The Diet Doth Confuseth Me! (Renal Diet Thread)

[N F C]

Or eat blueberries for the rest of my life?

You must have been on my mind yesterday B...I was grocery shopping and somehow a carton of blueberries slipped into my cart

 

[21hens-incharge]

Blooie,
It is crazy the things we go through. Your sense of humor is great though and will surely help you cope with those "well what the heck is for dinner" moments.

Looking at the list of things you are to avoid made me sad for you. It is a broad range of foods on there.
Did the doctor say "None of these foods" or was it "extreme moderation" ?

With my condition I am able to have the "no-no" foods......as long as I exercise extreme portion control. Even then there are some that it is just not worth the price. I really couldn't stick to an absolutely no this and no that diet either.

I am hopeful that the dietician will help with guidance.

 

[Shadrach]

Hello @Blooie
Bulgar Wheat and Cus Cus and Semolina are all used extensively in North African cooking.
I cook with all of them.
They all tend to come in different grades right down to flour.
Bulgar Wheat needs a bit of oil and about one and a half times the volume of water to volume of wheat if the wheat is medium to coarse ground.
Bring to the boil and simmer covered for about ten minutes. Let it stand for a few minutes covered and then pour in about half a teaspoonful of olive oil and whisk with a fork until it fluffs up.

The finely ground varieties you can just add boiling water to, about 1:1 and leave to stand for four or five minutes. Then add the oil and fluff up with a fork.
I cook more with Cus Cus (finely ground but not flour)
A fast meal for me is a bowl of Cus Cus (Bulgar or Semolina) chopped walnuts, chopped sun dried tomatoes, a handful of black olives (not kept in brine but in oil) and a bean called Mang Tout washed and chopped.

 

[bruceha2000]

And I imagine that the first meeting is likely to be, "What foods do you like? What foods don't you like? What do you eat regularly

Nah, you know the first thing they are going to say is:
You can't eat this, this, this, this, this, this or that. Now is there anything you like that I didn't mention?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Blooie, blueberries keep very well frozen. When I buy some, I stick them in the freezer immediately, right in the little carton they come in. Later I dump them in a ziploc bag. Then we use them by putting a handful in our cereal as desired, or in a smoothie. So if you bought a bunch there's no pressure to hurry and eat them before they go bad. I'm sorry I don't have any recipes for you!

 

[rjohns39]

@Blooie following along, I too am a fair hand in the kitchen with a fairly broad background in cooking techniques, so once we find out what is available I too would be happy to experiment.

 

[Blooie]

So I’m supposed to “log” everything I eat between my last appointment and my next one on March 5th. Blueberries are featured often in that log, but I digress.

Yesterday I just flat blew it!! Ken took me out to my favorite restaurant for Heart Day, and I was determined not to ruin it by making it Kidney Day. My appetite is all screwy....can I say that word here? I feel like I’m starving, then I sit down, take a few bites, and I’m full. And there’s a metallic taste in my mouth that simply doesn’t go away, ever, which doesn’t help the appetite. But I ordered my cup of French Onion Soup (strike 1), extra cheese (strike 2) a T-Bone steak, med rare (strike 3) and a buttered slab of toast. I got the toast instead of any kind of potato....does that negate one of those strikes? I didn’t eat much....didn’t even get through the entire “eye” part of the T-bone, took 3 bites of the toast, but I did finish my soup. It’s my favorite thing on the menu. I usually order a big bowl, extra cheese, and nothing else when we go there. So that was a concession, right?

So this morning I got out my trusty log and entered my breakfast....a 6 egg omelet. And I ate every morsel! Dr. Gonzales is going to come uncorked. But there’s no place in the log to note that these are tiny little pullet eggs....the 6 of them probably equaled 2 regular eggs, especially since I had to omit the yolks. By the way, when you can’t use salt, and can’t add ham, bacon or cheese, an egg-white omelet can be a very boring breakfast. Red bell peppers seemed to add an unpleasant bitterness to the eggs. I actually added blueberries to my plate just to break up the monotony, and now I’m out of blueberries! I don’t miss them....yet.

I think when this thread wakes up a bit there are going to be helpful little tidbits we can share. For right now though, I’m starting to think that I truly am “one in a million”....the only person out of the multitudes on BYC with Chronic Kidney Disease. I sure appreciate everyone who has responded....the chefs, the semi-pro home cooks, and the folks with other dietary issues who need or can offer some help, and above all those just offering moral support. I guess from a dietary standpoint (finding and inventing recipes and such), we’re all at a standstill until the meeting with the dietitian. I was really hoping other kidney patients would find this thread and want to participate. In the meantime, BLUEBERRY ON!!! Hey, what a fun battle cry!!!!

 

[bruceha2000]

So I’m supposed to “log” everything I eat between my last appointment and my next one on March 5th.

Did you fess up to that lunch?

when you can’t use salt, and can’t add ham, bacon or cheese, an egg-white omelet can be a very boring breakfast. Red bell peppers seemed to add an unpleasant bitterness to the eggs.

DW and I like spinach in our omelettes. At a restaurant (long ago closed) that used to have a GREAT Sunday brunch I'd get some smoked trout from the smoked cheese and fish area and give them to the omelette guy. Tasty but I don't know if you can have that (even if you did just happen to have some smoked fish in the fridge).

 

[Blooie]

I did, Bruce, in all its sinful glory, logged in proper form! I are a good girl! I never realized how tough it would be to look at a menu and try to mentally calculate the “yeses” and the “no’s”! Right now with so little guidance, everything is a “possible maybe” as far as my taste buds are concerned.

I think smoked anything is out. (and DON’T you dare go there! I KNOW you!!) Most of that stuff has a good coating of salt as a base, doesn’t it? I dunno, I’m asking. I love spinach, but it’s too high in potassium so it’s out, raw or cooked. I feel like I’m being one of those kinds of people I get irate with. I tell my kids and grandkids not to be “yah, but-ers”. You know the kind - the folks who ask what to do but every time there’s a suggestion say, ”Well, yah, but.” and then have a million excuses for why they won’t even try a single idea. In this case, every time someone is making a food suggestion here, I immediately go to the Kidney Foundation Web Site first on my other device, then here I say whether I can eat that or not. That’s what I just did with the spinach suggestion because that was a perfectly sensible one and one I’d really like. Most leafy greens are out from the get-go, and apparently cooking concentrates the no-no’s in the greens and makes them worse for me.

Oh, I need to make a correction, too. I said in a previous post that cucumbers were out. I was wrong. I had two web sites up in front of me (one on my phone with the bad and one on Ken’s iPad with the good) and glanced at the “approved” list rather than the “limit or omit” list. I need to watch that, especially if someone else with CKD comes in and reads it. This whole learning process is confusing enough without adding mis-information!

 

[N F C]

@Blooie I'm glad you and Ken enjoyed your Heart Day