SCD Blueberry Ice Cream

Turkey and Jalapeño Havarti Cheese on Focaccia Bread

Delicious Fruit

And finally, me with my foods

Kelly really knows how to make SCD look beautiful and delicious. Check out more from Kelly Anne Photography. She does some pretty amazing work.

IBD Day 2010 from Alyse Kordenbrock on Vimeo.

I created this promo for my motion graphics class. I know it’s not perfect, but I think the message is good.

Help raise awareness and Happy IBD Day!

The past year started out pretty rough, as it probably is for all newly diagnosed Crohn’sies (I keep making up name Crohn’s-related words). I was 20 lbs lighter than I wanted to be and scared. It’s amazing how radically different my life is today. The first month on SCD was hard. So hard that when I went back to my college dorm after my diagnosis and starting the diet, I cried when I gave my dad all of my snacks to take home. I used to have mini panic attacks in restaurants when I couldn’t find something on the menu. But with time and support for my family and friends, things have gotten exceptionally better.

This year I think I’ve learned that I can do anything. The reason I have been so successful with SCD is that I know how terribly I’ll feel if I don’t take care of myself. I love chocolate, for example, but every time I want it, I think of the time when I was sick and chocolate burned my esophagus going down. I never ever want to feel that way again.

I’ve discovered my willpower. I have become very disciplined, mostly for the reason stated above. It’s been tough and I think it’ll always be tough, but that’s okay. Life would be boring if there weren’t any challenges involved.

I am so grateful for the life I lead today. I love that I am strong, healthy and 10 pounds heavier than I was this time last year. I hope, readers, that you too are healthy and well. If you’re struggling right now, I hope you find the strength to carry on and find a treatment that fits you.

Quickstats
Day of diagnosis: March 6, 2009
First day on SCD: March 8, 2009
Meds-free for 11 months!
Average weight before Crohn’s: 120 lbs
Weight at time of diagnosis: 98 lbs
Current weight: 111 lbs

• One brown, very ripe banana
• Peanut Butter
• Currants (or Raisins if you prefer those)
• Unsweetened Coconut
• Honey
• Parchment paper
• Aluminum foil

You can experiment with other ingredients. I’m thinking about adding in some nuts into my next boat and maybe some other dried fruits.

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees
2. Put down a sheet of foil and parchment paper.
3. Prepare your boat but cutting your banana in half. I like to cut it into four pieces.
4. Add your chosen ingredients. There is not “right” method for this. I like to dab on my peanut butter, then sprinkle on my coconut and currants, and drizzle the honey on top.
5. Wrap up the foil into a pouch and cook in the oven for 20 minutes.
6. After 20 minutes, enjoy the Banana goodness!

Be careful and let your banana cool down. I have been known for wanting to eat it right away!

If you make banana boats, what sort of yummy ingredients do you add? If you’re not a banana boater, what is your favorite SCD snack?

I know it’s kind of belated, but it’s still January, so we can still celebrate the new year.

Back at my second home: Athens, Ohio

Honestly, I’m pretty disappointed in myself. I was hoping to continue updating through my winter break, but my season job took over my life. I was hoping my mom and I would cook up a storm and I could write all about it, but it never happen.

Have no fear, readers! I am back. I am going to try to update on a regular basis. It’ll be difficult this quarter with everything that’s going on. It was nice when I was being graded on how often I post.

This year, I am really focused on keeping myself healthy. After last year’s health struggles, I think that this year has to be my year. To help with this I’ve come up with goals for myself. I prefer goals to resolutions because I know resolutions are just made so they can be broken in February. So here are my goals for 2010:

• Drink my homemade yogurt shake every day! I have to admit that I was bad for awhile. I think I went a month without drinking my shake, which really is not good. Overall, I was still okay, but  I had my moments when I was afraid I was slipping back into my sick days. So this year I will drink my shake every day.
• Eat more of a variety. I should just be honest and say “eat more fruits and veggies!” but I think that I also just need more variety. Sometimes I feel like I stick to a few dishes and don’t branch out. This year, I will try to add my variety into my diet. More fruits, more veggies, different dishes.
• Stop wanting what I can’t have. I know the SCD is doing wonders for my health and the food is great. But I’m only human and sometimes I really just want those foods I know are bad for me. I am going to appreciate the delicious food I have and not give into my weakness for certain illegal foods.
• Less stress! I almost wrote “no stress,” but let’s be real. As a college student, there’s no such thing as “no stress.”  In general I’m a bit of a worrier and tend to get stressed out more easily than the average person, so this year, my goal is to chill out. I’m going to try to take things as the come and try not to sweat the small stuff.

This is my tenth month of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and  going strong. I’m not sure how I’m doing weight-wise (I’ll have to check when I’m in Cincinnati this weekend), but I feel great!

I hope you are all off to a great start this year. I’d love to hear your goals (or resolutions if you prefer) and hopes for 2010.

May you all be happy and stay healthy!

Makes one 9-inch pie

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 ½ cups almond flour
• 3 tbsp butter, cold and cut into pieces
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

Filling:

• 6 egg yolks
• ½ cup honey
• ½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• ½ cup butter, cold and cut into pieces
• 2 egg whites
• Pinch of salt

Meringue:

• 4 egg whites
• Pinch of salt
• ¼ cup honey

Instructions

Crust

1. Heat the oven to 300ºF
2. Place all crust ingredients in food processor and process until it starts to form a ball.
3. Flatten the dough into a round disk between two pieces of plastic wrap and gently roll out the crust into an 11-inch circle. Put the dough, still between the plastic wrap on a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, about 10 minutes.
4. Remove the pastry from the fridge. Peel off one side of plastic wrap and place it in the pie pan and remove the other plastic wrap.
5. Bake for 10 minutes until light brown in color. Set aside to cool.

Filling

1. In a double boiler (or in glass bowl sitting above a pot of boiling water) whisk together the egg yolks, honey, and lemon juice.
2. Slowly add the butter, a couple of pieces at a time, whisking the entire time. Add more pieces as the previous ones melt.
3. After all the ingredients are melted and well-blended, cook for an additional 10-15 minutes, stirring only occasionally, until it thickens.
4. Cool the lemon curd in the fridge.
5. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form stiff peaks, but are not dry.
6. Gently fold the egg whites into the chilled lemon curd mixture.
7. Pour the mixture into the cooled pie crust.

Meringue

1. Heat the oven to 400ºF
2. Beat the 4 egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form.
3. Add the honey and beat a little longer until shiny and stiff.
4. Plop the meringue on top of the lemon filling, making sure it touches the crust. Form peaks and mounds as you go.
5. Bake for 3-5 minutes until the peaks are golden brown.
6. Cool and keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Much of my health improvements couldn’t have been made without the love and support of my family, my amazing boyfriend and my awesome roommate. My mom has probably been the most supportive. As someone who, too, has struggled with illness, she knows how hard and scary being sick can be. She also is the one who really believed in that I could stick to the SCD and make it work. When my doctor was doubtful, my mom was right there with me, standing my ground and convincing the doctor that it was so worth it.

I am so grateful for finding the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.  With that appreciation, I can’t even begin to express the gratitude I have for the creators of all the blogs, web sites, and recipe books that I have found. Without you, SCDers, I would have never tried this diet. I would have never known that a diet change can heal. I would have tried every medication and probably hated every moment of it because I hate, hate, hate taking meds. So, thankful, fellow SCDers, you were my inspiration.

In other festive news, my mom and I have been cooking up an SCD storm! I was a little nervous about my first SCD Thanksgiving, but I can’t wait to eat now! My mom and I made Lemon Meringue Pie, Pumpkin Pie, and Candied Walnuts. We’re also experiment with making a mashed celery root recipe and making some turkey gravy. I can’t to try it out. I’m hoping to post some pictures and recipes as well as input on the results. That may have to wait until tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Eat, drink, and be merry! Tell your loved ones how much you appreciate them and remember all the great things you have in your life.

Please keep checking back for updates!

Thanks and Happy Eating on Thanksgiving!

My roomie looked at me and said “huh. I’ve never seen that before. Have you?” I actually have never seen a Crohn’s commerical on TV before. I immediately hopped on the advertised site Living with Crohn’s Disease to see what it’s all about. The site is run by the biomedicine company Centocor, which makes medication for Crohn’s. I think it’s interesting that nowhere in this commercial do they mention Centocor or its medications. I wanted to take the Crohn’s control quiz on the Living with Crohn’s site, but you must enter too much personal information for me.

Also, I thought the commercial was a little too overacted. They were so dramatic that it actually amused me. They’re so serious, but what I’ve learned from Crohn’s is that you can’t be too serious about it. It is a disease and you must have control over it, but you don’t need to be such a downer about it. In my family, we joke about my Crohn’s and it helps me not to fret about it too much. Overall I think they need to replace their lame actors with real people and make something more uplifting.

As usual, I was going through my Yahoo! Group discussion board emails for SCD and I ran across one post about a new web site. The site, Eat Right, is based in Ireland. While exploring this site I found something very interesting: Tweet What You Eat It’s a Twitter-based food diary. “Use Twitter to track what you eat, and now your weight, by ‘tweeting’ food items to your personal food diary on Tweetwhatyoueat.com from your mobile phone, IM or through Twitter.” Using your Twitter account you send direct messages to TWYE, so

your friends can’t see what your food diary. TWYE says, “Twitter is the perfect platform for a food diary application. You can send Twitter messages from a phone via SMS, your favorite IM client and even the web through Twitter.com! That makes it very versatile for our on-the-go lifestyles.”

It’s cool to see a new application for the Twitter technology, and I think it shows that Twitter can be used for more than just updating about your life. I’m not sure I’ll be tweeting my eating habits anytime soon, but perhaps someday.