Cleaning Out The Office

Kevin said no more projects until I clean out the office.  I obviously took this to mean, "decorate the office."  What can I say, I'm a nester and it's incurable.  For me, there's no reason to be in the office - even if it's cleaned - in its present state of uncoordinated ugliness.  It makes me sad.

Proof (Beware, you might be sad, too).

I'm repurposing most of the current furniture and someday pulling in some pieces from other parts of the casa.  The big desk on the back wall will probably be painted black.  The table and a few other pieces will be white.  And the red chair stays.  It's the chair that my meddlesome mother asked Kevin to fix in her attempts to fix us up and be as embarrassing as Mrs. Bennet the chivalrous Kevin came to fix, and I made him dinner.  We didn't really know each other at the time, so it's the chair that started it all.

Anyways, with white and black furniture, I want either super bold drapes and calm walls or calmer drapes and darker walls.  Since this is going to be my office, I'm going for colors that make me feel most comfortable - grays, green, blues and creams.  Here are some ideas I like:

I'm completely in love with Amy Butler fabrics, and I like quilting fabrics for drapes because the fabric is lighter and allows for more light to come in.  It's much cheaper than home decor fabric.  And it's pretty.  Here are some of the patterns I'm looking at.  And yes, I know they're all pink.

So that's the plan.  Updates to follow.  Hopefully.

Saying Goodbye: Another Memorial Day

In honor of Memorial Day, I'm reposting a post from my New Zealand blog.  New Zealand's day of remembrance is quite different than America's.  This was also the day I remembered a beloved Focus Institute professor who we still remember with love.

Saying Goodbye
Originally posted on May 4, 2007 at http://web.mac.com/sarahfarris/iWeb/ 

Something I’ve noticed in my travels throughout New Zealand are the war memorials.  Every town I’ve visited, even places not big enough for a grocery store, has a tall, solum, well-kept war memorial.  

    One side of the column - noticeably more aged than the rest of the inscriptions - would say “The Great War,” and list the names of men fallen or list the number of men fallen from the area.  The other side would have similar inscriptions for World War II.

    I realized that even in these small communities, they made monuments before the grim possibility of a second World War was imagined.  They remembered immediately their fallen men.  

   New Zealand has had a population increase and now has four million people.  And even now three-fourths of the nation’s population live in the top two-thirds of the North Island.  That means there are one-million people spread out between the entire South Island and the bottom third of the North Island.  Within these areas there are two large cities and a few smaller ones where a large percentage of those one million people live.  The rest of this land is sparsely inhabited - long stretches of nearly people-less land.

    When we were in Invercargall, the largest city in the southernmost part of the South Island, we saw a memorial driving through the city in search of lunch.  And as we passed, me driving and my dad reading the memorial’s inscription, we were stunned.  We fell silent.  In this area of Southland - still barely populated - they lost 7,000 men in World War II.  7,000.  That would have been significant portion of their population.  It would be significant even now.

    And so it came as no surprise to me that when we celebrated Anzac Day, the New Zealand equivalent of Memorial Day, last week, it was a solum day.  Not a day for bar-b-q’s, but a day of church services and remembrance.  A time to remember and remember properly.

    This season of remembering and saying goodbye took place at the same time another goodbye was forced upon me and people dear to me.  One of the professors at Focus on the Family Institute, Sheryl DeWitt, lost a war with cancer.  She was young and strong, but the enemy was swiftly moving.  Cunning.  The time between diagnosis to heaven was quick.

    Focus Institute was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life, and I say that as no exaggeration.  We arrived - 88 students from around the country - and left as a family tightly knit and forever bonded.  Our first class was with Sheryl.  She taught parenting, which was a family psychology course.  And the night before, we read books about parents and in class we had to talk about wounds.  And the first day nearly three-fourths of class, guys and girls alike, were in tears.  

    One our required texts for the class was the children’s book, You are Special by Max Lucado.  She read the book and then, standing at the front of the class, teary eyed, said, “as a psychologist, God has put me in a place to care for people, many who have deep hurts, to rebuild them and to love on them.”  Her tears flowed and she said, “And those people are you.”

    And that was Sheryl DeWitt.  And when she was gone, students traveled from all over the world to say goodbye to a woman who loved them until they truly understood they were loved.  She was a mirror - reflecting God’s love on to others - and always pointing back to the Father.

    I couldn’t attend the memorial service for obvious reasons.  But I was blessed that one of the people at the institute, Lindy, took pictures and posted them online.  And here at a Starbucks in New Zealand I’ve watched them and shed some tears, and headphones plugged in, slow music playing, I’ve had my own memorial service.  Seeing pictures of people at the memorial service who I know and love grieving, hugging and saying goodbye, it felt real for the first time.  I’ve said goodbye properly.

    Sheryl is the second in the Focus on the Family Institute family to be sitting with Jesus.  The other was killed on the mission field in a car accident.  Still sitting in Starbucks, I’m thinking about both of them.  Both young and passionate.  I’ve just watched an elderly woman, hunched over, reliant on a cane, make it past the tables and overstuffed chairs to the restroom.  Following a few minutes behind was an equally feeble man pushing a walker.  When the woman emerged, he was waiting with her walker.  And they walked together out the door.  And I’ve sat here and asked God why Sheryl won’t get that?  Why won’t she grow old with her husband?  Why won’t she get to see her three young children grow up?  

    Why must we say goodbye?

    Those are tough questions and the only answer that suffices is, “I am.”  God says of himself, “I am.”  He’s enough.  He has a plan.  His ways are not our ways.  And we see only in part right now, but someday we will see fully.

    But when Lazarus died, that’s not what Jesus talked about.  He didn’t give a sermon or point to scripture.  He cried with his friends.  And, raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus showed just how in control He is.

    I can’t philosophize much deeper than that.  I don’t have many answers, nor do I want to think away sadness.  That’s not how it’s supposed to be.  Instead, I’m writing this: my own memorial to Sheryl, written by a grateful person.  I’m saying goodbye properly.

    The lessons Sheryl taught, the love she shared, the Truth she reflected and the investments she made into people went beyond a job.  It was a calling, and because of her calling, Focus Institute alumni - spread across the world and totaling 2,300 now - are equipped to be better parents.  

    I’m stunned thinking about that.  2,300 people equipped to be better parents.  Sheryl’s legacy will last for generations.  And it was all because she loved until we believed it.  Thank you, Sheryl.

 

 

** PS - If you want more info about Focus on the Family Institute, the website is www.focusinstitute.org.

Tonight's Topic: Salad Dressings

Writing a blog post about salad dressings makes me feel like the gals on that old SNL sketch, Delicious Dish, who droned on and on in monochromatic voices about ice, fiber and various double entendres.

 Let's all say it in harmony: "Tonight's topic: Salad dressing."

Oh well.  I'll embrace my nerdyness (nerdiness?) and promise that an entire post dedicated the wonders of salad dressing will not bore.

Homemade salad dressing is one of my favorite things.  It wasn't always this way, though.  I used to think making a salad dressing was a luxury, something fancy for special occasions.  And come to think of it, I didn't like salads because I didn't like salad dressings.  Oh the irony.  The bottled dressings were aways so acidic, both pungent and flavorless at the same time.

Things changed in 2006 when I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance.  After learning I was allergic to wheat, rye, barley and oats, I naively thought I would avoid gluten by just not eating bread.  Wrong.  I came to learn through reading lots of labels, talking with fellow celiacs, scouring the internet and occasionally puking my guts out, that gluten lurks in all manner of unsuspecting processed foods, even salad dressings.  In the beginning of the glutenless years, salad dressing represented another thing I couldn't eat, another label I had to read, and making salad dressings was another annoyance and extra step in cooking that my new life dictated.  But one fateful day, I was in the mood for balsamic vinaigrette.  I found a recipe online and the rest is history.  I realized that making my own salad dressings opened up so many possibilities in the world of salads!

Here are my arguments for making your own salad dressings:

1. It tastes better.  Like a 1000 times better then the bottled sort.  (Of course, I have not tasted every bottled salad dressing in the world and if you have a bottled dressing you love, that's okay too.)
2. It's cheaper.  Stock your pantry with the likely suspects, and you'll have almost any salad dressing at your fingertips with just a few ingredients.  Buy a new bottle of salad dressing and hate it, you're out $4.  Make a little batch of a new salad dressing and hate it, you're out 1/4 cup of oil and some vinegar.  
3. You control the quantity.  Having a party?  Make a big batch.  Dinner for 1, half or third the recipe. (I keep my homemade vinaigrettes around about a week and give them a toss).
4. You control the quality.  Have you read the ingredient lists on bottled salad dressing?  They're at least an inch thick at 6 point font!  Processed salad dressings must contain extra stabilizers, thickeners (ahem, gluten), and preservatives, among other junk like extra sugar and salt and words you can't pronounce unless you've taken a few semesters of college chemistry.
5. You control the ingredients.  Have a diabetic in the family?  Substitute the sugar with Splenda or a natural sweetener.  I have a friend whose daughter was allergic to garlic.  That's easy to skip.

The Cast of Characters:
Salad dressing a mixture of acid and oil, with some sugar, salt and flavor thrown in.  The general ratio is 1-part acid to 3-parts oil, but it depends on the strength of the acid, the heaviness of the oil and your personal preference.  Here's a simple list of the cast of characters you need and probably already have to make just about any salad dressing you want.

1. Acid - 
1. Vinegar - I keep red wine, apple cider, balsamic and rice wine vinegars on hand.  Champagne vinegar also is very nice.  
2. Citrus - I try to keep fresh lemons and limes in the house, but since we live in the real world, I also have a big bottle of lemon juice in the fridge for emergencies and laziness.  
3. Mustard - Yes, mustard counts as an acid in salad dressings (you'll include mustard with another acid because a salad dressing with half mustard would be gross.)  I keep Dijon and whole grain mustard around for such occasions.  And by the way, you can get the house brand (Target has a good selection) of a lot of fancy mustards now for pretty cheep. 
2. Oil - Whatever oil you prefer.  I use canola and extra virgin olive oil.  Don't use the expensive stuff in salad dressings.  If your EVOO salad dressing tastes too tart or pungent, try mixing half EVOO and half of a less flavorful oil like canola or safflower.  The darker the color of EVOO, the more intense the flavor.  Add flavor to Asian salad dressings with a small amount of sesame oil (I got mine for $2 at the Asian market), or be super fancy with some truffle oil.  I do not own truffle oil because it is not $2.
3. Sugar - A little bit of sweet balances out the acid.  You can use plain old sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup.  Oh the possibilities!
4. Salt - I prefer kosher salt.  Don't forget about other salt options like soy sauce (or g.f. soy sauce)
5. Flavor - This is the fun part, the part that makes the salad dressing really special.  Garlic, shallots, fresh ginger, onions, worcestershire sauce, herbs, citrus zest!  Many recipes call for jalapenos or some other sort of spice.  I keep Sriacha Sauce, a very spicy Thai chili sauce, around and put in a squirt of that instead.

Mixing your salad dressing:

On the cooking shows, they like to make salad dressing creation a grand production complete with a blender.  If I am going to make these a few times a week, they can't be a grand production.  A blender will best emulsify the oil and other ingredients.  I have a blender, a pretty nice one I bought from friends heading into the mission field, but seriously, I do not want to clean a blender just to make a salad dressing.  (Like Bobby Flay does his own dishes anyway.)

There are a few quick and easy ways to do this with minimal dishes and clean up.  First rule in salad dressing making - add the acids, sugar, salt and flavor first.  Get them all mixed up and cozy.  Then add the oil.  You can do this by two ways.  The first, and better of the two, is to use a whisk in a mixing bowl.  Throw in everything but the oil and give it a good whisk. Then pour the oil in a thin, steady stream while continuing to whisk.  This helps get the oil mixed up and less apt to separate.

But here's the way I mix my salad dressings.  I would like to introduce you to my fancy salad dressing mixing apparatus.  Don't be intimidated.  I've been doing this for a long time.

Yep, I mix my salad dressings with an old Talenti Gelato container.  Fancy, right?  It is the perfect size and seals well.  Someday when I'm cool enough, I might get a mason jar instead.  All I do is mix everything but the oil, twist on the lid, and give it a shake, and then add the oil, put the lid on again and give it another shake, and I'm done.  The oil eventually separates, but I just give it a good shake before I use it again.

** As a side note, the 12 years of stomach problems before I was finally diagnosed with gluten intolerance damaged my stomach and as a result, I can't eat a lot of lettuces.  I stay away from all spinach and baby greens and just eat romaine.  If you have stomach problems and find yourself getting a bad stomach ache after eating salads, try hearts of romaine.  Also, try skipping the lettuce all together.  The Bleu cheese vinaigrette recipe below is put on bite-sized blanched asparagus and slice apples.  The sesame soy vinaigrette is for green beans.  Caprese salad is a stack of sliced tomatoes, sliced fresh mozzarella and basil with a balsamic vinaigrette.

And now here are my favorite salad recipes.  Of course, no directions are included because you are now a salad dressing making master and need no directions!

Raspberry Vinaigrette
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup raspberry wine vinegar  (basically balsamic vinegar with raspberry flavoring)
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp black pepper

Simple Balsamic Vinaigrette
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 c. olive oil
1/4 c. canola oil
optional: a bit of dried or fresh rosemary, chopped

Orange Vinaigrette
2 small or 1 large orange, zested and juiced
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp honey
1 clove garlic, chopped
3/4 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 c. olive oil

Sesame Soy Vinaigrette 

(This is made to go on steamed green beans with almonds, chili flakes and sesame seeds)

5 tbsp soy sauce

1/4 c. rice wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

2 tbsp tahini (a paste made from ground sesame seeds.  If you don't have tahini, just use some sesame seeds instead)

1/4 c. dark sesame oil

Bleu Cheese Vinaigrette
(from Cooking Light's Asparagus-Apple Salad)
1/4 c. crumbled bleu cheese
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp water
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp Dion mustard
1 tsp estravirgin olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper


** Bleu cheese contains gluten because the culture is started on a slice of bread.  So if you buy your bleu cheese from a fancy shop and they know what village in France this bleu cheese came from, it probably contains gluten.  Cheap bleu cheese is started from chemical culture and doesn't contain gluten.  I buy the cheapest bleu cheese possible (Alouette) and have not had a problem.


The Pioneer Woman's Big Steak Salad dressing
*This is my current favorite.  A salad with worcester sauce in the dressing, steak, onion rings and candied pecans should have its own chapter in Gary Chapman's Love Languages marriage book.  Your hubby will love this salad!!!!

The Pioneer Woman's Ginger Steak Salad dressing
* Great for any Asian salad.  I like to serve with almonds, green onions, oranges and sesame seeds.

Ranch Dressing:
I keep a bottle of Ken's Peppercorn Ranch on hand to eat with cucumbers.  Every once in a while I'll make a batch of flavored ranch like chipotle ranch or basil buttermilk ranch.  Otherwise, we stay away from mayo/buttermilk-based salad dressings.

Enjoy and post your favorite salad dressing recipe in the comment section!

Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance:  It's a term used in psychology and marketing.  Specific to the field of marketing, cognitive dissonance is that horrible pit in your stomach after you've made a big purchase and you're sure you've made the wrong decision.  It's wondering if you should have upgraded to more memory or not paid extra for all the bells and whistles. 

And cognitive dissonance is purposefully counterbalanced in almost every purchase you make.  It's the reason that sales people are trained to say, "If you get it home and decide you don't like it, you can always take it back," as though the ability to take it back makes you want it more.  And who are we kidding, it usually does.  I imagine Nordstrom makes ten times the money they lose on their liberal return policy.

Maybe cognitive dissonance is about retaining that feeling of power, even after you're not being wooed.

I've been feeling cognitive dissonance about this detox over the past days.  To tell the truth, "detox" didn't come out of my mouth with out the word "stupid" proceeding.  I've had cravings for junk, ridiculous things really - diet soda being craving numero uno, followed in a close second by chocolate chip cookies.

There were a few neat moments over the past days that have helped me overcome my doldrums.

First, thanks to my wonderful friend, Bethany, who limits sugar in her diet, I have an amazing cookie recipe.  There's no sugar,  no wheat, no dairy.  There is chocolate, but according to the bi-laws of the detox, I'm only permitted chocolate during extreme hormonal cravings.  The main ingredients of the cookies are oats, over-ripe bananas and almond meal.

The recipe can be found at:
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/nikkis-healthy-cookies-recipe.html#comments
** I used butter instead of coconut oil since I don't have to be dairy-free...and I don't have coconut oil.  Also, lesson learned, when removing chocolate, use less salt.

I made the cookies over the weekend.  They were so good, so natural, we ate the leftovers for breakfast the next day!  They were amazing with whole-fruit raspberry jam. 

Second alleviation to my detoxing regrets: This weekend my Mom came up to Oklahoma to celebrate Mother's Day.  She paid me an especially meaningful complement that has encouraged me to keep trucking.  She said she noticed  that Kevin and my faces look especially bright, glowing and healthy!  (I am NOT pregnant.)  What a complement.  It's also further affirmation that this isn't a diet.  It isn't about restriction.  It is about eating what is good for us.  If the choices we are making are effecting our skin so noticably, I can't fathom how else they're effecting our bodies, metabolism, tummies and chemical reaction to sugar/sugar substitutes!

Third, I saw once again how much my taste buds have changed.  They've been realigned.  I had a small amount of mashed potatoes on Sunday and they were so rich.  It was amazing how much better they tasted when I wasn't craving them and over-eating.  In fact, my appetite in general has taken a dive bomb, most of which I attribute to my lack of sugar.  I had a little sugar cookie from Starbucks today, mostly in honor of them now carrying g.f. cookies, and afterwords I felt AWFUL.  I chewed three pieces of gum in quick succession because my mouth tasted so gross and sweet.  The cookies didn't just make me feel lethargic and shakey, they tasted gross as well.

Who am I?  Where did the old "never-me-a-cookie-I-didn't-love" me go?

In the end, my cognitive dissonance waned.  I did not return the detox for a newer, easier model. I'm happy with my purchase, content with my progress and marching onward and upward.

Oh, and full disclosure - I had some diet root beer from Pop's in Arcadia.  I took my mom there for a Mother's Day treat!

Gluten-Free Starter Manual

I pass this guide out to people several times a month.  It's a compilation from several years of knowledge, newer knowledge, new information, and trial and error.  It's now up here for everyone to see.  Enjoy!

So You Just Found Out You’re Gluten Free…


I had a stomach ache from 7th grade until my second semester of graduate school, when I was finally diagnosed with gluten intolerance. I had thousands of dollars worth of tests to find out that: I was stressed, needed to do yoga, relax, eat less acidic foods, might be lactose intolerant…maybe, and (wait for it) just had p.m.s. (that one was from one of the top allergy doctor in Dallas). My favorite diagnoses came from the OU doctor in grad school: “Well, isn’t the human body a mystery.”

No, it wasn’t a mystery. It was actually the most common genetic disease for people of European descent. The last statistic I checked said that 1 in 100 people in America are gluten intolerant and 1 in 3,700 are properly diagnosed. Since I got off of gluten and all of it got out of my system, I’ve felt so much better! In fact now if I have a significant amount of gluten (about a teaspoon) I throw up for a few hours until my body is empty of gluten. If I have less than that, I get puffy and bloated and get a rash that looks like measles all over my chest and face.

Going gluten free is hard at first because you think about everything that you CAN’T eat. Slowly your mindset changes and you think about everything you CAN eat. You adjust, figure out where you can eat out, learn to plan ahead and then one day you wake up and it’s a non issue.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, barley and contaminated oats and all of their bi-products. So here's the list of things not to eat:



The Basics:

WHEAT – pasta, bread, breaded chicken, bulger, spelt
RYE
BARLEY
OATS – you can buy gluten free oats at health food stores. Oats themselves don’t contain gluten, but they’re grown, harvested and stored with wheat. Several companies now make g.f. oats in decontaminated fields and with dedicated equipment.

- oddly enough there are oats in almost all brands of canned chili.



Things that Hide in Ingredient Lists:

MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, FOOD STARCH, WHEAT STARCH, WHEAT PROTIEN - check lunch meat, already-cooked frozen chicken, bbq sauce, salad dressings, ice cream, powder sauce/dressing mixes such as some brands of taco seasoning or alfredo sauce mix, fruit flavored candies, pudding, gravy... check anything that comes in a package.

** Jello Brand pudding is okay unless it specifically says “wheat” in the ingredients. They say that their food starch refers to corn food starch and will say if it is a gluten-containing ingredient.


- MALT FLAVORINGS - these are in all cerials that do not explicitly say "Gluten free", for example Rice Crispies are not safe. Also Malted Barley. This means no Whoppers (the malted milk ball, not the burger)    **Cerial: Chex has just made most of their cerials g.f.

- BROWN ALCOHOL - all beer, whiskey etc.

- MALTED ALCOHOL

- SOY SAUCE - can get g.f. soy sauce at the health food store. But this means being wary of food marinated, as most marinades contain soy sauce. Also at many restaurants vegetables are marinated too. Cheesecake Factory marinates their veggies. There’s basically no safe food there (although they do have 2 g.f. cheesecakes!)

- KRAB WITH A K – fake crab, commonly found in cheap sushi.

- MEDICINE AND VITAMINS -
You need to buy vitamins that explicitly say “no wheat” on the back. You can get those at any health food store. I take Bluebonnet brand vitamins.

You need to tell your pharmacist about your gluten intolerance and ask them to put a note on your account. You need to check every bit of medicine you take.

www.glutenfreedrugs.com



THINGS THAT TASTE GROSS:

Avoid cookie and brownie mixes that contain a lot of fava bean flour – this flour gives a great texture, but tastes unmistakably like beans if it’s not fully cooked. I like my brownies and cookies chewy and also without a bean aroma! Bread and roll mixes are usually fine because they are more thoroughly cooked than cookies and brownies.


THINGS THAT TASTE YUMMY:

- Arrowhead Mills All Purpose Gluten Free Baking Mix is my two favorite all-purpose mix. I use it to make pancakes, pizza crusts and sweet corn fritters.

- Namaste brand G.F. mixes - good cakes, brownies, etc.

- Best bread: Udi’s bread, found in the frozen section of health food stores

- Pamela’s Mixes

TIPS:

Save yourself trouble and make gluten free without all of the worry by making things that already are g.f. Potatoes and rice are gluten free (but not most rice mixes). Chicken with lemon pepper and olive oil is gluten free. Pork and balsamic vinegar is gluten free. Cook with real food, raw ingredients and stay away from anything packaged that has a long ingredient list and you'll be fine.

**If you go to Central Market, Market Street or Whole Foods, they both have aisle by aisle guides for g.f. foods.



EATING OUT:

Menus:
Olive Garden, Chili’s, PF Chang’s, Pei Wei, Outback, In the Raw, Iron Star, Red Robin’s, Chipotle, Qdoba, the Melting Pot all have GF menus. At Olive garden and Chili’s, they have to print the menu off for you. The other two have menus already printed. Outback even has g.f. cake!

Other places without g.f. menus, but with safe meals are: Sweet Basil Thai in Norman, Tarahumara’s Mexican restaurant in Norman and Misal’s Indian Bistro in Norman, Louis’ – the grilled chicken, fries and chipotle honey mustard are all safe.

When going to a new restaurant:

• Google it before hand. I usually search “restaurant name” and “gluten free” or “celiac”
• Ex: “red robin” “gluten free” or “red robin” celiac
• Talk to the manager and tell him or her your allergy
• If getting chicken, ask if the chicken is marinated. Unless it’s marinated in something innocuous like lemon juice and olive oil, stay away.
• Ask if their fries are fried in the same oil as their battered items.
• Remind them to not put rolls or bread on your plate.
• Avoid rice mixes unless you’re at an Asian restaurant and you know it really is just rice.
• If you’re going to a super fancy restaurant, call ahead. The chef will accommodate.

· You can usually find something at: Mexican, Thai and Steakhouse restaurants.



In a pinch?

Chick-Fil-A chargrilled sandwich, no bun. The fries are safe, as are most of the condiments…so are the milkshakes J (except the Oreo).

Taco Bell: crunchy beef tacos

Braums hamburger, no bun, and fries are safe. Grilled chicken is NOT safe.

Gluten-free menus for Wendy’s, Chick-Fil-A, and Sonic: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/278281/dining_gluten_free_at_fast_food_restaurants.html?cat=22

Here’s a good little PDF. It’s for kids to take to their teachers, but I found it quite useful: http://www.celiaccentral.org/SiteData/docs/Gluten-Free-Candy-List/370e802df5a4b099ad419d940cf8fe22/Gluten-Free-Candy-List.pdf


RECIPES:

The best flour mix ever: http://foodphilosopher.com/assets/docs/glutfree.cfm



Brown Rice Flower Mix:

2 c. brown rice flour (Authentic Foods brand http: www.amazon.com/Authentic-Foods-Brown-Flour-Superfine/dp/B00021639Y )
2/3 c. potato starch flour (NOT potato flour)
1/3 c. tapioca flour.


Here’s a good recipe to get you going …you can’t tell the difference

Tollhouse G.F. chocolate chip cookies

- Tollhouse choc chip recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips

- The recipe calls for 3/4 c. brown sugar and 3/4 c. white sugar. Modify with 1c. brown sugar and ½ c. white sugar. (this helps replace the mouth feel of gluten because brown sugar is chewy)

- Replace wheat flour with the same amount of brown rice flour mix above

- Add 1 tsp Xanthan gum (which replaces the binding properties of gluten)

- Chill dough before baking.

- Bake like normal…or if you’re like me, eat cookie dough like normal!

Good luck!

Empowered

It's day three of my detox, and I must say, I'm feeling encouraged, even empowered.

First, I feel my body changing and my reactions to anything sweet changing.  I had a meal high in carbs a few days ago and came home and slept for two hours.  I didn't have dessert, but I did have potatoes and yummy rolls made from a brown rice mix - no yeast, and fruit salad (it's hard to turn down my mother-in-law's amazing cooking).  It's effect was very clear, though.  I'm already feeling accustomed to the substance of my new exclusive carbs - brown rice and quinoa.  Before this meal, I had been wavering on potatoes or no potatoes for this detox.  I'm now leaning closer to no or to maybe in the smallest moderation.

One of my biggest worries going into the detox was my love for diet root beer and Fresca.  I have such a sensitive tummy and carbonation usually does the trick to settle it.  Then  I remembered my best friend, SarFaye, who introduced me to Izze Sodas.  They're part fruit juice and part soda water.  No sugar.  I found them at Dodson's, and low and behold, they've come out with Izze Esque, which has even less fruit juice and more soda water.  It's a bit expensive though, and so in a moment of genius, I figured out how to make my own.  About a quarter part Naked blackberry fruit juice and the rest soda water does the trick!  Crisis averted.

I'll probably dedicated an entire post to breakfast, but for now I'll say this: I was shocked.  Sugar everywhere!  Sugar in my plain corn Chex, corn syrup in every turkey breakfast sausage I could find.  What gives?  I've taken a leaf out of Shauna James, author of Gluten Free Girl, and made popped amaranth cereal.  Here's the recipe.  Don't believe the bad rating, though.  I had no such issues.  http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1724955
I served my popped amaranth with cold milk and fresh blackberries.  Tomorrow I plan to put in a little dollop of all-fruit blackberry jam.  It'll be a good experiment.

It's been three days now since I've had sugar or corn syrup.  I thought this would be hard.  I thought I'd crave and writhe in pain and feel sorry for myself.  Not the case.  I feel so good.  I'm less hungry at meals and I'm less snacky during the day.  Like I said in my first post, we're not eliminating sugars found in fruit because it's my hope that post detox, I will crave fruit rather than sweets. 

I'm already starting around that bend, feeling gitty that my fridge is full of blackberries and strawberries and black grapes.  I have a large mound of clementines on the counter and a few apples for an apple/asparagus/blue cheese salad to bring to community group tomorrow.

As you can see, I am not feeling deprived.  I am, however, feeling satisfied.  And that's empowering.

Thanksgiving Prep. On Purpose.

They say you eat more if you eat in front of the TV because you're not thinking about eating...you're just eating on accident.

In a society where convenience is king, you can do just about anything on accident.  You can eat on accident, or even easier, cook on accident.  Social networking sites, while great for keeping up with friends spread far and wide, create lazy friendships.  Why should I call my best friend to chat when Facebook already told me she's doing fine today, but is slightly annoyed at the bad driver in front of her.

This awakening of purposeful, non-accidental living is timely with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.  Tis' the season for me to be on guard.  My body goes into a multi-front civil war if I ingest even the smallest amount of gluten (the protein in wheat, rye, barley and oats).  From now until News Year's Day, I'll be constantly surrounded by food, most of which I can't touch.  I will ask questions like "did you flour the outside of your turkey? " And I'll make pithy announcements on Thanksgiving Day to "please not commingle the serving spoons."  This is my third gluten-free Thanksgiving, so thankfully it's much more of a non-issue than it used to be.

There's a blessing to being gluten free.  After the shock of learning I was allergic to the base of the food pyramid wore off, my eyes were opened to the realities of the processed foods I'd blithely consumed for the previous 24 years.  Our food is so processed that I can't eat lunch meat, salad dressings, some ice creams, anything marinated, some canned beans, lowfat cheese, canned soup...all because the corporations who produce these foods rely on the binding properties of wheat to make their products plump, pretty and cheap to produce.

This leads me to my topic.  My very first blog post: Thanksgiving. On purpose.

I won't lie.  I almost cried at the grocery store yesterday when I was doing my Thanksgiving shopping.

I'm only responsible for a few sides at the Thanksgiving feasts the hubby and I are attending.  This year's Thanksgiving contributions are:  cranberry salad, a pumpkin custard trifle, pumpkin pie with a gingersnap crust, pomegranate guacamole and the newest attempt, green bean casserole.

My cart was brimming full with the usual suspects - fresh cranberries, oranges waiting to be zested, nuts begging to chopped, fresh green beans ready to be headed and tailed and steamed, a bag of onions for homemade french fried onions, corn meal which will become corn bread which will become stuffing, a new bag of sugar and a few cans of pumpkin.

Sadly, the other carts did not look like this, nor did the store's holiday displays.  There was a man-made can mountain of condensed cream of mushroom soup, a small shrine to bags of cubed cardboard-like bread, miles of rolled out and boxed pie crust, and an entire endcap dedicated to french-fried onions for green bean casserole (which, I hate to tell you, is nothing but fried dough with onion flavoring).  This is how we cook?  This is the fuel we place in our bodies and then expect to feel healthy?  This is the red carpet we pull out for a holiday centered around a feast of Thanksgiving.

Too bad they don't have Thanksgiving-themed Twinkies.

Now, I've been accused of being a snob before.  And the hubby says I should work on keeping my opinions to myself.  So disclaimer:  I'm not trying to sound like a snob, and I know that all cooking takes work.  But here's the thing, I think people cook like this and eat like this because they simply know no other way. Three years ago, on my first g.f Thanksgiving, I just assumed that I'd never be able to eat green bean casserole again.  How could I without access to Campbell's condensed cream of mushroom soup and French's onions?  I even searched online for gluten-free stuffing mix.  I didn't know any better.

In her book Gluten Free Girl, Shauna James Ahern says this: "An entire generation was raised to believe that cooking meant opening a box, ripping off plastic wrap, or adding water.  The television told us what to eat, and we paid attention.  But after a lifetime of grabbing burgers from fast-food joints and eating in the backseat of our cars, we are a cooking-illiterate generation.  We're fascinated by food, and we know we should be healthier, but we don't know how.  We only know how to tear open a package and stick it in the microwave."

Here's my challenge to you.  Pull out your food processor, your trusty rolling pin or a good old fashioned sharp knife, and make one thing from scratch this Thanksgiving.  Use real food, avoid boxes, and go for it!

Oh and full disclosure: my cranberry salad uses a box of Jell-o and I use Midel brand g.f. ginger snaps.  I'm not a complete hippie...yet.