
I also have to thank the food-blog world for tons of inspiration and emotional support– when I was first told about this diet, I didn’t have the faintest idea how many options are actually out there. I couldn’t have done it without you. To give back, and for those of you also struggling for ideas on a GDECSF-free diet, here’s a rundown of meals from this week, starting on Thursday, when I pulled it together and stopped eating only rice-crackers and peanut butter:
Baked Sweet Potato with Nori, Sesame seeds, and salt
THURSDAY: Baked sweet potato with nori (seaweed), sesame seeds, and salt. This was a very hands-off, perfect middle-of-the-week dish. I coated the sweet potato with olive oil and salt, and baked it for about 45 minutes at 400°. DON’T FORGET TO POKE HOLES IN THE POTATO (I learned the hard way earlier in the week). I used rice seasoning to season the potato without butter. I’ve also heard that coconut butter goes really well with sweet potato.
Rice Pasta with Veggies
FRIDAY: Rice pasta with fried spinach and root vegetables. I had made the root veggies earlier in the week– purple potato, sweet potato, turnip and carrots, coated in olive-oil and rosemary and baked until soft. The rice pasta takes about 20 min. to cook, so while it was cooking, I fried the spinach in olive oil with two cloves of minced garlic. I drizzled olive oil on top, so the noodles wouldn’t stick together, and voila! I had dinner and lunch for the next day!
SATURDAY: Okay, on Saturday I was lazy and ate rice-crackers and peanut butter again, with boiled oats and cinnamon for dinner. It was a low-key day and thoroughly enjoyable, since I knew that Sunday would be filled with food.
SUNDAY: Black-bean taco (on rice-tortilla) with fresh guacamole, basil, and grated radish. This was very easy to make and ended up being INCREDIBLE. For the recipe, click here. We added fresh basil and radish, since we had it on hand, and they absolutely made the taco. Thanks to Natalia and Chelsea for helping make this one!
We also made the artichokes above and meals that I will share once I have had a chance to taste them!
The Looking Glass Shelf 