When we first started dealing with the challenges of living with Interstitial Cystitis, meal time was a real chore. We stopped eating out and stopped buying processed foods. Our food choices were so limited in the beginning that we lived on brown rice and pink eyed peas.

One day, we got the idea to make big batches of this pesto so we could freeze it and make quick meals whenever needed. Our favorite quick meal involved putting this pesto on some San Francisco sour dough bread, covered with feta or fresh mozzarella, some green bell peppers and oil cured olives. Throw that puppy in the toaster oven and you have yourself and quick and tasty "pesto pizza".

Most Pot Roast recipes call for tomato sauce or some other type of acid. Using the buttermilk is an ingenious, IC Friendly way to tenderize the meat while adding tremendous flavor.

The coconut milk ice cream is rich and creamy, yet vegan and lower in calorie. You'll never know it's not ice cream made from eggs and cream. Combine that with coffee and you've got yourself a real winner of a dessert.

It's amazing how much you miss coffee with Interstitial Cystitis. After 4 years of no coffee, we finally learned about cold brewing your own low acid coffee using a coffee toddy.

They are delicious and didn't bother my wife's bladder!

We were so excited when we read that some people with Interstitial Cystitis can tolerate low acid tomatoes. We immediate ran out bought Lemon Boy plants through the internet (and stupid us, Home Depot carried them).

We got decent production out of the plants, but we were rookie tomato growers. We are hoping for a better crop this year. We've also planted Roma II's this year and are almost ready to harvest.

We have served this dish to many people including friends and family. Everyone loves it, even those who are not restricted to the IC Diet.