A Gluten Free Dairy Free Vacation

The Enemy is a Robber of Joy, So With That Perspective in Mind, I Needed a Quick Re-Allignment

 

 

You've heard it say that the anticipation of vacation is half the fun. In vacations past, much of my anticipation was imagining delicious sweet and savory treats from around the world. My vacations were a culinary delight. Searching for wineries, cooking classes and great restaurants. Also, making sure I could get my hands on a kitchen in order to cook with regional foods have always been part of my anticipatory pleasure of planning.

 

A few months ago, however, my world turned upside down and my view of food has turned from "living to eat" to "eating to live". It definitely changes one's focus on vacation planning. Now, more than ever, I need to focus on food - but for different reasons.

 

This time the planning stage was pretty extensive. I figured the more I planned the less thinking I'd have to do while on vacation. So, I started with a personal travel guide. His name is "Mr. Google". All I had to do was let him know some magic words, and a plethora of culinary options were at my disposal. My first suggestion to Mr. Google was a B&B in the town where we planned to stay. The magic words were "gluten free B&B in Cape May, NJ" and "voila", The Mason Cottage Victorian B&B appeared.

Patti, the Innkeeper, had written a blog seemingly just for me. It was titled, "For All Our Vegetarian, Vegan and Gluten Free Guests". Well, that was the start of the "anticipation" of my topsy turvy vacation.

I have to admit, up to that point, I was not looking forward to any vacation. Simply because I was anticipating too much thought on where to find foods I could eat instead of simply finding delicious regional temptations to enjoy. But once I had at least breakfast taken care of, it gave me courage to investigate further.

 

The next thing I did was to do some mega cooking so at least one other meal could be gluten and dairy free. I spent the Saturday before we left planning, cooking and storing meals. I have to admit it was tiring, but I was happy during the week when I didn't have to use brain space for, "Now what am I going to eat".

Next, I asked my "travel guide, Mr. Google" to find gluten free restaurants in Cape May. There were a few that had gluten free menus, but one really caught my eye; it was called "Higher Grounds". It is an organic cafe which offers vegan, vegetarian and gluten free foods. YAY. It turned out to be a wonderful find. We were able to frequent it a few times and enjoyed lunch or organic coffee and cookies on their Garden Patio. We even enjoyed playing a game of chess while waiting for our food. An added blessing was the owners/servers were very amiable, knowledgeable, friendly and encouraging. We spent a couple pleasant afternoons there.

 

When we first arrived, we went to a restaurant that was supposedly gluten free friendly, but they simply took out ingredients that I couldn't have without replacing it with anything else. What I ended up with was expensive, plain tasting food. At this point I felt going on vacation was a mistake. My high anticipatory expectations came tumbling down and I had a good cry and spent a couple hours under the covers. This is when I realized that the enemy was trying to ruin  my vacation. The problem was, I was letting him.

 

 

So, I put on my Pollyanna face and forced myself to count my blessings. Come to find out there were many more happy things in my life that didn't need to be overshadowed by a couple of food allergies. I realized I needed to change my focus on enjoyments other than food (not easy when you're a foodie) - like chatting with some wonderful people who were also guests of the B&B, during tea time. Enjoying delicious specially made gluten free dairy free cookies that Patti, the Innkeeper, had made speciallly for me AND she gave me the recipe! (There I go again, getting excited about food - or maybe it was that it was baked with kindness. Yes, that must be it.)

 

Thumbprint Cookies

From Patti from The Mason Cottage, Cape May, NJ

Makes about 30 cookies

Fill these oat and nut cookies with your favorite fruit juice sweetened jam. Or just leave in a ball and roll in organic powdered sugar once they're cooled.

Ingredients

1 cup almonds or pecans
1 cup gluten free rolled oats
1 cup gluten free flour blend
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
Fruit juice sweetened organic jam OR 1/2 cup organic powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Put almonds and oats into a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground. Transfer to a large bowl and add flour, oil, syrup and salt. Stir to combine well. Roll walnut-sized balls of the dough in the palm of your hand to form each cookie, then arrange on 2 large baking sheets, spacing cookies 2 inches apart. Press your thumb gently down into the center of each cookie to make an indentation. Spoon a scant teaspoon of jam into each indentation. OR leave in a ball shape (when they're cool, roll in powdered sugar).

Bake cookies until golden brown and just firm around the edges, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a rack to let cool completely, then serve immediately or store between layers of waxed paper in an airtight container.

 

 Also, the weather a couple of days was gorgeous and my honey and I were able to explore the enchanting town of Cape May.

 

I'm not sure I've perfected the art of "eating to live" instead of "living to eat", especially during vacation; but I have learned that focusing on those who love me, on meeting new people, and enjoying the blessings God has placed in my path are where my focus needs to be in order to enjoy my future vacations - and well, life in general, yes?

 

 

 

 

Have You Been Robbed, Or Are You Giving It Away?

 

We live in a day where saving money and pinching pennies is imperative, especially on mundane items like food - we need so much of it. So how do we justify buying and preparing foods that are healthy or even worse, organic?

 

Hold on to your seats friends, I've found the answer!!!!

 

You've heard the old adage, "Time is Money". It just occurred to me that we are being robbed! Of our money? In a sense, yes. What is it that we all spend our extra time doing? You guessed it - the wonderful world of Internet, Net Flix, Hulu, Cable, FaceBook, Email, iPhones. We hurry hurry and at the end of our exhausting day we plop for our nightly entertainment. While it is true that these expensive inventions can be time savers, they have also robbed us of something precious. Some old fashioned goodness. Namely, home cooking and face time. Think about it. What conjures in your head when you think of good 'ole home made cooking? - Homemade pies filling the kitchen with the aroma of apples and cinnamon, savory smells of beef stew cooking all day. Stuff your grandmother did, right? We don't have time to cook like that. We need something fast, quick, convenient and subsequently unhealthy.

 

What did our "grandmothers" do the first thing when they got up in the morning - turn on their computers, check email, FB, news? Of course not, sillies (Gollum LOTR). Their mind was on efficient and economical ways of keeping their families fed. Maybe they started a bread dough, a tomato sauce, or a stew; maybe they went out in the garden to pick what had ripened overnight. Their first hour was probably food prep - and without a microwave, mind you. Their time was their money.

 

Lots of our money is gobbled up in electronics - and I love my electronics as much as the next gal. But when people say "I don't have MONEY to buy organic" or "I don't have TIME to cook from scratch", I wonder if our priorities are just topsy turvy. A 24-hour day is still a 24-hour day.

 

Back in the day when women had the luxury of staying home they did a lot of, what we call, the mundane chores, together - baking, quilting, ironing. Well, we women still need "girl time" but the focus has shifted...we "do lunch" or catch a chick flick.

 

But lately, some of my friends who want to save time and money while eating with healthy ingredients have gotten together like women of old to cook together (older times mind you, not old in age). It has given us back something which we've been robbed of, home cooking with girl friends! Why not have fun learning and sharing together while saving time in the kitchen and subsequently saving money? It also takes away the drudgery of cooking - we're having fun with friends!

 

Our supper swap looks like this: each bff brings a healthy recipe and all the ingredients (you can change up the amount of people or the quantity of recipes depending on your needs). Together in one of our kitchens, we each cook our own recipe. We laugh, chat, eat and have fun together (all the components of girl time). Once we're done, we divide the finished meals into containers. If there are four of us, we've each made one big healthy meal and go home with four small ones. What a time saver!

 

Instead of spending money to "do lunch" or ordering out a quick pizza, our extra cash is spent on healthy organic ingredients and our robber of time and money has been vanquished.

 

I know we can't be asked to save money by canceling cable, or "doing lunch" less often - we need it, right? Of course we do. But what if we switched it up occassionally and got together like the ladies of 'ole and had some good "old fashioned" girl time - while keeping the time and money robbers at bay for awhile.

Are You Kidding? Who Has Time To Cook Healthy?

 

Exasperated? Overwhelmed? Too busy? Frustrated? Dumbfounded? Tired?

 

Do these feelings flood over you on a daily basis? Put on the brakes. Grab a cup of tea and let's have a heart to heart. Did you know that a few minutes of planning can save you hours of time and brain space each day/week/month?

 

When I get overwhelmed with all I have to do, I grab my notebook and pencil and start writing it all down. Somehow the act of brain to paper unloads my heavy burden as I attempt to tame my day. Once the page is full I give each task an ETA (Estimated Time of Accomplishment) and then add up the minutes on the page. This tells me whether my duties outweigh the hours. Another words, can I actually get it all done? If not, I see if there's anything I can move to the next day. Then I give each duty a number of importance and a time frame.

 

30 min. - 7:00-7:30 - Lemon "tea", email and FB
45 min. - 7:30-8:15 - Work out
30 min. - 8:15-8:45 - Water garden
30 min. - 8:45-9:15 - Shower and dress
15 min. - 9:15-9:30 - Eat breakfast
30 min. - 9:30-10:00 - Meditation
30 min. - 10:00-10:30 - Clean kitchen
15 min. - 10:30-10:45 - Choose recipes
15 min. - 10:45-11:00 - Make ingredient list
90 min. - 11:00-12:30 - Grocery shop
60 min. - 12:30-1:30 - Make and eat lunch
60 min. - 1:30-2:30 - Put away groceries
10 min. - 2:30-2:40 - Make quinoa and rice
60 min. - 2:40-3:40 - Prep vegetables and put away

4:00 tea

10 min. - 3:40-3:50 - Prep carrot lemonade juice veggies
10 min. - 3:50-4:00 - Prep beet juice veggies
10 min. - 4:00-4:10 - Prep lemonade fruits for juice
10 min. - 4:10-4:20 - Prep Kale apple juice veggies
30 min. - 4:20-4:50 - Tea and snack time. Answer emails.
60 min. - 4:50-5:50 - Clean kitchen
55 min. - 5:50-6:45 - Plan gluten free recipes for cooking class
75 min. - 6:45-8:00 - Pizza with hubby
13 hours
 

Lately, this has been necessary since I now must make all my food from scratch. Being gluten and dairy intolerant means I can't rely on quick food fixes anymore. Priorities have shifted. So, I thought I would share "A day in the life of a gluten free, dairy free chef".

 

Today is grocery shopping day. The first thing on my list:

1. Choose 7 recipes (1 or 2 new; the rest from my Keeper binder)

 

I have 2 three-ring binders. One I fill with new recipes found online or in magazines or cookbooks that I would like to try. The other is filled with "Keepers" - those recipes which I've tried and which taste good (very important to taste good).

 

I finally have at least 14 recipes which both I and my husband like, so these have become a 14-day rotation. In a month's time we only  have to eat each recipe twice. Again, a time saver since I don't have to rethink "what's for dinner" every night.

 

Next, I make an ingredient list from my seven chosen recipes.

2. Make ingredient list

 

If you're crunched for time this step can be eliminated. Just take the 7 recipes with you to the grocery store and check ingredients as you shop. Not as efficient, but doable.

 



Left overs

Next, of course, is to get the groceries.

3. Grocery shopping

This usually takes me an hour in the store, plus travel time. It's better if my refrigerator is cleaned out (eat all leftovers the night before) to make room for new stuff; and if my counters are cleared.

 

Groceries bought and back home. Now it's time for efficiency.

 

I eat a lot of quinoa since it's gluten free, a complete protein by itself, and is an alkaline food. Since it will stay fresh cooked for the week, I check all recipes, see how much I need, and make it all at once.
 

4. Make quinoa for the week, cool, then refrigerate

 

I do the same with rice (brown or black, depending on the recipes chosen).
 

5. Make rice for the week


 

Another way to save time is to prepare all vegetables needed for your recipes at once: peel carrots, scrub potatoes, wash celery, chop onions, scrub beets, cut and wash Brussels sprouts and broccoli. Once you get going, you get on a roll. If time permits, you could also put vegetables away grouped according to the recipe.

 



5 pound bag of carrots scrubbed and ready to package

6. Prep vegetables and put away
 

 

Since I usually juice at least once a day, I also prepare juice ingredients and package them in ziploc bags per recipe.

 

7. Carrot lemonade: Wash 6 carrots, 1/2 small lemon, 1 apple, 1 stalk of celery - ziploc it. Make two.
 

8. Beet juice: Scrub 1 small beet, wash 1 large cucumber, cut a 2" piece of fresh peeled ginger, cut pineapple in quarters - ziploc it. Make 2

9. Pink lemonade: wash 2 apples, wash 1 small lemon, scrub 1/4 beet - ziploc it. Make 2

10. Kale apple juice: wash 10 kale leaves, wash 1 apple, wash 1 cucumber, 1/2 whole lemon - ziploc it.

 

Now all seven juices are ready for the week - no more thinking required.

 

Another time saving tip I've found is to make sure I make twice as much for dinner as we need from each recipe, then we have leftovers for lunch the next day. Double for your trouble.

 

Wow, lots of prepping done. As a reward, it's time to order pizza out. Yup, I can get a gluten free, no cheese, delicious, vegetable pizza down the street at Stone and Paddle where one of my sons works. Sometimes I get a quick visit with him if he's not too busy.

 

Every time I'm able to do this prep routine at the beginning of my week, it leaves lots of brain space left for the rest of daily living, like blogging, teaching cooking classes, and making new recipes.

Now let me hear from you. What timesavers have you found helpful to make your life less overwhelming?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Love Affair With Coffee

“Joe” has been my constant companion and best friend for nearly 40 years, except during my four pregnancies when simple smells would send me running to the bathroom.  But “Joe” is an acidic friend who has been deceiving me all these years, he and his creamy buddy.

Every time I feel down, agitated, tired, or hungry I get my “Cup of Joe” and “Voila” – I feel fine. Between the caffeine and the cream my world would right itself. Then I met his cousin, “Cappuccino”, in Italy and another love affair began. I would sit at a café in Florence - smelling the rich aroma of coffee and savoring the smooth taste of frothed milk, sometimes with a touch of sweetener. What could be better?

But also while in Italy I was continuing to experience strange symptoms – leg cramps, extreme fatigue, inflammation, stuffiness. Something wasn’t right – my coffee and milk had betrayed me. I didn’t know it yet, but I was intolerant to milk and my “Joe” was pulling me down (my pH that is). The human body needs an alkaline environment (pH of 7.35) to survive and my “Joe” was an acidic relationship (bringing me to a pH of 5 or 6). It was hard to break. After all, I was in love. My body told me I had to break it off, but my emotions said, “No”. What would I do every morning without my “Cup of Joe”?

But I had finally had enough of the pain of this toxic relationship and I gradually stopped meeting with “Joe”. First I took out one of my morning cups, but kept the afternoon ones. Then I left off the lunch cup. Then I was down to one cup in the morning and one cup in late afternoon. Then I left off the afternoon cup. I literally cried when I realized that I wouldn’t be seeing “Joe” anymore. The first morning I didn’t meet with “Joe” I was depressed. I felt I was losing my best friend, like I was a traitor. And “Joe” didn’t want me to go either. He lingered in my head giving me a dull migraine the whole day. I did a lot of sleeping that day.

“How did you deal with the fatigue”, you ask? I was replacing “Joe” with my new love, “Juice”. You see “Joe” was giving me a false sense of alertness - one that would quickly leave, making me dependent, causing me to reach for another cup. But “Juice” was filled with nourishing vitamins, something my body was screaming for - for years. I was finally listening. Now a cool refreshing “Juice” with carrots or kale and apples; or beets, pineapple and cucumber come to my rescue. My alkaline system, now full of oxygen allows my cells to purr and do the job they were designed to do, to keep me alert, give me energy, and fight off disease, stuffiness, fatigue and inflammation. And no inflammation means no more pain.

 

I no longer need to abuse my body with the damaging effects of caffeine or milk.  Now when I’m tired and need a boost and “Joe” tries to nudge his way in, I turn my back and reach for my juicer.

From a "3-Letter Word" to a "5-Letter Word"

“They” say that as your body gets older it breaks down and falls apart; you should expect it. It’s the process of getting “OLD”. When I hear someone express that philosophy I think of my mother who hated that “3-Letter Word”. She truly believed that you were as young as you felt, and she always felt great. It was her mindset. She lived her life to the fullest, even to the last.

So as the chronological clock ticked on and years were added to years, my body seemed to “fall apart” with sinus issues, forgetfulness, achy joints, and bad knees – you know how it goes. I wondered if the inevitable "3-Letter Word" had come to pay a permanent visit.

 

The first thing I did was pray and ask my Heavenly Father to heal my body; then I went to the doctor. Doctors ask their typical questions to find where the pain is and then relieve symptoms with pills and surgery; and my doctor did not disappoint. After the question period, the poking, and the x-rays, he told me I had “chronic” tendonitis of which, of course, there was no cure; “chronic” being the operative word. Because you see, once something is dubbed chronic, the patient is at the doctor’s mercy since “there is no cure”. I was told I must learn to live with it. He actually used the dreaded “3-Letter Word”. He assured me, however, that there were things which he could prescribe which could ease the pain.

Really!!! For the rest of my life? I’m not sure at what age you label someone with the dreaded “3-Letter Word”; but I considered myself still pretty young. I wasn’t even a grandmother yet! At that moment in the doctor’s office I realized I did not want to spend the rest of my life fighting pain, limiting activity, and taking myriads of pills, with surgery the only thing to look forward to. So, I began one of my favorite hobbies – to educate myself.

A friend of mine introduced me to the book Clean, by Dr. Alejandro Junger. As I read his book I was intrigued by the philosophy that toxins caused us pain and weight gain. The weight gain was caused because toxins were stored in fat. Without getting rid of toxins, one couldn’t get rid of fat. Seemed simple enough; but what were the toxins? According to Junger, toxins came from four different areas: 1) the world at large; 2) the environment in which we live; 3) personal hygiene and home products; 4) and what we put into our mouths. In fact, he said certain foods could be toxic to us; things like high fructose corn syrup, white sugar, gluten and diary, even caffeine. He encouraged his readers to go on an “elimination/detox diet” eliminating many of these allergenic and toxic foods for 21 days. So, I decided to give it a try. After all what could it hurt, and maybe I would even lose a few pounds.

First, I needed to eliminate the “no-no” foods: things like gluten, dairy-including cheese and yogurt, caffeine, the night shades, anything pre-prepared, wheat products (pasta, bread, muffins, donuts) etc. Once I was cleaned out, I started the actual juicing part of the diet where you juice breakfast and dinner and have a sensible lunch with lots of greens. Amazingly after only 10 days or so, my joint pain vanished, I had no more mucus/sinus problems and I had an amazing amount of energy. At that point I realized that my health issues were, in fact, food related.

Once I finished the three weeks of juicing, I began to add back one food at a time to find out which ones were the culprit. The first one I added back was gluten. Sure enough my joint pain immediately resurfaced. I eliminated it again and waited a few days for the pain to subside; then I tried dairy. Again, the mucus and sinus pain returned. I continued with other foods, one at a time; but some foods I have permanently left out - besides the gluten and dairy - such as white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and processed foods.

During those first few months I kept motivated by four factors. One was that I was losing a half a pound a day (total of 42 pounds). Even though pain was my main motivation, it’s amazing how finally being able to lose weight keeps you pressing forward. The second factor was how many other pains and discomforts also vanished from my body in such a short amount of time – I counted a total of 20. My energy level increased, the foggy brain disappeared as well as allergy symptoms, and I feel and look younger. Another factor which helped to keep me motivated was watching documentaries such as, "Hungry For Change", "Forks Over Knives", and "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead". These films helped to make me aware of the food industry - Big Pharma, Big Agriculture, The Dairy Industry, and Meat Industry and how much of the food industry works - not for our well being and health - but for their profit. Once you see the big picture, it helps to keep you going on the daily level when sometimes you want to revert back. But the most rewarding to me was watching those around me - my family, friends, and even acquaintances - see what had happened to me and want the change for themselves. After just a few months, I witnessed numerous others not only lose hundreds of pounds collectively, but drop unnecessary medications, and once again pursue active healthy lifestyles.

As I reflect back over my journey so far, I'm first of all amazed that my Heavenly Father did hear my cry and heal me. What I've learned from this is that He had already provided for the healing in creating an amazing body full of cells which knew just what to do to eliminate fat, toxins, and disease. It was me who had not allowed my body to do its job because of what I was feeding it. I am very thankful that He answered my prayer by opening the door of knowledge which allowed me to more fully understand how His system worked so I could then take back my health and allow my body to do the job it was designed to do. 

 

Now I have to get on with the job of living out my new favorite saying, "You're as YOUNG as you feel" - which, by the way, is a "5-letter word".