GF Oatmeal Cookies and Internet Lingo

So today I was reading online and stumbled across a website for Internet Slang and was shocked to see how far chatting online has come! When I went into my first chatroom 15 years ago I was overwhelmed by things like "LOL" and "BRB" and "TYVM". It all really threw me for a loop, but to find a while website devoted to the translation of over 8000 Intenet slang words. However, I have to say thanks to this newly evolved language, I now have a term for my latest GF experiment -- EPIC FAIL!!
LoL. There had to be one sooner or later. I made a potato bread. I HATED it. It was doughy, gummy, gritty and everything I do NOT want in a bread, but that's alright, I only made a small batch of buns, so I didn't waste a lot of ingredients and I'll just let them dry out, grind them up and put them in the freezer for breadcrumbs. (See, a use for everything!!) So, having thrown out that recipe I decided to go with something I knew would be a success. Cookies. There is nothing quite like a good cookie recipe that you can switch up as you choose. So I went with a nice chewy Oatmeal Cookie. That way I can switch up what I put in it for flavor and I don't feel like I"m giving my kids something that's totally unhealthy.

GF Oatmeal Cookie

3/4 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1 Lg. Egg
1 tsp. Vanilla
3/4 Cup Sorghum Flour
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
3 Cups Rolled Oats
1 Cup [insert favorite ingredient here]
Fleur de Sel*

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Beat butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla, mix well. In a seperate bowl mix together all dry ingredients. Add to wet ingredients one cup at a time. Mix well. Add final ingredient -- craisins, raisins, nuts, dried fruit, diced apple, etc. Whatever appeals to you.

Using a 1/8 C measure (or an ice cream scoop) to set cookies on a cookie sheet lined with either parchment or a Silimat**, wet your hand and lightly flatten each cookie to about 1/4". Sprinkle each cookie lightly with Fleur de Sel. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes.

*Sprinkling a little Fleur de Sel on a cookie adds a level of sophistocation to every bite. The sweetness of the cookie, offset by the salty crunch of the Fleur de Sel is a wonderful marriage of flavor. It makes a cookie, while still acceptable for children, just a little more grown up.

**When I got married I finally got my first Silimat and I LOVE it. I don't know where i got it or what brand it really is.. I just know I have a silicone mat for my cookie sheets and I love the convenience. I love that I can throw it in the dishwasher and it's always ready to go. If you don't have a Silicone mat then parchment will work just as well.

Enjoy!!

Gluten Free Sandwich Bread

Well, I've taken a bit of a blog break, but I am back and I have SO many new GF recipes to share! I have been SO enjoying this whole adventure. I feel fantastic. I started eating Gluten-Free on March 15th, and I have to say I am sold! I really do feel so much better after over a month and I know I've said that SO much over the last few blog posts, but I think I'm still trying to convince myself that its real! Anyway, I will discontinue the repetition and move on to the more interesting topics.

My sister's Mother-in-law gave me an early birthday gift, and I have to say I was THRILLED! She took me to a Gluten-Free cooking class. I have never been to a cooking class before, but I've always wanted to go and it definitely did not disappoint. We learned five recipes and all of them were TO DIE FOR! I took the recipes home and experimented with the ingredients because there is nothing so fun, to me, as experimenting in my kitchen. So I came up with my own Gluten-Free flour blend. Through reading multiple blogs and researching endlessly on the Internet I have found that a good all-purpose flour usually combines a "half-and-half" mixture of lighter flours such as Tapioca Starch, Potato Starch, Corn Starch, etc. and heavier flours such as Brown Rice Flour, White Rice Flour, Sorghum Flour, etc. So with that in mind, I decided to make an all-purpose flour to have on hand.

GF All-Purpose Flour Blend

1 Cup Sorghum Flour
1 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1 1/2 Cups Tapioca Starch
1/2 Cup Potato Starch

So, now armed with my very own custom flour blend I decided to try the Sandwich Bread.

Sandwich Bread

2 tsp Yeast
1/4 Cup warm water plus 3/4 Cup warm water
1/4 Cup soft butter
3 Cups All-purpose Flour
3 Tbsp Brown Sugar
3/4 tsp Salt
1 1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum
3 Lg Eggs (Room Temperature)

In a small bowl mix 1/4 Cup warm water and yeast gently.  Measure dry ingredients into bowl of stand mixer with paddle attachment.  Mix on low until fully combined.  Add dissolved yeast and milk and mix on medium speed.  Add softened butter and beat until combined.  Add eggs one at a time beating thoroughly after each egg.  Scrape bowl and beat on high for 3 minutes.  Remove from mixer, cover and allow to rise for 1 hour.

Grease a 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan well.  Deflate dough by stirring gently with a spoon.  Scrape into prepared pan and level top.  Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until its just crowning the top of the pan, 45 - 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, place your rack in the center position and preheat your oven to 350 F.  When the bread has risen, bake until golden brown, about 39-42 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool on a rack.  Once cooled, slice and enjoy.  Freeze (sliced) as soon as possible to maintain freshness.

Ta DA!

I was SHOCKED when my bread rose like this.  I had already had SO many disappointments with little bricks that dared to call themselves bread, so this was a light and pleasant surprise.

I love how beautifully golden brown it was when I took it out of the oven.  It smelled like the bread my mom used to bake when I was little, and there wasn't even a hint of that nasty "Gluten-Free Flavor" that can often go with store bought GF items.

Look at all those lovely air pockets!  THAT is what a loaf of bread SHOULD look like, GF or NOT!  The flavour was fantastic, and the texture was nice and chewy and moist.  I loved everything about this recipe and will make it my stand-by.  Yes, the rising time feels quite extensive, but I do it in the evening once the kids are in bed and I don't have a lot I have to get done.  Once it's rising, it doesn't require any babysitting.  I sliced this for my husband and gave him some with some butter and he thought it was fantastic.  The kids ate it all week, I practically got NONE of it!  And I'm the one GF!  .. ah well, if I can cut some gluten out of their diets, it is worth it.

I hope you'll try the recipe, it really is fantastic!  I'll be back, I have SO much to blog about... Chocolate Chip cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies, Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies, Perogies.... The Gluten-Free experiment is still going strong!!

GF Tortillas

Well, I have been spending a lot of time in my kitchen lately, which means my son and I have had a lot of quality momma/son time. He LOVES helping me in the kitchen, I can't even make myself a piece of toast (gluten free of course) without him dragging a chair up to the counter to help me. He is SO disappointed if I do something in there without his help, even if its just dishes! He is getting SO good at helping me. With that in mind I wanted to make something that would be tasty, as well as fun for him to help me with... I was browsing supper ideas and trying to get some inspiration when someone on the radio started talking about tacos. Well in our house we LOVE ethnic food; Chinese, Thai, Indian, Greek, Fijian, Filipino... there has yet to be a time when I have made something along those lines and someone in the family didn't love it. I have made some more "traditional" dishes and been met with some muttering and groaning, but whip out the exotic spices and my family just laps it up! Gluten-Free cooking is SO much easier when I'm not trying to emulate something more traditional with alternatives too... So I got the idea that I would make Tortillas.. my son would LOVE rolling out the dough with me, and we would have some nice warm Mexican flavors, it's a win/win!





So, here's what I tried:





Ingredients
2 c. Gluten-free all purpose flour (I used 1 Cup of Sorghum, 1/2 Cup Potato Starch and 1/2 Cup Tapioca Starch)


2 tsp. Xanthan gum (or Guar gum)


1 tsp. Gluten-free baking powder


2 tsp. Brown sugar


1 tsp. Salt


1 c. Warm water



Directions:



1) Mix all dry ingredients in your mixer (or if you're doing this by hand, just in a mixing bowl).





2) Add water, and mix until the dough is smooth and plyable. It will be a little sticky.





3) Seperate the dough into pieces and cover what you're not working with. Have your little helper roll the dough into balls, or if you're not lucky enough to have a little helper, do it yourself.





4) Sprinkle your countertop with GF flour and have your little helper roll out flat (or, once again, do it yourself). Careful not to go too too thick, it might tear, but don't go too thick either, you want it to be rollable.

5) Cook the rounds on a hot fry pan, it only takes about a minute or two per side, just till you see it start to bubble and will go slightly golden.





6) Place cooked tortillas on a plate, I like to lightly butter and then cover with a cloth to keep warm.





7) Serve to your grateful family, or devour them yourself, and enjoy with your favorite filling!!

Pizza Reloaded

Well, after nearly 3 full weeks on my GF Adventure, I have had some ups and downs. I feel fantastic, I have more energy than I have had in years, but I really thought that I had lucked out and missed the worst of this here Gluten-Free Detox... well, was I ever mistaken!! Just this last week I woke up, in a cold-sweat as usual, with a pounding headache, nausea like I had the flu and just feeling all over yuck. I did some research and learned that its all part of this detoxing routine, so I drank a lot of water and that seemed to help some. Then the following morning I had the same thing, along with a pounding headache. It was NOT a good day, to be sure. I have seriously increased my water intake and that seems to be making an improvement, although I have come down with a cold this week, so I am not my usual bouncy self. However I have still managed to keep up on my GF cooking and baking, so that's saying something.

Now, with the Gluten-Free Pizza crust recipe I posted a little while ago, Garren and I have been craving pizza. However, I try not to cook things which require a lot of dairy when my son is around, since he can't have it. I prefer us to all eat the same things when we're all together, so nobody feels left out. It can be rather challenging to bake a dairy-free pizza that tastes good and isn't dry. So I decided to experiment with toppings. It was SO good that I decided to share what I came up with. (I wish I'd taken a picture, but I didn't ... I will next time!!)


Prepare your crust as outlined in my other post. Then prepare your favorite pizza sauce. I just used some tomato sauce (actually I was out of tomato sauce so I mixed some tomato paste with water until it was the consistency of tomato sauce) and then mixed in some Italian Seasoning (1 or 2 tsp) and garlic powder, salt and pepper until it smelled appealing, it really is a personal thing. Then I chopped up one medium onion, dividing about 1/4 of it and mincing it finely and setting it aside. Then I sliced up some red bell pepper, leaving some in large slices and some I diced. I also drained some pineapple and set it in a bowl. Then I took one large chicken breast and chopped it up into small pieces, about the size of a nickel. I heated a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, quickly sauted the diced onion (making sure to leave the minced onion out of the frying pan) and then added the chicken. I seasoned my chicken with garlic, pepper, salt, Italian Seasoning (Basil, Oregano, Thyme) and cooked it through. Then at the end I added a dollop of Jamaica Mistake Salad Dressing and heated it until it had reduced a little and permeated the chicken.

Now that all my toppings were prepared I spread the sauce on my pre-baked crust, I gave it a generous helping because I didn't want a dry pizza, and the lack of cheese can sometimes seem dry because it is missing a substantial amount of oil. Then I sprinkled my minced onion evenly over the sauce, topped it with pineapple, then I added my chicken, making sure to get every last drop of the liquid from the pan (once again, we don't want dry pizza). Finally I topped the pizza with the sliced and diced red pepper. I only used this order because it was aesthetically pleasing. Do whatever order / toppings you like, but I highly recommend making sure you have a few things to increase the moisture and really amp up the flavor, otherwise you will seriously miss the cheese. However, this pizza was AMAZING. I didn't miss the cheese at all, I actually preferred it without because I didn't feel sick after. Garren said he still wanted cheese, so I made another one later that night with the same toppings and added cheese, I didn't like it as much, but Garren is a cheese addict. Lol. The longer I go without gluten, the more I notice my dairy intollerance and I am definitely leaning towards cutting it out of my diet entirely as well. I don't like feeling crappy after eating and if I can do things which make me feel fantastic all the time, why wouldn't I? I will list the ingredients at the bottom of the post, but as you can see, this is more of a "little of this, little of that" kinda deal, but thought I would share my creation for you just to give you all a little inspiration!

Pizza Crust

Tomato Sauce
Garlic
Italian Seasoning (Basil, Oregano, Thyme)

Chicken, diced
Onion, minced and diced
Red Bell Pepper
Pineapple
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Italian Seasoning (Basil, Oregano, Thyme)
Jamaica Mistake Salad Dressing

New Things

Well, there is a LOT of change going on in our house these days! Garren finally got his letter telling us the date of his immigration interview! Hello April 16, 2012!! HAPPY DAY! After that, we will have to wait 6 - 8 weeks for his PR card to come through and then, follks, he can work!! It's been a long wait, and let me tell you, this man was NOT made to sit at home! But Praise God we are almost finished! It has been a year of stretching, learning, growing, forgiving and understanding, but God is faithful and we made it through! Now we can start making plans to move forward. It has felt like a long year, but at the same time, realizing that we're now at the end makes me realize just how quickly it all passed. My baby boy is three, my baby girl is one and a half, my husband will be 30 this year (and I won't.. hahaha!) ... but we finally get to take steps that feel like they are moving us forward. [insert sigh of relief here]

Speaking of moving forward, I am trying out a new GF recipe today... true to form, its not a North American dish... it's an Asian dish... I find that cooking GF is a LOT easier if I am open to world cooking. So tonight I plan on making Pakora ... basically, vegetable battered in chickpea flour and fried.. okay, not the healthiest food on the planet, but I LOVE Indian food! So do Garren and the kids.. we all could live on curry for the rest of our lives! Okay, I might need some sweet and sour in there somewhere, and maybe some Thai food... but really, I just LOVE ethnic food! I'm also going to try out something else I read on a blog over the last few days, called Chickpea Fries... basically equal parts chickpea flour and water, then add the spices of your choice (I'll be adding Curry)... pour out onto a baking sheet and cool in the fridge until firm... then cut into "fries" and either fry or bake... we'll see what cooking method I decide on... I don't know yet. Then I've got to come up with a dipping sauce for both. I am torn between a chutney and a aoli ... maybe I'll do both, it just depends on how much time i have this evening.

Anyway, just a quick post, I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow!!

Gluten-free continues with PIZZA :)

Well, today is eleven days without Gluten and I have to say, I feel FANTASTIC. I think my family is beginning to feel like I am harping on them about this, but I am just so blown away at how good I feel that I want EVERYONE to feel as fantastic as I do.

More about GF in a minute. In other news, Garren and I finally got letters in the mail telling us that Garren's immigration application has been processed and we will be hearing from the Vancouver Immigration office shortly to set up his final interview. It is very exciting, and a little nerve wracking... Nothing like coming up with another $490 out of nowhere, but I am sure we will be fine. (However, you could add that to your prayer list if you're running out of things to pray about!) We have been discussing what our plan of action will be once he can work... because after his interview, it will be 6-8 weeks before his PR Card comes in the mail, but after that he can work... so now the big question is whether or not I will continue to work once he is able. I think the conclusion we have come to is I will continue working for the time being, and my sister has agreed to watch my kids at least for some of the time, so whether I keep working fulltime or if I go down to parttime has yet to be determined. We will have to see. It will not be a permanent thing, us both working, but it isn't set in stone how long we will do this either. I would like to get out of debt and start putting some money away. We need a new car, preferably one that doesn't guzzle gas, and I would like to start putting money away for a house, so this could take a while. However, Isaiah starts preschool this September and Lydia starts next September, so that will definitely factor in as well, both kids start Kindergarten within a year of one another and now that Kindergarten is fulltime and full days, if I could work and keep it within their school schedule we could start building towards a better future. At the moment nothing has changed; I still work fulltime and Garren still stays home fulltime, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that has given me a brighter outlook on the situation. I like being able to set my goals with dates and timelines and the timeline I had set was a minimum of another two years of me working fulltime, I don't think that's changed and I'm mentally and emotionally prepared for that, so we will see. I know we are working towards a future for the family, so it helps to make my time away from home feel well-spent.

Now, back to the GF news. I made another bread recipe this week. I really like the flavor, it is very much the same as wheat bread, however, it dries out quite quickly. It makes for nice toast though. However, I am trying to figure out what I can do to make it retain more moisture. What I am thinking of doing is replacing some of the liquid with applesauce. I know that in the past when I have done that in my baking it has made it very moist, so that will be my experiment for this week. Last night, however, Garren and I were having a craving for Pizza... and we were both tired from spending the day spring cleaning. Pizza sounded so nice, because neither of us particularly felt like cooking... but spending $40+ on pizza didn't sound that appealing ... and the only place I know for sure that serves GF Pizza is definitely on the pricey side. So we decided to suck it up and make our own. It was FANTASTIC. The only downside was, I have a dairy intollerance as well, and I always have, but now that I'm eating GF I notice it a lot more because I don't feel crappy all the time from the gluten... so my dairy reactions are definitely more pronounced in the grand scheme of things, but for the sake of a very tasty dinner I decided to suck it up for the evening. So, here is the recipe for the GF pizza crust I made.

Before I start, let me just say, I liked it better than a wheat crust. It had more flavour, reminded me of a whole wheat crust, it held the toppings without going limp and it wasn't cardboard-like. I don't know what it would be like cold because Garren and I polished the whole thing off last night, but warm, it is fantastic! I'm sorry I don't have any pictures, I meant to take some last night, but we were so hungry all I could think of was getting the pizza in the oven and getting it in our mouths! I will take pictures next time, because I definitely think we will be making this one again.

GF Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast
2/3 Cup of Sorghum Flour (Or whatever flour you prefer, just make sure its the same weight of flour, brown rice, soy, bean, etc.)
1/2 Cup Potato Starch (Or Tapioca Starch or Corn Starch)
2 tsp. Xanthan Gum (Or Guar Gum)
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Unflavored Gelatin powder (I used Knox)
2 tsp. Italian Seasoning (Or a mixture of basil, oregano, thyme, etc)
2/3 Cup warm water
1/2 tsp. Sugar
1 tsp. Olive Oil
1 tsp. cider vinegar (regular white would work too)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 425 F. In a mixing bowl, using the paddle (or if you're using a hand mixer, just make sure you're not using dough hooks) combine the yeast, flour(s), starch(s), xanthan gum, salt, gelatin, and Italian seasoning on low. Add warm water, sugar, oil and vinegar. Combine carefully and then mix on high for 2 - 2.5 minutes. If you find that your dough looks more like a batter, add a little more flour, or if you find it too stiff, add more water a teaspoon at a time. You want it to be a bit more like a soft dough.

Grease a pizza pan and sprinkle with GF cornmeal (you can skip the cornmeal if you want, but I found it made the crust more authentic). Place the dough in the middle of the pan and then oil your hands well (it gets messy). Press the dough flat into the pan, I used a medium pan and it was the perfect size for this recipe. You could use a larger pan, but you'd have to make more than one batch of dough. Once the dough is pressed into the pan take a paper towel and dab off the excess oil then place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

After you remove the pizza crust you could take it off the pan, let it cool, wrap it up in saran wrap and put it in the freezer for use later (something I plan on doing this week). However, if you're using it right away, now is the time to top it with your favorite sauce and toppings. I actually buttered the crust lightly while it was warm just to keep it from drying out and made sure it wasn't sticking to the pan by taking it off and putting it back on. I didn't want to have to fight with it once it was loaded with toppings. Also I didn't leave an edge crust, I layered my toppings right to the very edge.

Finally, once you've loaded your crust with your favorite sauce and toppings, pop it back in the oven and bake for another 20 minutes or until your toppings are just starting to brown.

Cut using a pizza wheel, then let sit for a few minute, it is VERY hot!

ENJOY!

This was a spectacular pizza, it had a lot of flavor in the crust, the texture was nicer than any "Take n' Bake" we've had, it reminded me of a "cracker crust" that one of the pizza places used to do when I was a kid. There was a definite "bite" to the texture, but Garren and I really enjoyed it.

Day Five Gluten-Free

Alright, so I went yet another day with no Gluten. Up until last night it has been relatively easy... I had a small freak out on day two because I was actually craving all the things I wasn't going to eat... but the reward for not eating it is far too great for me to give in to that craving. However, last night I thought I might go out of my mind! I was SO munchy! One thing I have learned very quickly - it's not easy to "munch" when you're eating gluten free! I can't just make a quick little something, I need to plan ahead. I'm sure when I've been doing this longer it will be easier, but last night was more of a hormonal craving and I really didn't know what I wanted, but I knew I wanted it to be something highly glutenous! It wasn't rational and it was probably just my body adjusting to this new way of eating. The body can be a stuborn thing! So, I kept my cool and ate everything in sight that I knew was alright... and then took the craving by the horns and baked a GF Lemon Squares since I had some lemons that badly needed to be used. :) I was rather proud of myself. Isaiah and I did it together, he just loves helping Momma in the kitchen, and I love the quality time. So, here is a breakdown of the lemon squares. :)



Ingredients:



1 1/4 Cups Rice Flour (I used Brown Rice Flour)
1/4 Cup Icing Sugar

1/2 tsp. Xanthan Gum

1/4 Cup Butter

1 Egg

1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar

2 1/2 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice

2 Tbsp. Rice Flour (Once again I used Brown)

1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

Zest of 1 Lemon



Method:

1. Sift Rice 1 1/4 Cups Rice Flour, Icing Sugar, and Xanthan Gum into the bowl of your mixer (you could probably do this all by hand, but I used my Kitchenaid). Mix on medium until all the ingredients are well combined.

2. Add Butter, if you're using a mixer, use the whisk attachment and set on a low to medium speed and whisk until the butter is cut in and resembles a coarse crumb. If you're doing it by hand, use a pastry cutter and cut the butter until it is the texture in the picture.

3. Press into a greased 8x8 pan and bake for ten minutes at 350 F.



4. Meanwhile, mix egg, granulated sugar, lemon juice, and beat together. Add remaining rice flour, baking powder and lemon rind. Mix until fully incorporated (remember, thanks to this being a gluten free recipe, you can't over mix!!)

5. Once you've removed your crust from the oven, lower the temperature to 325 F. Pour lemon mixture over the crust and cover completely. Put back in the oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes until the lemon is fully set.



6. Allow to cool completely before cutting. It'll just run everywhere otherwise. It'll look a bit bubbly and a little like a quiche (in my personal opinion.) but your kitchen will smell AMAZING at this point!

7. Have a little helper rinse all the dishes while you're waiting for your treat to cool, or if you're not lucky enough to have a little helper, take this opportunity to rinse them yourself. :-D

8. FINALLY, when it has cooled completely, cut, sprinkle with icing sugar and ENJOY!!

I have to say, these were pretty good.. the kids loved them, Garren thought they were alright as well. And now, minus the slight withdrawl freakout yesterday, I'm feeling pretty good and Garren is now wondering if he would benefit from a Gluten-free lifestyle. He's tasted my treats and knows that it won't be a terrible life of cardboard and lentils! So we'll see what happens next! I'll keep you all updated and include some of my experiments in the kitchen. :) You should try them out next time you want a treat, a little less gluten never hurt anyone!

My Gluten-Free Adventure

Well, it would seem that I'm past my 27th year and into my 28th year... when did that happen? I don't know when I got into my "late" twenties, but it seems to have gone rather quickly from what I can gather. I've been doing some "research" and everyone I've polled who is further along in this journey than I am says it only gets faster from here. If things go any faster I might not be able to keep up!! Already Isaiah is 3 and 1 month and Lydia is 18 months today! It is hard to believe that 18 months ago, a few hours from now (okay, like ten hours from now) will have been a full 18 months since I gave birth to our beautiful baby girl. Speaking of Lydia, she is what really prompted my Gluten-Free journey, inadvertently.

I have been feeling pretty crappy lately. That's an understatement, but I'll keep my blog clean of vulgar adjectives. I hadn't paid attention to how long I had been feeling yuck, but I finally had enough and began doing research to find out what I could do to try to get back to feeling like I was in my twenties and not in my sixties. Let's face it, I'm supposed to be in my "prime" and I feel more like I'm reaching my expiry date! I started doing some reading, quite by accident, regarding Gluten-Free diets. My love of blogs and reading what people have learned so that I might benefit from their experience and perhaps save myself some grief led me to a blog about eating Gluten-Free. That got me to thinking that it might not be a bad avenue to explore. Okay, in all honesty, I can't take all the credit. I had also been praying about how I've been feeling physically and asking God to show me what I can be doing to feel better. I don't want to spend my kids' childhood feeling like crap and being an observer, I like being involved and wrestling and playing with them... and lately I've been feeling too crappy to participate.

For starters, allow me to define "crappy". I've had a "perma-headache" since November of 2010. At first I attributed it to pregnancy/labour and hormonal changes. It wasn't always a bad headache and there was the odd day that it wasn't there, but more often than not it was there, in the background. It was killing my concentration and making me edgy. I'd learned to ignore it for the most part and had, in the last year and a bit, gotten to the point where I almost didn't notice it. I didn't bring it up as much and had just resigned myself to the fact that it was just there. I got glasses again about six months ago and that helped a bit, but there was still this nagging ache all the time. On top of that I've been getting migraines at an alarmingly increasing frequency. Before Lydia I used to get them once or twice a year - that felt pretty normal - but since mid-2011 they'd increased to monthly, and by September they were fairly consistent on a bi-weekly basis. Beyond the headaches I was having anxiety and heart palpitations. I'd also had heartburn, no matter what I ate, every SINGLE day since I'd been pregnant with Lydia. I told myself that it was just changes my body had made due to pregnancy and whatnot, and had gotten used to it. We all do it, right? Just push the pain back to the point where we almost don't remember what its like to NOT have pain, and go on living our daily lives, but definitely not to the fullest. I'd also began to have unexplained joint aches. At first it was little things, my hand would hurt for a week or so, my knees would ache in the evening, my hips would throb when I went to bed at night, my shoulders would burn during the day... it was just one after another after another. Beyond that I was exhausted ALL the time. It wasn't unusual for me to go to sleep on the couch at seven when the kids were in bed on a Friday night and sleep through until noon the next day... There were even some evenings I'd fall asleep as early as FOUR! I'd gone to my doctor and he'd said it was all stress related and had told me I needed to take measures to relax... I did, as much as a full-time working mom of two who has more hobbies than she has time does.. I would take a night out a week to take a long bath and read a book.... Garren would give me a back massage... we'd take a night off electronics just to relax and do nothing... but nothing seemed to help. I started taking more vitamins and trying to cut back caffeine... nothing seemed to make any difference.

THEN I read about Gluten sensitivities... most of what I have articulated above CAN be attributed to a Gluten sensitivity. There have been other issues, but those were the most pressing and debilitating ones... I was beginning to think I would never feel like myself again and it was getting quite overwhelming. So then one day when I was reading a blog about this whole gluten-free lifestyle I was eating an All Bran bar and noticing, as it was morning and the first thing I'd eaten, that a few minutes after eating it my throat felt scratchy and coated and I had this need to clear my throat to try and get rid of the irritation. Within minutes of finishing the bar the heartburn was back and I was back to feeling like crap... a tiny bell started going off and I started experimenting; I spent several days testing how gluten-type snacks effected me, and without fail, each time my throat felt itchy and scratchy and the heartburn was instant. I have several friends with severe allergies and when I asked them about the symptoms I"d noticed, each one confirmed that that was quite normal for an allergy/sensitivity. I've never had allergies to anything but bee stings, so this was uncharted territory for me. I'd been more conscious of allergies lately, however, because a few weeks prior to all this I'd eaten a granola bar and had a full allergic reaction to it. My tongue was itchy, my throat was scratchy, my chin was red and burning and my lips began to swell.. the reaction lasted several hours, but gratefully didn't progress past that level of discomfort, but I will admit, I was quite anxious throughout the whole thing because all I could think during it was that now that I'd already ingested whatever was causing my reaction, there was nothing I could do to stop how my body was responding. Throughout this I kept wondering if it was going to get worse.... I went home and looked at the box, thinking maybe I'd reacted to nuts... it was a certified "Nut Free" package... so once again I was stumped... fast-forward to last week.. I decided to conduct an experiment.. I cut gluten out of my diet 100%... even things without gluten were cut because I still don't know what does and doesn't have gluten. I started reading labels and more blogs to learn what grains do and don't have gluten. This is now day five...

I can tell you that this morning I woke up at six when my alarm went off and didn't feel the dread I normally do when I realized it was time to get up... Yes, I was still groggy because I am not, and probably never will be, a morning person... but I wasn't dead tired and counting down the seconds to when I would be able to fall back into my bed. I don't have, and haven't had in five days, heartburn and there has been absolutely nothing I've eaten in the past five days that has made my throat feel as though I've swallowed itching powder... and this is the first day in MONTHS that my hand hasn't ached. This weekend I got up on Saturday at SIX am and went grocery shopping, cleaned the house, baked bread, made several gluten-free (GF) snacks for work this week, made supper, took care of the kids by myself, as Garren was out all day, and when I went to bed after midnight, I didn't feel completely exhausted. I was tired, but not so tired that I wanted to cry. Sunday morning, while low on sleep thanks to a phone call waking me in the middle of the night, I was able to get up and go to church and not feel like i might fall asleep mid-service... I came home and made lunch for the kids, Garren went to take a nap, and I baked some more rolls for Garren and the kids for the week, made some more GF baking, made supper, packed a lunch for work today and packed up enough lunches to last until Wednesday, played with the kids, cleaned the kitchen and made dinner... went to bed around midnight and I wasn't too tired to chat with Garren for a bit before I went to sleep.

All these things sound trivial, but they are things that two weeks ago would have felt overwhelming because I felt so crappy. It wasn't any one things, though the exhaustion was pretty intense, but a culmination of all of these things that had me feeling as though I wouldn't make it to my "Golden Years" because I was already old...

Am I just being a hypochondriac? I don't think so. Apparently 1 in 3 people has a gluten sensitivity and doesn't know it. We eat gluten in virtually EVERY meal and snack without realizing it and when you overload your body with any one thing, you can develop a sensitivity. Beyond that, most of the things i"ve mentioned had I realized had been prevalent since Lydia was born. A surge or change in hormones can cause a sensitivity/allergy, not to mention your allergies change once every 7 years, and as I pointed out, I'm in my 28th year.. if we do the math on that... 7, 14, 21, 28.... Do I have a Gluten allergy? I don't know. Do I feel better since I cut it out? YES! I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to see how this journey progresses... it takes 6 months to a year for your gut to completely heal the damage gluten can do, and I'm only on day five... but if I have noticed such a marked difference in the first five days, imagine how I will feel in a year! I can conquer the world! LOL. Okay, maybe not, but I can go back to feeling like a human being again and perhaps finish some of the things on my never-ending To Do list.

So that's the beginning of an interesting journey. I will definitely be blogging more as I continue on my journey and I will post my progress and the GF recipes that I discover/create. That is another fun aspect of GF cooking... no matter where i read or what recipes I discover, most people say the same thing... GF cooking isn't an exact science, its all about experimenting and finding what works for you and your own tastes... so that's made this a LOT of fun :)

I will update ya'll soon!!