Open House

Today is our first (hopefully last) open house. I know the likelihood of us having the buyer come today are slim, but there is a chance or we wouldn't be having the open house. Time to get the house into a state of perfection. It's pretty darn close already so it shouldn't take too terribly long, I just stress anyway.

My Love and I looked at carpet samples yesterday and I found a terrific inspiration rug that will tie the whole house together. I will have to post picture later. Right now I need to work on the house and get myself to church.

Have a terrific Sunday.

Roasted

I have finally figured out a consistent way to make a terrific roast. I'm sooooo thrilled. I'm working my way through the 1/2 a cow we purchased over the summer in hopes of emptying the freezer before we move to KC. I love the fact that I have a super easy supper once a week that my family loves.

I have transitioned from salty & crunchy to chocolaty. I've already talked about Betty Crocker's new Gluten-Free Chocolate cake, but I'm sure I'll be making some new discoveries with my most recent craving.

Sorry my blog's all about food. To veer off the topic I will add that being pain free for the better part of a month now (no recent hard lessons have been learned), I am starting to feel pretty darn good. I am once again a morning person because I don't spend my evenings writhing in pain. I'm a more pleasant mom and a better wife. I don't stress my friends with weird pain faces that they can do nothing about and I'm handling the stress of moving like a "normal" person. At least, how I perceive a normal person might deal with the stress; everybody loves food.

Stay tuned for a list of my favorite gluten-free chocolate fixes.

Crunchy, Salty, Stress Relieving

We are in the process of moving back to the KC area. My Love has already started working up there and is staying with relatives. Last week we found a house and yesterday we accepted the counter offer the seller made so it looks like December 3rd is the closing date.

We've also put our house on the market and keeping it "show ready" is a bit stressful for me. I've been managing the stress with anything crunchy and salty that is also gluten free. Here's a list of my favorite:

Glutino Pretzels - you absolutely do not know these gems are gluten free. I feel spoiled eating them.

Lundbert Bean & Rice Chips, Pico de Gallo flavor - What a nice departure from plain corn chips. They are flavorful, super crunchy, and need no dip.

Peanut M&Ms - yes all the M&M varieties are gluten free but these have the most crunch and for that they are a favorite.

Always Save Microwave Buttered Popcorn - this is my cheap snack and it's a hot one so that's a bonus with the weather getting cooler.

I also get a certain satisfaction from peanut butter filled celery. It reminds me of my early childhood for some reason.

There you have it, my top picks for crunchy and salty gluten free snacks.

Coffee Cake

Last night I made a mix I had for coffee cake. It called for an 8" spring form pan, but mine is packed away. I did some quick thinking and decided to use my 10" stainless steel skillet that's oven safe up to 500 degrees. It worked like a charm and everyone loves the coffee cake as well. You can't tell it's gluten-free at all.

I'm making a roast for dinner and brownie truffles for dessert. Yum. I'll let you know how the brownies turn out.

Cookies

I finally made the cookies and the dough was great. I used a recipe that had oatmeal in it and I think I should have used a bit more because the cookies flatten out quite a bit in the baking process, but all the family agreed they were much better than the mix we used earlier. We also had guests over this evening and they enjoyed their gluten free meal and dessert.

I'm happy to have the "nearly normal" flour substitute. I look forward to trying more new things. As we start the process of selling our home, there should be plenty of opportunity to offer the warm baking smell to potential buyers.

I'm talking part in a challenge with my aunts and uncle to be healthy and lose weight. I honestly haven't focused on the weight loss. My main goal has been to stay gluten free, but with the stress I've been overdoing the food. Tomorrow I am starting back up with my Wii Fit and I'm am going to beat my uncle. The ladies are too nice, but my uncle talked smack and I'm thankful because it's just what I needed for some motivation to not only eat gluten free but to make those choices healthy ones AND exercise. Love, you Joe!

Rice Crispie Treats

I discovered three week into my gluten-free lifestyle that rice crispies are crisped using malt and the delightful safe food that was a rice crispie treat was not safe at all. My wonderful mom found some puffed organic rice at the health food store and sent it to me. Today I attempted to make rice crispie treats out of them and it did not go well. The rice was definitely puffed, but not crisp. I now have a soggy mess of puffed rice and marshmallows. It's a bummer, BUT the positive thing is they do sell rice crispie treats that are premade at the health food store and they are delightful. Expensive, but delightful. I guess I'll have to stick to those for the time being.

It may be the nurturer in me (my daughter had surgery this morning), but I am really in the mood to bake. I have all the ingredients and I think it's time that I try to make a good old fashioned chocolate chip cookie. I know I had plans to do this earlier and I'm sorry I've waited, but I'm going to give those Neiman Marcus cookies a try. I'm seriously needing some comfort food, and so is my daughter.

Wish me luck.

Stress & Food

Life is never without challenge. In our house we are celebrating the fact that My Love accepted a position with his former employer. That means that we will be moving back to the city. This is great news because it offers a tremendous amount of activities to enrich our homeschooling. It's also a big enough area that I could likely consult with a dietitian that specializes in celiac disease.

It is stressful because we will be putting our house on the market. Moving typically means meals out and that's a challenge in itself with the food restrictions in mind. Of course, it's much easier to find gluten-free dining places in the city, so bonus there. :) I like to eat when I'm stressed even though I'm not hungry. I find crunchy food the most satisfying. I will have to stock up on gum.

I am meeting with a realtor tomorrow afternoon and the next day. I am meeting a Feng Shui specialist the following week. I hope to create positive energy in the home and make those who view the home feel comfortable while they're here. The goal is to list the house the first week of November. If the Lord is willing, we will sell it quickly and be able to be together sooner than later in a new home.

I will remember my favorite verse: "I can do all things through Christ who strenghtens me." Phillipeans 4:13. I will also be utilizing the FlyLady's system of 15 minutes a day. It has been a struggle this year, not feeling well the vast majority of the time. I'm happy to be feeling better with the new challenge at hand and know things will keep getting better.

Tapioca Starch

It has arrived. I now have all the ingredients for the all purpose flour substitute. It came at a great time. I will spend tomorrow baking before we leave for Little Sweden where there will be many forbidden foods. I'm going to try my hand at the famous Neiman Marcus cookies with oatmeal because I have gluten free oats, Yay! It should be a fun day. I'm also going to use my bread machine for a less hearty bread mix.

The world is starting to open up again.

Pasta Night

Our local grocer, Price Cutter, has added an organic/health food section. They have a selection of gluten-free items that are reasonable price and one of those options is pasta. I am going to make my chicken pasta tonight and hope it goes over well.

My daughter survived her sleepovers well and took responsibility for her food. I'm very proud of her.

I'm looking forward to receiving tapioca starch in the mail to create the all purpose flour substitute listed in the book I've been reading. I'm ready to bake with the cool weather.

This weekend we will be traveling and it will be another opportunity to challenge the new diet. I'll be planning and plotting. I'm sure we'll do just fine.

Thank you!

My mom sent me a care package this past week. It had rice crispy treats that were gluten-free and they were delicious! It was so nice to have them this weekend and she found a puffed rice that was gluten free so I can attempt to make my own treats. It's she sweet? Thank you, Mom.

I was really good this past week adhering to a gluten-free diet, no big surprises. The challenge was to provide for my daughter as she had two different sleep overs and will be staying with friends tonight as well. She's becoming more confident and has learned the hard way what cheating will do to her. I'm thankful we figured out what has been causing her trouble, yet I know it's hard for a kid to be different.

I'm also happy to report that grocery shopping was easier this week. I found some brown rice pasta that I hope will go over well with the family. I'm going to make my famous chicken pasta on Wednesday. I haven't had time to research soup recipes, but it's on my to do list.

Here's to another great week.

Exciting

I was struggling with the dilemma of making goods for the bake sale and keeping my kitchen gluten free. I did some research and found recipes for "puppy chow" and no-bake cookies that should work well. We've decided to sell items as individual servings so as people are shopping at the city wide garage sale they can get a snack. I think it's terrific.

Good News

Yesterday I had my follow-up over the repeat CT scan. The doc said everything looked good. I also researched my toothpaste and found that Crest is gluten-free. Yay!

I'm also really excited because my mom has recharged the challenge. Basically it's a group made up of my mom, her sisters, myself, and a couple of friends where we challenge each other to be healthy, exercise, and eat right. I just started a work out routine on Monday and love the fact that I now have a half dozen accountability partners. I'm using the "Slim in 6" workout videos. It's a six week program and the workouts are almost an hour long. I really enjoy them even though my body was screaming at me yesterday, I'll keep pushing play.

This weekend we're having a bake sale to benefit my son's football team. It's their first season and we're establishing the program. It presents a unique problem with my gluten-free status. I have not yet thrown out our regular flour. I'm thinking I'll make as many cookies as possible using parchment paper so they don't touch my bakeware and when I run out of flour, I'm done. I will sterilize the bowls and utensils I use in the dishwasher. After this I will only have the gluten-free all purpose flour mix I found in my book. I'm soooo thankful to have a mom who is super supportive and is helping me find the stuff I need. She's so wonderful.

I also learned that we have a bakery not too far away that makes gluten free bread, cinnamon rolls, and dinner rolls on Tuesdays. She asks that you order ahead and, by golly, that's just what I'm going to do this week. On of the moms at co-op has tried some of the goods and says they are fabulous. Her 10 year old son was just diagnosed with celiac and we have been trading tips each week.

Off I go to bake.

Pizza Review

I did end up making the pizza last night. I used Bob's Mill Pizza Crust mix. It turned out to be pretty tasty, not too heavy. The dough takes some getting use to, but I think I managed and all but one piece was eaten. Now to find a soup recipe.

Bummer

Everyday seems to be a learning day. I was reading a website today that had an extensive list of gluten foods to aid in label reading. One of the forbidden foods was "crisped rice" because it has malt in it which is apparently bad. I was bummed because here I was making a pan of rice crispie treats each week and I now know that's not a good thing. It's not the safe food I thought it was.

I also realized that our communion bread is not doable either. Thankfully I do not need a particular blessing to take part in the Lord's supper, but it does require some forethought to participate while at service.

As for the pizza, I am not able to give a review just yet. I looked at the directions and it's a bit more of a process than I expected so I hope today will be the day. I will be spending a good deal of time in the kitchen again to prepare for our hectic schedule on Monday and Tuesday. As it's getting to be cooler, I am hoping to add a gluten free soup to my repertoire soon.