Gluten Free

So I know my blog is probably a little boring to most people except my family members who live out of state. I have plenty of friends in the blogging world but most have families and blog about their kids. I mainly blog because I love to go back and see my posts from a year ago or two years ago... it is kind of like my journal of memories! Ha. So now that I don't have any "adventures" with my dog, I have even less to blog about besides the normal activities that I do... and those can be repetitive and I am sure not that interesting to most of the people who actually do look at my blog. I really want to get more creative and have more of a point of view of some sort. So I have an idea. It may not be a great one and I may not ever end up talking about it again after this post. So here it is: Seeing how the love of my life has Celiac disease, I have taken a huge interest in learning as much about this disease as possible. Along with that, I have also started eating (mostly) gluten-free and have become obsessed with researching gluten-free recipes. This maybe is not much more interesting to my blog readers but perhaps may attract others to view my blog that wouldn't normally. And this is all something that I am becoming more and more passionate about so I'm hoping to maybe connect with other people out there who are in similar positions or have advice or recipes to share.

So for those who haven't talked to me and don't know what Celiac disease is, this website gives a pretty good explanation: http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/celiac/#what. Basically he can't eat anything that contains wheat, barley or rye. But his case is severe and went undetected for such a long time so his body also created allergies to dairy, soy and eggs. AND gluten is also in things like shampoo, body wash, lotion, the stuff you lick on envelopes, etc. SO his diet is basically simple - he can eat meat, veggies, fruit, potatoes, rice, ketchup, BBQ sauce and not much else. In about a year or a little less, he can start inducing foods back to his body that contain dairy and see how his body reacts. When I first met him, I thought him having this disease basically just meant that he had a different diet and that was it. But there is a lot more to it. It affects so many aspects of his life..... and now mine too. :)

Now let me clarify one thing: I am eating mostly gluten-free under the roof where I live. I am in no way steering clear of gluten when I go out to eat. :) But I am eating out WAY less so it makes those meals even more delicious. If anyone is ever up for going out for Italian of any sort, let me know because I will probably jump on the train as fast as I can! I am eating gluten-free because just cooking with something that has gluten in it could make Tim sick for weeks. :( I made the mistake of making my favorite frozen mac & cheese in the microwave one day and sure enough, he was sick for several days. So it all started with that... he told me it would be best to not cook stuff like that in the microwave... the microwave will make the gluten circulate in the air which is what ended up making him feel sick. I didn't think about it, not to mention that I also felt terrible afterward! So it was because of that I decided to eat mostly gluten-free. I don't cook anything in the house that has gluten in it but I still may buy something like cereal to eat every now and then because that won't really affect him. But I want to stick to trying to not buy or consume those things! So far it has been pretty easy.... I don't know how long that will continue. But I would prefer to cook for BOTH of us.

So one thing I am trying to do is come up with recipes that are gluten/soy/dairy free. This is tricky and I have to get creative. I have had some help already from my stepmom who has to eat gluten-free as well. Most recently she introduced us to her version of Chicken Salad and I have added/changed to that slightly. My favorite thing that we do right now is fry the chicken salad in corn tortillas. Sound gross? It's not at all!

Our version of chicken salad:
-3 chicken breasts, boiled and shredded
-roughly about 2 cups of hummus (we have only used plain but you can use any flavor to add some variety!)
- cut up celery and/or pickles
-several dashes of lemon juice

So then I take that and roll it up in a corn tortilla and fry it in olive oil. Yummy!

Alright, so there it is. I am excited to share our version of "normal" foods. Please give me feedback on what you think about these ideas AND a suggestion for a new blog title would be awesome!