Avocados

I distinctly remember the one time mom tried to get us to eat avocados when we were kids. I tried a tiny piece, decided it was disgusting, and hid the rest so I wouldn't have to eat it.

I served my mission in California, and I had multiple occasions to try avocados again- plain and in guacamole. I still didn't like them.

I married a guy who served a Spanish-speaking mission in California and who loves Mexican food, including avocados and guacamole. I still didn't like them.

I just haven't been able to get past the texture and the taste.

However, this past week I made some seven layer dip, and included a layer of guacamole. The dip turned out really good, and I actually thought the homemade guacamole (Mr M is quite talented in the kitchen) was good too. So, I decided to give avacodos another try.

We bought a couple more avacoados, and used one in smoothies. I used half the avocado the first time, but while the smoothie really stuck with us, the flavor was a bit too strong, even with lots of strawberries to compensate. And the color was rather off-putting (nasty yellowish tan). I used a quarter of the avacodo the next two times, and the flavor and color improved.

I used the other avocado to make chocolate pudding. I've seen this around on several blogs, but wasn't quite brave enough to try it till now. I mashed an avocado, added 2 or 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder, a splash of vanilla, and squirt or two of agave nectar.

The end result tasted like really dark chocolate pudding. Mr M didn't like it at all, but I think if it had been a little sweeter and better mashed he would have liked it better. I just used a fork to mash it up, and that left little globs of avocado and some strings. The second time I made it I used my immersion blender, and the texture was a lot smoother. I also noticed that more cocoa powder is better than less- the avocado flavor gets covered up better.

Despite all that, I liked it. The avocado wasn't super noticable, and the pudding was much more satisfying than regular pudding, and had way less sugar. I can go through a whole box of pudding in one sitting, but only managed to eat about half an avocado's worth of pudding before being too full- not just full, but satisfied. My sweet tooth wasn't nagging me, and I didn't feel like I needed to eat anything else.

I'll be making chocolate avocado pudding a lot more- I think a few spoonfuls will go a long way toward beating the mid-afternoon and after-dinner sweet tooth munchies. Hmmm, that sounds like a new diet plan- move over South Beach, here comes the Chocolate Avocado Pudding Diet!

Fail to plan, plan to fail

My reaction to gluten seems to be evolving. It used to be throat swelling, now it's burning nauseous pain in my stomach. I think I'd rather have the throat swelling- it doesn't last as long and isn't as painful.

Last night we were coming home from a conference we attended, and ended up with a limited number of choices for dinner. I'd planned on Chipotle, but neglected to make sure that there actually was one in the area. Since there wasn't, I pulled out my blackberry pearl and did a quick search for gluten free options at Ruby Tuesday and Applebees, the only restaurant options available. Both restaurants had very limited options, so we picked Applebees. BIG MISTAKE! Aside from the terrible service, poor food quality, and extremely slow cooks, I managed to eat enough contaminated food to make today very uncomfortable: my stomach's been killing me all day.

We wouldn't have eaten there at all except that I hadn't been able to eat much at the lunch provided and had forgotten to bring adequate food to supplement what I could eat and I was starving. Not a good position to be in. I blame my lack of preparation on how I've been feeling (still recovering from the last round of gluten problems) and the stress of trying to get everything ready for Mr M to go on an extended trip. That's not a good excuse, but it is a fact of life that things aren't always how we want them to be.

A few days ago I purchased Healthy Snacks To Go from KitchenStewardship.com. It's an ebook with more than 30 recipes for snacks that aren't full of processed ingredients. They're not all gluten free, but a number of them are (and are clearly labeled gluten free) or can be easily tweaked. Since it only cost $6.95, I decided to give it a whirl and was not disappointed. Quite a few of the recipes are for snacks that I can prepare ahead of time and carry with me for times when there's nothing safe for me to eat. I also really like that they're healthier and cheaper than store-bought snacks.

Some of the recipes I'll start making next week: granola bars, homemade lara bars (the store-bought versions have been a staple I keep in my purse, but they're pricey and I haven't bought any in awhile), applesauce, fruit leather, and yogurt. Yum!

All the stomach pain I've endured recently has definitely emphasized that I must be prepared at all times. I don't want to be really hungry and not have any safe food options. I really don't want to have this stomach pain ever again.

Recovering from gluten poisoning

Looking back, I can recognize the symptoms, but in the moment I was too sick to put them all together and realized what was happening. I'm writing down how I felt in hopes that I won't let things spiral out of control again, but catch them early on instead.

Fuzzy brain- inability to think clearly
ADD- inability to sit still and get anything done
Massive food cravings
Nauseous burning pain in the stomach
Irritability/short temper/very little patience

These are all things I experienced before I went gluten free, and they're all things I never want to experience again.

Nothing like being slowly poisoned...

Impromptu photo shoot

I grabbed the camera to take some photos the other day, and LMS insisted on taking some of me as well.

Here's the best shot of me, still slightly blurry.

Here's the best one of LMS. She was playing dress-up, and I couldn't resist getting a shot of her in all her finery.

Hidden gluten got me again

The old nauseous burning pain in the stomach resurfaced this week. At first I attributed it to stress, but then I realized that this is the same nauseous burning pain in the stomach that I had before I went gluten free.

So, either I have another food allergy, which is possible- eggs have given me problems off and on for years, or I've somehow been adding gluten. I haven't been having the swollen throat reaction, so this whole thing crept up on me. After reviewing what I've been eating the last few days, I narrowed it down to eggs, polska kielbasa, or one of my vitamins. If it's eggs, I'll have to completely eliminate them, but that will be the last option I try. The label of the polska kielbasa didn't have anything that should have given me this many problems, but I'll probably avoid it in the future just to be safe.

The most likely culprit at this point is one of my vitamins. I checked all the labels, and my vitamin d supplement could be the one- I recently started using a different brand than I had been buying, and the label says it's produced in a facility that also processes wheat (among other allergens). All my other vitamins specifically say gluten free.

I removed all the vitamin d capsules from my pill box, didn't take it last night, and so far my stomach is feeling better. The nausea burning pain feelings are still there, but not as bad. My appetite also feels a lot more normal. The last few days I've had horrible cravings to eat, eat, eat. After a year of being gluten free I'd forgotten just how I react to it. I need to write down these symptoms so if I start feeling them again I'll realize quicker that something is off.

It's amazing that even tiny amounts of gluten can make me feel this crummy. This also highlights the dangers of cross-contamination, and the fact that it is a real issue.

Cinnamon Rolls

Last week our ward had a fundraiser for YM/YW camps. We signed up for Mr M's dad's cinnamon rolls- they're really yummy and always a big hit.

Mr M made the cinnamon rolls and LMS helped.

Before she could help him, though, she had to get her apron and hat on :)

I have to say, after almost a year of being gluten free, this was the most temptation I've had. These are seriously yummy cinnamon rolls. I'm going to have to do some experimentation and find a good gluten free version.

Tangled threads

As I've mentioned before, I've been doing lots of organizing and sorting. Last week I sorted through a big bag of spools of thread. I was given them by my BIL who inherited them from his mother when she died. They'd been sitting in storage for the last 15 plus years, getting more and more tangled.

I untangled them all, trimmed ends, and tucked ends into slits to prevent more unraveling.

Nice and neat and easy to find and use. I might have to get one of those spool holders so I can see which colors are which, but for now this definitely works.

Strawberry Picking

On Saturday we went strawberry picking after soccer. I haven't picked strawberries since high school. I worked every summer in junior high and high school at a strawberry farm, picking berries, field directing, harvesting produce, and selling produce. The farm was less than half a mile away and it was the ideal summer job for a teenager.

LMS picked a few berries, but she didn't appreciate getting strawberry juice on her hands. She was happy holding the buckets for us.

Mr M hadn't picked strawberries in years either. His back didn't appreciate the bending over and crouching, but he was still able to pick a lot of berries.

We picked about 22 pounds altogether.

 I cleaned them, sliced them in half, and put them in freezer bags.

Lots of strawberries for our green smoothies- yummy!

Want to win a book?

I did, now it's your turn!

Has anyone read the Rhea Jenson series? They are being re-released after being expanded with more details and scenes. Leading up to the release of the first book (formerly Spies, Lies, and a Pair of Ties, now City of Angels) author Sheralyn Pratt is holding a month of giveaways. Each day she is asking a trivia question and the first to answer correctly gets to pick a book from a group of books.

The first giveaway was on Monday, and I won! Yay me! I picked Divinely Designed by Rachael Anderson. I love free books!

I can't win any others, but you guys can go have a try. Check out Sheralyn's blog here.

I found some off road trails

Last Wednesday I finally went for a walk. It had been a couple weeks since the last time I went and it was nice to get moving again. We went about 3.5 miles and found some unpaved trails that were mostly nice, but a little rough in a few places. Good thing we have a BOB stroller! It handled everything with ease, even if I didn't- I'm definitely out of shape.

I need to start exercising in earnest. If I don't, and even if I do, I may not be ready for the marathon in September. I really want to be running, but I also want to be running without pain, so I can't push too much too soon.

I thought about getting up early and going for a run before Mr M gets up, but we have some schedule changes coming up, so that will only work in the short term. Going for a walk after LMS gets up, has breakfast, gets dressed, etc means we usually don't leave the house till 9 at the earliest. Mr M comes home for lunch at 11, so by the time I've done my walk, showered, changed, etc, it's time to get lunch ready and the morning is completely gone. This is a big part of why I haven't gone for walks for a while now- I'm trying to get stuff done, and I can't do it all.

Guess I'm going to have to figure out how to work around that.

I've made good progress on the sorting and purging, but still have some more to do. If I could just get all the stuff sold, I'd be good. Anyone need any random baby stuff?

Little Miss Sunshine turned 4!

We had a low-key birthday party since we had the cousin party before we moved. We decided against inviting other kids, so it was just the three of us. I made pinatas the last two years, but since it was just us I didn't do one this year. That and I've been busy unpacking, sorting, and organizing and didn't remember till it was too late to make it in time.

The last two birthday cakes I made were iced, but this year I decided to try fondant. I really like the look of fondant and figured it was worth a try. I used a marshmallow fondant recipe (thanks for the link V!),  and the process was a bit messy but fairly easy.

I made two 8 inch layers of gluten free yellow cake, iced them, then put the fondant on top.

I really like how it turned out- it's not perfect, but I am happy with it. The polka dots didn't turn out as neat as I'd have liked, but I also did them with by using a knife and cutting around the bottom of a pill bottle. I'd have liked a round metal cookie cutter the size of a donut hole, but I don't have one and I wasn't about to go find one at 9 pm on Saturday.

It was a learning experience, and I think I'll experiment with fondant again. I didn't care for the flavor of it, so I think I might try some flavoring, though it would need to complement the cake flavor.

I'm not happy with the lighting in the pictures- we have crappy light in our kitchen. The kitchen gets no direct sunlight, and the lights are very dim. If this was our house, the first thing we'd have done was change the light fixtures in the kitchen.  I need to find a lamp or two to bring in more light. In the meantime, every picture I take in there has bad lighting.

I've rediscovered my allergies

There is nasty green pollen everywhere, and my body is not appreciating it at all. All my allergies are acting up, and LMS has been rubbing her eyes a lot. I haven't had allergy problems since I moved out west 15 years ago to go to school. I've been in the west ever since, and it's a lot drier out there.

Last week I broke down and bought some Zyrtec for LMS and I and dosed us both up. It seems to be helping our allergy symptoms but it's also knocking us both out.

I may need to go to the doctor though, to see if there isn't something we can do about the rashy allergic reaction I've been having. Staying cooped up inside is just not possible, but anytime I do anything outside my eyes itch and water and my skin itches and if I'm really unlucky I get nasty weepy sores.

The Zyrtec is helping with the itching, but the true test will come the next time I mow the lawn.

More Little Miss Sunshine-isms

While we were eating breakfast the other morning, LMS asked:
"Mommy, does Prince Philip have a car?"
I responded:
"No, he has a horse instead."
"Hmmm"
She thought about that for a minute, than asked:
"Why?"

Always "why?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tuesday night we told her:
"It's time to get ready for bed so you won't be tired at soccer tomorrow."
Her response:
"I don't want to go to soccer tomorrow, I want to go 'tolater'."

(she pronounced it two later)