Foods That Don't Have Folic Acid (Folate)

On rare occasion you may find yourself prescribed a low folate (folic acid) diet perhaps after mtx treatment. While this doesn't seem like a big deal to cope with - you soon find that folic acid is in almost everything - especially on a vegetarian diet. Here is an accounting of some food ideas for when you can not eat folic acid.

• Apples - while very nutritious apples do not have folic acid (one of the few fruits that you can eat on a low folate diet)
• Cheese - not so low-fat but an oked food on the low folic acid diet
• Potato Chips - most regular potato chips have zero or very low folic acid
• Potatoes - guess what the plain old potatoes also should have zero folic acid
• Greek Yogurt - well I guess regular yogurt too - but who likes that drippy stuff :) - yogurts often have no folic acid - though make sure you arent adding in ingredients high in folate like black cherries or other fruits or nuts or grains
• Chocolate - have at it - no folic acid to fear here
• Beverages - including soda, apple juice, water, coffee, and milk
• Tofu - unless fortified with folic acid should have zero folate
• Beef / Chicken / Pork - for you carnivores you should have much less trouble on this diet
• Sweets - most candy and sugar sweets are zero on the folic acid scale

If you find yourself on this diet - good luck - I never thought I would get sick of cheese - but after only two days on this diet I could go a long time without it.

General Tso's Chicken

My sweet sweet husband has one really sweet habit that makes me crazy sometimes. Every single time he goes to any restaurant he has a particular thing that he always gets. For instance - if we go to any Chinese restaurant he will get General Tsos Chicken; if we go to any Thai restaurant he will get Chicken Pad Thai; if we go to Winners he gets the Birdie Sandwich... every every dang time. I want to break his OCD and every time hope he will try something new - "here doesn't this look good?" at which point he always takes it into consideration and when it is time to order goes back to his old standby. Every every dang time. So yes - I see it as a challenge to expand his horizons - but yes I also find it absolutely adorable how faithful he is to his choices. So... it was only fitting that I find a recipe to make my sweet sweet husband General Tso Chicken. I made one version vegetarian with fake chicken and one with real chicken breast.

• 1C veggie broth
• 2T low sodium soy sauce
• 1T chopped fresh ginger
• 2t rice vinegar
• 2t sweetener
• 1t curry paste
• 2T Franks sweet and spicy hot sauce
• 2T evoo
• 1 package of boneless chicken breast (or 1 bag fake chicken strips)
• 1 handful of green onions
• half package of frozen broccoli

1. Mix broth, soy sauce, ginger, vinegar, sweetener, and curry in a bowl until it is well blended and put aside for a while
2. Saute the chicken in evoo in a pan until heated through - remove from pan and put in a plate for a while
3. Pour broth mixture in to pan and simmer until it thickens a bit
4. Place chicken, green onions, and broccoli back into pan and coat with sauce until cooked through
5. Serve over rice (though if you skip the rice and franks sauce this works for stage 1 south beach diet)

How to Make Quick Pickles - Quickles

This past week I journeyed with my dashing groom, my snuggly prince, and my mother-in-law on a road trip through the South. We visited family in North Carolina, stayed at a cabin in the Mountains, hiked waterfalls, climbed through caves, braved mile high swinging bridges, visited a winery, visited fort sumter, savannah riverfront, and even stayed a night in Charleston with BT's cousins. While there I got to taste some quickles cousin Michelle made that she found a recipe from TheShiksa. I couldn't quite get them off of my mind and bugged her until she sent me a link to the recipe before I even arrived home. Well - after a whole day home I ran to Publix and bought what I needed - or what I could find that I needed. Here is my slightly tweaked version of the recipe.

• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 fist full of fresh dill
• 1 bay leaf or a shake of dried
• 1/2 tsp of whole peppercorn
• 1/2 tsp of coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp of dill seeds (not dill weeds - i ended up finding it at walmart after a couple stores I checked didnt)
• a couple shakes of red crushed pepper
• a shake of celery salt
• 1/4 tsp of fennel seed
• 8 small cucumbers (without the wax coating)
• 2 cups of water
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1.5 tbsp course salt
• 1 mason jar

1. Put slices of garlic into a pan with water and let it boil for one minute to blanch the garlic (this keeps the garlic from turning blue in the soaking. After boiling for one minute drain the garlic.
    
2. Add garlic, all spices (except salt), and cucumbers into the mason jar. The cukes will likely have to be squished to fit but after the soaking they will shrink so should be easier to get out.
   
   
3. Boil the vinegar and water and salt in a saucepan until salt is gone and about one minute after
4. Use a funnel if you have one - and pour the solution over the cucumbers until they are covered.
   
5. Let the jar cool off before closing with the jar top and sticking it into the fridge.
   
6. After about two days of soaking you can take them out to eat, but the longer you wait - the tastier they will turn out to be.
7. Enjoy!

BBQ Tofu Pasta

So I was looking for new ways to enjoy tofu and found a recipe that involved grilling the tofu chunks and then pouring barbecue sauce on top. I decided to take this and mod and created the recipe below. It was awesome and we enjoyed it for dinner and then leftovers for days.

• tofu
• red and green bell peppers
• mushrooms
• garlic
• bbq sauce
• shells pasta

1. saute tofu in evoo in pan until crispy
2. sauce peppers, mushrooms, and garlic in another pan until soft
3. combine both pans and boil water for pasta
4. drain cooked pasta and add to pan with veggies and tofu
5. pour bbq sauce of your choice over the concoction until it is covered and mix
6. Enjoy!

Vegetarian Tex Mex Casserole

So a craving for ground crumbles took over me this week and I bought a bunch of bags of the Boca variety while at publix this week. Too bad they werent on bogo. I decided I was going to make this casserole, some vegetarian cincinatti chili, and who knows what else. So anyhow, we made this last night. The boys tore it up. And I thoroughly got my craving satisfied. Here is the recipe I came up with - try it, enjoy it, share it, mod it.. :)

• veggie crumbles
• rigatoni
• 1 can tomato soup
• 1/2 vidalia onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• frozen corn
• 1 can black beans
• a little cheddar
• rotel
• chili pepper
• red pepper (or berbere if you are a berbere addict like me)
• salt and pepper

1. boil pasta and set aside
2. pre-heat oven to 350
3. in a pan saute the garlic and onions in evoo until onion is translucent
4. add crumbles, corn, rotel, and black beans until heated thoroughly
5. add soup and spices and cook until warm
6. mix pasta into pan
7. move to casserole and sprinkle a little bit of cheddar over the top
8. cook in oven for 12-16 minutes depending on your oven
9. Enjoy!

Scoopy Baggles.

This is a simplest way to make a mini pizza with as few ingredients that you can. Cooking time - 2 minutes.
For this one, I used just some bagles, an Italian cheese mix, and random pasta sauce.

I usually toast the bagles, if they are soggy, just to make the crusts a bit sturdier. But don't overtoast it, because scooping out will be kind of a pain.
After the bagles are ready, scoop out the bread.

I save the bread for squirrels/birds. After the scooping is done, fill it up with pasta cause and cheese.

 Once filled, pop the bagles into the microwave. Mine takes about 45-50 seconds to become a melty cheezy goodness. Cool them off and ready to nom!

Mint Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt

The fact that my husband has a sweet tooth will not be a surprise to my readers, as is my continuous search for healthier alternatives for him. Perhaps his greatest temptation is Ice Cream. His two favorite flavors are Mint Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Anything. I decided to knock one of those out this week with an idea I found on Pinterest.

• 18oz chocolate chunk vanilla low fat chobani greek yogurt
• 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 5 drops green food coloring

1. Mix all ingredients together until all yogurt is evenly green
2. Put plastic cap back on and place in freezer
3. Freeze for 3-4 hours or until appropriately frozen
4. If frozen overnight place in fridge for an hour to soften
5. When you serve, mix it up a bit so its not icey but smooth
6. Enjoy