So You’ve Got Celiac….Now What?

- Meaghan Penrod

So maybe you’ve been miserable for weeks, months, or years and you finally found out what was wrong! Or maybe you had no symptoms and just happened to get some blood work done.  Either way, you now know you have Celiac Disease and you’re completely overwhelmed.  Yeah, don’t worry, we’ve all been there.  If you’re anything like I was, you probably barely even know what gluten is.  I had so many thoughts racing through my head…”What is gluten in other than bread?” “Can I drink alcohol?” “Will anything ever taste good?” “How hard is this going to be?”

Listen, it’s a lot to take in.  And in my experience, there aren’t a lot of clear and concise articles out there to help you.  When I was diagnosed, I wanted an article to be like okay, you have Celiac, here’s what to do right now…but I couldn’t find one. Everything seemed to ramble on and it all felt so over my head. I don’t want you to feel that way, so I’m gonna give you what I didn’t have–a game plan. Follow the plan and you’ll be off to a great start! More importantly though, be patient with yourself.  There’s a lot to learn! You’re going to mess up.  But trust me, in a year or two, you’ll be a gluten-free expert ready to help other newbies! Okay so here we go…

1. Figure out what the heck gluten even is.

So, if you haven’t heard by now, gluten is wheat, barley, and rye.  Often you’ll hear people talk about wheat, but not always the barley and rye.  As far as wheat goes, think anything that’s made with flour. Bread, flour tortillas, cake, cookies, pasta, crackers, orzo, pizza dough, etc.  DON’T PANIC YET. As for barley and rye, I don’t run into it a ton.  Barley is used to make beer and it’s also sometimes an ingredient in chocolate or chips (it’ll read “barley malt”). Honestly the only place I’ve ever seen rye is in rye bread.  When you’re looking at labels, most will call out wheat as an ingredient at the bottom, but many will not call out barley. So really that’s the only thing I’ve found I really need to pay attention to.  Here’s an example:

As you can see, the Lindt Chocolate truffles do not list wheat, barley, or rye in the allergen statement (“May contain….”). But if you look at the ingredients, barley malt powder is the second to last one.  Wheat is considered more of an “allergen”, so that’s the one most companies identify.  On the Cheese-It’s, you can see it clearly calls out wheat in it’s allergen statement.

Lindt Chocolate Truffle

 

Cheese-Its

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Clear all the obvious gluten out of your house!

You’re going to need to get your kitchen in the gluten-free spirit, so just go for it.  Throw away or give away your bread, pasta, crackers, cookies, beer, etc.  Something you may not think to do but you need to is to throw away all your jarred condiments! This means your mayo, peanut butter, tub of butter, jelly, etc.  Anything you’ve dipped a knife into, spread onto a piece of gluteny bread, and then dipped your knife back in. Those jars are super contaminated with gluten crumbs and yes, crumbs matter.

Check the spices in your spice cabinet.  I’ve found wheat hiding in the ingredients of a lot of them! Especially the pepper.  McCormick is a great brand because they bold any allergens in their ingredient list (including barley!). If you’re not sure if something has gluten in it, it’s okay.  Hang tight and we’ll get there.

Throw out your soy sauce.  Nearly all of them contain wheat as the second ingredient, unless you happen to always buy La Choy.

If you have a toaster where the bread pops up, you’re going to need to get rid of that and replace it with a new one that will be exclusively gluten free.  If you have a toaster oven, you can just put tin foil down every time you toast something! It just depends if you’re sharing a household with someone and what-not.

3.  Replace your gluten staples with gluten free ones!

So many times when people get diagnosed with Celiac, they think they need to start cooking in an entirely new way.  They look up gluten-free recipes and are terrified.  So many have like 6 different kinds of flour you’ve never heard of and it sounds impossible. Ignore that!! It’s so much simpler than that.  I didn’t change the way I cooked at all….all I did was swap out the gluten ingredients in my normal recipes for gluten-free alternatives.

Get yourself some gluten-free bread (I love Udi’s or BFree), gluten free pasta (Barilla makes gluten free penne that tastes like regular pasta), certified gluten free oatmeal, and gluten free all purpose flour. At least for me, that’s mainly what I need to shift all my recipes into gluten free recipes! I also buy gluten free bread crumbs, gluten free pancake mix, and sometimes gluten free cereal.  But just decide what you eat the most or cook with the most, and buy the gluten free version! I remember the day I got diagnosed, I went to the gluten free section of the store and bought crackers, pretzels, and all kinds of random snacks.  The thing is…I never even ate pretzels or crackers as snacks when I did eat gluten…so why do I need them now? lol Just because they’re gluten free? No…don’t change your whole life!

4. Download this gluten free app

There are tons of apps out there and I’ve tried several over the years! However, I really only ever end up using 1 and I use it a lot!

Find Me Gluten Free.  This one is a LIFE SAVER.  Put in your address and it’ll show you all the restaurants around you that have gluten free options and how good they are! Lots of other gluten-free people rate them and you can see what their experiences were like.  This is what I use every time I’m traveling and need to find somewhere safe or even just to see if any new restaurants around me got added! You’ll find some serious gems on there.

5. Stock up on some gluten free snacks to take on the go

I’ll be straight up with you, you’re gonna find yourself in situations where there’s nothing you can eat.  Whether it’s a birthday party, a work function, a wedding, a food court….where ever.  Sometimes there’s just nothing that’s safe.  And I’ll be honest, this might be upsetting to you for the first few years.  I literally cried at a food court once because I couldn’t find anything to eat….my family was a little taken aback and went to talk to Subway about making me something haha I wasn’t crying about that one moment of not getting anything to eat, I was crying because I realized this was my life now…I was going to face this a lot.  But trust me when I say it gets better. I cried over nachos in 2014 and I’m happy to say that was the last time I cried over gluten lol I don’t get upset like that anymore because I’m just used to it and I prepare for it.  Get lots of Larabars and Kind Bars.  I have at least one in my purse almost always.  Situations where gluten free options aren’t around feel MUCH better when you’re not totally starving haha I also bring bananas with me as well!

6.  Join a Celiac Support group on Facebook

I waited a long time to do this and I wish I hadn’t! It’s a great group to belong to and you get a lot of your random questions answered! Plus it makes you not feel so alone.  This past Christmas, our group did a Gluten Free Secret Santa and it was awesome!!

7. Find some people to follow on Instagram

Just search #glutenfreeliving or #celiac and you’ll find TONS of people that are living gluten free.  You’ll get awesome tips, recipes, and you’ll probably meet some awesome new people!

8.  Discover all the things that are naturally gluten free!

There’s actually a ton that is already gluten free that you probably don’t even realize! Meat, fruit, vegetables, rice, quinoa, cheese, milk, yogurt, lots of ice creams, sushi, etc.  I promise you there’s plenty to eat!

There are even lots of other products that are gluten free as well!

Reese’s peanut butter cups, Cool Ranch Doritos, Haagan Dazs Ice Cream, Tostitos tortilla chips, Lay’s potato chips, Cheerios, Lucky Charms, the list goes on and on…

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In the beginning, focus on the big things and get comfortable with those! There are lots of little tidbits of info that you’ll learn along the way, but just give yourself time.  You’ll learn that gluten hides in chicken stock, holiday shaped Reese’s, dried beans, and random crap like that.  But trust me, you WILL learn it all in time.  Be patient, take a deep breath, and take it one meal at a time! I promise you can do it.

If you ever have any questions or just want to talk, feel free to contact me!

Taco Mac and Cheese

- Meaghan Penrod

Two of my absolute favorite meals are tacos and macaroni and cheese.  If you’ve read my other posts, ya’ll know that I served mac and cheese at my wedding lol And if I wasn’t afraid that tacos would ruin my wedding dress, I would have served those too! Both foods are just so comforting and delicious.

I also find that when I’m in a rut of what to make for dinner and I’m not feeling like I’m in the “mood” for anything, tacos always sound like the perfect thing! And I mean, mac and cheese is something I’m always in the mood for lol I’ve tested various versions of mac and cheese (buffalo mac, Alfredo mac, etc) and I’ve made taco mac and cheese in the past before…but recently I decided to try it again and it dawned on me to switch up how I made it.  Let me tell you, this small tweak made ALL THE DIFFERENCE.  Holy cow.  My husband and I couldn’t get enough of it.

So the first few times I tried making it, I would just add taco seasoning to my ground turkey as I was cooking it.  That’s how I made tacos so I figured that made the most sense! Then I’d just make mac and cheese as normal and mix in the taco-flavored meat.  WELL, one day as I was about to do this, a light bulb went on…I thought, “Instead of adding it to the turkey…why wouldn’t you just add it to the cheese sauce?” BINGO.  The taco flavored meat added a nice kick to mac and cheese, but when you add the taco seasoning to the sauce, it really gets that taco flavoring throughout the whole dish! It gives the sauce a lovely color and kicks it up about a million notches.  Who knew?? (Probably someone…lol just not me).

So to get this miracle started, boil your noodles according to package directions and drain.  While I’m boiling my noodles, I also heat a skillet over medium heat with a little coconut oil and brown my ground turkey.  As it’s browning, I add a tsp of salt and a tsp of pepper.  I will also add in half a diced onion as well.  Cook it, stirring occasionally, for about 5-7 minutes or until the turkey is brown and the onions are just about translucent.  At this point, I add in 1/2 bag of frozen mixed peppers and 1/2 a bag of frozen corn.  I mix it up and then put the top on the skillet to let it all steam and cook through.

With the noodles in the drainer, I use the pot I cooked them in to make my cheese sauce.  It’s usually still warm AND you save some dishes.  Win.  So I put that pot back on the stove, but this time on low-medium heat.  To the pot, I add 1.5 tbs of Earth Balance butter.  You could use regular butter as well, I just like to cut down on dairy a bit.  Once the butter melts, add in about 2 tbs of gluten free flour and whisk it around.  It should make a roux–a kind of thick glue-like mixture that has a dark golden color. That’s what makes your mac and cheese thicken up!

I typically use Bob’s Red Mill all purpose flour.  But whatever you have on hand works! Cornstarch works as well.  Once your flour and butter are fully mixed and have formed your roux, add in 3/4 cup milk.  I use almond milk (again to cut down on dairy and calories).

Whisk the milk into your roux and then slowly start to add your cheese.  I use about 1/2 cup of white cheddar and 1/2 cup sharp yellow cheddar.  Whisk while you add and wait for it to melt in before you add more! Feel free to tweak your sauce if it’s too thick or not thick enough.  Everyone has their own preference!  Once all my cheese is melted and mixed in, I add a packet of McCormick’s Gluten Free taco seasoning and mix it all up.  McCormick is really great about calling out allergens in their ingredients!! They do make a taco seasoning that’s labeled gluten free, but if your store doesn’t have that, you can just get their original taco seasoning! It’s gluten free as well.  Just check the back.  Wheat, barley, or rye will be in bold black!

I add my noodles back into my cheese sauce, mix, and then add in my ground turkey and veggie mixture! Top with some crushed, gluten free tortilla chips and you’re all done! Enjoy!

Recipe

  • 1 package gluten free pasta (I like Tinkyada brown rice pasta)
  • 1 lb ground turkey
  • 1/2 bag of frozen, mixed bell peppers
  • 1/2 bag of frozen corn
  • 1/2 a white onion, diced
  • 1 tbs canola or coconut oil
  • 1 tsp salt and pepper
  • 1/4 cup crushed gluten free tortilla chips (I used Tostitos)

For the sauce

  •  1/2 cup white cheddar shredded cheese
  • 1/2 cup yellow sharp cheddar shredded cheese
  • 3/4 cup almond milk (or your choice of milk)
  • 1.5 tbs Earth Balance butter (or your choice of butter)
  • 2 tbs gluten free flour or corn starch
  • 1 packet Gluten Free McCormick’s taco seasoning

Instructions

  1.  Boil your package of gluten free noodles according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.
  2. Heat a skillet over medium heat and add your oil.  Add in diced onion and ground turkey.  Season with salt and pepper and brown.
  3. Once the meat is browned, add in 1/2 bag of peppers and 1/2 bag of corn.  Mix and put top on skillet.
  4. Put empty pasta pot on low-medium heat.  Add in Earth Balance and let it melt.  Once it’s melted, add in flour and whisk together until roux is formed.
  5. Slowly pour milk into roux while whisking.
  6. Once roux and milk are fully mixed, slowly add in your cheese, mixing as you add.  Make sure it melts before you add more!
  7. If the sauce is too thin for your liking, add more cheese.  If it’s too thick, add more milk.
  8. Once the sauce is mixed, dump in your taco seasoning packet and mix thoroughly.
  9. Pour pasta back into pot and mix into cheese.
  10. Mix in turkey and veggies.
  11. Top with crumbled gluten free tortilla chips and serve!

 

My Journey with Depression and Anxiety

- Meaghan Penrod

I haven’t talked about this too much, publicly anyways. My husband, a few close friends, and some of my coworkers are in on it…but that’s about it.  I’ve always been the kind of person that likes to put on a good “front” for everyone.  Whether I’m unhappy in a job, a relationship, etc. I am a PRO at pretending everything is sunshine and rainbows.  Typically I keep that routine up until I get to an actual breaking point and then people are like, “What happened!? Everything seemed so good!” I’m a classic people-pleaser!

As an example, here’s a picture from the middle of my depression:

        I mean, it’s a wonder I don’t have a career as an actress! I think I was pretty convincing!

So anyways, I’ll start at the beginning.  Although it’s kind of hard to say what the beginning was…I felt slight shifts in my mood starting towards the end of college.  This was around the same time I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease.  I’ve read a lot of articles about Celiac and Depression being linked, so I have a feeling that’s true in my case. After graduation in 2014, I felt a little overwhelmed in my first job and really started to feel a strong shift in my mood, but I figured it was all work related.  The random low-mood periods continued over the years.  Fast-forward to 2016 and everything took a nose dive.  I’m not exactly sure what triggered it.  I took a new job which was a huge promotion and a huge step forward in my career! But undertaking that kind of shift is incredibly stressful! Plus I was in the midst of planning a wedding…great timing, right? I don’t think my depression was because of any of these things…I think that the timing of those events just exacerbated it!

In September of that year, the month of my wedding, I started feeling more and more foggy and out of it.  I was easily overwhelmed by things and felt a constant nervous feeling in my stomach, for no apparent reason! The actual day of the wedding and the days leading up to it were great! I felt fine and I was so happy and excited! Then we took off on our honeymoon and the weight of depression started to creep in.  As the days went by, I could feel my mood dropping and my anxiety building.  Don’t get me wrong, our honeymoon was INCREDIBLE and I had so much fun.  But it really was a struggle to push through my mood and be in the moment.  I can remember laying on the bed in our hotel room with my husband, right before we were going to head out to dinner.  All of a sudden I was just overcome with intense sadness. I told him I needed a hug, so he cuddled me and I just started to cry.  I quickly stopped myself, but it was just awful.  By the last day of our honeymoon, the anxiety and sadness was beginning to get too hard to ignore. It was a constant battle to push those thoughts aside and enjoy the day.

Once we came home, SURPRISE, it didn’t get any better.  It got much, much worse.  It started to feel nearly impossible to get myself out of bed. It was the only place that I really wanted to be anymore.  I would lay there, willing myself to get up, but thinking “This is the happiest I’m going to feel all day.” Once I got to work, it was nearly impossible for me to focus.  I felt this dense fogginess and total lack of motivation to do anything.  I began having to shut my office door because I couldn’t stop myself from crying throughout the day.  Thank god I had my own office!

I tried to talk to my husband about it in the beginning and he just didn’t understand.  It’s really hard for someone to understand that’s never experienced it! I know when I was dating someone that had depression several years ago, before any of this, I was the worst.  I said all the things no one with depression ever wants to hear, like “Think of how good you have it! There are people that have it so much worse than you!” “Look on the bright side.” And then I’d wonder why he’d get so mad! Boy do I get it now….sorry, ex-boyfriend!! My husband had the same kind of reactions…he wanted to help but he just didn’t get how.  He told me to think of how good our life was or control my thoughts and think positive.  Neither of which helps at all.  I spent nearly all of my energy trying to force myself to feel positive about anything! All the things that used to instantly make me feel happy didn’t do anything for me…I was totally numb.  I couldn’t think of a single thing that sounded fun anymore.  Intellectually I knew our life was good, but I couldn’t make myself feel it.  I couldn’t feel anything.  Well, anything other than numbness and the constant nervous feeling in my stomach.  Whenever I’d complain about the nervousness in my stomach, he’d say “What are you nervous about?” and I couldn’t get him to understand that I literally wasn’t nervous ABOUT anything.  I just felt anxious. My parents also had a hard time understanding.  My dad would just ask “What do you have to be depressed about?” and my mom would say “You just need to let go of the negativity and embrace more positive thoughts.  Don’t worry so much!” I think the “What do you have to be depressed about?” question upset me the most.  That was exactly what was so frustrating about the whole thing! I didn’t have ANYTHING to be depressed about and I wasn’t depressed ABOUT anything.  I was just depressed. That’s the difference between feeling sad and being depressed.  People feel sad about things, but depression is a whole other animal.  It’s not a feeling, it’s a state of being.  Your brain is sick and there’s no rhyme or reason.  And it’s nearly impossible to fix your sick brain with a sick brain….you can’t think your way out of it!

I never thought about actively trying to kill myself.  But throughout that October, November, and December I thought a lot about wanting to just be dead.  I didn’t want to do it myself, I just wanted it to kind of accidentally happen.  We live in rural Connecticut, so we’re surrounded by lots of wonderful trails! There was a wooded trail where I’d take my dog on hikes pretty regularly.  **Side note–this is another thing people love to say to depressed people–“Go outside and enjoy nature! You’ll feel better!”  Nature used to be something that made me feel happy, but now it was like it was taunting me. “Remember how this used to make you happy?? Now it just looks like an abyss that you want to disappear into! Sucks to be you!”  **  I continued to take my dog out on the trails and something about being alone out there really put me in a weird place.  I would start to feel like I just wanted to keep walking until I was totally lost.  Other times I felt like I just wanted to lay down somewhere and never get back up.

This time of year was hunting season and there’s always tons of hunters in the woods! I can remember one day I decided to take my dog on a hike.  I put a bright orange harness on her so that hunters could see her…but I decided to wear black.  Remember, I didn’t want to kill myself, but I figured it would be alright if it accidentally happened! I thought if a hunter shot me, then at least no one could say that I did it to myself.  Yeah, I know, that reasoning is ridiculous.  I ended up running into a hunter in the middle of the woods that day and he yelled at me for not wearing anything.  I sank deeper into myself and somehow made it back to my house.  It was at that point that I realized I had to do something.

The next day, I called and made an appointment with a psychologist.  On the day that I met with her, I cried the ENTIRE TIME.  Ugly, ugly crying.  It had been built up for so long and actually having to talk about it out loud to someone just made me lose it.  She recommended that I see my primary care doctor to get on some antidepressants.  I can remember her saying “You don’t have to live like this.  It doesn’t have to be this way.” She said that medication often helps pull you out of that deep, deep depression where your mind isn’t ready to heal itself.  Once that happens, then you can start to work on yourself in therapy.  Boy was she totally right.

I quickly made an appointment and my doctor prescribed Zoloft.  At first, it didn’t really do anything.  My doctor started me off on the lowest dose and then we slowly increased it.  As it increased, I would feel one or two fleeting positive thoughts a day.  Like randomly I would think about something and feel that warm glow of happiness.  And just as soon as I felt it, it’d slip away and I couldn’t get it back. I’m talking 2-3 seconds here. But that gave me so much hope! I hadn’t felt that in so long! Just the fact that my brain was able to feel joy about ANYTHING was a huge step for me! I really felt like maybe things would get better.  As we increased the dosage, I’d start to get those feelings several times throughout the day. Then, I’d start to feel that way for half of the day…then most of the day.  Until finally, I felt normal feelings again! I felt happy about things I used to enjoy, I laughed more, the fog lifted, and I finally felt like myself again! This was over the course of about 6 months. It’s not a quick fix.

I still have a little trouble with lack of “get up and go” every once in a while.  That’s pretty normal for people with depression.  It’s not always fully cured for people…it’s something you live with and constantly manage.  I’ve become pretty good at managing it though! If I feel it start to creep back up on me, I know that I’m slacking on my workouts or my nutrition/supplements and I need to get my butt back in gear! Don’t bottle it up…let the ones you love know that you’re struggling and need a hug or a word of encouragement.  It’s not your battle to fight alone.

I’m not one of those people that’s going to say “I just thought positive thoughts and exercised and now I’m cured and off my meds!” I don’t know if I’ll ever go off my meds and I’m okay with that.  If I have to pop a pill every day so that I don’t wanna be shot by a hunter, then I think that’s a small price to pay!!

This was me over the summer feeling truly happy and not just faking it!

I’m so thankful for how far I’ve come! I’m thankful to my husband who grew so much during my journey and who now totally understands what I went through/continue to go through and just how to help (whether that’s making me laugh or enveloping me in a bear hug). I’m thankful that he never gave up on me and loved me through it all. I’m thankful to my wonderful parents who took the time to understand the struggle I had and supported me no matter what! And I’m thankful for the lovely community of people that I’ve gotten to know over the past year!

If you’re struggling with depression, please think about what my therapist said: “It doesn’t have to be this way.”  Things will get better, you just have to take a step towards getting help.  It’s not easy, but it’s so incredibly worth it.

Chocolate Protein Mug Cake

- Meaghan Penrod

Growing up, my mom loved to bake! My sisters are 10 and 11 years older than me and I can remember when they were teenagers, all their friends would call my mom June Cleaver…like from Leave It to Beaver? It’s an old show, so don’t worry if you don’t get it lol Once my friends starting coming around, they all called her Betty Crocker (Betty, for short).  We just ALWAYS had something freshly baked for dessert, whether it was her famous chocolate cake, a cheesecake, German chocolate cake, red velvet cake….it was mostly cake lol She hated making cookies and pies, but she loved herself some cake.  So every night, her and I would always have a piece of cake plus a glass of milk (she liked 2 ice cubes in her milk, I liked one).

Don’t get me wrong, she was fantastic at instilling healthy eating habits in me! She packed my lunch every day with a protein, a carb, a fruit, and a vegetable.  For dinner, we always had TWO vegetables on the side instead of just one.  So overall, I learned really great habits! But my mom always said, she’d rather not be stick thin if that meant she got to enjoy her dessert every night.

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Gluten Free Honeymoon in Ireland

- Meaghan Penrod

I always imagined my honeymoon would be in some tropical paradise where I’d lay on the beach all day drinking pina coladas and looking fabulous in a bikini, all while my new husband admired me….anyone else? lol  I didn’t really think of any other options…it never crossed my mind.  Everyone goes to a beach! But when I actually got engaged and we started thinking about our honeymoon, my soon-to-be husband suggested Ireland.  At first I was like no, absolutely not.  I love Ireland, but that’s not what I want to do for my honeymoon. What about the bikinis and tropical drinks!? … But then the more I let it sit, the more the idea grew on me.  Trips to the Caribbean aren’t too expensive.  We can find all-inclusive deals for a pretty reasonable price and go when we want (see post about our trip to the DR).  But a trip to Ireland? That’s way more expensive and special.  That’s a once in life time trip (unless you’re rolling in dough and can just travel at the drop of the hat…that’s not me). I started to day dream about driving through the Irish country side, laughing together as we sat at the pub, and exploring quaint little towns.  Suddenly the bikini and pina colada dreams started to be replaced by cozy sweaters and Jameson and gingers at the pub. This was absolutely the honeymoon that I wanted!

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Veggie Quinoa

- Meaghan Penrod

So don’t get me wrong, I love quinoa.  I make it a lot. The texture is killer and the nutritional benefits are through the roof! But…I mean…it can be kinda boring.  Unless you add a ton of flavor to it, it’s kinda bland. So over the years, I’ve tried different things to spice it up a little! Usually, I’ll just mix 1/2 quinoa and 1/2 brown rice together and then cook it. That way, my husband doesn’t realize he’s eating quinoa lol But if I’m planning on having straight up quinoa as a side, this is one of my favorite ways to make it!

Essentially, I just use any veggies I have on hand and add it to the quinoa! Typically I always have peppers, onions, and mushrooms…so those are the usual suspects.  But I’ve also added corn, peas, tomatoes…pretty much whatever is on hand! And when I tell you this comes together in less than 30 minutes, I mean it.  I rarely ever make anything that takes longer than that! haha

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Crazy Easy Mac and Cheese

- Meaghan Penrod

So the other day at the grocery store, they had pork shoulders buy one get one free.  Great deal! So on Monday morning, I put my pork in the slow cooker with plans to have pulled pork for dinner.  Usually while I’m at work, I’ll brainstorm some ideas for what else I’m going to have with whatever meat I thawed out…but on this day I was stumped.  We had just had mashed potatoes for dinner the night before and I didn’t want to do potatoes two days in a row….and rice didn’t seem like a good choice.  Then suddenly it hit me, MAC AND CHEESE.  We had pulled pork and mac and cheese at our wedding, so clearly it’s a household favorite haha

Normally I like to make mac and cheese and then bake it to get it crispy, but I wasn’t going to get home until kinda late and I wanted something that would come together fast! I kinda just threw this mac and cheese together (in 15 minutes, no lie) and it turned out SO GOOD.  So I’ll let you guys in on the recipe…really nothing fancy.  Just simple, easy, and DELICIOUS.  I used earth balance vegan butter and almond milk to cut down on the dairy, but you could totally use any kind of butter or milk that you’d like!

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Chicken and Dumplings

- Meaghan Penrod

People love to say that things are “old family recipes”…but in this case, that’s actually true. My grandma grew up on a farm in North Carolina where she learned how to cook traditional Southern food.  One of the recipes that kind of became her signature dish was her chicken and dumplings.  She made it for my mom during her childhood and when my mom got older, she had grandma teach her how to make it.  Once my mom had her own family, she would make it for us for special occasions.  Both my dad and I requested it for every single birthday! It was and still is our absolute favorite meal!

My grandma taught me, my mom, my sisters, and my cousin how to make it.  Thankfully, she also kept her hand-written recipe card for it in the house as well.  After she passed away, my grandpa dug out the recipe and made it for himself when he was missing her 🙂 He said it wasn’t as good as when she made it, but it was “pretty darn close.”  This dish has always been near and dear to my whole family because it was such a beloved part of our childhood…but now that my grandma has passed away, it’s become even more comforting and special 🙂

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Cast Iron Skillet Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

- Meaghan Penrod

So last week when I went to the store, they had whole chickens buy one get TWO free! I decided not to wonder “why on earth are they tryin’ to get rid of these birds so fast…?” and instead thought “what a fantastic deal! I’ll take three!” Save that money, ya know.

So usually when I do this, I make the whole chicken in the crock-pot.  It’s easy and I can just do it in the morning and come home to a tender, fully cooked chicken! However, on the day that I actually wanted to make the chicken, morning Meaghan did not remember to do the crock-pot part at all…mornings are hard.  But I got home relatively early that day, so I decided to just try my hand at roasting it in the oven!  I figured my cast iron would work perfectly for this…which then made me realize that I could probably also just cook potatoes in there too…YAS.

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Easy Pasta and Meatballs

- Meaghan Penrod

The other day I was trying to figure out what kind of food I was in the mood for…I took out a pound of ground turkey that morning with no real plan in mind.  Quite honestly, I wasn’t excited about anything I could think of to make with it.  Then it hit me that pasta and meatballs was EXACTLY what I wanted.  The only problem was I was feeling much too lazy to go through all my usual steps in making meatballs.  Typically I make them and brown them on all sides in a pan and then cook them the rest of the way in the sauce. That just seemed like way too much work.  So I figured, why couldn’t I just make them in a muffin tin? They probably would’t get as brown and crispy on the outside…but that was a risk my lazy self was willing to take!

I preheated my oven to 350 degrees and then I mixed my pound of ground turkey with oatmeal, an egg,frozen pre-chopped onions (great hack! keep these in your freezer and add to dishes when you don’t feel like cutting up a whole onion),  Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and italian seasonings.  Then I rolled them into balls and plopped them into a muffin tin, sprayed with coconut oil.

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