New Adventures

While the bang of the new year fades into the normal routines of life, the...  Oh, never mind.  Never did get on with the philosophical drones of highfalutin language.  This post shall probably be long since I've a bit of catching up to do.  I'll attempt to not throw out the Briticisms swirling in my brain, the result of listening to and reading a bit many British type puns, jokes, and literary genius.  To start out, I'll recount some of our latest adventures, preferably through pictures.

 The gluten free bread I invented.  I used the ingredients I had on hand, lots of research, and plenty of prayers to make this loaf.  It was pretty good--even Brian thought so, and that's saying something. (He's very skeptical of anything healthy)

 GF pumpkin muffins.  I just used my regular recipe and substituted the GF all purpose flour, plus some xantham gum, and voila!  Yummy!  I was talking to Brian on the phone when I made these, and the first batch lacked baking soda...but they still turned out okay.  

 GF Reuben style pizza.  What do you do with a random assortment of ingredients?  Make pizza!  This had onion, peppers, jalapenos, cheese, corned beef, kale, saurkraut, and a few other ingredients.  Brian really, really liked this.  So happy.

 Our version of the snowstorm.  We got lots less than everyone else did.  And no ice.  Not a bad thing.

 This was in the mountains at a friend's house.  They had more snow than we did, but not by much.

 Brian and I both love sushi (though I prefer it to be cooked), and a trip to the Asian market in an attempt to find cheaper GF ingredients became the inspiration for Monday's dinner.  Yummy and good for you, too. (Just for you, Lori.)

 Not perfect, but not too bad for a first time!

They were delicious.  I can't say much because Brian informed me he wants to post about this.  I'll only say that we watched Kung Fu Panda during this operation, as it seemed appropriate.

Now that the pictures are out of the way, let's move on.  Life continues on as normal here in MD; the housing hunt still continues (delayed somewhat by the arrival of winter).  I have nearly rearranged the entire apartment and am currently trying to decide on paint samples for the furniture.  I may not be able to change the mismatched look of things, but I can improve it...and the teeth marks. 

You may have noticed that the look of this blog has changed.  We decided to do so since the mission of the blog has also changed.  After spending the last three months sick, with no energy to do much of anything but sleep, unable to keep my food down, and a host of other awful symptoms I shan't detail here, we have arrived at several answers.  Thanks to Hope Helms for her support and encouragement and great advice, Amy Cahill, for your advice and encouragement, and Amy Taylor, for the recipes and chats.  Brian has been a saint.  We'll just say that for the two of us, it's been a tough time.  Brian took to ordering me to the couch and wouldn't let me do stuff, since it would leave me sick for days...while I kept trying to do work anyway.  We've both learned alot.  We researched all kinds of illnesses and talked to many people about what to do.  Medical treatment was out of the question due to the outrageous expense.  I am now working with some family medical friends....who have determined a number of things.

After working through a cleansing and elimination diet, and a reintroducing of that food....the results are in.  Yup.  I'm highly gluten intolerant.  (haven't been tested for celiac.)  I was off gluten for a while, and started to feel slightly better, tried it again, and this week I've been dreadfully sick...and I can't seem to kick it.  Itchy red dots and rashes all over my body, can't breathe, congestion, headaches, etc.  Apparently, gluten has wreaked havoc on my system, and according to all the research I've done, our systems were never meant to handle all that we give it anyway.  In addition, since my body has stopped digesting foods, my thyroid and adrenal glands decided to take an early retirement.  We're fixing that with a few supplements.  We're going completely off gluten.  Kind of scary.  I might be able to tolerate it in small portions later in life, but for now, it's goodbye.  From my research, this means:

*Reading all labels carefully.  If it doesn't say gluten free, it's likely not.  Look for hidden ingredients (modified food starch, flavors, etc.)  It can be in shampoos, cleaners, cosmetics, almost everything in the grocery store, condiments, salad dressings, candy, milk.  Yeah--all that skim stuff and low fat stuff?  Pumped full of gluten.  Processed meats and cheeses.  And more.  Everything coming into my house will be carefully scrutinized.  I'm beginning to feel like the stuff is poison.  Turns out we're not supposed to be eating all that low fat, chemically processed stuff anyway.  Don't believe me?  I can write articles on it....but don't get me started right now.  I'll save that for another post, and possibly a funeral for all the foods I won't eat ever again...well, at least for a long while.

*Cross contamination.  Brian cuts a piece of bread for himself.  I use it to do the same without washing it first.  Guess what?  It's now contaminated.  Gluten free means everything is separate.  Going out to eat?  You've got to call ahead and see if the restaurant can accommodate you.

*New ways of cooking and combining ingredients.  You can't just cook GF food like you would regular food.  It won't turn out; well, at least if you don't care about taste and texture.  Brian can tell you I'm big about texture.  He doesn't seem to care.

All that said, I'm pretty excited.  I'm so ready to feel ALIVE again.  I'm so ready to eat and have the food like me back.  I'm ready to kick the exhaustion and lethargy and spring into life again!  And I won't mind the cooking.  Sure, it takes planning and trial and error, but it's an adventure.  I'm ready for it.  If you can't enjoy your food, there's not much point in enjoying life, in our opinion.  Hey, you are what you eat, right?

Smiles!