Cravings Call

I took a field trip to a healthfood store not too far away. They had a lovely gluten free isle, however with all the insight of making healthier food, some still contain certain allergens that I cannot eat. To be expected.

I hunted, read labels, and compared items for over an hour. I felt like I was finding lots of food that I could enjoy. I spent just under $100. Preposterous! All I actually purchased at the end of the day was different kinds of flour and butter. (both "fake")    

This did not make a meal. It made treats. Treats that  I don't actually desire currently.  I want meals. I did make brownies with one of the boxed items though. They tasted a bit like dirt :(  but they smelled magical.

Recently I know I haven't been eating enough of something.  I haven't been able to put my finger on the nutrient I'm missing. I cant seem to tame this insatiable desire for hot dogs. That is NOT normal considering I rarely enjoy a hot dog. I ate 4 of them in one day. ICK.

To help aid this feeling i've put myself on a new multi-vitamin, and I've cracked open some cookbooks. What a lovely starting point. Tons of recipes in one place that I can adjust and play with. I'd forgot about how useful those could be.  Remake number one was a chicken bake. I changed it up a little. I just used herbed oil over chicken and dumped a cup of water in the bottom of some rice and veggies. 40 mins in the over at 350F and done. No work to be done at all. My roommate even ate it and liked it a lot!  That in itself says something.

Remake number two happened to be a soup I saw at our local coop that I wanted to make. Italian Veggie soup. It contains all sorts of very healthy-hearty vegetables. Yummy too!

In health news.  I've been feeling great. No bloating. No headaches No fatigue for quite some time now. I'm at a healthy weight.
An occasional craving occurs when I am missing key parts of my diet -but- that has been dying down with my influx of fresh veggies, vitamins, and lean meats.

It's crazy how much food can change you- or just the way you feel. Either way- huge plus.

Boiling Brownines

Brownies were an epic fail. I'm not really shocked by any means. I did replace butter with the fake butter... and eggs... well there were too many eggs to replace nicely. I decided to try the flax/water/oil mixture that works so well for other things. Unfortunatly I still need a rising agent of some sort. The brownies boiled and made a huge mess of my pan.   :(

I feel the urge to bake and I need to make cupcakes. A co-worker's birthday celebration is tomorrow and she also can't have gluten or milk. Cupcakes will be perfect.  If I can just get them to come out right

Due to the fact that my favorite gluten free cake mix is made with potato starch I decided to try a new brand. It's called 123..gluten free.  Free of the top most common allergens and also it allows you to add the kind of sugar you'd like. One major problem. 4 eggs.   One of my common viewers had sent me a link to a website that helps you replace eggs. Time to try it

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianvegan101/f/eggsubstitute.htm

This has a few new options to try.  I went for the applesause/banana mix. The consistancy allows the batter to stay moist. Only problem is that it's a little heavy. I put in a little baking soda & baking powder. 

BAM!  It worked.  They look a little strange but it's nothing that frosting cant fix.   I have to admit they didn't taste revolting.  I am pretty impressed.

Beautiful!!! These will go great with the baby back rib dinner.  I'm hungry now.

Pyramid Observations

Traditional Food Pyramid (that isn't all that healthy)

 Now I have a hard time believing that with all the kinds of food allergies that are becoming more common, that this pyramid promotes a healthy lifestyle.

I find the milk section alone is a bit alarming.

Cow milk is most common and it's full on nutrients to support a baby cow, not a human. Milk feeding is not intended to exceed more that the first year of life. This first year when you need lipids, healthy bacteria, white bloodcells, ext- from the mothers milk. How can it be healthy to continue this? So very strange how society has let this become acceptable. (Note: I'm not anti-milk- just questioning the norms)

My Pyramid

I've made some adjustments based of my particular situation. The cow is just representing meat. Not what you call traditional by any means. Getting the proper nutrients can still be achieved with different foods. This is another reason why I believe the original is so flawed.

You can still have a balanced diet when you exclude allergens.

Now I've also included an example of what my pervious roommates food pyramid looks like. Just for comic relief.

Fried and breaded food. Candy. Cake. Beer. Meat.

Ohh ohh oh   Sooo Manlike.  That will catch up with him.

He's trying to eat some of my foods but he mostly doesnt' based on the pure fact that its still "Diet Food." Rubbish. I don't like diets either... but its different because if I cheat (as for-mentioned in the previous post) I pay with extreme stomach upset, not just a guilty conscious.

Dinner tonight (which he didn't try) was porkchop in a brown sugar pineapple sause, green beans, and squashfries.

Ps- Squashfries- need improvement. It was so very stringy and strange.

All and all- 2 veggies- 1 meat - a fruit slice- and a little from the sweets.  Covers my bases.

Cheating

I cheated- and -I had immediate regret. 

I went out to dinner at a small place and they didn't have much for sides.  I figured, how bad could a few french fries be? Apparently when you're allergic and newly detoxed to potatoes... pretty bad. Now here's my reasoning behind WHY I would do such a thing. 

I love potatoes. I've been eating them my whole life. I stopped eating them in early Feb. I had a small bit of KFC mash potatoes a few weeks later and that didn't go poorly. In fact- not bad at all. I thought... well if that didn't end catastrophically, then why would a few fries be any worse?!?!

Well maybe its because KFC only has fake dehydrated modified potato mush.  Maybe its because I really only had a taste of the fake stuff and big handful of real fries.  Either way- It took all of 15 mins before I was on my way home in the car with immense stomach pain. I made a pact with myself that night- No more cheating.


Cooking inhouse trying strange things: take 17.
An American take on spring rolls. I'll give it a shot. It's really just a sandwich in a thin rice roll.

Spring rolls come in a package of about 100. This is convenient.

Step one: Have contents ready to go. My first trials contain lettuce mix, alfalfa, radish sprouts, turkey, mustard, and carrot.

Step two: dip rolls in hot water for  a second and pull them out (they will instantly go soft). 

Step three: Stuff roll and fold onto itself to stick.

Done.

Not bad either.  Mix and match the contents based of what you like. Great variety idea to mix it up.
This is an item that I intend on perfecting. Very neat.

I like popcorn but cant have the butter. No problem! As long as you like sweet with the salt- Kettle corn is you're best bet.

Another thing I wanted to try was icecream.. Icecream no milk. They make Coconut Milk Icecream. I must warn you that it's incredibly sweet. It is better than Soycicles that's for sure. Small doses.

That's all for my current updates.

Natural Nutrition Month

The American Dietetic Association  has come up with a healthy eating guide and they have some amazing recipes (a lot of them gluten

free) to help advertise National Nutrition Month. Check them out @ http://www.eatright.org/nnm/

The guide alone is very helpful when trying to come up with a variety.

Today I've been craving a cucumber sandwich. I doubt it would be the same without the mayo so I switched in my favorite replacement- Guac! Guacamole has a great mayo like consistency but it has a much better taste.
For a funny guacamole recipe in song version check out Rhett & Link recipe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRlqsvphYww. I dont reccomend peppers.
On my sandwich I ended up not adding the additional slice of bread because of the pure size. The combo was DELICIOUS!  So good.

I added this to dinner- which was ground sirloin smothered in onions and mushrooms.

Perfect.  I do notice that I need a better camera for food photos.

Bill picked me up dessert. - soy bars. They do mimic icecream pretty well. I'll have them occasionally when I want icecream. There is also a coconut ice-cream a well. Not bad.

I am mere days away from my one month mark. Eliminating the foods has been one of the best things I've ever done.

I've noticed some changes.

My congestion is gone. Migraines gone. Fatigue gone. Bloating is way down. My weight only has a 3 pound variance instead of 6.  My mood is terrible when I am late for a meal (which isn't abnormal for me- but now its worse). I like this though. Sofar Sogood. This upcoming month I'm going to toss in a workout routine to see if this will help my overall mood. I'm optimistic.

Taco Tuesday



Alburritos in Littleton NH.

Tonight we dared to try the locally famous Taco Tuesday.
                                  $1 a taco.
Due to the price and the size of the location it seems to be bursting with patrons on Tuesdays. Alburitos in Littleton NH makes a lot of their food right on the spot so it's fresh, with the tradeoff of it taking a little longer to recieve your food. You can request corn tortillas and chips instead of soft shells and pitas. They are made in the same hot oil so if  you're highly allergic this is not such good news.



Salsa/Chilli and Chips App

We had a starter of salsa, chilli, and chips. Amazing!



With our group of 4, our waitress offered us a 16 taco platter. 8 soft shell, 8 hard shell (3 no cheese just for me). It comes with chopped lettuce, tomotoes, and onion that go right up the middle. If you like sour cream or guacamoli its extra. Not a bad price I must say.

With that being said- the idea of a taco was sort of a miss here for this particular trip.



Half eaten platter

The filling of the handmade shell was just beef.  It lacked any taco seasoning and flavor but not oil.  Ehhh... I've had better. The only reason why I think it's as popular as it's become is due to the cost. It costs a total of $25.06 at a little over $6 a person. I would prefer to make my own tacos at home. I'm seeing a general trend here with food. Eating out just isn't as satisfying as it used to be. To top it all off my stomach hurts from this. I'm sure the tanted shells aren't a big help.  We shall see how the night goes. Hopefully no wild taco dreams.

Since March is National Nutrition month I'm going to try to cook and eat in for the remainder of the month. That's easy. It's almost been a month of this new diet and it's been amazing. Tomorrow's a new day.



The Common Man Experience

Visit @ http://www.thecman.com/

Dinning out. When you're allergy ridden, this only speaks of disaster. I've been to the Common Man before when I first learned of my gluten allergy and I remember they had some special items on the menu just for my situation. Uncommon however is the other allergy avoidance's.

My special menu had 2 proteins, 2 starches, 8 sauces, and 2 desserts.
The proteins were finely listed although I would have to ask for them without nuts or cheese. The 2 starches were both potato which I cannot have. Who on earth needs 8 sauces that  you cant really put on anything (some had milk in them anyway)?!?! Also.. the 2 desserts were milk products.  FML. 

Now I understand that I'm the one with complications so I try not to get upset especially at the waitstaff because they do try quite hard. I also, having done some waitressing in my time know; allergies are difficult, vacationers can make or break your day, and often it feels thankless when you try so hard. Our particular situation that night with our waitress HAS to be addressed.

.....Here is a list of events......

We arrived early and were seated at 4:30pm. I requested the Gluten Free menu. My menu sucked.

Our waitress came over and asked how the skiing was. We did not ski.

Waitress said she wished it would snow. We said we'd had enough snow. She agreed, no more snow.

We ordered. I ordered the GLUTEN FREE chicken with no cheese or nuts. She made special note of my request for no butter.

With this gluten free order she offered me sides of potato (cant have) veggies (no butter) or rice pilaf (which contains GLUTEN) she obviously doesn't know what gluten is and this distresses me.

I request salad instead. She says this cant be substituted. What a load of Bull.  I'll pay more for the salad. She says spinach is suitable for my allergy situation- whatever spinach with a salad thanks.

Waitress brought out bread that she said she cut special with different knifes so that the nuts in one bread didn't contaminate the plain bread. Bread contains GLUTEN, EGGS, YEAST, MILK. She just doesn't get it.

Salad was fine.

Dinner came out. Waitress said no cornbread for me because of the milk/butter in it. No shit, that's the gluten free part of my gluten free chicken.

My chicken was just that.... chicken.  Just chicken. Spinach on the side was soaked in oil. Oh yum :( . She brought out the sauce on the side that was just apples and applesause. Eh not worth it.

Maybe try dessert? Our friend Ryan suggested the baked apple they had.  I'd ask for it without the icecream. Apple rolled in cinnamon and sugar- baked. How bad could that be?
I ordered it first because it cooks for a long time.

After she started it cooking she came back to get everyone elses dessert order. THEN she informed me that it had butter sauce all over it, not concerning to her was the part that she mentioned later that it was rolled in flour too!!!! I ordered "Gluten free" all night how could she not mention this to me. BAH. If someone request no gluten you should educate yourself on what this is. I was FRUSTRATED. Well dessert was ruined.

Poor quality photo of Ryans food

On the other hand Ryan enjoyed his.  Sugared flour deep fried smothered with icecream, chocolate sauce, and butter sauce.  Ohhhhhh there is just not substituting this. Dessert is less fun than ever.

Dinner out is also less fun.  Some places are trying to make menus more "friendly" but being able to feel satisfied after a meal is something that I really miss with food outside of my own house. Bugger. Now that I've had dinner, its time to make myself dessert.