Cookie fail, brownie WIN

After a dinner of a lighter version of this etoufee , I was craving something sweet and chocolatey.

I tried to make some white chocolate chip chocolate cookies healthier, but the dough turned out way too wet. I knew if I tried to make them as cookies they'd spread horribly, and if I added more flour they'd taste chalky. Enter: chocolate brownies, made as mini muffins: aka brownie bites. YUM. If only all of my failed attempts at baking turned out this tasty.

White chocolate chip brownies

1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
3/4 c. sugar
1 heaping cup of your favorite GF flour mix
1/4 t. xanthan gum
1/3 heaping cup of cocoa
scant 1/2 t. baking soda
1/8 t. salt
3/4 c. white chocolate chips, or to taste

Blend the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients separately. Mix the two together and pour the batter into a brownie pan, muffin cups, or mini-muffin cups. Bake at 350 until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Next try: the cookies I was trying to make! The original recipe asked for 1/2 c. butter. I'm going to try messing with ratios of applesauce and crisco to make the best cookies.

Oh, I'm so full.

Chipotle

Another gluten-free-friendly restaurant that I've heard of is Chipotle. My girlfriends and I went lunching today, but the restaurant we were going to was unfortunately closed. After walking around a bit, we decided to go to the Chipotle we saw a couple blocks away.

I knew I'd be okay because I've heard that everything in the buffet except the tortillas was gluten free. Horray for minimal cross-contamination! I ordered a burrito bowl and loaded it up with rice, beans, corn salsa, lettuce, chicken, cheese & (against my better non-dairy judgement), sour cream. It was sooo good, and it was a ton of food. I could only eat about half of it. Looking back I probably should have nixed the sour cream, but it was still very good.

And, since it was in the middle of downtown there were lots of cute guys wearing ties and slacks out to lunch as well. Gluten free food + corporate eye candy? I think that's the start of a recipe for a great lunch with the girls.

My food- before I dug in.

Jungle Baby Shower Cake

I think the cake for Jen's baby shower was a success. I used Betty Crocker's gluten free yellow cake mixes and used strawberry filling. I was worried the filling would make the cake soggy, but it held up. I baked the cakes a tad longer just in case. It was quite tasty, and the whole group ate it happily. Gluten free score.

The animals, for my first time, turned out better than I expected. I had some trouble with the chocolate on the lion's face, but got the hang of it for the other animals. The mane was butterscotch, and smelled awesome. I had a great laugh at the demonic-looking monkey. The elephant was my favorite. I did him last so by that time I had the hang of it. I know the picture quality isn't great, but at that point I didn't care, I was just glad to have the cake done!

I had more planned, but I ran into some setbacks and hurriedly finished in the nick of time. It still turned out great. It was totally fun and everyone got a kick out of it, especially me!

click for larger images

Yum! Many many congratulations to Jen and Richard. Logan is going to be a cute fat baby and I can't wait to snuggle him. :o)

More food diary

I've been doing really well, watching what I eat and paying attention to avoid foods that upset my stomach. Today my stomach was feeling really great, and mom brought home some Klondike bars so I thought I'd try one. The thought of it didn't really sound delicious, but I decided to eat one anyway.

A few bites into it, my stomach started to feel ishy. I didn't even finish the bar because it was so unappetizing. That's a big deal- I always finish desserts.

If I hadn't eaten one, I wouldn't feel gross right now. Just another instance of my body telling me that I shouldn't eat something- because it won't like me back.

Let that be a lesson to me.

Lunch

BLT... Wrap. Just as tasty as the sandwich.

Pei Wei

I don't know why it took me over a year and a half to eat at Pei Wei after I'd heard rumors of a gluten free menu.

Well, last night I finally went! I asked the cashier if they had a gluten free menu, and she pulled out this little laminated card that's linked above. I ordered the Pei Wei Spicy. She said it was one of their most popular dishes.

It was chicken with some sort of delicious glaze/crust/sauce that was sweet and spicy at the same time. Oh. My. Gosh. It has been so long since I've eaten restaurant Chinese food- and this stuff was good. I was in heaven.

I don't know what precautions they take to avoid cross-contamination, but I felt fine. It was actually the first time that I ever remember eating Chinese food and not getting indigestion or bloating afterwards. I guess there really is something to this gluten free thing, huh?

For 2 meals + 2 drinks it was about 20 bucks, so I'm figuring $10 a person. That's not too bad for me, because I can get 1 or 2 other meals from the leftovers. I'm actually excited for lunch today.

I did not take a picture, and I doubt you want to see a picture of my leftovers crammed into the takeout box. I hate posting without some kind of picture, so you get today's Natalie Dee as a random visual that just so happens to relate to food.

nataliedee.com

Next on the list of restaurants to try: PF Chang's GF menu!

experiment

I've decided to chronicle my new experiment on this blog.

Here's the basis: It's no secret that most ailments and diseases can be cured or prevented by a simple healthy diet and exercise. I mean, as Celiacs we especially know that.

Personally, I have problems with overactive hydrogen pumps in my stomach, resulting in a condition with symptoms similar to acid reflux. The doctors call it dyspepsia. Basically it leaves me with a constant severe sour & upset stomach which is not good if you want to have any sort of life at all. I know if you're reading this you're probably no stranger to that.

For over 5 years, I have taken two over-the-counter Prilosec OTC tablets daily. They have worked fabulously, and have literally given me my life back. The only thing is, the long-term effects and higher-than-normal dose are starting to kinda make me nervous.

My experiment: Now that I am gluten free, I have wondered just how much of my discomfort was a result of the Celiac symptoms, and not just the dyspepsia. I am going to see if I can lower, drastically reduce, or eliminate the dosage of Prilosec and manage my symptoms solely through diet and exercising.

So far, I have reduced the dose to 1 pill a day for a little over a week with few problems.
I had a particularly bad day today. I didn't eat anything out of the ordinary, but I felt like I did in my pre-Prilosec days. Even my trusty pepto bismol pills did little to settle my stomach. I wound up taking another Prilosec, and within 30 minutes I felt like a new woman.

I was going to call it quits and go back to the regular dosage, but then I decided that I can't just give up. I really am tired of taking drugs every time I don't feel well.

I did some research, and come across some home remedies and foods that will naturally raise the pH in the stomach. Here are a few:

• Fruits and veggies- they're part of a healthy diet anyway, I eat tons of fruit but I should be eating more veggies. Some fruits and veggies are more alkaline than others, like apples, brocolli, cucumbers, green beans, and celery.

• Apple cider vinegar- surprisingly I've heard a lot about this stuff. You mix it in water and drink it. I think it smells terrible. I don't know if I'll be able to choke it down on an already upset stomach, but what have I got to lose?

• Baking soda came up a lot in my research, naturally.

• Activia- I hate yogurt, but if I'm going to really be serious about this, I'll try it. I'll take suggestions on how to jazz up yogurt!
  

• I need to learn to EAT SLOWER. When I sit down to a meal, I admit I am guilty of wolfing it down. That can't be helping my digestion.

Anyway, these are just a few things I saw, and I don't know if they'll all work for me, but we'll see how it goes.

If you're reading this and you have similiar problems, let me know what you did that works!