adventures of the gluten free sort...

Recently I've noticed that I am far more sensitive to gluten. When I was first diagnosed with a wheat intolerance I found that little amounts (the breading on a chicken nugget, the crust on a cheesecake, etc) didn't seem to bother me. I cut out things like bread and pasta, but clung to everything else. In the back of my mind I've wondered if this was ok... the disease that killed my father has been known to begin with undiagnosed celiac disease. My grandmother was also intolerant of wheat. Did I need to cut it out completely? That would be far too difficult... I counted myself lucky that I didn't have to read every label and worry about where and how things were manufactured.

I've been reading a book called Gluten Free Girl. I've learned more about gluten free living, celiac disease and wheat intolerance in the past couple months than I did in the last 8 years. So many of the symptoms that Shauna, the author, experienced are eerily familiar to me. Armed with new knowledge of how gluten attacks someone with my kind of intolerance and old knowledge of isolating foods to find out what is negatively affecting you, I was ready when I started feeling poorly the last couple months. After a week of stomach ache and headache, I cut out the only things I could think of that had been changed in my regular diet. When I reintroduced those things in the following weeks I found the symptoms returning.

Trying to eat completely gluten free is like learning of my intolerance all over again, but this time I have an amazing support system (you know, that boy I'll be marrying in 97 days?) urging me to try new things and cheering me on as I begin to make things from scratch using ingredients I'm only just learning to understand.

The last week has brought:

Chicken Pot Pie with a Gluten Free Crust & gluten free flours to thicken the gravy
Chicken Noodle Soup with rice noodles
Onion, Swiss & Turkey Bacon Quiche with that same Gluten Free Crust
More of the Banana Bread I've mentioned before
Impromptu Apple Pie for two (yes, the very same pie crust)

A peek at the quiche (which luckily passed the test from my fiance the quiche lover!)

New Organization

in two forms...

1. I am now gainfully employed! Wednesday and Thursday of last week I interviewed with a small privately owned company which make, refurbish, and repair MRIs and CT Scans. I start my job as "junior accountant" this coming wednesday. Yippee! This means I have one week to truly relax (sitting at home spending 5 hours on career builder wasn't exactly relaxing...). I have one week to work on wedding and home projects before things get busy. What shall I start with??? Oh yes, addressing envelopes. Then perhaps I can recover the living-room table/ottoman (I can justify spending the $15 for the fabric now that I have a job!).

2. We're now the proud owners of a new (to us) ikea expedit shelf! We've been watching out for this shelf/entertainment unit for our living room. With one small modification (which required me to hand saw a shelf until I couldn't feel my arms) it is a perfect fit. Ample storage for records, books, and whatever else needed its own place. I love to organize... its true... and this shelf has made me a very happy girl!



Ok, on to enjoying my week!