Turns out little green trees do a body good! While broccoli may be on the higher side for protein in veggies, it sure packs a big punch overall nutritionally. Wondering what makes broccoli so great?

• High in vitamin C – known to boost your immune system, help healing and keep your skin healthy and young!
• High in folate – especially important for young women of child bearing age to ensure healthy fetal development while pregnant also helps in the production of red blood cells which carry oxygen throughout your body.
• Also contains calcium, iron potassium and other minerals
• HIGH in fiber, LOW in calories (a fill-er up-er!): A half cup contains only 22 Calories and a gram of soluble fiber.
• Modest in protein and phenylalanine (1.2 gram protein, 35 mg phe per half cup)

Listen to this easy way to add broccoli to your meal- when you are boiling pasta, one minute before it is done, throw in a serving or two of broccoli to blanch it. Strain pasta and broccoli as usual, add some olive oil, salt, pepper and season of choice and there you go. Some fiber, color and flavor added to a bowl of pasta with barely any extra effort. Not to mention a satiating addition to your bowl of pasta.

My personal favorite combination? Three cherry tomatoes diced up with garlic powder salt, pepper and basil with blanched broccoli and Aproten Penne (available at CamBrooke Foods).

Happy New Year everyone!

As the new year arrives, we all can’t help but hear talk of new and ambitious resolutions to loose weight, work out more, save money or stop biting fingernails. This year, I offer a challenge to you: explore your health and listen to your body.

So much of the foundation to compliance with an inborn error of metabolism is built upon objective data: blood levels, mg of phenylalanine or other amino acids, grams of protein, milligrams per gram of food, ounces of formula taken, ounces left to go… the numbers are endless. But, ask anyone close to someone with an inborn error and they will tell you that it goes beyond these numbers. They are tough diets, tough lifestyles, but we make them work for a reason. While these numbers are helpful, necessary objective goals backed by hard work and years of research and data, they were ultimately all developed to make us feel and be the very best that we can be every day. The truth of it is, when we are compliant, we feel better, think clearer, work harder, and maybe even act nicer!

A lot of parents of younger children have asked me what to do if and when their child will want to try foods they aren’t allowed or if they hate their formula and can’t get it in. Well, there are many answers to that question but the big picture answer is that (at least in my experience) once you reach an age where you can feel a difference in yourself things just fall into place almost effortlessly. I’m not saying there aren’t better days than others, but something just clicks and you understand what all of this is for. I believe that day will come for everyone and supporting kids by involving them in their diets and being open to talk about how they feel are good things to start with.

After all, this is what all of our hard work is for. Not just getting a good blood level, but getting the reward of how we feel when our levels are low- and hanging on to that as long as we can! Learning to pay attention to our bodies and listen to them is a huge accomplishment for anyone, and extra beneficial to someone with an inborn error of metabolism. As you become in tuned to the refreshed and focused feelings that you have with low levels you will naturally want to do whatever you can to feel like that all the time. Feeling so good and recognizing it will make you seek this instead of the foggy, crabby, worn out and exhausted feelings you may have if levels slip up. If you begin to notice that you feel differently than usual it is also a way to acknowledge, “OK I feel different, something is up” and figure out how to pull your levels back down asap.

But lets not think our condition is the only thing we need to stay in tuned with our bodies for. In our protein avoiding, amino acid counting, food weighing inborn error metabolism lives and in our sports playing, hard working, gym going, friend-shipping lives we should learn to hear from our bodies and work with them not against them. After all what is all of our hard work for if we put the rest of ourselves as a second, third, fourth or worse priority?!

So give it a try, paying attention to how your body is affected by both diet and non-diet related choices that you make day to day . Listening to your body and working with it is bound to be a beneficial relationship because as you continue learn what your body likes you will begin to avoid the things that it doesn’t! You might find drinking extra water helps you when you are hungry or saves you from getting dehydrated at the gym, or that making that extra hour of sleep a priority keeps you on your game at school or work tomorrow, or that keeping a diet record does end up helping you keep on track during tough situations (vacations, holidays, etc). Whatever you learn in this challenge about yourself may lead to resolutions really worth working towards that will help create long lasting and helpful behavior changes fine tuned to what you and your body really needs and wants.

So… here’s to your new relationship for 2012… with yourself : ) Happy New Year!

For the New Year I am trying to be a bit more adventurous with the types of food I make! I love my classic Italian pasta dishes, but I want to venture out of my comfort zone and explore the French, Mediterranean, Spanish, Thai, South American… (etc etc) cuisines.

As a head start to this New Year’s Resolution, I decided to test the Spanish/Latin American waters. Ever heard of the dish Arroz con Pollo? In Spanish it means “Rice with Chicken.” In learning a bit about the dish I realized that many believe it originiated in Spain but has become a traditional meal in many Latin American countries- great for me! Two for one? So, being a newer culture and cuisine to test out and per request from my family combined with my wanting to try out a new Christmas present (a dutch oven!), it was the perfect meal for this windy, chilly December night- I made Arroz con Pollo for them and Arroz sin Pollo for me! Typically, rice is browned and seasoned and then cooked/boiled with added veggies and chicken in the same pot. It makes for a delicious flavorful rice and a filling and exciting one dish meal. I of course had to switch things up a bit to make things work for my diet, but it ended up being delicious.

Arroz sin Pollo (Rice withOUT Chicken!) Makes 4 servings

2 Tablespoons olive oile

1/2 white onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced/crushed

7 ounces (half a 14.5 oz can) diced tomatoes

half a can diced green chilies

1 cup dry CamBrooke Short Grain Rice or Aproten Chicchi

2 teaspoons CamBrooke Chicken flavored Consomme and Seasoning

2 tablespoons green peas

7 stuffed green olives, cut in half

half a can red Spanish pimientos

4 1″ slices of eggplant

1 Tablespoon olive oil mixed with seasonings:

a dash each of salt saffron, garlic powder, cumin, cayenne and turmeric (or whatever you want)

Prepare rice as directed but add 1 teaspoon of Consomme. Brush both sides of each eggplant slice with the oil and seasoning mixture and bake at 325 degrees for 5-10 minutes one each side. (Eggplant should be tender but able to be picked up with a spatula without falling apart).

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil. Once tender, add tomatoes and green chiles. Add cooked rice and continue to saute until rice crisping up a bit/sticking to bottom of pan. Mix remaining 1 teaspoon of Consomme with about 1/4 cup water and add to pan. Continue to cook about 5 more minutes. Place eggplant on top of rice and arrange green olives, pimientos and peas on top. Turn heat to low and cover for 5-10 more minutes.

It is a beautiful, aromatic, appealing and delicious dish. Enjoy! and Happy New Year!

Per serving: 240 Calories, 1.95 g Protein (65 mg PHE)

We decided to have a pomegranate and tangerine salad, prime rib and twice baked potatoes for our mini holiday meal this year. The salad was great, but the prime rib and potatoes? Obviously WAY to high for this girls PHE tolerance. My creative juices started going and I was able to make a pretty successful makeover that I just had to share. Enjoy the holidays and try out this meal if you are out of fun ideas!

Salad: The salad was fine as is- as usual : )

1 head Boston bibb lettuce

1/4 cup pomegranate seeds

1/2 tangerine sectioned and cut into bite size pieces

1/3 cup olive oil

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

2 Tablespoons tangerine juice

2 Tablespoons shallots, minced

Combine lettuce, tangerines and seeds in a bowl. Combine olive oil, juices and shallots with salt and pepper to taste in separate bowl and whisk. Dress salad and serve as is!

I made it to make 3 servings. The entire recipe makes 425 kcal, and 3.6 g Pro (130 mg phe). Change serving sizes if you want it to be higher or lower.  : ). You could also add diced apple to stretch the salad (adding one apple would make this a 4-5 serving salad). Fuji apples are recommended.

Next up: Twice Baked Potatoes. I have a pretty low tolerance so I definitely had to fiddle with this recipe. I have learned to love using turnip in place of potatoes. I prefer Rutabaga thanks to its sweeter taste, but unfortunately that was not available. I took a family recipe and basically substituted everything. So here is my recipe for Twice Baked Turnips!

1 medium to large turnip, peeled

2 Tablespoons butter, divided

1/4 cup CamBrooke mozzarella shreds

2 Tablespoons sour cream

2 Tablespoons chives, minced

1 teaspoon paprika (and some for garnish) *if you can get smoked paprika, when heated it smells and tastes similar to bacon which is great in this dish*

Boil turnip until a sharp knife can easily pierce in through to the center. Place in a bath of ice water to make it tolerable to handle without burning your hands. Take your knife and draw an outline around the top of the turnip. Make hash marks inside the circle to help scoop flesh out. Once flesh is taken out, mix with the rest of the ingredients, saving 1 tablespoon of butter. Microwave remaining butter with paprika, salt and pepper. Spread onto outside of turnip with brush. Sprinkle with paprika for garnish. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

I had a very large medium turnip, so I divided it into two servings. The entire recipe makes 350 Kcal, 2.8 g pro (110 mg phe). Divide as you wish. To make it lower, take out sour cream and substitute with Miracle Whip or make servings smaller.

Lastly, the prime rib OBVIOUSLY just wouldn’t do. I had a lot of ways I could have substituted something in for it, but I ended up going with eggplant quickly seared with some oil, soy sauce and Montreal Seasoning.

2 1″ slices eggplant, peeled

2 Tablespoons La Choy soy sace

2 Tablespoons canola oil

Steak seasonings

Put the oil in the pan first and let it get hot. Add half the soy sauce and some seasoning and put the eggplant in immediately. Flip and while eggplant is on spatula add rest of soy sauce and more seasoning.

Careful! Too much soy sauce and seasoning can make this way too salty! I found about a tablespoon of soy sauce per slice worked well. Two slices of eggplant cooked as above total 290 KCal, 2.9 g protein (83 mg phe). I ended up having one slice due to the higher phe content. If you want to lower it further, try balsamic vinaigrette in place of the olive oil and soy sauce. Or just season with steak seasoning and olive oil, forgetting the soy sauce.

This might be a splurge for someone with a lower tolerance (if you are counting phe, about 140 mg, ~10 exchanges based on the serving sizes I used) ringing in at 4g pro. There are ways, as I mentioned, to make this higher or lower if need be. It is a nice treat to have a similar meal as everyone else, especially during the holidays. Enjoy!

…YOU better watch out! Cookies are not just for you during the holidays!

Low protein cookies are a delicious and very low treat for those of us on a low protein diet. (But lets still be mindful of our wastelines!) Making cookies during the holidays is a fun and creative past time that certainly makes my holiday season all the more enjoyable.
A great way to crank up the fun a little bit on this holiday tradition is to invite other families that also cook low protein products in your area to have a cookie swap or, if your area organization or support group already throws a cookie swap, GO! There you can try new treats, meet new people, catch up with old friends and if you are lucky (which I am sure you would be) you could end up with secret recipes and tips, tricks or short cuts in other people’s low protein kitchen. No fellow low protein chefs around? Bring your cookies to a work or neighborhood cookie swap – they are huge crowd pleasers to virtually all taste buds! In fact, growing up many of my friends actually preferred my cookies over their own! Do make sure you bring extra low protein cookies to eat yourself since other options will likely higher in protein- plus they might go quicker than you think.

How to Host a Cookie Swap: Have everyone bring two batches of cookies: half in prepackaged servings (like a sandwich baggie with ribbon, saran wrap, etc), and the other half on a platter to share during the party. Guests go around and take a baggie of everyone else’s cookies to take home with them all while enjoying the cookies put out on the platters while you socialize. Depending on time, space, and cleaning crew restrictions, you could add a decorating table with sprinkles, frosting, etc at the party, if you are feeling ambitious!

What to bring? CamBrooke has a super easy sugar cookie dough that comes premade and comes in a resealable tub so you can make a few dozen or just a few cookies whenever your heart desires! Each tub makes 4 dozen cookies that are 2 mg PHE and 0.2 grams protein each! All that is left to do is roll and cut out, bake for 10-12 minutes, and decorate to your liking and you are good to go.

I usually whip up a few colors of frosting (my grandpa’s recipe) that is incredibly easy (trust me… it has been my job since I was about 3 years old):

Confectioners Sugar

Water

Start with sugar and add water by the tablespoon until you get your desired consistency. Add a couple drops of food coloring and decorate however you want! No need to worry about protein in the frosting, it is completely free!

Happy holidays, worry free baking, creative decorating, and cookie swapping!

If you have a dietary restriction and you love to cook, your diet might could put a damper on the culinary experience. Everywhere you look there are recipes but often it might seem hard to get through without finding one or two (or maybe 10) ingredients that won’t work into your dietary allowance. Don’t lose interest! While we have many recipe resources now to make a wide variety of low protein food that are available online, in recipe books or shared among friends,  you can still explore! If you want to open up a magazine or cookbook, there are often endless opportunities if you think creatively and are willing to switch things up.

One of my go-to substitutes is eggplant for chicken. I can bread it and use in place of a cutlet, I can saute it in stir fry’s, I can grill it in place of wings, or I can bake or broil it in place of chicken breast. Check out this recipe (adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis’ Everyday Italian). Originally a chicken recipe, all the other ingredients were a-OK protein wise, so I dove right in. The results were delicious!

Balsamic Blackened Eggplant

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup lemon juice (juice of 1 lemon)

1/4 cup dijon mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cracked pepper

3 cloves garlic, rushed or minced

1 medium eggplant, cut into 1″ slices

fresh minced parsley

lemon zest

(1/2 package low protein pasta- I used Aproten Fusilli))

1. Whisk together vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper.

2. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Transfer into a large Ziploc freezer bag.

3. Add eggplant to bag, marinate in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

4. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, flipping eggplant once.

5. Collect extra marinade into small saucepan and boil down until sauce slightly thickened.

6. Spoon sauce over eggplant, sprinkle parsley and lemon zest on top. Serve with your favorite low protein pasta.

Makes 8 servings (plus extra sauce)

1 g Pro*      60 mg Phe*        165 Calories*    (*Without pasta calulations)