It’s time for Week 5 – Last but not least: Fructans. This means, that I’m almost back to normal now & most importantly onions and garlic are back in my dishes. YES!! This was literally the hardest challenge for me. Onions and garlic bring so much flavour and depth to meals, it was incredibly hard to cook without them. I’m only reintroducing non-grain fructans this week, which means any gluten or Amaranth as well as Lupin, Chestnut & large servings of Almond flour are left for next week.
What are Fructans?
They are often mistaken for fructose. Fructans are basically multiple fructose molecules chained together with an added glucose sugar molecule at the end of that chain. Check Monash University for more input.
Day 1: Week 5 – Last but not least: Fructans.
As a surprise to myself and probably most of you, I didn’t start the day with porridge. I did however have some leftover egg whites, from yesterdays Spaghetti Carbonara and therefore decided to make some egg White Omelette with Mushrooms, Bacon Bits and Spinach. Since we got up quite late and had a brunch rather than breakfast. We skipped lunch then and had Pasta for Dinner. I am currently testing Kerrygolds new Cream Cheese Selection (Thank you, Oh! Of the Day) and incorporated the paprika and tomato cream cheese into a veggie sauce for my pasta. It was really delicious!!
Day 2: Week 5 – Last but not least: Fructans.
Since we visited the Internorga today, I opted for my good old boring Porridge as breakfast. I knew there wouldn’t be a lot of things I could eat at the fair and I wanted to have a good base for the long day ahead. As I am a person that really eats a lot, I was obviously very hungry anyways by the time we got home and opted for my first Kebap in 5 weeks (without bread of course) on the way. I also wanna highlight that we tried a vegan meat alternative made with a 3D-printer – how cool is that?!
Day 3: Week 5 – Last but not least: Fructans.
I’m obviously reluctant to change, so I had porridge for breakfast, again. For lunch I made Gnocchi with green asparagus and it was the first green asparagus I had this year. Since they are high in fructans, I had to wait for this week to eat some. It was a tough few weeks, but it was a great reintroduction of asparagus. Dinner consisted of a Potato and Broccoli Bake.
Day 4: Week 4 – Workout Thursday.
Thursday is porridge Day. Or everyday is porridge day in my case haha. I had the leftover potato bake for lunch and a Rogan Josh paneer and cauliflower curry, inspired by a recipe from Jamie Olivers “5 ingredients” cookbook. I am cooking a lot of things out of this book. Since I love cooking more complex dishes, I usually use the recipes as a base and keep adding a few more ingredients. To all of you, that lack inspiration and don’t have a lot of time for cooking (or don’t want to spend a lot of time cooking), I can highly recommend this and other books from Jamie Oliver. You can buy it here, if you want (not an affiliate link – I just love it!).
Day 5: Week 4 – TGIF!
It’s Friday and therefore time for Yoga class. After that I had some porridge for breakfast and took my bike to meet a friend for some coffee. We went to Lowinsky’s and if you’re in or around Eppendorf I really recommend you to go there. Do order one of they gluten-free pistachio and dark chocolate cookies – they are to die for!!! I went for a little bike tour afterwards and once I got home I took a really long nap. It wasn’t only a lot of exercise, but also a lot of sun and I was feeling quite exhausted. Dinner, therefore only consisted of the leftover Paneer from yesterday.
Day 6: First Barbecue of the year!
Day in, day out, I start my day with porridge – so, today was no exception. As you might know, we got a new kitchen. Nevertheless, we waited 2 years to buy one, so I couldn’t be happier (I’ll be sharing the progress soon). The countertop is going to arrive next week, which is why we spent the entire day trying to drill holes into the kitchen wall of our Altbau flat (kind of oldish house with terrible walls!!). Anyway, we managed quite well and after that we went for our first barbecue this year. Following our current FODMAP state, we had no gluten. I made a soda bread from Arans “Cannelle et Vanille Bakes Simple” – check it out here. We also made my favourite cannellini bean salad and vegan wild garlic butter. My friend provided chickpea battered cauliflower, salad, sweet potatoes and some meat. It was outstanding!
Day 7: Sunday Funday.
It’s “Me-Time” Sunday again and I was very active this week. Therefore, I actually spent the day in bed, watched some Harry Potter and sorted through huge amounts of clothes, I wanna sell off. I had Porridge for Breakfast (big surprise) and I made some Italian inspired potato mash and meat balls for dinner (Recipe coming soon, too.). I also made some gluten-free oat cookies.
This was basically the last week for me. I’m still unsure if I should try gluten again or not, but I will let you know, if I do!!
In case you missed it, check out my reports on Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 and Week 4 of my low FODMAP diet.