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Recipe | Low-FODMAP Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

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One of the biggest challenges for me, starting off this Low-FODMAP Lifestyle (especially since we started just after Thanksgiving so I was facing Christmas without cookies, etc.), was finding high-quality, good-tasting bread products that didn’t include wheat, barley, rye, or any of other high-FODMAP ingredients.

Thankfully (though I consider it a bit of a double-edged sword–but that’s a topic for another time), gluten-free foods and products are a lot easier to find these days, and those products are an excellent place to start when you’re going low-FODMAP, but gluten-free doesn’t automatically mean FODMAP-free (or, rather, low-FODMAP–FODMAP-free would be really tough). Many times a gluten-free cookie or break will include high-FODMAP fruit-derived sweeteners like apple and pear juice concentrates, fructooligosaccharides (aka FOS), high-FODMAP fiber additions like inulin, or even simple ingredients like honey or agave nectar that are no-nos for those of us on this diet.

Consequently, I found myself getting better results baking from scratch than using mixes–even pre-made gluten-free flour blends–but sometimes you really do want that convenience factor. So I keep trying whatever I can find.

One product I’ve been fairly happy with the is Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix.

I bought it on a lark one shopping trip and then heard from a Facebook friend that it makes a fabulous banana bread, so had to give it a try.

Fun Fact: February 23rd was National Banana Bread Day

Low-FODMAP Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Mini-Loaf

Low-FODMAP Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Mini-Loaf

The same friend mentioned upping the bananas a bit more than the recipe on BettyCrocker.com called for, so I added a third banana to the mix just to see what happened. I also kept in the vanilla from the box instructions, even though the recipe didn’t call for it, and left out the nuts but added some chocolate chips. Upon hindsight I also used the amount of butter the box called for (2 sticks or 1 cup) instead of only half of it–oops! It sure did turn out to be a moist quick bread, though!

Low-FODMAP Banana Bread
adapted from BettyCrocker.com

1 box Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe Bananas (3 medium)
1 cup Butter, softened
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
6 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

  1. Preheat your oven to 350° Fahrenheit.
  2. Combine cake mix, bananas, butter, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on low 30 seconds, and then medium to high for up to 2 minutes–you’re usual cake-mix method. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  3. Butter only the bottom of a loaf pan (or a set of mini-loaf tins–I managed to make 8 small loaves with one mix) and pour in the batter, smoothing the top as best you can. For a single loaf pan bake for 1 hour, for mini-loaves start checking on them after 30 minutes. Once a toothpick or knife inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean it’s done.
  4. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan(s), then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Wrapped in plastic this banana bread will last at least 4 days on the counter–that’s as long as ours lasted, but seems about right. Gluten-free foods do sometimes tend to dry out more quickly than those containing wheat, so storing it in the fridge would be a good idea for longer storage.

Look at those chips!

Look at those chips!

Since the Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix uses a combination of rice flour and potato starch to replace the wheat flour and sticks to plain sugar instead of substituted and other additives it qualifies as Low-FODMAP. Bananas are one of those tricky ingredients–some IBS sufferers can tolerate the 1/2 banana that’s cleared by the FODMAP gurus, others find even that much too much. Ripeness is a factor, too–too ripe and the sugar balance gets thrown off. To work around that, freeze some bananas when they just have the tiniest specks of brown on their peel (perfect ripeness) and then defrost to use in recipes. This also has the benefit of making the banana easier to mix in to the batter, since the freezing process does the heavy lifting of tearing through those cell walls for you!

As to the chocolate chips, make sure you read the label and select a brand that does not include milk or lactose as an ingredient to keep this banana bread low-FODMAP overall. So far I’ve found the Nestlé Tollhouse and Enjoy Life brands are good for this.

A common malady of GF mixes is a gritty texture to the finished product. This is generally because of the type of flours being substituted and a hard thing to work around when mass-producing this sort of product and needing to give it a decent shelf-life. All of my GF flours suggest keeping them refrigerated after opening, though the only thing I really do that with is the xanthum gum since it’s so blasted expensive! Whether because of the superiority of the mix itself of the addition of several “softening” ingredients (butter, eggs, and bananas) is hard to say, but we didn’t have that problem with this particular recipe.

We enjoyed our banana bread warm from the oven (quality control, you know), at room temperature the next morning for breakfast, I sliced up a few loaves to serve to guests one evening and then we split the last loaf between us and topped it with some ice cream (Bryer’s Lactose Free Vanilla) for a Friday-night dessert.

Even though it wasn’t quite as quick as mixes can be (the only time savings was the measuring of the flour, sugar, and leavening, really) it was nice to find a mix that yielded a nice end product that even folks not on restricted diets enjoyed. It’s something I wouldn’t hesitate to keep on hand for those quick-fix moments when I want something sweet without too much fuss.

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This is not a solicited review of any kind. I purchased the items referred to above and received no compensation from the brands or manufacturers. Opinions of the brands listed above are based on personal experience and indicate no relationship with the brands other than any other consumer would enjoy.

Review | Better Food For Dogs by Bastin, Ashton & Nixon

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Cover of Better Food for Dogs

image via Amazon.com

Honey, tonight we’re eating dog food!

And you know what? It wasn’t half bad.

Let me back up a second before you think I’ve completely lost my mind.

When I picked up Better Food for Dogs (with the oh-so-adorable wrinkly bulldog puppy on its cover), I was expecting a few lists of things dogs should never eat and a lot of recipes for treats, “muttloaf” and things of that nature. What I found was a book full of information that every dog owner can use, including many “Doc’s Doctrine” sidebars from Dr. Grant Nixon, D.V.M., the veterinarian that contributed to the book along with David Bastin and Jennifer Ashton–former dog bakery owners and dog-lovers themselves.

The recipes come only after a rather thorough examination of what the proper diet can do for dogs. The authors purport that does benefit from varying diets just as humans do and that it’s difficult for them to receive all the nutrition they need from a steady diet of only one sort of food. They even take on the topics of vegan diets for dogs as well as the raw diet trend–neither of which they are highly in favor of (the first as it’s not realistic for canines, the second for concerns of food safety).

While there are a dozen of yummy-sounding treats at the end of the book, the bulk of the recipes are for the everyday food for dogs, their two meals a day, and are divided between the Basic Recipe–a combination of beef, chicken, turkey, or lamb for the protein and either rice, macaroni, or potatoes for the carbohydrate, along with a veggie blend–in quantities enough for 4 servings at a time, and single-serving Gourmet Recipes. All of this is them broken down into suitable amounts for the different sizes of dogs out there–everything from 5 lb teacup breeds to 150 lb behemoths in 5-lb increments. And then there are charts for the additional needs of bonemeal (for calcium) as well as the other nutritional supplements needed (again, by size of dog).

The Gourmet recipes range from breakfast fare (Cottage Cheese, Fruit and Toast; Oatmeal, Yogurt and Fruit; even a Breakfast Burrito) to dinner options (Stir-Fried Ginger Beef with Greens; Salmon and Dill Pasta; Tomato and Chicken Rotini) and total 20 in all. Not each size of dog gets a version of each recipe, but it’s simple work to size  up or down by finding  the recipe you want in another size that can be easily doubled or halved to meet the proper calorie count. It’s a whole lot easier than making a small dog coat fit a medium dog!

Still, it sounds like a lot of work even cooking every other night on top of cooking for yourself or your family. How tough really would it be?

And that’s when I decided to serve Todd and I dog food for a couple of nights.

We started with one of the basic recipes: Chicken and Rice

Chicken and Rice from Better Food for Dogs

Chicken and Rice for dogs

And that’s when I determined that cooking for your dog is not as out of the question as it might seem. In fact, if you approach it the right way, it’s downright easy!

The basic recipe deals with a protein that easily be bought in quantities and cooked ahead: cubed chicken and ground beef being the most accessible. Package it up in the right quantities and keep it in the freezer until needed–you could do up to a month at a time depending on the size of your dog and the size of your storage space. Put your rice cooker to work to make up enough rice to get your through a week and buzz up a batch of the fruit & vegetable mix and fridge it. After that it’s a quick reheat, stir, and add in nutrients.

And, like I said, it’s pretty tasty. The vegetable mixture is pureed, so it’s a little different than using steamed, chopped veggies in your average one-pot meal, but other than that it’s totally normal food.

For our gourmet selection we went with the Salmon and Dill Pasta

Salmon and Dill Pasta from Better Food For Dogs

Salmon and Dill Pasta–yes, this is dog food!

Tomato, zucchini, spinach, garlic and dill with chunks of tender salmon and pasta make for a good supper no matter how you slice it, and since none of the veggies in this version are pureed, it’s not much different than any other meal we might make.

Now, obviously, we don’t have dogs ourselves but have owned them in the past and hope to in the future when we have enough time to devote to them. Still, I know many people who do–my own mother, for instance–and I would not hesitate to recommend this book to her.

Will we cook for our future furry friends? Hard to say, but at least it’s a discussion we’d be up to having now.

After all, some people consider their dogs akin to children. Would we want children to eat nothing but fortified cereals for every meal? So it’s a questions worth asking: don’t your canine companions deserve a bit more than kibble?

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I received a copy of Better Food for Dogs for the purpose of review. All opinions are my own.

Review | Savory Pies by Greg Henry

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Savory Pies by Greg Henry

image via Amazon.com

Pies have always had their fans, but it’s a food usually offered as an alternative to cakey goods. One of the main best selling points is the ratio of filling to crust you get in a pie that far outweighs the filling and frosting ratio in a similar cake. But that’s all desserts–what about pie as your meal?

Probably the first thing you think of when considering a main-dish or savory pie is quiche, that brunch staple, or else a chicken pot pie might come to mind. I admit an old episode of Emeril and his crawfish cheesecake is also lurking in the back of my head, so I was more than a little curious to see what inspiration there might lie in Greg Henry’s Savory Pies: Delicious Recipes for Seasoned Meats, Vegetables and Cheeses Baked in Perfectly Flaky Pie Crusts.

I was not disappointed.

The first thing to notice is that this is not just a book of pie fillings. Henry goes beyond the simple single- or double-crust pies with fluted edges into tarts, turnovers, pizzas, and pastelles. Pretty much anything that could be put into or under a crust or covering was considered fair game. There are sections for meat & seafood pies, hand pies, vegetarian options, appetizers, and, of course, a set of pie crust recipes to carry you through.

On New Year’s Day we got our cabbage quotient in with his Sweet Sausage Cabbage Pie with Dill and Feta (p.59). Another night found us feasting on a Sausage and Red Pepper Polenta Cobbler (p.93), a cast iron skillet concoction with fluffy cornmeal dumplings covering its surface. Seeing as we’re fans of breakfast for dinner, the Irish Breakfast Pie (p. 101) with it’s cheeky eggs poking out of the pierced top crust was a must-try for us, and very filling with it’s layers of thinly-sliced potatoes. About the only thing that could have improved that pie would have been some grated cheese in between the potato layers.

Strata of bacon, potatoes, and eggs in the Irish Breakfast Pie

Strata of bacon, potatoes, and eggs in the Irish Breakfast Pie

His Arichoke Clafouti (p.125) was akin to eating a slice of warm artichoke dip with a barely-there crust of breadcrumbs. And “The Oggie” Steak and Stilton Pasty recipe (p.156) sounded so good with it’s steak, potatoes, turnips, and cheese that even though I didn’t feel like making so many individual hand pies that night, it was just as good in a store-bought gluten free pie crust.

Artichoke Clafouti

It could certainly be a main dish, but we served this Artichoke Clafouti as a side dish to lemon-pepper tilapia for a nice, light supper.

As for the pie crust recipes, they are simple and easy to follow and I was quite surprised at how tasty his Gluten-Free Pie Pastry recipe (p.20) really was, especially as this book was being tried-out when I was early into my low-FODMAP diagnostic diet phase. And one of the best parts of gluten-free* pie crusts? You simply cannot overwork the dough as there’s no gluten there to toughen up on you! It also didn’t hurt that I’d received a Cuisinart for Christmas and am overjoyed at how quickly a pie crust comes together in that thing!

Steak and Stilton Pie

The filling for this Steak and Stilton pie was amazing!

And for those who consider savory pies a little to low-brow for an elegant supper, there are also wine pairings for each recipe, written by Grant Henry, “with an eye toward easy-to-find wines, staying away from wines that would require selling a major organ to purchase them.” Now that’s my kind of wine pairing!

When considering whether a cookbook is a hit or miss with me, it’s not just about what I’ve already made from the book but how many recipes I still have flagged that I want to make as I’m writing up my review. Based on the number of sticky notes fanning out from the book’s pages, Savory Pies definitely falls into the hit category. In fact, as soon as I find a good gluten-free puff pastry dough recipe, many more delicious things will be made from this book.

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I was provided a copy of Savory Pies for the purpose of review. All opinions and experiences expressed above are my own.

*For the record, gluten poses no problem on a low-FODMAP diet as gluten is a protein and FODMAPs are particular carbohydrates. Sources of gluten like wheat, barley, and rye, however, do also contain the problematic-for-some FODMAPs and starting with GF products or recipes can be a good start. Thus ends the FODMAP disclaimer.

Confessions of a Reluctantly Picky Eater

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A few years back I chose to cut out tomato products and a few other items from my regular diet as a result of a health issue that had cropped up. Even though tomato products are all over the place, it’s still very possible for an otherwise-omnivore to enjoy social gatherings without making a pill of oneself.

Now, all of that has changed.

My fellow foodies, I have a confession to make:

I have become what I once despised: a picky eater.

What happened to make this once adventurous eater now reticent to accept a dinner invitation? It all comes down to three little letters that have been causing me a whole lotta trouble:

I. B. S.

No worries, I’m not going to go into any graphic details about the whole thing, just understand that what used to be a minor inconvenience had been escalating over the last few years, to the point I didn’t even realize how sick I was was.

My family, at least my father’s side of it, kind of jokes about the “family stomach”–we all seem to have some form of tummy troubles on a regular basis and when you grow up hearing that, you don’t really think much about it, you just deal with it as a matter of course. It is what it is. And my other, known, health issues could also explain some of my issues, so we just went with it and worked around it as much as possible.

Only, lately, it’d been getting worse. Since June, 2012, I’d been pretty much sick more than well, though thankfully not to such an extent that it stopped me from doing what I needed to, it just made things damned inconvenient and uncomfortable.

And then, in November, I heard about 6 other letters that might just mean a return to normal:

FODMAP

Research out of Australia’s Monash University has shown that FODMAPs (Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, and Monosaccharides And Polyols–in English, certain short-chain carbohydrates) may act as symptom-triggers in up to 75% of IBS patients due to varying levels of intolerance or malabsorption. And all it takes to find out if it works is to cut out a few (okay, a lot of) key ingredients from your diet for a little while.

I found out about FODMAPs from a guest post on Fooducate written by dietitian Kate Scarlata. That led me to Patsy Catsos’ site and book: IBS: Free at Last (insert “I Have a Dream” joke here). While it really is a good idea to seek out and work with a dietitian familiar with the FODMAP program that can guide you through the process while still insuring you get a well-balanced diet, if you have trouble finding one Catsos’ book will walk you through the Elimination Phase and subsequent challenges step by step.

After talking it over with Todd and doing quite a bit of research, we started the Elimination Phase (a minimum of 2-weeks without any of the identified FODMAPs) the week after Thanksgiving.

You might guess that since FODMAPs are carbs, wheat would be included in high-FODMAP foods, and you’d be guessing right. Lactose (the naturally occurring sugar found in milk) is another common culprit and I already knew I was lactose-intolerant, so that wasn’t a huge change for me. Fructose can be tough for many people to digest if it’s not balanced by glucose, so this free-range fructose as I like to call it counts as a FODMAP–no more honey for my tea, no HFCS (though I try to stay away from it in general, anyway), but also no apples or pears or anything sweetened with their juices, just to name a few. Fructans, the FODMAP found in wheat, is also found in garlic, onions, and certain other vegetables, which was probably the hardest change for us to make, as well as Galactans and Polyols (sugar alcohols) which meant no beans or legumes.

In the challenge phase you test one FODMAP group at a time, with breaks in between to let your body return to normal (FODMAPs are believed to work en masse–which is why you can eat something one day and feel perfectly fine, but eat the same thing another day and get sick–it’s a critical mass thing). If you experience symptoms, you know that group of FODMAPs might be an issue for you. If not, you’re probably in the clear for that group.

The good news is that even if you “fail” a challenge, it doesn’t mean you’re doomed to never have whatever it was again. It just means that you can choose. FODMAPs aren’t allergies–it’s not life-threatening and you won’t die if you accidentally or intentionally eat something that you challenged and reacted to, you might just not feel too great–but they are intolerances, and if you continue to eat them on the regular, you may continue to feel ill in whatever way that these foods affect you.

Unfortunately, for me, I reacted to everything. According to Catsos this could point to an underlying gastro issue that effects rate of digestion (which my previous diagnosis does) so it makes sense for me to be more careful.

For me, it’s worth it. Not everyone experiences a night-and-day difference pre- and post-FODMAPs, but I certainly did. A week and a half into the 2-week Elimination Phase I felt better than I had in probably 3 years–definitely better than the last 6 months. So good, as a matter of fact, I almost didn’t want to do any of the challenges because WHY would I want to go through feeling bad again? And I did feel bad. Several times. Broccoli, for instance, will not be reappearing on my plate for a very long time. Which is a shame, because I liked broccoli, but I now know it doesn’t like me.

And why do we want to eat things that aren’t good for us? I’m not talking about the occasional junk food indulgence. A bit of fried this or that. And there may be times when I choose to eat an otherwise high-FODMAP food for nothing other than I really want to, and I’m willing to accept the consequences.

But for the most part, I’ll be living the low-FODMAP lifestyle for the foreseeable future because I’ve felt fabulous since I made this change. I still have to be careful of my other health issues. I still can’t eat huge, non-FODMAP meals–it’s not like my gallbladder grew back or anything. And I need to be careful that I’m getting enough variety in my diet when so many things are now ingredient-non-grata.

It means more than a little research before going out to eat, and careful consideration when I’m invited to a party or other gathering. But it’s still up to me to have the right attitude, to take responsibility for my diet and not expect others to cater to me, that will keep me (I hope) from being the type of picky eater I dislike so very much.

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And with that, we’re back to our usual blogging schedule here at Nibbles ‘n Bites! If you read Nibbles on another site or through a feed reader, you might want to click through to see some of the site updates that were made during our month away–we’ve been busy little monkeys! You may also want to sign up for the monthly Helper Monkey Network News, to keep up with all the sites in the network in a handy, once-a-month package (see the sidebar for the sign-up link).

Beans, Lentils & Tofu–Oh My!

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image via Amazon.com

On their own or with other heavy-hitters, beans, lentils, and tofu can make quite the filling meal. While they are the perfect comfort-food base for the cooler months, they also work well in Spring and Summer.

Because they are common sources of vegetable protein, you might expect 250 Best Beans, Lentils and Tofu Recipes: Healthy, Wholesome Foods would be all-vegetarian all the time, but there are plenty of recipes throughout the book that combine the headliners with meat, poultry, fish and seafood. I mean, with 250 recipes you’ve got to figure the match-ups will be pretty varied.

Even though Todd’s not the biggest fan of tofu, I figured this would be a prime time to try out some new tofu material on him and see how we fared.

The first try wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped.

Cantonese Noodles

Cantonese Noodles

I don’t think it was the tofu’s fault, though. I’ve made one other dish in semi-recent memory, a buckwheat polenta, and remembered it having an odd taste to it. Granted, I chalked it up to the anchovy sauce and didn’t think about it until we sat down to the Cantonese Noodles (p.219) and it all came back to me. It also doesn’t help that the soba noodles I used were 100% buckwheat and turned the sauce into a gluey, brownish-grey muck. Maybe using a mixed buckwheat/regular wheat noodle would cut down on that.

The small hand-rolls I made to go with them were tasty, though! Jasmine rice, sliced cucumber, and lightly steamed carrot and parsnip curls bundled into a narrow slip of nori.

The next experiment was much more successful.

Curry-Fried Tofu Soup

Curry-Fried Tofu Soup

Tofu is great for absorbing the flavors around it and dredging it in homemade curry powder and pan-frying it would be a hit with our curry-loving palates. The Curry-Fried Tofu Soup with Vegetables and Udon Noodles (p.41) was a complete meal in a bowl and perfect for a quick weeknight meal.

Bistro Lentils with Smoked Sausage

Bistro Lentils with Smoked Sausage

Switching gears to the Bistro Lentils with Smoked Sausage (p.190) we made a fabulous, filling supper and were able to use some locally made sausage to sweeten (or would be that be to savor) the pot. We had some parsnips in the crisper so decided to add them along with the called-for carrots and the additional color and flavor were amazing in this dish.

Another fabulous collection of recipes for the when you get stuck for something different to do on your average Tuesday night, or just for a bit of inspiration in general.

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I was provided a copy of 250 Best Beans, Lentils & Tofu for purpose of review. The opinions express are entirely my own.