June 2011
2 posts
Peaches and Berries, Oh My!
My DH and I went a little overboard a few weekends ago, and decided to go berry picking. When I was growing up, we would go berry picking in the summer, and bring back the best strawberries for use in pies, jams, etc. My DH had never been berry picking before (well, ok, he picked a few blackberries off of a bush in his backyard, but never had the full experience). So I took it upon myself to...
Success at Last!
So one of the things that has been hounding me since my switch to GF living has been bread. I never used to like bread all that much, back when I was eating store-bought bakery style bread. Perhaps it was because I was trying to make it extra healthy, and was purchasing only multi-grain bread. Whatever the case, I have found that I now love bread, now that I am eating only GF bread. In fact, my...
March 2011
1 post
Different Gluten Disorders
Sooo….work has been keeping me way too busy to post anything lately, although I have quite a few topics in mind for when things settle down! However, my Dad sent me a link to a Wall Street Journal article on gluten sensitivity that I found interesting. Much of the information I already knew, but for those who aren’t familiar, it gives a good introduction to the three types of...
February 2011
8 posts
Some of My New Favorites
It has been a few months of eating on my new diet, and I am developing a small list of favorite GF foods. I would like to share them with you, just in case you are ever interested in going my way. (It will help you avoid the numerous icky GF foods out there!) By no means do I mean this list to be all inclusive of the best GF foods out there, and I am sure that there are some people who would...
Fast(er) Food Options
To close my restaurant reviews, I am going to finish by writing about fast(er) food options. I don’t like fast food (McDonald’s, Burger King, etc.), so I’m not talking about that kind of dining. I am instead talking about quicker meal options that lean towards the healthy side. Knowing about these types of dining options are coming to be important, for example, for working...
Dining Out
To continue my last post, I thought I would write about some of the national chains which offer GF dining options. I am a fan of national chains b/c you always know what you will get - whether it is in NY, CA, or TX. So, here are four national chains to further broaden my GF dining experiences. Still to come, GF fast food (and no, that does not mean my options at McDonald’s).
P.F....
5 tags
Local Dining
Well in honor of Valentine’s Day, I thought I would write a post on a few of the different dining options (i.e., restaurants with gluten free options) I have been told of over the past few months. For now I’m going to focus on restaurants I know to be local to me. There are also national chains with GF fare that I will mention later.
Java Dive Cafe/Java Dive Bistro
Thanks to my Mom...
New Flour
For those of you living near me, no I don’t mean Newflower Market (recently renamed after it’s parent, Sunflower Market). I am talking about my adventures with new types of flours. Remember how I have been putting my grain mill through its paces? This weekend I get to grind another new flour - quinoa flour.
I have been baking my way through some of the cookbooks I got for...
3 tags
Cooking with Julia
Today I got to enjoy a great movie - Julie and Julia. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it is based on a blogger who spent 365 days cooking a la Julia Child. The first time I saw the movie, I got a pang to be like Julie and cook my way through Julia’s cookbook as well! Watching it again today, I got another pang - and this time, I’m going to follow through (although not...
2 tags
Outdoor Adventures
It’s almost that time of year again! And no, I don’t mean it’s time to file my taxes. It’s almost time to go camping! For those of us who live in the great state of Texas, there is a very small window for camping (unless you own a RV, which I don’t). It happens to be in the spring - particularly March & April. I suppose I could go camping in the winter, but I...
2 tags
Dreaming of Girl Scout Cookies
Today’s post is really short, but to the point. I wish that there was a gluten free Girl Scout Cookie! I have, once, purchased a dozen boxes of girl scout cookies and shipped them overseas for a friend and his troops. :) Normally, I purchase about a half dozen boxes for my DH and I, and put some in the freezer to savor in the months when Girl Scout Cookies are no longer for sale. ...
January 2011
7 posts
1 tag
Stay Positive
I was reading a magazine the other day that noted something striking. The article said that “quality of life can actually decrease and symptoms of depression can increase for some individuals in the first year after diagnosis” (from Gluten-Free Living, Number 4/2010, p. 58).
I must admit, as you probably gathered from one of my previous blog posts, I have definitely had my struggles...
GF Everyday
There has been quite a lot of discussion among friends, family, and coworkers as to how difficult my everyday meal selection must be. I have heard everything from “Why do you have to come on the days we have Italian”, to “You are impossible to cook for” and “Name one type of junk food you can eat.” Well, for those who haven’t had to live GF, let me set one thing straight: when you are in charge...
2 tags
Frustration with My GF Life
It is well known among my family members that I am not the most patient of people. I have gotten much, much better over the years, but I blame this on genetics - I can trace such a family trait up through my family tree for generations. The pitfall of such a bad habit is that when one is GF, one must be very, very patient. Let me elaborate.
The first couple of months of my GF life, I was able...
6 tags
Gluten Free Travel?
I am a huge, huge fan of travel. I love that just by going somewhere different you can learn new things, see new sights, meet new people, and taste new foods…and therein lies the problem. Now that I am having to eat GF, I am wondering how exactly I will be able to travel GF.
I am sure it can be done. In fact, I know it can - but my experience is limited to traveling to family - who can...
7 tags
My New Favorite Kitchen Toy
One of my favorite Xmas gifts came in the form of the attachment for my Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer. Can anyone guess what it was? No, not the pasta maker I already mentioned…Give up? It was a grain mill!
One of the things that has been a painful realization the past few months is exactly how much all of this GF stuff costs. I mean seriously - it is practically 50c an ounce for flour...
4 tags
Take 2
So, it is only the first month and already I have been quite remiss lately in my blogging duties. I blame it on the East Coast weather! Just kidding, although I was back east for about 5 days last week, so that is officially my excuse. In the past two weeks I have had a LOT to think about GF wise, and have gone through several more baking attempts, which I will be describing today.
One of the...
8 tags
Cinnamon Rolls
New Year’s Eve I decided to attempt something I have only done once before (with wheat flour) - make cinnamon rolls. I love cinnamon rolls! They are particularly tasty when they are right out of the oven, soft and gooey and sugary. As a treat, and because we were going to visit my sister who is also on a GF diet, I decided that I would attempt to make GF cinnamon rolls.
I followed a...
December 2010
3 posts
9 tags
Pasta alla KitchenAid - Part 1
For my husband’s birthday last year, my wonderful mother and grandmother decided to make him a special meal, a tradition on birthdays in my family. Unfortunately I was on crutches and could not help them, else I would have fully understood the calamity that was his lobster ravioli.
Let me preface this by saying that my husband is a serious pasta lover. In a sad twist of fate, as soon as...
5 tags
Adventures in Baking
One of the joys of my year is when my husband’s work closes down the week before New Year’s. If he gets to take vacation, then so will I! This week happens to be said week, and in light of my new found free time, I decided to spend some serious time baking.
As a little bit of background information, it has now been approx. two months since I have started living a GF life. Before...
6 tags
Intro to My GF Life
About two months ago, after a visit to a doctor, I decided to try living a gluten free (GF) life. I had been having serious GI issues and the doctor suggested testing me for celiac disease. It was like a light turned on over my head. My sister had previously mentioned that she had started living a GF lifestyle, and it had helped her GI issues resolve. On a whim, I thought “I can do...
