Super Bowl Sunday!

This is Super Bowl Sunday and if you live here in the USA you know that is one of the biggest TV watching, food eating, and booze imbibing days in the states.  Friends and families get together and watch opposing teams battle for the chance to be the Super Bowl Champions of the year!  Me?  Not much of a football fan but I do like to get together to visit with friends that I haven't seen in a while and partake of the awesome foods everyone brings.   

I am really concerned this year about all the food consumption for a multitude of reasons.

1. I am gluten, most dairy, and artificial sweetener intolerant.   
2. I am on Weight Watchers and have to watch what I eat. 
3. I am concerned cause I won't have anything to eat and everyone will be chowing down while I starve...now really can you see my 200#+ body starving for 4 hours...I can!  

So!  I've decided I was going to go prepared and make sure I don't waste away during the game and ruin every ones happy times!  I am taking some Mini Corn Dog Muffins that the recipe giver swears are better then those at the State Fair, some gluten free pretzels, and chocolate gluten free brownies. 

 Mini Corn Dog Muffins

Ingredients (makes 48 mini muffins)

• 1/2 cup melted butter (or 1/4 cup butter + 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk or 2 tbls buttermilk powder and 1 c water
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup gluten free all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8-10 all-beef hot dogs, cut into 1″ bites

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine butter and sugar in a bowl, and whisk to combine. Add eggs and whisk to incorporate. Add buttermilk and whisk to incorporate.
• In a separate bowl, combine baking soda, cornmeal, flour, and salt, and stir to combine. Whisk into wet ingredients in two batches.
• Spray a mini muffin tin with non-stick spray, and spoon 1 Tablespoon of batter into each mini muffin cup. Place one hot dog bite into the middle of each cup.
• Bake for 8-12 minutes (oven temperatures vary), or until cornbread is golden brown. Cool in mini muffin tin for 5 minutes before serving. Store leftovers in the refrigerator, and re-heat for 20-30 seconds before serving.

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Update 1/27/12

Last update of January 2013 I think...

I am going through another flare up...when do they stop?  NEVER!  I get to feeling good and go do something and end up wishing I hadn't.  What caused it this time?  I never know exactly what causes my flare ups and I think even if I did it wouldn't help me manage my health much.  I take my pills, vitamins etc like I always do, I try to keep the same sleep schedule, limit exercise (it exacerbates my pain issues), and eat foods good for me and it still flares.

I am really bummed out today cause last week I had a really good weekend and on Monday I went to an outlet mall in OKC with my daughter for a little shopping and looking fun.  I walked the entire circle of the mall...out a 15 minutes walk if you are healthy...in about 2 hours and participated in a little light retail therapy!  We visited the Coach outlet at the mall and I bought a couple handbags that were 50% off and then they gave us a coupon for an additional 30% off when we entered the door! 

Aren't they awesome!  I haven't bought a new purse in about 5 years...I know a long time for me or anyone.  I have a lot in my closet but I ended up tossing 5 in the recycle bag for Goodwill and another couple in the trash so that is my reason for not feeling guilty for spending some money on these purses.  They both cost $298 originally but will all the discounts I only paid $222 for both of them and a Coach zip ID wallet and key chain! 

This is awesome.  Has a key chain, wrist strap, pocket for money and debit cards and then a clear ID pocket for my drivers license and conceal carry card on the front.  I clip it to the front of the purse and if I don't want to carry the whole bag I unclasp it and take it with me.  

We went to see the move MAMA and had dinner out at Golden Corral that night so you can see it wasn't a stressing or taxing day...unless the excitement over getting my new Coach goodies were exciting stressful to me.  Now that would be the pits to have an exciting thing happen and you go into a flare up...

On Tuesday Heather took me to Weight Watchers...did I tell you that I went to the doctor a couple weeks ago and I had lost a whopping 12.6 # from my previous visit till now.  I decided I was doing so well I went and rejoined Weight Watchers.  Don't know why I quit cause I always feel better when I am eating WW and my gluten diet.  Anyway we went to weigh in and I had lost another 3#.  YAY!  WW has a gluten free friendly program now and most of the foods I am eating are in their data base so keeping up with the tracker is easy peasy.

Wednesday was a day of rest cause I knew I had a class to teach on Art Journaling at my LSS so I didn't do much of anything.  The Art Journal class was a not stressful and I actually enjoyed the people in the class a lot.

Friday!  Well Friday was a down day for sure.  I had a headache and nausea all day.  I got up about noon and was back in bed at 3pm trying to get the head better.  Stayed laying flat the rest of the day because if I got up my head and body hurt so bad it wasn't worth moving.  Even Chuck trying to pat my back caused a lot of pain.  I slept as much as I could and woke up Saturday feeling a little better but still having some issues.

Saturday Heather called about going to the crop at the LSS so I went with her about 5 pm and we did some crafting for a few hours, stopped by Ihop on the way home and today I am feeling like dog doo!

If you have fibromyalgia, CFS/ME you know what I am talking about here!  If you don't and you think I am a whiner then I hope you never are diagnosed with this disorder.  It is a constant pain and takes so much out of me on goods days that I dread the bad ones.  I hate feeling bad cause it tends to make me into a bitch and I am normally a reasonable person but...

Guess I will wait another 5-10 years before buying another handbag...takes too much effort!  Enough for me.  Hope you have good days my friends. 

Hmmmm...

Do you love bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches?  I do!!!  I read an article not long ago that the sandwich made at McDonald's is so high in fat and calories it will eat up a big chunk of your daily food allotment if you get the meal deal.   Since I can't go to McDonald's anymore to get my food (they don't have gluten free) I decided to make my own using turkey bacon and Udi's gluten free bread.

didn't I make a pretty sandwich?

 I didn't use any extra oil in preparation of the bacon or the egg so this sandwich my calorie count is a lot less then the ready made.  Looks good too!

Jennie-O offers a gluten free product and it says so on its label.  Be careful when buying any processed meats, sausages, etc cause they have gluten hidden in them.

it is only 90 calories for 3 slices of bacon and I wove a lattice design to make it fit the bread...pinterest is my friend!

two slices of bread equal 140 calories but I think with the higher fiber you will find less counts!

I like Udi bread and sandwich rolls taste yummy but need to be toasted for best flavor.  I also find that sandwiches tend to fall apart when they aren't toasted!

I found some really interesting information regarding eggs on Wikipedia just now about storage of eggs.  DID you know that pickling boiled eggs in pickled beet juice will preserve an egg unrefrigerated for over a year?  Makes a beautiful red egg for you potato or egg salad.  Another piece of trivia was that the age of the egg and the conditions of its storage have a great influence on it's taste the chicken's diet influences it too.  If the bird is fed rapeseed or soy meal it will flavor of the eggs produced and make them taste fishy!!!  I knew I wasn't dreaming that when I complained an egg tasted fishy!  It also said you can flavor eggs by soaking them in cold tea, spices, soy sauce etc to give them flavor.

Whoops! Where did the time go?

I seem to be making that statement a lot on this blog.  I don't know why I forget to post!  I think when I am feeling good and not whining at you my dear readers I just forget to post the good things.  Okay I'm going to do a synopsis of the past month and catch up!!

The family and I had a great time on Thanksgiving at the dear daughters house.  I made some gluten free cornbread stuffing and goodies that were gluten free.  I found gluten free pie crusts at the Whole Foods store in OKC and although they were a little pricey it was nice to have pie with a crust!  Unfortunately I don't know what happened to the pictures I took on Thanksgiving...rats!

Heather and I had a really good time cruising around the Caribbean and all my worries about my disorders and eating issues were mostly unfounded.  Now I did have some problems with tiring easily and the first day on the boat ended up falling twice and scaring Heather half to death!  Her response was I was only allowed to fall once a day and I was being penalized for going over the limit and couldn't fall anymore on the trip.  Not counting near falls I didn't fall another time!!

Only known variance from my gluten free diet was the Beignets and coffee I had at the Cafe Dumond in the French Quarter in New Orleans!  Very yummy and I didn't seem to have any bad effects from them!  Might have been the small amount of gluten but it was nice to know an occasional slip wouldn't send me into agony!

My hamberger and fries at the Guy Fierey grill on board the Conquest!  It was so yummy I ended up going back there 3 times and ordering it.  

 I was very impressed with the way the dining room staff went out of their way to make sure I didn't feel neglected or underfed on the trip.  After they found out I was gluten and dairy intolerant they went out of their way to prepare the same food everyone else was eating within my dietary restrictions.  I had gluten free bread at dinner and the molten chocolate cake every night at supper.  I didn't feel the lease deprived because how could I eating filet mignon and lobster tails or all sorts of awesome foods! 

More then a few cruise picture can be seen on my Okienurse Paper and Ink Therapy blog if you would like to see them just click the link!  Saves me from having to repost and boring the folks who only want to hear about the health info.

I wish I could say I didn't have any issues with traveling and the trip because I did!  I tire easily and I had a lot of problems with fatigue, mental fog, balance was a big issue.  I came home with quite a few bruises.  It was cool and rainy most the trip and that effected my health a little.  BUT!  I just took it easy stopping frequently to rest and people watch, I read a couple books sitting on deck wrapped up in warm clothes when it was cool and soaking up the sun when it was nice. 

Food alert:

If you have access to a Natural Grocer or a Whole Foods store they both carry this Quinoa pasta.  It is awesome food and I truthfully can't tell the different between it and the wheat flour variety except in price.  This box is about $3.29 vs the $1.89 of wheat pasta!

I made some really awesome banana nut muffins yesterday.  I will include the recipe below.

You will need some of my gluten free baking mix and you can find the recipe here!

Gluten Free Banana Nut Muffins with Crunchy Topping

4 cup gluten free baking mix
1 cup sugar
1 1/2  cup almond milk
4 eggs
4 tsp. vanilla
5 bananas mashed up
1 cup chopped pecans

Crunchy Topping
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c butter
1/4 c pecan bits


Mix all ingredients together in large bowl except those for the crunchy topping.  Mix the crunchy topping ingredients together in a separate bowl.  You may need to use a little more sugar if it doesn't look like lumpy sand.   Line baking tins with cupcake liners and spray lightly with nonstick spray.   Fill each cup about 3/4 full of batter.   Top with about tablespoon of topping.  Bake 350 for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of muffin comes out clean. Makes 36 muffins

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies!

Now if that isn't a mouthful to say I don't know what is but the mouthful you get of this cookie is really awesome when you bite into it.  I found a cookie recipe on Martha Stewart.com for the cookie but of course it wasn't gluten free so I modified it and made it mine.

GF  Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup all purpose gluten free flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cups pecans
• 12 oz semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Put sugars, butter, and peanut butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Mix in eggs and vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low. Add oat mixture, and mix until just combined. Mix in pecans and chocolate chips.
4. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop balls of dough 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
5. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown and just set, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.

Modified from a Martha Stewart recipe 

Bet you can't eat just one!

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I posted this picture of my Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins on my Face Book page yesterday and had several requests for the recipe.

I made these muffins using the Master Mix I found on Ginger Lemon Girl's blog site when I first started this journey.  I tried another mix but it was so bitter that it made what I used it in also have a bitter taste.  I have read that it is probably a bean flour or sweet sorghum flour that will cause that so I am steering clear of that flour in making my bread goodies unless it is used in small amounts.  Anyway here is a link to that recipe that I posted a couple weeks back. 

I made up what amounted to 10# of my version of this mix after making a small batch up a couple of times using the above mix but then you know how I can't leave anything alone!!!  I changed it up! It is absolutely amazing taste wise and does what I want my mix to do.  If you want the exact mix Carrie used then go the recipe link above....  This is my version:

Vickie's Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix...like Bisquick but better!
Makes about 18 cups of mix

2 cups of Brown Rice Flour
2 cups of White Rice Flour
1 1/2 cups potato flour
1 1/2 cups Tapioca Flour
1 1/2 cups Oat flour
1 1/2 cups pecan flour
1 1/2 cups Sweet Sorgham flour
3 tbsp of Xanthan Gum
1 1/2 Tbsp salt
6 Tbsp of baking powder
2 cups or a small can of dry buttermilk powder
1 cup dry milk powder
1 cup Crisco butter flavored shortening
1/2 c butter

Cream the butter and Crisco together in a very large bowl.   Start adding the flours in one cup at a time till the mix is all mixed up and resembles a speckled/pebbly flour mixture.  A very coarse flour if you will...then add in the remainder of the ingredients.  You can cut the flour into the mix with a pastry cutter but this is so much mix that the mixer worked better for me.  I then took the mix and put 2 cups of mix in Ziplock bags, labeled them, and stored them in my refrigerator.  According to Carrie this has a long shelf life but I didn't want to risk spoilage hence the refrigeration.  Non gluten flours and baking supplies are not cheap so you don't want to risk losing them.

You will notice that the mix doesn't have sugar or substitute in it.  I suppose you could put it in but...I thought for savory baked goods like dumplings or biscuits I wouldn't want the sugar.  I have so far used this mix for making dumplings, biscuits, pancakes, cake donut holes, muffins etc.  Yummy!


Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

2 cups of Vickie's GF Mix
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1+  cup milk (I used almond milk)
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup lemon flavoring or juice
1 tbs poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 360degrees 

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  The mixture may be a super thick and you can add more milk if you like but it is a thick batter.  Spray muffin tin with spray oil.  Divide mix into the 12 muffin tin wells.  Press down lightly with finger  tips.  Spray tops with the spray oil and sprinkle with granulated sugar.   Bake about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked in the center of the muffin.

Okay give it a try.  These are really yummy!

Week 4 and the GF lifestyle keeps on!

Week four is over and done and I am doing better then I thought I would be doing at this point in my journey.  I am not saying it has been a super easy four weeks but it has been getting progressively easier with each passing day!  I keep borrowing from my GA background...one day at a time.  If I can make it through today then I will let tomorrow take care of itself.  I focus on just today. 

Some noticeable changes since starting the diet is my increase in stamina.  I am not as tired when I first get out of bed and I don't seem to get so run down and wore out as quick.  The fibro fog brain fuzziness on waking seems to be better too but memory is still in the crapper.  My pain seems better but that is such a subjective issue since I always have good days and bad days!  

I found a yummy pizza from Mazzio's that they make and deliver to the house...yes they do they make a gluten free pizza.  It only comes in one size but it is gluten free in a foil tray to prevent cross contamination in their ovens but it can be topped with whatever GF toppings you want to put on it!  Not bad but a bit pricey at about $11 for a 10" pie.   Another alternative is making your own pizza and crusts.   

                                                                                                       

               

Bob's Red mill has this pizza mix for about $4.50 a package and it makes a pretty good size pie.  Tastes wonderful too but doesn't reheat well.  Soggy/spongey is a term that comes to mind to describe the texture!

I bought some Udi's preformed pizza crust at the health food store and it isn't too bad but once a gain is a little pricey.   Two small single serve size were over $4.  Tasty though and there weren't any left overs!

Another alternative would be to make your own from scratch   I found a recipe on About.com that sounds like it might work and plan on giving it a try.  Here is the link for the recipe.  http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/od/pizzasflatbreadswraps/r/GFPizzaCrust.html

On my crafting blog I showed a recipe card I had made for a swap and thought I should share it here too!  I made these cupcakes and took them to an event and everyone was questioning me as to whether they were gluten free or not.  I told them that they could eat them or not but that I wasn't giving up my secrets!  Towards the end of the event I went to the back and fixed me a cup of coffee and grabbed a cupcake and started eating it.  OMG!  The looks on some of the faces...and these were the same ones that ate two of the darn cupcakes.  You would have thought I had force fed them big juicy worms or something...another just went and got another cupcake.   I think you can read the recipe if you click on it to make it larger.  I used a bag of GF chocolate cake mix from Bob's Red Mill.  I think next cake I make I am going to substitute applesauce for part of the fat in it though.  

One thing I have found about gluten free cooking/baking is that it is fattening!  I don't know whether it is a difference in the nutrition or as I suspect the fact that I am cooking and baking so much more recently!