BREAD

I MISS BREAD!! I NEED BREAD! All I want is a sandwich. Somebody? ANYbody?! Please help! ;)
Seriously, though. I am totally craving a grilled cheese sandwich......

I made it...

...through Thanksgiving! I am currently still in the Quad Cities at my parents' home. It has been a great couple of days.
I had no stomach problems, no reactions to anything these past few days! Granted I also haven't eaten a lot because I am kind of paranoid ;)...but I have felt pretty well!
My mom made her "famous" broccoli cheese soup that Jeremy loves...and used corn starch instead of her typical white flour to thicken it. It tasted great! It was nice on her part, too, to go to that effort.
Of course there have been lots of things I haven't been able to eat...apple muffins this morning for breakfast :(, the Panera sourdough bread that my mom had purchased to go with the aformentioned broccoli cheese soup, pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving dinner :(, apple squares my mom made :(, the 312 beer at the bar last night :( (Jeremy's favorite! I also used to enjoy drinking it with him)...but it's all good. It is going to continue to be a big adjustment period...but adjust and adapt, I will. Of course it won't be easy, and I'll probably complain every now and then (for example, I was inwardly upset this morning to see the delicious looking apple muffins sitting on the table...all warm and cinamonny...that I couldn't eat....but later my mom made a comment that she really will try to start making more gluten-free things. I know it's hard for her, too. I know she'll try!).
My dad is talking my ear off right now and it's hard to concentrate on two things at once...so I should probably take that as a cue to sign off.
Happy Belated Thanksgiving, everyone! :)

Bring on Thanksgiving

Well, the holiday I have anticipated with much trepidation is now upon us! Tomorrow is THANKSGIVING! Sigh...
It has now been 5 1/2 weeks of my gluten-free adventures...Saturday is the 6 week point. There have been many points during this seemingly short period of time when I have dreaded an event, or at least the "food" that went along with the event (i.e., my birthday, dinner at friends' homes, parties, traveling, etc.)...but none like Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is food-centered (or so it seems...I know, I know...the real meaning of Thanksgiving is focusing on our families and the people we are most thankful for), and very gluten-filled (at least in typical families' homes). Turkey...and stuffing (gluten jackpot!). Pumpkin pie. Sweet potato caserole (the crumb topping). Green bean casserole (the cream of mushroom soup, the french fried onion topping). My mom's strawberry jello salad (graham cracker crust). Cheesy potatoes (cream of chicken soup). Rolls (obvious!). Even if an item doesn't seem overtly gluten-ous...say mashed potatoes...there is the very real liklihood that it was cross-contaminated. That is, there is a very good chance that during the preparation process, some gluten got into the item either from hands, utensils, dishes...anything, really.
Honestly, I've pretty much given up on Thanksgiving...on going crazy about it, that is. I am packing my fiber (it is always in my purse!) and will take some right away in the morning as well. I know I am going to consume gluten...but I will do my best to make sure it is as little as possible.
My mom called me last night...we are having ham and mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and her strawberry jello salad as far as the main items go. She is going to make me a small container of strawberry jello salad with no graham cracker bottom. Too bad that was the best part! ;) Just kidding. Not really. It is nice of her, though!! :) I think my mom is doing her best to ensure that I won't feel isolated...and that I won't get sick. Oh, I and I am making pumpkin bars (they are actually in the oven right now!) :). It will be fine...
I need to stop focusing in on the food aspect of things...and focus on what is really important. My family!
This is Jeremy's first Tegeler (my mom's side of the family) Thanksgiving and I hope he enjoys it! He isn't from a big extended family, and the Tegeler family is rather extensive...I don't think he gets "us", at times...but that's ok :).
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! And to all of those out there with dietary restrictions...I wish you the best! Happy, safe eating to everyone!

Trader Joe's!!

Well, I finally got to experience the wonder that is Trader Joe's! Aaron had invited Jeremy and me to join him and Katie for a night in Chicago. He travels a lot for his job and has a bunch of free hotel points through Hilton. He and Katie had a hotel room at the Palmer House Hilton on Monroe Street (right downtown!) for Saturday night and were planning on attending a Smashing Pumpkins' concert that night as well (the concert ended up being postponed :(, but that's another story!). Jeremy and I just planned to tag along and I asked if we could find a Trader Joe's on the way back to Bloomington on Sunday.
Honestly, I didn't know much about Trader Joe's before Sunday...I had first heard of it while I was in graduate school at Purdue. Some of the girls would talk about LOVING it and would go on weekends to Trader Joe's stores in Indianapolis and/or Chicago. Lately, naturally, Trader Joe's has become more intriguing to me because they have many gluten free items. Well, we ended up passing a Trader Joe's on Ontario in Chicago during our wanderings about (we were shopping and just generally meandering about).
A friend from work, Jillian, was VERY excited when I told her I was planning to go to Trader Joe's...she even made up a shopping list of items she wanted me to search for and bring back for her! :) I ended up finding four things for her. I actually forgot to bring them with me to work today, so I will bring them to her tomorrow. I think she is pretty excited ;).
I ended up getting quite a few things for myself. The most exciting item, I think, that I walked away with was a case of 16 Peanut Butter Cookie Larabars (I posted about them previously!). I also got 3 each of Apple Pie and Cherry Pie flavored Larabars, some gluten free French rolls (a bakery package of 4), some chunky apple sauce, a jar of chunky spiced apples, a package of light string cheese sticks, a package of shredded Mexican cheese, some fruit leather-like bars, some boxes of chicken and vegetable broth, organic canned sweet potato puree, frozen salmon patties (also quite excited about these!!)...and I think that's about it. Good sounding stuff!
I tried the gluten free French rolls last night because I was very excited about the prospect of being able to eat a sandwich. I haven't had a sandwich in over a month! Can you imagine?! I am definitely cravin' me a sammich! ;) Well, it was kind of disappointing. It wasn't terrible...it is just an odd, dense texture...and it is kind of too sweet for my taste. Sure, I like sweet things...but this was kind of odd. Not exactly what I was looking for for a sandwich. Oh well! Now I know! I toasted it (I had read that gluten free bread is generally better when toasted) and spread some light cream cheese and some of the aforementioned chunky spiced apples on top. Not too shabby!
Today when I came home from work on my lunch break I decided to try my second of the 4 gluten-free French rolls. This time, I decided to split it in half, put some cheddar cheese on each half, and put it in my toaster oven on the broil function. As I said previously, I have been craving sandwiches....particularly grilled cheese. I even had some DELICIOUS gluten-free tomato soup (from Meijer, a local grocery store) to go with it! I was SO pumped. Well, as I mentioned before...the bread is kind of sweet. It wasn't exactly conducive to cheese and tomato soup. Oh well. It wasn't terrible...but it wasn't the same as my old favorite comfort food, either! The quest continues! ;)
Can I just say, thoughts of sandwiches are haunting me, plaguing me?! ARGH!
Ok, time for me to shower...we just got back from a swim...and get ready for bed. I have to be at work at 7am tomorrow! Sigh...
But it's ALMOST Thanksgiving! I am sure I will post lots of stuff about my Thanksgiving adventures! Here's hoping I can survive ;). I am bringing gluten-free pumpkin bars to our family celebration...but I am hoping I can eat some other things, too! We will see...I think my mom is going to do her best to help me out :). I am kind of nervous, though, about Thanksgiving! Not to sound corny, but I don't want to feel like an outcast!

My husband

Is amazing :). No one has been more supportive throughout this "trial" than he. (I've said it before and I will empasize it again...I don't want to be dramatic and make things sound so dire and terrible...I am fully aware things could be LOTS worse for me...but this hasn't been a very easy or fun "trial" to deal with)

Last night we went grocery shopping together...and the sight of him carefully reading labels on cans to check for "hidden gluten"...it was adorable. Ha! I sound like such a nerd. Seriously, though, the way he clearly cares is absolutely endearing.

I love you Jeremy Christopher!

I did it!

Well...I started living gluten-free on October 18...so I did it! I officially made it past the "one month" marker! Sure, that's no big feat in the grand scheme of things, but that is pretty amazing in my head! I really did it! No cheating, either! :) I didn't eat anything that was overtly wheat containing and everything I put into my body, to the best of my knowledge based on the information available to me, was gluten free!!!

I had a long day at work...and after I got home, ALL I wanted to eat was some popcorn (if you've been following this blog, you've probaby noted that I LOVE popcorn lately!). Well, I popped some "gourmet black popping corn" (the unpopped kernals look black, but the popcorn is white after it pops)...and it sucked! Most of it didn't pop, and what did pop was these small black kernals. They were hard and crunchy and NOT at all satisfying. I did my best to eat most of it so as not to waste it, but I did end up throwing a lot away. YUCK! How disappointing!

Well, Jeremy is at work (he works late today...12:30-9pm) and (as is the case when he works late and I am left to myself) I kind of just ate whatever was "around" for dinner. I ate that popcorn, and a big glass of PULP-filled orange juice (we started buying separate orange juice cartons! Seriously. For over a year of marriage we only bought pulp-free, which he prefers. Well, I prefer orange juice so thick and pulpy you can almost chew the stuff. I decided that I would start buying two cartons so we could each have what we prefer ;).)...and then I decided I wanted some cornbread. I know, real balanced dinner, right?! ;) Well, I cracked open the trusty Carol Fenster 1000 Gluten Free Recipes book and found a recipe for cornbread. I mixed it up, baked away...and ate a piece fresh from the oven. It is tasty! Really! I had been craving bread...especially since we went to Famous Dave's on Friday night with Dan and his girlfriend Laura. Famous Dave's has these AWESOME cornbread muffins. Well, naturally I couldn't have one :(. Yahoo for another successful gluten-free baking experience! :)

Today at work we had an in-service over lunch on the difference between a medical diagnosis of Autism and an educational diagnosis of Autism. It was pretty interesting, actually. We have in-services about once per month. Anyway, the highlight is typically that we get a yummy free lunch for attending. Well, naturally the thrill has worn off for me because, as you can imagine, the meals are always FULL of gluten. Take today for example: they got Avanti's! Avanti's is a great local Italian place. They ordered gondolas (sandwiches with meat, cheese, and lettuce on their awesome Italian loaves), spaghetti with meat sauce, and bread. Sigh! I knew ahead of time that we had this in-service, so I did pack a lunch today. It was somewhat sad to sit there and smell the yummy Italian food! Avanti's used to be one of my favorite places to go. It is definitely one of Jeremy's family's favorite places to eat here in town...and now I won't be able to share that with them :(.

Ok, enough pity party ;).

Have a wonderful day!

Pumpkin bar recipe

A few posts ago, I mentioned a Thanksgiving dinner get-together we had with our friends Adam and Jami this past Friday night. Well, I thought I'd post the DELICIOUS Pumpkin Bar recipe...since they truly are pretty darn awesome! They are (of course) gluten free, but you'd really never know there was anything "different" about them. Jami made them initially because her mom is allergic to wheat and lots of spices, so she started experimenting with gluten-free flours. She gave me the recipe this past week and I made the bars for dessert for our dinner Friday. Jeremy loved them! That's a true test, because he's not typically overly excited about cake/bar type items. We also shared them with my brother Dan and his girlfriend Laura...and they also enjoyed them! Yahoo! Ok, without further ado, here's the lovely recipe! ;)

Jami and Rachel's Pumpkin Bars

1 small can of pumpkin (not the pie filling; just plain pumpkin)
2 c. sugar
1 c. oil
4 eggs
Mix these first four ingredients together, and then add:
2 c. flour (I used 3/4 c. tapioca flour and 1 1/4 c. Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Mix)
2 t. cinnamon (the recipe doesn't call for it, but I also sprinkled in some nutmeg along with the cinnamon)
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
Also, Jami didn't make the bars with xanthan gum and reportedly they were fine...but I added about 1/4 t. xanthan gum

Bake in a 10x15 pan* at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Frost with the following icing recipe when cool.

Icing:
3 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla
1/2 c. butter
8 oz. cream cheese
(I wanted a thinner icing, so I also added approximately 1 Tablespoon of milk).

These bars are truly awesome....ENJOY!

*I don't have a 10x15 pan...I have a larger sheet cake pan and a smaller bar pan...so I just baked them in a 9x13 cake pan. They were thicker (obviously) than bars typically are, but they were great!

Oberweis!

We decided to sign up for Oberweis home delivery of dairy products! Like most of my decisions lately revolving around becoming as healthy as I can be before we start having kids...this one is due to the fact that Oberweis cows are not given growth hormones. In addition, they have a document available on the website stating all of their gluten free items...awesome! We aren't going to go crazy and get everything there (it is more expensive...but really not significantly)...but we'll get milk (we already buy Oberweis milk from Cub here in town), cheese, sour cream, and maybe eggs. Oh, and the occasional quart of delicious ice cream! Their ice cream is awesome!!

Here's the Farmers' Pledge from the Oberweis website!

Our Farmers' Pledge
Our pledge is signed by all the farmers who produce and supply milk exclusively for Oberweis Dairy.
We, the families who care for cows that produce milk for Oberweis Dairy, are proud to pledge that we will:
Never use artificial growth hormones.
Only provide milk that is free of antibiotics. If a cow gets sick, we will treat her back to health using the best available medicines but not use her milk again until it is free of antibiotics.
Treat our cows humanely.
Do nothing different than if our children and families were drinking all of the milk we produce.
We pledge all of this so that your family can drink Oberweis milk with confidence. We understand that if we fail to meet these obligations, we will no longer have the privilege of providing milk to Oberweis Dairy.

Sounds pretty good, huh? I know I can't control everything...but I am glad I can take some steps to be healthier!

Thanksgiving with friends

Last night we had our friends Jami and Adam over for a mock Thanksgiving dinner. I made a turkey breast roast, pumpkin bars, and had cranberry sauce (just Ocean Spray from a can...gluten free, of course! ;) ). Jami brought mashed potatoes and green beans and helped me make gravy when she got here (I don't like gravy...so I am no expert in the matter!). It was delicious...and I could eat all of it! I will have to share the pumpkin bar recipe...it was fantastic! Jami shared it with me. Thanks!!

Results of the party!

Well, the soup appeared to be a hit. Jeremy thought it smelled "awesome" and wished for leftovers (of which there are plenty! I might actually freeze some!). I really liked it. Laura got seconds (always a good indicator of if people like it!). Jami ate all of hers. Abbey ate most of hers (but she is a self-proclaimed picky eater, and there were lots of veggie chunks in the soup!). The cake, however, that was another story entirely ;). Laura and I both ate our entire pieces. I really enjoyed it! Jeremy, though, pointed out later that I HAVE to like it...if I want to eat cake (which I do...especially since FROSTING usually accompanies cake ;) ), I have to eat gluten free cake. Laura said she did, too! Abbey and Jami...well...they picked at theirs, at MOST. Ha! The texture is weird, which Abbey voiced. I told them both to just have sympathy, since this is the cake I have to be resigned to eat for the rest of my life ;). Ha!

All in all, though, it was a GREAT evening with good friends!

Party Time!

Tonight I am having some friends over for a birthday party...my friends Jami, Abbey, Sarah, Laura, and myself all have a birthday within a month of one another! Mine was first, back on October 28, and everyone else's is between now and the end of November! So, we decided to have a little birthday party for us :).

So as not to have to deal with restaurants, I volunteered to play hostess and host the event at our place. We decided to do somewhat of a Mexican theme (so easy!). I volunteered to make the "main course": Chicken Taco Soup, as well as dessert: vanilla gluten-free cake with chocolate gluten-free frosting!

I got the soup recipe in a daily e-mail I get from a fabulous website, Gluten Free Checklist. Here's the fabulous-sounding recipe...

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup
Ingredients 1 onion, chopped
1 (16 oz.) can gluten free chili beans
1 (15 oz.) can black beans
1 (15 oz.) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 bottle of Redbridge gluten free beer
2 (10 oz.) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
1 package gluten free taco seasoning
3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)
Sour cream (optional)
Crushed tortilla chips (optional)

Directions
Place the onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer, and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker. Add taco seasoning, and stir to blend. Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients. Set slow cooker for low heat, cover, and cook for 5 hours. Remove chicken breasts from the soup, and allow to cool long enough to be handled and shredded. Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup, and continue cooking for 2 hours. Serve topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips, if desired.

I put the soup together last night and put the crock from my crock pot in the fridge....

This morning, I set up the timer for 5 hours (I turned it on around 7am), knowing I would be able to come home over lunch to shred the chicken. I shredded the chicken...and the soup smells great! Kinda spicy, but great :). Well, I am sure I will use lots of cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips with my bowl of soup to cool down the spicy-ness a bit! Oh, and I left out the onion...I don't particularly like onion and I knew there were enough flavors in all of the other things. I am sure it will be fine without the stinkin' onion. We'll see! So, now the crock pot timer is set to two hours, and after the final two hours of cooking it will move to the "warm" setting until we are ready to devour it this evening! :) I'm excited to try it!

After I had the soup safely in the fridge last night, I started in on the cake. I used a mix (how lazy of me! ;) ) because I also had to make my husband some cookies to take to work today, so I wanted to maximize what I could get done in a minimal amount of time. The mix, Arrowhead Mills' Gluten Free Vanilla, I purchased earlier this week at Naturally Yours, our local organic/health food store. All I had to add to the mix was oil, water, and eggs.

I sampled a tiny little crumb bite from the top of the cake after it came out of the oven, and it seemed pretty tasty!

For frosting, I used a great-sounding gluten-free chocolate frosting recipe on the back of the box...it was awesome (I licked the bowl after frosting the cake! :) ).

I am excited for tonight...I love hosting dinner parties! :)

Lately...

First...I have successfully made it through 25 gluten-free days! Today is day 26 and I am still going strong. I think once I heard something about new habits...and if you do whatever you want to become your "new habit" for 21 days, it becomes a habit. Maybe that's way off. But, whatever, that's what's in my head right now...so I will just make myself think I have successfully formed a new habit...living gluten-free!

Let's see. Monday night after a long day at work (I left around 6:30), I came home and decided to make gluten-free home-made baked macaroni and cheese. I found a recipe in my trusty Carol Fenster book and got to work. I used corn elbow noodles I had purchased from Naturally Yours earlier that morning when I was on my way back to work from an offsite visit with a kiddo I had. It took a while, naturally, to make the sauce (basically rice milk, tapioca flour, a ton of cheese, and a tiny dash of hot sauce), but finally the big caserole dish full of cheesy noodles, topped with gluten-free bread crumbs...was in the oven! I was really pumped up, as I had been craving macaroni and cheese. Well, we were both sorely disappointed. It was terrible! We think the problem was the corn noodles....and maybe the tapioca flour in the cheese sauce. They tasted funky and were an odd texture. I felt terrible, but we threw away the whole thing. It was bad. Bad, bad, bad! I almost cried...and I definitely sat on the couch and sulked for a while. It was so frustrating to waste ALL of that TIME and MONEY on those ingredients! Jeremy pointed out that I can't win every time...but I still want to! I stopped sulking long enough to get ready to go to the gym...so off we went. I felt MUCH better after an intense workout. And, after I got back I popped some popcorn with our stove popper. I don't think I have mentioned yet how much I LOVE popcorn. It has seriously become the biggest staple of my diet in the past 3 weeks! Our stove-top popper gets quite the workout!

So, also on Monday...my friend AWESOME Jillian from work informed me early that morning that she had a treat for me. She led me to her office and pulled from her purse two bars and a cookbook she had checked out from the library for me...Gluten Free and Easy. How awesome is she?!

The bars...oh my gosh. They are AWESOME! They are called Larabars. Click on the link to check them out! She got me two different flavors: Peanut Butter Cookie, and Cherry Pie. I ate the Peanut Butter Cookie one that morning and I ate the Cherry Pie one yesterday morning! The Peanut Butter Cookie one seriously tasted like a peanut butter cookie...and the only ingredients were dates, peanuts, and salt! Are you kidding me!? These bars are AWESOME and have MINIMAL ingredients..and are all natural and organic!

When I went to Naturally yours later Monday morning to purchase the nasty corn noodles for that nights doomed dinner, I also looked around for Larabars. I found some...but not the Peanut Butter Cookie flavor, unfortunately! I purchased a Pecan Pie one, and also two Jocolate chocolate bars also made by Larabar...check them out below!

YUM! I can't wait to try those last three! Which one should I eat today?!

Whew!

I am exhausted! Tonight Jeremy and I helped out at church with a concert our church hosted for our youth group. The event was publicized to other churches as well. Laura (my friend and the youth director's wife) and I helped out by providing the food. We were told to prepare food for 60 people.
We bought...
9 lbs (3 bags ) of frozen chicken breasts
10 lbs of hamburger
8 bags of salad blend lettuce
3 bags of shredded lettuce for tacos
18 cups of mexican blend cheese
2 large containers of sour cream
80 flour tortillas
24 corn hard taco shells
3 family size bags of Tostitos Scoops
3 large jars of salsa
1 large bag of rice
5 large cans of refried beans
10 packets of Ortega seasoning mix for the hamburger
2 jars of McCormick fajita seasoning for the chicken (yeah, this was way too much)
2 large jars of Ortega taco sauce
2 large bags of carrots
3 cake mixes
3 jars of frosting
...and some other random crap I forgot about!

The awesome thing, though, about preparing this meal was...I could actually eat with everyone and didn't have to worry about packing my own "special" gluten free meal! We made sure there was stuff for me...the chicken with fajita seasoning...gluten free. The tostitos...gluten free. Corn hard taco shells...gluten free. Lettuce, carrots, all naturally gluten free. It was great! Obviously, I wasn't able to eat dessert (the cake was not gluten free...just 'normal' Betty Crocker mix)...but I didn't even miss it!
It was great! It was an adventurous day,and it was great to feel pretty normal by eating what everyone else was eating! :)
Ok...now next Saturday I am pumped up to type "I made it a month"! (see 2 posts ago for an explanation ;) ).
For now, though...I survived my 23rd day of living gluten free (or, as gluten free as I could control!)

Pancakes.

I just made the Buttermilk Pancakes from Carol Fenster's 1000 Gluten-Free Recipes for the THIRD Sunday in a row! Ha! Hope we don't get sick of them any time soon!

Wow...

Time sure drags sometimes!

I was so proud of myself. I thought it had been a MONTH today, since I had started my gluten free life...

Turns out it's only been 3 weeks. Oops! Ha! I was all excited to post "I made it a month without bread, etc."...and then I peeked at a calendar...yeah...it's been only 3 weeks.

Sigh....

Throwing caution to the wind...but living to tell about it

Well...sometimes you just gotta! ;) Today was a long day....including a run-in with a big kiddo...yup, I got beat up by a two-and-a-half-year-old today...{sigh}
Jeremy and I met up at our polling place, the McLean County Farm Bureau building not far from our home, after I got off work around 6:15 and cast our votes. After voting, we talked for a bit outside and tried to figure out our plan of attack for the evening. He was dressed for the gym, but I didn't have time to pack clothes this morning....and I was starved! We decided to go to Los Potrillo's....our FAVORITE Mexican restaurant here in Bloomington. This is the place I chose for my LAST "normal" meal on Friday night, October 17th...before going gluten free the next morning. I ate so much, I felt terrible later that evening...and wasn't sure if that was from the gluten in the food or from the quantity OF the food ;). It was a fitting "last hurrah." ;)
Well, we decided early on that Los Potrillo's was really impossible for me to give up. Really! We love this place! It's just us. We even went there on Valentine's Day (no it's NOT a "nice" restaurant...this is a story for another time ;) ). There have been weeks when we eat there twice in one week! Obsessed? Yes! And, nearly every time we are there...we get the same thing: a side of cheese dip to go with the chips and salsa everyone gets at their table, and we share a Burrito Loco...the HUGEST burrito you'll ever see (yes, significantly bigger than Chipotle, Moe's, or Q'doba, REALLY!). We get the burrito "with chicken, no lettuce, and beans on the side instead of rice." Some of the waiters there have even memorized our order. It's hilarious! We totally threw off our poor waiter today when I ordered something different! Jeremy ended up getting "our usual" and I got flautas. The burrito loco is made with a flour tortilla shell and the flautas were made with 4 small corn tortillas. Even though I know: 1) there is no use trying to explain gluten intolerance to a bunch of Mexican waiters for whom English is clearly a second language...I have no idea how I would do that! 2) Even if nothing was lost in translation (we all know this would be doubtful! ;) ), the chances for cross-contamination are abundant there...think of your favorite local authentic Mexican joint...they are delicious, but aren't the cleanest of places! ;). Well, I tried to at least control everything I could (order a dish made with corn tortillas instead of asking them to substitute corn tortillas into a dish typically made with a flour tortilla seemed simpler)...and just threw my hands up in the air and decided to just live it up tonight. Well, I do have a stomachache...but none of the crazy bloating and minimal cramps. No bathroom misadventures yet either! This could be a good thing! I am gonna go OD on fiber in a few minutes, though :). In my reading I learned that if you ever think you consumed some gluten, you should take lots of fiber (it IS "nature's broom", after all ;) ) and hope for the best.
Well, I made it 3.5 weeks trying to be as good as possible...this was my first real "cheat"...and it may have not have been that bad! :)
Tonight was one of those nights I just wanted to live....like I was used to! It felt great to share something NORMAL with my husband. I know I risk sounding like a huge fatty saying this, but it really blows to not be able to share that with him...I know, I sound so food obsessed! I am not really...but you can't really relate to what I am talking about unless you've experienced it. And if you haven't, you definitely don't want to!
So, I am grateful for tonight...and here's hoping my stomach is too ;).

Arbonne!

When I was at the Peoria Easter Seals Home Parties Open House last Thursday (displaying my Longaberger products)...I met Tracy Jones, and Independent Consultant who sells Arbonne products. I asked her to check for me if their products were wheat and gluten free and she e-mailed me back last night saying that they, indeed, ARE! Check them out! http://www.arbonne.com/

Helping Friends!

Today Jer and I helped two of our great friends, Chuck and Sarah, pack up their belongings and move from their apartment here in town to a house! It was a lot of work...especially for the boys who were moving all of the huge things! Sarah and I packed, unpacked, and ran errands all over town. We also did our best to entertain their two children, Madeline (8) and Asher (4) and keep them out of the way of the movin' men. It was quite a day!
We came home for a bit to rest up and shower, etc...and are going back over in a bit for a cookout. Sarah and I picked up lots of food today for the party and got lots of things I can eat, too! :)
Sarah and I had an interesting talk today about some of our dreams. It started out with me telling her that I want to write a book someday about my misadventures and lessons learned through struggling to live gluten free in a gluten-filled world. I also told her I really want to start a company along the lines of Tastefully Simple...with affordable and easy mixes and such that are all GLUTEN FREE. Well, Sarah completely jumped on that idea....and told me that she has a rather similar dream herself...of opening a bakery/cafe here in Bloomington with totally organic and gluten free products (she doesn't have celiac disease or anything like that....just has always had a desire to live healthily and to feed her family healthy foods). Together we'd be a killer team! We talked about it a lot today...and while we both realize it's a lofty dream and quite a ways out in the future, I think it's definitely something we'll keep discussing...and maybe someday our dreams will become a reality!
I can't even tell you how amazing I would feel to be able to go somewhere and eat anything and everything on the menu!
Hooray for dreams, and hooray for good friends :)