Creative Solutions to the Dreaded Step 1 Diet

Since transplant day (7 days ago...woo hoo!), I’ve been on what’s called the Step 1 SCT (stem cell transplant) diet. As opposed to a gluten-free or dairy-free (or as Zack would say, joy-free) diet, this one is rather random and less intuitive because it’s antimicrobial to protect my immune system. Though the randomness of the Step 1 diet is nothing compared to that of the renal diet, which is what I was on for a couple months last year due to kidney failure. I could eat donuts and candy to my heart’s content but not tomatoes, nuts, avocado, or beans, to name a few. Go figure.

But I digress. The hardest parts of the Step 1 diet are cutting out dairy and fresh fruits and vegetables, and consuming all food within 2 hours of it being opened and/or cooked, which is way more challenging than it first seemed! If I open a jar of salsa or a bag of chips, I can only eat from it once, because I can’t refrigerate or reheat any leftovers, whether perishable or non-perishable, after the 2 hour time limit. After my immune system starts to recover somewhat, I’ll progress to the Step 2 diet, which is infinitely more exciting because I can have frozen pizza AND real ice cream :). Still no fresh fruits and veggies though :(, with the exception of oranges and bananas because they have the thickest skins.

With all these food restrictions, I’ve been unable to eat many things I could normally eat, such as spinach dip. Foods that once seemed unexciting transform into decadent delicacies as soon as you can’t have them! A few days ago, I developed an extreme craving for spinach dip but was quickly faced with its many obstacles to my Step 1 diet. One, I can’t eat the fresh bread with which I would normally eat the dip; all of my bread needs to be frozen or individually packaged by the hospital. Two, I can’t have the yogurt or sour cream that comprises one-half of the spinach dip recipe. And three, once prepared, I can only eat the dip within a 2 hour time frame. But as my GFCF friends can attest to, one of my hidden talents is finding a way around their (and now my) food restrictions :).

Here was my master plan to address each obstacle:
One: the bread. My mom found individually frozen French bread rolls that she could bake a few at a time. Go Mom.
Two: the yogurt. My dad went to Whole Foods and found an awesome non-dairy sour cream made by Tofutti. Go Dad.
Three: consuming the dip within 2 hours. No, I didn’t eat the whole thing, though I was tempted to. But I got to enjoy a good amount of it and send the rest home with a friend who loves spinach dip possibly even more than me, so that made it worth it :).

Other cravings that I’ve found creative solutions for:
Donuts: buy the individual serving pack of powdered mini-donuts...dairy-free and oh so delicious!
Dark chocolate: the mucositis has damaged my taste buds, so I can’t taste many things, including peanut butter and chocolate! So sad. BUT I had the idea that since dark chocolate has a stronger flavor than milk chocolate, I might be able to taste it. Thanks to Caroline who got me some from Trader Joes, I discovered I was right!
Top Ramen: with all this painful mucositis, the only foods that haven’t hurt too much to eat are really soft and slippery foods, such as noodles. I’ve been craving Top Ramen, but there’s no stove here for us to cook them in and any spices I eat have to be cooked, not added afterwards like you normally do with Top Ramen. However, in a moment of pure genius :), it dawned on me to try cooking them in the microwave! Sure enough, heat the water until boiling, add the noodles and spices, then heat some more and presto! Tasty Top Ramen.

So if you have a food dilemma you’d like me to solve, let me know. I specialize in providing creative solutions to your greatest food cravings.*

*for a small fee of course :)