Granola

I just love granola.  I love oats, nuts, a little bit of sweetness... it's just all delicious.  Unfortunately, since discovering I have celiac disease and going gluten free, my granola choices have gone from plentiful and delicious to slim and gross.  Most GF granola doesn't have any oats, since most oats are contaminated with wheat and only a few select brands are certified wheat free.  Also, most GF granola has cereal (NOT good in granola or with yogurt in my opinion) or crazy random clusters of weird.  They also normally contain a large amount of fat.  From oil, not nuts.  Oh yeah, and they all cost about 10$ for a tiny package.

A while ago, I made my own granola.  And it was delicious.  I haven't made any since then.  I have been granola deprived!  So yesterday, just because, I decided to make some more.

I didn't have 12 cups of oats though... I had something more like 6.  So I used the 6 cups and decreased the liquid a bit.  And instead of grapefruit juice like I used last time, I used Happy Planet Abundant-C smoothie.  And I didn't add raisins.  Oh, and instead of flax, I used chia seeds.  I'm not sure if you're supposed to bake chia seeds, but I did.

It's just delicious.  I've had it twice today.

If you'd like the recipe, just click the link! A healthier, cheaper, modifiable and did I mention delicious granola!  Enjoy!

Mmmmm, Granola

Last night I made some gluten free granola. I am so sick of eating really crappy, really gross and really fatty store bought gluten free granola. Anything I've purchased is still sitting in my cupboard almost full. My mum has made some tasty granola, but I only get it once a year at Christmas and it's long gone by now. I took her recipe and meshed it with one from Gluten-Free Girl and voila! The most delicious incredible and not too fatty granola ever!!! (Don't get mad Mum, yours is only one small notch under this one). (And I'll still probably want some next year for Christmas).

The oats and oat pearls I use are from Only Oats and I ordered them online. I think you can get them at Planet Organic as well.

Gluten Free Granola

12 cups of GF oats or oat flakes
2 cups of GF steel cut oat pearls
bunch of almonds (about 1 cup)
bunch of cashews (about 1 cup)
bunch of sunflower seeds (about 3/4 cup)
bunch of pecans (about 1 1/2 cups)
bunch of soy nuts (1 cup ish?)
1 1/2 cups maple syrup
slurp of some kind of oil (I probably used 1 1/2 tbsp or so)
slurp of Vanilla (I thought I used way too much when I put it in because I wasn't paying attention, but it turned out great so go crazy with the vanilla)
1/2 cup or so of some kind of juice (I used grapefruit because that's what I had)
Cinnamon
All spice
Ground Flax (I know it makes more sense to use whole flax, but apparently flax is so small that the human body doesn't break it down and we miss out on all the great things from flax. By using ground flax, there's no need to break it down!)
Raisins (Personally I don't like raisins because they look like little bugs, so I used golden raisins and they blend right in! No bugs!)

Pre heat your oven to 300F. Combine the oats and nuts in a big bowl. Combine the maple syrup, oil, vanilla and juice in small bowl and mix well. Poor the liquid into the oat mixture and mix until all the oats and nuts look coated. Add the spices (I put quite a bit of cinnamon) and mix well again. (My arm got REALLY tired. I think I need to do some more push-ups).

Line two cookie sheets with wax paper (I only did this because I'm pretty sure my cookie sheets are all gluteny. I should really get some new ones. Maybe Mum you can give me some with my Christmas granola) and put the coated oaty mix on them.

Bake for a while, stirring every 5 minutes. You do have to be pretty diligent with the stirring, because the bits on the edges of the cookie sheets get burnt pretty quickly. I also alternated the position of the two sheets, switching the top and bottom every once in a while. I think it took about an hour in all, but when the granola turns more golden than it was before, it's done.

When the granola has cooled, add the ground flax and the raisins. Done!

As you can see, I was very willy nilly with any measurements. I just shoved things in the bowl. Yum! I'm so happy I could eat granola all day! And the apartment smelled incredible! And way less oil than normal granola! I had some with plain yogurt today after work and it was the perfect sweet and not sweet combo.

I hope you try it and shove other random things in the bowl and love it!!

Don't mind me, I'm a little woozy.

So I have had a busy two days. Yesterday I tore myself away from my vampire books and went to the GI doctor. This is the appointment I have been waiting for since February. I go in, we talk about celiac disease and I tell him I'm on a gluten free diet so I understand that in order to get an accurate result of a biopsy I need to go back on gluten. He asks me when I went off gluten, and I told him about 2 or two and a half months ago. He tells me "alright, lets do this tomorrow." TOMORROW. As in, TODAY. More funny things happened in that appointment but they're too embarrassing for the internet. Lets just say my face was SO red that his student Dr couldn't look at me and he even got a little embarrassed.

So this morning at 7am, I went to the hospital for an endoscopy. I didn't really think it was a big deal, and I really didn't expect it to be as hospital-y as it was. I did, however, expect it to be terrible. I went into a big room with a bunch of beds, was ordered to strip (but I was allowed to keep my socks, how kind of them), put on the backless gown, and put my things in a locker. I kind of felt like I was going into a gas chamber, but I begrudgingly obeyed. Then a nurse came over, told me what was going to happen as another nurse was putting in an IV. I really didn't think I was going to get an IV. I knew I would be sedated, but I thought there would be gas or something. Anyway it was really hard to concentrate on the talking nurse while the needle nurse was searching for a vein. Eventually I got wheeled into the procedure room, saw the doctor, had to sign consent forms with an IV, the nurse sprayed my throat with local anesthetic, and then she injected the medicine. It wasn't general anesthetic, but just sedation. From that point I don't really remember much. The nurse said I would feel the stretcher go down my throat (that goes down before to make room for the camera) and gag, and then they would tell me to swallow, but I really don't remember a thing. I heard them call my name a few times, but I don't know whether it was telling me to swallow, or if they were saying "all finished"... I seem to remember that. Anyway I woke up in the recovery area when the doctor came back to do something terrible and I don't want to talk about it, but luckily I don't remember that either. I remember saying "at least you're wearing purple gloves" and him laughing. Enough about that (though that has to do with the embarrassing things that happened at the appointment yesterday). I woke up a little later, had some apple juice and gluten free cookies, slept a little more, tore out the breathing nose thing, slept, woke up, got dressed, and that was that. I honestly have no recollection of the procedures at all. Yay!

After I saw mum in the waiting room, the Dr. called me back to discuss his findings. He said that even though the biopsies have to be sent for official testing, he could without a doubt say that I have celiac. My intestine is slightly damaged, which is good because it shows a positive result, but also because it means the gluten free diet is working. Horray! Done! Not even close to as terrible!! But more hospital-y. Oh well. Anyway I'm woozy, and am legally impaired until 7am tomorrow, and then I'm off to Maui!

Mmmmmuffins

I made some muffins today. They are pumpkin carrot. I haven't actually tried them yet, so I can't say if they're good, but they smell good! I made them with chickpea flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, ground flax, applesauce, pumpkin, carrot and other normal muffin things. I also made a corn and bean salad to bring with me on the road. I met with my dietitian again today and she told me I don't get enough grains. Well duh! So together we came up with some ways to get more grain in my diet, hence the muffins. These ones, since they're homemade, are much healthier than other muffins and have added sources of fiber. We came up with some other meals that I can eat on the road too, so I have a list of 4 breakfasts, 5 lunches, and a few different snacks. Once I get used to these, we can come up with some others. They aren't too far off from what I eat, but there are a few differences. The addition of grains, (but I can't seem to find gluten free wraps), making sure there's protein, which I try to do but doesn't work super well, and honestly, it's a little more food than I normally eat. Anyway, I'm learning, and Sarah the dietitian is helping.

The race weekend went well. I made my personal record, barely, of 26 minutes. I got 26:57 for my 5Km. I didn't specify that it had to be 26 or UNDER, so in my mind I made it. I've learned I'm terrible at pacing myself. I really need to work on that. Kristen and Jordan did well, but were a few minutes off their goals. Still did great though. I managed to see Kristen, Jordan, and my mum cross the finish lines, so I was really happy about that. We had great spots to cheer them on and every one of them heard me cheering, so I felt very successful. My family met Matt's family as well and we had a great time, so that was another notch in the successful column.

Matt started his job as an electrician apprentice this week after a horrifying trip home which I'll save for another post. The flying wasn't the bad part, but the almost NOT flying was. I'll elaborate later. His second day on the job went swimmingly and the third even better. It started a little rocky, but he loves it now. I hope everything continues to get better and better!

All in all, we've had a great weekend/week!!

Gluten Free = Anything good Free

I have been living Gluten Free for what seems like forever. I don't even know actually, but I think it's something like 2 weeks or a week and a half.

I'll just come right out and say it: It's a whole lot of shitty. Before you all think "come on, it's just food", I know. I know it's just food, I know I don't have cancer, I know I don't have diabetes, I know life could be so much worse, and I'm not pretending that my life is coming to an end. BUT, it's incredibly difficult and I hate it so far.

I was in Community Natural Foods after about day 2 of being gluten free, and I was looking around for snacky foods. You know, when you're running out the door and need something to throw in your purse in case you get hungry, or when you just want as a little something at home. Anyway, I'm looking, and looking, and looking, and all I find are some bar thingys. There is HUGE selection of bars at the store, so I'm thinking there HAS to be something that's got some nutritional value, not too fatty, and reasonably priced. Well, there are three brands that are gluten free. THREE. (I know I didn't look at every single one, but three out 15 I would say). There's the Larabar, which I know and love, but really, not much of a nutritional bar, more of a "I'm craving something sweet so I'll choose this instead of candy or a chocolate bar". And it's also between $1.50-$2.00 per bar. Then there are these Glutino brand bars, which are basically like those Chewy tendres made by Quaker, which are $7.50 per box of five. Lastly, Bumble Bars, which are about $2.50 per bar, and are good, but again more like the Larabar in nutritional content. They are so strange though, made with little tiny yellow dots... I'm thinking by the name maybe they're made out of some kind of bee product. Anyway that's the snack part of the trip.

The baking? I won't bother. A small loaf of bread (and I mean SMALL... like the size of a baker's potato) was $7.50.

On to the sauces. I would like a salad dressing. I looked for about 10 minutes, and finally bought some balsamic vinegar that I can mix with oil. No regular salad dressings are gluten free.

I started to tear up a bit, I know that sounds cheesy, but I did. I held it together, paid $30 for not even a bag full of things, and left. As soon as I got into the car, I cried. Full on cried. I just felt sorry for myself, thought things like "why me?" and "this is stupid"... By the time I got home, I was still crying, and I walked inside feeling really stupid because things are so much worse for so many people in this world, but I just wanted to cry. Matt was here, thought maybe I crashed the car or someone died, but "no", I said between tears, "I can't eat ANYTHING" boo hoo. He was sweet and went online to order some gluten free goods. He found lots, but the shipping ended up being ridiculous, so we decided to hold off. I think there are a few other websites that may be a bit closer to home so we'll give those a shot. Anyway he cheered me up and we made some delicious thai food that we happened to have, and that's gluten free.

My problem, aside from snacks, are the sauces. For the love, why is there wheat in EVERYTHING????? Soy sauce, anything WITH soy sauce, BBQ, salad dressings, peanut sauce, chicken broth, and anything else that has a flavour. This is the tough part.

I saw a new nutritionist who is sweet as pie and we are going to work well together to find things to make, things to bring on the road, how to re-organize my kitchen, since we can't use the same toaster or peanut butter. I'm happy to have someone I can just call and say "can I have this?" and she'll say yes or no. I feel a little bit better, and things I know can only get better, but at the start, to say "you can't eat gluten, and.... GO!" and to be so in the dark and have no one and nothing is not really ideal.

I am off to Toronto for the weekend with my mum, my sister, Jordan and Matt to run a little race in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon weekend. It will be fun! Eating will be interesting, but I'll make it through!

I think I figured it out

I'm pretty sure the whole point of the "er" thing is that everything at bell is better than the rest, so cool is now cooler, sexy is now sexier, etc. It's just putting the emphasis on the superlative. (I think the word is superlative anyway). That's what I've decided anyway.

On a side note, I am now gluten free. My Dr got in touch with the GI specialist and together they decided that since I have no appointment in sight, I should go off gluten, and then I'll have to go back on it for 10 days leading up to the appointment. Apparently those 10 days will be "uncomfortable" but I think it will be worth it for now! Too bad this decision wasn't made 6 months ago...