Preparing for Whole30

- Meaghan Penrod

I’ve always been the kind of person that gets super excited about something and then reads up on it like crazy! As a kid, any time I got a new pet I’d learn everything about them.  To this day, I can still tell you more than you probably care to know about Beta fish and Hermit Crabs lol

So in preparation for this experiment, I read through the Whole30 book and reviewed other various articles on the internet.  I just wanted to make sure I had a good idea of what I’d be eliminating, good alternatives, and any tips and tricks that might be helpful. Plus, I like knowing all the science and reasons behind something like this–that’s what helps me feel motivated and driven.

Quite honestly, I started feeling pretty good about it.  I realized you can still have potatoes, which is a HUGE deal for me haha I think just that alone will help me feel like I’m not starving myself of carbs.  For the most part, I already eat this way for breakfast and lunch during the week.  I don’t really eat any dairy or carbs during the day, so the only real struggle is going to be at night.  A meal doesn’t feel complete for me without 3 parts–meat, carbs, and  veggies.  So finding satisfying replacements for my pasta and rice will be a big deal.  I do really enjoy spaghetti squash so I’m hoping between that, cauliflower rice, and potatoes I’ll be good to go! Plus, you’re allowed to keep eating until you feel full, so it’ll be nice not having to carefully measure my portions.  I can just allow myself to enjoy the food until I feel like I’ve naturally come to the end of my meal.

In preparation for today (my first day!), I went to the grocery store on Sunday and got lots of goodies to get me started:

Spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, red peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, spaghetti squash, zucchini, squash, avocados, apples, strawberries, bananas, oranges, watermelon, coconut milk, coconut aminos, kombucha, chicken, ground turkey, and beef.  My new neighbors already loaded me up with their chicken’s and duck’s eggs, so I’m good to go there.

I knew in order to be successful with this, I needed to do a little bit of meal prep.  I know some people go crazy with it, but I like to do a little at a time.  So yesterday I cooked several potatoes (red and sweet potatoes) in the crockpot along with 3 chicken breasts.  I also hard-boiled some eggs and made 2 chia puddings (just 4 tbs of chia seeds and 1 cup of flax milk, mixed together and put in the fridge).  Later in the week, I’ll be roasting my spaghetti squash but for now I’ll just be making zoodles for dinner with my zucchini.  In the morning, I finish putting together my breakfast and lunch.  Today I diced up some strawberries and chopped up some pecans and threw them on top of the chia pudding I prepped.  For lunch, I made a salad with the lettuce, red pepper, cucumber, and avocado and then threw some of my slow-cooked chicken on top! I also always make my dressing the day of–I just get a small container and pour in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a splash of whatever vinegar I’m in the mood for (today I did red wine vinegar), salt, pepper, and some herbs (today it was parsley).

I don’t anticipate the work-day to be much of a struggle because it’s no different other than adding in meat…which I’m pretty excited about.  The real test will be how crazy I feel not having real pasta with dinner tonight…and not snacking all night long on carbs…

Stay tuned!

 

Why Whole30?

- Meaghan Penrod

First off, let me start by saying that I NEVER had any interest in doing Whole30.  I’ve been hearing about it for years now and every time another person would tell me they were doing it, I’d roll my eyes.  Oh you’re gonna cut out grains, dairy, and booze? Sounds like a blast.  It didn’t make sense to me because that’s not a sustainable lifestyle and it just seemed like a waste of time.  I saw it as just another “get skinny quick” diet.

Then there’s my internal struggle of “but should I try to be vegan?” It’s honestly so hard to know what to do these days with so much conflicting information out there.  You read one book that says grains are killing you and then you watch a documentary that says grains will save your life and meat is killing you.  Then you look to a nutritionist but the documentaries and books are telling you that all of these professionals are brainwashed by big-business.  CAN SOMEONE STOP THE MADNESS.

At the end of the day, I think you have to figure out what works best for your body.  I’ve tried eating mostly vegan and have felt pretty good, but mentally it’s still a huge struggle for me.  I can’t help it…I really like meat and avoiding it makes me feel deprived.

Then there’s the fact that I have Celiac Disease.  With this autoimmune disease comes all sorts of fun side-effects–inflammation, fatigue, depression, anxiety, etc.  I eat VERY STRICTLY gluten-free, but I don’t feel 100%.  I’ve noticed in the past few months that I just feel tired all the damn time.  I don’t ever wake up for work feeling alert and energized…I always feel like I need 4 more hours of sleep.  On the weekends, I’ll sleep for like 10-12 hours and that’s the only time I feel pretty awake.  But then I start feeling like I need a nap a few hours later! I thought I was maybe getting too much sleep and that was making me tired, but I’ve tested 7-8 hours and I still feel exhausted! Then once I finally drag my ass out of bed, I feel thoroughly unfocused and unmotivated.  Getting myself to accomplish nearly anything productive takes A LOT of mental pep-talking. I’ve been on Zoloft for a while now and that has totally changed my moods! But this fatigue is just weighing on me. I also deal with some skin issues. I get quite a bit of redness and often my skin just seems irritated.  Occasionally I’ll break out, but it’s mostly just the redness that drives me crazy. I’m also at a weight that’s higher than I’d like. I’m not even sure if it’s the weight or the fact that I just feel puffy and bloated.  I want to just tone things up!

A couple of my friends/family mentioned doing Whole30 in the past month or so and, for some reason, I decided to look into it a little more instead of just rolling my eyes.  Maybe it was because my sister-in-law decided to do it and she’s a woman of science (she’s a Veterinarian)…I figured if she trusted it, maybe I should too. As I was reading, I saw a lot of people with similar symptoms (or with Celiac) saying they tried it and it totally changed their lives.  They felt mental clarity and energy they hadn’t felt before.  Their skin cleared up.  They no longer felt any bloating.  They slept better. Their blood tests showed better overall health.

I also learned that Whole30 isn’t a traditional “diet.”  It wasn’t created for weight loss at all.  It was created to help people figure out what foods are making them feel less than their best.  The authors did tremendous research into all the foods that could potentially cause people to feel less healthy and those are the ones you eliminate for 30 days.  Then at the end, you can slowly add them back in one at a time to see if there’s any one food in particular that is causing you harm.  THAT I can get behind. It made me curious! What if all this time, my body actually hates legumes or certain grains and just cutting back or eliminating them could change everything? It’s something I just have to see for myself.

So for the next 30 days, I’ll be eliminating all grains, dairy, soy, legumes, sugar (including artificial), and alcohol.  The main areas I’ll be closely observing are:

  1. Energy levels
  2. Mental clarity and focus
  3. Skin changes
  4. Weight changes

At the end, I could feel exactly the same…but there’s the possibility that nothing will ever be the same for me again and I’m ready to find out!

My Favorite Pizza Crusts (as of now)

- Meaghan Penrod

Ahh gluten free pizza…the first option many restaurants add to their menu, but usually the worst culprit for 1) cross-contamination and 2) everyone’s favorite “cardboard” texture.  Don’t get me wrong, I love that restaurants have the option, but it’s rare to find places with pizza that I actually WANT to eat.

Recently, I’ve been testing a lot of the different crust options at home to see which ones cook up the best.  There are some nice mixes that you can buy, but in this post I’m just picking my favorite pre-mixed, ready to bake doughs!

Without further ado, here are my two favorite brands…and both happen to be located in Connecticut!

1. Make It GF Pizza Dough

Lori Cornett, the owner of Make It GF in Canton, CT is actually a scientist by trade…and I think that’s how she was able to formulate such an impressive dough! It comes as a ball of dough and you spread it out and bake it yourself.  Lori was nice enough to add a video on her website about how to do it! You can check it out here.  It also happens to be nut free, soy free, grain free, egg free, dairy free, and GMO free!

How it’s packaged

Once it’s cooked, it comes out looking like this (or at least mine did):

Look at that crust…

I have to say, for people used to New York or CT style pizza, this is the most authentically similar kind of crust I’ve ever tried! Even my husband said it was delicious and it tasted pretty much like “regular” pizza.  It gets a nice crispy outside while maintaining that bite and chew of a traditional gluteny pizza inside.  If you can get your hands on this crust (or any of their products), I highly recommend it!! You can order it online and have it shipped right to you if you’re living in the Northeast Region of the US!

2. Still Riding Foods Gluten Free Pizza Crust

Still Riding Foods is another brand located in Connecticut.  They’ve worked hard to formulate a pizza crust that is also similar to that New York style of pizza.  However, it doesn’t come as a ball of dough.  Instead, it comes vacuum sealed, pre-cooked, and never frozen. So all you have to do is pop it out of the package, top it with your favorite toppings, and stick it in the oven.  It’s great! Plus it’s free of the top 8 allergens and is also kosher, vegan, and non-GMO.

 

This crust is crispy and chewy as well and my gluten-pizza-loving-husband approved! It’s a great go-to for a quick and delicious dinner.  Plus they sell various crust sizes and will ship to anywhere in the country!

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So those are my picks for now! What are your favorite gluten-free pizza crusts!?

Deep Dish Pizza

- Meaghan Penrod 10 Comments

Since being diagnosed, deep dish pizza was really the only thing on my Celiac bucket list that I just couldn’t seem to find.  Understandably I guess, since gluten is pretty key in that whole thick crust thing.  But being raised in the Midwest, I was dying for some deep dish.  I grew up on that delicious, caramelized crust that was every bit as tasty as the sauce and cheese and New England pizza just wasn’t doing it for me.  All you can get around here is super thin crust that, to me, tastes like cardboard.  Even before being diagnosed, I just wasn’t a fan of any of it.  My husband is from the New Haven area, which is famous for it’s thin crust pizza, so we’ve had many debates about which crust is best! I just can’t understand why you’d want your crust to taste like cardboard when you could have it taste good…? Haha You can take the girl out of the Midwest, but not the Midwest out of the girl I guess.

Anyways, it was always on my to-do list to just go ahead and try to make it.  As they say, if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.  Well, as fate would have it, I was watching my favorite Food Network show–The Kitchen–and Jeff Mauro made a Detroit-Style pan pizza.  I watched him make it and honestly it didn’t look too hard! I figured I’d just go ahead and give it a try.  Some important things I learned from my experiment:

  1. I don’t know if it’s the gluten free flour or what, but my food processor could NOT handle making this dough.  On the show, he just threw everything into the food processor, pressed pulse, and it formed into a little ball.  Wanna know what mine did? It started smoking lol And it was the same type of food processor too! So now when I make the dough, I just make it in a bowl.
  2. You need a little bit more flour than his recipe calls for.
  3. Your dough isn’t going to rise as much as his does, but it’s all good.

So after living and learning, here is how I make it! I start by getting 3 cups of gluten-free all purpose flour into a bowl.  Then I add in 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, and 1 tsp dry active yeast.  Yeast is one of those things that I think people are sometimes confused about.  As long as it’s not brewer’s yeast, it’s usually gluten free! The little packet I bought said “contains no wheat or gluten” right on it just to reassure people.

Mix up all your dry ingredients until they’re combined and then slowly add in 1 cup of warm water.  At that point, I just put some olive oil on my hands and get in there.  I mix it all by hand and then start kneading it.  Keep folding and kneading it for about 10 minutes.  I find this incredibly relaxing lol But I also love all things sensory–play dough, slime, etc. Once it’s nice and kneaded, plop it into an oiled bowl and put some plastic wrap over it.  Find a spot in your kitchen that’s kind of warm and leave it there for a couple of hours.  It should rise a little bit, but don’t expect anything crazy.  Jeff’s doubled in size, but that’s just not gonna happen for us.

  

After a few hours, you should be good to go.  Now it’s time to get it in the pan.  The key to that caramelized crust is to cook the pizza on HIGH heat with LOTS of olive oil so it essentially fries.  So preheat your oven to 500 degrees and drizzle a healthy amount of olive oil in an 8×8 pan.

   Make sure you spread the oil up onto the sides too.  You want the sides of the crust to fry and get all crispy/caramelized as well!

Then you’re just going to press your dough into the pan.  Spread it out evenly.  I’ve done it where you make the middle thinner and do a more defined crust and also where the whole thing is the same thickness…both work just fine! So it’s really up to you.

I used quite a bit of olive oil so it kind of overflowed into the dough.  Try not to let that happen haha But it’s not the end of the world if it does.  Next, you’re going to add a layer of pepperoni and diced mozzarella cheese. That’s right, I said diced! The Detroit-style uses cubes of mozzarella cheese, but really whatever you want to do is fine.  I’m sure shredded would be great as well!

  

At this point, you’re going to drizzle a few lines of pizza sauce.  I just use jarred pizza sauce–typically the Classico kind.  And then you can top the sauce with a little more pepperoni if you’d like….I say the more the better.

Now you’re just going to put it in the oven on the bottom rack for 10-20 minutes.  It honestly depends on your oven.  My pizza is usually perfect between 15-20 minutes, but your oven might work harder than mine, so just check on it!

   

   

 

Not too shabby, eh?? I was super satisfied and my husband couldn’t stop raving about it!! He’s asked me to make it several times again already! WIN.

 

 

 

Ingredients:

  • Pizza Dough
    • 3 cups all purpose gluten free flour
    • 2 tsp salt
    • 1 tsp sugar
    • 1 tsp dry active yeast
    • 1 cup warm water
  • Toppings
    • Jarred pizza sauce (about a cup, depending on your preference)
    • Block of mozzarella cheese (you’ll use about 1/2 an 8oz block)
    • Pepperoni (I use Hormel or Applegate)
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

  1. Add flour, salt, sugar, and yeast to a bowl.  Mix together.
  2. Pour in warm water.  Put some olive oil on your hands and then begin to mix the dough together until it’s all incorporated and cohesive.
  3. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes.
  4. Place ball of dough in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in a warm spot in your kitchen for about 2 hours.
  5. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
  6. Add olive oil to a metal 8×8 pan and then press dough into it, spreading evenly.
  7. Top with a layer of pepperoni.
  8. Add cubed pieces of mozzarella (about 1/2 inch cubes)
  9. Drizzle pizza sauce in lines down the pizza.  3-4 lines is usually good.
  10. Top with another layer of pepperoni (optional)
  11. Place on bottom rack in oven and bake for 10-20 minutes or until edges are brown and cheese is melted.
  12. Let cool and enjoy!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reactions All Celiacs Can Relate to…

- Meaghan Penrod 1 Comment

Having Celiac Disease is definitely a life changing experience.  Until you have it, you don’t realize how many aspects of your life involve food! And suddenly having to worry so much about every single thing you put into your mouth changes everything.  So here are 10 reactions that I’m guessing all of you Celiacs can also relate to lol Feel free to add some more in the comments!

  1.  When you’re not expecting to be able to eat anything, but someone surprises you by going out of their way to get something gluten free just for you and it hits you right in the feels 

 

 

2.  When friends or family decide to cook you a “gluten free” meal but you feel the need sit in the corner and watch to make sure they don’t accidentally mess up…  “Hey what’s that seasoning you just used??”

 

3. When someone makes you a gluten free meal and you don’t get to watch them make it so you ask “So how’d you make this??” trying to pass it off like you just wanna know the recipe and not like you’re listening intently for possible gluten traps. 

 

4.When you ask the waiter if something is gluten free and he says “Yeah, I’m pretty sure”…but you can see in his eyes he has no freaking clue. 

5. When you’re trying to figure out where to go to dinner with a group of people and someone suggests a place that’s really not Celiac-friendly and they say “But I’m sure you can get a salad.”

6.  When someone serves you something with gluten and then they ask if you can just pick it off

7.  When you tell someone you’re gluten free and they say “Omg, I would die if I couldn’t have gluten.”   Really…? Would you really DIE?

8. When you take a bite of something that’s gluten free, but it’s so good you can’t quite believe you’re not being poisoned.

9.  When you take a chance on a restaurant and you’re not sure how they’ll be about the whole “gluten free” thing, but they end up blowing you out of the water.

10.  When you meet someone else that has Celiac and you feel instantly connected/wanna talk about it for hours.

  

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Any reactions you would add??

Veggie Frittata

- Meaghan Penrod

I’m a creature of habit.  I always sat in the same seat in class, whether they were assigned or not.  I park in the same area every time I go to a place.  And I default to salad for lunch almost every day of the week.  In the summer, that’s perfectly fine and I pretty much never get sick of it.  I’m able to get so much gorgeous produce from the local farmer’s market or farm stand so I’m always excited to try that week’s haul.  But in the winter, I pretty much get the same produce from the grocery store every week and it’s easy for salads to get boring.  Plus, I don’t always want a cold lunch when it’s so cold outside.  I’ve always loved warm meals and frequently when asked what I feel like eating, I’ll say “Idk..something hot.” lol

So the other weekend, we went to visit my husband’s sister who lives on a farm in New Hampshire.  Her chickens have finally started laying eggs, so she sent me home with a ton of them.  As I was in my kitchen that Sunday trying to figure out what to make for lunch that week, I figured a frittata would be a great way to 1) mix up my usual salads with something warm and 2) use up all those eggs I now had in my fridge.  I’d never made a frittata but I figured it couldn’t be too hard!

I had lots of leftover veggies in my fridge so I figured I’d just throw them all in.  You can use whatever veggies you want! Anything you think would taste good with eggs.  I’d say throw in whatever veggies you normally like in an omelet.  I happened to have cherry tomatoes, spinach, onions, mushrooms, and yellow peppers.

I heated 2 tablespoons of olive oil in my cast iron skillet over medium heat and then began sauteing all the veggies, which I had chopped into bite-sized pieces.  

As the veggies cooked, I cracked 10 eggs into a bowl, added in 1/3 cup of almond milk, 1 tsp salt, a few dashes of pepper, 1 tsp of Italian seasoning, 1 tsp of basil, and  whisked it all up until it was mixed.  Then I added in a handful of shredded cheddar cheese.  It was probably about 1/2 a cup, but it’s up to you! I honestly don’t think you could use too much or too little cheese haha Just add it based on your preference.

As I said, I used 10 eggs, but that was because they were on the smaller side.  If I had large eggs, I probably would have only used about 8. But just like the cheese, it honestly doesn’t matter that much! As long as you have enough egg mixture to fill your skillet, you’re good.

Once the veggies were pretty tender, I poured in the egg mixture and let it cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes.  Just until the edges started to pull away from the sides of the skillet.

Then I popped it into the oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.  You just need to cook it until the egg looks fully set in the middle.  Once it was done, I let it cool on the counter.  Then I cut it into slices and popped them into tupper ware containers for the week.  Super simple and it made for such a yummy lunch! I looked forward to eating it every day! I’ll be doing this more often for sure. Especially since there are so many different combinations of add ins!

Ingredients:

  • 10 medium eggs or 8 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup milk of your choice (you could also use heavy cream for a richer frittata)
  • 2 cups chopped veggies of your choice (I used cherry tomatoes, spinach, onions, mushrooms, and yellow bell pepper)
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil (or butter)
  • 1 tsp Italian seasoning
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1 tsp salt
  • pepper to taste
  • cast iron skillet

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Heat olive oil in cast iron skillet over medium heat.
  3. Chop your veggies into bite-sized pieces and add to skillet. Cook until tender.
  4. In a large bowl, crack your eggs then add in milk, Italian seasoning, basil, salt, and pepper.  Whisk together until mixed and add in cheese. Give it one final mix.
  5. Pour mixture into skillet and allow to cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until you can see the sides begin to pull away from the skillet or begin to cook.  No need to stir the mixture! Just let it cook.
  6. Pop skillet into the oven and let cook for 10 minutes or until the center is fully set.
  7. Let cool and enjoy! If meal prepping, you can slice and place in separate containers.

Winc for the Win

- Meaghan Penrod

I didn’t really grow up in a family that drank wine.  My mom didn’t drink at all (except for the occasional gin and tonic on vacation) and my dad was and still is a loyal Irish Whiskey or Bourbon drinker.  Apparently his grandfather grew grapes on his property and made his own wine and my dad made homemade wine for years….so it is in my blood! But by the time I came around, my dad was sick of wine because he drank so much of his own haha

I had an occasional sip, but didn’t really drink any of it until college.  And the wine I drank in college was exactly what you’d expect…Franzia and Barefoot lol and never anything dry…it was always the sickening sweet flavors! If I did that now I’d be hungover for 6 weeks lol But back then, I couldn’t imagine drinking a dry wine.  One of my best friends grew up drinking wine with dinner every night, so she always drank super dry red wine which I thought was both incredibly impressive and incredibly disgusting. 

Here I am with the first wine glass I ever bought.  “Glass” is a loose term, because it was actually like a hard, clear plastic lol I didn’t trust myself enough to have real glass at college but I thought it looked good enough.  I really thought I was about to be the classiest god damn bitch.  It was my first time living in a college apartment instead of a dorm and I was going to be drinking Franzia out of a plastic wine glass…I mean, that was the picture of sophisticated adulthood to me.

But as the years went on, just like they said would happen, the sweet wines started to taste cloyingly sweet and I slowly started to lean towards drier wines.

For a year or so after college, I’d go through a red wine phase and then a white wine phase and then back again.  But about 2 years ago, my palate made its final (I think?) switch to preferring white wine.  My absolute favorites are a Pinot Grigio or a Sauvignon Blanc.  Although sometimes a good Chardonnay or Riesling hits the spot.

I think I got so into wine because having Celiac disease makes you feel somewhat limited.  You get like 4 beer options…meanwhile the craft beer trend is taking over the world! All my friends were trying hundreds of beers and I felt left out.  Once I discovered how many different kinds of wine there were, I was intrigued! It opened up a whole world of experiences for me and I wanted to learn all I could about it! I even signed me and my husband up for some wine tasting classes, just to get the basics down.  I’m lucky to live in Connecticut because we have the Connecticut Wine Trail–there are TONS of wineries and vineyards all over the state.  My favorite thing to do in the summer is vineyard hop and try all the different local varieties and hear the stories behind them.

My friend and I at a vineyard over the summer

As I got more into wine, I started wanting to try different wines that I didn’t usually encounter.  I had read about wine clubs before and thought maybe that’d be a fun place to start. I started reading a bunch of articles about which wine clubs were both great and affordable, because I didn’t have tons of money to spend every month.  Enter Winc.  It had great reviews and you couldn’t beat the price, so in 2016 I decided to sign up! I’ve been getting my monthly wine ever since 🙂

You start by completing a palate profile quiz so they can match you with wines you might like! You answer questions like what kind of chocolate or fruit you like…it’s pretty cool! Then they recommend several wines for you to try.  Once they ship them to you and you try them, you rate how they were on your app.  As you rate more wines, the app figures out which wines are best suited to your palate. Plus every time you rate 10 wines, you get $10 off 🙂 Good incentive.  Mine and my husband’s taste in wine are actually pretty similar (we both like light-bodied wine on the drier side), but he likes red wine and I like white.  With Winc, that’s no problem! You pick how many whites and reds you want in each box.  I usually get 3 whites and one red….my husband drinks less wine than I do haha

If you put 4 wines in your box, you get free shipping, so that’s what I always do.  Many of the wines are only $13 each, so it’s pretty affordable.! And you can skip any month that you want! There are some months that we’ll want to save a little money or we’ll have gone to a bunch of vineyards and don’t need any more wine, so we’ll just skip a month or two.  There’s no monthly fee or anything, so you don’t pay anything the months you skip! You only pay for the wine you actually do get.  And they’re great about refunds! If you don’t like a wine that you’ve tried, they’ll give you a refund on the account! I found out about this policy like 3 months after trying a wine I didn’t like and they still gave me a refund! haha

Can you tell I like my roses?

Although, a word of advice, they don’t carry many sweet or dessert wines, so if you’re new to the wine game you might need to work up to this! But for anyone who has been drinking sweet wine for a few years and is ready to test out some drier varieties, this is a perfect entry way!

If you’d like to try it out, you can use this referral code to get $20 of Winc wine! If you try it, let me know what you think! 🙂 Cheers, loves!

 

 

Dating with Celiac Disease

- Meaghan Penrod

For anyone without Celiac disease, this might seem like a silly post.  But for anyone that’s single at the time of their diagnosis, it really does add some extra stress to your plate! You wonder what will happen if your date chooses a restaurant you can’t eat at…will you seem high maintenance? What if you get sick on the date? Not cute! What if he drinks beer and then tries to kiss me?

Yeah…these were all things I thought about.  At the time of my diagnosis, I was actually in a relationship. I had been dating him for almost 5 years so I was really comfortable with him and didn’t worry about him accommodating this new challenge.  He didn’t mind looking for gluten free places to eat or asking about cross contamination. However, being that I started dating him when I was 16 and I was now 20, we were growing apart.  I was diagnosed in November and come February, I was single for the first time really ever in my “adult” life.  I say “adult” loosely because what did I even know about adulthood at 20? lol But you get the idea.

It’s really hard to pull off the “I’m a cool girl. I’m so chill. I’m up for whatever,” when you have Celiac.  I feel like I actually am pretty easy going and low key (lol), but there are just a lot of things that others don’t even think about.  Like if a guy orders a random drink and he’s like “omg try this, it’s so good” and then instead of being able to be flirty and positive, you have to be like “Do you remember what’s in it…? Hm. Okay.  Hang on.  I just have to google that obscure brand of alcohol and read through 16 discussion threads to see if I can have it.” Life of the party, right? And if the guy wants to pick the restaurant you’re going on for your date, you have to hope he just accidentally picks a gluten-friendly place so you don’t even have to bring it up.  Because boy do you feel bad saying “I appreciate that you chose somewhere for us, but I actually can’t eat there.  Can you pick somewhere else? No..not there either.  Try again.”

But I actually think Celiac might make the dating process easier.  HEAR ME OUT.  It’s a fantastic way to test out how empathetic and compassionate someone is right from the get-go! If you bring up having Celiac when you start talking and the guy/girl seems totally put out and annoyed by your AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE then honey, I have a feeling that frog has a ton of other issues as well.  It almost works as a filter.  It weeds out the inconsiderate, selfish assholes before you waste more time on them! Imagine the poor people out there who don’t have Celiac and have to date that guy or girl for MONTHS before finding out they’re a self-centered jerk….those poor souls.  Most people only get to see how kind or rude their date is to the waiter, but you also get to see how kind they are to you and how concerned they are about you staying safe! I mean, that’s kinda awesome, right?

I actually really didn’t have any trouble dating with Celiac.  Almost everyone I talked to was incredibly understanding and I often got the “Oh yeah, my cousin/brother/friend/mom has Celiac” response.  It’s amazing how many people know someone that has it! Any time a guy suggested taking me out to dinner, I just responded “Absolutely, I’d love to! Just a heads up, I have Celiac Disease, so I have to avoid gluten. I’m more than happy to suggest some safe restaurants in the area!” Usually they took me up on that or asked if the place they had in mind would work.  It really wasn’t a big deal. Probably takes some of the pressure off of them not having to decide on a restaurant.

Us about a month after we met!

So my high school sweetheart and I broke up in February and I met my now-husband in March…sometimes that’s just how life works haha We weren’t officially a couple until June, but we did a lot of dating in the mean time! From the start, the gluten thing was just never an issue.  I told him all the places I usually go in the area and we’d just pick from there.  I can remember one time he even invited me over for dinner and made gluten free chicken parm! He put so much work into it and made sure that everything was safe! And it was…I didn’t get sick!

He was also super protective of me when we’d go anywhere, right from the beginning. He always triple checked with waiters and waitresses.  If we were at a party and they were playing flip cup, he’d secure a clean spot for me and make sure no beer entered my zone lol And when he started taking me home to his family, he’d stay in the kitchen and talk his mom through cooking gluten free so I didn’t have to be the annoying one!

So I think the moral to the story is, if someone isn’t understanding about your disease or they don’t make an effort to accommodate you, they’re just not the one.  That’s my personal opinion.  If someone sees you for you and understands how special you are, they’re going to do anything and everything to make sure you’re safe, healthy, and happy.  So if you’re newly diagnosed and terrified that Celiac is gonna scare away all your potentials suitors, don’t be.  If anything, it’s going to make it easier to see who’s truly special and worth your time.

Here we are “back when we were dating”…I love saying that now lol it still sounds funny.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here we are enjoying our gluten free wedding cake together <3 Don’t worry guys, you can have your gluten free cake and eat it too!

Lasagna Soup

- Meaghan Penrod

If you follow me on instagram, you probably know that I absolutely love the show The Kitchen on the Food Network.  I watch it every weekend and I get so many good ideas from it! A couple weeks ago, Katie Lee made a lasagna soup and I had just happened to thaw out some ground turkey that I didn’t know what to do with…it was perfect. And I had all the other ingredients already on hand! How often does that happen?!

In her recipe, she cooks hers in the slow cooker and uses lasagna noodles.  This was a last minute thought for me, so I made mine in my dutch oven pot! You could also totally use GF lasagna noodles to really give it that feel, but I didn’t have any on hand and I didn’t think it made much of a difference.

These are ingredients I pretty much always have in stock: chicken broth, canned tomato sauce, canned diced tomatoes, and gluten free pasta! You can make so many different things with them and they’re easy to buy in bulk! I’ve started buying from Brandless and it’s saved me a lot of money! I can get cans of organic tomato sauce for $3! Plus they have 3 cartons of veggie broth for $3 as well! Everything on their site is $3 and mostly organic.  So fabulous.

So I started this recipe off by browning my ground turkey in my dutch oven pot with a little bit of olive oil.  Once it was brown, I poured in my diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, a chopped onion, and the whole carton of chicken broth.  I added a little water as well just so it had some extra liquid.  I added in a few sprinkles of salt/pepper, parsley, basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Then I got it simmering and let it cook, covered for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes I added in my pasta and let it cook, covered, until the pasta was tender.  At this point it was looking good and you could totally just eat it as is! That’s actually how my husband ate it, because he doesn’t like melted cheese.  I KNOW.  What a weirdo, right? lol I’m obsessed with melted cheese and I knew it’d really amp up that “lasagna” feel, so I went for it.

 

I dished my soup into an oven-safe, Polish pottery bowl and then put two slices of provolone cheese on top.  I just LOVE the taste and cheese-pulliness of it (that’s not a word and I’m not a chef lol). I put my toaster oven on broil and put my bowl in for about 5 minutes or until the cheese was golden brown and bubbly.  (I decided to use my toaster oven rather than my regular oven to save some energy!)

 

It came out lookin’ gorgeous. I topped it with a little GoVeggie Parmesan cheese and some more dried basil and it was ready to go!

I loved it SO much and will definitely be making this again and again. It’s such a warm and comforting meal for the winter and it’s really so easy! If I had gone to the grocery store before making this, I probably would have gotten fresh basil and some mozzarella cheese to add as well.

 

Recipe

Serves 4

  • 1 lb ground turkey
  • 1  carton GF chicken broth
  • 1 box gluten free pasta (lasagna noodles or any other shape)
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 1 can tomato sauce
  • 1 can diced tomatoes, not drained
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 tbs basil
  • 1/2 tbs oregano
  • 1 tbs parsley
  • 1 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less depending on how spicy you like)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Provolone cheese (2 slices per bowl)
  • Shredded mozzarella (optional)
  • Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top at the end (optional)

Instructions:

  1.  Brown ground turkey in dutch oven pot with olive oil and chopped onion over medium heat.
  2. Once it’s browned, add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, chicken broth, and water (if you want it thicker and less soupy, leave the water out). Stir.
  3. Add in basil, oregano, parsley, and red pepper flakes.  Salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for 10 minutes at a low simmer.
  5. Add in box of gluten free pasta and simmer, covered, until pasta is tender.
  6. Dish soup into oven-safe bowls and top each bowl with 2 slices provolone cheese.  If you have mozzarella cheese, sprinkle a bit of that on top too.
  7. Put oven or toaster oven on broil and put bowls in for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and browned.
  8. Sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese and basil on top, let cool for a few minutes, and enjoy!