The End of the Beginning

That is a cryptic title and perhaps it is meant to be.  As we are coming to the last few days of our gluten-free challenge, I keep asking myself if I intend to stay gluten-free.  The answer has varied from fearing that I’ll succumb to crazy cravings I’ve experienced on this fast of sorts for things I never eat anyway, like doughnuts, to the simple request that I would love some toasted and buttered sourdough toast to occasionally go with my poached farm fresh eggs.  I am not quite sure where I’ll land at the end of this.  I’m not dying to go out and have a sandwich right away.  My birthday is about a week away and I won’t say no to a cupcake if one comes my way.  I think what I’ve learned is how pervasive wheat is in our diets and that we really don’t need it to have a complete diet and to be satisfied.  I don’t think I’ll buy bread every week, but occasionally I may.  I won’t make or partake of baked goods so often and I’ll continue to try out gluten free recipes.  In fact, I think I’ll keep making my gluten-free bran flakes most weeks.  Greg lost 6 or 7 pounds, and I stayed the same (though weight-loss was really not the point of our experiment) but we both felt lighter and more energetic while eating gluten-free.  I imagine we will both think before we grab a snack about the presence of wheat and eat it more thoughtfully paying attention to effects on our body when we do make that choice.  I also feel it have given me an appreciation for the fact that for me it is a choice,  so many who suffer from celiac disease have to make these careful food choices and with so many wheat/ gluten containing products, I now have more understanding of how challenging it must be for them on a daily basis to choose food that will not make them sick.  I am grateful for that lesson. 

We will see over time how and if we choose to reintroduce wheat into our diets.  Greg and I have agreed that we won’t buy bread for now, though we may enjoy a slice on the rare occasion we go out for breakfast.  We have also agreed that we will absolutely eat pizza when in Rome, but maybe not very often at home.  If we do indulge it would have to be at a very special pizza place or a homemade (possibly even gluten-free) variety.  I still have lots of gluten-free baking, I want to try out.  Plenty of cookies and quick breads to get us through the winter that don’t contain gluten left to try.  So while we are relaxing our gluten-freeness, don’t expect me to stop sharing recipes that fit into that category any time soon.  This has been a positive and not very difficult dietary change for us. 

Here are the last few gf recipe days

Monday Day 29

Breakfast: GF bran flakes with berries and milk

Lunch: Kale salad and leftover broccoli soup

Dinner: Fish Tacos with corn tortillas, avocado and mango salsa

Tuesday Day 30

Breakfast: GF bran flakes with berries and milk

Lunch: Kale salad and peanut butter banana recovery drink

Dinner: Baked potato with chili, cheddar, grilled onion and sour cream

Playing Catch-up

With a very busy end of the week, as well as a jam packed weekend, I’m playing catch-up with the blog on Sunday evening.  We did manage to squeeze in lots of fun though, visiting our nieces, a long run, a meditation class, concert going at The Folk,  Farmer’s Market and an amazing lunch with my mom, and shopping for new running shoes; made for a delightful weekend.  I got done with all of my grading and planning early on Saturday so I could enjoy some down time.  This afternoon I’ve been busily prepping lunches and snacks for the week, because its conference week which means teaching in the mornings and meetings in the afternoon and evening.  So here is a brief overview of the last several days.

Thursday

Breakfast: GF bran flakes with berries and milk

Lunch: Spring greens, roasted beets, yellow tomatoes, shaved pecorino cheese and apple cider vinaigrette

Dinner: Fish tacos

Friday

Breakfast: GF bran flakes with berries and milk

Lunch: Power green blend salad, tomatoes, mozzarella, and balsamic vinaigrette with basil

Dinner: Grilled eggplant and tomatoes with basil, and green olives with buratta

Dessert: Apples and caramel dip

Saturday

Breakfast: Recovery drink

Lunch: Leftover potato soup

Dinner: BBQ trout, sautéed mushroom, wedge salads

Sunday

Breakfast: GF bran flakes with berries and milk

Lunch: Cheese Plate with sheep, cow and goat cheese, olives, gf crackers, almonds, grapes, honey, and speck

Dinner: Broccoli Cheddar Soup

1 head of broccoli (cut into small florets)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4 small yellow potatoes (boiled and peeled and cut into pieces) 
2 cup veggie broth
2 tbsp butter or olive oil
1 1/2 cup good cheddar cheese
1 cup milk
1/2 cup kefir
salt and pepper to taste


In a large pot, melt butter and cook onions until golden brown, add garlic and cook until tender.  Stir in broccoli and cover in broth and cook until tender.  Spoon broccoli out with slotted spoon and save for later, if some little pieces remain in the broth that is okay.  Add the cooked potato to the broth and use a hand blender to make a smooth and thick base.  Add the milk and kefir slowly, a little of each at a time, until you have the desired thickness for your soup.  Stir in the cheese and add the broccoli back in.  Season with salt and pepper as desired. 

Déjà vu

Do you ever have that feeling like…"all this has happened before and it will all happen again?" Well Tuesday's and Wednesday's meals were sort of like that for us for a variety of reasons.  I made enough breakfast and lunches to last us the week, so that was to be expected.  Luckily I made a giant helping of last night's dinner, so that when today was 3 meeting afternoon followed by a fourth unofficial meeting called, “The Monthly Hiking Date,” (gotta come up with a better term for that one…Greg and I made a pact to take one hike each month after our June hike in Yosemite, thus the odd but aptly named term was born) and we arrived home after dark and starving, dinner was ready to pull out of the fridge and eat with zero preparation. Déjà vu is always creepy but that doesn’t mean it has to leave a bad taste in your mouth. 

Day 23 AND 24  (Insert Twilight Zone- like creepy music)

Breakfast: GF bran flakes with berries and milk

Lunch: spring greens, roasted beets, yellow tomatoes, shaved pecorino cheese and apple cider vinaigrette and gf pumpkin muffins (the muffins are getting a bit dry as the week creeps on) 

Dinner: 8 layer dip (leftover rice, refried beans, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, olives and green onions)  and tortilla chips

Dessert: Chocolate chip Cheesecake

Manic Monday

6 o’clock already… you know the tune.  Thrust into the non-stop world of elementary education and by the time I completed my teaching day and landed in the afternoon meeting that crept into the 5 ‘o clock hour, I began to get jumpy.  I was hungry and dinner needed to be soon but I had a very edgy feeling like I needed to move, immediately, I couldn’t wait for an am run in the morning.  Greg picked me up an we grabbed a few dinner supplies at the corner market, but as we headed home past the bank and its temperature display, Greg warned, “Its still in the 80s, you sure you want to run?”  For me it wasn’t a question, I had to run.  If I was going to focus my energy enough to cook a delicious meal, sit calmly by his side on the couch in the evening hours and go to bed at a decent time, I had to run.  All of that being said, I expected to tear it up, but Greg had been right about the heat. It was 86 degrees still at 6:20, by the time I changed and got out there.  Mile one was excruciatingly slow and sunny.  By mile two I was throwing of sweat like sparks, and still moving at a snails pace.  Mile three, my allergies kicked in and I was choking on some sort of weird phlegm, instead of enjoying the downhill. I had that yucky experience where you get so hot you stop sweating and kind of get the chills during the last 5 minutes of the run.  But then when I got home and drank a giant glass of ice water (that in turn gave me a stomach ache) I began to sweat coursing rivers.  Only after a very cool shower, from which I emerged shaky and exhausted, did I feel somewhere near my normal self.  Basically the only thing that did not suck about my evening run was that it would allow me to sleep in tomorrow morning.  I guess that made it worth it. 

Let’s move on to something more pleasant, today’s menu, it was a good one.

Day 22

Breakfast: GF bran flakes with organic berries and raw milk

Lunch: spring greens, roasted beets, yellow tomatoes, shaved pecorino cheese and apple cider vinaigrette (Made enough of this salad to last Greg and I for a few lunches this week.) and a leftover gluten free pumpkin muffin.

Dinner:  Grilled Mahi Mahi Tacos with toasted corn tortillas cabbage salad, mango salsa, avocado and spicy sour cream 

Dessert: Chocolate chip Cheesecake

What ya got cookin' ?

The answer to that question would be…a whole lot of deliciousness! But, we’ll get to that later. 21 Days under my belt and here is what I’ve noticed.  The first week I felt hungry more often, this continued a little into the second week but has basically subsided except for one thing.  I wake up at about 1 or 2 am feeling like I could eat a horse.  I acknowledge that strange sensation and go back to sleep without issue and wake at the usual time feeling completely normal.  So aside from the midnight hunger spikes, I’ve not been overly hungry since week one.  Yesterday with the first hint of fall in the air and our visit to the apple pie capital of Southern California, I’ll admit I was tempted.  But we didn’t give in; didn’t buy a pie, a crumble, a crisp, not even a little fritter or a tart.  (Well mom did buy a tart to take home to Grandma but that doesn’t count because we didn’t eat it).  This craving for baked goods continued this morning.  I’m out of milk for my gluten-free cereal, (our regular Sunday trip to the farmer’s market will remedy this later in the day) so I started thinking about how good a pumpkin muffin would be with my coffee this morning.  So I did a lot of cooking today, knowing that the coming week will be just as busy as the last.  Having healthy lunches and snacks that are easy to grab on the go will make my packed teaching week easier manage. 

Breakfast: apple sauce, cinnamon and toasted coconut (we were out of just about everything, but this worked).

Lunch: Cheese plate with manchego and membrillo (quince paste) celery, tomatoes, green olives and rice crackers

Dinner:  Potato soup and GF pumpkin muffins

Here is the recipe for the Pumpkin Muffins

2 cups gluten free pancake mix

2/3 cup pumpkin puree

2 eggs

1/3 cup kefir

3 tbsp brown sugar

1tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp vanilla

a sprinkle of grated nutmeg, ground cloves and allspice

Mix all of these ingredients with a hand mixer.  Scoop with ice cream scoop into paper lined muffin tins and bake in preheated oven at 375 for 18-22 minutes

Dessert: Chocolate chip cheesecake

We enjoyed the cheesecake so much last week that I decided to try another variation of it for this week.  I only made two changes.  I used coconut sugar instead of granulated (this changed the color of the filling to make it look more like cookie dough than vanilla, which I think was fine given the fact that second change was that I mixed in chocolate chips).  It ended up looking like a chocolate chip cookie dough cheese cake. 

Gluten-free chocolate chip Cheesecake

Filling

1 (8oz) pkg soft cream cheese

1/3 cup coconut sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp coconut flour

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

Crust

3/4 cup almond meal

4 tbsp butter

2 tbsp powdered sugar

To make the crust, stir together the almond meal and the powdered sugar.  Mix in the melted butter.  Press into the bottom and ½ inch up the sides of the small spring form pan.  Bake at 350 for 5 min. 

Heat oven to 425.  In a medium sized bowl combine the cream cheese, granulated sugar, egg, coconut flour and vanilla.  Using and electric hand mixer, blend until smooth.  Stir in the chocolate chips with a spoon.  Spoon the mixture on to the crust and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.  Bake at 425 for 5 minutes, then lower the oven temp to 250 and bake for 25 minutes.  Cool at room temperature for 15 minutes and run a rubber spatula along the sides, then remove the rim.  Top with fresh mango, berries, peaches or any seasonal fruit. 

(I use a  half-sized spring form pan 5-6 inches in diameter. You can double the recipe and the cook times and bake in a full sized 9-inch spring form pan for a full sized cheesecake).

A long run and a short walk

My long run this morning was bliss.  Ok, not all of it.  The first 3 miles were uphill and slow going, but it was overcast and in the 70s which was such a welcome relief from the triple digits this past week that I didn’t’ mind.  Once at the top of the Thompson Creek trail, it was all downhill.  Beautiful trees, the path full of smiling exercisers enjoying cooler air during the early morning; you could feel the love!  The 7 miles zoomed by and though I tried to stay present in the moment, I knew it would all be over too soon. 

Back at home, I took advantage of the cooler weather to…

A) Wear long pajama pants

B) Clean the house

C) Make a new batch of gluten free bran flakes

D) All of the Above

Correct, my friends, the answer is D!  After a light lunch Greg and I picked up my mom and drove to Oak Glen to buy apples and cider and to take a short walk in the Wilderness Conservancy Area.  It is so beautiful up there!  Back home for dinner, here is the food breakdown for the day.

  

Day 20

Breakfast: GF bran flakes with berries and milk

Lunch: Hummus, hardboiled eggs, rice crackers, smoked salmon and cheese

Dinner:  Grilled trout, steamed artichoke, rice with tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms

Dessert: Caramel apple

TGIF

I was very relieved for the end of this long hot week!  Friday night we took Greg’s office mate and good friend, Paul, out to celebrate his birthday at our favorite sushi spot, Kishi.  Greg had a gig with his Latin Jazz Band, La Chispa, but apparently I had a date with an early bedtime.  Here is what we ate:

 

Day 19

Breakfast: overnight oats

Lunch: ½ Avocado stuffed Egg salad and rice crackers

Dinner: Kishi (Yellowtail collar and veggie sushi) 

Dessert: Mango sorbet

Weary Wednesday and Tired Thursday

Sitting down at the end of a day filled with picture day, a team meeting, another dream-like predawn run with my running buddy, Talia, and a myriad of teaching duties sprinkled throughout another eat-in/ play-in lunch due to the extreme heat, I felt so weary.  Only Wednesday but I’m ready for the weekend! Trying to listen to my body, I surrendered to an early bedtime.  But first here is the gluten-free menu we enjoyed…

Day 17

Breakfast: Recovery shake (kefir, milk, banana, unsweetened cocoa and honey…I’m out of homemade peanut butter, the weekend needs to come so I can make more!)

Lunch: Leftover eggplant

Dinner: Grilled wild salmon, stuffed potato, green beans, roasted corn and sautéed mushrooms

Dessert: Leftover cheesecake with fresh mango and whip cream

Thursday was another tiring day.  Though slightly cooler, we did not break 90 today, but almost.  Hopefully a restful weekend is all I need to restore my energy levels.  In the meantime, we kept gluten-free one more day.

Day 18

Breakfast: Recovery shake (milk, banana, unsweetened cocoa and honey…I’m out of homemade peanut butter and kefir now!)

Lunch: Leftover veggie stuffed potatoes

Dinner:  Poached eggs over polenta with Comte cheese, green olives and herbs

Dessert:  I imagine we’ll polish off the rest of the cheesecake later!  

Weary Wednesday and Tired Thursday

Weary Wednesday and Tired Thursday

Sitting down at the end of a day filled with picture day, a team meeting, another dream-like predawn run with my running buddy, Talia, and a myriad of teaching duties sprinkled throughout another eat-in/ play-in lunch due to the extreme heat, I felt so weary.  Only Wednesday but I’m ready for the weekend! Trying to listen to my body, I surrendered to an early bedtime.  But first here is the gluten-free menu we enjoyed…

Day 17

Breakfast: Recovery shake (kefir, milk, banana, unsweetened cocoa and honey…I’m out of homemade peanut butter, the weekend needs to come so I can make more!)

Lunch: Leftover eggplant

Dinner: Grilled wild salmon, stuffed potato, green beans, roasted corn and sautéed mushrooms

Dessert: Leftover cheesecake with fresh mango and whip cream

Thursday was another tiring day.  Though slightly cooler, we did not break 90 today, but almost.  Hopefully a restful weekend is all I need to restore my energy levels.  In the meantime, we kept gluten-free one more day.

Day 18

Breakfast: Recovery shake (milk, banana, unsweetened cocoa and honey…I’m out of homemade peanut butter and kefir now!)

Lunch: Leftover veggie stuffed potatoes

Dinner:  Poached eggs over polenta with Comte cheese, green olives and herbs

Dessert:  I imagine we’ll polish off the rest of the cheesecake later! 

Holy Cheesecake, Batman!

I have no explanation for that comic book title other than I wanted to grab your attention.

We are more than half way to our goal of 30 days gluten-free so I felt like celebrating.  Tonight for dessert, I made cheesecake.  I know cheesecake.  I made 9 cheesecakes for my wedding.  I am fairly confident in my cheesecake baking skills.  So I simply took my go-to recipe, stripped it of gluten ingredients and substituted with gluten-free alternatives.  Go ahead, try it!  I dare you!  You won’t be disappointed. 

Gluten-free Cheesecake

Filling

1 (8oz) pkg soft cream cheese

1/3 cup granulated sugar  (I’ll try coconut sugar next time)

1 egg

1 tbsp coconut flour

1 tsp vanilla

Crust

3/4 cup almond meal

4 tbsp butter

2 tbsp powdered sugar

To make the crust, stir together the almond meal and the powdered sugar.  Mix in the melted butter.  Press into the bottom and ½ inch up the sides of the small spring form pan.  Bake at 350 for 5 min. 

Heat oven to 425.  In a medium sized bowl combine the cream cheese, granulated sugar, egg, coconut flour and vanilla.  Using and electric hand mixer, blend until smooth.  Spoon the mixture on to the crust and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.  Bake at 425 for 5 minutes, then lower the oven temp to 250 and bake for 25 minutes.  Cool at room temperature for 15 minutes and run a rubber spatula along the sides, then remove the rim.  Top with fresh mango, berries, peaches or any seasonal fruit. 

(I use a  half-sized spring form pan 5-6 inches in diameter. You can double the recipe and the cook times and bake in a full sized 9-inch spring form pan for a full sized cheesecake).

Man cannot live on cheesecake alone.  So here is the record of what we ate the rest of the day.

Day 16

Breakfast: Overnight oats with blueberries

Lunch: Leftover stuffed potatoes with broccoli, cottage cheese and mango

Dinner:  Grilled eggplant with tomatoes, green olives and basil, spring greens and burrata

Insanity

When we are experiencing triple digit heat, there is really no good time to run, except before the sun comes up.  This is an even better time than late in the evening, because the air has had overnight to cool down.  It is at times like these that Greg refers to my dedication to running as insanity.  I might have to agree with him unless I had found a willing partner in crime.  My friend Talia, who is training to run her first half marathon in October in on a training cycle that compels her to run 4 miles this Monday and Wednesday come hell or hot temperatures.  We planned to meet at 5:30 am at my house and get our run in with plenty of time to shower and head to work afterward.  In a dream like state, we enjoyed our early morning run and I still had the energy to stick with the gluten-free plan for the rest of the day. On days like this though, you gotta kick in a bit more hydration. For Greg and I, our favorite go to is coconut water.  Here is the brand we fell in love with while on Maui.  I'm not at all embarrassed to say we ordered a case when we got home to feed our addiction.

Day 15

Breakfast: Overnight oats with fresh berries

Lunch: Leftover stuffed potatoes with broccoli

Dinner: Baked beans with avocado, cheddar, sour cream and corn chips

Scorching Sunday

It is damn hot here in So Cal right now.  We are going to have triple digits for the next several days, so no relief in sight.  No running this am, since I am still nursing my injuries from yesterday’s fall.  I woke up with a really sore neck, shoulder and right hip.  Funny I didn’t fall on those areas, but Greg explains it as whiplash.  When I hit the sidewalk with all of that acceleration, I must have hit with my right side first, which is why my right hand took the brunt of the gravel and the left only got minor scrapes.  Anyhow, a little Advil for the ache and a fresh wrapping of gauze for my hand and I was ready to face the day. 

Sunday is farmer’s market day, we made it down there by 10, but it was already a blazing 92 degrees.  We shopped quickly and retreated to the comfort of our air conditioned home.  Greg’s parents had come over for dinner last night and my mom was coming for lunch today.  On the menu, comfort food.  My mom has had this cold she can’t kick for nearly 2 weeks.  When we don’t feel good, we like to eat something that reminds us of our youth.  Auntie Kay’s cheese dip was the remedy today.  While the original recipe calls for Velveeta (I replaced this with real cheese), there are curative ingredients as well.  Chili peppers, garlic, onion; these are all good for a cold and tomatoes have vitamin C.  We served it with corn chips, so its also gluten free.  It was very tasty but the texture left something to be desired.  The cheese was at once gloppy and liquidy.  I’ll have to keep working on this one until I get it right. 

Here’s the breakdown of foods for today:

Day 14

Breakfast: Overnight oats with applesauce mixed in

Lunch: Veggie Cheese dip with chips

Dinner: Grilled portabella mushrooms with blue cheese, cabbage salad,  and potatoes with broccoli

The day my run had me for breakfast

As I left for my long run just before dawn, Greg shouted from bed, “Have fun and be careful.”  He always shouts, “Be careful,” but the “Have fun” was an inviting addition.  I had already decided to scale back my mileage after being so zapped running 10 miles last Saturday.  I’ll run 7, I decided, the final mile swinging back by to pick up Greg. 

Starting out on the first 6-mile leg, I decided if I wasn’t going to run far, I was going to run fast.  (Well fast for me anyway.)  I always start with a 10 minute mile or a close to 10 minute mile for my warm up and then for long runs I usually settle in to a 9 minute mile pace, sometimes slipping into the high 8s when I’m running downhill.  I’m not looking to break any records, just spend an hour or so getting some exercise and exploring some interesting places outdoors.  Today my warm up mile was at 9 and I just kept speeding up!  Mile two was even quicker, Mile three I was at 8:25, by mile four I was almost at 7…then I was flying. 

No, I was quite literally flying through the air with my body parallel to the sidewalk.  Then with a jarring slam, the whole length of my body was crashing into the sidewalk.  I fell?  Really?  That has never happened before.  As I counted my blessings that my pavement encrusted hands were the only part of me bleeding, I took inventory. Palms: stinging pretty bad, elbows: slightly scraped, knees: somehow untouched.  I looked around from my cozy spot on the cement, to see if anyone was going to try to help me. Nope, I was all alone.  Well, at least no one had witnessed my stupidity!  I carefully got up, and brushed myself off.  I walked back to see what tripped me.  All I could see was a slight (possibly ¼ inch) rise between sidewalk squares.  Could my toe have possibly caught on that and sent me sailing? I wondered if I should call Greg to come get me and then a horrid thought raced through my mind.  My iphone was in my flip belt and I had landed on my stomach. I imagined the shattered screen as I pulled it from its sleeve to find it in pristine shape.   I sat down on a low wall in someone’s frontyard to make sure I was all right.  I felt a little twinge in my hip, like a glute was somewhat out of wack but other than that and my hamburger palms, I felt fine.  

So I decided to finish my run.  Well, I decided to see if I could finish my run.  No more testing my short little legs and their ability to run speedy miles for today.  I took the next mile at an 11-minute pace, stopping at a water fountain to drink and rinse my stinging bloody hands.  Once clean, my left hand revealed only tiny scrapes, but my right hand had a few gravel-sized dents in it.  Seeing that the wounds were very superficial, I ran the last mile home at a gentle 9:50 pace. 

The last mile went by fast because Greg joined me.  I saw him at the corner and when I joined him, he asked how my run had been.  “Another first,” I declared and showed him my hands.  I thought he might scold me for not being careful but he was just really concerned.  He asked if I wanted to cut it short, but I really felt like finishing.  The 7^th mile was at 9:13, not too bad for ol’ gravel hands.  When I got home I had a date with the hydrogen peroxide bottle, that was none too fun.  At first I felt a little silly that I fell, but then I realized I just ticked another box in the runner’s world.  I ate it!  I’d never eaten it before.  Why did I eat it?  Because I was really pushing myself to go fast and my form was probably compromised.  Why did I need to eat it?  I needed to learn something about myself as a runner.  I learned that I probably drag my feet a bit when I’m working hard, possibly catching the toe on the uneven sidewalk, so I need to spend some time working on form while doing speed work.  I don’t like the sound of speed work.  I hear serious runners talk about it and, it sounds like, well, work!  I want to have fun!  Perhaps maybe doing a little work will result in my fun not being interrupted by a fall next time.  I have no idea how to begin with speed work.  Any advice runner friends? 

Anyhow, here were our meals for day 13 gluten-free:

Breakfast: Recovery shake (apt meal, right?)  kefir, milk, peanut butter, unsweetened cocoa and honey

Lunch: scrambled eggs

Dinner: fish tacos with corn tortillas, purple cabbage slaw, corn salsa, avocado and spicy sour cream

Busy Week

It was a long week.  Our first full week back to school (The 1^st week was 3 days, and due to labor day the second week was 4).  I’m not sure about these five day weeks; not much time to update the blog!  With back to school night and a field trip to the county fair, it was a busy and exhausting week to be a teacher. Yet we persisted with our gluten-free challenge.  Here were our meals for the last few days.  I promise to write more this weekend. 

Wednesday (Day 10)

Breakfast: Overnight oats with applesauce mixed in

Lunch: Leftover eggplant

Dinner:  hummus and pepper jack cheese wrapped in smoked salmon, rice crackers, avocado, hardboiled egg and green olives

Thursday (Day 11)

Breakfast: Overnight oats with applesauce mixed in

Lunch: avocado, hardboiled egg, rice crackers and hummus

Dinner: Kishi (our favorite sushi place)  Yellowtail collar, cucumber salad, seaweed salad, and veggie sushi

Friday (Day 12)

Breakfast: Overnight oats with applesauce mixed in

Lunch: leftover veggie sushi

Dinner:  deviled eggs, avocado, goat cheese, green olives and rice crackers

Here’s to the coming weekend and a long run tomorrow! 

Gluten Free: Day 8 and Day 9

So we are nearly one third of the way through this 30 day gluten free challenge, which my husband and I somewhat randomly decided on while vacationing in Maui.  Up until today, I barely noticed the difference.  I have not felt like I was missing anything by eliminating wheat.  Greg and I have both noticed a gnawing feeling in our stomachs and getting hungry more often between meals, but apples, Kind Bars, bananas and such have helped us bridge the gap.  Today, for whatever reason, I was starving!  Running 3 miles before breakfast could be the culprit, though I did this last week a few times.  Thank goodness for gluten-free cookies (recipe to follow) because this lady needs a post dinner snack and the chocolate chip cookies have my name on them! Here is the run down for day 8 and 9...

Monday

Breakfast: Gluten free cereal, berries and milk

Lunch: Leftover cauliflower crust pizza

Dinner: Nachos (tortilla chips, beans, cheese, tomatoes, olives, jalepenos, guacamole, sour cream)

Dessert: Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup and 2 tbsp gluten free pancake mix (I used Bob’s Red Mill)

½ cup butter

½ cup brown sugar and 1/8 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 cup chocolate chips

Using a hand mixer beat together softened butter and sugars.  Add one egg and vanilla to the mix and incorperate. Add the pancake mix in two parts, then stir in the chips by hand.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, check and turn check for 3-4 minutes until golden if needed.

Tuesday

Breakfast: Overnight oats with apple sauce mixed in

Lunch: Mixed Greens, shredded carrots, orange melon balls, half an avocado, pomegranate seeds and honey lime kefir salad dressing AND baby belle cheese

Dinner: Grilled eggplant, quinoa, tomatoes, burrata cheese, fresh basil, chopped green olives, a drizzle of olive oil

Weekend update: day 6 and 7

Today was a long run day for me.  I’ve been running 10 miles on Saturday mornings.  The last few Saturdays I’ve run 9 miles, then dropped by the house to pick Greg up for the final mile and his presence inspires me to make that final push at the end.  Well this morning, Greg had to work.  I felt myself tanking at mile 8, so I headed for home just barely making my 9 miles and without my running buddy to make the final push I decided 9 miles was good enough for today. My body was complaining in numerous ways after my long run, so I tried to tune in to what it might be asking for.  Usually I would reach for my gluten free homemade cereal, berries and milk; my go to breakfast, but my stomach was saying no way!  I needed something gentle (banana), something healing (kefir), something with protein (peanut butter), something with caffeine (unsweetened cocoa), and something sweet (honey).  All of that with a sprinkle of cinnamon sounded like the perfect way to get nutrition into my body quickly, deliciously and gently.  Here is my recipe for my recovery drink.

Breakfast:

1-cup kefir

1 ripe banana

3 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp peanut butter

1 tbsp honey

Sprinkle of cinnamon

I don’t have a blender, so I tossed these ingredients in the food processor and refrigerated this drink in a glass while I took my shower and then slowly sipped my recovery drink for breakfast.  Feeling better already!

Lunch: Gluten free cereal, berries and milk ( I missed my regular breakfast, so I had it for lunch…I love being able to do that on the weekend!)

Dinner:Deviled eggs, shrimp cocktail, and ricotta cheese dip with chopped green olives with tortilla chips (Sometimes we like to have appetizers on movie night!) 

Sunday began with our typical visit to the farmer’s market to get the essentials for the week but it was so hot by lunchtime we didn’t want to cook, so we headed to lunch at our favorite sushi spot, Kishi. Things had cooled off by dinner so I tried a recipe for a gluten free pizza

Breakfast: Gluten free cereal, berries and milk

Lunch: Sushi (fish and rice= no gluten)

Dinner: Cauliflower crust pizza

Here is the run down on the pizza

(Don’t call it pizza and you’ll like it better; call it cheesy cauliflower frittata pie, then it is delicious.)

1 head of cauliflower cut into florets (Cooked in boiling water til tender, then mashed)

¼ cup olive oil

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

2 beaten eggs

salt and pepper to taste

Mix the above ingredients together and spread on a well oiled pizza pan, bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Top with tomato paste, more mozzarella cheese, and veggies of your choice, I used mushrooms and black olives.  Sprinkle with a little parmesan cheese.  Bake again until cheese melts about 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Day 3, 4, and 5 (Gluten free an still alive!)

It’s been a busy workweek, so I’ll sum up our gluten free meals from Wednesday through Friday.

  

Day 3:

Breakfast:  Gluten free cereal, berries and milk

Lunch: Leftover egg salad, avocado and rice crackers with cantaloupe

Dinner: Baked potatoes with vegetarian chili, grilled onions, a sprinkle of cheese and a dollop of sour cream. 

Day 4:

Breakfast: Gluten free cereal, berries and milk

Lunch: I had a lunch meeting they served Chinese

(I survived on stir fried veggies and brown rice) (Greg had some rice noodle soup)

Dinner: 7-layer dip (refried beans, avocado, sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, black olives and green onions) with corn chips.

Day 5:

Breakfast: Gluten free cereal, berries and milk

Lunch: Leftover layer dip and corn chips

Dinner: Grilled trout, corn on the cob, and scavenger salad

As I walked home from work contemplating dinner, I really wanted a salad but knew there was no lettuce in the garden. (Way too hot in Southern California right now for something as delicate as lettuce, at least with my entry-level gardening skills.) I’d have to improvise. What could I scrounge up from the garden and the fridge to resemble a salad? (Thus the name scavenger salad...)  I have big stalks of Amaranth growing in the back yard, some of the leaves are still pretty tender but not eat-me--raw tender.  So I sautéed the purply red amaranth leaves with a little garlic and olive oil and a handful of cherry tomatoes from the garden.   I added chopped basil, some roasted orange bell pepper, chopped green olives, a sprinkle of ricotta a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.  It really hit the spot. 

As I mentioned earlier this week, I made a plate of peanut butter fudge that we could have on hand for dessert this week.  As promised here is the recipe. 

Peanut Butter Fudge

1 stick of grass fed butter

¾ cup peanut butter (I make my own PB using roasted peanuts, salt and coconut oil)

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups sifted confectioner sugar (I know, sugar overload...but no gluten!)

Melt 1^st 2 ingredients.  Cook 3-4 minutes to thicken. Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Stir in sugar.  Spread into an 8x8 glass casserole dish lined with parchment paper and chill 3-4 hours covered in plastic wrap. Cut into small pieces.  It keeps nicely all week, if you can make it last that long. 

Here is to day two gluten free!

So yesterday I remade our usual breakfast cereal to be gluten free.  The only changes I had to make were to up the amount of almond meal I use, sub coconut flour for a portion of the wheat flour I usually use, and instead of wheat bran I used oat bran. 

Here is the recipe. 

1/3-cup coconut flour

1-cup bran (oat bran)

1 1/3 cup almond meal

1 tbsp chia seed

1 cup toasted coconut flakes (not sweetened)

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp sea salt

½ tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

3 tbsp coconut sugar

1 1/3 cup water (or half water half milk)

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, add the water, milk and vanilla and stir to make a moist thick batter.  You’ll need about four large pieces of parchment paper and one sheet of plastic wrap.  Place one sheet of parchment on the counter and spoon ¼ of the mixture onto the paper.  Cover the slurry with plastic wrap and use a rolling pin to flatten the mixture until it is very thin, nearly transparent.  Remove the plastic wrap and save for the next batch.  

Place the parchment containing your paper thin cereal spread on a cookie sheet and put it into a 300-degree oven.   Bake for five minutes until the cereal sheet has the appearance of a large leathery bran flake, which may be getting crisp at the edges.  It should be dehydrated enough that when it has cooled for a few minutes you can easily rip off sections, like a fruit roll-up, and it easily peels off the paper.  Once peeled from the parchment backing, tear the large flake into irregular bite sized pieces and return to the parchment paper covered cookie sheet and put back into the oven, gently stirring the flakes around every five or so minutes until all pieces are crisp and lightly browned. 

You’ll repeat the process until all of the dough is used up.  I do this assembly line fashion; roll out the mixture, put it in the oven, roll out the next portion so there are now two cookie sheets in the oven.  When the third batch is ready to go in, the first batch is ready to come out.  When the fourth batch is ready to bake, the second batch is cooked enough to be torn up.  Using this method, I only dirty the original mixing bowl and two cookie sheets, equaling less clean up in the end.  It also has trimmed the time spent on this endeavor.  The first time I tried this recipe, it took me two hours from start to finish.  Do not be discouraged by a relatively slow first attempt.  With some experience and practice, it now only takes me about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes, depending on how focused I am on the task.  The mixing and rolling of the dough will take your full attention, but once the giant flakes are torn into tiny ones, you can multitask.  Clean the kitchen, start some laundry, or read a book in between stirring the flakes.  Once the flakes are crisp and toasty, let them sit on the cookie sheets and cool completely.  Then store them in an airtight container or canister to enjoy for breakfast throughout the week. 

This size batch will last my husband and I for about five days with each of us having a ½ cup serving each morning.  I have doubled this recipe when we’ve had guests from out of town and it still worked nicely.  The flakes will stay fresh for a week in a container on the countertop.  We’ve never been able to keep a batch around longer than that to test its ability to keep, because we eat it up so fast.  I usually bake a batch on Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon depending on our schedule for the weekend and that gets us through those busy weekday breakfasts. 

So that’s what we’ll be having for breakfast this week with some raw milk and fresh blueberries and raspberries.  Lunch today was leftover eggplant from last night.  Dinner was zucchini noodles with ricotta cheese and tomato sauce with sautéed mushrooms and a piece of grilled wild salmon.  Here is to day two gluten free!

A new challenge: gluten free for 30 days?

During our time in Maui this summer, I had the opportunity to do a fair amount of reading.  Wheat Belly is one the titles I perused from the comfort of my poolside lounge chair.  As someone with a budding interest in nutrition, I’ve found that some of the recent revelations like fat won’t make you fat (even Time magazine is exposing that myth) and that our food pyramid heavy with grains may need to be turned on its head, are very fascinating to me. Nutrition tends to be pretty even handed in our household, so I’m not one to jump on the bandwagon of the latest fad.  As a mostly vegetarian, I’ve never been committed enough to go vegan.  Especially while traveling, my husband and I embrace our flexitarian ways, getting fresh sustainable fish when we can and rarely slipping in a bite of other meats when they are organic, local, and free range. 

Wheat has been a part of our diet.  Most mornings we have a homemade cereal and whole-wheat flour and sometimes wheat bran have been among the ingredients.  We get a loaf of sourdough or squaw bread at the farmer’s market most weeks.  We occasionally have flour tortillas around to serve with bowls of chili or beans.  While sandwiches are not a staple for us at lunchtime we sometimes grab a baguette with some cheese and vegetables for a lunch on the go every other weekend.  So after reading Wheat Belly, I started to wonder what effect (if any) the wheat in our diet is having on us.  I read a few passages aloud to Greg and he replied,  “ I used to think I had a beer belly, but now I think I have a wheat belly.”  Then in true Greg fashion he recommended we take on a challenge.  “We should try going gluten-free.” Try to understand that all of the life changing challenges we have taken on have been Greg’s idea.  “ We should take yoga.  We should be vegetarians.  We should climb Half Dome.”  And the list goes on.  Greg comes up with these grand ideas and then I end up running with them.  When I clarified that most beer is made from wheat, Greg revised his statement.  “Well, lets just try it for a month.” 

So here we are on day one of going gluten free.  I’ve decided at the bare minimum to share what we eat each day, in case anyone else out there is looking for gluten free meal ideas or would like to join us in this challenge.  I do have one disclaimer.  Individuals who go gluten free because they know they have a gluten sensitivity or even more serious celiac disease will need to be more careful about gluten exposure than we are going to be.  So while we won’t be eating bread, wheat products or anything else we are aware contains gluten, we are not going to obsess over product labels that read something to the effect that a product has been processed in a facility that also processes wheat.  We aren’t going to stress over trace amounts.  Yet we understand that many individuals do have to be very very careful about wheat exposure, and our hearts go out to you because wheat is in so many things! 

Here was our first attempt.  Day One Gluten Free:

Breakfast

Overnight oats

¼ cup rolled oats (Bob’s Red Mill has great gluten free products)

½ cup raw milk whole fat milk

1 tsp chia seeds

sprinkle of cinnamon

(Place these ingredients in a covered jar in the fridge before bed.  The next morning, heat until warm.  I stir in a drizzle of local honey and top with fruit.  This morning we had farmer’s market peaches on top!)

Lunch

Stuffed avocado with egg salad, rice crackers and melon balls

I got the rice crackers at Trader Joes. (They are made mainly with rice flour and sesame seeds). 

Egg Salad  (I made a lot so we can have leftover for lunch later in the week)

7 hardboiled cage free or pastured eggs (chopped)

3 tablespoons yellow mustard

2 tablespoons pickle relish

1 rib celery (chopped)

10 chives or skinny green onions (finely chopped)

salt and pepper to taste

5 basil leaves (thinly sliced) for garnish

I mixed all of the ingredients for the egg salad together (except the basil) and chilled it.  I arrange 10 crackers along side a handful of melon balls on a small plate.  I filled ½ avocado with the egg salad mixture and garnished with basil.  We scooped the avocado filling onto the crackers. 

Dinner

Grilled Eggplant marinated in balsamic vinaigrette served with dirty rice and Burrata cheese 

(fresh tomato, basil and green olive garnish)

Dessert

I made peanut butter fudge.  There is a lot of sugar in this dessert, but no gluten.  We all must make compromises sometimes.  I’ll post this recipe later this week!  Stay tuned!