Chicken Bleus

So, I can't eat beef. Not that I don't like beef. I love a good hamburger or nice steak. Only problem is, if I eat beef, I can't walk for a week after. Thank you Gout.

So I am left with Chicken, Pork, Turkey, and Fish. But, I can't stand fish. Makes me gag. Go me. So that's one more protein off the menu. Also, cannot have bacon, for the same reason as beef. Other pork is fine, but bacon apparently has too much grease or fat or something. So, no bacon.

Chicken. Pork. Turkey.
Not a whole lot of menu options there. After a while, you get really bored with the food and sneak one of the no-no foods. Then there's a gout attack, pain, tears, swearing you're not going to sneak it again. And you're fine for a month. Maybe two. Then slowly you get bored again and the cycle of pain continues.

Because, it doesn't matter how many ways you can cook chicken, or pork, or turkey, you're going to get bored ad go out for steak or a burger, or sneak something else you can't have because you just want something different.

I have a few 101 goals that are tied to food. "Try 10 new recipes." "Make a custom cookbook." Things like that. Things that remind me to try and expand the culinary repertoire. To try and fend off the boredom. To expand the tastes and flavors enough that I can spice things up and not slip back to the no-no foods for comfort. So far Muriel has been helping me. We tried something new last night. Some orange citrus chicken. A little heavy of the spices for me, but it wasn't bad. She's even got me eating veggies again with almost every meal.

Of course, it's hard, because she doesn't want to cook beef for her and Dig while I'm here. Because she thinks it's going to make it harder for me, and honestly, it might. She made chili one night with super lean beef, which I technically can have in small doses. But I hadn't had beef in a while so for the next three days I was sneaking small bowls. Small bowls frequently, just so you know, don't count as 'small doses'. I found this out when I ended up with gout in my ankles. She got onto me about slowly poisoning myself with beefy goodness. You see how well her lecture registered with me. So apparently now she's only going to cook beef when I'm not here. Like this weekend when I'm gone for a convention.

So once again I am left to just chicken, pork, and turkey. But, I feel bad, because that means for the most part, meals for four people are being tailored around one. Me. Because everyone else in this house can eat beef. Of course, I feel even worse because my hubby doesn't tend to eat what we have. I'm sure it's because he's fed up with eating around my dietary needs. I know it's hard. But at the same time, it's frustrating. Not just for them. For me. I didn't ask for this. I didn't want it. I'd love to be able to eat anything like everyone else. I used to be able to. Now, I can't have things I used to eat, used to love. So here I am, forced to this restricted diet, and dragging everyone else down with me.

It sucks. And what's worse, there's nothing I can do about it. Apparently I'm stuck with this issue. So I have to learn to deal with it, and everyone around me has to as well. Which is fine for Mur and Dig, because honestly, they can go out to eat and not feel bad. They can sneak meals when I am gone, or happen to sleep during one (which happens once in a while with me taking shifts with the Bug, where I sleep during lunch or dinner). But my Hubby has a somewhat harder time of eating around me at home. Then again, he works, and takes a lunch, so it's not too hard to take hamburgers or steak to work for his meal. Which he does. But he still doesn't tend to eat with us at home.

Anyway, bringing this back around, I have a few goals for my 101 list that deal with food, because I'm honestly trying to learn to live with Gout. So I asked some Facebook friends to share recipes, given what I can't eat, and I got a few replies. I'm hoping that the added differences in tastes will help expand my options. After all, everyone knows at least one dish that doesn't have beef or bacon or fish in it, and is free of other triggers. Even 10 new recipes will mean 10 things I can work into my diet, work into my schedule.

Long ago, the Hubby and I sat down and made a list of 31 foods we both could eat. It was a difficult process. Thinks like Hotdogs, and Mac and Cheese. You might think it's easy, but after about 17, you start to sit there thinking and drawing a blank. I was hard pressed to come up with 31 things. Why 31? Easy, 31 days in the longest months. One food item per day. Just one item, mind you. Typically dinner. So that's not counting lunches or breakfasts. Just dinners. We had to really work at it.

I'm thinking of doing the list again, on my own. Just me. Try to see how far I can get before I have to start asking Mur for ideas. I'm hoping 20. Maybe 23. It would be nice to know I have a list of 31 dinners I can turn to for support. Of course, 62 or 93 would be far better. Why? That's one dinner a day for 2 or 3 months. That means the 3rd isn't always mac and cheese, and the 15th isn't always chicken cordon bleu. No matter how much you love a food, eating it every month, even just once a month, can get boring. The more I can list for dinners, the better chance I have of not turning to the no-no foods.

Wish me luck. I think I'll go start that list.