To my gluten-free readers

Well, I've made the big(ger) time! I've been accepted as an associate writer on another blog: Gluten Free in Baltimore.

I don't live in Baltimore, but I found the site when I was looking to visit there with my family in December. There are restaurant reviews, product reviews, and so forth. Feel free to come on over and check it out.

The introductory post: A Warm Welcome to our Newest Associate Contributor
My self-introductory post: From the Desk of Mikki Black

My Celiac Journey - Part I: The weight loss competition

This begins a series of weekly posts chronicling my journey through my diagnosis with celiac disease. I began my blog with the intention of doing a celiac entry each Thursday (the day of my diagnosis), but I wasn't ready. I didn't know enough about what was happening to me.

The first several weeks will be a look back to the first months of 2008. Eventually I will catch up to the present. Perhaps then I will return to a weekly journal of my current life with Celiac Disease. Until then, I hope you enjoy reading my story.

(I know I say in the catchline that "predictability's for chumps", but I guess I can make ONE exception, right?)

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Part I: The Weight Loss Competition

I teach high school, not the most active of trades, and in January 2008, the beginning of second semester, my friends and I formed a weight loss group. $5 to get in, $1 a week from each losing competitor. Whoever saw the most improvement in their BMI would win the kitty. We decided pounds off was not just unhealthy, but unfair, as we were all coming from different starting points.

We locked the door to the bookroom, took our "before" pictures, and broke out the measuring tape. We brought in a communal scale for our weekly weigh-ins. We set BMI and weight loss goals. We swapped exercise stories and favorite workout class info and changed to healthier eating habits.

I found a great website called TOPS: Taking off Pounds Sensibly, joined up, and started following it as closely as possible. I was working out and eating right and drinking lots of water. And I got GREAT results, at first. I started to feel better and trim down, but then...

Something strange started happening to me.

I started feeling really sluggish, for starters. It got harder and harder to make it to the gym because I was so sleepy, just bone tired. I've always been able to sleep at the drop of a hat, but I lost the need for the hat. I would often come home from work and crash on the couch for a nap. Eventually, I'd have to drag myself to the kitchen to make dinner, and then I'd go back to the couch. I usually was able to stay up past the kids' bedtime of 8:30, but often I'd fall asleep while watching TV with Jim. I'd sleep for 8-9 hours before getting up the next day and starting all over again. This pattern became more and more normal for me.

I was SO tired. The tired-ness started affecting my work habits, my dress, my attention span, everything.

Imagine you're a teen-ager for a minute. You go to English class, and your teacher is pushing papers around, shuffling through different stacks. Then she picks up an attendance sheet and proceeds to take attendance for the last 3 days. This is then followed by the question, "Alright, what did we do in here yesterday?" and once in a while this one, "I didn't give you homework, did I? No? Good."

We made it work, somehow. My students still had about a 98% pass rate on their state tests that year, and most of them passed the class, too. I had no trouble teaching or grading, but my memory of what was happening day to day was shot.

I lost everything: keys, glasses, papers, homework, my purse, my phone... you name it. Most of those things were found later. Most.

After a while, I started noticing changes in my digestive system, too. I started getting really gassy, especially if I ate fast food, but for the most part I was eating well, so I didn't know what was up with that.

To make matters worse, even though I was still going to the gym once or twice a week, and only eating about 1,000-1,300 calories a day, I wasn't losing weight. I was gaining.

I blamed it on stress. I blamed it on my busy schedule: I had the school newspaper to revive, a college level class to teach, a regular level class - I was the anime club sponsor and the lead teacher for the 11th grade English as well. I blamed it on getting old, I was 30 after all. I blamed the weather. I blamed my lack of a work-out buddy. I blamed my lack of sleep.

It didn't matter what I blamed it on. The longer we dieted together, the less I could keep up. My friends were all losing weight, slimming down. They were looking better and getting bouncier. I was getting slower. My initial weight losses reversed. My measurements were going up. All my health problems were getting worse instead of better. And then, I started developing new problems.

I was scared.

My friends were confused. I was eating so well! Lots of whole grains, nice balanced meals, fruits and vegetables, too. I was working out. It was so strange. “Was I cheating at home?” they wondered. No. No, I was not.

I told myself it was nothing. It was just me being a hypochondriac again. But a little voice inside me pointed to the last time I thought I was being a hypochondriac.

I ended up with a bipolar disorder diagnosis.

See you next week for Part II: “You look allergic”

Spoonbread is my hero

I was in desperate need of a replacement dinner to one that I lost last spring with my celiac diagnosis, and flipping through my GF cookbooks' chicken recipes, I came across spoon bread.

I have heard of spoon bread, but I had no idea what it was. I especially had no idea that it was a type of chicken casserole. Say it with me, people: YUM! The nice thing is that this is a GF recipe, but my family LOVED it. Even Jim, who has a picky palette, said, "Put it on the list!" YAY!




So here it is... I forgot to take a picture, but here's a picture of a jalapeno spoon bread from Lisa's Kitchen that looks almost exactly like mine did before we attacked.... :)

Nifty fact: her recipe is also GF.

Nifty Fact 2: This is a really good leftover recipe because you just need chopped up chunks of chicken.




Chicken Spoon Bread (recipe from Bette Hagman's The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods)

375 degrees, 40 minutes (or until done)

Ingredients:
3/4C cornmeal
2T GF flour mix *
1t salt
4C GF chicken broth
1/4C butter or margerine
4 eggs, separated
3C chopped cooked chicken

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, combine cornmeal, flour mix, and salt. Stir in the broth. Cook over medium-high heat until thickened.
2. Add butter and beaten egg yolks.
3. Stir in the chicken.
4. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold into the mixture.
5. Spoon into a greased 2.5 quart casserole and bake.

Super yum!


*If you don't have a flour mix, you can use 4t rice flour, 1/2t tapioca flour, and 3/4t potato starch.
*Also, if gluten is not a problem for you, you can always substitute 2T wheat flour.

Wow. I'm famous.

Check it out, guests and followers! I got my first guest appearance invite over at One Weigh at a Time. Ciara and Clara (aka Mommy!) run the website, and they invited me over to share some of my story.

Go and check it out, sillies! Hope you like it.

A Celiac Christmas - The End

Thanks to everyone who was so supportive - especially my kids; my amazing husband who didn't bat an eye when I ate a cookie, cried because it was bad, and then ate another cookie; and my moms and dads - during this first holiday adventure with Celiac Disease lurking behind me like the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

I gained much knowledge. I dealt with my losses. I made new blog contacts. All in all, a good season.

Some things that I gained:

• The knowledge that brown rice flour makes cookies gritty
• Excitement that cream cheese cookies and holly cookies are still good without gluten
• Encouragement
• Support
• A chance to spread knowledge
• Health and energy
• New traditions and foods
• A box of microwave popcorn that my mom forgot to take home with her. (Thanks, mom!)
• A chance to recreate an old favorite with new flours (I'll let you know how the honey oatmeal bread turns out, Aunt Syl!)
  

Some things that I lost:

• A favorite recipe or two
• Pre-suppositions on what has to be
  
• The fun of beater-licking and taste-testing
• My fear of standing out because of food
• Momentarily and at different times: My temper, my sense of humor, and my composure (Yes, I am emotionally attached to my cookies)
  
• A sock

New blog contacts:

• Ginger Lemon Girl
• Mama Kat's new blog: Allergies Shmallergies
• Gluten Free in Baltimore
  
• ...sez Mark (not a GF blogger, but a good writer and a nice guy who leaves funny comments on my posts. And no, I'm not in the least bit INCREDIBLY jealous that he nearly won Rachelle's haiku contest, got mentioned twice, and I didn't even get mentioned AT ALL. Ok, I am, but I'm still proud of him. Go Mark!)
  

Christmas with Celiac #7 - The Christmas Party

I love my friends. I have really really great friends. I am now going to talk about my friends. Remember, I love my friends.



I went to my first Christmas party last weekend. We had food, there was music, we did the white elephant exchange game, we had food, we made fun of each other, there was this great punch, and did I mention the food? I love food. I shamelessly ate most of the shrimp. Twice.

What's great: I had plenty to eat. What's not great: There were three tables of food, and only five things I could eat:

A cream cheese and cranberry cookie topping, sans cookie (foreground)
A bowl of kisses and Snickers (background)

A chicken salad for sandwiches, sans sandwich (foreground)
Some tasty shrimp (not pictured)

and the stuff I brought: yogurt and granola

I didn't take a picture of the third table: it was just baked goods. It was pretty easy to pick out what I could eat; I only had to ask for ingredients on a few things. I ended up with a nice plateful of food, and was very happy with it. Sure I wanted to eat everything else, too, but like I said, I shamelessly loaded up on the shrimp! (Twice!)

Note to self: yogurt on a plate does not photograph well! (Sorry 'bout that!)

The hardest part of the night was listening to the comments people made when (a) they saw what I brought or (b) I asked for ingredients. Here are some of the things I overheard:

• Yogurt? Yeah, it's Christmas! Let's eat healthy! (sarcastic laugh)
• Man, I would hate to have to figure out what I couldn't eat.
• Who brings yogurt to a party?
• What a pain. I'm glad I don't have any food restrictions!

None of these comments were directed at me. When I asked for ingredients, the lists were happily given, but you know how you always chatter when you're at a buffet? No one talked to me this time. So, I felt uncomfortable, and conspicuous. So I waited until everyone was done, just stayed out of the way, and then got my food and went and sat down.

It was weird. (Don't forget - I love my friends!)

Once I was seated with my plate, it was totally normal, sorta. It helped that I sat with close friends, ones who know that I can't eat the yummy gluten-filled holiday goodies, but we still ended up talking about it.

I felt defined by the food missing from my plate.

It was weird.

The party was fun. I got brass candlesticks. I ate a pile of shrimp and yogurt. (Not at the same time! Ew) I hung out with my buddies. I took home my yogurt and granola and ate it every day for lunch this week. And thought about Christmas. I love Christmas. And I love my friends.

Christmas with Celiac #6 - Cream Cheese Cookies

One of the few cookies that we're committed to each year at Christmas is the cream cheese cookie. This is Jim's favorite and SUPER easy to make.

All I did to make this a GF recipe was to substitute a GF cake mix for the regular cake mix. Ta-da!

The cookie ingredients:
1/2 stick butter, softened
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 egg yolk
1/4 t. vanilla extract
1 box yellow cake mix

The icing ingredients:
Powdered sugar
Ice water

The process:
1. Cream together butter and cream cheese
2. Add egg yolk and vanilla, mix well
3. Add cake mix, about 1/3 of the mix at a time to help with mixing
4. Chill for 1 hour or so
5. Bake 10-12 minutes at 375
6. Cool and ice

Tips:
If you don't have a heavy duty mixer, you'll end up struggling to mix by hand - it's a dense dough. I often lay the dough and last of the cake mix in a big sheet of plastic wrap and knead the final bit of mix in by hand instead of trying to stir.

Keep the icing a little thick. You want it to be thick enough to stay on top of the cookie, but thin enough to drizzle a little bit. Play with it if you're unfamiliar: if it all drips/runs off the cookie right away, it's too thin.

You shouldn't be able to see through it after it settles/hardens. Add sugar or sprinkles if you like.


Cookies will fluff a little as they bake, but won't really change shape. You'll pretty much get out of the oven what you put in. I did notice that the GF batch was a little spikier...


...while the regular batch was a little smoother in appearance.



Happy baking!