I need help with healthy recipes

[redvelvet]

Hi everyone, I hope you are all doing well.

A little over 5 months ago, I was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. Treatment for my particular case is 12 months long, so I should (hopefully) be all clear by late July 2022. While I am on the large amount of medication on a daily basis, there are some dietary rules I need to follow.

No fish
No cheese
No alcohol

At first, I thought that this was pretty simple, and that I'd barely notice the difference in my diet. However, I am a BIG lover of cheese, and I miss it greatly. I even attempted to eat vegan cheese as a substitute, but it gave me the same reaction in my body that normal cheese would have done, so I didn't want to risk that again.

It's a lot more difficult than I had originally anticipated to keep my appetite up, because a great deal of my favourite recipes (if not all of them) have cheese or fish included, and are honestly disappointing if you remove those ingredients. I've been eating a lot of chicken and vegetarian based meals, lots of fruit and healthy things, but it's gotten to a point where it all feels a bit too "samey".

This has made my eating habits drastically deteriorate, like today for example, I had a small breakfast, and have eaten nothing else and it is now 6pm. I really want to make myself an enjoyable dinner at least, and I've been rifling through the internet to find a way to make the preparation and eating of food more enjoyable again.

I wanted to ask if anyone had any interesting recipes, that followed those rules above? I would be so very grateful.

Thank you for your time!

 

[Lady Wolfshead]

I'm on a special diet too (Fodmap) that is very restrictive but restricts different foods. For my IBS. I wrote a list of possible dinners and put it on my fridge for ideas.

Here are some suggestions for you.
- Keep bags of healthy cereal and eat it with sliced fruit
- eggs are always good for any meal. I have mine with diced green peppers in them, and veggie bacon
- Amy's organics has a vegan pizza (no cheese or vegan cheese) that is pretty good
- Thai peanut sauce is great if you're craving a a rich sauce - can marinate tofu or meat in it, use it in stir fries, on rice or on a baked potato.
- veggie hot dogs or burgers
- cashews or almonds are great in stir fries with meat or on their own. I get raw cashews in the baking section for this purpose.
- I have a great recipe for curried lentils if you like. Has onion, garlic, carrots, green pepper, lentils, tomato sauce and spices. Good over rice or potatoes
- Also have a great recipe for oatmeal pancakes.

 

[Livelife]

Hi everyone, I hope you are all doing well.

A little over 5 months ago, I was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. Treatment for my particular case is 12 months long, so I should (hopefully) be all clear by late July 2022. While I am on the large amount of medication on a daily basis, there are some dietary rules I need to follow.

No fish
No cheese
No alcohol

At first, I thought that this was pretty simple, and that I'd barely notice the difference in my diet. However, I am a BIG lover of cheese, and I miss it greatly. I even attempted to eat vegan cheese as a substitute, but it gave me the same reaction in my body that normal cheese would have done, so I didn't want to risk that again.

It's a lot more difficult than I had originally anticipated to keep my appetite up, because a great deal of my favourite recipes (if not all of them) have cheese or fish included, and are honestly disappointing if you remove those ingredients. I've been eating a lot of chicken and vegetarian based meals, lots of fruit and healthy things, but it's gotten to a point where it all feels a bit too "samey".

This has made my eating habits drastically deteriorate, like today for example, I had a small breakfast, and have eaten nothing else and it is now 6pm. I really want to make myself an enjoyable dinner at least, and I've been rifling through the internet to find a way to make the preparation and eating of food more enjoyable again.

I wanted to ask if anyone had any interesting recipes, that followed those rules above? I would be so very grateful.

Thank you for your time!

So you're almost halfway through it, Yay! How much time in the day do you have for food preparing? Have you looked at vegan cooking sites and recipes? There's many good ones out there. And did they say just no cheese or is it ALL dairy products you have to avoid? Are beans and peas of all kinds an attractive food for you for protein and fiber intake? Healthy protein bars....not the ones with sugars in them? There's many out there that have very low or no sugar in them. Soups are filling and calorie dense, especially with coconut milk or cream in them and/or cashews for adding a thick and filling consistency.

 

[Livelife]

p.s. One example is "Sam Turnbull-It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken", a nice vegan recipe site.

 

[may71]

Hello and welcome to SF

Treatment for my particular case is 12 months long

I'm glad you're getting treatment, but it's awful to be sick for that long.

Rice congee with carrot or adzuki bean might be nice.

From the perspective of traditional Chinese dietary therapy, a food like cheese tends to produce phlegm, which might agravate a cough, among other problems. Soy products can do the same, which might explain why the vegan cheese was also a problem.

I know you're asking for recipes for the sake of variety, but I'll try to throw in some suggestions that in principle might help some of your symptoms. Marjoram, mushroom, strawberry, papaya, green beans, and potato can help with phlegm from the TCDT perspective. I don' t know of any intersting recipes using those ingredients, but you might be able to find some using those ingredients. Eating foods that have been at least lightly cooked and served warm are best from this perspective.

I hope something can help.

 

[Fogo_]

It's rough going through this disease, I am glad you're getting treated for it and wish you the best. For recipes I don't know if this will will help or not, but there's this site that I have used before and they have an advanced search option. Maybe you can get some ideas by browsing.

 

[DrownedFishOnFire]

Is it dairy you cannot have or just cheese only?

 

[redvelvet]

Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry for the delay in responding! With my illness and treatment combined, I sometimes have days or weeks where I just feel a bit run down, and I isolated myself a bit there. I'm going to reply to all of you right now, but first I'd like to say how grateful I am after reading your responses! Thank you!

I'm on a special diet too (Fodmap) that is very restrictive but restricts different foods. For my IBS. I wrote a list of possible dinners and put it on my fridge for ideas.

Here are some suggestions for you.
- Keep bags of healthy cereal and eat it with sliced fruit
- eggs are always good for any meal. I have mine with diced green peppers in them, and veggie bacon
- Amy's organics has a vegan pizza (no cheese or vegan cheese) that is pretty good
- Thai peanut sauce is great if you're craving a a rich sauce - can marinate tofu or meat in it, use it in stir fries, on rice or on a baked potato.
- veggie hot dogs or burgers
- cashews or almonds are great in stir fries with meat or on their own. I get raw cashews in the baking section for this purpose.
- I have a great recipe for curried lentils if you like. Has onion, garlic, carrots, green pepper, lentils, tomato sauce and spices. Good over rice or potatoes
- Also have a great recipe for oatmeal pancakes.

These are AMAZING suggestions, thank you so much! I've recently ordered a groceries delivery with a lot (if not all) of these, and I'm excited to spark my appetite again! I'd be honoured to receive any recipe that you'd be willing to share.

Hello and welcome to SF


I'm glad you're getting treatment, but it's awful to be sick for that long.

Rice congee with carrot or adzuki bean might be nice.

From the perspective of traditional Chinese dietary therapy, a food like cheese tends to produce phlegm, which might agravate a cough, among other problems. Soy products can do the same, which might explain why the vegan cheese was also a problem.

I know you're asking for recipes for the sake of variety, but I'll try to throw in some suggestions that in principle might help some of your symptoms. Marjoram, mushroom, strawberry, papaya, green beans, and potato can help with phlegm from the TCDT perspective. I don' t know of any intersting recipes using those ingredients, but you might be able to find some using those ingredients. Eating foods that have been at least lightly cooked and served warm are best from this perspective.

I hope something can help.

That totally makes sense about the cheese AND the vegan cheese, I had no idea! I appreciate SO much the list of foods that will help me maintain my health, that's the most important thing for sure. Thank you so much!

So you're almost halfway through it, Yay! How much time in the day do you have for food preparing? Have you looked at vegan cooking sites and recipes? There's many good ones out there. And did they say just no cheese or is it ALL dairy products you have to avoid? Are beans and peas of all kinds an attractive food for you for protein and fiber intake? Healthy protein bars....not the ones with sugars in them? There's many out there that have very low or no sugar in them. Soups are filling and calorie dense, especially with coconut milk or cream in them and/or cashews for adding a thick and filling consistency.

It is just cheese, strangely. I vividly remember the nurse telling me the day my treatment started. She even wrote it down on a pamphlet that I have to this day. No cheese, no fish, no alcohol, haha! And thank you so, so much too for your suggestions! I've been thinking about spicing things up with some soups honestly, as they're easy to make on days where I don't have a lot of energy. And, yes! Once 7th Feb hits, that's my halfway point! Only 6 more months after that!

Thank you all for your kind comments and incredible suggestions. I am still going through this little rough patch, but remembering to check this thread and seeing all your responses has really made things feel better.

 

[may71]

 

[KM76710]

Welcome to the forum and glad to have you with us. Take all the time you need to post and reply. We will be here and I hope you keep posting.

 

[Astrid78]

Hello @redvelvet and welcome. I don't really use recipes, only for ideas, also there are threads where people post the meals and snacks they had throughout the day, I like to read these for ideas also. The best things I have found are seasonings, ginger for chicken, basil for beef, etc. Playing around with those can be fun, and where I live are pretty low cost, adding condiments can also help to add flavor. To spice up chicken a little, onion and sweet peppers can be added, along with some mixed veggies and rice make a good meal. Do you eat pork? Pineapple goes well with that, along with some broccoli and again rice its pretty good. Hope this helps and you start to feel better soon.

 

[Livelife]

Since it seems you might have gained a lot of your calcium from cheese intake before the TB make sure you are getting your calcium in.......if you don't have a history of kidney stones then spinach and almonds works nicely for that.....
also some of the coconut milk and almond milk and almond products and other dairy if it's not bothering your system.Glad to hear you are starting to experience an upward climb to feeling better.