more adventures in gluten-free land

so, after a brief hiatus from posting about my gluten-free adventures, i'm back with new tidbits--some "big," some not so big...

it looks like we're a breath away from being done with the upstairs renovation--the guest bedroom is set up, and all of the furniture has arrived for the living room. the last thing to arrive will be the rug on monday. it looks great! jerry has worked so hard to create a lovely family space for us--he is so wonderful!!




we had a great time in folly beach and charleston--very relaxing and wonderful weather! i wish we had taken more pictures, but i guess the fact that we were having too much fun to remember to get out the camera is a good thing in the end! :)

shortly before we left for the trip, i decided to start eating meat again--with a very large caveat, of course! only humanely raised, organically fed, free-range meat, and only when really necessary. this helps a lot with the issue of protein intake when being gluten-free and vegetarian. i noticed that i was eating mostly rice and veggies; although rice is a rich source of fiber, the proteins are incomplete, so i was always starving and week. by allowing a little bit of meat in my diet, i am able to supplement the protein with some healthy options every once in a while.

as far as gluten-free recipe adventures go, the bean dip that i put together a couple of weeks ago was great--it was all natural, so a dash of cayenne pepper and french gray sea salt made it PERFECT for munching on.

tonight i finally got the courage to make my gluten-free pizza crust. i'm not sure why, but i was completely intimidated by the idea of making a bread product. but the chebe crust mix made it so easy! i used a sun-dried tomato and basil olive oil in the mix, which i think gave it a very unique flavor. this being my first time making a bread mix, i think i added a little too much milk, but after wrapping and refrigerating the dough for about 10 minutes, it turned out great! i topped it with some gluten-free spaghetti sauce, fat-free mozzarella cheese, mushroom slices, tomato slices, and spinach leaves. it was AWESOME! especially since any of my add-ins/add-ons were fat-free, low-fat, or low-cal--it felt good to enjoy a little piece of heavenly pizza knowing that i had made it at least a little bit healthier...

as for restaurant adventures, my friend lisa and i found the black bean hummus at barley's in greenville to be amazing! and, after requesting no pita bread given our mutual gluten-free-gloriousness, they automatically provided us with corn chips. it was so good we ordered another helping!

i'm looking forward this weekend to trying out the gluten-free options at trios in downtown with jennie f.! very exciting to get to spend time with such wonderful ladies and experience new things at the same time!

ahh, well, now off to ride the motorcycle up to bi-lo with my guy...



i'm very much craving that tex-mex quinoa that i mentioned before--it was so good and filling!

WOW

i was listening to this as i was walking (thank you, best of the left podcast), and i stopped dead in my tracks and just stood there with my mouth open going, 'wow. awesome.'

Rep. Keith Ellison Talks About What Liberty and Justice for All Really Means

a very interesting perspective...

from the bill maher show, episode 212, regarding the celebrations surrounding the death of bin laden:

"i think that irshad [manji]'s point is that when we begin to see the evil in another person, and we begin to locate it there and not see that we're just as vulnerable to the same kind of stuff, we're not as humble as we should be. and therefore, we should be a bit more cautious about celebrating that." ~ michael eric dyson

just something to think about...

so much productivity!

well, mes chers, this day has been a whirlwind! i ended up staying home from work because we had some maintenance going on, and although that doesn't sound like the best recipe for productivity, i was moving through some tasks! now, as it begins storming in a very delightful way, i thought i'd curl up here with a good glass of red wine and share some of the good news as well as what i've been doing in the kitchen...

we had the carpets steam cleaned today--all ready for the upstairs furniture to be delivered on friday and the new changes in the guest bedroom. i can't wait for family and friends to come and share our home!

so, not only did i finish grading compositions and my other work AND plant my roses AND walk 4 miles, i was also able to cook up a bunch of great stuff for the coming weeks! i did the asparagus frittata--very easy and gave me the chance to use the iron skillets that my mom gave me so long ago. i just had a piece--of course with ketchup, since i'm one of those "eggs with ketchup" people--and it was great. surprisingly filling and tasty for only 60 calories a slice!



i also finished making the lasagna--i still couldn't get the food processor to work, so i just decided to mix it by hand. i honestly can't believe that i didn't think of that the other night--the recipe only called for 10 seconds of food processing, so i wish it had occurred to me to look and see if i could just do it by hand. of course the noodles that i had cooked were mostly stuck together and wasted, but luckily i had six unused ones left over, so between those and pieces of the others, i was able to piece together the equivalent of 12 noodles. i would have just bought some more, but the only place i've been able to find the tinkyada lasagna noodles is in easley (grrrrr...), so that wasn't possible.

anyway, after a small taste test, i think it turned out great...i froze it for the next sunday when the family has our traditional lasagna meal. perhaps i'll stop by ingles in the morning to pick up some of the french bread mix that i saw.

i have to say, i am seriously craving some french bread and some doritos (not together of course!). i know, i know...a strange food identity to reference, but i love both so much!

i was also going to fix up some zucchini tempura chips, but i realized that the recipe called for a dehydrator, so i'll have to figure out a way around that or table that one for a little while. i did take the leftover veggies (asparagus, yellow squash, extra zucchini, and green onion) and sauté them with some jalapeno pepper flakes to then be mixed with rice. i think at this point i have enough food for 3 weeks, but it has been fun!

as an aside, the vegetarian times website has been an amazing resource. on this site, you can not only read interesting articles, you can search for vegetarian recipes with an amazing number of specifications, including gluten-free, low-calorie, low-fat, dairy-free, and vegan. it seems like filtering vegetarian recipes for gluten-free and low-calorie would turn up 0 results, but this site has an astonishing number of options! even when i added dairy-free to those options, i still got pages and pages of results. also, every recipe comes with a nutritional breakdown, which is very helpful for dieting and also for ensuring appropriate levels of proteins and other nutrients.

i hope that one day i'll be adept enough at this cooking venture to post pictures of what i actually make--not the recipe photos! of course, that would also require me to find my camera...hmmmm....

cooking it up this weekend

this weekend was a great food festival! on friday night, we went to the lazy goat in downtown greenville for our anniversary--that was where we went on our first date--and the meal was amazing. the truffle fries were delicious as was the risotto that the chef prepared especially for me after i told the server i was a gluten-free vegetarian. it was honestly one of the best meals that i have ever had and the company was of course wonderful. :)

then on saturday i spent some quality time in the kitchen. my batch of hummus didn't come out as well as the first one, but the tex-mex quinoa was great. with the left over black beans and dr. mcdougall's black bean soup, i made up a little creation of my own--vegetarian, gluten-free bean dip! to the 1/2 of the box that was left and the approximately 1 can worth of black beans, i added a can of great northern beans (drained), some salsa, and some savory, then threw it all in the food processor...voilà! i must say, it tasted very good for something that was, shall we say, a bit aimless...

i also made up some gluten-free spaghetti as well as some brown rice with veggies and quorn. all great things for lunch and dinner. i started to make a gluten-free vegetarian lasagna last night with some tinkyada noodles that i found at wal-mart (of all places!), but couldn't get the food processor to work, so that was shelved until another try tonight. at least all of the ingredients are ready!