Jussst escaped getting glutened on Easter; Food loves, and my new D-Bag.

Happy day to you. Did you have a good Wednesday? I've been offline for a while; life has been so busy. Almost every day after work I run home to let the dog out, don't even take off my shoes, and run right back out the door to appointments. Does life seem to get busier as you get older?

Easter was good, it's always a challenge to spend it with people other than your family (mine are out of state), and ESPECIALLY when you have celiac disease and diabetes. I am in the habit of bringing my own food to these types of events; I don't want to risk getting glutened by well-intentioned friends. I just about got glutened in two different instances, minutes apart. I want to give you a glance into the world of being celiac, so I'm going to share with you what happened. The first time was with a freshly put out veggie and olive tray. Both of these items are naturally gluten free. And as I was about to grab some vegetables, I watched as someone grabbed a handful of crackers, drop the crackers on his plate, then with the same hand, reach right into the vegetables, foregoing the tongs provided, and as such, glutening the vegetable tray. Had I not seen that and grabbed some vegetables, I would have been in big trouble. Moments later, a well-intentioned person handed me a basket filled with crackers, happily advising me of the new gluten free Triscuits she found. She told me they were now made from brown rice. Me, being my skeptical self (for good reasons, I might add. I alone am responsible for keeping myself healthy) asked if I could please see the original container/box they came in, so I could verify for myself their gluten-free status. And it's a good thing I did. She went to the pantry and handed me the box, which in big bold letters exclaims on the front "NOW MADE WITH BROWN RICE!" Now, turn the box to the side where the ingredients are listed, and it says at the very end in bold, capital letters: CONTAINS WHEAT. Whoa. I wonder how many fell for that. The packaging is very deceptive to those not paying attention. Luckily for me, I am Type AAA about checking these things. Alas, I stuck to my own food that I brought.

I made homemade Gluten Free Apple Celery Stuffing (see pics below of it in the making- the BEST stuffing I've ever had in my life), and Gluten Free Fettucini in a mushroom cream sauce in the crock pot.

This is me frying up the onions, celery and honeycrisp apple (all organic) in Earth Balance butter, and on the right, is when I added the seasoned gluten free bread pieces to the mix along with an egg and organic gluten free chicken boullion (called Not Chk'n). I wish there was an "after" photo but as soon as it came out of the oven, I shoved it in the car and took it over to Easter brunch. And there was none left to take a picture of :(


Here is the gluten free fettuccini I made (made with organic Health Valley gluten free mushroom soup, organic almond milk, Tinkyada pasta, organic whole fat sour cream and grass fed chicken breasts.



Another food that I've made recently and loved:



If you see this over at your local co-op or store, definitely do yourself a huge favor and grab one. These are FANTASTIC gluten free muffins!!!

I plan to do a separate blog to talk about the paleo menu I made last week and share the recipes with you. They were yummy. Here's a sneak peek of one of the dishes (mini meatloaves):



These were quite good and loaded with healthy veggies and ground turkey in place of ground hamburger. I made them "mini" because they are more easily transportable to take for lunch, less messy, too.

Final food pic for the night... here is a picture of a very typical breakfast for me. Two hard boiled eggs, 1/2 grapefruit, water. It's my easy work day breakfast when I don't have time to make something else.



Enough about food. I also wanted to show you my cute new diabetes bag. Isn't it adorbs??????



Cute, right? I got it at Target in the wallet section for $12.99. It holds everything so nicely. Ohh the little things that make us happy :)