Saturday, January 28, 2012

Orzo roasted veg salad

I had this dish a few summers ago while visiting a friend in Nova Scotia. It is easy and brings memories of warm summer fun! Remember those times? brrrr here.

I cut up some zucchini, various colours of peppers for some happy, mushrooms, and grape tomatoes. If you have more veggies that tend to roast well, go for it. I forgot to add some kind of onion, sweet or green for me. I put cut veggies into a large bowl and seasoned with olive oil, kosher salt, pepper and garlic powder. ( I was being too lazy to go to the basement to get fresh garlic from our stash.) Put it in a roasting dish and into a 350 degree oven. I just check on it every once and a while. I don't like it too mushy as it will continue to cook after you remove it from the oven.

Oh, and the most bestest part of alllllllll... goats cheese with pesto. We have homemade pesto that I hoard. The goat's cheese gets it. It is also good on cranberry garlic bagel wafers. yum!!! Mix it up and put pieces into the orzo and roasted vegetable mix. it can be served cold, warm or room temperature.


Can I get a little personal here? Throughout my adult life, I've always had trouble with my belly. Many tests in university showed nothing. Over the years, the pain and symptoms would change and most recently, it has been bloating. So much bloating that even drinking a glass of water or a morsel of food would bloat me as if I was 6 months pregnant. And the pressure on the upper stomach, under the diaphram was intense. Last fall, I started drinking a a generous teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and a teaspoon of honey in warm water 1st thing in the morning. All was well. I stopped doing it around Christmas time. This past week, the pain returned. I'm not saying the vinegar/honey thing sured me, but I forgot I had those problems.

This week, when the flare up returned, I decided not to just let it be and to do something about it. I decided to go gluten free. I stopped eating things with wheat. I went out and bought some gluten free bread, cookies, cereal and different flours to do my own baking. In a word, I dropped a load of $$$ to help my belly.

The next morning, as my husband was going out the door, he said, "google 'Yeast in the gut'". So I did. And the symptoms were more similar to mine. I ate gluten free bread and green tea for breakfast. I could feel the bloat coming on. In the car around lunch time, I had rice cakes. Full on bloat! It hurt. When I was chatting with Rafael's hairdresser, she said she had similar problems and that I should try Bio-K. I bought the probiotic in liquid/yogurt form rather than pill. I drank it in the car and as I was coming home, I could feel it working! BLESSED BE THE LORD! IT WAS WORKING!!!!! I could feel the rumblings in my upper belly and the bloat deflating. It was such a relief. And almost instant! And it lasted. I went to a house party last night, ate lasagna, cake, cake and more cake and a fruit punch with fizzy soda in it and was kind of ok. Much more ok than if I had not had Bio-K working for me. Before I went to bed, I drank a 1/4 of the small bottle of bio-k and all was well.

So here's my regimen, 1st day, one whole bottle. 2nd day, 1/2 bottle, 3rd and subsequent days, 1/4 bottle for maintenance. I'll see how that goes for the 6 bottles I bought and play it by ear after that. I'm curious to see how different foods and time will do to my upset digestive system. I'll let you know too if you want. I feel so much better. now, I can focus on the rather large and spreading muffin top at the gym!

Cheers,
Amanda

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