Mushrooms and "Apple Crisp"

Thanks for all of your wonderful comments on my last post, which discussed my thoughts on the book The Omnivore's Dilemma. I really encourage everyone to read this book, especially the first hundred pages (the book sort of takes a sharp turn half way in and begins discussing vegetarian diets, hunting, and mushrooms. In other words, I dunno, it gets....kind of boring).


However, the information about mushrooms was rather interesting. As I read the book I was seriously sad that due to my IBS I cannot enjoy mushrooms.


Or.....so I thought.



Mushrooms have always been one of my favorite foods, but after discovering the low FODMAP diet I started noticing they caused me bloating and gas (despite not being on the list of foods to avoid). The other night I just had to have one, so I did, but I had no problems. That's when I discovered it was the garlic that I always add to my mushrooms that was causing the gas and bloating, not the mushrooms!!


So I grabbed a bag of frozen spinach and threw it and a bunch of sliced mushrooms into a pan with some balsamic vinegar. I cooked them until they were both nice and soft, and finished it all within a few days (with no help from Nick, because I was being selfish). It had been almost a year since I had enjoyed a mushroom. Boy am I glad I took the chance and tried a mushroom again!!




Something I still can't eat, due to my IBS and fructose malabsorption, is apples. However, I still have to create recipes using apples at work. I had a recipe for apple cobbler, which I wanted to create at home for Nick. I forgot the recipe at work so I sort of came up with my own. It's hard to just "throw together" a recipe when baking, but when cooking it's another story! This recipe was a huge hit

Gina's "Apple Crisp"

~1 cup water

5 chopped Granny Smith Apples

~3/4 cup chopped walnuts

~3/4 cup rolled oats
(** Choose gluten free oats if you want this to be free of gluten **)

1 lemon to create about 2 T lemon juice

~3 T Smart Balance 50/50 butter blend sticks (these things are awesome!!)

~1/2 cup raisins

~ 3 T ground flaxseed

~2 T sweetener of your choice (I used Truvia, natural sweetener)

~1 T Splenda brown sugar (or 2 T regular BS)

~2 t cinnamon

~2 t nutmeg



Preheat the oven to about 370 degrees. Get a 9 x 9 glass baking pan and layer all ingredients in order of the ingredient list above.

Put in the oven until apples are soft to your liking (took about 35 minutes for me)

ENJOY!!
(Photo above taken with my phone, therefore it's not too great)



QUESTION: Do you like mushrooms? What about apples?