Hello I am new here

[Alice I]

Hello everyone,
My name is Alice I and I am new to this forum. I found it by googleing cooking forums. This was the first one to pop up.
I am a 43 year old mother of 3. My children range in age from 2 yrs to 10 yrs. old. I have just been diagnosed with Barrettes Esophagus and have had to change my lifestyle including the way I cook and eat.

My most immediate question is about whole wheat pasta vs. regular pasta. I am learning several new cooking techniques and I just saw a Rachel Ray episode where she cooked spaghetti the same way you would cook risotto. The dish comes out creamy because the starch in the pasta has a chance to comes out and it isn't washed away as would happen with boiling it. My question is - will this same thing work if using whole wheat spaghetti?
I have not even had a chance to set up my profile. Life is busy and I just joined a few minutes ago. I will get to it at some point here and I look forward to meeting and getting to know the folks who are members here.
Thanks
Alice I

 

[sattie]

I'm not an expert in the pasata realm, but wanted to welcome you to DC!

 

[Alice I]

I'm not an expert in the pasata realm, but wanted to welcome you to DC!

Thanks Sattie. I am going to make this for dinner tonight. If I don't hear from someone saying yep it'll work fine I'm going to try it anyway. (maybe not) It has to do with starch and I think that the wheat pasta has as much starch as the regular. It's got more in it than the regular right? It still has all the fiber and other things you find in whole grain.
We'll see if I chicken out. The recipe looks really good. I'll have to use different veggies but still I think it should work. (I hope) I have had a couple of new recipes totally bomb out since I started this "new" life style.
Try - live - learn --- right?
If it works I'll come back and post what I did. Maybe someone here can improve on it.
Thanks again for the welcome.
Alice

 

[sattie]

You will get some suggestions shortly... trust me, we got a great group of helpful folks here. And I will admit that half if not more of our cooking experiences are from the frame of thought "just go for it!" And then let us know how it turns out!

Hope you enjoy it here!

 

[simplicity]

Welcome Alice!

I am somewhat familiar with Barrett's Esophagus and the cooking/eating challenges it presents.

I'm glad you've joined us. There are some really knowledgeable and helpful people here.

 

[David Cottrell]

Welcome Alice I, glad you checked in.

 

[quicksilver]

Welcome Alice. Glad you can join us.

 

[Alice I]

Welcome Alice!

I am somewhat familiar with Barrett's Esophagus and the cooking/eating challenges it presents.

I'm glad you've joined us. There are some really knowledgeable and helpful people here.

Hello simplicity,
Do you also have this? I was just diagnosed last week. Any information you would care to impart would be greatly appreciated. I'm not too worried about it. I googled it and found out that the chance of having it progress to cancer is less than 1 percent. That's good. What's bad is the same research also said that if it does become cancerous it is over 95 percent fatal. That's the bad news. I'm hedging my bets on the less than 1 percent part of the equation.

Thanks everyone for the nice welcome. I think I may really enjoy it here. I'm looking forward to finding some time to look the site over. That may take some time with 1 1/2 full time jobs, 3 kids and a currently practically crippled hubby. (he threw his back out badly and can't even pick the baby up to change his diaper!)

Well I'll check back later. Thanks again for the welcomes. I'll post later tonight to let you know if the recipe works out. I have decided to try the whole wheat pasta and hope it works. I made Risotto for the first time on Saturday and was pleased by how that turned out.

 

[simplicity]

Hi Alice,

A friend of mine has Barrett's that was diagnosed several years ago. He has seemed to adjust quite well.

Anything I could say might be dead wrong, so again I'll just say welcome!

 

[Alice I]

I tried using the whole wheat pasta and it worked out just fine. My 10 year old LOVED it, the seven year old said it was okay, the baby didn't say "I don't like this, mommy" and my hubby said it was good. So - all in all that was a pretty good response.

I used a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a really big and deep frying pan. I toasted the spaghetti for a few minutes then started adding the veggies. I used 1/2 a Vidalia onion coarsely chopped, a few baby carrots cut in half lengthwise, 1/2 a yellow bell pepper, 2 scallions sliced, 1/2 a zucchini squash julienned, about five white bulk mushrooms sliced, a tablespoon or so of minced garlic from a jar, and half a broccoli crown cut into small floweretes.

The seasoning I used included about 10 or so fresh basil leaves, six or seven fresh rosemary leaves, a handful of fresh chives, 15ish or so fresh oregano leaves, and the tiny leaves pulled off a fresh sprig of thyme. All the fresh herbs were cut up with scissors. The only other seasoning I added while cooking was a grinder with sea salt and garlic.

Once that got going I used 3/4 cup of white wine as my first addition to be absorbed by the pasta. Then I used a full box (about a quart) of vegetable stock that was preheated. I added it is small amounts stirring until the liquid was absorbed. I found that it wasn't enough stock so I ended up adding a can (~1 2/3 cups) of chicken broth stirring constantly until all the liquid was absorbed and the pasta was cooked. At the end I added what was left of a fresh shredded four cheese blend from the supermarket. The cheeses are agasio, parm, romano and something else. I can't remember. In any case there was maybe 1/2 a cup to 2/3 of a cup of this shredded cheese left over and I mixed it in and served it.

 

[Mama]

Welcome to DC Alice!

That sounds pretty good!

I don't know anything about Barrett's so I won't be much help in that department.

 

[Alice I]

Hi there Mama
It is an interesting technique - cooking pasta like risotto. It makes the dish creamy and richer than if you boiled the pasta and tossed it with the veggies.
I want to try it with a tri-colored vegetable corkscrew pasta that I found in the Nature's Market place section of my local grocery. It has almost as much fiber as the whole wheat without that heavy taste and texture.
My only concern is the shape of the corkscrew pasta. I'm not sure the whole browning step would work so well with it. I guess I'll just have to give it a try and see what happens.
That's how I usually cook. It's mostly guesswork on my part.
That is one of the reasons I thought to join a forum like this one. Maybe take some of the guesswork out of it.

 

[redkitty]

Hi Alice and welcome to DC!!! That veggie pasta sounds tasty!

 

[Bilby]

Welcome to DC!! The dinner sounded lovely and I too hope you are in the 1% group.

 

[LEFSElover]

Hi Alice and welcome.
Do try to read and post if you can.
You'll learn much about everything under the sun.
I know nothing of your condition except that I googled it.
Is your profile updated?

 

[Alice I]

Hi Alice and welcome.
Do try to read and post if you can.
You'll learn much about everything under the sun.
I know nothing of your condition except that I googled it.
Is your profile updated?

Hello LEFSElover,
No unfortunately my profile isn't updated. With summer here, I have had precious little time for anything that is recreational for me. I work the night shift but have three kids. The two year old goes to daycare but the eight and ten year olds have to stay home with me, so as you can imagine I don't get much rest.
The fact that the girls at home are just that - girls, with both of them going through puberty (the 10 year old on time, the 8 year old is early) they mix about as well as oil and water. I spend much of the time keeping them from killing each other.
God I can't wait for school to start!

I do have some great recipes to share. I have found one that has now become a sort of signature dish. It’s main ingredients are Leeks, Pancetta and either Sea Scallops (when I can afford them) or usually I substitute Pork Tenderloin medallions. It cooks up very quickly and even the two year old likes it.

Right now I’m still at work so I have to go. Sorry I have been so absent lately. All of my Internet friends have been wondering if I fell off the planet recently. Nah, I’m just drowning in prepubescent estrogen! LOL

 

[LEFSElover]

Hello LEFSElover,
No unfortunately my profile isn't updated. With summer here, I have had precious little time for anything that is recreational for me. I work the night shift but have three kids. The two year old goes to daycare but the eight and ten year olds have to stay home with me, so as you can imagine I don't get much rest.
The fact that the girls at home are just that - girls, with both of them going through puberty (the 10 year old on time, the 8 year old is early) they mix about as well as oil and water. I spend much of the time keeping them from killing each other.
God I can't wait for school to start!

I do have some great recipes to share. I have found one that has now become a sort of signature dish. It’s main ingredients are Leeks, Pancetta and either Sea Scallops (when I can afford them) or usually I substitute Pork Tenderloin medallions. It cooks up very quickly and even the two year old likes it.

Right now I’m still at work so I have to go. Sorry I have been so absent lately. All of my Internet friends have been wondering if I fell off the planet recently. Nah, I’m just drowning in prepubescent estrogen! LOL

oh gad that's funny. good luck with the kids, we all know how much fun that can be, NOT share when you can.........no hurry

 

[pdswife]

welcome to our group! Enjoy!!