Why what we say matters.

I constantly share information about Celiac Disease.

I know this annoys some people. My friends are likely nodding their heads and saying, 'yes, Shauna, please do shut up about this sometime soon, eh?' I can appreciate that. I know have a bit of an obsessive personality at times. It comes out with anything new in my life, like the three tiny goldfish that turned into a 10 gallon tank, a 20 gallon tank, a 60 gallon tank, and explorations into fish breeding, live plants, and attempts at mimicking a complete ecological environment.

Like I said, just a teensy bit obsessive. Although my fish tanks were awesome, if I do say so myself.

But with Celiac Disease, it's not always obsession driving me to talk about it. Deep down, this is grief and anger. I talk about cooking and the food industry because I have to think about it all the time. But Celiac Disease is more than that.

Best meal EVER

I've been in such a rut, it's not even funny. I got hit with sulfites in that little injection and it knocked me down for a couple weeks. But we're all home today so I was motivated to try and make the meal a little special.

SO happy with it!

My meal today:
Falafel - the kind I normally make, with chickpeas, yellow squash, salt, and parsley

Roasted green chile hummus - the kind I normally make, with chickpeas, salt, and olive oil, and then with 2 roasted green chiles, skinned and seeded, added in with it. I added a little extra oil and made a smooth, very spicy, slightly green hued hummus. It was awesome!

Dairy free tzatziki - 2 small orange/yellow vine ripened tomatoes, 2 small persian cucumbers, both chopped. Then I added a teeny bit of fresh chopped dill, and about four times as much chopped cilantro. Then maybe 1-2 tsp fresh lemon juice

I got out these large, dark lettuce leaves, broke the falafel into pieces and put in first the falafel, then the hummus, then the tsatziki, then held the lettuce like a hot dog bun and ate it that way. It was AWESOME!

The hummus was spicy, the falafel were really sweet this time, and the sour and crunchiness of the tzatziki was great.

It's using foods I already had, but still, I'm so excited about it anyway because it's just new enough that I noticed, and I needed a good taste. My past few experiments have been utter failures. So nice when something works!

I'd have amazing pictures, but I was so hungry, I ate it all. When I went back for seconds (and food for pictures) it was all gone! :-D I just have these two little photos of the left over hummus and tzatziki, and that's it.

Sour and crunchy, just like I wanted

No Shampoo

Shampoo has been a bit of a problem for a while - lots of allergies means more and more shampoos are making us react. My daughter has been having a lot of skin problems due to shampoo, so we've been a bit desperate lately.

Which leads me to here: cleaning my hair without shampoo. I know people do this. I hear about it; I read about it. So I decided to give it a try.

Grocery Budget - week whatever

You know what? I have NO idea this week. None.

I injured my foot so I can hardly walk, then got sick at the same time, overslept and missed the farmer's market, and I'm surviving on veggies that are all exploring new ways to exemplify 'limp.' I've been to the store just a few times to get veggies and fruit or GF pasta for the kids: our convenience food nowadays.

I think I'll be waiting until this Friday to get back on my game. And clean my house - this is definitely a week where I feel, ahem, house-cleaning challenged. And someone horizontally challenged as well, LOL.

Twelve Simple Snack Ideas

Snacks for people with allergies are crucial, don't you think? These are the things we can take with us, or enjoy quickly without a lot of cooking time involved. It means a lot when a typical meal may take a few hours to make.

I've been getting in a rut lately, often because I'm tired and can't use my brain well. Even simple snack ideas get forgotten and I'll stare at my fridge and cupboard with a vacant expression and an inability to remember what tastes good. So, I'm starting a Snack Idea section, now. Any time I remember a snack idea, I'm jotting it down. When I get twelve, I'll put 'em up. I imagine that at least a couple of them will work for most people with allergies or intolerances.

Celiac Musical humor

This is a RIOT. A Gluten Free Les Misérables parody. 'One Grain More.' SOO funny. :-D

Socca - Grain Free chickpea-based flatbread

A really simple grain-free flatbread. I didn't even know these existed!

Salt, olive oil, chickpea flour, and water (and cumin, if you can have it). That's it for ingredients. I bet if you used another type of fat, that would work well too. I wonder if lard would be too much?  Hmmm.

If you can have chickpeas, I'm sure you could pretty easily make your own chickpea flour, too. This gentleman mentions that the chickpea flours used for this are rather coarse.

The recipe has a lot of pictures and technique to get this to work well. :-)
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/06/socca-enfin/


EDIT: 3/7/13
I forgot all about this for months and then recently rediscovered it. My fiddlings with recipes are now on the recipe page. :-)