Avocado, coconut and lime smoothie

Time for a break from all the assisted reproduction/medicated cycles/baby making talk. My head is spinning with thoughts of what the future holds and so for now, I'm going to do what I often do best with overwhelming situations: hide my head in the sand for a bit longer let things take their course until Wednesday when I go in for my progesterone levels. Let's talk about more mundane and pleasurable things for a moment.

I'm now in week four of my new gluten free diet and I have to say that there hasn't been much of an adjustment. I'm not a big bread/cake/muffin person, and I've found awesome ways to incorporate starches and flours typically found in Asian and African cooking, so my experimentation with international cooking has become more and more the norm. Fun! I've lost weight, (which wasn't my goal but it certainly doesn't hurt), and am feeling generally a bit lighter and more energetic - yay!-  so I think there's something to this, whether or not it will aid in the improved functioning of my lady parts.

My only real challenge has been breakfasts. I'm not really a breakfast person, per se, so I have a usual rut of going for a slice of wholegrain toast and peanut butter, or oatmeal, both of which are now off the proverbial table. I have a stomach that is extremely vocal and vociferous in its demands for regular nourishment - I'm talking disruptively so.* So skipping breakfast is not an option whether I'm hungry or not. Since going gluten free though, I've had to rely on lots of smoothies to keep me going and my fruit choices are growing rather monotonous.

I need to be more adventurous: enter the avocado. I loooove avocado, and at my favourite Vietnamese restaurant in Toronto I always used to order their avocado shake, so I thought I'd attempt something along those lines. I also had a half used can of coconut milk in the fridge, so I chucked that in, and a star was born. Oh my lord, you guys how has it never occurred to me to pair avocado and coconut before now? I want to eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner, in a variety of combinations. Breakfast this morning was this smoothie using half an avocado and whatever else I had in the fridge/fruit basket. It has the added benefit of being vegan (which I am not, but cutting animal fats down to such brilliant effect is never a bad thing).

Avocado, coconut and lime smoothie

•  1/2 a ripe avocado
• one kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 cup of coconut water (or milk, if you want it thicker)
• juice of 1/2 a lime
• a handful of mint leaves
• shaved coconut if you want some texture

Throw all this stuff in a blender and tell me it's not amazing.

*  In university I had one morning lecture that I couldn't reschedule to a more civilized hour, and once, in a hurry, showed up without having eaten. My stomach was typically clamorous that day, to the extent that the lecturer stopped talking at one point, glared at me three rows back, and asked if I'd like to step out for a snack. At which point I wanted to hide under the paltry little writing board attached to the arm of my seat, and made a mental note NEVER to attend an event of any kind without first feeding the beast. I really am ruled by the whims of my stomach.  H finds something oddly adorable in my (foodsexnow!) complete deference to my lizard brain, but I'm not sure others see the charms.

Salad rolls and Star Trek

I have another new weapon in my deluded experimental artillery of infertility busting lifestyle habits. Recently my acupuncturist did some food sensitivity testing on me and suggested that I give a gluten-free diet a try. (He's not the first to suggest a link between gluten intolerance and infertility/loss, but I don't want to overthink that one, mostly because we all know we lead healthy lives, do everything we can for those babies-to-be, and shouldn't beat ourselves or our bodies up over not controlling managing carefully enough. I for one am down to only grass-fed grass and decaf, dairy free morning coffee; while the cigarettes and daily McDonald's intake of many a passing parent I encounter in the street has clearly not made a difference, so go figure.)

OK, so on the one hand this gluten-free stuff sounds like one of those obnoxious trends of the kind which could actually be the cause of nausea and fatigue for those not affluent enough to enjoy $1000 a day yoga retreats and all organic, all the time, locally produced, bicycle delivered kale chips picked by specially trained, ethically kept, artisan, free range guinea fowl exposed to it.*

 But I love to experiment with cooking; my kitchen is my laboratory, and so I found the prospect of rethinking my cooking and eating habits rather exciting. And we are fortunate enough to have a virtual Aladdin's Cave of a supermarket around the corner from our place, run by a lovely Indian-Ghanaian couple and their children, and where I can find everything from tamarind paste to pickled green mango to fresh taro root. When we moved here I made a promise to myself to cook with a new ingredient every month, so we've had banana blossom salad and jackfruit seed curry, and now I have the perfect opportunity to experiment with stuff like sweet potato noodles and teff flour. So with the beginning of April and an end to the over-indulgence of my extended birthday celebrating (parts one and two), I decided to go cold turkey for a while.

Yesterday we made Vietnamese salad rolls. I initially thought I'd share the whole recipe here since I altered some of the ingredients from that link, but then I realised as someone who doesn't really follow recipes I'm actually too lazy to write the whole thing. (I don't own measuring cups and usually just throw stuff in a bowl, adjusting the quantities until I like the taste; for me it's always like 'a handful' of this, or 'until it feels like' that, so it's kinda tedious to write exact measurements).  I can say that this recipe is a pretty decent one and we were really happy with the results and the authenticity of the taste. I recommend you use not only both the mint and cilantro, but also a healthy quantity of basil (the Thai variety, if you can get it), because the fresh herbs really make this dish. Also, we added both daikon radish and red bell pepper to the vegetable fillings. Finally, in my opinion there's no replacement for good sriracha sauce to provide the heat in the peanut dipping sauce.

Although working with the rice paper takes some getting used to, they were incredibly fun to make because it's very hands on. See? 

H making a mess in the kitchen, just the way we like it.

The rolling technique takes a little practice, (the trick being to top your veg and herb combination with another thin layer of rice vermicelli before folding), but after the first four or five you get the hang of it. The rice wrappers are so thin that the colours and textures of the filling create a beautiful lacy effect on the completed rolls. I was lucky I managed to get any pictures, because they smelled amazing and it was hard not to nibble compulsively.

Finished product.

We ate our salad rolls while sitting on the sofa watching old episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and maybe it was the magic of those aromatherapeutic herbs, but all suddenly seemed right with the world. 

You see?, I tell myself. All it takes to make you step back into joy is a few Vietnamese salad rolls, an old episode of Star Trek, and the arms of your beloved around you. So whatever is in store for us in the near or distant future, life rightthisveryminute is not so bad, after all.


*Seriously Gwyneth, I understand why you're having panick attacks, I really do. I can relate to the stress of trying to manage day in and out.... Oh, wait.