Seriously. Nian gao is amazing. Made from glutinous rice flour and formed into shapes which you can boil, fry, flavour with pretty much anything. I LOVE them. Chewy and sticky and lovely with so many possible flavours.
So I ate a lot of stuff in China. ALOOOOT of stuff. One of the first I remember being introduced to was near where I worked. What was referred to as the rest of the foreigners as, ‘the Muslim noodle shop’. Which was most likely because the people who worked there, were actually from a Muslim part of China, the women even wore headscarves and such.
These are pretty much exactly the noodles in question, nabbed the pic from a thread of deliciousness. Can’t think why I didn’t take photo’s of this… it was early enough in my stay after all. So anyway. Lanzhou Niu Rou La Mian. I always just ordered it as Niu rou la mian, and they knew. Though they did this hand cut style noodle, and a hand pulled noodle, more like the west is used to I spose.
I managed to avoid the hospital. For a week longer than anticipated. Maybe it was my sheer willpower in not wanting to be in over Christmas and my birthday? Maybe it was luck? Either way. Exactly one week after my little upset, I got worse again. Pain for hours, and spasm-y pain that came and went in waves. Most painful pain I can recall feeling. That didn’t let up if I moved or anything, because usually it eases. But it just stayed gurgly and bubbly and painful for hours, which was unusual. Which led me to being fast passed to the AMU ward at the N&N via my local GP, who was ever so helpful, and sympathetic, considering he was on call.
So I managed to keep out the hospital over actual Christmas. Which I’m soooo glad of. Even got to eat some of the delicious Christmas dinner my dad made, and my Yorkshire puddings which I made the batter for *proud chef*. Better than Aunt Bessie’s any day. Cos homemade is always better. Everyone knows that.
And I swear to you, cooked in a tin/tub like that, this is what they’ll look like if you do it right. Just the right combo of doughy in the middle and crunchy edging.
Too underdone for my liking, but it’s all personal taste.
Earlier on today I had a huuuge craving for crumpets, alas because of whatever happened yesterday, liquids only, and tomorrow… effin Fresubin…
Crumpets don’t seem to bother me at least. Just toasted with a bit of butter on, not too much mind you, too much fat=bad thing. Usually with crumpets I’d slightly over toast them, since undertoasted is no good. So they might be a little crispier on the outside than some would like :3 Like this.
(Though I’d make sure all the butter was spread into the crumpet, I don’t like getting a mouthful of butter on stuff like toast. My dad prefers that though o_o;)
Drowning a crumpet in melted butter so that when you squish it down it leaks butter is just brilliant, but can’t right now XD. Muffins are also tempting as hell right now…
This was the closest thing to what I made I could find, since most results came up as actual muffins, not English muffins lol. Only difference is the sauce base and kind of meat, though it looks like ham anyway, pepperoni would have been my topping of choice too. Ham and pepperoni. Even better. I did add more cheese than that though… maybe a little too much in retrospect…
English muffins seem to be too stodgy for me at the moment, they fill me up more, I suppose they don’t have all the holes that crumpets do after all. But an English muffin, with some butter and/or whatever toppings you like, quick snack. Works nicely. I made mini garlic pizza muffins(like the ones you might have made in Food Tech class in early high school lol) under the grill a few weeks ago in fact, since tomato isn’t always a good thing, though tomato sauce from a squeezy bottle seems fine. Even puree I think. (Guidelines for making Garlic Pizza Muffin’s below the cut :3)
Been in pain for hours and throwing up for like 4 hours… called 111, got advice. so yeah. just a note.
EDIT: So I almost got sent to hospital last night due to all the upchucking and pain etc. Had an emergency medical practitioner come round to check on me, see if I was sick enough to be admitted the quick way, but of course that’s when I stop throwing up, for a little bit. I’m always more stoic around medical/family folk. Try to play things down even if they’re really bad.
Gave me an antisickness tablet, then left, said to call if there were any problems. Apparently moving me upstairs caused me to hurl again *yay*, and I woke up at 5:30 to hurl. But haven’t since. Yet. (It’s 10:40 now.) Sipping on water, hoping it stays down. Hoping I don’t land myself in hospital over the Christmas period. Not that I’ll be indulging much anyway…
So bacon with too much fat on is apparently a very bad idea. I can’t think what else messed up today, so it must have been the bacon muffin I had after my gastro appointment(will elaborate later). But it seemed to just sit in my stomach all day till I hurled in the evening. Tmi I know, but most folks with Crohn’s and IBD have to get used to talking about bodily functions, so it’s probably not that shocking.
I know some things I’ve read have said that fat in general is harder to digest, and therefore bad for Crohn’s. Which I’ll go with, since processed hot dogs and stuff like that seem to bother me, during a flare up anyway. Even though I ate canned/jars of hot dogs loads before. And beans… I miss baked beans… but right now thinking of food isn’t what I wanna do. But there are good fats we need too right? Either way, I went from feeling meh, to feeling seriously bleh… literally.
Is it all in our heads? Some people seem to think Crohn’s and IBD related diseases can also be psychosomatic, which in layman’s terms basically means stress and stuff can affect us in a very very bad way, more than people without IBD. Our guts might be attuned to our mental well being even more so than people who get butterflies in their stomach when worried, or get stomach aches when they’re stressed out. Folks like us with Crohn’s and IBD would react… worse… in theory. Again. Theory. Because there is still so much to be learned about Crohn’s and IBD, alot of it’s still theory, and heck, they’re not even sure what causes it yet…
So I figure, distractions are key. Keeping your mind OFF THE CROHN’S. When I was first diagnosed, I think I was probably revising/studying for exams and stuff, I know I missed an exam because of symptoms and had to do it later on. So that would align with the stress/mental health theory.
If this is what you want, turn away now, because mine is a quick and lazy version. No grill involved. But plenty of melting.
So I’m meant to be on a low residue, low fibre diet. And I can’t eat massive portions at once, so it means I have to snack literally every couple of hours if I want to get all of my calories. I also need to replenish my protein, which is even harder since the Crohn’s is probably making it so it’s not getting absorbed even if I do eat enough. And apparently things must be fairly low in fat, because fats are harder to digest, so no hot dogs, sausages, processed meats, all the things I loved to snack on… specially hot dogs… and things like cheese, are apparently harder to digest, so when I do brave some cheese, I have to do it in moderation, same for milk products, but that’s mainly because I get phlegmy lol. I think rich foods are also not a great idea for me at the moment, but that’s just me. Everything has to be in tiny pathetic portions either way…
I’m currently looking for quick, easy snack foods that require very little prep time, because sometimes you don’t wanna spend ages making something you then don’t really feel like eating, am I right? So this, a Tuna cheese melt, done the extreme lazy way, and power saving too, I’d like to think.
For the past… must be 5 months or so now, I’ve been pretty much obsessed with the Food Network. In particular, Diner’s Drive in’s and Dives with Guy Fieri, but obviously, when you have Crohn’s, or IBD, alot of that highly spiced/flavoured delicious looking meat fests that get featured on the show, are off limits to us. Though occasionally there are lighter things, noodles, pasta, rice dishes, it would still be difficult for us to adapt… of course it depends on the person, as Crohn’s and IBD seems to be a fickle mistress unfortunately.
I’ve just got food on the brain. Literally. Even if I’m not hungry. I want to eat and/or cook things. Which is a waste of time… I made Sesame cookie things a few days ago, and ate hardly any of them…. which SUCKS. I want my huge appetite back. And I want to be able to eat what I like again.
This blog will hopefully be a mix of helpful tips and recipe things that don’t bother Crohn’s and IBD, things that don’t agitate our stomachs and bowels. Because right now, mine is bubbling away merrily, though it seems to do that no matter what I eat. That’s my goal. To make my tummy quiet again T-T.
fafcai 