Our Gluten Free Update and How this "Experiment" has Impacted our Lives So Far

A little over a month ago, I decided that the munchkin and I were going to go gluten free.  There were some good reasons why I thought it might be a good option for us.  HERE is my original post and why I decided to try this.

I started logging updates in the beginning, but then Christmas and the festivities hit and I totally fell off the bandwagon.  I was hoping to log some info as I went and then present it all together once we hit the one month mark (oops we missed that too).  December 6th was our first day going completely gluten free and it has officially been one month and four days.  I thought I would finally post an update.  I've got some pretty amazing stuff to share!

Here is what I started to log during the first week...

Cell Phone Photo Dump Update!

I don't take pictures very often with my cell phone.  They never look very good and I usually have my camera with me, but sometimes, it does come in handy.  Here is a collection of pics I just pulled off of my camera dating back to last summer.

Sometimes, if I can't decide what to wear, my sisters might get pictures of me playing dress up so they can tell me what dress looks better.  Below are some samples I sent to them right before a wedding.  And yes, I do realize I kinda look like a hooker in the 2nd one.  I actually ended up wearing the 3rd one to the ceremony which was outside and about 100 degrees.  I was a hot sweaty mess by the time they said "I do." Afterwards I went home, freshened up and changed into the first one for the reception, which was thankfully indoors with air conditioning.

My 14 Week Pregnancy Update!

 

Wow. 14 weeks. Already. Yesterday actually marked the day and that is when I took these pictures. I seriously can't believe I am already into my second trimester. Things are really flying by. The holidays probably helped with that. But other then not being able to drink any alcohol (and I have definitely noticed and missed the absence of wine) and being more tired then usual, I honestly haven't even felt like I am pregnant. At first as I was actually worried about it. The say that lots of morning sickness is a good sign and some people worry when you feel nothing at all. I was so relieved at that 9 week appointment when everything looked great on the ultrasound and then again at the 13 week appointment, when we could hear that heartbeat nice and strong. Now that I am getting more into the second trimester, I am relaxing more with it and I guess just considering myself extremely lucky. It's quite different then the first time around with the munchkin. She wasn't so easy on me and I could definitely tell for sure that I was pregnant.

The Munchkin is in a Big Girl Bed!

We hadn't exactly planned on moving the munchkin to her new room yet.  In fact, yesterday morning, it was still strictly her play room.  We hadn't even purchased anything yet to decorate her new "Big Girl Room", which I still plan on doing in a woodland animals theme.  But we have been talking about it for quite a while.  We were planning on turning her room into the baby's room, leaving the crib and furniture for the new baby, and making her toy room her new room.  My parents still had the twin beds from when we were little kids and we were going to be using one of those beds.  The bed was at my dad's friends house and after about 3 months of waiting for it, hearing that we were getting it very soon, over and over again, we were getting a little frustrated.

Stacy, our sitter, messaged me yesterday saying she had been thinking about letting the munchkin sleep in her bed for her nap and no longing using the pack and play.  I told her to "Go for it!"and that we had been wanting to move her to a real bed for some time now and that might even make the transition easier once we did.  So she decided to go ahead and try it that day.  Then I decided to look on Craig's list and see if I couldn't find her a little toddler bed.  I didn't want to spend very much money at all.  Hopefully we would still be getting the twin bed from my parents and if I found one that was nice enough, I could always resell it after we upgraded her again.  I found a really nice one on CL.  It was made of real wood and had a little drawer underneath.  They were asking $85.  I had already set a budget for $50, so I sent them an email and crossed my fingers.  We went back and forth a bit and they eventually agreed to the $50.00.  Yay!!!

So after dinner, we all climbed in the car.  I had told the munchkin we were going to pick up her big girl bed and she couldn't have been more excited.  She kept talking about it the whole way there.  Once we were at the seller's home, we had to move her car seat to the window side from the middle in order to fold the other seat down to fit the bed inside.  As I held the munchkin next to the car while Joe did the rearranging loaded everything up, she kept pointing to the bed, saying "My big girl bed! I'm going to sleep in that!"  It was the cutest thing ever.

We originally planned on bringing the bed home and taking some time setting it up.  Maybe letting her get used to the idea and try starting her off in it this weekend.  We got home about 20 minutes before her bedtime and she just couldn't stop talking about her big girl bed and how she was going to sleep in it.  She was just so excited and seemed so ready, that we decided to give it a go.  We rearranged some things in her play room and set up the bed.  We took the mattress that was already made with the sheets in her crib right off and placed it on the toddler bed.  She climbed right in all excited and ready to go.  She started saying "Put on my pajamas!  Brush my teeth!"  She was cracking me up.

Please excuse the crappy cell phone pics...

Notice the little Winnie the Pooh blanket?  That was Joe's when he was a baby!

So we put on her PJ's, brushed her teeth and she ran straight to her new room and climbed into bed.  About 8:15, I read her a book, tucked her in, shut off the light and left the room.  I was still not sure how things were going to go.  She sang and talked to herself for a little while.  Then seemed to drift off.  About 30 minutes in, we heard a loud thump!  I ran in there and she was sitting up on her bed quietly crying.  She told me she fell off of her bed and hurt her leg.  I kissed her leg and tucked her back in and she went right back to sleep.  About 9:45 we heard her crying.  I think she woke up and forgot where she was.  I went back into her room, gave her a hug and kiss and told I loved her and tucked her back in again.  She sat back up and asked me for another hug.  That pretty much melted my heart.  Then she laid back down and went to sleep again.  We didn't hear another peep from her all night.

This morning we actually had to wake her up for breakfast.  She was sound asleep!  So I would say that things went pretty darn good for our first night.  I just can't believe what a big girl she is all of a sudden.

Now we just need to actually decorate her new room and get her some furniture in there.  That will be a work in progress for the next few weeks.  We are waiting to get our taxes back to to help with some of the funds.  In the meantime, I think she will be perfectly happy as is.

I have a crush on Edward Edmonds.

I was reading a post today on a blog that I sometimes follow concerning health and nutrition.   The author was pissed off that his opinions and information were being taken out of context to help someone else's agenda.  He was blogging about the other blogger's post and what he had written on their blog.  I found his comments very amusing, and out of curiousity, I went to read the other blogger's original post that had stirred all of this up.  I could see why he was pissed off.

But I won't get into all of that, this is not what this post is about.

I read down through all of the comments left on the page.  Then I came across Edward Edmonds.  I loved his comments so much that I had to follow the link to his website.  It led me to a blank page.  Boo.  Then, I found a blog he had started about training for the 2016 olympics but never actually posted anything to it yet.  I am now his only follower, just incase he does actually post something.

Which also means that if he sees that I am his new and only follower and follows that link to my blog, I am totally busted here.  Oh well, I am gonna say it anyway...

I have a crush on Edward Edmonds.

I have no idea who he is really, other then what I have derived from my internet sluething, and yes I am a very happily married woman, BUT I absolutely adored his comments so much that I wish I could meet him.  He summed up how I feel about the whole health food and nutrition debate so well, better then I ever could, that I instantly wanted him as my BFF.

I am going to copy and paste his comments below:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Edward Edmonds said...

“I’ve consulted with Don in the past, I found his advice to be useful in some ways and in other ways not useful. But any advice is context sensitive. Not once did he cram a vegan/vegetarian philosophy down my throat. The fact still remains that you should eat what gives you the best well being. End of story.

Science at it’s present state can’t give us a definitive answer. If anything the only thing we’ve learned is that if you eat real fucking food that’s a good start. Whatever our thresholds are for shitty food varies from person to person. There is no getting around that, we are not blackboxes. Our self-preserving nature is inevitable, but if we spent time eating real food for the time being we could focus on doing cooler things with our intelligence like exploring space. Then when we actually know something about the human body we could start discussing whether or not eating this particular food or that is the fountain of youth. That’s a long way off. First we must preserve the future, once we do that we can preserve youth.

We forget in the detailed darkness of science that around the world diets are varied. There are some cultures that tend to be disease free and others that tend to suffer. Sometimes it seems the controlling factor is diet sometimes it doesn’t. But Price proved beyond a reasonable doubt (at least in my mind) that good health is beyond the realm of picking starch over fat. Price proved that it’s what’s in what you’re eating that is the governing paradigm.

A head start is to adopt the philosophy that if you eat a clean mixed including food from all sources your on the right track. If you adopt a philosophy of chugging cream all day long or eating spinach all day long is it not reasonable to suggest that some problems are going to arise? Good health rarely arises out of extremes. And even when a culture is able to thrive on an extreme diet, we have to remember that it might not necessarily represent the optimal solution, it might just be that it’s the optimal solution for the particular environment which allows sufficient reproduction. The idea of an “optimal solution” is negated by the fact that again around the world cultures eat diets of varying extremes and exhibit similar life expectancies.

Dr. Harris has a sensible approach to eating. No bullshit attached, sure his views on carbohydrate have changed over time, but so what, everybody’s views change over time as we search for some type of optimal solution and optimal advice. Duh.

What we do know is humans are dynamic creatures. I think it’s reasonable to suggest that at one point in time our diets were dynamic as well--their is no reason not to think so just like our environments were dynamic. I’m certain there were times where we had to survive eating vegetation and tubers just as I’m certain there were times that all that was available was animals. It was the act of survival that brought about the balance. Something we no longer have to do anymore, so we search for that balance, going from one way of eating to another way of eating. Don’t you think there is a reason for that? Don’t you think that there is a reason why as soon as us humans started settling down and getting habitual that disease started becoming a problem? We evolved for a dynamic changing environment, it’s clear, look how we populated the entire world like a goddamn virus. Look around is there any single multicelular species quite as successful as us? We humans as animals are a fucking evolutionary masterpiece. Now look at us. We are dropping dead because we are getting too clever for our own good. Our adaptability to varying environments that gave us the edge is changing, we are now a lazy sophisticated brainy species we adopt the environment to our needs now, and we’ve done it all so cleverly but we’ve forgotten the environment were we came from, now we must adapt to the clever environment we’ve created for ourselves or face destruction. Pretty simple shit. Don’t know how anybody reasonable person could miss that. Pass me two sticks, no pass me the lighter.

Would you pour fucking diesel into your gasoline engine? So why would you eat anything but real food? If you mixed a little bit of diesel into your gasoline would the car start. Sure would. Would it get you from point A to B? Sure would. Would your car last as long as if you just used gasoline? No. We are products of the environment. And unless Twinkies grow on trees then all we’ve ever eaten is real food. You eat real food you’ll be fine most of the time. Sure shit goes down. You’re an idiot if you think any one way of eating (besides eating real food and in a sensible way) is going to give you a 100% confidence level that you live a long healthy normal life. That’s life, it’s the lottery, some people hit the jackpot, eat shit all their lives and live to 110 years old. And some people get the shaft, eat seemingly well throughout their lives and drop dead. That’s life. There is no such thing as rocket fuel for humans. What is optimal is individual, you might fit into certain paradigms but you aren’t a machine where all you need is regular oil changes and gasoline. We aren’t “designed” that way. Would be pretty limiting.

I’m so sick of these stupid debates it does nothing for progress but highlight how incredibly fucktarded people are, real food isn’t going to kill you. And if you eat something and it gives you a headache, WTF? Don’t eat it. If you eat a peanut and you break out in lepersy... use your head.

Instead we should be looking at prime suspects like soy feeding your baby and eating Twinkies and jelly beans but instead we are fucking worried about eating green beans and rice. Perhaps if we learn those mechanisms that make eating 20 pounds of Twinkies and jelly beans a day kill us (besides the common sense part) it will give us some insight into how the human body works and down the road to finding something useful and practical to apply to our lives. Standard reverse engineering. In the end if that means for each green bean pod you eat shaves 1 second off your life, than so be it, we won’t eat green beans.

Back to Don. Don is a nice guy, if you read his wife’s blog you know that he cares and he works diligently in his own way to help at least those who he loves or care about. He’s got a degree in philosophy so of course he is dense. He does over analyze grammar and it often seems dishonest the way in which he does it. I see this often in people who’s blogs I’ve read for long periods of time where they are paradigm shifting. It’s classic of people who can never settle for “Well, that’s just the way it is.” People who are constantly searching and want to give the right answer to everybody. I’m sure that one day through his experiences of different extremes he’ll find the right balance. But I just wish Don, for the sake of his own dignity would be more honest about that search and what he is thinking.

If there is anything that we in this community have learned in the past few years is that eating real goddamn food will make the biggest difference for the most. Instead we are worried about legumes and “safe starches”... give me a fucking break. Is there anybody left on this goddamn planet with common sense?”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

REAL FOOD.  That's what it's all about.  My philosophy is if it comes from an animal or grows out of the ground (and in a NATURAL way), and doesn't have anything added to it that also doesn't come from an animal or grows out of the ground (and in a NATURAL way), then it's probably good for you.  Otherwise, try to avoid it.

Incase you are super bored and really want to know, the original article I was reading can be round HERE. I then was curious about the blog he was referring to so I went to go read that article HERE, and that is where I found the above comments.

I also found THIS article about Edward with an interview on his views of barefoot funning and his training for the upcoming olympic trials.

Anyway, I just loved his comments and wanted to share.  It's all about common sense and it's not near as difficult as some people make it out to be.

Our Visit to see Santa and Getting Ready for Christmas!

Wednesday night, my sister Amy and her family joined us for a trip to see Santa!  I actually wasn't going to take the Munchkin to see Santa this year at first.  I figured she was too young to even care.  We talk about Santa and everything coming up, but it's not like she really is that interested in him yet.  Plus I absolutely hate the mall at christmas time.  I try not to step foot in it at all any time after Thanksgiving.  But then, Joe's brother told us about their trip to see Santa at Bass Pro and how nice it was.  Alot less people and much more low key.  Plus it was totally free, picture and all and they let you take pictures with your own camera!  Yay!!

As soon as we walked into the store and over to the North Pole area, the girls were in awe. We all kinda were actually.  Everything was so pretty.  There were tons of decorations everywhere and they even had blue lights all over the ceiling to make it feel like we were at the North Pole (well sorta).  As cool as all the lighting was, it made things a bit tricky for taking pictures.

Jeremy, Q, The Munchkin and Joe waiting in line to see Santa!

They had all sorts of games and things for the kids to do.  There was a skee ball game, a shooting range game and big train set up.  They also had lots of picnic tables set up through out the store with craft projects for the kids to do.

Me and the Munchkin getting ready to see Santa.

This was the top of the little house Santa was sitting infront of.

A kind stranger offered to take a pic of all of us.

The ceiling was really cool looking.

We had no idea how the girls were going to react to us putting them on Santa's lap.  We kinda anticipated them freaking out a little bit.  The loved him though!  As we got closer to him in line they kept reaching out to him and calling his name.  It was pretty funny.

The Munchkin sitting with Santa.

The Munchkin and Q with Santa

Here she must be telling Santa what she wants for Christmas.

 They had a really nice carousel there too.  The girls loved it!

Joe and the Munchkin

Amy and Q

I'm so glad we ended up taking her this year after all.  She had so much fun.  I am glad we had another option other then the mall as well.

Amy, Jeremy and Q came by my house right before we left to see Santa.  We had been trying for a couple of weeks to get a decent family photo of us for our Christmas card and we weren't having any luck.  So I set up the camera on the tripod and asked her to snap a few shots for us.  She kept telling us that our feet were getting cut off... we thought she meant from the sides so we kept bringing our legs in closer.  Really she meant from the bottom, and I guess she didn't realize all she had to do was tilt the camera down.  We were in a huge hurry, so we just needed to get through it.  Anyway, we ended up with a decent one, but Joe's positioning is super awkward.  I also wish we had been more infront of the tree with less of my desk in the background. 

I know I am being way too picky and no one gives a crap but me.  

We took the pic Wednesday night.  I needed the Christmas cards done and printed on Thursday so I could stuff the envelopes and address them all Thursday night, then mail them out today.  I tried ordering them from an online place that I could pick them up in an hour, but I didn't like any of the templates.  I wanted to crop off Joe's leg and the desk somehow in the background but leave the tree.... so I ended up having to design something for that, even though I had absolutely zero time to do it.  I am not inlove with it, but under the circumstances, I am at peace with it.   I printed them off at my work and they went in the mail today.  Finally done with that... Yay!!

And the real ones do not say "the Munchkin", by the way.

This weekend, I hope to wrap all of the presents and finish up any last minute shopping.  I still have so much to do.  I have to make cookies, figure out what dishes I am making for Christmas Eve at my uncle's and Christmas day at my parents and then get all of the supplies for that, plus all of the other things I don't want to bore you with.  I can't believe christmas is only 9 days away!  So excited!!

Does anyone else get so silly about their Christmas cards or am I just a wierdo?

Homemade Pizza with Almond Flour Pizza Crust (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • GAPS)

 

Who doesn't love pizza?  Pizza definitely used to be one of the foods I ate the most.  Plus, there isn't too many things you can order and have it delivered to your door in about an hour to eat for dinner.  Talk about convenient.  Once I did an overhaul on my diet though, commercial pizza had to go.  I was so sad about it.  For a long time, I just figured pizza was one of those things I just wouldn't be eating any more (Aside from that rare once in a while if I was not at home and gave in, but I would inevitably regret it, as my stomach wasn't used to it). Then I started to experiment a little with different types of crusts.  You can find my flax seed version HERE from about a year and a half ago.  It's pretty good (I actually loved it at the time, having not had pizza in forever), but it definitely wasn't anywhere close to the pizza I missed and my husband really wanted nothing to do with it.  So for a long time, I had given up and just considered pizza to be something I would just have to miss.  Boo.

I've learned a few tricks since then though.  I decided to give it another go and started experimenting with it again.  I looked up a few recipes for pizza crust and found some that I liked.  I tried out a couple of them and with some minor alterations I came up with a crust that I love. What was even more shocking was that my husband likes it too.  Infact, when I told him I was making it again tonight, he was pretty pumped about it.  When I added that I would be making it with pepperoni and homemade sausage, he got even more excited!

In a bowl, I whisked together some almond flour, parmesan cheese, salt, baking soda, parsley and garlic powder.

In another bowl, I whisked together an egg with a cup of sour cream (you would use yogurt here to make it gaps friendly).

Then I poured my wet ingredients into my bowl with my dry ingredients and mixed them together.

I mixed them together until it formed a dough (kinda).  This is some sticky stuff.

Divide your dough in half and spread it out onto parchment paper on two cookie sheets.  I'm gonna be honest here, this "dough" is not really all that fun to work with.  With the advice of the original recipe, I used a spatula to spread it around.  If you try to use your fingers or anything else, it just gets all globby and sticky and if you try to use wax paper or anything else on the top of it so you can roll it out, then it just clings to it when you try to pull it off.  With a little patience though, you can use the spatula to spread it around. It won't be perfect. I popped it into the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

 

Then I whipped up some pizza sauce.  You can make your sauce however you want or use some pre-made sauce.  To make mine, I used Eden Organic Crushed Tomatoes, and added some garlic, minced onion, salt, pepper, oregano and parsley.  I just dumped it all in until I liked how it tasted.

 

I then chopped up all my veggies. I used black olives, white onions, green peppers and mushrooms.

I sauteed my mushrooms in some butter and then set them aside to cool.

I found some uncured pepperoni at the grocery store the other day.  I was pretty excited. We have been eating Applegate's lunch meats for quite some time now, but I never even knew they made pepperoni.  No preservatives or nitrates added, no antibiotics used and the animals are raised humanely.  I really like this company.  The pepperoni circles are really big though, so I cut them up into fourths.

Once my pizza crusts were nice and toasty, I pulled them out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes.

Then I added the sauce.

Then I added some cheese. I used a mix of parmesan, romano, fontina and provolone cheeses.

Then I piled on my ingredients.  One pizza was half veggie and half pepperoni and sausage.  The other pizza was a supreme with meats and veggies.

I had made sausage earlier that day.  I made about 4 lbs worth and put most of it in the freezer to use as needed.  I cooked up a few patties to crumble and use on top of our pizza.  If you have ever considered making your own sausage, you should try this recipe.  It's honestly some of the best sausage I have ever tried and it's so much cheaper (and healthier) then buying the pre-made stuff. Plus it's pretty awesome to have it on hand.  You just pull out a few and can throw them on the stove top while still frozen and cook them in about ten minutes.

Another look at the pile of yummy ingredients...

Then I added another layer of cheese.

I put them back in the oven for about 10 minutes until everything was all hot and melty.

 

I am just so excited to have figured out a pizza recipe that I really like AND that the munchkin and my super picky husband enjoys.

Here's a close up so you can see how the crust turned out.  The thinner you spread it, the better.  It has kind of a mealy texture, like a chef boyardee pizza (if you ever made one of those).  My mom used to make them all the time when we were kids.   The crust holds together fantastically and crisps up really nice.

HOMEMADE PIZZA

(sugar free • gluten free • low carb • GAPS)

Pizza Crust Ingredients:

• 3 C Almond Flour
• 1/2 C Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Parsley
• 1/2 tsp Oregano
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda (omit for GAPS)
• 1 C Sour Cream (or 1 C yogurt for GAPS friendly version)
• 1 Egg

Toppings (Ideas)

• Pizza Sauce (tomato sauce, garlic powder, minced onion, salt, pepper, oregano, parsley)
• Shredded Cheese of your choice
• Sausage
• Pepperoni
• Onions
• Black olives
• Green peppers
• Mushrooms
• Oregano
• Parsley

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together Dry Ingredients in a medium bowl.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream (or yogurt) with an egg.
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix together with a hand mixer until well combined.
5. Spread two pieces of parchment paper out onto two cookie sheets.
6. Divide dough in half and put one half on each cookie sheet.
7. Spread dough carefully with spatula.  Its very sticky and more like a batter, so just take your time and spread a thin, even layer out over the cookie sheet.
8. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until it has turned very light brown all over and the edges are nice and crispy.
9. Spread tomato sauce over crusts.
10. Add thin layer of cheese.
11. Layer desired toppings over cheese.
12. Add another layer of cheese.
13. Sprinkle with any additional seasonings you may like, I like to add more oregano and parsley.
14. Return to oven and cook for another 10 minutes or so until everything is melted and hot.
15. Enjoy!

If you do make this pizza, please let me know how it turned out and what you think!  

I would LOVE to hear some of your favorite topping combinations??

This is a part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday and the Healthy Home Economist's Monday Mania Carnival and Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesday.