Delicious oven grilled vegetables

This is too simple a recipe but a super tasty one. The trick here is to figure out which vegetables work for you. Some options are zucchini, bell peppers, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower. In general broccoli and cauliflower are considered heartburn causing foods, but everyone is different.

• Your favorite vegetables that do not cause you trouble
• Little bit of olive or vegetable oil
• Salt
• Baking sheet

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F
2. Cut the vegetables in pieces. Zucchini and bell peppers can be can cut horizontally, the rest into bite size pieces.
3. Take a bit of oil and brush your veggies with it. Don't overdo here, if you take a lot of oil the result will be greasy and not good for your stomach. An easy way to do this is to put everything into a big container with a lid, add a tiny bit of oil and then shake the container.
4. Put everything on a cooking sheet and sprinkle with salt
5. Put the sheet into the oven for about 20 mins. Different vegetables have different cooking times, after 20 mins check with a fork and if not done check again in 10 mins and so on.

Taste index, out of 5: 4
Heartburn safe index, out of 5: 4

The magical buckwheat

Buckwheat (sometimes referred to as kasha) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckwheat looks like grain or rice. Unlike rice or serials it is very easy to digest. This could be in part because buckwheat is a flower rather than grain. Surprisingly other than in crepes buckwheat is virtually unknown in North America. You can sometimes find it in health stores, but they often sell the un-roasted kind and for a ridiculous price.

The best place to buy roasted buckwheat is a Russian (гречка), Ukranian (греча) or Polish (gryka) store. A 2 lb bag should cost about $3-4 and would last 1 to 2 weeks of daily use.

Buckwheat makes for an excellent breakfast or a side dish. It is somewhat calories light though, if that is a concern.

In terms of cooking the instructions are basically the same as for cooking rice.

• 1 cup of roasted buckwheat
• 1.75 cups of water (the best ratio that I found is just slightly less than 2 to 1)
• 1/2 tea spoon of salt
• 1 tbl of butter or vegetable oil (optional)

Instructions:

1. Wash buckwheat. Watch out for twigs or very rarely small stones.
2. Combine water, buckwheat, salt (and vegetable oil if you are using it, but not butter)
3. Bring to a boil
4. Reduce to simmer and keep on heat for 15 minutes
5. Remove from heat and add butter (if you are using it)
6. That's it

Taste index, out of 5: 3
Heartburn safe index, out of 5: 5 

Heartburn safety rules of our household

Hi Everyone,

This is the CreativeCook's wife, nice to meet you!!! 

As this audience quite likely knows, cooking for someone with heartburn can be a challenge as most recipes call for unacceptable ingredients or combinations.  We have come a long way in terms of the amount of heartburn and general discomfort experienced, but to maintain this delicate balance so painfully acquired, there are some rules that we need to follow each day.

In this blog post, I would like to list the dining rules of in our household that we arrived at by trial-and-error.  These will likely not apply to others immediately, but hopefully will  offer suggestions or inspire you to keep experimenting until you settle on a diet that is right for you (it took us 6 years to get here).

So, the main rules are:

• No garlic in any shape or form. Garlic is sadly often added to many premade dishes, sauces and broths, and is a prime suspect when the ingredients include "spices".
• No raw onion.  Cooked onion seems to be ok in moderation if it is caramelized.
• No hot spices, like chili pepper, black pepper, etc.
• Dry meat is bad for digestion (I am talking about that 'chicken breast done on a grill' kind of dry)
• Slightly moist-inside baked goods are bad as well, like pancakes tend to be
• Baked goods are to be consumed in *moderation*, best not to cook up a batch of muffins and have them tempt someone for several days; weekend treats are ok.
• Nothing too greasy: this includes those tempting french fries, fat-heavy ice cream and cheesy concoctions.
• Peel the skin of that fruit!
• Citrus fruits are bad
• Light meals are better than heavy ones.  If we have starches, we don't have protein at that meal.  And we usually have a salad to accompany whatever we eat.
• Food should be enjoyed and consumed slowly (not while playing tug-of-war with the dog with your free hand)

You know what?  Reading back this list, apart from not being able to eat oranges, garlic, and raw onion which do offer health benefits, I am happy to observe that these restrictions make for a relatively healthy diet. 

Best,

Catherine

Medical entrepreneurs need to address chronic diseases

I read this post a while back http://miter.mit.edu/the-unexotic-underclass/ which talks about how entrepreneurs tend to approach problems that affect people in their own social circle. When it comes to the very common problems affecting people in our own society such as war vets, single mothers, etc, these get ignored mostly due to the lack of knowledge and understanding.

I think people suffering from chronic diseases often fall into the same category. While I have seen startups building products to try and address some of these concerns I don’t know of any that were really successful. I am not sure if this is due to the lack of problem understanding or lack of support from the community. However there is definitely a niche here.

To prove this to yourself just browse through various forums dedicated to medical problems. People are sharing ideas, experiences. They provide information that one can rarely get through a 10 minute appointment with their doctor. To me this information was invaluable to finding other ways of treating my problem, but it was not easy to read through and collect it. This can be one way to help but I am sure there are others.

While this blog post has nothing to do with heartburn recipes I hope it will cause someone to come up with an idea that will let people get rid of the problem and then visit more exiting food blogs.

Pomegranate chicken

Now this is one is a really questionable post for a heartburn safe food blog. The only reason it's here is because I had a pretty good run with it for the most part and it is extremely tasty. The recipe is derived from http://www.farhangsara.com/fesenjan-khoresht.html with a few changes of my own.

• 4-6 Chicken breasts (about 1 kg)
• Ground walnuts - 300 grams (the original recipe recommends 500 but I find that's way too fatty)
• 1-2 onions (again less then the original, depending on how well you stomach onions this can be avoided altogether)
• 4-5 spoons of pomegranate paste - best place to get is an ethnic store. If none are available try the 1-2 glasses of pomegranate juice
• Sugar, 2-3 tbl spoons
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil (again less to make it less fatty)
• Salt
• Rice 

 Instructions:

1. Peel onions and slice thinly. Fry in oil until slightly golden (as per original)
2. Cut up chicken breasts into large square pieces and then fry slightly in onions until they change color
3. Add 1 glass of water (the original recommends 3 but it is way much as chicken releases its own water)
4. Cover with lid and let it boil for 30 mins or more on low. If water does run out than add some, but 1 cup should be plenty.
5. Now as per original add walnuts, paste, 2 cups of boiling water and salt and sugar (if you are adding juice then no water is needed).
6. Make sure everything is boiling again and then reduce heat to simmer.
7. Cook rice separately
8. Cover with lid and let it simmer for at least 40 minutes. You need to keep cooking until walnuts become paste and the whole "mix becomes quite thick".
9. Throughout this process taste the dish to make sure its not too sour and you can taste pomegranate. Add either sugar or more pomegranate paste as needed (but do not add too much). Also watch that there is enough water in there, especially during the first 30 minutes of step 7.
10. When serving, mix chicken with rice for best taste

Warning, pomegranate is sour and this dish might cause heartburn. Do not try it if you feel that your stomach is already in pain. Also I would not recommend consuming it for many days in a row, cook just enough to enjoy it for one day.

Taste index, out of 5: 5
Heartburn safe index, out of 5: 1

Easy vegetable soup

Soups are often hard to make. This one takes time but almost no effort and on the safety scale rates pretty high.

• A package of soup mix - usually a collection of various beans, barley, etc
• A couple of large carrots
• Parsley
• 2 stalks celery
• Bay leaf

Instructions:

• Wash and chop celery
• Wash carrots and parsley
• Combine with 8-10 cups of water, bring to a boil and then simmer for at least an hour
• Discard parsley, celery and carrots, keep the broth
• Now follow the instructions on the soup mix, which usually involves throwing the content in the water. If your soup mix comes with a flavor packet, through it out. More than likely whatever is in there will not be liked by your organs.
• Also add in bay leaf
• About 15-20 mins before your soup is done an option is to throw in a few more vegies - bell peppers, broccoli, etc. Here you need to be careful not to add the vegies that cause you problems.

Taste index, out of 5: 2
Heartburn safe index, out of 5: 5

Baked chicken

So this one is not particularly exciting. However with care it turns out to be a fairly tasty and safe dish without a lot of work.

• 4 Chicken breasts, skin and bone free
• 2 tbl of olive oil
• Favourite seasoning: Oregano, Rosemary, etc
• Salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 380F
2. Wash the chicken breasts
3. Pour olive oil into a baking dish
4. Place chicken in the dish and make sure it is basked with oil on both sides
5. Add seasoning and salt
6. Cover the dish with aluminium foil
7. Place in the oven for 30-40 mins, until cooked inside

Taste index, out of 5: 3
Heartburn safe index, out of 5: 4