Sweet Misa

I just finished prepping for a big batch of lentil soup. I know that a lot of people aren't a fan, but I LOVE it. I'm prepping tonight so I can just toss it all in the crockpot in the morning. I'm a big fan of the crockpot anyway, but on Tuesdays, it's even more useful because that's the day that Jeremy leaves for work at six. I get home around three-ish, give or take roughly half an hour, and while I COULD make dinner, it's easier to just have something made already. In addition, I LOVE walking into a house that smells yummy.

That being said, it's not very practical for me to do prep work in the morning. So tonight, I picked through the lentils, cut up onion, celery, carrots, and ham, and stuck everything but the lentils in the refrigerator. Tomorrow morning, all I'll have to do is dump the bowl with the lentils (plus a bit of seasonings, including a bay leaf) into the crockpot, add some stock, stir in my ham and veggies, and set it on low. It'll be ready - and just sitting on warm - for me by the time I come home.

I've found that planning ahead is key to me staying gluten-free. I don't necessarily have to follow what I've planned, but it does mean that on afternoons when I come home exhausted or with little time between me getting home and Jeremy leaving, I'll at least have something that I KNOW I can have. I think part of it is just a mind trip I play on myself "Oh, I can't eat anything..." and then I do something stupid, like order pizza. It's also helpful if I make sure to have planned leftover for work so that I don't have to scramble to come up with something that I can eat when I'm dead tired at three in the morning. It sure makes the day a lot less stressful.

Labels: beans, food, planning ahead

As I sit here, I'm eating popped amaranth, a grain I'd heard of but never actually eaten until I read Shauna's book, Gluten-Free Girl. I've now had it several times and it's pretty good. Today I've added ground cinnamon, some pecan flavored coffee creamer (which gives it both flavor and sweetness), and some I've added some cherry-flavored Craisins. Pretty tasty breakfast, actually.

But, see, I've been lax on this whole "gluten-free" thing. That's because I just assumed that I'd have some stomach problems and that was mainly it. We've also noticed that I've gotten sick more often when eating gluten than not. But then I thought it was because of my other allergies - you know, cats, dogs, dust mites... things I'm exposed to every day. So I decided "Well, what's a little stomach pain? I'm used to that."

But last night, I did some more research. I found out a few things. People with gluten problems are more likely to get stomach and intestine cancer. If gluten is consumed on a regular basis, it can lead to malnutrition (even if you're overweight) as well as osteoporosis. A lot of people with gluten problems are misdiagnosed with lactose intolerance (well, they do have problems with lactose, but that's mainly related to problems absorbing food properly - a lot of people find they can successfully have lactose once they've taken care of the gluten problem). I don't know why I didn't pay attention to any of this before, as it has been mentioned on several of the blogs I read. I guess I was just so busy focusing on the stomach problems and the "I can't have ____" problems that I completely glossed over these other issues.

It's time to get serious about this again. No more gluten for Misa.

Labels: gluten issues

One of my favorite bloggers, Shauna (of Gluten-Free Girl fame), posted about olives and about how much she loves them.

Me too. I love olives so much it's crazy. Sometimes, I'll leave the house to go buy a jar of olives because I really want some NOW. And I've always liked olives. As a kid, the black ones that come in a can were great for sticking on my fingers at holiday dinners. They tasted fine, but I really prefer green olives. And, in fact, this appears to always have been the case. When I was little, and we're talking four or so here, my mother would frequently come into the kitchen at night and find me munching on olives. And then, my mother started finding her jars of green olives with pimentos to no longer have pimentos in them - even though she KNEW she'd bought ones with pimentos. One night she caught me in the kitchen carefully sucking all of the pimentos out of the olives and putting them back in the jar. How kind of me to share.

One of my favorite things to do at the grocery store now is pick out a selection of olives. Yummy.

I guess a lot of people don't like any olives besides those that come in a can (those taste rather bland to me), which just makes more for me, I guess.

What about you? Do you like olives?

Labels: food, food memories, olives