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?