My name is "A." and I will your tour guide today! "So, What Can You Eat Now?" was inspired by a slightly frustrated question asked by my dad during Christmas break after I had to politely refuse yet another offer of baked goods or a sandwich. My parents and I were new to what I could or could not eat. Luckily for them, I went home and they could go back to their usual fare. That left me figuratively scratching my head thinking hard about "so, what could I eat now?"
I am new to the gluten-free scene as of late December 2010. Over a few months of vegetarian dabbling this fall, I started noticing that I was feeling worse in general (and some spots specifically: "intestinal area" as we shall call it and with an increased all over itching that I had been managing with daily allergy medication since 2004). I removed all chemical triggers from my cleaning and beauty products which helped for a while. Then around Thanksgiving, my body must have decided that the "feel good vacation" was over. Boy, was that fun.
The gluten "ah ha!" light bulb came on for me during a massage the week before Christmas. My masseuse happened to also be gluten intolerant and asked me a series of questions about my diet and health history: if there is a bug going around, I am going to catch it; I had my thyroid removed in 2004 due to benign cysts; my doctor suspected Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome due to lack of regular menstruation; in elementary school I had stomach problems that went away with puberty; and I have super-pasty white skin; and so on ad nauseum. When I went home I did some research into gluten intolerance and celiac sprue. To my glee (and then horror) most of the symptoms fit me.
I am going to be tested next week for other additional food intolerances since I showed signs of other triggers. Egg whites are the only other thing that I know of for sure as of now, so there may be some "egg free" recipes popping up along the way.
Most of my cooking has always been experimental since I went away to college knowing how to "cook" cereal and order pizza. Many a taste testing dinner party has been held where the only rule is to be brutally honest. If you like it... great, I'll make it again. If not... on to something else. There were quite a few burned meals my poor guinea pigs had to suffer through, but I will say that I have become quite the cook in recent years. It just took a good 10 years-ish of eating what might be good together to figure out what worked.
Hopefully all that experimentation will not be in vain since cooking gluten-free takes more meal planning imagination if I hope to eat more than meat, fruits and veggies. I know I will have cravings for my morning bowl of cereal or pizza or a peanut butter sandwich or... ok, now I am just making myself hungry!
So, here I am writing about my experiences, recipes I find or try, product reviews, and the random nonsense I decide to share with you all. I hope you decide to continue on this journey with me and share your own thoughts and experiences with us. We can learn so much from each other!
Thanks! :D
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