Pizza cravings

So I am fairly certain I have posted about *PIZZA* at least a few times on this little blog :).

Well...we're coming up on my big "two-year anniversary" of being GF (Oct. 18, 2008 was my first GF day!)...and I still crave pizza...real pizza...like none other.

Do I crave other non-GF foods? Yeah, sometimes...just a bit. But, really, it's typically nothing that I can't redirect by eating something as equally yummy that happens to be GF.

Pizza, though, man....it just drives me nuts!

Honestly...sometimes it really makes me angry, these pizza cravings. I was trying to explain it to Jeremy the other day. It is really the only food that I get *angry* over. People can eat pretty much anything else in front of me and I don't care a whole lot. Sure there are some things that look good...but I get over it.

Pizza though? Ugh. I am plagued by the stuff.

It probably sounds strange...but I am pretty sure part of my "issue" with it is the social aspect. EVERYONE likes and eats pizza! It's no fun being the dork in the room who can't eat it, too!

This week I was craving pizza in a horrible way. I ended up making myself a pseudo-pizza substitute on Friday night when Jer was eating dinner out with his friend Chuck....

I've mentioned the awesomeness of Chebe products before...but I will take this time to sing their praises once again :).

I found a few packages of dry mix in my pantry (SCORE!) on Friday night and used the cheese bread mix to make a yummy pizza crust. The back of the package instructs one on how to make a pizza crust with the mix...basically add some egg, oil (I used butter), and cheese to the dry mix. I also added some garlic salt and extra baking powder (to make it a little softer). I then rolled it out into an awkward rectangle on a non-stick baking sheet and baked that sucker. After twenty minutes I brushed my crust with a melted butter/garlic salt mixture and sprinkled cheese on top. I threw that back into the oven for a few minutes while I heated up some marinara (Prego brand is gluten free...they even indicate that on the jar!). When the cheese was bubbly, I removed it from the oven...sliced it up...and ate it with the marinara sauce for dipping. MMMM!

A delicious dinner that satisfactorily met the requirements of the cravings that had been plaguing me all week :).

Thanks, Chebe, for coming through for me again :).

Yummy!

I love cooking...and as I've said before, "re-learning" how to cook post gluten free lifestyle has been somewhat of a challenge. Tonight, however, I made a yummy meal for us and our good friends, Josh and Laura. I thought I'd share the menu because I want to remember it...it was yummy and I'd love to re-create it sometime!

Appetizers:
~Sliced Cabot New York sharp cheddar cheese (a new cheese Jeremy picked out; it was decent!)
~Hummus (I used a gluten free mix that you basically add your own water and olive oil to) with broccoli and carrots

Salad:
~Butter lettuce (a newish discovery, thanks to meals at Laura and Josh's...this is just a bag of Fresh Express lettuce and we love it!)
~variety of do-it-yourself toppings (diced hard-boiled egg, black olives (ew, not for me! Jer loves them, though!), Mediterranean cheese blend, Craisins, sliced almonds, and Texas Toast croutons (NOT gluten free...not for me! We had a bag that we needed to use up ;))
~variety of dressings (light Caesar, ranch from Avanti's here in town (Jer's favorite dressing!), oil and vinegar, and gluten free poppyseed dressing (from Whole Foods)...YUMMY!!

Main Course:
~Chebe cheese rolls...DELICIOUS gluten-free rolls made from a yummy mix. Available at Meijer and Naturally Yours here in Bloomington. I LOVE these rolls! The others enjoyed them, too! They are made from a tapioca flour base and are so soft on the inside and crisp on the outside. I would DEFINITELY recommend them...even if you don't need to eat gluten-free!
~Parmesan mashed potatoes....Recipe:
4 lb. red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 cups chicken broth (I used Progresso; it is gluten free)
1-8 oz pkg 1/3 Less Fat Cream Cheese, cubed
3/4 cup Reduced Fat/Light Sour Cream
3 Tbsp. Grated Parmesan Cheese
4 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. garlic salt

Put potato chunks in large saucepan. Add broth; cover. Bring to boil on high heat; simmer on medium heat 15 min., stirring after 8 min. Uncover; stir potatoes. Simmer, uncovered, 5 to 6 min. or until potatoes are tender and most of broth is absorbed.

Add cubes of cream cheese. Reduce heat to low. Mash potatoes slightly until cream cheese is melted. Add sour cream, butter and Parmesan; mash until potatoes are smooth and heated through.

YUMMY!!!!

AND
~Crockpot Cranapple Chicken (recpie adapted from http://www.cookingcache.com/)

Crockpot Cranapple Chicken Breast Bake Recipe
4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I used just over three lbs of breasts)
4 to 6 green onions (I didn't use onions)
1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries (I used a cup since I thought I used more chicken)
1/2 cup chopped dried apple (I used one whole fresh apple, sliced...but waited to add it until about an hour before serving)
1 clove garlic very thinly sliced (I used 1 1/2 tsp of crushed garlic form a jar)
2 tablespoons brown sugar (I used four Tbsp.)
2 tablespoons water (I used 4 tsp)
1 teaspoon lemon juice (I used 2 tsp)
2 teaspoons butter (I used 4 tsp)

Place chicken breasts in a 2-quart (or larger) crockpot. Add remaining ingredients in the order given, dotting evenly with the butter last. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours. Serve over rice (I didn't serve with rice; Jeremy doesn't like rice very much. However, I think rice would've been great).

I think the cooking time was a little long; the chicken was a little drier than I would've liked, but all in all not too shabby!

Dessert
~fresh raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries (sliced) mixed together with a SMALL amount of sugar (just a tiny sprinkling on top as they sat in the fridge for a few hours)
~organic vanilla pudding (not instant; Jeremy loves the "skin" on the kind you actually have to cook ;))
~whipped cream

YUMMY!

We had a great time with our friends, too :). All in all, a great evening :)

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......

news

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!