The First 5 Days

I'm now 5 days into my gluten free adventure.  It hasn't been as hard as I expected it to be.   I'm already feeling better and have a feeling it will only get better with time.  My energy is up and my tummy is getting better little by little.  I have lost some weight and feel like exercising, which hasn't happened in forever! 

I have been taking photos of most everything I eat since I started doing gluten free.  I have found lots of things that I can make that are already gluten free.  Thanks to the produce co-op we have lots of fresh veggies and fruits on hand that has made it much easier.  Some have been much better than others, but all have been edible.  I guess I mostly want everyone to know that I'm not going hungry.  I can still eat a lot of delicious foods.  Here are some examples...

Garlic Ginger Chicken Ramen

Baked Penne Pasta (Corn based pasta)

Taco Salad (made from leftover tacos)

Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos

Gluten Free Baking Round 1!

I decided after my first few days of being gluten free that I should attempt to bake something.  I can't see myself living without some sort of baked good every once and a while or a bun for my burger.  After doing some research I found a great site that has recipes that don't use 14 different kinds of gluten free flours and a bunch of other junk I have never heard of.  She uses almond flour and Coconut flour in most of her recipes.  It was not easy to find these either.  I went to Trader Joe's and found almond meal (a close relative of almond flour) but no coconut flour.  After heading to a health food store nearby I was able to find the coconut flour.  I came home with two pounds of flour for $14...seriously.  This had better be good!!!!  I found a site online that sells almond and coconut flours in bulk and I can get them for about $4/lb so that will be my route from here on out.

I started with a cheddar and onion bun/biscuit recipe that sounded good and flavorful.  It was pretty easy to put together.

See the small amount of flour I got from each bag...bummer!

Threw everything into my Ninja to combine...LOVE my Ninja!

Biscuits complete...they are soft in the middle with a little bite to them

Buns fresh out of the oven

Used my biscuit to make a chicken breast sandwich for lunch :)

    I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  I'm not going to lie and say it is exactly like a biscuit made from wheat flour, but it is tasty.  I was excited that my first effort wasn't a total flop and yielded a tasty result that I actually can eat!  You can find the recipe here if you want it.

Since my first attempt went well I decided it was time for something sweet!  Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins!  This came from the same site and is actually flour-less so any of you can make them and they are awesome!!

Super easy and awesome!

As always when chocolate is involved my little helper is close by!

Hail to the Chocolate!!!!!

Time to enjoy the fruits of my labor

Josh, Olivia and I have all been tearing these up.  If they love them you will too.  Here is the recipe, enjoy!

Gluten Free's the Way To Be?

Most of you know that I have battled stomach issues since I was pregnant with Olivia.  I had my Gallbladder removed in September of 2010.  For a while I felt great and could eat anything I wanted until what I believe was a clogged bile duct (the docs couldn't figure out what was wrong) landed me in the hospital for three days in September of 2011. Since then I have had issues with the big D (and I don't mean Dallas) chronically.  For the last three months or so it has gotten worse and I'm fed up!  I started to google my symptoms and I now think I may have developed either Celiacs Disease or just a gluten allergy.

So what does this mean? No more wheat, barley or malt in any form or fashion, and it hides everywhere!  As a woman who is married to an Italian, and does all the cooking, I hope this blog doesn't include a post about the day I receive my divorce papers. So today is day one and I figured if I blog about my adventure and find some humor in it, it might make it a little easier.  I just have to say that I love bread and I'm very sad that it will take me a while to figure out how to bake gluten free.  I'm hoping to get there and I think I will.  If any of you out there are in the same boat let me know I would love to swap recipes!

Comedic Relief Compliments of a Two Year Old

Those of you who know my daughter know she is a complete ham and has been for quiet some time.  She may look like a D'Atri but she has the Garland sense of humor for sure!  As she learns to talk more and more she loves to make others laugh.  I actually first knew she was a comedian before she could talk.  One night while in the tub when she was about 11 months old she farted, I laughed of course, because nothing is better than potty humor.  She decided to force another fart (for the laugh) and proceeded to poop in my tub.  Over the past two weeks she has cracked me up on several occasions and I wanted to document them so I wouldn't forget years from now.

Potty training has been the source of several laughs as of late.  On day two of potty training Olivia was having a hard time producing her number two and in her best baritone voice said "Hard work!".  When she still couldn't get it out she looked at me and said, "I can't reach it".  I could barely catch my breath I was laughing so hard.

During dinner with a friend this weekend she decided she needed to go potty.  We are in the stall taking care of business when a lady walked into the stall next to us.  Olivia saw her feet under the stall door and in a not so quiet voice said, "Mommy she is hiding!".  I tried to stifle my laughter as I explained that we all like to have privacy in the potty.  I could hear the lady laughing as well.

Olivia woke from her nap after only sleeping an hour yesterday (much to my dismay!).  I went upstairs to retrieve her and asked why she woke up.  She said, "My Hoonie (our name for her lady parts) woke me up."  I asked why and she said, "it needs to go potty".

Though we have our moments of terrible twos lately I'm so loving this stage with my little character.  She has so much personality and makes me so proud!  I just love her to bits!