Rudi's Gluten Free Bread

So we have potluck lunches every so often at work (usually my idea ;). I head up the "Fun Committee" at work...a very boring, very vanilla name for a group of co-workers who tries to come up with fun ways of promoting a more exciting workplace and making relationship-building a priority)...

Obviously potlucks are really no place for gluten allergies, or food allergies of any kind for that matter. Usually I can eat what I bring...and maybe 1-2 other things, if that. Really, it doesn't bother me much...if at all. 2 years ago when I started this "journey"...I usually got annoyed. Once I even skipped a work lunch because pizza was being served and I really didn't want to deal with sitting there and being the only one who wasn't eating pizza. It probably sounds completely lame...but it was really hard for me to be the "odd man out."

So, yesterday we had a potluck. My co-worker, Debra, signed up to bring bread (the "main dishes" at this particular potluck were a variety of soups). In addition to a loaf of "normal" ;) bread...she brought a loaf of multi-grain gluten free bread made by Rudi's...a company I'd never heard of until that moment!

IT WAS DELICIOUS!

If you've ever tried gluten free bread...you know that most gluten free breads leave more than a few things to be desired. Taste. Texture. UGH...gluten free bread is usually pretty nasty and similar to cardboard or styrofoam.

Rudi's though....delicious! Really! I ate two slices dipped in my carnitas taco soup (made by me ;)).

Check out the website: Rudi's Gluten Free Bakery

I am not sure where Deb found the bread...but I looked on the website, and they do carry it at Naturally Yours here in Bloomington! WOO HOO! :) You can search on the site under the "where to buy" option and search for locations near you where you can buy this yummy bread! Apparently they are a few different varieties...the one I tried was the multigrain, and again...I'd completely recommend it! :) Two thumbs WAY up! AND...FYI, it's dairy free as well! :)

I am already looking forward to my toast in the morning...complete with homemade cherry jam from my friend Jami! :)

Yummy dinner!

Thanks to JILLIAN for this awesome present...two boxes of gluten free mac and cheese from a recent trip to Trader Joes!! Jillian, a great friend I met at work, is just AWESOME and sooo generous! She always finds me little goodies...and I love her for it!!

I have a pot of water with one box of the noodles a'boilin' downstairs and can't wait to eat it! After that I am off for a pedicure...a silly indulgence, I know ;). It is in preparation for our trip to AZ on Thursday...my biggest trip yet while gluten free! It'll be an adventure, I am sure...but I am up for it! :) Time to go consume said mac and cheese....have a lovely night, all!

MORE GF resources

1) MEIJER:

A friend from work, Kristin, just sent me a facebook message telling me to check out the Meijer Meal Box online website because they had a bunch of gluten free tips/information, etc. Thanks so much, Kristin! There are some great tips/products/information here!

Link to resources: http://www.meijermealbox.com/gluten-free-resources

Link to a list of foods available at Meijer grocery stores (we have a huge Meijer here in Bloomington-Normal!): http://www.meijermealbox.com/gluten-free-product-list

2) Living Without magazine:

I'd been meaning to subscribe to this magazine for a while now, but forgot about it until I saw a link to it on the Meijer mealbox website mentioned above. I just subscribed to it...$23 for a year (6 issues). I am so excited to get some new recipe ideas and tips! The magazine claims to bring the "latest news on food allergies, autism, celiac disease, and asthma"...I had peeked at one once, and it looks great! I am pumped to get the first issue...I hope it's soon! I will definitely keep you all posted and let you know how it is :)

3) Blogs

On the right hand side of my blog (you'll need to scroll down), you'll find links to some blogs I've found to be interesting and helpful...for your convenience, I also listed them below and they all have links to their sites:

Gluten Free [Cooking School]
Gluten Free Optimist (i need to take a few tips from here about being optimistic!! ;))
CeliacChicks
Gluten-Free Living (They also publish a magazine that I might subscribe to also at some point)
Gluten Free Blog
Recipes from Karina's Kitchen Gluten Free Goddess
Recipe for a Gluten Free Life by Mrs. G.F.
GF-Zing! -this website is Gluten Free!
At some point, I hope to get better about networking and start leaving messages on all of these blogs and maybe "feature" some of their blogs on my blog, etc. We'll see. For now, though, I just thought I'd let you know some of the cool gluten-free blogs I've discovered :)

ENJOY! :)

FOUR THINGS...to be thankful for (yesterday's thoughts)

I spoke with my mom on the phone yesterday and shared with her the following three wonderful things that had taken place yesterday, for which I was very thankful!

1) HUMMUS: A friend from the Peoria Easter Seals office, Stephanie (a PT) sent me a facebook message on Friday saying that she was going to be passing through Bloomington tomorrow (which was Saturday) on her way back home to Peoria and wondered if she could stop by and give me a present. Totally unexpected and fun! So, we made plans to meet up for a few minutes in the Sam's Club parking lot (per my suggestion, since it wasn't far off of the highway and she was eager to return home!) where she gave me her present...A few months ago over lunch at work (when I was still at the Peoria office), we had gotten into a conversation about hummus and how much we both liked it. She told me about her favorite two places in Chicago that have homemade hummus that she LOVES (she is originally from the Chicago area and still has family there). Well, for some reason she decided she would bring some to me...so I could have a nice little gluten-free snack, as she put it! How sweet was that?! I tried it as soon as I got home, of course...and it was DELICIOUS!!! That stuff is awesome. I was floored by her kindness...I love random stuff like that! It was such an encouragement to me...and a reminder that I need to turn around and show others kindness like Stephanie did to me!

2) BREAD: My friend Catherine called me yesterday afternoon shortly after I picked up the hummus from Stephanie...as I was running some errands about town. Catherine has a friend, Starla, who has Celiac Disease...and has known she has it for like 10 years (so she is an expert! ;) ). Well, Catherine told me that she had been thinking about me and my plight to find bread so that I could once again enjoy a grilled cheese sandwich...well, Catherine told met hat she had spoken with Starla about where to find some decent/delicious bread. Starla told her that her favorite bread can be found at Whole Foods (a grocery store in the Chicago area) in the freezer section...and that the first time she discovered it, she ate the whole loaf in about a week, it was just THAT good! Awesome!! I can't wait to try it. So, yahoo for another great friend and the great kindness and great help she showed to me :)

3) BOOKS: I had a book to return to Barnes and Noble, so I went there yesterday, returned the book, and perused around for another to get in its place. I found...The Gluten Free Bible...check THIS out for a book review! This book is truly awesome! There are tons of topics...from initial diagnosis, to cheating, to pregnancy, to recipes, to suggestions of doctors! I LOVE this book and spent a good amount of time yesterday looking through it. I can't wait to read it all! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone living a wheat-free/gluten-free life!! I am so thankful I found it...I love good, new books...and especially ones that pertain to my life and can offer help to me! :)

4) CHILI'S: This last thing to be thankful for happened later last night, and post the conversation with my mom...but of course is worth noting! See the previous post for a full description :)

Have a wonderful day!

Gluten-Free Goodies!

We had dinner at Los Potrillo's (again, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, and probably just one of our favorite restaurants ever in general!) with Adam and Jami last night. It was great to see them and catch up a bit...it had been a while since we had hung out the four of us! We had a great time and of course the food was delicious. Jeremy and Adam thought our service was terrible last night (which is very out of the ordinary for Los!), but I didn't even notice. I was just happy to be having a good time with fun friends! I was relieved that I was done working for 12 days, that lunch wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be (thanks to two awesome co-workers, Deb and Christina...our boss was buying us pizza for lunch, but obviously I wouldn't be able to eat it. Deb and Christina ordered me a burrito bowl from Chipotle and went and picked it up so I had something delicious to eat during the holiday lunch and wasn't just jealous of everyone and their pizza! Of course I was still a bit jealous ;), but that's just because I am obsessed with wanting pizza! ;) ), and I had gotten everything done at work that I needed to. It was just a wonderful feeling, and I was very relaxed and ready to have a great evening with Jeremy and our friends.

Also, Jami brought us each a Christmas tin with some goodies she made for us! She made us two separate tins, one for Jeremy with "normal" Christmas cookies and the like, and a gluten-free tin for me! Mine had buckeyes and scotcharoos, both things that I love! I ate some right away last night and I am not ashamed to admit I already ate some today and I haven't even had lunch yet! HA! Half of my leftover meal from Los is in the toaster oven right now heating up for me to eat as I curl up in front of the TV and am lazy for a bit.

I am still in awe of how awesome my friends have been through all of this crappy gluten-less-ness of my life! Jami has been great...especially now with these Christmas goodies! The cookies/sweets part of Christmas has honestly kind of sucked! I know, I know, that's not what Christmas is all about ;). It is still hard, though, to sit by when people are eating delicious looking gluten-ous Christmas cookies and treats! It was nice to have some yummy things of my own to eat. Thanks, Jami! Of course my other friends have been great, too! Sarah has given me TONS of tips (she is a healthy eater and food-purchaser and knew about gluten-free living type things way before I started in on this new lifestyle)...and has made a number of yummy things when we go over to their place. Brooke made a delicious Mexican casserole that she adapted to be gluten free when we visited them in Rockford in November. On December 16th when we had a Youth Leaders' meeting at Josh and Laura's home, Laura made an entirely gluten-free (and DELICIOUS!) meal for all of us there. Jeremy's mom makes me a gluten free meal when we go over there for dinner at least once a week. My mom is making lots of gluten free things for when we visit for Christmas this weekend! Jillian made sure I had things to eat on Saturday when we went to her place prior to her Christmas concert in Peoria (she kept some BBQ pork separate for me so it wouldn't get contaminated, and even bought me some of my favorite yogurt! She also had veggies and hummus I could eat!). I love my friends! I know it's probably such a pain for them...but I am so thankful for their kindness and love!

Yahoo for good food, good friends, and...most of all, Yahoo for CHRISTMAS!!!

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?!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Check out my little gluten-free Halloween goodies! I made them and brought them to a party I went to at my friend Amy's house tonight!! :) I got the idea from my good friend, Jen, who made them....her's were lots cuter ;). I kind of rushed through it...made them this evening right before we went to the party! :) The idea is originally from the Betty Crocker website...although I didn't use any of the ingredients suggested, I had to substitute gluten free things :)
In case you can't tell...they are ghosts, Frankenstein monsters, and spiders...on top of brownie bases.

And they were delicious, too! :)

The party was great! I am so thankful for wonderful friends and fun evenings such as this! I had a great time...and didn't feel "deprived" at all, as far as food goes. The hostess, Amy, had saved wrappers/containers of all of the ingredients she used for some of her goodies and went out of her way to be sure I would be able to eat some things at the party. I had some of her homemade spinach/artichoke dip with Tostitos, a meatball, and one of my silly brownie treats :). In addition, another one of my sweet coworkers, Abbey, made a big fruit salad with lots of fresh fruit and didn't add any sauce or anything to it so that she was certain I would be able to eat it. How sweet is that?!

Best of all...I had NO reaction to ANY of it!! :) This was the first night in a long time that I didn't really stress out about what to eat. It was amazing.

Happy Halloween!!