Celiac - is there a pill for that??

Being lactose intolerant, I can't quite say "I'm SO GLAD I don't have a food allergy," but I can say "I'm SO GLAD I don't have this one!" And that's definitely the truth, I'm so glad I don't have Celiac disease for one reason:

those labels are impossible.

I mean, I didn't have to go to the emergency room once - but I only think that because I didn't physically go. I only know what packages told me and my body did not back me up on this challenge. Hidden wheat, things dusted with flour, amounts who-knows-who deemed negligible to include, I would have no idea. In all realities I'm sure I did once or twice in attempts to venture into the world of still processed and convenient.

Not only are those labels in magnifying glass print but those words are gigantic and meaningless. Having to compare my list of unsafe meaningless long words to what was actually on the box or container was almost comical at times. When two or three letters were the only difference between safe and unsafe it felt nearly hopeless. Like going into war. I'm stepping onto the battlefield here and in all probabilities I might die and if I don't I am one of the lucky ones. Tell my partner I loved her. I'd show you a picture but if life is like the movies then I'd be guaranteed to die a tragic death with a violin in the background. ha. Schindler's Ingredient List. hahahaha!

I would've liked the time to be able to cook all of my meals from raw ingredients and monitor EXACTLY what I'm eating - but even then, what about those dried spices? They were the kind you get from the grocery, not the kind you bag up yourself, who knows what makes up those preservatives or whatever. Not me. And I think one of the reasons I really enjoyed these gluten-free weeks is because I genuinely love cooking and will choose to do that over most other things whenever possible.

"No mom, I can't eat that frozen treat, I'm gluten-free. Why don't I cook you this great meal instead??"

How excellent. It was nutritious and not really missing anything I would normally eat but the breads and pastas. The pastas are easy to get around...and the bread too. I still have a box of gluten-free all purpose flour (in thinking about it now, I wonder how that works... hmm) that could easily make a loaf or two. No hidden valley ranch but who doesn't love a good vinaigrette or homemade French?

I loved the way eating that good, mostly unprocessed food made my body feel. I loved the energy and the lightness. I loved the EATING. I did not love not being able to resort to my usuals when eating out. But in all, the positives outweighed those minor negatives by far. The only thing standing in the way of actually staying pretty gluten-conscious/very low-gluten is this floorlength list of end of the year tasks. It's almost sad. I couldn't slow down if I wanted to now to incorporate cooking, eating, shopping et. cetera into my day because it's not a tradition I grew up with. It's not important enough.

We were busy when I was a kid doing sports and music and whatever else (babysitting club? yup.) and so we ate out every day, in the car, on the way to somewhere else. Or we ate in front of the TV to catch up. I wonder how I'd feel if I came from a background where dinnertime was an important time, a sit-down together with no distractions and talk and eat and enjoy the food and each other time. I have a sinking feeling it wouldn't be so easy for me to eschew those things now, even in the face of the list I have. But it's about convenience and productivity here, about multi-tasking and doing things bigger, better, faster - not only in mealtimes but in the meals themselves (better referring to production efficiency, not so much taste/value). I am looking forward to my slow summer and eating naturally less gluten, naturally more nutritious. Thank someone's God for vegetables and meat and the means to prepare them.

I think if I had this assignment over the summer I'd hardly have to think about it. I'd have to take off the buns at the cookouts but otherwise? I loved these weeks. Again again, I say! Except with bread.









And I haven't eaten a tootsie since.


okay maybe one...

...or maybe it is the case that after my week from hell was over I decided I wanted hot dogs and Subway sandwiches.  

Gluten conscious.  

I am conscious that I am choosing to eat gluten.  I am conscious of other options.  

I want a sandwich. 

I can haz cheeseburger?

Monday went back to being an average day.  Didn't really eat out or anything, well, I had some fries for dinner with some buffalo chicken that was not breaded and somehow still delicious.  Talk about satisfying a craving!  Ha!  Excellent!  Breakfast was a glass of orange juice to rid myself of some hiccups and a handful of tootsies.  Lunch was this scrumdidiliomcious (no guesses found) thai meal, a soda and some pears.  

Lately I've had nothing but homework homework homework and so eating hasn't been a main priority.  Monday definitely was not.  By 2h30 all of my snacks to last me until 8h30 were gone.  No more raisins, no more fruit snacks, no more tootsies in my backpack even!  Somehow I soldiered on till after class but it certainly wasn't easy.  My stomach was eating itself.  

Today, though, I remembered I bought rice cakes when I went shopping.  Good ol' Quaker caramel rice cakes (and they even advertise GLUTEN FREE very largely)!  I ate half a package today...whoops!  But they're just so darn good (and they consist of nothing but air)!  Also I ate broccoli and cheese and a salad as large as my head but found that my snacking was way way down.  There's just too much to do.  No time to eat. 

It's late and it's Tuesday and I have a huge paper due tomorrow and work early in the morning and I just want a flippin' cheeseburger and 8 solid hours of sleep but know I won't get either.  I'm sleeping 11-4am looks like, just to try to get by.  One more night of this tomorrow.  And thursday, although I still will have another (topic undecided) paper due Friday by 5 (in French, work till 4h30), I will finally sleep.  

This assignment is definitely over, and has been for a few days, but still I soldier on.  I'm going to keep on soldiering on because really, I'm just having a blast.  Pizza, My mom suggests.  Psh!  Who needs it.  Not when I've got deviled eggs and potato soup.  Not when I've got meat and vegetables and fruit and dairy and a general sense of culinary richness that will last as long as I feel like.  And after that?

Gluten conscious.  Not so much with the gluten in the home.  Away?  Perhaps occasionally.  I'm all for rearranging that food pyramid.  Gluten - use sparingly.  Tootsie Rolls 6-12 servings a day.  Check!  

I did end up losing a bit of weight - but not too terribly much AND I'm sure I've gained it back in the amount of tootsies I've eaten in three days.  I'm not too worried.  You can't see any bones you couldn't see before and call me crazy, but I think that's a sign of success.  I can't imagine this week or this past weekend if I weren't gluten free.  Bogged down with bread and pastas, I never would have made it.  Granted, the week is still early, I still may or may not make it - but if I go out, at least I know there's nothing I could've done in my favor.  My body's feeling the best its felt since I was you know, working out regularly, and that makes this probably the best homework assignment in history.  

Saturday I think I'll write that sonnet.  

And as for this blog?  Well I guess she should probably stick around.  At least till I write that sonnet for nothing but bragging rights.  Yeah, well I wrote a sonnet about being gluten free for two weeks here's a link!  Bam.  Street cred.  

Whoops!

So I've been a little ... distracted... sue me.  But I have been up to a ton of eating.  Monical's opened the door for a flood of eating out, something I haven't been doing much of at all so far this year until I decided to go gluten free.  

Last time I had a chance to check in was Wednesday, and I do certainly feel badly about that.  I'm going to keep going for another week and try to get back in the habit of writing every night while I wait for dinner to cook.  Yeah, definitely.  

Thursday night and old friend came back to town and after work, we decided to go for some dinner.  She chose the Coffee House (best quesadillas uptown I'd say) and I was excited because I knew of their huge vegan/vegetarian selection.  Fallacy - I thought this everyone's-welcome-we-cater-t0-all-types-of-alternative-eating would translate to gluten free but it certainly did not.  I ate the only two gluten free things on the menu I could find for dinner - oven fries and chips and salsa.  Everything else was either glutenized or served with a big heaping mass of gluten.  I was so disappointed!  Coffee House!  Get with the program.  I also had an Orangina which may or may not have been the most satisfying part of that meal.  Needless to say, I was totally unsatisfied and chose to make up those extra calories in tootsie rolls.  

 

Delicious.  

Oh!  but how could I forget Wednesday night's ridiculousness.  Midterm in my anthro class, but afterwards she wanted us to stay and watch this movie for funsies.  She even admitted to the funsies, tried lamely to make an excuse to how it might potentially be relevant, but then went back to the original explanation of "relaxing/fun."  What's great about movies in that class is that she brings in snacks...but she brings one of those Sam's Club sized boxes of a billion fun-sized chips from the frito-lays company.  Remembering the barbecue lays disaster from the night before I didn't really get my hopes up.  Turns out regular lays I can actually eat.  I can also eat Fritos and Cheetos but not Doritos or Sunchips.  Not bad I'd say.  Not bad at all.  So that was cool and the tv series we started was pretty cool/funny/nuts also.  I'm so glad I stayed.  

Friday, I ate out AGAIN!  Went to the Garlic Press Café and was so thrilled.  For two places that cater to similar crowds, I was astonished at the variety I had to choose from in the deli case and how clearly and largely it was marked GF.  I had an amazing dinner of crustless quiche and both potato and cucumber salads.  Excellent.  

Saturday was Noodles and Co., a place I never thought I'd eat!  I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner.  Their pad thai is made with rice noodles and they so graciously let you substitute any noodle in any dish.  Making gluten free fast & easy on the go pasta was as easy as that!  And scrumptious too!  The texture is certainly one to get used to, but I was really excited about my noodles experience and will definitely go again soon.  

Also this day I got back into the kitchen briefly while trying to avoid doing some homework and had a lovely meal of mac 'n cheese and some steamed vegetables.  Potatoes, red peppers, sugar snap peas.  I feel like what I'm lacking in bread starch I'm certainly making up for in potatoes.  I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing.  This week (perhaps next weekend) there's some homemade gluten-free bread in my future but for now the potatoes will do certainly.  This mac 'n cheese was from Annie's and it was spectacular.  I was so excited and happy with this meal.  I thought the cheese sauce was flavorful and much better than even Kraft mac 'n cheese or the Glutino stuff I had that first night.  On a separate and not really related note: I really love my camera.  My food almost got cold during this photoshoot.  Oh well, certainly worth it.  Look at that texture!  

But this brings us finally back to today!  This entry has been epic I know, but I'll do my best not to fall so behind again.  Lunch started with Gluten free corn dogs from 'Sbetter or something like that.  This company also makes gluten free buffalo wings and gluten free chicken tenders.  If they taste anything like the corn dogs COUNT ME IN.  I could do gluten free easily and forever if not for the fact that I miss buffalo wings like none other.  Couldn't begin to tell you why but I do.  Miss 'em most out of anything.  I keep saying I'll use that gluten free all-purpose flour to batter some chicken breasts and make myself a buffalo chicken wrap on a corn tortilla or something but it's yet to happen.  

These corn dogs though - very, very good except for the fact that they just sort of crumbled apart.  The outside part fell away on what looked like pre-carved fault lines which destroyed any chance of eating it actually on the stick.  That's okay, too phallic for my tastes anyway.  Fork please.  Also in the freezer - gluten free waffles that I'm interested in eating.  

For dinner we went out again. Chili's.  I was also pretty impressed with Chili's.  They had a really great allergen menu on the internet you can download that shows the things you can eat on the menu if you have any of the common eight allergies.  I thought I had it bad - at least I'm not allergic to soy!  

 Here's a small photograph of the menu.  You probably can't read that.  Oh well.  The point is, it was nicely broken down and I ordered something that was really satisfying that I've never thought to order.  I forget what it was called.  One of those chicken dishes.  The one with barbecue sauce, cheese, and bacon on top.  Pretty good I'd say.  How strange that the hardest time I've had with this limitation and eating out has been at the Coffee House.  How strange and disappointing.  

Here's to one more week!  

Shh I'm at Work

It's been a while, whoops, but sadly I eat pretty much the same thing everyday. I eat the majority of the stuff on this list:
applesauce
pears
raisins
fruitsnacks
tootsie rolls
oatmeal
cerealeggssalad
potatoes
gummy bear vitamins

But cool things have occurred! I had a surprisingly good Amy's lunch of very cheesy enchiladas. Didn't look a thing like the box (I've got pictures), but was very very tasty. Yay for no gluten!

Also, yesterday, in my History of the English Language class, I got to watch someone else meticulously look through the ingredients of the snack someone brought to see if it was alright. She got off okay, she got to eat the bread and jam. I, on the other hand, could not eat the bread (thus eliminating the jam and the wonderful smelling mango chutney), nor could I eat the potato chips! POTATO CHIPS! I SHOULD BE ABLE TO EAT POTATO CHIPS!
Just some regular ol' Lays Barbecue potato chips. Denied. For barley flour. Why on earth did they need to add barley flour?! Grr. I can have chips and salsa. So I went home and I did.


Today is gluten free chili from a frozen package and stuff on that list. I am a creature of habits. I am a creature without time to be bothered with silly eating.  This chili was excellent.  I loved the big chunks of meat and the good amount of heat.  Added a touch of sugar (been in the family for years) and it was really delicious.  

OH THE BROWNIES!
I made brownies! Betty Crocker Gluten-free brownies. They're not bad! Not bad at all. I wish I had thought about it earlier, it would've been fun to bring 'em to class. BROWNIES FOR ALL!

Yes I Can Mexican

Excuse the poor quality of this picture.  We'll go backwards tonight.  Dinner was this lovely chicken and tortilla soup that packs some killer heat  but is delicious supreme and wonderfully easy to make.  Went to my mom's, cooked my family some soup, watched some HGTV with my mother and played a little playstation with my pa.  Unfortunately, I made this great little dish and forgot my Nikon - leaving us all with the not-so-great quality of a phone camera.  Apologies.  What's missing is the chihuahua cheese on top but it's already been melted in at this point, no worries.  

For Lunch I had a little left-over pizza and some salad.  Quite a few snacks - the same ol' same ol'.  I find that I get into these little food niches where I want something all the time for two or four or six weeks and then I won't eat it or think to eat it again for months if not years.  I especially do this with yogurt.  Right now it's diced pears which I'm eating literally every day.  Also applesauce.  Also salad.  Also oatmeal.  So I'm a convert, it's convenient, tasty, and filling!  

Breakfast explains that little entry from a bit ear

lier.  Sausage, eggs, orange juice, oatmeal - 'twas a breakfast of champions.  I am a champion.  For later I have this great picture of all of the Tootsie I've acquired recently.  Be on the look-out.  

Oh and this!

I love this.  I can't eat this.  :( 

Hot and Spicy (or something like that) Mix from Fresh Market.  $5.99/lb.  Worth every friggin' penny.  

I love this.  I can't eat this.  :( 

And yet here it was in my possession.  Pick up our favorite Fresh Market mix, Danielle, says my mom.  Bring it to me.  Watch me eat it.  MM how good. 

Somewhere in the First Draft of Genesis

And on the seventh day, God did not rest but said, "Let there be sausage so that my people will never doubt me in its presence" and so it was and thusly the world was created.