End of May

So, it's the end of May... I didn't exactly meet my budget goal, but didn't completely blow it up either.

In my quest for good food, I have started trying different gluten-free brands. So far, the one I like the most is Glutino. It all started with a package of Lemon Wafer Cookies that my mother-in-law sent me... The package was gone within hours... I have zero will power against the Lemon Wafer Cookies... I have to ration them, or I will eat so many I will make myself sick... again... (they are really really good)

I have tried other items from the Glutino brand and have been pleasantly surprised. They have a pretty good pretzel, good bagel chips that double as croutons for me, and they make a fake-oreo like no one else... Although, I prefer the vanilla oreo-type cookie, the chocolate oreo-type cookie is really good too. I didn't really care for the chocolate covered vanilla wafer cookies, but Aaron loved them. I have some chocolate covered chocolate wafer cookies still to try.

I'm still loving my quinoa pasta, but I found another good grain-blend pasta that comes in more "normal" pasta shapes, like penne. I forget the brand, but I think it is european. It is a rice/corn blend that has the taste and texture of a "normal" pasta and not the rice pasta... I made a half-way decent penne spinach bake with it the other night. I have some tweaking of the recipe to do before I post it here, but it wasn't bad.

Still loving the benefits of going gluten-free, although I do still get depressed some about the food I can't eat anymore... We've had pollen like you wouldn't believe here in Juneau (so bad you can see swirls of it on the water and you can see the layer of it on your car) but I haven't had any bad allergic reactions to the pollen like I normally do. House cleaning still gives me some allergies, especially if I use the carpet deodorizer before vacuuming my floors. The carpet deodorizer makes my house not smell like dog, but it sure does make me react. I've tried using just Baking Soda to deodorize my carpets, but it doesn't work as well as the other stuff.

Another benefit is that everyone tells me that they can tell I've lost weight... While this is AWESOME, I am still afraid to get on the scale to see how much I've lost... My clothes are not as tight as they used to be, but I'm not down a size.. I'm guessing that I haven't lost more than 10 lbs. Probably less... But, that's just me being pessimistic.

The weather hasn't really been cooperating with me so I can exercise outside with my dogs. I know that taking Lijha for a bike ride or a long walk will benefit us both, but it doesn't seem to work that way. When it is nice outside, I am usually so bogged down with school work that I don't have time to go out. When I have the time, it's usually raining sideways and neither of us want to go out in it... I guess this is what I get when I live in Alaska instead of Hawaii... At least in Hawaii, the weather was pretty predictable.

The Goal for the Month of May

The goal for the month of May is to get my grocery budget for the whole month under $400 while eating Gluten-Free. It will most definitely be a challenge. I spent almost double that for the month of April, but I had to stock up ingredients for my pantry and fill my freezer with meat.

I have been scouring websites to duplicate Gluten-Free Bisquick... There are so many recipes for pancake mix out there that my head is spinning. Most people recommend buying a certain brand rather than making the mix yourself... The only problem with that is the mix is over $20 at my grocery store... I think I'm going to have to hit the bulk bins at the health food store.

Bread that I can eat is easily $4 to $5 a loaf (and the loaves are very small). So I'll have to figure out just what I need and portion it out throughout the month. It seems that I can't get out of the store for less than $40 anymore!

The additional part of the challenge is that I have to include my husband's tastes in my shopping list. He eats GF main meals when he is with me at home, but he does love his chips and ice-cream and soda. I don't get paid again for another week, so I'll be planning out my menu this week and will be scouring the Internet for coupons on the stuff I like to buy.

I think I'm going to try my hand at growing herbs in the house again... I didn't have much luck last time, but I think Noni got into the plants. This requires a lot more investment of my time but after the plants are established, will save me money. I sent Aaron to the store to get some flat-leaf parsley and he came back with limp curly parsley... I was very disappointed... I just have to figure out where they will live in the house. We don't have the best light, so I'll have to have a grow light for the plants...

Challenges and Progress

My gluten-free diet has presented some challenges, but it has given me some progress. I have noticed that I am slowly losing weight now that my body can metabolize my food properly. My allergies are down to about 15-25% of what they were. I'm sneaking dairy in here and there, and my doctor feels that could be why my allergies haven't reduced even further... I guess I'll be weaning myself off cheese, since that is what I have been sneaking.

We are planning on going to the Reno Air Races this September and we already have our hotel booked. It didn't hit me until today that I need to research gluten-free restaurant options in Reno. First thing tomorrow, I need to call the hotel and see if they have gluten-free options available. I really hate having to bring my own food on vacation, but I will if I have to. It might get challenging (and boring) because the hotel where we are staying won't have a kitchenette. If I can't find a gluten-free restaurant, I'll need to find a store that sells gluten-free food. I'll need to plan ahead and bring my insulated lunch box to pack snacks for the air races anyway. I doubt that the vendors at the races will have gluten-free options for food.

Another thought just hit me... My favorite thing at air shows is funnel cake.... sad.... apple slices probably won't be nearly as satisfying, but they will be healthier... Maybe I'll lose some more weight by then and will get to reward myself by hitting the malls and doing some shopping! That just might make up for not getting to eat funnel cake...

Gluten-Free Pasta

In my attempt to be as gluten-free as possible (with a few slip ups for Pizza in the last month or so... I'm so not perfect), I have been trying different kinds of pasta that are wheat free... They are few and far between, my friend. Most recipes for gluten-free pasta dishes call for a rice pasta... Um, yeah... Not liking the rice pasta...

First, the texture is SO DIFFERENT from regular pasta. Normal tricks to keep pasta from gumming together don't work with rice pasta (as I learned when I tried to make rice-angel hair pasta to go with my gluten-free version of Chicken Marsala). I tried drizzling the pasta with a little EVOO to keep it from lumping together, but it just gave me an olive oil flavored lump of rice pasta... sigh... The flavor of the rice pasta was nice in my Chicken Marsala dish - so much so that I actually ate all my mushrooms instead of passing them over to my husband (I don't usually care for mushrooms, but combined with my rice blob, they were quite nice).

Other than my somewhat pleasant experience with Chicken Marsala, rice pasta is awful... just horrible. I love pasta and I would be a very depressed person if I had to eat rice pasta on a regular basis.

I did try another grain variety of pasta. I tried a quinoa/corn blend. Texture-wise, it was closer to regular pasta and it was way more flavorful than the rice pasta. I had it the other night paired with regular marinara sauce (from a jar) and it was nice. It would also go well with pesto. Not sure about alfredo sauce, but I can't eat that anymore anyway, so why punish myself? I'm going to try a recipe for mac & cheese that uses the quinoa pasta.

Another variety I need to try is spelt pasta. I have yet to find any at my local grocery store (which has a surprisingly good selection of gluten-free products). The next time I go downtown, I'll check and see if the "health food store" has it in stock. If not, I'm not going to worry about it too much. I've got my quinoa version.

Another plus? My husband actually LIKED the quinoa pasta. That means that I don't have to buy two different kinds of pasta and cook two different batches each time we eat spagetti. Nice, huh?

Progress!

I've been on a wheat-free/dairy-free diet for the month of February so far (at least, mostly wheat-free/dairy-free). I have noticed significant differences in my health. I am no longer hyper-allergic to things. I still sneeze now and then, but I haven't had one of my major allergy attacks at all this month. Not even when Aaron and I were cleaning the house last weekend in preparations for his parents to come visit us. Awesome!

Another change I've noticed is that I am not so bloated in the mid-section as I was before.

I have found additional bread that I can eat. The local baker makes a lovely sourdough spelt bread with sunflower seeds on it... Yummy! I foresee myself making more trips downtown to his shop to get a loaf...

I have also learned what I can and cannot eat at most of the restaurants in Juneau. There is a lot of variety out there for me!

Ezekiel Bread

So, I'm not doing so great on my no wheat/no dairy diet... I have been craving cheese pizza like nobody's business... I just keep reminding myself that my body is going through withdrawals and it will get easier (I speak from personal experience... I FINALLY stopped craving eggs a few months ago).

I've been trying to be good, but I think I took it a little too far yesterday... I ate only protein and veggies (no starch - primarily because I forgot to add brown rice to my chicken vegetable soup the other day). I went to bed with a headache last night and woke up with one this morning... Not fun.

So, today, I took myself to the grocery store for lunch and restocked up on Honey Nut Chex (gluten free!) and I picked up a loaf of Ezekiel bread. I have been a little wary of Ezekiel bread, expecting it to be a little too hippy-dippy-trippy for my tastes (kind of like my experience with freezer waffles). But, I have been longing for toast for so long now that I just had to try the one product that the doctor said I could eat... So, I dipped my toe into the Ezekiel bread world by buying the Cinnamon-Raisin variety, hoping that the sweetness from the raisins and cinnamon would ease me in to the hippy-dippy-trippy world.

I made a slice of toast with butter (I'm not giving up on my butter, just cutting back... I don't want to eat chemically engineered "butter" just because it's non-dairy)... It was so tasty! But, that could be because I haven't had bread in over a week... I'm still going to eat it! A slice with some peanut butter might be nice... Or I still have some apple-pear butter from Christmas that would be nice as well...

I guess what I'm saying here is to not be afraid of Ezekiel Bread... It is lower in glycemic index than regular bread and it is made with sprouted grain - not flour (according to the info on the packaging) - which makes it easier to digest than regular bread. I'm not sure if Aaron will go for it, or if he is going to stick with his buttermilk-white bread that he likes. Either way, I will have Ezekial bread on-hand in the future!

The weekend....

I thought I was doing very well this weekend... My office had a party at my favorite pizza place and I didn't eat the pizza, only salad. It was kind of depressing, though. The salad was good (it always is), but without the pizza skins (basically breadsticks), it wasn't very satisfying. Oh well... I also consumed the rest of my pop tarts (purchased before the Dr put me on the new diet and I wanted to remove the temptation as early as possible... I know, my logic kind of sucks right now) and some poorly baked sourdough bread... But that was it for the "wheat" products. The only other grains I consumed were either rice or oatmeal.

For today:

Breakfast:

• Coffee w/ sugar
• 2 Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage patties

AM Snack:

• 1 Braeburn Apple
• a handful of raw almonds

Lunch:

• Garden salad with Tuna and peas, no dressing (Tuna was expired when I tried to eat it... so no tuna today)

PM Snack:

• Vanilla yogurt

Dinner:

• Lentil soup

Dessert:

• probably not going to have dessert...