...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.  

Eating Out 19

The hysteria continues:

What about gluten-saturated (this is now the opposite of gluten free) partners?! How long from when they eat say, a sandwich and when you can lay one on them?! Does it stick around? Wheat fumes?? You are what you eat they say,* I mean, what about doin'...you know... how dangerous?! EEP!**

What a perilous life I have one more week to live! Oy vey!

That aside moving on now okay. Yesterday was a fine day for eating. Kind of skipped the breakfast thing, but I was far too busy reading reading reading (La Peste). Leftover Chinese for breakfastlunch that meal that is sort of in between. Followed by practically no snacking before my huge nap. The greatness happened after the nap.

We went out to eat!

Cool, huh! Yeah, definitely! So originally the plan was "hey let's go out for lunch" which would have been fine because you don't have to really get dressed much to do lunch, it's not that big ordeal of dinner eating, except for then I would've been in a tight bind to try to find things to eat for dinner and I mean, I was wearing my tribute to yellow outfit that totally wasn't going to fly in Biaggi's where we were going (as I hear its got a nice gluten-free menu) and that is an outfit hardly fit to go anywhere except for maybe the library and the garlic press café (also great for the gluten-free) that just wasn't ticklin' my fancy yesterday if you catch my drift. Run. on. So I just ate a little lunch at my own house and moved this date to dinnertime.

We went to Monical's thanks to a tip from a friend. They must have very, very recently added gluten-free pizzas, but they did! Monical's is certainly one of my favorite pizza places in town and I was so pleasantly surprised! dinner: We got a couple of salads and some fries to start but for dinner we got separate pizzas because the gluten-free one only comes in 10 1/2in. (and because someone ::ahem:: doesn't like meat on their pizza. Ugh!

It came out and lo and behold, it was truly very good. Different, you could totally tell it wasn't made with the same flour, but definitely tasty in that acquired once-you-get-used-to-this-it-tastes-perfectly-normal-and-you-could-never-go-back-to-the-regular-kind sort of way like diet soda. The crust is sliiightly thicker than the thin crust but it's practically negligible - we're talking millimeters here at the most - and it's flakier, kind of like a pie crust. You know, it's a little sweeter like a pie crust too. The Other said it tastes kind of like a Cheez-It and I kind of get it except for it's not crammed with the taste of real cheddar cheese into each tiny square.

I ate a ton of everything. Way too much. I was very full (but not bloated I-need-a-nap-full) so then we shopped it off. Fine fine evening but very low on the eating stuff front.

Oh and I guess I ate my weight in Tootsie Rolls between yesterday and the day before but that's a whole 'nother can of worms....

::edit:: I forgot my appendage!  Whoops!

*When I say this I think of Michael Pollan's bit in The Omnivore's Dilemma where he talks about how because of the carbon type that makes up corn, it changes our make-up and so you can do tests on people to find out what they eat mostly and now we eat more corn than those Native peoples who call themselves the corn people.  

**This may or may not be as scandalous as it sounds