Brown Rice Bread/Monday Meals

After being diagnosed with Crohn's I needed an alternative to whole wheat/whole grain breads, raw fruits and veggies, cow milk products, and a variety of other food products.  Later on in the week I will talk about my alternatives to raw fruits and veggies, cow products, etc.  Today I will give you the low down on my alternative to whole wheat/whole grain breads...

After going to the local organic store or "crazy people organic store" as some of my friends would call it, I learned that brown rice bread is not only easily digestible, but would also give me the carbohydrates I needed to sustain me for long (bike) rides, or any hard workout.  So, in short, brown rice bread became my alternative to whole wheat/whole grain breads as I could no longer digest either of the two.

When I first grabbed the frozen "brick" of brown rice bread from the organic store's freezer I definitely didn't think it was going to taste very appetizing.  It was seriously like grabbing a frozen, packaged brick out of the freezer.  At that point, however, I didn't care.  I was open to try anything and everything that would potentially work and give my body something it could digest and also the fuel it needed to get through day to day activities.

A few things I've learned about brown rice bread...

Brown Rice Bread is stored in your refrigerator once you bring it home from the market.  I have found that microwaving or toasting the bread prior to consumption will make for a better tasting piece of bread.  Brown rice bread is pretty bland, but again, gets the job done.  I also put organic jelly or organic peanut butter on my slice of bread aka slice of "brick" to make it more tasty.  Once you get used to it, the blandness sorta disappears!  Now, I love it!

Two years later, I still rely on brown rice bread.  I can now digest whole wheat/whole grain breads but still choose to eat a slice of brown rice bread prior to working out.  It's worked for me this long, so I might as well stick with it!!  So yes, I would choose a slice of brown rice bread over "normal" bread any day of the week!

Now, as promised, here is what I ate for the day:

Pre-Breakfast: 1.5 ounce shot of Xango

Breakfast: Brown Rice Bread with Organic Peanut Butter

Snack:  2 ounce shot of Wheatgrass

Pre-Lunch:  2 cups of homemade Pumpkin Soup

Lunch:  Baked Organic Chicken Breast Half Sandwich.  To make this sandwich I used about 2/3 of a seasoned baked organic chicken breast, one slice of 9-grain bread, Omega-3 Mayonnaise, red onion, and shredded pepper jack cheese.

Snack:  Roughly 1 cup of watermelon

Dinner: Chicken Spinach Salad w/ red bell pepper, carrot, hard boiled egg, red onion, and turkey bacon.  I used Red Wine Vinegar and Olive Oil as my salad dressing.

Dessert:  Homemade Pumpkin Pie Smoothie 

Snack:  Roughly two cups of Vanilla Goat Yogurt

This definitely wasn't my "normal" diet routine while flaring.  I have been in remission for almost a year and have re-introduced a number of new food items to my digestive tract.  I can now handle raw fruits and veggies.  Most recently is my body's ability to digest spinach.  About two months ago I decided to try and introduce raw spinach back into my diet.  I ate a homemade spinach salad to see how my system would react.  Well, the next day, everything was great!  This was a major milestone for me because, when sick, I couldn't even eat steamed spinach let alone raw spinach.  My digestive tract couldn't handle it and the spinach would very painfully come out the same way it looked going in.  I know that sounds kinda gross, but it is what it is.  It has taken my digestive system almost a year to heal and get strong enough to handle more roughage type foods. 

I still can't, however, handle normal lettuce or leafy greens.  Spinach is the only green leafy veggie that my system can handle at the moment.  I'll take what I can get and have decided to permanently retire "normal" lettuce and any other leafy greens besides spinach!  Who needs them anyway!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me!!  Stay tuned for tomorrow!!  =)