Now what's for dinner?

A lot has happened since my last post: a bit more research, a whole lot of good food, and a new diagnosis!

Now, I could cover these topics in order, but then I know you’d scroll all the way to the bottom and skip over all the food, so I’ll hurry up and tell you about the new diagnosis. I had a much-anticipated appointment a couple of weeks ago with my neurologist, who during our last appointment asked me to get a blood test checking for a list of things two pages long. <insert cringe-face here> The result showed that I actually have something that’s not MS. That’s right: I don’t have MS, y’all… What?!

The thing I do have is called neuromyelitis optica, or NMO. Now, friends, pinky-swear with me right this second that you will not google “NMO”. My neurologist warned me that, on publicly-edited sites like Wikipedia and WebMD, people post truckloads of misinformation, some of it malintended. Seriously, don’t google it.

Here are some good ones for ya: http://myelitis.org/symptoms-conditions/rare-neuro-immunologic-disorders/

http://www.guthyjacksonfoundation.org/

The short version: NMO looks a whole lot like MS and is often misdiagnosed as such, and that’s easy to do because MS is much more common, whereas NMO is super, super-duper rare. When untreated, this disorder gets bad and scary, fast. But, Doc says, when you’re being treated with the right meds and doing all the physical therapy and resting you’re supposed to (which I have been since October!), folks get better as much as they will (which is different for everybody), and then, a relapse may happen in some number of years -- maybe 15 or 20 -- or not at all! If a relapse does happen it is super treatable, and I sure as heck will go to the doctor a lot more quickly than I did the first time around. Regardless, I vote for no relapses ever again. Keep your fingers crossed and your prayers lifted, y’all. The moral of the story is that it’s gonna be okay.

As I walked (walked! yay!) out of the appointment, I was struck by an imperative question:

Now what’s for dinner?

Does this change what I should eat? Looks like I have more reading to do.

During the whirlwind following this new diagnosis, I finished reading Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis. In the last ⅓ of the book Professor Jelinek covers in a positive way many “now what?” topics, including exercise, meditation and faith as well as food. I was relieved to get to the part where he says what to eat after two hundred pages of scientific detail about what not to eat. Imagine the guilty hindsight of this lady, who five years ago opened a Southern homestyle catering company called Bacon & Bakin’, and who now is considering near-veganism. Even in those days I did, however, cook some pretty great vegetable side dishes, which I am now serving at home as entrees. Ta-da!

It’s been too long since my last post; I’ve cooked a lot of good food since then. Here are a few pictures of things I’ve made lately:

Salad. Lots and lots and lots of salad!

Roasted beets

Excitement over the (gradual) return of my knife skills!

First attempt at half-cheese-half-vegan pizza

and a new whole-wheat crust recipe

My favorite new super-hearty breakfast.

Under all that goodness is homemade yogurt

made out of soymilk!

I tied on an apron this week, a thing I haven't done in six months.

I'm excited about this because my fingers work well enough

to tie this bow, and because I'm cooking for people,

which gives me a reason to wear an apron.

--

Please comment here to tell me which of the above you’d like the recipe for next!

Bon appetit, y’all.

Salad Days

I’m reading a book very, very slowly: Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis by Professor George Jelinek. It’s quite dense in new vocabulary and new information for me, with a lot of science-y discussion of various trials in diet changes and their effects on folks with MS. This is the first of what I foresee being a long journey in changing lifestyle patterns to get me back to as close to 100% as is possible

So far, being ⅓ of the way through the book, I have already learned a ton about a lot of topics surrounding MS. The most pertinent and interesting information is, of course, about food. Here’s the really short version:

-Saturated fats are BAD. Like, kill-you bad.

-This means you, Omega-6s.

-Food that comes from land animals contains this stuff.

-Having only a little is still no good.

-Unsaturated fats in moderate amounts are good! Hooray!

-All hail Omega-3s.

-Fish is good.

-Vitamins A and E, when taken in supplement form, are bad.

-Get these vitamins from food instead.

-Do, however, take B vitamins, some of which are missing from no-meat diets.

-The proteins in dairy products might also be bad. Science isn’t sure yet, but maybe.

-*insert sad face here*

Any questions? Oh, about a million. After another two hundred and something pages, I hope to have some of them answered, and I’m sure I’ll have added another million to the queue. I’m keeping in mind that this is just one theory, albeit one scientifically tested around the world for many years. There are other theories and books and websites that I’ll be reading too. Do you know of a book or website you’d like me to read? Feel free to suggest it in comments below.

In the meantime, let’s talk about food and good company.

A dear friend came to visit this past weekend. We’ve been friends for years, and back when I owned a catering company, she worked with me in the kitchen for several big events. I was very much looking forward to cooking with her, and eating, talking, and visiting with her all weekend. It was a positive, rejuvenating time. When I thanked her for bringing me her healing friendship, she reported that, in the three days she’d been there, my walking ability had drastically improved! It's amazing what having fun can do for one's health. 
Status update: I’m now walking around the house using two canes, pretending to be snowshoeing in order to work on my steps and my gate. I am still using a walker outside the house, though in most places, that walker gets in the way more than it helps. I’d love any suggestions as to how to carry around two canes while using a walker, so I may alternate their use.

While my friend was visiting, she taught me how to make her favorite salad dressing, which will make the big pile of veggies my diet is about to become more pleasant:

Honey Sherry Vinaigrette

1c oil of your choice (Pick one with as little saturated fat and as much unsaturated fat as possible, like olive or a few kinds of vegetable oil. Welcome to being a super-nerdy label reader! I am now one too.)

1/2c sherry vinegar

1/2c honey

1 shallot, peeled and roughly chopped

1 pinch each salt & pepper

Throw it all into a blender. Blend until the shallot has been sufficiently pulverized and the dressing looks creamy.

Tossing this dressing with raw kale or other tough greens, letting it wilt the kale while you make the rest of dinner, makes you an instant rock star. Bonus points if you top your salad with yummy things like this:

Wilted kale and rainbow chard topped with pear, apple, 

red bell pepper, pecans, and goat cheese. 

I obviously made this salad before I got to the part 

in the book that talked about dairy and saturated fat. Sigh.

I use about half of this recipe's amount of dressing on a large dinner-for-four-hungry-foodies salad bowl full of green things. In this salad, we used a bag of kale and a bag of rainbow chard, which I can’t believe I’d never used in a salad before!

Refrigerate any unused dressing, which you know you’re gonna use tomorrow for an encore.

Bon appétit, et a votre santé!