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Well, nothing really too exciting to report. I hadn't posted any new murmurings about my recent gluten-free adventures since last Thursday...so I thought I'd better do so quickly before I hit the hay...I'm home sick today. Yuck.
Well, I "celebrated" one week of being gluten free...well, as gluten free as I could manage anyway. I am sure I am still getting gluten in my body from various sources.
For lunch today, I popped some popcorn with our stovetop popper. This has been my staple as of late. Not very healthy (since of course I melt some butter on it...but at least it's REAL butter and not some chemical-y plastic margarine or something)....but it does have lots of fiber and protein in it, so I guess it's not ALL bad! ;) It is the one thing I know is safe all of the time and fills me up...so it's what I reach for a lot! In fact, I hadn't even washed the stovetop popper (not as gross as it sounds!) for like the past 3 uses...I did wash it this afternoon after lunch, though ;). Yummy popcorn!
I'll start discussing this weekend, in reverse order...
Last night (Sunday) I experimented with gluten free pizza. Well, as gluten-free as I could manage anyway. This really is tough! Anyway, I was feeling really under the weather (all weekend I have been really congested, coughing, nasty-ness containing, etc.)...so Jeremy and I didn't go to the high school fellowship at church last night (we typically go on Sunday nights; we help out with our church's youth group) but was really craving pizza for some odd reason. I used a mix I found at Naturally Yours, made by Chebe. I had made these little cheese buscuits with another mix by that company earlier in the week and really liked them...so I thought I'd experiment with their pizza crust! The instructions have you add oil (I used extra virgin olive oil), some milk (I used 2%), an egg, and gave the option of adding parmesan cheese (which I added). I ended up adding a bit more milk than the instructions called for because I didn't feel like it was the right consistency. The crust tasted pretty good...it had some good seasoning (basil, oregano) in it. It was nice and crisp on the edges, however, it got kind of soggy under the pizza toppings....I did bake the crust for 25 minutes on its own before adding the toppings (per the instructions), but perhaps I'd try it for a little longer next time. I used Kraft 2% mozzerella cheese and some hormel brand packaged pepperoni. I am not sure if either of them are truly gluten free; I checked my trusty Cecelia's Marketplace Gluten Free Grocery Shopping Guide but didn't see either of those products explicitly listed. Neither had wheat or gluten warnings and neither had any ingredient on the list that was blatantly gluten-containing...and honestly, I was craving pizza in such a bad way I just threw caution to the wind and used those ingredients! I had a bit of a stomachache afterwards, but I think it was due to the quantity of cheese I consumed yesterday ;) and not necessarily due to the presence of any trace amounts of gluten...but what do I know!? ;)
Earlier Sunday afternoon I went to a going-away party for Vanessa, one of my co-workers. A fellow SLP, Stacy, held the party at her house. I brought some cheese dip (sour cream, cheese spread, and cream cheese whipped together) with some gluten-y crackers I wanted to get out of the house as well as a separate box of almond thins (some gluten free crackers) so I could use those for a bit of the dip for myself. I discovered that this diet/lifestyle/whathaveyou is kind of nice (in a sick and twisted way) when attending parties such as this...it means I really can't just sit around and graze at the buffet! There will typically be very little, if anything, that I can eat that I didn't bring myself (even if I don't think it contains gluten, I am not sure about the preparation methods/cross contamination/etc.). I did eat some of my cheese dip (before everyone started dipping the wheat crackers into it! I found this, by the way, annoying...I had spreaders in there! Instead of, though, using the spreaders...people typically just grazed and stuck their crackers straight in the dip. Sigh. I'd rather fume silently than make a big, silly deal out of it all! ;) )...and some slices of cheese that were clearly cut from large bricks of cheese (i know I shouldn't just "assume"...but I did anyway. I assumed these were safe), as well as some apple slices and caramel dip. Oh, and I did dip a few marshmallows into a chocolate fondue pot (never mind the fact that people were dipping pretzel rods into the same fondue pot. Sigh. I will never win! Oh well.).....so I didn't starve! ;) The party was nice. It was great to see everyone there at the party...and Stacy's house is so cute! She and her husband, Bruce, got married just a few months prior to Jeremy and me...in May of 2007. Vanessa, whom the party was for, is getting ready to move to Alaska with her husband and infant daughter! Her husband is in the army and got stationed out there...WOW!
Prior to the party on Sunday, there isn't much to report...I slept in (a Ny-Quil induced slumber, mostly...I felt like crap on Saturday, too!) and we didn't make it to church. We really do need to start getting better about that...but I really did feel like crap tacos this weekend.
Saturday was a great, lazy day...but I will report on Saturday and Friday (my family came into town!!) perhaps later! I am going to go hit the hay now. I am really crappy feeling, and crappier the longer I sit here. SIGH. Get healthy, Rachel!
Peace!