low FODMAP Mac and Cheese

First day of senior year! College flew by so quickly. I get to start every morning with a cycling class and end every day with practice, I am going to be in such good shape!

My best friend visited me over the summer, and I wanted to convince her that the food I eat doesn't suck. I decided to try a new dish; I don't often repeat the exact same meal twice. I searched for a Mac and Cheese recipe that didn't call for flour and didn't require fifty different ingredients,  not much luck. Needless to say I tested my food improve and chemistry skills in order to make a BOMB Mac and Cheese! No pictures, sorry! As a I mentioned in my introduction, and revealed in my second post about making breakfast hash, I do not use direct measurements when I cook. I am not Chef Boyardi, I am just a college student who gets tired of exact measurements after three hours in Chem lab.

Low FODMAP Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:
1 bag gluten free pasta (I like the brown rice pasta that comes in different fun shapes)
1:1 ratio butter to milk (dairy-free)
1/2 T baking powder OR Flour*
3/4 bag of grated cheddar or mexican blend cheese
however much Parmesan cheese you want
garlic powder
cayenne pepper
salt
dash of Frank's Red Hot

Utensils Needed:
sauce pan
large pasta pan
fork and knife (or hands)

follow the package instructions to cook the pasta, corn pasta takes two seconds vs brown rice pasta which takes 15+ minutes. I prefer to slightly under-cook my pasta, so that it doesn't turn into a mushy rice ball.
Melt your butter in a sauce pan, add in milk and bring to a simmer (keep burner low for stove-heated dairy products!) add in baking powder or flour. let simmer for 10-15 minutes, if you do not notice any thickening in your roux, add a SMALL amount more. baking powder thickens more than flour, so more flour will be needed than if baking powder was used. add In your spices.
Once the roux has thickened, add your cheese! If there are other kinds of cheeses you would like to use, do it! Cheese will make the sauce pretty thick. If it seems way to thick to mix with pasta, a little bit more milk will loosen it up. Once the pasta is done, drain it and mix it with the sauce. VOILA!
Some people love to get fancy with Mac. Bacon is awesome, but definitely not Kosher. spinach is not horrible. You could cut up some gluten free chicken nuggets, add in some more frank's red hot, and make some Buffalo Mac. If you find out that Garlic and Onion don't bother your intestines, or you make your own barbecue sauce using garlic and onion powder, barbecue mac and cheese is pretty tasty too.
If you stick to one cup of mac and cheese per meal and eat some veggies, this dish will be awesome left over! It is even good cold if you want to take it to work or the library.

*I'm sure baking soda could be used to thicken the roux as well, I have never used it so I don't have much experience to share. I HAVE however used so much baking powder in a gravy that it actually turned into jelly. Less is more with this stuff.

Up Next: the importance of indulging (once in a while)

Low FODMAP diet

I have been talking a lot about the low FODMAP diet, at this point it is necessary that I give an overview of the diet that I am following with help of a nutritionist. There are many published documents on the internet about this diet. The Low FODMAP targets carbohydrates (sugars) in the diet.

This is not the full list that I have been following, but a pretty good overview of the carbohydrates targeted by the diet

four two to four weeks, all five of these carbohydrates have been eliminated from my diet, while simultaneously limiting glucose consumption. The point of this cleansing period is to help your stomache heal from the damage inflicted from years of eating irritating foods. The second phase involves re-introducing sample foods of the five categories into your diet at varying quantities to identify which cause IBS symptoms and how much of each is tolerated. With the help of a nutritionist, you can properly decide which foods to reintroduce based on any suspicions that you may have about food intolerances (for example: I am pretty sure that Fructans are not my friend)

This is the list of foods that I can eat:

foods in bold should be eaten in the quantity listed (quantity is per meal, not per day) choose no more than one bold food per meal

this is a sample shopping list online

My shopping list looks something like this:
Quinoa
Rice
Gluten free pasta
coconut flour
baking soda
baking powder
sugar
lactose free chocolate chips (in gluten free isle)
maple syrup
vanilla extract
all the spices in the world
rice wine vinegar
balsamic vinegar
garlic olive oil
organic ketchup
beef broth
red wine
mustard
mayonnaise
cans of tomato sauce (to make homemade crock pot sauce)
rice krispies
gluten free crackers
brownie mix
beef
chicken
bacon
eggs
tuna
crab meat
shrimp
cheddar cheese
lactaid milk (tried almond milk but its sugar content caused me stomach problems)
butter
eggplant
cucumber
carrots
tomato
squash (butternut or spaghetti)
zucchini
potato
sweet potato
spinach
avocado (eaten in limited quantities)
bananas
canned beets
canned jalapenos
frozen gluten free chicken nuggets or patties
pirates booty
joe joe's
coffee

my list consists of a lot of ingredients that can be mixed into a million different things. This list pretty much covers the wide range of foods that pop up in the recipes I find online. A lot of low FODMAP and paleo recipes call for coconut flour and coconut oil, I use butter instead of coconut oil without stomache issues. some people opt for almond flour, but I have not tried it because of my bad reaction to Almond milk. As you may also notice, I don't buy salad. I prefer to just eat some chopped up fresh veggies, because I buy groceries for a week for one person and salad tends to go bad after a day, and I HATE wilted lettuce (I am eating some right now and want to cry).

Up next: low FODMAP Mac and Cheese