Wow. I'm ashamed of how long it's been since my last post! I am so sorry- I did not abandon you, I promise! Life interrupted and it's been crazy. Oi.
At the moment, I confess to being a bit "meh". On Sunday our church had communion. Communion means bread (or crackers). Bread (or crackers) means wheat and gluten. Did we think of this? No, not until I already had a small piece in my hand. TBG and I deliberated for a few seconds and then figured that a tiny piece should be fine...right?.... WRONG! Oyiee! I've been off and on sick since Sunday, dealing with dizzyness, nausea, headaches, stomaches, displeased bowels....ugh. Looks like from now on I'll need to be bringing my own little crackers to church for communion every first Sunday..
I may bite the bullet and go in for official celiac diagnosis soon. The only problem with doing that is that the diagnosis will not be accurate if I've been eating gluten free. (there's nothing to show, in a sense) So if I want to be tested accurately, I need to be eating gluten for a couple days. .....not really sure if I want to do that anytime soon...considering how sick a tiny communion cracker made me?.. Although, if I was to eat gluten for a few days, I'd do my best to suffer through it. Auntie Anne's hot pretzel, Carl's Jr double western bacon with onion rings and a cookie, and Rattler's BBQ with a triple fudge blackout cake slice. Yeah...I think I could enjoy that part of it all. ^_^ It's just the aftermath I don't know so much about... >_>
Because of my meh-ness, I haven't been able to start experimenting again this week like I had planned. *displeasure* Oh-and another thing we've noticed recently? My body seems to dislike having so much meat. If I have meat two or three times a day, I get horrible stomache aches! The "cure" for that is to take some of his Multizyme. (enzyme supplement to aid digestion) Of course, the best fix is to stop eating meat so much. So poor TBG has been experiencing more vegetarian dinners. Thankfully, he likes my lasagna even when it's only tofu and no meat, and he also likes my spaghetti squash salad. Granted, I miss the meat, but if it means I'm not curled up the couch cursing my culinary edible delights after, then I can learn to live with it.
Mmm, another news. Sad news. Our family is no longer a family of five. Earl passed away two Monday's ago. He had become quite the gaunt kitty, and was snubbing all foods. (even rotissierie chicken, fresh turkey, sandwich meats, everything we could think of!) He was apathetic and could barely move. (*will not cry, will not cry, will not cry*) We had taken him to the vet near the beginning of his decline, and they had told us that it was because of his age, but he was well enough to live at home and enjoy what time he had with us. Well, we knew the time had ended, so two Monday's ago we took him the vet for the last time. He was my first mammel pet. (I had 13 goldfish and 2 chinese fighting fish growing up) That was a rough couple days. The comfort was knowing he was no longer in discomfort, and that we still have Sephiroth and Malificent to care for. Now Seph-Kun is more cuddly, and Mal-Chan wants to play more. I think a bit of Earl rubbed off on them. ^_^
On to happy matters of food. Our organic box had plums in last week! They reached their full ripeness today, so tonight we'll be having plum glazed pork chops, fresh broccoli and roasted red fingerling potato's for dinner. (I'm eating vegetarian all day today so tonight won't be too bad) Soo looking forward to dinner! And any leftover glaze will go on my salad tomorrow for dressing. Mmmm!
O_o Note to self. Trim Seph-Kun's claws. ASAP. The big baby is sitting on my lap, and he stretched...I think my thigh has been punctured..ow...
I've gone back onto my carb counting diet. I realized recently what extra poundage I've accumulated, and decided it's time to lose it. Again. TBG and I have an anime convention in July that we're dressing up for, and we're going as a military couple. Soo...I gotta get in shape. Quick! I suppose one plus side to being so sick again is that I have very little appetite, so I haven't been eating as much. I guess that's good?...
Well, thinking of food and all, it's time for me to grab some lunch. Gonna enjoy some leftover spaghetti squash salad. Yay for veggies! Hopefully I'll be back soon with some recipes.
Showing posts with label Wheat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wheat. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Thoughts. And corn bread.
"For such a time as this"
That phrase, that's used in Esther 4:14, has been a phrase echoing through my head and my life for the last few weeks. The fuller verse (but not the whole verse) is "And who knows but that you have come to royal position...for such a time as this." Esther 4:14b. It speaks of her becoming Queen-despite her lack of desire for the crown-that perhaps God had placed her into that position to save the Jewish people from murderous plotters that wanted and planned for them to die. And in fact, that is what God had in mind, to use Esther in her role as Queen to protect His people.
Somehow, that phrase has popped up almost every day for us in the last couple weeks.
...for such a time as this, I'm not working anywhere but the few Pampered Chef shows I have in January.
...for such a time as this, it's the uber slow season where TBG is working.
...for such a time as this, we've been on a nutritional program that will help aid our sister with her new diet needs.
Our little sister who's in UCLA with chemo treatments just got put on a gluten-free diet. They think that her life-long stomach aches and head aches may be food allergies. They deduced this just now, as for the last 2 years she's been living with her older sister and family-and they eat more fresh fruits and veggies and less processed foods. Now that she's stuck in a hospital with no fresh anything and only processed foods, she's been dealing with horrible stomach aches and head aches. It makes my whole body twinge for her. So, as an experiment, she's going to be going off gluten and such for the next month or so. I hope it helps for her.
And if it does help? And she needs to live gluten-free from now on? I have a new-found knowledge of where she can eat out, what she can buy in a store and snack on, what she can make at home, and just how possible it is. And fun! Oh the new appreciation for foods!
I just found a gluten free cereal that is the GREATEST snack food for when I'm dealing with a semi-sweet tooth at the same time. I bought it today in Wholefoods on a splurge...had to really exercise self-restraint to not the whole box on the drive home. I offered some to TBG when he got home from work..had to wrestle the box away from him so he wouldn't completely spoil his appetite for dinner. SO GOOD! And it's one of those cereals that you really don't need milk to eat it, you can just pop it in your mouth and crunch away. *happiness*
Today for dinner, we had an amazing beef stew from scratch, and I decided to experiment now that I can have corn, and made some cornbread muffins. They were good! I will admit, they'd probably be better if I had made them with corn meal and not corn flour. But I used what I had on hand, and we were very excited with the results. Woot for more breads to have with soup! I got the recipe from The Baking Beauties, and I altered it a bit. It called for sugar and unnecessary things that I edited down or out. Soo good though!
1 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup light brown sugar
Wet Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp light olive oil
1 cup water
Enjoy! These are great hot with butter and honey!
That phrase, that's used in Esther 4:14, has been a phrase echoing through my head and my life for the last few weeks. The fuller verse (but not the whole verse) is "And who knows but that you have come to royal position...for such a time as this." Esther 4:14b. It speaks of her becoming Queen-despite her lack of desire for the crown-that perhaps God had placed her into that position to save the Jewish people from murderous plotters that wanted and planned for them to die. And in fact, that is what God had in mind, to use Esther in her role as Queen to protect His people.
Somehow, that phrase has popped up almost every day for us in the last couple weeks.
...for such a time as this, I'm not working anywhere but the few Pampered Chef shows I have in January.
...for such a time as this, it's the uber slow season where TBG is working.
...for such a time as this, we've been on a nutritional program that will help aid our sister with her new diet needs.
Our little sister who's in UCLA with chemo treatments just got put on a gluten-free diet. They think that her life-long stomach aches and head aches may be food allergies. They deduced this just now, as for the last 2 years she's been living with her older sister and family-and they eat more fresh fruits and veggies and less processed foods. Now that she's stuck in a hospital with no fresh anything and only processed foods, she's been dealing with horrible stomach aches and head aches. It makes my whole body twinge for her. So, as an experiment, she's going to be going off gluten and such for the next month or so. I hope it helps for her.
And if it does help? And she needs to live gluten-free from now on? I have a new-found knowledge of where she can eat out, what she can buy in a store and snack on, what she can make at home, and just how possible it is. And fun! Oh the new appreciation for foods!
I just found a gluten free cereal that is the GREATEST snack food for when I'm dealing with a semi-sweet tooth at the same time. I bought it today in Wholefoods on a splurge...had to really exercise self-restraint to not the whole box on the drive home. I offered some to TBG when he got home from work..had to wrestle the box away from him so he wouldn't completely spoil his appetite for dinner. SO GOOD! And it's one of those cereals that you really don't need milk to eat it, you can just pop it in your mouth and crunch away. *happiness*
Today for dinner, we had an amazing beef stew from scratch, and I decided to experiment now that I can have corn, and made some cornbread muffins. They were good! I will admit, they'd probably be better if I had made them with corn meal and not corn flour. But I used what I had on hand, and we were very excited with the results. Woot for more breads to have with soup! I got the recipe from The Baking Beauties, and I altered it a bit. It called for sugar and unnecessary things that I edited down or out. Soo good though!
1 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup light brown sugar
Wet Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp light olive oil
1 cup water
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray
- Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl
- In a separate bowl, mix eggs, oil and water and beat for 1 minute or so
- Slowly add the dry to the wet and beat until batter is smooth. You may need to add more water.
- Pour/spoon batter into muffin cups.
- Bake 20-25 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Enjoy! These are great hot with butter and honey!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Lessons learned and pumpkin bread
I really should post more about dinners and such, instead of cookies and carbs and whatnot... Hmmm... *shrugs* Oh well! ^_^
This morning I woke up randomly craving pumpkin bread. Ok, maybe it wasn't all that random-I think the pumpkin bread I saw at a store recently just lodged itself into my brain. I could've had a slice they were offering right then and there, as I'm allowed to have wheat, dairy, sugar, corn and oats again. However, I'm not having wheat/gluten at all ever again. (at least, not in a baked good kind of way. If the french fries I want from Jack in the Box are cross-contaminated, I won't sweat it) See, I've discovered something. I really am allergic to wheat/gluten.
A few weeks ago I enjoyed some Christmas cookies and trail mix that my friend made-tasted soo good! (it was sugar, of COURSE it tasted good!) But I realized something halfway through that first cookie-I could feel land and settle in the pit of my stomach. After two cookies, I could feel a headache starting slowly. After four cookies I definitely had a headache. ...I'd love to say I stopped there, but three cookies after that was when I stopped. I was dizzy, had a headache, they were just sitting in my stomach and I figured I'd blown the "small amounts of wheat" idea out of the water well enough. When I woke up the next morning, I had joint aches, my dry skin exzema issue was back in full, and I had four cold sores on my lips. Oh yes, I am avoiding wheat!
Dairy isn't as bad a reaction. My skin had cleared up beautifully over the last 3 months or so, but once I started having my yogurt and kefir again?...my face has horrible breakouts all over again. >_< So once I finish off that kefir and yogurt, I'm done with dairy! I won't sweat the small stuff, like, if my friend makes cookies and they used milk. Whatever. I have no shame in enjoying a piece of dark chocolate every now and then. But once this dairy is out of the house, I'm not going back to kefir with breakfast and yogurt for a snack! That Girls' skin has spoken!
All that to say, I will stay as gluten free and dairy free. I may have a recipe every now and then with corn or oats. And maybe a bit of cane sugar every now and again. But celiac's and lactose-intolerants will continue to find welcome recipes here!
That was a rather long winded explanation for why I didn't have a pumpkin bread sample in the store and why I woke up craving pumpkin bread. Wow. Sorry!
The other reason I wanted to make pumpkin bread was because I realized I still had a sugar pumpkin from before Thanksgiving that had to be used. So this morning I cut open that pumpkin, sliced the skin off it, cubed it, steamed it, pureed it and was ready to make me some pumpkin bread! Woohoo!
It tasted so good.
Super easy to make, and soo worth it! I made 3 small loaves, froze 2 and cut one up for breakfast bread. Life is good, as far as our taste buds are concerned!
3/4 cup coconut sugar
4 TBSP pure maple syrup
1/4 cup EVOO
2 eggs
1 TBSP vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin is fine)
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup teff flour
1/4 cup millet flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (I had whole cloves of nutmeg, so I just used freshly ground half a nutmeg)
This morning I woke up randomly craving pumpkin bread. Ok, maybe it wasn't all that random-I think the pumpkin bread I saw at a store recently just lodged itself into my brain. I could've had a slice they were offering right then and there, as I'm allowed to have wheat, dairy, sugar, corn and oats again. However, I'm not having wheat/gluten at all ever again. (at least, not in a baked good kind of way. If the french fries I want from Jack in the Box are cross-contaminated, I won't sweat it) See, I've discovered something. I really am allergic to wheat/gluten.
A few weeks ago I enjoyed some Christmas cookies and trail mix that my friend made-tasted soo good! (it was sugar, of COURSE it tasted good!) But I realized something halfway through that first cookie-I could feel land and settle in the pit of my stomach. After two cookies, I could feel a headache starting slowly. After four cookies I definitely had a headache. ...I'd love to say I stopped there, but three cookies after that was when I stopped. I was dizzy, had a headache, they were just sitting in my stomach and I figured I'd blown the "small amounts of wheat" idea out of the water well enough. When I woke up the next morning, I had joint aches, my dry skin exzema issue was back in full, and I had four cold sores on my lips. Oh yes, I am avoiding wheat!
Dairy isn't as bad a reaction. My skin had cleared up beautifully over the last 3 months or so, but once I started having my yogurt and kefir again?...my face has horrible breakouts all over again. >_< So once I finish off that kefir and yogurt, I'm done with dairy! I won't sweat the small stuff, like, if my friend makes cookies and they used milk. Whatever. I have no shame in enjoying a piece of dark chocolate every now and then. But once this dairy is out of the house, I'm not going back to kefir with breakfast and yogurt for a snack! That Girls' skin has spoken!
All that to say, I will stay as gluten free and dairy free. I may have a recipe every now and then with corn or oats. And maybe a bit of cane sugar every now and again. But celiac's and lactose-intolerants will continue to find welcome recipes here!
That was a rather long winded explanation for why I didn't have a pumpkin bread sample in the store and why I woke up craving pumpkin bread. Wow. Sorry!
 |
| Cut it |
 |
| Cut me. Ladies and gentlemen, using knives before the brain is awake is no easy thing! |
It tasted so good.
Super easy to make, and soo worth it! I made 3 small loaves, froze 2 and cut one up for breakfast bread. Life is good, as far as our taste buds are concerned!
3/4 cup coconut sugar
4 TBSP pure maple syrup
1/4 cup EVOO
2 eggs
1 TBSP vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin is fine)
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup teff flour
1/4 cup millet flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (I had whole cloves of nutmeg, so I just used freshly ground half a nutmeg)
- Mix all the dry ingredients together
- Mix all the wet ingredients together
- Add dry to wet. Blend well.
- Spray chosen loaf pan(s) with non-stick cooking spray.
- Bake in oven that's been preheated to 350. If you're making three small loaves, 35 minutes is good. If it's one large loaf, aim for an hour, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean
See how easy that is?! I'm thinking that next time I make this bread, I may make two regular loaves, and add cocoa chips to the other. Or try making them into muffins. Next time I'm going to try subbing applesauce for the oil-make it a bit healthier. Either way, it's sooo good! If you like pumpkin bread, even a bit, you'll enjoy this! For those three loaves, I got about 10 slices from each. So the tally is 70 calories and 12 carbs a slice of pumpkin pleasure. ^_^
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)