Food

I'm beginning to see why it's hard to stick to a diet for weight loss purposes. I am not necessarily on a "diet" to lose weight, but I have started working out a bit and would like to eat accordingly so I can lose my last ten "baby pounds". The combination of shopping for my family (not me) and being gluten free leaves me with little in the pantry that is satisfying to eat! I want a nutrigrain bar - goldfish - omg one real oreo cookie! However, I can't eat any of those and the gluten free versions that cost a fortune at the store leave a lot to be desired. So I either eat nothing, or I grab a glass of soda which is somewhat satisfying! It's not that I'm eating unhealthy foods, I'm just drinking unhealthy things to make up for the fact that I don't really eat satisfying foods during the day. These are the days I hate having celiac disease - when I can't even eat the healthy foods I want to! It's not about craving fried chicken, chinese food, cookies - I make all of those at home and they are awesome. It's about the healthy grab and go foods like nutrigrain bars! The gluten free versions are at least a dollar a bar and don't even taste like fruit! Ugh! I can make an amazing batch of white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies in less than a half an hour, but I don't want to eat a half a batch of cookies over the course of the next few days - I want something healthy and satisfying - but I can't have that :(

My Honda Pilot

Yes, I drive a pilot - a big black pilot. I had up to this car always driven small cars that were cheap and comfy. I hated the pilot when I first started driving it, but with twins it was a necessary evil. I now lovingly refer to it as the "short bus", it is one of my favorite cars I have ever owned. I have in the past tried and tried with different carseats to install two carseats next to each other, to no avail. So my middle row had a carseat on either end, and my ten year old has been smooshing himself between them. I had to sit between the seats last weekend, and I couldn't believe how oversized I was for that seat. I am 5'4", and am maybe ten pounds overweight - I should have plenty of room in a honda pilot! So I looked into trading in for an odyssey, but it wasn't a good fit. Past experiences have taught me to call a parts dept manager when you have questions about your car's interior, so I did. This man deserves an award in my opinion! He told me I wasn't doing it right if I couldn't get two carseats next to each other in my car, and he was totally right! I had been trying to put one behind the passenger seat, and one in the middle, putting the end one in first. Nope - put the middle one in first and then put one behind the driver, and they fit perfectly! Talk about feeling stupid... ha! There is enough room now for a grown man to sit next to my carseats in my second row, and I am elated. I can't explain my joy at being able to keep my car! I know it has a third row, but it really isn't accessible easily. With two carseats installed you can't fold down the end seat on the second row, no matter what you do, and even if you could the seat doesn't fold flat so it's mountain climbing to get to the back. The back seats are small by nature, and not very comfortable. If you use the back hatch for entry into the third row you can't close the door from the inside, someone has to stand there with a butt in their face until the back passenger is in and close the door for them! Not my cup of tea. So in the end I am back to loving my pilot - and I plan to drive it until it won't drive anymore!!!

Zenni Optical Eyeglasses

Zenni optical has my vote for glasses! These are my new glasses that I ordered with antireflective coating, scratch coating, high index lenses so I don't look like the bottom of a coke bottle, and clip on polarized sunglasses - for $56. Yep, $56 bucks. I have been wearing them for a week and the only thing I can even find that could possibly be called "lower quality" is the black pieces that slide over the metal over my ears wiggle a teeny weeny bit. Not noticable unless you are really inspecting the glasses, and that does not affect wear at all. I am sold! I love these new glasses!! The only thing that threw me for a loop was when you are ordering you need to know the distance between your pupils - and doctors don't write that on your script. You have to ask them to, so I just asked a friend to measure for me, and my glasses are AWESOME!! I hate glasses, and wear contacts most of the time, but these are really growing on me. Excellent. My last pair of glasses cost me around $700, to get the high index lenses, the coatings, everything I have on the new ones, and after a month they had such a scratch across one lens I couldn't drive with them on anymore, and had to watch tv out of the edge of the lenses. I recommend zenni to anyone wearing glasses!!! Now they don't accept insurance, but if you are like me and your insurance covers glasses OR contacts, I opt for contacts and wait for glasses. Well, no more waiting!

WOOHOO!!

*update 3.22.10 - I ran to target today for some freebies, and the target optical center will adjust any glasses from anywhere at no charge. How nice was that?! Now my glasses that were knocked off kilter by a loving toddler storm are nice and straight again. :)

Gluten Free Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe

Mmmmm - this one was so good, even for lunch the next day it's still amazing! Easy, fast, and yummy - it doesn't get much better than that around here :)

*as always, if you are making this as a gluten free recipe check your ingredients to ensure gluten free status! I have brands I am very loyal to, but I still check every time I buy a new container to ensure nothing has changed on the ingredient list.

1 to 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken, cubed
1 bottle la choy sweet and sour sauce
2 Tbs soy sauce (I use La Choy)
one small can pineapple tidbits, undrained
White Rice (I cook white rice with every asian meal, I love rice)

(Start rice in steamer - should pop when chicken is done! If you prefer different types of rice or different cooking methods, the chicken should take around 10 to 15 minutes from start to finish)

In medium skillet cook chicken until done. In medium bowl combine remaining ingredients, mix, and pour over chicken. Once heated through serve over white rice - mmmmmm!

See, that was just silly it's so easy!

*UPDATE - we have started making this using our chinese fried chicken instead of just cooking the chicken in a skillet, and it is absolutely lovely.

Plumbers

Well, we have yet again supported our local plumbing company, Rooter Plus! Two weeks ago it was the septic tank that needed fixing, and this weekend we fixed the spicket (bibb?) out front so we could wash our cars and water the plants. It feels good to fix things properly, and get it done - it's just hard on the wallet! So many things on that to do list...

Remember When...

I bought some blistex lip stuff today for my chapped lips, and when I opened it the smell brought me right back to my shiny tinkerbell lip gloss when I was five or six! I remember vividly how it smelled, how it felt on my lips, because I felt like a "big girl" wearing lipstick! It surprises me sometimes how a simple smell can bring on such a surge of strong memories. There is a particular antique car smell that I only find at car shows, or if we are by chance behind a model T or A on the street ... and that smell reminds me of how my grandfather's shirts smelled. He was always working on a model A in the summers, and that specific smell makes me smile every time I am near it. The smell of woodstoves in very cold weather takes me back to NY winters, makes me feel like I'm "home" for some reason! I wonder what connects those specific smells to memories in your mind, there is so much in our heads that we don't realize!!! Ha, or probably use as we should ;)

General Tso's Chicken

Mmmmm... hubby made chinese food last night, and it was so yummy! Our neighbors came over to enjoy dinner with us, it was a really fun night. I made white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies (gotta find a nickname for those) and choc. chunk cookies, and they couldn't tell that they were gluten free at all! That is the ultimate compliment if you ask me. I like fun nights like that, we need to have more of those! I like entertaining, and I love to laugh.

Wow, it snows again! This is our second "stick to the ground" snow this season, which is amazing for us southerners. I have seen plenty of snow in my days, but down south this is crazy! Kids are out playing in it, hubby comes home early, I like this! It cracks me up that every grocery store is out of milk, water, and bread - over two inches of snow falling. Maybe they think they won't be able to make it out for a week? And who would really want milk and bread if they were actually to get stuck inside. I promise, when we used to lose power due to snowy/icy weather we didn't use the milk, no one opened the fridge at all! I love snow, when I don't have to drive in it. I have been in many ditches over the years due to white out storms, which is why I love being a southerner now (and a stay at home mom)! Yep, I'm a convert!

Blogging

So I thought I was going to keep this blog simply for celiac disease info, and start a second blog about other things. I think I'm just going to use this blog as my "for everything" blog. Celiac disease is a lifestyle after all, right?

Cut Out Cookies

I have a great recipe for sugar cookies, that makes delicious pretty cookies. However, it makes a ton so I can share at christmastime! I wanted to try a smaller recipe today, just to have a batch of sugar cookies to ice and have as a treat. I poked around online since it would be very hard to cut my recipe in half, and found one that got lots of good reviews. I substituted my all purpose gf flour as I always do, and while the cookies taste good it was the worst dough I have ever worked with. Too many liquids I guess! I need to get going on my cookbook, get it finished and published, even if it's only for my own use. My recipes are everywhere...

I heard again the other day about a woman who knew she had celiac disease, decided she was gluten free "enough" and went on to have five miscarraiges - so far. She is still trying and refuses to believe it has anything to do with gluten, yet she still eats things I will get sick from, even the lipstick she wears contains gluten! I can't be around people like that, I take celiac disease so seriously it bothers me when I meet someone like her who doesn't. She and her family will suffer until she figures it out on her own I guess, it's just so sad! I wish there was a book about celiac disease that was easy reading that you could just hand the title of to people, it could educate so many people!

I looove icing! I do have quite a sweet tooth, but I love both sweet and savory foods. I guess I'm glad I have a good metabolism, I love all kinds of food! Time to taste a yummy cookie!

If anyone is interested I will post my cookie recipe, but I use two - the one I used to make these is my complicated time consuming recipe that makes show stopping cookies. I sometimes make regular old sugar cookies that don't have the perfect stand up sides, perfect color and amazing butter taste... they are just easier.

All I have to say for today is I wish companies would stop advertising how tasty their gluten free foods are if they have simply put shiny packaging on cardboard. Ugh I hate health food. Today is one of those days I wish I could just eat a cupcake, or a twinkie, just to have the familiar yummy taste in my mouth. I know, I can eat most anything others can just a gluten free version, but I honestly have forgotten what fruit loops taste like! I have a pantry FULL of food for my family and I can eat a can of tuna... that's it. Oh, and I have some gf noodles with nothing to put on them to make them taste good. This is one of those frustrating days where I wish I didn't have celiac disease! I long for a good seasoned calzone, a "real" pizza! I shouldn't complain, I eat Zpizza's gluten free pizza once in awhile, but even then it's health food pizza! I want oily, fattening, melt in your mouth real pizza. I guess I should get off my butt and try to figure out how to make it for myself, shouldn't I? I just get so tired of having to invent recipes and make things from scratch just to eat things that taste right! God why is it soooo difficult for food producers to make something that HAS A GOOD TASTE that doesn't contain gluten?

That is my rant for today! Maybe someday my prayers will be answered and good food will be readily available in a gluten free version... until then I bake and cook and complain ;)

Christmas Day

Christmas is finally here! We had an absolutely wonderful christmas - lots of love, laughter, and exciting gifts. Dinner was a challenge this year as we left home for a family dinner at a relative's house. Now I react to any teeny weeny crumb of gluten, so I am always super careful. No one ever really wants to feel sick, and certainly not on a holiday! So I did not eat even though I brought a gluten free dish. I was too nervous about contamination. I ate a few doritos and once we got home I had a really nice chicken salad. I hate not eating at a family get together, but I deal with it as lightly as I can. It's embarrassing when people make an issue of your gluten free status, they just don't understand!

At home we roasted a plump little chicken, and boy was it great! I made sweet potato casserole and had many christmas cookies to munch on. I refuse to let food ruin any more holidays for me! Thanks to lots and lots of trial and error cooking and research I no longer feel left out at get togethers - I either host and make all gluten free foods (no one notices I swear) or I bring myself a small plate. I'm slowly changing things so having celiac disease doesn't prevent me from enjoying any situation!

A good friend of mine's father has celiac as well, and has some health issues. He currently is on a lung transplant list - and upon hearing about that my son started crying asking me when that will happen to me. He knows I'm healthy, there isn't anything "wrong" with me, but he assumed that since her father had celiac and I had celiac that I would someday have lung issues as well. I quickly explained that no, celiac doesn't follow any certain path, and as far as I know I don't and won't have any issues with my lungs. It's very hard when things like that happen, because celiac disease affects each person so differently there really isn't a model of "that will happen to me someday". I know I'm a little out of shape, but overall I think I'm really healthy!

Happy Holidays!! I'm off to enjoy a week of relaxation with my family :)

Hamburger Fried Rice

So I thought I would throw some gluten free easy recipes on my blog as I make them. Nothing too complicated, just things I run across that are easy and taste great! I love asian foods, and am always trying different recipes that have an asian flair to them!

Hamburger Fried Rice

*as always, if you are making this as a gluten free recipe check your ingredients to ensure gluten free status! I have brands I am very loyal to, but I still check every time I buy a new container to ensure nothing has changed on the ingredient list.

1 1/2 tsp. sugar
4 Tbsp. soy sauce (I use La Choy)
2 teaspoons ginger
3 eggs; beaten
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 clove garlic minced
1 small onion. diced
2 green onions thinly sliced
3 cups cooked white rice
1 cup cooked ground beef

I cook my rice in a Rice Cooker and then add to the hamburger mixture when it's finished cooking.

Blend sugar and soy sauce. Set aside. Brown ground beef, set aside. Heat olive oil in wok or large skillet. Cook eggs to soft scramble. Add garlic, ginger, onion, soy sauce mixture, rice and ground beef. Stir-fry for 3 to 4 min.
If you like more soy sauce, throw more in! Found this recipe somewhere online and modified it to our likings. YUMMY!