mmmmm...

Made the most ridiculously good Vegan, Gluten free dinner. Ta-da: it's easy! I steamed Red Kale, Gluten free Textured Vegetable Protein, Sliced Squash, Sliced Zuccinni, Sliced Carrots, Slivered Ginger, Garlic, Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar, Braggs Amino Acids, Sesame Oil, Water, Dill, Cilantro, tiny bit of Ginger Powder, Ground Pepper Medley, and Sea Salt. During the last bit of steaming, toast raw pecans. When it is emptied into your eating bowl, use the leftover "juice", if any, too, so you don't lose any nutrients. Then add the toasted pecans, some omega three oil, and Mediterranean Seasoned Soy Feta (crumbled). Add things or change it up according to your taste and dietary needs. Go easy on the fattier ingredients if you're trying to lose weight or stay in a particular range. Not much of each ingredient is needed, either, as it satisfies your palette with a small serving. Enjoy, I did!

eeek

Wow- well I believe I found out that my doctor's hunch that I was lactose intolerant in addition to gluten intolerant...in addition to too many others....was/is very very spot on! I accidentally grabbed the Amy's Gluten Free Tamale Verde with CHEESE- I thought I had grabbed the GF Vegan one. I realized this too late into the meal. I thought it tasted different....neverminding the giant "cheese" written across the front of the box. I'd bought the other kind so often, I didn't bother to look at it and realize my mistake.

All to quickly, I transported myself onto a rocky train ride and word for word I remembered Kate's (Meg Ryan) rant from "French Kiss" and I lived it. "It's here, the mucus is here, coating the intestinal walls, spasm spasm, here it comes...lactose intolerance!!!!" Then I walfed into some big puny muck. I refluxed all over...and ofcourse you know everything else.

What was such a bummer was how I prided myself on grabbing hold of the GF, DF, no refined GF Carbs and light intake if any GF ones, and right before Thanksgiving, too! And here I was, blowing it with one mistake I didn't even deliberately make. Yikes! It's already difficult maintaining this plus being the solo vegetarian in the family, especially now that I have holidays to go through. Now moving towards being a vegan, too.... one who may not be able to eat the GF, Vegan cheeses due to the yeast....oh the agony! It's not that I wanted to bathe in cheese or anything....ok, maybe that would be a fantasy, but seriously to cut off every type completely for ever and ever might be too much to ask this girl. I'm determined to find an alternative, to get retested for allergies to pinpoint the yeast, so I know if I can atleast have Daiya cheese or something similar or not. Afterall, I do not want to make myself any more ill than I've been.

Goodness, what's a girl to do?

Baking Time!

I'm very excited. Although I am not well, I've reached enough of a plateau to travel over to Earth Fare and fufill my grocery list to try some of the recipe's from the new Baby Cakes NYC cookbook! I'm hoping this will help me out a little more than Thanksgiving did, unarmed and living in an un-empathetic to gluten free or veggie/vegan town, since I can make an accompanied ride over to the store. I will post the goods when that happens and at some point post an opening to this new blog. Hurray :)

"when you get to the end, stop"- the mad hatter

My apologies if someone has posted this, but I couldn't find it and wanted to know more about gluten in meds and see how we can help others- potentially save everyone from the long searches of looking things up themselves.

Has anyone else noticed how ridiculously difficult it is to find out if gluten is in a medication? Being newly diagnosed, I have found myself going through the ringer analizing medical ingredients and frustrated at how many things aren't listed, like the caplets, coatings, films. Ofcourse, there's also the legal cop-out of "We Cannot Guarantee that this product doesn't contain gluten and/or has been contaminated with gluten". Yaaaayyyy...thanks for the care,companies.

One of these fun pills is Nexium. Now, this one in "The Gluten-Free Bible" says it is not gluten free, but I have noticed some of the pills listed are not correctly listed and it's five years after publication, so things change. Nexium's tagline should be changed to "the little purle pain in the a**", because it is one of the lovely friends of the legally opted-out brands, as in they aren't quite sure about gluten and aren't going to let you blame them if you have a reaction by it being mysteriously contaminated. Maybe they and Outback should join forces.

Here's one of question: Levaquin. One of the most insanely difficult brands (including all of the Fluoroquinolone types) to pinpoint all of the ingredients. This is one of those that mysteriously has a film coating that is not identified. I had an allergic reaction to this. Now, this could be me, because I am allergic to almost everything, including other medications. Regardless, has anyone found out about these pills?

Also, I have to completely disagree with "The Gluten Free Bible" 's suggestions that if you are in the hospital and don't know which antibodies may or may not contain gluten and they have to give you something, to take the medication intravenously. I'm sorry, but No, no no no no! More people, including those without any allergies can have more extreme allergic reactions from compounded medications that are made to enter by intravenous means. So what does this mean for people with actual allergies, sensitivities, intolerances...yadda yadda, mean- we WILL have a much worse reaction this way and I have experienced this, too. I would suggest, which you probably all ready do, finding which medications work, which main ingredients you have allergy to (i.e.: gluten, penicillin, glutonous starch from wheat, whatever else you individually may have, etc.), and what you take regularly and print it out, laminate it and keep it with you at all times. Maybe even purchase a medical alert bracelet, red cross alert tatoo, or ???, so if you are alone and taken to the hospital unconscious, they will know to look in your things for that madical information. I believe any steps you can or want to take to help yourself out of compromising situations with your health, go for it.

Ok. kind of veered off topic a bit, but does anyone else have medicines they'd like to help us Celiacs out with, tips, etc. that would be wonderful!

Thanks