Acid Reflux

I Never Realized How Acidic My Food Life Was!

I've always felt badly for people who struggle with acid reflux. I've seen all the advertisements for over-the-counter and prescription heartburn meds all my life and have felt grateful that I haven't ever had an issue with it. 

Until a year ago. 

It started with an occasional dose of of a popular chew-able medication and progressed to almost non-stop chewing gum and some Googling. Finally last March I made an appointment to see my GP about it. The appointment was to be on March 16. 

Then: COVID-19. There was no way I was going to the clinic. I canceled the appointment. 

And now here we are in July and I've started "The Acid Watcher Diet," by Dr. Jonathan Aviv. I have 4 or 5 weeks before I have to go back to work and it's the perfect time to spend all day shopping, preparing, and cooking food. His book has a 28 day plan for healing and preventing acid reflux.  The Acid Watcher Diet

Here are the NO GO Drinks:

Coffee other caffeinated beverages -I've been drinking coffee, black and strong, since I was about 11. I've been drinking black tea since before that. 

Wine-I've been on and off with wine, either red or white, for the last dozen years. I won't really miss it.

Pop-I gave that up years ago. No problem. I don't drink any effervescent beverages at all. So I'm good there. 

No Go foods:

Citrus

Vinegars

Peppers-the spice kind

Tomatoes

Chocolate

Mint

Raw Onion

Raw Garlic

The big 3 for us is the tomatoes, onion and garlic. Lemons are a close 4th. This stumped me for a day or so. 

Lifestyle Changes:

Aviv also recommends not allowing the stomach to be empty. So my tendency not to start eating for the day until 9 or 10 is out. Also, he says don't lay down or go to bed less than 3 hours after eating the last meal of the day. Since I usually get up between 4:30 and 5:30 in the morning, I tend to be heading to bed at 8:30 pm. Bob doesn't usually get home until nearly 6, so often we don't get to eat until 6:30 or even 7:00 pm. 

As always, Bob is always amenable about our meals. I told him what I'm planning and we decided I'll get supper ready when I need to eat, and he'll just eat when he gets to it. No problem. But I am having to work on staying awake almost another hour to give digestion some time. 

So far I've had a lot of good stuff to eat. This is day three. Last night we had Miso-Agave Glazed Halibut and sesame bok choy.

Chicken Bog

The first dish my boys fell in love with when we moved to South Carolina was Chicken Bog.

Chicken Bog is a slickery, spicy dish of protein and carb overload.

When I first saw it, I realized it's just Chicken & Rice. But no...it's really so much more and a little less. First, you notice there is no Campbell's Cream of a (Something) soup there. Second, you notice it has sausage in it.

I did some searching around and found this recipe by Paula Dean. Good stuff. But it's a complete waste of a good stick of butter.

So here is my recipe, with some tweaks:

1 Whole Chicken, skin on (This is why you don't need butter!), cut up

8 Cups water

1 # Sausage, cut into chunks (I use Carolina Pride, but you can use pretty much any sausage you like)

1 Tbsp or so Canola Oil

1# One large onion, halved and cut thin

1 Bay Leaf

2 tsp any seasoning blend you like (I used Penzey's Smoked 4S)

1/2 tsp Red Pepper flakes, optional

2 Cups rice

Black Pepper and Salt, optional

Steps:
1. In a 5 Qt Dutch oven, cook the chicken pieces in the 8 cups of water until done (flesh is all white). Let cool.

2. Drain the chicken, RESERVING THE COOKING LIQUID!

3. Pull the skin off the pieces and discard, pull the chicken off, and break it up to bite-sized pieces.

4. Heat the oil in the Dutch oven until warm, add the sausage pieces and brown, stirring occasionally. Add the onion when the sausage starts to brown, stirring enough to brown all sides and melt the onions down a bit.

5. Add the seasoning and rice, stir to combine, then add the chicken.

6. Add the chicken cooking liquid to the mixture, stir well and bring it to a low boil. Once boiling, turn the heat back to a very low simmer and cover. Cook until rice is tender, about 20 minutes.

7. Adjust the seasoning with pepper and salt, if necessary.

Ready to serve.