gluten free

Baby Steps

Hey…how was y’all’s weekend?  Good I hope.  🙂

I took some baby steps back into the kitchen.  Not gonna lie…it feels both good and daunting.  I just have so little energy right now…I kinda run out half way thru whatever I’m doing.

First up…Brownies. 🙂

Those may or may not be actual licks…in the bowl. 😉

Next…Mexican Cornbread.

Quite possibly the best thing I’ve eaten in months.

Dorito Burgers 

1/2 pound of 80 / 20 ground beef

2 big handfuls of Doritos crushed up

Couple sprinkles of Taco seasoning

Make shift press. Large soup can covered in foil.

Smothered in cheese, salsa and sour cream.

So delicious.  I think we all could have just eaten a couple pans of cornbread and nothing else though…it was that good. 🙂

A batch of gluten – free pancakes for Mama B. I make her up a batch every couple weeks and she freezes them in individual servings so they’re ready to go.

Banana Pancakes

1 cup Cup4Cup gluten – free flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

dash of cinnamon

2 tbsp sugar

1 cup buttermilk

1 very ripe banana

 

Cup4Cup, I might not need you anymore but I still think you’re the very best gluten – free ingredient ever invented. 🙂

Not sure what’s on tap this week.  I have my big appointment with the new rheumatologist today. Fingers crossed she can help me figure out what is going on with all the scary bruising.  I just know she’s going to put me back on Methotrexate and I’m dreading it so much.  I was on it before and it gave me the most horrific ulcer. But at this point I’ll do whatever I have to do to get better.  I can’t take much more of this. 

Everything in life is better with some Motown in the background so let’s have a little Motown Monday for luck. 🙂

 

 

Hodgepodge Catch-up

 

Hey, y’all.  🙂

First before I start with the hodgepodge…for any family members reading this…Mama B’s Dr visit last week was great.  She doesn’t have a tumor or anything else scary.  🙂

And me?  Well…I’m still alive.

Feeling better but still not 100%.

This week I did start cooking a little bit for the first time all month.

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That looks awful but it turned out quite delicious. 🙂  A pot of pressure cooked short ribs.

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Crushed pretzels / brownie batter / salted caramel.

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Layered.

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Swirled.

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Baked 350*.

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One tiny molten section in the middle.  My fav.  🙂

This is a great idea for some salty / sweet / crunchy in one pan but for some reason about 25% of my pretzels were soggy while the rest of them were perfectly crisp.  Have no idea why or how to fix it.  It was all eaten though.  🙂

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Knowing me y’all probably think the brownies were my favorite food from this week but you’d be wrong. 🙂  This was my fav.  Again the pic looks off (and I seriously need to get back into the habit of taking pics because I forgot to get ‘after’ pics)  but I made up a batch of icebox dough and used part of it to make a hamburger / cheese stuffed roll.  It was the best.  🙂  And now I’ll use the rest of the dough for pizza.

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Went out for Lent fish Friday.  I had the grilled fish tacos.  That’s a corn tortilla.  Plus guac / salsa / sour cream.

Did  y’all see this on Kelly & Michael this week?  You put in your birth date and it tells you the number one song the week you were born and the week you were conceived.

Mine were Rod Stewart’s Maggie May (the week I was born…which I already knew) and Dawn’s Knock Three Times.

Sister B, I did yours and yours where Top of the World (the Carpenters) and Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly.

I think we can all agree I got the better songs.  😉

I did my whole family and Papa B’s birth song was Smoke Smoke Smoke that Cigarette.  And for real I can imagine ’em all lighting up right there in hospital.  Ick.

Oh and let’s see what else…

The most shocking thing this week?

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The movie theater in my little town is showing 50 Shades.

What?

This is a town where far too many people here are your typical Sunday mornin’ Christians.  Ya know…church on Sunday mornin’…horrible people Mon – Sat.  Racist / sexist / judgmental / homophobic / basically all your ists and ics.  A good portion probably think the segregated 50’s was Shangri-La.

They didn’t even show The Help in this town.

Yeah, seriously.  Too much like looking in a mirror.

But 50 Shades?  Well let’s all head on out for a girls night.  And then hop on a church pew in the morning and pass judgment on everybody else.

Me and Mama B wanna go covertly take pics of all the hypocrites.  😉

Too much?   😉

Don’t worry ists and ics.  I’m not gonna turn this space into a small town The Dirty.    But oh how some of you temp me.

Anyway that’s all for today.

Have a good weekend.  See y’all soon.  🙂

I’ll leave y’all with my birth week song.  Which I actually love love loved long before I ever knew it was my birth week song.  Check yours out and see if you felt the same way about yours. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, Y’all

Sorry I didn’t get a post up last week.

Last week was just plain hellacious.   Mama B had a cat scan order for 2 months and getting that scheduled was a mess.  Finally we were able to get it done last Thursday.   She’s got another appointment next week so here’s hoping it goes better.

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I was so frustrated with all the nonsense…at one point I had to go sit out in the lobby…watch the fish and just breathe.

Let’s see…what else did I do last week?

Well …

I made some spicy wings.

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Made some crispy green beans…

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These were so easy and so good.  I just seasoned some fresh green beans with salt / pepper and a tsp of spicy Macadamia oil.  Then baked at 400* til they got crispy and a little charred.

I got a delivery…

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Y’all know that I gave up soy a long time ago.  Until last month pretty much the only soy I ate was in the form of mayo and I’d even cut my consumption of that by about 70%.  When I started Whole 30 eating I found Tessemea’s on the Whole 30 site.  Most of their products are paleo / Whole 30 approved.  There is zero soy in the mayo.  AND it’s actually really good.  All of their stuff is ‘clean’.  The only downside I find with any of it is that you’re supposed to icebox the dressings / marinades and since they’re made with olive oil (the good tasting kind not extra virgin) they harden in the cold.  You have to wait for them to soften or sit them in some warm water to speed it up.  They say it doesn’t damage the product at all but still it’s annoying.

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Right now these are my two favs.  I take about a 1/4 cup of the mayo and about 2 tbsp of the zesty southwest ranch and mix it together really well.  Then put back in the icebox to let the flavors meld.

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Then I use it like a dipping sauce for beef and chicken…kind of like the dipping sauce at a steak house.  Or even as a creamy dressing on a salad.

Oh and one last update…

I’m still attempting the sewing thang.  It’s…interesting.  🙂

You know how we have all kinds of vanity sizing in store clothes?   Well patterns don’t do that.  So if you’re a size 10 in regular clothes you’re like an 18 or 20 in patterns.  I didn’t know that so I have a bunch of wrong size patterns and wrong amounts of material.   But it’s all just practice right now so it’s not that big a deal.

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Right now I’m working on the shorter dress on the left.  I’m stuck now though because I don’t have an iron.  I know.  I’m gonna go get one tomorrow.

It really is a little comical.  First I didn’t have the right color thread.  Then I didn’t have a zipper.  Directions, y’all.  They’re there for a reason.  😉   As I was cutting out the pattern I did stop and wonder how may patterns my Mema cut out / sewed on that same table.  Hopefully she’ll send me some mojo.  🙂

Besides the sizing issue with patterns…the other thing I’ve found frustrating is this pattern is clearly marked “see and sew” and “Yes it’s easy”.  Uhmmm no.  No.  It’s not any of that.  Mama B is an experienced seamstress.   She even thought the directions were way too confusing for a novice.  But anyway…I’m still giving it a go.  Maybe someday soon I’ll have something to show for it.   🙂

Hope y’all are safe / warm and well.  🙂

30 Days Down and a New Hobby

Hey, y’all.

I made it 30 days.  🙂

No sugar.  No grains.  No Soy.  20 of the 30 days without dairy.  It was hard but I did it and I’m going to keep going.

Just a reminder…I’m following Whole 30 ‘rules’.

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They allow potatoes (white too) plus nuts.  No sweeteners at all.  My plan is to continue with this until Easter then reevaluate.

Let’s see…what else has happened since we last met…

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Another pressure cooked pot of stew.

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Mama B accidentally clicked the camera button as I was turning my head and caught this great picture of my hair color.  I love it so much.

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The first few grape plants of mine and Papa B’s future vino empire.  🙂

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Homemade macadamia nut butter.  Homemade nut butters don’t firm up like commercial butters because they don’t have any stabilizers.  They’re way more delicious though.  🙂

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Salt encrusted baked potatoes and blackened Mahi.

And the star of this week…

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That’s right, y’all.  At allegedly 40 something…I’ve decided to teach myself how to sew.

What?  I know.

Meme, Mema and Mama B were all phenomenal seamstresses.  Phenomenal.

Mema used to make our dolls clothes.  Meme made gorgeous quilts.  Mama B made most of our clothes until around Junior High.

How did all of that rub off me you ask?  Not well.  Back in the dark ages we had to take home ec in 8th grade and then again sometime in high school.  I took mine my sophomore year.  The cooking portion of the class = love.  The sewing portion?  Hate x a bazillion.  I’m not even exaggerating when I say that my version of the shirt they made us sew looked worse than the shirt Denise sewed for Theo on Cosby.  Of course Mama B saved it and I now have her on the hunt for it so I can take a pic.

Back then I hated everything about sewing.  The rules.  The need for perfect lines.  The cutting…ironing.  Just everything.

So right about now you must be wondering…if she hated it that much why did she just go buy a sewing machine?

Well if you followed the old blog you know I’ve been trying to find a new hobby ever since I had to stop baking / creating in the kitchen.

For some crazy reason I’ve decided that sewing is going to fill that void.   I mean with all that sewing in my DNA I can’t completely suck, right?   🙂

I’ll write more about it as I get going but for now…

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This is waiting for me.  Wish me luck.  🙂

Hope y’all have a good weekend.  If you’re partying for the Super Bowl be safe.

Y’all know I’m a huge football girl.  But I’m an even bigger women’s issues activist.  Given all the domestic abuse cases brought to light in the NFL …I just never could get into this season.  I always try to leave my political views and modern day feminist opinions off the blog…and I won’t write much more than this…but today instead of leaving with a song I’m gonna leave y’all with this super bowl commercial.  People faked all sorts of moral outrage in Sept and then just moved on once the season got going.    Thank You, UltraViolet for not letting this go.  🙂

See y’all next week.  🙂

Learning to Embrace the New

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Before I started this whole Paleo (with dairy) thing I knew it would be a rough transition.

I mean switching from running on sugar to…running on things I’ve hardly ever eaten in my life…is a change.

I downloaded / printed a bunch of positive affirmations…pulled out the scrapbooking tools…and made a pile of magnetized quotes and affirmations to stick on the icebox.

Wisdom from the likes of good ol’ Socrates (above) and Pat Benatar (song from last post).

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I know.  Scrapbooking with actual paper is like so 2003.  😉  Don’t care.  🙂

Anyway the point of this is to say that in honor of focusing on the new while still feeding the tastebuds of the old…today I made my first spaghetti squash.  🙂

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Can y’all even believe I made something like that?  Muchless ate it?

And then when having Italian what’s a Paleo (with dairy) girl to do to feed the need for the flavor of cheesy garlic bread?

Well this girl whipped up some cheesy / garlic-y artichokes.

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‘chokes.  Melted ghee.

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Mozzarella / dollops of ghee.    Baked at 350* for about 20 minutes.

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I have to say…this was actually really good.  After topping with sauce the squash tasted like nothing.  But the star for me was the cheesy ‘chokes.  Next time I will just eat the sauce on top of that.  Keen eyes might notice that my usual ranch is missing from atop the sauce.  I can’t eat bottled anymore because of the soy and other junk so I’m gonna have to make my own each time and just didn’t have time to do that for this meal.  Next time, ranch.  Next time.  🙂

Turns out ol’ Soc-y was right.  We shouldn’t waste time mourning what we can’t have.  We should use that energy to figure out how to live with what we CAN have.  🙂

I’ve now made it 14 days and tomorrow is my first shopping trip out of town since starting this…so first time eating out too.  Wish me luck.  🙂

Hope y’all are all safe and warm.   🙂