Busy month

It's been a BUSY month....the first weekend in April I traveled to MN with my sister to my good friend Rosalee's bachelorette party...the second weekend in April I ran my first half marathon...the third weekend in April Jeremy and I traveled to MN to attend Rosalee and Bobby's rehearsal and wedding....whew! So, I haven't been blogging much.

Highlights...

~gluten-free chili at the bachelorette party on Saturday, April 4 made by Rosalee's older sister Nicole who awesomely made it with me in mind
~delicious sangria at the bachelorette party (GF, of course! :))
~I FINISHED a half marathon on April 11th....in under 2 hours! The snacks afterwards, however, were lacking...the only thing I could eat were the bananas and apples! Ok, I realize this isn't exactly suffering ;), but when everyone else is stuffing themselves with Papa John's pizza it's easy to feel sorry for one's self! I said to my sister, as she bit into a hot piece of pizza, "I am THIS close to eating a piece of that! It looks awesome!" I was serious, too. Well, she took one look at me and said, "Let's get you out of here then" and made a bee line for the exit to the food area. Good idea, sister! Remove me from the situation :). So, yahoo for sisters ;)
~I had some of the BEST gluten-free meals EVER the weekend of Rosalee's wedding...the rehearsal dinner at the Hubbell House in Mantorville, MN was AMAZING (walleye, baked potato, and wine...can't go wrong, really.)...and the wedding food was great too! The caterers were SO helpful (Roz had talked with them beforehand) and I had a yummy plain chicken breast (it really was rather good!), potatoes, green beans, fruit and ice cream (in place of the ice cream cake the guests had)...not too shabby! So, yahoo for Rosalee, MN, and gluten-free weddings :)
~Rosalee's step-mom Joleen made AMAZING gluten free monster cookies in the little out-of-towner goodie bag she had for me and Jeremy at the hotel we stayed at. Can we say amazing?!??!

Needless to say, GF life isn't treating me too badly right now. This girl loves her food! ;) Sheesh, I sound like a fatty!! ;)

Private blogs

So, I had a crazy dude sending me messages via one of my blogs, so I made all of my blogs aside from this one private. If you want to be invited to read any of the other blogs, let me know :).

Have a great day!

Rachel

Top Ten list....

Taken from The Gluten Free Optimist...thought this was great :)

Ten Positive things about having Celiac Disease...
1. Your health is better!
2. You helped improve the health of other people by telling family members, friends, coworkers, and doctors about the importance of testing for celiac disease.
3. You don’t need medicine or surgery to treat your disease.
4. You don’t have to share your food.
5. You save money by not impulsively buying sweets, by not impulsively eating out, and by not buying your lunch daily.
6. Since you read labels, you have a better idea of the nutritional facts and ingredients of the foods you eat and can make more informed choices.
7. You appreciate the small things in life and find joy in them like new good gluten free foods, the mention of gluten free or celiac on a television show, gluten free lists of foods and medicines, and an informative blog post or review. (Yes, these are big things to celiacs, but they are still small things in the big picture of life.)
8. You eat healthier at home when you don’t feel like driving far to eat out or buy gluten free convenience foods.
9. You have something to blog about.
10. You participate in amazing internet networking with other celiacs and have an instant bond with them.

Lately...

Things are going pretty well!

I did make a new yummy item this week...I used the Gluten Free Pantry brand muffin mix to make some muffins for a work breakfast. The mix is plain and then you can add mix-in's to your muffins. I added dried cherries, walnuts, and chocolate chips and then sprinkled a bit of brown sugar on top...for some yummy Chocolate-cherry-nut muffin creations :). People at work seemed to like them, so that's cool! :) I enjoyed them, too. YUM!

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 :)

WHOLE FOODS

WHOLE FOODS=HEAVEN ON EARTH......oh my goodness! It is seriously my favorite grocery store EVER now!
I had class in Chicago on Saturday so I decided to ask my handydandy little TomTom (actually, Jeremy's...he got it for Christmas from his parents; we hadn't even used the little guy yet!) if there was a Whole Foods nearby...and there was one 9 miles from Oakton Community College, where my class was (long story short, it's some co-op dealie with ISU; sometimes we are at Oakton and sometimes we are at ISU)...so of course I embarked upon the quick journey to go check it out and BOY, was I glad that I did!
EVERYTHING in the store is all-natural and many things are organic as well. BEST part is, though....they have TONS Of GLUTEN FREE GOODIES! The baked goods...oh my goodness...things looked wonderful!
I got a loaf of GF sandwich bread ($7ish, Whole Foods brand; I had read somewhere that it is the best GF bread available), a round loaf of GF sourdough bread, some Bob's Red Mill sorghum flour (I should've stocked up; we have it here, but it was cheaper at Whole Foods), some GF poppyseed salad dressing, some GF rice lasagna noodles (I can never find them!), some organic white wine vinegar, a GF personal-size Glutino brand cheese pizza (!!!), some GF chocolate chip cookie mix (Pamela's brand), and a pre-washed and pre-cut cup of fresh kiwi and strawberry from the produce section (for my "lunch", I ate it as soon as I got in the car!). They had a great produce section!! I really wish we had one of those stores in our town.

But....let me just tell you...the sandwhich bread is PHE-NOM!!!! Seriously!! I made a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch yesterday AND today with it and loveloveLOVED it! After being deprived for FIVE months now it just tasted SOOO good. I've tried a few other kinds but nothing is really GOOD, just "bearable" (well, some are terrible!). This stuff, though, was wonderful. When we go back up to Chi in late April for a race, we will DEFINITELY be stopping by a Whole Foods. It is my new favorite shopping experience!

SO, if you want some great (THE BEST!) GF bread, head on over to a Whole Foods and check out the freezer section which is CHOCK-FULL of many varieties of bread and baked goods. Next time I go, I am going to get the tomato basil bread (the woman who showed me the section at the store recommended it) and either banana bread or carrot cake! YUP, they have stuff like that too! Really!

All Hail Whole Foods!

I made it!!

We are HOME from AZ and had a wonderful wonderful trip! Absolutely fantastic...and I wish we were still there! Well, kind of ;). It is of course, always nice to be home. There's nowhere quite like home, is there?! :)

I was SO nervous during the weeks leading up to the trip...I had basically resigned myself to the fact that I would get sick at some point during the vacation. In my mind it was inevitable. Between eating out and eating meals at Eileen and Dave's house (our hosts) it was bound to happen at some point.

I am so thankful to report that I needn't have been so worried!!

Eileen had stocked up on some gluten free goodies that she had for me in the guest house where Jeremy and I stayed...check it out! She had even gotten my favorite granola! (accidental! She had no idea!). She also got me some pretzles (not shown; they were in my bag ready to take with to the baseball game!). The yellow box of Trader Joe's mac and cheese was one I'd brought from home (one of the boxes Jillian got for me!). I survived! ;)

Eileen also went way out of her way to prepare many gluten free meals for me during our stay. The woman is truly a saint. She and her husband Dave used to be neighbors here in Bloomington of Jeremy's parents, but moved to Mesa sevenish years ago when Dave was transferred with State Farm (he is a vice president of State Farm; in charge of auto claims out there in the AZ area. Big stuff ;)). I had never met them before, but they were two of the most accomodating, loving individuals I had ever met. I can't wait to see them again someday! I cannot thank them enough for their kind generosity! In a future post, I will share two recipes from her: a soup with pork, green chiles, and hominy (phenomenal!!) and a margharita lasagna (she made mine with rice noodles!!). Both were sooo yummy!!!
Jeremy and I had read that there was a Red Robin in Mesa; however we had forgotten to check the address before embarking on a journey to find lunch on Monday. We ended up "happening upon" Red Robin and dined like kings! ;) Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE Red Robin!? YUMMM indeed!

Jeremy just loves it when I take "pointless" photos of him ;). HA!