True Story

 

Ok, so I don’t really have a story, but I do have a few truths.

1. I haven’t blogged in a really, really long time. I wished I loved it more/actually documented life more. Sometimes (ok a lot of the time) my brain works faster than my fingers. That’s probably not unusual, but it’s my excuse for not writing as much as I would like.

2. I really don’t like taking pictures. I never, ever have my camera with me. Even if I did, it’s a good six years old and photo quality is not the best at say the least. I like having pictures; I just don’t want to be the one to take them.

Me not taking pictures = not very exciting posts. I’m working on it.

3. I start a new job on Monday and am feeling a little anxious about it. Excited too, but definitely a little worried about my energy levels with starting a new schedule.

4. I have been g-free for 3 months and 1 week. Things have gotten better Celiac wise, but there are still challenges too. Still a learning AND healing process, and I’m ok with that…well more so the learning than the healing.

Life is good and full of blessings, as long as my eyes are open to see them.

New Life Lessons

 

Since moving home, I’ve started to get involved in a young adult group at church. It’s only been a few weeks since I started attending different events, but the group has already been a huge blessing and answer to prayer in my life.

In addition to weekly small groups, everyone gets together on Sunday evenings to share dinner, play games and just spend time together. When I first heard about this, I had two initial, conflicting thoughts:

1. I would love to go and use that time as an opportunity to get to know others better

2. I don’t want to be the weird/new girl who doesn’t eat anything or brings her own crazy food

So for a few weeks, I decided not to go. This week though, when a friend asked if I wanted to come, I explained the situation to her. It’s not that I didn’t want to be there, but I just wasn’t sure I new how to handle it yet. When I told her I had Celiac Disease, meaning I can’t eat anything with gluten, her response caught me off guard.

“Wait, is that it? It’s just gluten you can’t eat?”

“Well, yeah.” I answered, secretly thinking, “ummm that’s kind of a lot of stuff.”

It turns out that  one of the guys who hosts these dinners actually has Celiac too. My friend was already familiar with what the disease entails, so to her it didn’t come as a surprise. I was afraid everyone would think my eating habits were weird, but they already understand. I wouldn’t have to explain it to a bunch of different people AND there would definitely be g-free food for me to eat.

I can’t even explain what a huge relief this was to me. Thinking about it now, I hate that I was going to let Celiac hold me back from doing something I really wanted to do. I can’t believe I was going to let it control my life.

It’s true that Celiac will always be a part of me, but I don’t want it to define me. I don’t want it to even prevent me from living the life I want to live.

G-free Banana Bread

 

Truthfully I have been wanting to make this bread for awhile now. It’s not just that easy though, because several factors had to align for the time to be right.  I got these adorable mini-loaf pans for my birthday a few weeks ago, which I look at everyday and think how much they are begging to be used.

But then of course I had to wait for my bananas to be super ripe…which took longer than expected. See, bananas are probably one of my top five favorite foods, and I eat one every single morning. Needless to say, they don’t last long around here. When I want to make banana bread, I have to plan ahead and buy what resembles an embarrassing amount of bananas. You mean 12 bananas for one little person isn’t normal?? I finally restrained myself from finishing off the last three and let them hang around long enough to become nice and spotty and mushy.

Ok now we’ve got the tools and the ingredients, but the timing was also a crucial factor. I wanted to be able to enjoy my bread hot and fresh out of the oven, because really, what could possibly be better? So I should make the bread for breakfast, right? Well sure in theory that would be great, but since I’m normally at the starvation point 10 minutes after waking up, there was no way I could wait for these babies to bake in the morning. How about an afternoon snack? With dinner schedules planned out, that didn’t seem to work either. I knew my self-control would probably be lacking when faced with the aroma of freshly baked bread, so if I ate a snack (aka loaf) at 4:00, dinner at 6:00 would not be happening.

Anywaysss, today I just plain got tired of waiting and decided it was finally time. Ta-da! I present to you my first g-free banana bread recipe.

G-free Banana Bread

Makes 4 mini-loaves or 1 regular loaf

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups GF flour (I used Bob’s Gluten-Free AP)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

3 small-medium very ripe bananas (about 1 1/2 cups mashed)

1/4 cup applesauce

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

3. In a small bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, bananas, applesauce and vanilla until fully combined.

4. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry.

5. Fold in chopped walnuts.

6. Transfer batter to 4 mini-loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake for 28-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

7. Allow loaves to cool on wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

The texture of the bread is just like regular quick breads—not crumbly or dry. I think cooking them in the mini-loaves helped with that. Plus they are just cuter that way! There is definitely room for experimentation (I’m thinking chocolate chips or PB…or both?!) and different flour combos next time.

I know myself well; the warm bread was so yummy that my appetite is definitely ruined for dinner. Sorry I’m not sorry.

Picky Eaters

 

I have never been a picky eater. Even as a kid, I would much rather have ordered off of the adult menu instead of the kid’s when eating out. Chicken fingers and french fries or grilled salmon and asparagus? Even at six years old, that was an obvious choice. My parents always encouraged me to try new things and provided plenty of opportunities to do so. Although I’m sure for from a price perspective they wouldn’t have minded if I ordered those chicken fingers once in a while!

Now when people learn that I am a vegetarian and also gluten-free, their first question is, “What do you eat?” I think they assume that I must be a picky eater because my food selection is so limited. But that could not be further from the truth!

When I think of a picky eater, I think of someone who isn’t willing to try new foods or turns up their nose at something they’ve never even heard of. Or even the boy I used to babysit who ate the exact.same.thing for breakfast and lunch every single day that summer.

I think my current veg/g-free lifestyle has introduced me to so many new and different foods that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise ventured to buy. A kitchen full of tofu, tempeh, nutritional yeast, amaranth, etc., etc., hardly belongs to that of a picky eater. With fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds and many grains being naturally g-free, I have never felt my food selection is limited.

I don’t have a problem defending my food choices because I know that I eat a healthy, balanced diet. The thing is, I don’t think I should have to defend my food choices. Just because the things I eat are different from what others might choose does not give them the right to criticize my decisions. I’m not going to nag others for eating meat, (though I will gladly explain the benefits of a plant-based diet),  so please don’t look at my meal with a critical eye. I believe we could all stand to be more open-minded; in not just this, but all areas of our lives. If you still don’t believe me, let me cook you dinner and I promise I’ll change your mind and disprove any misconceptions about what a veg/g-free meal is like!

It’s the Little Things

 

My highlight of the week:

Discovering that candy corn is g-free! Clearly it’s an exciting life I lead. The real question is how many bags will I go through before Halloween?

It’s backkkk

 

Who doesn’t love bread? A crusty loaf with a super soft and fluffy center. Mmmm. Well, it’s been a while since I’ve had bread, and I was starting to miss it. Grilled cheese is one of my all time favorite foods, and it needed to make a come back in my life.

This required 2 things:

1. Me splurging on a loaf of g-free bread

2. This baby…

G-free breads can spoil very quickly, so keeping them frozen is necessary. To me, that also means a toaster is a necessity. Especially since I was picturing thawed bread turning out soggy.

Sharing a toaster is NOT an option when trying to prevent cross contamination. Just looking at the other toaster at home almost made me sick as I saw all the gluten-filled crumbs hanging out in there. I was going to  need to purchase a toaster when I moved anyways, and you can’t beat the back-to-college sale prices now, so it seemed like the perfect time to make this investment.

I ventured to the natural food store to check out my g-free options. I figured it would be safe to stick with one of the more well-known brands for my first purchase, so I went back and forth between Udi’s and Rudi’s (coincidence in the names?). Ultimately, I decided on Rudi’s…because it was cheaper! When you’re paying close to $6 for a loaf of bread, price is an important factor. I chose the whole-grain variety since it seemed the closest to the whole-wheat bread I used to purchase.

Ta da!

So what’s the verdict? It’s a winner! The bread tastes delicious. Honestly, I loved the flavor and texture, but my only complaint was that the pieces are much smaller than the regular loaves I’m used to. It’s not exactly that crusty loaf of Italian I was envisioning, but maybe that’s out there somewhere too!

And that first grilled cheese? Yeah, it was pretty good too. I don’t know how often I’ll actually buy bread since it is an expense, but it’s nice to know that when I do want a special treat I don’t have to sacrifice taste or quality. Strange that I am now considering bread a special treat!

Lemony Love

I. Love. Baking. It's true, I'm that girl that tries to bring the most impressive or elaborate dessert to a party for everyone to oooh and ahhh over. The key word there is that I try. Normally, this results in me experimenting with a fancy, new recipe before a get-together only to have it turn out to be a total flop. While I might love baking, I am all too familiar with some serious baking failures. But that doesn't keep me from trying.

Initially, all of the different g-free flours totally intimidated me. Was there a magic ratio for ways to combine them? And what the heck is xanthan gum? I gave myself a little break from the world of baking in order to tackle some delicious g-free cooking first. Now that I have plenty of tasty recipes in my repertoire, it was time to tackle the next challenge.

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, and she requested a lemon cake, but I knew it couldn't be just any lemon cake. It needed to be something extra special, and I went all out. My mom has been so supportive in helping me adapt to my new g-free lifestyle, so of course, she also requested a g-free birthday cake. Since it was her special day, I wanted my mom to have exactly what she wanted instead of choosing something just for me. But my mom being the selfless, considerate, generous lady she is, insisted I be able to share it with her. And you can bet I wasn't complaining :)

I scoured the Internet to find the best recipe, but when I came across a recipe for layered lemon cake with lemon whipped cream frosting, I knew that was the winner.

Did I mention the two layers of rich lemon curd? And even with all the layers, the lemon flavor and whipped cream frosting still made the cake feel light and not too rich. Not only did it have the perfect amount of lemony flavor, it looked beautiful too!

I wouldn't tell my mom before hand what I was making, and she was very pleasantly surprised when she saw this gem waiting for her. The cake received rave reviews AND I accomplished my goal of serving up an impressive and tasty dessert. I'm pretty proud of myself for this one. Gluten free baking? Piece of cake! At least I make myself laugh :)

Celebrating...g-free style

I would consider myself a bit of a foodie. I love trying new foods, cooking with unusual ingredients and eating out and trying different restaurants. However, eating out is not something that I do very often, more so because of my tight student/intern budget the past few years. Recently though, eating out has become terrifying for me. 

A few restaurants do offer a g-free menu, and others are deemed g-free friendly. But even at these restaurants my fear comes from the questions: How do I explain what g-free means to the staff? Do they understand how serious I am about avoiding gluten? Is there going to be something appealing for me to order? But my biggest question/fear is definitely: Am I going to get sick from eating this meal? I also don't want family or friends to choose where to eat based solely on my dietary restrictions.

I have successfully avoided restaurants the past few weeks by cooking at home and experimenting with new recipes on my own. But I knew that couldn't last forever, and deep down didn't really want it to either. This past weekend was full of celebrations! August is a big birthday month in my family, and last Saturday we celebrated my g-ma's 80th birthday with a surprise dinner.

The whole family came in town from Montana, DC, Florida, and Cleveland to be together for my g-ma's special day. While this dinner was planned long before I was diagnosed with Celiac, I cannot explain how relieved I was after researching the restaurant ahead of time and discovering a g-free menu! The choices were modified slightly from the original menu, but sounded absolutely delicious.

As we sat down to dinner I was hungry. It didn't take long for me to scan the menu and decide on my entree; however this dinner was a celebration and a time to enjoy each others' company, and no one was in a hurry to rush through a meal. Apps were ordered, including a mouth-watering lobster pierogi. I've mentioned my family's traditional pierogi before, but let me tell you, it was not easy watching that plate pass by, especially as everyone oooh and ahhh over how good it was. Then there was the bread basket. Warm, doughy, buttery bread with roasted garlic spread had never looked so good...or maybe that was the hunger talking.

As it was finally time to order our entrees and the waitress looked at me expectantly, I became so nervous and could feel the butterflies in my stomach. My voice was shaking, my palms were sweating as I specified my g-free option of choice. And you know what? It wasn't so hard. I had built up the moment in my mind thinking she might not get it or look at me like I was crazy, but after I ordered and she nodded her understanding, I felt like I could finally relax and trust that the staff truly recognized and respected me request.

By the time our entrees arrived, I was so hungry I wanted to cry. It's not that I wanted my family to sacrifice their food choices, especially on a special occasion, it's just that it was confirmation that the social implications of having Celiac are and will be the most difficult.

My meal was absolutely delicious and my sister and I even shared a beautiful and decadent g-free dessert. The evening was a great time to catch up on each other's lives and celebrate my g-ma's special day. My g-ma looks amazing and is still incredibly active at 80. Let's hope it's in the genes!  It meant so much to her to have the whole family together since it becomes harder and harder as we spread out across the country. 

As my first time eating out since going g-free, this was definitely a learning experience for me. Here are my take-aways:

1. Don't go to dinner hungry! It seems pretty obvious now, but if you know other's in your group will be ordering apps that you can't eat, you want to be able to relax and enjoy the company without drooling over their plates. You could even bring a little snack with you in case you get really desperate!

2. Research the restaurant ahead of time. Personally, I feel much better about eating at a restaurant that offers a g-free menu vs one that does not. But, sometimes the choice isn't up to you. If there isn't a g-free menu, go to dinner with a few ideas of what you might order or substitutions you might be able to make. You don't want to sit down with a menu for the first time only to realize that there is nothing safe. Also, make sure you feel comfortable explaining exactly how your food is to be prepared.

3. R-e-l-a-x and enjoy the company! I think I will definitely feel less anxiety with eating out as time goes by, but I don't want to become so preoccupied with worries about eating/ordering that I forget that the real reason I'm there is to spend time with people I love. The truth is you can never really be sure what goes on in the kitchen, but if you've done your part in educating the staff, it's not worth the worry to dwell on something you can't change.

I have actually eaten out two more times in the past few days (so out of the norm, I know) while celebrating my sister's bday too. But today is my mom's bday (I wasn't kidding about August being birthday month around here!) and I am excited about making her favorite dinner tonight as well as an extra special g-free birthday cake as per mom's request. More on that to come!

Embrace It

Exactly two weeks and one day ago today I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. I will never forget that day as my life from that point on would be changed forever. At first I was shocked, angry and overwhelmed. I couldn't help but think of all of the gluten containing foods that I would now have to give up. Never again would I eat another ice cream cone, my special heath bar birthday cake, Christmas cookie, Thanksgiving stuffing, pretzel (one of my favorite foods), or my family's traditional pierogi. I was devastated and tears were definitely shed.

Follow a gluten free diet forever? Forever had never sounded so far away, but this was just the beginning of my journey.

With lots of support from family and friends it only took a few days before my attitude started to change, and I became relieved by the diagnosis. I stopped feeling sorry for myself because I realized I am truly lucky. It normally takes years before a Celiac diagnosis is actually confirmed, and 95% of people with Celiac Disease don't even know they have it! All of the horrible symptoms and health issues I'd experienced are now completely in my control. By simply changing my diet, I will feel 100% better. No medications, no other tests, just food as the cure.

Being a Registered Dietitian I am especially thankful for my background knowledge of Celiac Disease. Learn how to read food labels? Check. Know which foods contain gluten? Got it. Find gluten-free alternatives? Done. While I know how to do these things, that doesn't mean change is easy. 

In the past two weeks as I began to explore more g-free options, I learned I wouldn't necessary have to give up my favorite foods. I can still enjoy cakes, cookies and even pretzels, but just in g-free form. This process requires creativity in the kitchen, but I'm ready for the challenge! There are plenty of other challenges to tackle as well: eating out, explaining my g-free lifestyle to family and friends, creating a safe-zone in the kitchen and lots of others things that I'll discover along the way.

I'm now ready to embrace my Celiac Disease. G-free please!