Life is Beautiful

I’m writing this blog for my friends who constantly ask me what Lee can eat and what to avoid. Every time we visit a friend or relative, they are always so eager to serve some nice food for Lee to eat. But they get disappointed when Lee wouldn’t touch any of those. Not being disrespectful to our hosts but this doesn’t mean that Lee doesn’t like the food. He just can’t have it. He has a condition called “Celiac Disease”. In England, it is spelled “Coeliac Disease”.

Celiac is basically intolerance to gluten. So that means, anything with WHEAT, BARLEY, MALT and RYE, Lee can not have. Examples of these are PASTA and BREAD. But it isn’t as easy as that. Most processed food have gluten in it so Lee can only eat FRESH food. And to make it even more safe for my baby Lee, they have to be ORGANIC. Why??? Oh why??? Oh gosh, isn’t this complicated? Organic foods are foods produced WITHOUT the use of pesticides, sewage sludge, artificial fertilizers and human waste.

If he eats any of these, he gets something like a really bad hangover and really bad case of gastric flu for at least 3 days. And if uncontrolled, could lead to stomach cancer.

So now, that you know the basics of Lee’s diet, you know that I (as his wife) only goes to the organic section of the grocery store. Anything outside that area is not for Lee.

Just like any other person, Lee has his own preferences. With his very limited diet, he even can afford to have preferences. Did you just say “WHAT THE *#$%???” Actually, yes, I got very frustrated in the beginning too. But! I eventually got the hang of it. Back to his preferences, for organic veggies, he only eats carrots, peas, broccoli, potatoes. Then for meats, he only eats pork chop (without the fat) and NY strip steak (very lean please!). Don’t you even think about seafood! He doesn’t like seafood. As he always says… “I don’t like any food that stares back at me.”

Now, that I’ve told you what we can buy from the grocery store, it’s time to tell you how to prepare it. The steak or pork chop can be spiced with GARLIC POWDER, SALT and BLACK PEPPER only. (DO NOT use WHITE pepper because apparently, according to Lee, it has some additives which could probably be gluten-based.) The meat then has to be oven-baked to VERY WELL-DONE at 450 degrees for 30 mins. He doesn’t like it grilled or oven-toastered because they make the meat tough. True! Then top it off with fried onion rings.

To prepare onion rings is quite easy. It can be fried just as we normally do. BUT do not use any kind of oil. Use only OLIVE OIL. Apparently, corn oil is bad for him. It gives him migraine . So we stayed away from any other kind of vegetable oil because they probably are a derivative of corn.

To prepare his veggies is EASY. Just boil them in Spring Water for 15 mins. (Not tap water please because tap water has trace amounts of medicines.) Sprinkle some salt and they should be ready to serve.

For his drink, he only drinks Lipton Decaf Tea (not green tea) brewed in boiled Spring Water for 2 mins. Add 2 teaspoons of white sugar and it should be perfect for my baby.

If you find this quite a bit of a challenge, you might just want to serve him Organic Bananas and a nice cup of tea and he should be fine. If you want to learn more about “Silly Yaks”, follow this link. Have a nice day!