Gluten, gluten, oh how I love thee...

Hey y'all! I haven't really been up to date in blog land for a while. There's been a lack of motivation and busy-ness and all that jazz :)

Brain food: Laksa stir fry with lots of colours.

This is what my life tends to look like evenings after work. I've enrolled in college! Yay! Back to school again for Emma. I'm doing an Advanced Diploma of Nutrtional Medicine and so far it's pretty interesting. I'm doing 3 classes at the moment because I still need to work full time to pay rent and feed the cats and all. I haven't actually got up to the nutrition part yet. So far I've started Anatomy and Physiology 1 and Chemistry...I thought chemistry would be a lot more daunting but as it turns out the elements are the same in the garden as they are in our bodies so I already recognise a lot of the themes. I'm also doing a communication class to get it over and done with...already had a panic attack and burst into tears at the thought of doing roleplays so we'll see how it goes! I do that class in the evenings on Tuesdays on campus. The others I'm doing online which is nice...free textbooks and I can take a long as I need to.

Well that's that, other news is that I am (oh joy) gluten intolerant! Fun times lay ahead. It's not too bad. I am currently trial-and-erroring what gluten I can and can't handle...unfortunately oats, as in porridge, make me feel and look pregnant. I eat ate oats pretty much every day!! Oh well.

I decided I'd try some quinoa flakes instead of oats to make a porridge like meal for breakfast.

Following the directions on the packet, however, turns it into a textureless watery mess (though tasty). So I experimented a little bit and found that if I mixed equal parts of liquid and the flakes in a bowl and zapped it in the microwave for one minute it made an almost porridge texture (I eat mine really thick). So quinoa will do as a substitute - it's a bit expensive though. I might try rice flakes and see if they do the same thing. I'm also going to try rolled spelt and see if it upsets my stomach (I may also try rolled rye).

Apparently the gluten in each grain is slightly different and it all depends on your body as to whether you can handle it or not. Some things are easier to substitute than others (I've found a good bread mix to make in my breadmaker, and I've been eating gluten free pasta for ages).

Pastry was a hard thing...but I found a good recipe online that I liked the results of. You can find it here.



It rolled out nicely like a regular gluteny crust and baked up nice and soft like a proper shortcrust. (Rice flour based pastry goes rock solid). The strips I used in the lattice were a bit fragile but they did the job! It tasted good and texture was delicious, though a teensy bit dry. I didn't measure my margarine so that may have been the reason. I reccommend this recipe if you want to try your hand at a gluten free crust :)

When we cut the pie it fell apart a little...cutting it straight out of the fridge the next day had far better results :P oh well, was still delicious. It's just a raspberry and apple pie by the way, with a bit of homemde vanilla ice cream from the Veganomicon cookbook. I like that ice cream better than store bought soy stuff but it tastes  little tofu-y to someone not used to the taste. I'm wondering if steaming the tofu before making the ice cream would do anything?

It's good to be back in blog land. Unfortunately my unmotivation stretched into my half marathon training so I definately won't be running the whole thing in two weeks time. I'll run as far as I can though! I'll pick it up again for the Bridge to Brisbane methinks.

Ginger

I grew it myself :)

Balls.

I made these up on the spot tonight because I wanted some sort of energy snack to eat before I run/exercise (and to stop myself from just eating the delicious organic fresh dates I'd bought to make them all at once). These are probably very similar to a million other recipes on the internet.

Ingredients:

1 cup raw almonds
1 cup sultanas
10 fresh dates, pitted
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp spirulina powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp tahini

Pulse the almonds until they are evenly chopped. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until combined. If the mixture doesn't stick together, add a tablespoon or two of water until it does. Form into balls and keep in the fridge until ready to eat!

Spirulina tastes like what it looks like - Green. I like the taste, some people don't like the taste of Green. If you're not sure, perhaps start with a smaller amount :) I put it in my porridge everyday with cocoa powder and it looks like disgusting grey sludge but tastes pretty good. Green, I mean, spirulina, is full of iron, B12, calcium and other good things. As a plus it is easily absorbed.

Meal planning!

Every week we try our best to write a meal plan and stick to it. This saves us a helluva lot of time and money. Time because it means we go to the shops once, and money because we aren't tempted to buy random stuff.

I either go for cookbooks or blogs first. Blogs I tend to use if I see something really inspiring or something that sounds particularly delicious. This week I went for cookbooks (mainly because Nadine bought me a new one - Quick Fix Vegan).

This week I picked out three - depends on how many I can be bothered looking through :)

Then we flick through and pick 2 salady things for work lunches, and dinners to cook every other night with leftovers in between. This way our fridge doesn't keep piling up with leftovers and we don't have to cook every single night. I also write the shopping list as I go so I don't miss anything. It generally isn't very long because I try to keep staples stocked in my pantry (tin tomatoes, beans, rice etc.) 

So this weeks food:

Snow balls in Hell from Quick Fix Vegan. Very tasty, though the balls were a little dry and ther ecipe didn't make much saue really. I'd double the sauce next time.

Moroccan Spiced Couscous from Quick Fix Vegan. This was for lunched and SO SO GOOD. I love cous cous salads and the combination of all the flavours made it pretty amazing. I like to look forward to my lunches while I'm at work.

Fettucine Alfonso from Ultimate Uncheese.  I can't really remember this. It wasn't bad :P

Vegetable Biryani from the Oxfam vegetarian cookbook. Now this one fed us for days - and tasted better the next day then even better the day after that! We used quinoa in it instead of whatever was supposed to be...rice I think. I was sad when it ran out.

Another salad for the week was Soba Slaw also from Quick Fix Vegan. No pictures but that salad was so incredibly good. I could have eaten it all day.

So there you have it. How we organise our kitchen time :)

Breakfast of Champions

Lately we have been enjoying a basic bowl of cooked whole grains for breakfast. Once a week I'll cook up a cup each of whole oats and brown rice, mix them together and it lasts us a few days. I'll generally use 2/3-1 cup of the cooked grain as a serving. In this bowl I;ve got oats and rice, raw almond milk, tahini, banana, chopped dried apricots, chia seeds and molasses. I usually heat up the grains and then pour cold milk on top.

It tastes good, has a good texture and is very filling without being too heavy. I like that in a breakfast.

Autumn is kicking in

Our favourite afternoon snack since regular, reasonably priced bread is out of the question temporarily: Baked sweet potato fries and decaf coffee. I just cut a sweet potato into large fry-like pieces, coat them in a few tsp of rice bran oil (depending on how much I'm making), liberally apply fresh cracked sea salt and bake in the oven at 220 degrees C for about 45 minutes. I like to make the edges a little bit burnt so I sometimes just leave it in til the coffee has finished brewing or something. At (still!) 49c a kilo, this is one cheap snack, that's much better for us than our toast with margarine and jam :)

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Now, about the gluten thang.

Nadine decided she wanted to the Quantum Wellness Cleanse (a book by Kathy Freston, find it here on FishPond) so naturally I would do it with her (makes food prep easier and all that) which is basically going without sugar, alcohol, gluten, caffiene and animal products for 3 weeks. Why not? I'm sure my body could do without those for a while, particularly the caffiene. We weren't going to do the gluten part in the first place, but then I heard from a coworker that someone she knew (who wasn't a celiac, OR intolerant OR allergic to gluten/wheat) decided to try going gluten free to fix up her skin which was dry and excema-y. And of course it worked very well and her skin cleared up really quickly. So I thought, hmm. My hands and forearms are covered in dermatitis. And it hurts. And it's really gross. Maybe gluten could be the problem.

So there you have it, I'm seeing if gluten is aggravating the dermatitis. After the three weeks if it has cleared up (I am starting an indoors job soon so that should help too) I will start eating gluteny things again and if it flares up, well, then I'll know. It'll suck, but it's a small price. Who knows, it could be soy, or sugar, or some random unlikely fruit or vegetable. (I could just go to the doctor and get tested, but I don't want to, and they tend to just prescribe cortisone - been there done that, don't want to have to use that again.)

So anyway, today's lunch was just delicious. I made the curried pumpkin soup I found on Scandi Foodie and splurged on some gluten free bread to eat it with.

I was going to make my own bread but I got a bit lazy.

You have to spend a little bit more to buy gluten free bread that is also vegan. A lot of gluten free bread uses eggs and milk - I believe it helps with binding and rising. I say pish posh to your eggs and milk. Unecessary.

This loaf is pretty good, and the ingredients are nice excpet one - palm oil. I mean, really? That'll be my motivation to bake my own when this loaf runs out ( I predict tomorrow). It toasted up really well, though I tried to defrost one piece just to eat as bread and it kind of went all squishy in the microwave. Maybe if I just leave it out until it's ready...



ABC of Me.(a survey)

I haven't done one of these since forever, so I thought why not? Found it at Tahini Too.


A is for age: I am 22 but my birthday is days away :)
B is for breakfast today: Cooked oat groats and brown rice heated up with some soy milk, raw almonds, banana, chia seeds and molasses.
C is for currently craving: Something chewy and gluteny. Like a huge bowl of pasta. Or a loaf of bread. (more on this later).
D is for dinner tonight: The quinoa puttanesca from Appetite for Reduction. I added some beans and a zucchini and used 1x400g can of tomatoes plus 4 large fresh ones (instead of 1x800g can). I also didn't use wine.

It's a terrible photo but it's the most delicious thing I've had for a wile. I love capers.

E is for favorite type of exercise: I'm getting into running at the moment. Though we had a larger weekend than normal and the motivation has fallen a little..
F is for an irrational fear: I have recurring nightmares about being trapped in a hospital when a ginormous tornado is coming. I'd MUCH rather a cyclone or hurricane. Or flood or earthquake. Did you know Arkansas was pronounced Are-can-saw? Learn something new everyday.
G is for gross food: Soggy sandwiches. Disgusting.
H is for hometown: Tauranga, NZ.
I is for something important: A positive attitude.
J is for current favorite jam: Homemade marmalade:

K is for kids: My cats are my kids. I get stressed out when others' children are being irritating (which is pretty much always) imagine if they were mine!
L is for current location: My loungeroom.
M is for the most recent way you spent money:

Shopping for various gluten free flours ^

And fruit and veg. Sweet potatoes were still only 49c/kg!

N is for something you need: I don't really need anything. I do need to go for a run though.
O is for occupation: I am in between jobs - just resigned as a nursery hand and have a job to start next week as an office gopher/phone answerer/and data entry-er.
P is for pet peeve: I have so many it's hard to list them all. People eating with their mouth hanging open is a big one. Charlee's licking. People who talk loudly on mobiles on public transport. The neighbours who stare at me when I whipper snip. Plus many more.
Q is for a quote: Yesterday you said tomorrow.
R is for random fact about you: My big toes on both feet do not have joints. It creeps people out. Hahaha.
S is for favorite healthy snack: Hummus =D I make it every week.
T is for favorite treat: Home made biscuits or bread or ice cream.
U is for something that makes you unique: I have a scar on the top of my head that Nadine found when she shaved it. I don't know how I got it.
V is for favorite vegetable: Pretty sure I like them all. I go through phases.
W is for today’s workout: I'll get off my ass and go for a run in a minute, and then do some weights (since I'll no longer be lifting heavy things all day at work I'll have to keep on that!)
X is for X-rays you’ve had: Teeth/mouth and I've had an echo-cardiogram. That one was fun :)
Y is for yesterday’s highlight: My lunch:

Homemade gluten free wrap bread with lettuce, grated carrot and home grown sprouts on it with a vegie burger patty. My other ones had the baked falafel from Appetite for Reduction on it. Yum. 

Z is for your time zone: Australian Eastern Standard Time. I think.