If you loved a particular food and found out that you could no longer eat it, how would you feel? I love good bread. The taste, texture and the filling qualities of bread are comforting to me. Not to mention easy and versatile! Since I learned that I have Celiac's, I have missed bread. Sure, there are lots of GF breads out there, but NONE of them resemble regular bread. They were too hard, grainy, crumbly, tasteless, etc. Well, I finally found a wonderful, soft, tasty gluten-free bread!
Udi's gluten free whole grain bread
It is so heavenly! Thanks to Udi's, I don't feel deprived anymore. I can eat a piece of bread with a meal or by itself, toasted or not, buttered or plain, and it is delicious. It also has fiber! That's right! Can you believe it? I have to say I was quite shocked myself!
I also tried Udi's GF blueberry muffins. Despite the plastic taste from being baked in a plastic tray, they were quite good. They are a big improvement from my own attempt at muffins which were made with garbanzo flour:P
Monday, January 31, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
resolutely resolved
I don't even know the last time I posted here...it's not a big deal...i don't think anyone actually reads this:)
But i feel like writing about my new year's resolve.
i have never really made concrete new year's resolutions. at best, i have some nice thoughts about what i'd like to accomplish throughout the year. every year, without fail, i come to the realization that i'm a wimp when it comes to accomplishing pre-set goals. it is mostly because i'm a spontaneous type of person. i have tried to make meal plans, daily routines, exercise routines, budgets, etc. but it just won't work for our family. there is too much uncertainty with our day-to-day lives to follow any specific routine. i could blame my husband's erratic work schedule; he has never been home at the same time two days in a row. but i know it is more than that. it is also due to my nature to let everything go with the flow. i don't like strict schedules and routines. i love for the kids to have ample time to play in the yard, color, or do projects as they please. i like to have whatever dinner i'm in the mood for on any given night, especially if the kids can make it. i hate feeling obligated to be places, even though i love going places. i don't like deadlines either! it all boils down to not liking stress of any sort! making new years resolutions stress me out.
since we don't have a set time for anything, i am resolutely resolved to do what i can when i can. despite my loose routine, i still feel like i accomplish a lot. (all in my own time, with as little stress as possible) of course, i would like to go running every day, play tennis and volley ball weekly, write on my blog monthly, go to the grocery store every other week, compose piano and flute music, get better at playing the violin and clarinet, get to church on time, do service projects for friends and family, sing with the kids more, bake gluten-free bread and cakes, hold daily family devotionals, do more scrap booking, learn french, keep a cleaner house, sew, read more, grow all my vegetables from seed, learn how to draw/paint, remodel the garage...the list goes on....
i am anxious to see where this year leads us. i know that we will learn many new things. i hope that i will look back on this year with a sense of accomplishment and gratitude for all the opportunities i know we will have to grow and progress.
But i feel like writing about my new year's resolve.
i have never really made concrete new year's resolutions. at best, i have some nice thoughts about what i'd like to accomplish throughout the year. every year, without fail, i come to the realization that i'm a wimp when it comes to accomplishing pre-set goals. it is mostly because i'm a spontaneous type of person. i have tried to make meal plans, daily routines, exercise routines, budgets, etc. but it just won't work for our family. there is too much uncertainty with our day-to-day lives to follow any specific routine. i could blame my husband's erratic work schedule; he has never been home at the same time two days in a row. but i know it is more than that. it is also due to my nature to let everything go with the flow. i don't like strict schedules and routines. i love for the kids to have ample time to play in the yard, color, or do projects as they please. i like to have whatever dinner i'm in the mood for on any given night, especially if the kids can make it. i hate feeling obligated to be places, even though i love going places. i don't like deadlines either! it all boils down to not liking stress of any sort! making new years resolutions stress me out.
since we don't have a set time for anything, i am resolutely resolved to do what i can when i can. despite my loose routine, i still feel like i accomplish a lot. (all in my own time, with as little stress as possible) of course, i would like to go running every day, play tennis and volley ball weekly, write on my blog monthly, go to the grocery store every other week, compose piano and flute music, get better at playing the violin and clarinet, get to church on time, do service projects for friends and family, sing with the kids more, bake gluten-free bread and cakes, hold daily family devotionals, do more scrap booking, learn french, keep a cleaner house, sew, read more, grow all my vegetables from seed, learn how to draw/paint, remodel the garage...the list goes on....
i am anxious to see where this year leads us. i know that we will learn many new things. i hope that i will look back on this year with a sense of accomplishment and gratitude for all the opportunities i know we will have to grow and progress.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
what can i say?
i've had the blog blahs for a few months now. for one, i couldn't remember the name of this blog (sure sign of not being a very serious blogger!) secondly, when i did figure out what it was called, i couldn't remember the password to access it. and lastly, once i figured out the password, i fell asleep attempting to post. can we say GOOBER? that is what i feel like today. a goober. what is a goober, you might ask? a goober is a goofy, silly, or slightly strange person. a goober is also another name for a peanut...i am a little nutty, so it fits me well.
one of these days, i will get my act together. and when i do, maybe i will tell my friends about my blog. until then, i hope no one actually visits this site because it is so lame!
one of these days, i will get my act together. and when i do, maybe i will tell my friends about my blog. until then, i hope no one actually visits this site because it is so lame!
Monday, February 22, 2010
makes me smile
it has been my concern for a few years now that j. has to eat the highly glutenous sacrament bread every Sunday. i always told him to try and take the smallest piece he could find so he would only get a smidgen of gluten. however, he would always complain of tummy trouble every Monday. we dismissed it every week, thinking that it was impossible to feel the effects so soon after eating the gluten. i mean, how could such a little amount of gluten cause a reaction like that so soon afterward? doesn't there have to be more than that to trigger a response. well, that is what i thought until learning that i also have celiac's. sure enough, every monday morning my tummy would hurt. i never said anything to anyone and just decided that we would just live with the pain each week in order to take the sacrament. BUT apparently, there are others in our congregation that also have wheat and gluten sensitivities. they aren't as quiet about it. now, the whole congregation is taking gluten-free bread for the sacrament. how cool is that? the last two weeks j. and i have turned to each other and smiled when the bread comes to our row. we smile because we feel loved. we smile because we won't hurt the next day. we smile because it is yummy, soft, gluten free bread!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
busy
I have been so busy living life, that I had forgotten my quest for new bread and that I even had this blog. What is the quote? "The road to He[ck] is paved with good intentions". How could I let life get in the way of my quest to make the gluten-free world a better place?
I can truly sympathize with the gluten free/wheat-free community now that I have been on this diet for nearly three months {which feels like three years}! I think I have lost weight (but I am not sure since we don't own a scale), so that is a bonus in addition to feeling lots better! In fact, I feel so much healthier and happier eating a more whole foods diet, that I am starting to understand what PROVERBS 3:8 really means!
I never realized what truly poor health I was living with! AND can you believe I used to scoff at people who took eating so seriously? I used to think that THOSE people were fanatics! You know, the ones that read labels, buy organic, avoid refined sugars, exclude food with partially hydrogenated oils, and anything that is unnatural. I used to never check the ingredients in my food, "IF it looks good, smells good, tastes good...it IS good", RIGHT?
I never knew that there was a better way to eat! NOW I avoid anything unnatural...I still eat some processed foods, but at least we are avoiding artificial sweeteners, flavorings and dyes. We never ate much "junk" food, but now we eat even less. Occasionally, the kids ask for lolly pops and candy that contain unnatural ingredients {and look down right toxic}, but I try to sub similar healthy snacks in their place. Nobody complains!
What makes me the happiest, is to think that my kids are growing up healthier. I didn't eat very well as a child and would sneak candies and goodies every chance I got. my kids beg for carrots and broccoli, fresh or steamed! SCORE! We make green smoothies and eat lots of cheese. We snack on rice cakes with spun honey. We eat nuts and seeds daily. It seems so strange to be saying these things! Until last year, I never thought I would be/could be a health nut. But here I am, making daily efforts to live healthy, be healthy.
I can truly sympathize with the gluten free/wheat-free community now that I have been on this diet for nearly three months {which feels like three years}! I think I have lost weight (but I am not sure since we don't own a scale), so that is a bonus in addition to feeling lots better! In fact, I feel so much healthier and happier eating a more whole foods diet, that I am starting to understand what PROVERBS 3:8 really means!
I never realized what truly poor health I was living with! AND can you believe I used to scoff at people who took eating so seriously? I used to think that THOSE people were fanatics! You know, the ones that read labels, buy organic, avoid refined sugars, exclude food with partially hydrogenated oils, and anything that is unnatural. I used to never check the ingredients in my food, "IF it looks good, smells good, tastes good...it IS good", RIGHT?
I never knew that there was a better way to eat! NOW I avoid anything unnatural...I still eat some processed foods, but at least we are avoiding artificial sweeteners, flavorings and dyes. We never ate much "junk" food, but now we eat even less. Occasionally, the kids ask for lolly pops and candy that contain unnatural ingredients {and look down right toxic}, but I try to sub similar healthy snacks in their place. Nobody complains!
What makes me the happiest, is to think that my kids are growing up healthier. I didn't eat very well as a child and would sneak candies and goodies every chance I got. my kids beg for carrots and broccoli, fresh or steamed! SCORE! We make green smoothies and eat lots of cheese. We snack on rice cakes with spun honey. We eat nuts and seeds daily. It seems so strange to be saying these things! Until last year, I never thought I would be/could be a health nut. But here I am, making daily efforts to live healthy, be healthy.
Friday, January 15, 2010
what to eat?
I have been struggling with this question for nearly three months. I thought I would be a pro at eating GF since my second son has been diagnosed for over five years now and I have been feeding him a gluten free diet. But I am slowly realizing he is constantly hungry and lacking quite a bit of flavor! It is so difficult to find something appealing to eat!
Reading labels is my new hobby! I think I am getting pretty good at pronouncing all those words that don't seem like they should be ingredients in food. If only everything on the shelf had a big symbol on it stating gluten-free, my life would be a lot easier.
Currently, my new quest is to find a really good, fluffy GF bread recipe and market it. I think I am onto something, I will have to work with the recipe a little more, but the last time I made this recipe, it didn't last a full day! EVERYONE loved it! I will share it as soon as I try it one more time to make sure it wasn't a fluke that it turned out!
Meantime, here goes my first post in the documentation of my new gluten-free journey.
Reading labels is my new hobby! I think I am getting pretty good at pronouncing all those words that don't seem like they should be ingredients in food. If only everything on the shelf had a big symbol on it stating gluten-free, my life would be a lot easier.
Currently, my new quest is to find a really good, fluffy GF bread recipe and market it. I think I am onto something, I will have to work with the recipe a little more, but the last time I made this recipe, it didn't last a full day! EVERYONE loved it! I will share it as soon as I try it one more time to make sure it wasn't a fluke that it turned out!
Meantime, here goes my first post in the documentation of my new gluten-free journey.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
my Silly Yak
FOUND THIS OLD POST THAT I FORGOT TO POST....
We found out our son had Celiac's Sprue about four years ago...what a long road it has been. It has been so hard to get his diet straight, keeping him happy and full. I think we've finally got the hang of it and feel like I ought to write about our findings, here in cyberland.
I hope to post recipes I have made up and ones I have modified to fit our life-style and budget. Maybe someone will find it useful! Maybe it will just be a way to document how far we've come on this wheatless, gluten-free journey.
Here is our background...
J. was born a month early nine and a half years ago. He seemed healthy. He was born to eat, and quickly got himself into the 90th percentile for weight. He was not especially prone to throwing up, like my first son, which made me think he was perfectly fine. When he started eating solids (like mush and veggies) he always ate everything offered to him. By the time he was three, he had one ENORMOUS belly, and I thought it was because he was such a good eater. But his Grandparents thought he had a disproportionately large tummy. I didn't think too much about it until his arms and legs began to get thinner, but his tummy seemed larger than ever. Another very interesting point to note was the fact that every time you touched his belly, he would have gas. Add frequent, irregular stools, and I started to worry.
I took J. to many a doctor to ask about his problem. They would test his stool and say he was fine, and say, "some kids are just made that way. Don't worry." But I worried. He was getting pale and gaunt looking and was sad all the time. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what to do. I kept giving him more bread and pasta to help "bulk up" his stools, but they would become more frequent and more runny. AND he would have more and more tummy pain.
He lived with his pain until he was five years old. We moved to a new state and got a new doctor. It was a miracle!!!! The first time we met her, she looked at J. and asked a few questions and then stated, "I think your son has something called Celiac's Sprue. Do you mind if we do some blood tests?" MIND?!?!?! The labs confirmed that he had this Autoimmune disorder that causes you to have all the symptoms he was experiencing.
I was so happy to discover that J. had a treatable problem. I am so glad he has been able to lead a normal life since we changed his diet. I am so grateful that he is no longer sad all the time, or has tummy pain! c'est si bon!
We found out our son had Celiac's Sprue about four years ago...what a long road it has been. It has been so hard to get his diet straight, keeping him happy and full. I think we've finally got the hang of it and feel like I ought to write about our findings, here in cyberland.
I hope to post recipes I have made up and ones I have modified to fit our life-style and budget. Maybe someone will find it useful! Maybe it will just be a way to document how far we've come on this wheatless, gluten-free journey.
Here is our background...
J. was born a month early nine and a half years ago. He seemed healthy. He was born to eat, and quickly got himself into the 90th percentile for weight. He was not especially prone to throwing up, like my first son, which made me think he was perfectly fine. When he started eating solids (like mush and veggies) he always ate everything offered to him. By the time he was three, he had one ENORMOUS belly, and I thought it was because he was such a good eater. But his Grandparents thought he had a disproportionately large tummy. I didn't think too much about it until his arms and legs began to get thinner, but his tummy seemed larger than ever. Another very interesting point to note was the fact that every time you touched his belly, he would have gas. Add frequent, irregular stools, and I started to worry.
I took J. to many a doctor to ask about his problem. They would test his stool and say he was fine, and say, "some kids are just made that way. Don't worry." But I worried. He was getting pale and gaunt looking and was sad all the time. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what to do. I kept giving him more bread and pasta to help "bulk up" his stools, but they would become more frequent and more runny. AND he would have more and more tummy pain.
He lived with his pain until he was five years old. We moved to a new state and got a new doctor. It was a miracle!!!! The first time we met her, she looked at J. and asked a few questions and then stated, "I think your son has something called Celiac's Sprue. Do you mind if we do some blood tests?" MIND?!?!?! The labs confirmed that he had this Autoimmune disorder that causes you to have all the symptoms he was experiencing.
I was so happy to discover that J. had a treatable problem. I am so glad he has been able to lead a normal life since we changed his diet. I am so grateful that he is no longer sad all the time, or has tummy pain! c'est si bon!
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