30 Day Gluten Free Diet Challenge: Day 2

Day 2 of the 30 Day Gluten-Free Diet Challenge has been excellent. I realized that I tend to use the recipes and meal ideas quite a bit once the challenge is over, but then I start slacking as the year goes on. Maybe I need to start doing it twice a year even though the actual challenge only happens in February.

Day 2:

Breakfast: Banana Pineapple Smoothie
For some reason, I used to think that smoothies were hard to make. That all changed the first time I tried the Banana Pineapple Smoothie from the book. At this point, I will make random smoothies with whatever fruit or other ingredients I have, but I almost always follow this general recipe. I wish you could actually taste the goodness that this photo cannot accurately portray.

Morning Snack:
I'm allergic to nuts, and I was at church during the time I would have had snack anyway, so today, I'm counting my morning snack as my cup of coffee I had after church. I didn't seem interesting enough to get a picture of it ;)

Lunch: Turkey Sandwich & Potato Chips
I got to use our new Cuisinart machine once again, only this time I used the panini press feature of it. I was really worried about burning it, so I made the mistake of leaving the heat too low. You can see the indentations, but you cannot tell that it was actually toasted. It tasted toasted, and the cheese was excellent melty goodness. Lesson learned for next time.

I wish I had gotten a pic of the smoothie I had with lunch too. I had some leftover for breakfast, so I finished it off with my lunch.

Afternoon Snack: Applesauce
We went apple picking last summer, and I made applesauce with the bountiful supply we picked. Most of the applesauce was frozen for later use as there was no way we could eat it quickly enough. This is one of the containers, and it worked perfectly so that I wouldn't have to buy store-bought apple sauce.

Dinner:  Stir-Fried Chicken & Vegetables in GF Teriyaki Sauce w/Brown Rice
I'm still having issues with chicken, so we subbed out steak instead of chicken. I'm also trying to figure out my weird personal issue with soy. I seem to have had slight effects from the soy sauce we used for the teriyaki sauce, but nothing like if I have soybean oil or soy lecithin (most people can't have soy, but they can have soybean oil and soy lecithin if they're intolerant to soy).
I'l let this meal speak for itself with pictures (note we also didn't use mushrooms because neither of us likes them--we used carrots instead).

A close-up and a shot of the whole meal:

I meant to take more pictures of prep, but this is when I got started--the steak is in the wok, and the teriyaki sauce is ready to be heated up in the sauce pan:

And this is the teriyaki sauce just before it was finished. This stuff is super easy to make, but I wish you could bottle it. As soon as it cools off, it hardens, so you have to make it fresh each time:

Evening Snack: Pineapple
Just a nice close-up of this wonderful fresh pineapple...

30 Day Gluten Free Diet Challenge: Day 1

Cecelia's Marketplace has held a 30 Day Gluten-Free Diet Challenge every February since they published their Easy 30 Day Gluten-Free Diet book. I've participated each year, but I thought it would be fun to blog about it too. I need an excuse to post more pictures, so this is the perfect opportunity, right?

I'm going to do my best to post a photo of each meal, and I'm also going to do my best to ensure I follow the book as closely as possible to help those interested in trying to follow along.

Day 1:

Breakfast:
I generally have a hard time eating much more than dry cereal or an Udi's muffin top for breakfast along with my cup of coffee. For that reason, I LOVE that they've started the challenge/book with bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns. It is the perfect hearty breakfast, and I'm hoping this will encourage me to start getting up earlier to make a more substantial breakfast in the future.

Morning Snack:

The morning snack is supposed to be orange slices, but I have a weird thing for grapefruit, so I decided to do grapefruit instead. I usually don't eat grapefruit the "normal" way either. I peel it like an orange, which is why you aren't seeing half a grapefruit here. This is white grapefruit which I haven't purchased in a long time. It's not as sweet as red grapefruit, but these were much larger, and both were $1 each, so I went with the white this time around to get better value. 

Lunch:

Lunch is supposed to be Garden Salad with Italian Dressing and Corn Chips on Day 1. My only modification was using Honey Mustard Dressing instead of Italian Dressing. I've been having trouble finding a soy free Italian Dressing, so I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any. This salad includes spinach, romaine lettuce, yellow pepper, carrot shreds, and honey mustard dressing. I used Fritos for the corn chips. 

Afternoon Snack:

The afternoon snack on day 1 was popcorn. I decided to go with kettle corn. Here is a close-up of my popcorn before you see the next picture proving I "cheated." 

I'm really glad I discovered Angie's brand popcorn because it's been my go-to backup for when I don't feel like taking the five minutes to make fresh popcorn. It was recently on sale for $2/bag, so I purchased 6 bags. I still plan to make my own kettle corn (have you read my Popcorn Spree entry?), but I'm a sucker for a sale, and convenience won out today.

 Dinner:
 The first time I did the challenge, I completely fell in love with the lemon dill sauce from dinner on Day 1. The meal is Grilled Salmon with Lemon Dill Sauce, Brown Rice, and Steamed Snow Peas. All I have to say is yum! As you can tell, I put the sauce on everything. I've also found in the past that the sauce tends to turn green when I mix the dill in with the sauce, so I simply sprinkled it on top this time. If anyone has suggestions on how to mix it without the sauce turning green, I'd love to hear it.

It's incredibly cold where I live, and we received a TON  of snow, so we used the new Cuisinart grill we got for Christmas to grill the salmon instead of pulling out our propane grill. This thing is amazing! The plates come out and are dishwasher safe. We had one of the older models of the George Foreman grill, and my husband absolutely hated washing it. You can't submerge it, and it's awkward to do. There were a few times that we discovered it had been put away without washing it because it sat on the counter for such a long time, and neither one of us wanted to do it so it eventually just wound up on the shelf. The plates on this device also flip over to a flat side if you want to use it as a griddle or you don't want the marks on your food. We were also given additional plates so we can use it as a waffle iron. How cool is that? (The George Foreman will be sold in a garage sale this summer now that we have a replacement.)

 Every time I do the challenge, I ask myself why I don't buy pineapple more often. It makes the perfect bed time snack, and according to the book, the bromelain in fresh pineapple aids in digestion. (This only applies to fresh pineapple--canned pineapple is good for you, but doesn't do the same thing.) I don't have nearly the problems with digestion that I used to have, but I'll take everything I can get. Fresh pineapple can be a bit of a pain to cut, but it tastes SO much better than canned.

If anyone else is doing the challenge, I'd love to hear your comments. 

Popcorn Spree

Sometimes I get a thought in my head and get a little crazy and go overboard with it. This time it was popcorn.

It all started when my boss brought a popcorn maker into the office while we had extra temporary staff working. We were going through quite a bit because we made at least one batch each day, so my boss asked me to grab popcorn kernels along with other snacks when I went to Sam's Club for office supplies. I searched and searched, but I only found one option...a 50 pound bag. The price was $32 which was pretty good considering less than 2 pounds can go for more than $5. But 50 pounds?

I teased my boss that I was going to buy it, but I didn't. When we were done with our research project, we realized we had actually gone through close to 50 pounds over the course of a few months, and we should have bought it. Our temporary workers were done at that point, so my newfound popcorn habit quickly ended. (Note: towards the end we were rotating the dates we made popcorn because we feared we would develop corn allergies due to the amount and frequency with which we were eating it.)

Over the holidays, I was shopping at Target and came across Angie's Kettle Corn. The flavor was Sweet & Salty which sounded amazing. It was Certified Gluten-Free through GFCO, and it was dairy, soy, and nut free. I had to buy it and try it's deliciousness.

I was right. It was amazing. I quickly realized it would get expensive to eat this constantly, so I was going to try to make it myself. I did a few quick searches and settled on a recipe from allrecipes.com. (Click here if you'd like to check it out.) I swapped out the vegetable oil for olive oil, and I added an unknown amount of salt because I wanted it to be similar to the Sweet & Salty variety. 

The first batch came out good, but it was way too salty, the sugar could have been better distributed, and a small amount of it was slightly burnt. The picture makes it look pretty good though:

We gave it another shot the next night, but we measured out one tablespoon of salt rather than simply dumping the salt. It was still a bit too salty, so I think we are going to skip the salt altogether the next time we make it which should turn out more like this other flavor I found at another grocery store:

Yes, I'm so hooked, I had to buy more.

So that's my popcorn story. It's hard to believe I didn't eat popcorn for over 3 years because I broke a tooth on popcorn which caused a root canal and a crown. I guess I'm making up for lost time.

I'm also trying to decide if it's worth it to keep buying this popcorn. I haven't figured out the cost per serving, but it's kind of a pain in the butt to make kettle corn, so laziness might win over frugalness this time. The packaged kind is far better than what I've managed to make at this point too.

Do you ever get on a food kick? Do you love popcorn as much as I do now? Tell me about it!

Living...LIVE!

A few months ago, I read an article from the Huffington Post titled How to Get Flat Abs, Have Amazing Sex and Rule the World in 8 Easy Steps. I assumed it was an article similar to the ones you see on the cover of Cosmo (of which I haven't read in years), so I ignored it when my friends first started posting it on Facebook.

When multiple people posted it and started leaving comments alluding to their being more to it, I decided to break down and read it. I have this secret hatred of all things Huffington Post, and I'm not sure why. I think it has something to do with something I heard they stand for a long time ago, but I honestly have no idea what it was or if I should actually despise them. At this point, I'll occasionally read their articles, but I always keep in mind that they might be slanted or have misinformation or do something else that will tick me off.

I am incredibly grateful that I read it. Not because it was something I necessarily needed to hear because it is how I prefer to live my life anyway. (Did you break down and read it yet--if not, I encourage you to do so.)

If you were to apply these things directly to the gluten-free diet, you would have my outlook on it. Stop believing your BS that you can't do this. Stop with the crazy making: "Life is full of obstacles; we don't need to create extra ones." Stop making things so hard. Stop complaining for the sake of complaining. Stop thinking the waiter/waitress is going to hate you for asking a million questions. Stop assuming your family will hate you for bringing your own food/asking questions/doing whatever you need to do to get a safe meal at family gatherings and the holidays.

So tell me. How do you truly LIVE?

Even I Panic Sometimes

Back in high school, I was on the Dance Team and I was editor of the our school paper. When the status of whether or not Dance Team was a sport came under fire, naturally, I wrote an editorial describing our position. I remember quoting a Shawn Mullins song where he said, "Ain't it a blessing to do what you wanna do." I just heard another Shawn Mullins song, but his voice always brings me back to that struggle.

It seemed so insignificant to others, but gaining the recognition and status of being a sport had huge implications. My high school was ahead of its time in giving the Dance Team the status of "sport" rather than "activity" right from the start. The football team confirmed we deserved that status when they were completely incapable of completing a full dance team practice after we breezed through one of their football practices.

Back to the quote. "Ain't it a blessing to do what you wanna do." One of the biggest struggles with Celiac Disease is simply not being able to do what you want to do unless you change your viewpoint. We can't just run to McDonalds for a quick meal or order delivery from any restaurant that delivers. We can't go to any gathering that includes food and eat whatever we want without asking a million questions, and even then, we often can't eat anything.

The other day was our 6 month wedding anniversary. We were both busy trying to get stuff done all day, and when it came to the end of the day and time to eat dinner, neither of us wanted to cook. We decided to order takeout from a local pizza place that is very good about avoiding cross contamination for their sandwiches that are served on gluten-free bread. I sighed with relief after we ordered because I was starving, and now I wasn't going to have to deal with it. 15 minutes later, they called us to let us know they were very sorry, but they were completely out of gluten-free bread.

At that point, I didn't care if we got a nice anniversary meal. I just wanted to eat, so I went to the kitchen to make the turkey my husband had said was in the refrigerator. It wasn't there. It was quickly located in the freezer--frozen solid. All of our meat was frozen, our cupboards were fairly bare (except for a million gluten-free baking mixes and flour), and we didn't even have lunch meat to make a sandwich. My pathetic back-up meal when I'm in a total pinch has become crackers, cheese, and possibly lunchmeat. We had no crackers.

Neither one of us was dressed to leave the house, but we decided we would order take-out from Outback and brave the cold temps to pick it up. Unfortunately, they closed at 9:00 and it was 9:05. Every other restaurant that had safe gluten-free takeout available also closed at 9pm.

At that point I wanted to cry. I was starving, I felt like I was going to pass out, and I had no idea what we were going to do. I knew things could be worse and we could have literally had no food or money to even get food if we wanted it, but I was in a hunger frenzy.

We ended up with frozen hot dogs that had been in our freezer since our rehearsal dinner. I'm pretty sure they had soy in them because they wound up making me sick (my soy reaction is brain fog, horrendous gas, etc), but I have no idea because we didn't have their original packaging and I hadn't originally planned on eating them. The leftover hot dogs were supposed to be for last minute meals for my step-son because what kid doesn't like hot dogs.

It's been two days so I can laugh at how much I overreacted, but it also taught me a lesson. I like to think I'm very good at staying positive about the gluten-free diet. I think a lot of people overreact far too often, but this situation brought me back down to earth. It's been a while since I was in a panic over what I was going to eat because I'm normally so well prepared. I was definitely humbled.

"Ain't it a blessing to do what you wanna do..." We can't always do what we want to do. BUT, we can choose to want to do those things that will keep us prepared. We can choose to arm ourselves with knowledge to make the best of the gluten-free diet so we don't get sick. We can choose to keep our own homes stocked with a minimum of food so there is at least something to eat unlike what I did ;)

Thankful on Thanksgiving 2013

For those of you who don't get sick and tired of people droning on and on about the things they have to be thankful for...

I'm thankful that I didn't really plan Thanksgiving this year. I have a turkey, cranberries, sweet potatoes, frozen veggies and I guess I'm just going to wing the rest. I may become one of those crazies that winds up at the store Thanksgiving morning, but I'm thankful that I've come to a point in my gluten-free life that I don't have to plan everything.

I'm thankful for the year I was able to make Thanksgiving dinner for all 20+ members of my immediate and extended family. It may have meant packing up and transporting every single pot, pan, serving tray, stirring spoon, mixer, etc, etc, etc that I might possibly need to ensure I didn't cross contaminate the meal with my parents "gluteny" items, but it was worth it.

I'm thankful that I made the stupid decision to move 8 hours away from the closest person I knew 10 years ago for a guy I hardly knew (the move took place the day after Thanksgiving). I may have later regretted that choice more than any other choice I had made in my life, but that decision set everything in motion for me to meet my husband.

I'm thankful for my husband who has never once complained about the necessity of my gluten-free diet. He may tease me that he would have been perfectly fine eating gluten the rest of his life (he doesn't feel better off gluten, but he gets really sick if he eats it now), but he thinks I'm worth it.

I'm thankful for technology which has allowed me to feel closer to my family even when I can't spend the holidays with them. The ability to do video chats still amazes me.

I'm thankful that I've been so incredibly busy at work that I didn't have time to blog for the last two months. I'm also thankful that things have finally slowed down enough for me write almost as much as I want in the upcoming months.

Finally, although I'm thankful for a million other things, I'm thankful that I'm learning to be less wordy which makes it obvious I need to end this now with a big thank you to all of my readers!

What are you thankful for this year?

Recipes I Need to Try

I'm constantly coming across recipes that I absolutely want to try, so I decided to start a post where I can keep a log of them. I plan to update this post with the date I found the recipe and then the date I tried the recipe (and hopefully wrote a post about it).

9/18/13

The first recipe I found is from Udi's facebook page. I would say Maple Glazed Banana Donuts sounds like an AMAZING way to test out the donut pans we got as a wedding gift. Would any of my readers like to try to beat me to the punch and try this recipe before I get around to it?

12/11/13
These cookies look absolutely amazing, and I cannot wait to try them. Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies... the name of them speaks for itself. It's a regular recipe, but I plan on converting by using 1-2-3 Gluten Free Multi Purpose Flour Mix.