The Grand Experiment Day 1

Well, it just wasn't practical to start last week so we held out until last night to officially kick off the Gluten Free Experiment. So far it's gone a little something like this-

Sunday Dinner- Homemade pizza. Raging success. It was my 3rd attempt at a GF crust. The first one had good flavor but the texture of soggy cardboard. So I tweaked a little to arrive at crust #2, again, good flavor, slightly improved texture but still a bit too chewy for my tastes. Last night tweaked a little harder and DING DING DING we had a winner. Good, consistent texture, good flavor. I may add a dash of salt next time but otherwise, it's good enough to run with. Recipe goes a lil' something like this:

1 c warm water
1 pkt (2 1/4 t) yeast
1 t sugar
1 1/2 t olive oil
1/2 c white rice flour
1/4 c sorghum flour
1/4 c potato starch
1 1/2 t xanthum gum
2-3 cloves crushed garlic

Dissolve the sugar and yeast in 1/2 c of water and let sit about 10 minutes until the mixture is nice and bubbly. Add the rest of the water, oil and garlic and give it a mix. Combine the dry ingredients then mix into the wet. Press it all out on a pizza stone- keep your fingers plenty wet for this part, then let it rest for 10-15 minutes while the oven preheats to 450. Bake for 15 minutes then remove from the oven, brush the crust with olive oil, top with ingredients of your choice and return to the oven for another 10-12 minutes. YUM YUM!

Breakfast this morning- Pancakes. On the dr's recommendation I tried Pamela's Products pancake mix and I gotta tell you, they aren't just too bad. Texture's a little grittier than I am used to in pancakes but the flavor is great. I think I'll try the waffles one of these mornings. I'm also going to attempt to make Rich's favorite cookies using the Pamela's mix to replace the flour. We'll see how that goes tonight.

Lunch- Miserable failure. I bought some GF wraps at the grocery store this weekend. Wasn't hugely confident from the start but it's an experiment, right? So I made myself a wrap and one for Rich. lil' cream cheese, lil' meat, lil' lettuce, etc... Had the first half of mine around 11. I will not be returning for the 2nd half. First problem was the wrap got SLIMY on the outside. I admit texture issues when it comes to food and slimy is not good... But the weird thing was it was only surface slime. Apparently the wrap is created with some sort of impenetrable barrier to the insides which remained dry and mealy... UGH! Will be interesting to see what Rich has to say about his wrap tonight. I'm not expecting good things... I think I'll make tuna salad with rice noodles for tomorrow!

Dinner tonight should be a good recovery. Italian sausage with peppers and onions, penne (rice pasta of course) and marinara baked with a bit of mozzarella for good measure. YUM!!!

Just say NO (The grand experiment)

A few weeks back my dr told me to try going gluten free to help with a major acid reflux issue I was dealing with.  Resistant as I was at the time, I tried it and I really did feel better- slept better, no heart burn, felt less sluggish during the day, so it was hard to deny he might be onto something.  

In trying to educate myself on just what gluten is and how to eat without it, I've wandered across quite a few websites and a couple of interesting blogs.  I was reading one of the blogs (The Gluten Free Girl) last night and had a light bulb moment- through links to several of her previous posts I got to a post about how a friend was diagnosed with Celiac disease.  Reading about his path to diagnoses made me realize maybe this is what has lead my husband to the dr on a regular basis with complaints of constant aches, tingling extremities, a feeling of constant sluggishness, fatigue, etc.  Over the years he's been through a gamut of test- arthritis, thyroid condition, alteration of his ADHD meds, and it always comes back to the dr saying you're getting older, you're not going to feel like you did when you were 20, etc which has frustrated him to no end.  It sicks when you know somethings wrong but no one can tell you what that might be.  So many things seem to fit that I figure it's worth exploring... Hence the grand experiment.  For the next couple of weeks we're going to try together to just say no to gluten.  

Rich is even more resistant to change than I am I think so the fact that he agreed to give it a shot feels huge.  I stumbled across this entirely by accident but he agrees it's worth a shot to feel good.  Not really out anything except perhaps a few extra food dollars but I can live with that.  So wish us luck. Lunch seems to be my biggest challenge- more on what to feed him than what to eat myself. Poor guy's stuck with a cold sandwich every day but I don't know if I'll manage to find a bread worthy of sandwich making.  No time like the present to experiment though I suppose!

I'm better today...

But it's just cuz my Madden 2009 with Brett Favre on the cover wearing the jersey he's supposed to always wear arrived today.  Will I ever actually play the game... doubtful.  Lets face it, Celebrity Death Match is the only game I've ever actually "mastered" on my PS2 and that's just because all you have to do is randomly push buttons to be successful.  Anything involving strategy or an actual command of what the buttons are supposed to do is entirely beyond my skill set.  Why then, you ask, did I spend 40 of my hard earned dollars on a video game I'll never play... Because it was entertaining when Favre was slated to be the first ever retired player to get the cover shot on Madden.  Now that he's a Jet but the game was released with him in a Packer jersey it's a must own.  Maybe it'll be a collectors item some day.  Probably not but damn it I'm still not ready to accept that my QB is going to be announced as the starter for someone else's team so this is what I do to sooth my football soul.  And I'm ok with that.

It's gone...

Gone I tell you. GONE.  I know where it is but it's not here and I don't like it.  What, you ask? My hope.  Ted Thompson traded my hope to the Jets for a lousy 4th round draft pick.  I'm sitting here watching the first Packer pre-season game of the year.  For the last 15 years I've watched every pre-season game with the same anticipation as if it were the NFC championship game and we were about to go to the Super Bowl.  For those not familiar with Packer fan's...  WE are a part of the team...  We are a running back. We are a wide receiver. We are a  tackle. We are a coach.  Our mood for the next 7 days is decided by the end result of each weeks game...  We just don't get the big paycheck... But I digress.  Last week Thursday that anticipation disappeared along with my quarterback.  I may get my hope back, hopefully even when watching the Packers instead of the Jets, but for now, I just don't know... For 15 and a half years I watched every Sunday knowing that Brett Favre would take the field and ANYTHING was possible.  Aaron Rodgers is a total unknown.  Can miracles happen when he takes the field?  Only time will tell.  For now, I sit here watching the game wondering like the rest of Packer nation if we've opened the door to the next great QB or if we've installed the next revolving door of abysmal quarterbacks and will relive the "great" old times of the 70s and 80s.  I guess only time will tell... and I hate waiting!