Facing Food Allergies with JOY

I choose joy.  That is my motto, my mantra, my decision.  I choose joy!  Every day, in good times and in bad times, I choose joy.

It is not always easy.  Some days it is downright hard.  But it is my choice.  I want to seek the gifts that are all around me: the gifts God gives me in each moment throughout the day.  It is the smile of a child, a dinner cooked by my husband, time to read a book, flowers blooming all around my lemon tree, a chance to catch up with a friend.  They are the moments that surround me every day.  When I look and find a gift and name it, it becomes mine.  It is now a gift for me.  But sometimes this is hard and I have to work with all my might to find the good.

Last night was a hard night for me.   I have been having many, many migraines lately.  I have suffered from these since I was a child so it is no new thing for me.  But my migraines are mostly triggered by food allergies (and lack of sleep and stress).  I thought it might be corn that I was reacting too, so I cut that out of my diet.  But then got a migraine after eating chicken, rice, tomatoes and nectarines.  I'm pretty sure that the chicken is what is causing these migraines.  Chicken?  Really?  We eat this all the time (which may be why I am getting so many of them).  Chicken is delicious and amazing and wonderful. This made me so sad.

Every since I was a child I have been sick.  No one knew why.  Migraines that started when I was in elementary school and continued on into adulthood.  After 10 years of daily migraines I was diagnosed with Celiac disease at 30 years old.  That was devastating at first since I LOVE BREAD!  But my 20 plus symptoms disappeared after eliminating wheat from my diet.   I discovered how to eat yummy food and work my life around being gluten free.  Then a year later, I found out I had an allergy to peanuts.  They cause migraine, brain fog and fatigue. 6 months later I discovered that garlic makes me very ill.  Garlic makes me so sick I can barely drive within 10 minutes-migraine, brain fog, fatigue and dizziness.  Then I was reacting to lactose, not too badly but enough to bother me.  This year I have had to stop eating eggs and tapioca flour since they were causing me to feel like I had the flu.  Almost all things gluten free are made with tapioca flour.  Again and again I have had to change all my recipes and figure out what to eat and how to prepare it.  Pretty much everything I eat I have to prepare myself or I run the risk of being sick in bed for the next 24 hours.

I have tried so hard to find joy through out this process.  There have been things that I have had to mourn the loss of: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Garlic bread, All bread, Cheese puffs, ect.  I am sad for a bit and then just have to let that go.  So many amazing and delicious foods that I can never eat again.  So many restaurants that I can't eat at.  All of this has changed my life and how I live.  Going on vacation is a bit harder when you have to bring all your own food.  

But I find joy in the fact that I can still go on vacation or hang out with friends.  I can still build relationships and make deep friendships.  It is worth the risk of going home sick or just bringing my own food to be able to fellowship with my friends and family.  I can still eat most ice creams and chocolate so that is a big thing for me.

  

But last night I was sitting there with a migraine and realized that every time I have eaten chicken for awhile I have ended up sick.  It was too much!  I sat there with tears pouring down my face.  I didn't ask for this.  I don't want to be sick every time I eat.  I don't want to eliminate one more thing from my diet.  I already can't buy any food in 2/3 of any store that I walk into.  For what ever reason, this really affected me. But again, I realize that I have a choice.  I can choose joy again or walk down the self pity road.  

I will not choose self pity and tears.  I will again CHOOSE JOY!  God has given me so much and has been my strength through this every step of the way.  I don't know why it is happening to me and I don't need to.  Go
d loves me and cares for me so much.  He is allowing me to find the joy He intended for each of us to have.  I will smile and laugh and find more recipes that I can make.  Food allergies will not define who I am and they will not hold me back.  

It doesn't matter what you are facing.  We all face trials and hard times.  Some much bigger than others.  But God will be with you with every trial.  He longs for you to find joy in Him and be able to trust in Him even when it feels like your life is falling apart.  Happiness is based upon how your life is going and if good things are happening.  Joy is different.  It comes from knowing that God is good and He is your salvation and mighty rock.  In all that you are encountering today, I challenge you to choose joy.  Cry and grieve and then find the gifts that God has given you.   Actively look for the gifts.  They are there.

Choose Joy!!!

GF Pumpkin Muffins

This is one of the best recipes I have ever made that is gluten free.  These muffins are light and have the texture of real (wheat) muffins.  I make a double batch of these at least once a month.  Eat a bunch, then freeze the rest.  They are just the same after defrosting.  These pumpkin muffins are amazing just baked as a muffin or as bars with cream cheese frosting on them.  Everyone of my friends who has tried them, loves them.

The Original Recipe

4      Eggs
1 2/3 Cups of Sugar
1 Cup Oil
15 oz Canned Pumpkin
2 Cups Maninis Gluten Free Flour or Pamela's Pancake and Baking Mix
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
 (I always add a small amount of nutmeg and cloves, plus a cup of chocolate chips)

Icing
Cream Cheese Frosting  from Dessert Now, Dinner Later

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together: Eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin
3. In a separate bowl, mix together: Flour, Baking powder, Cinnamon, Salt and Baking Soda.
4. Combine both mixtures together.  Then add the chocolate chips.
5. Spray 24 mini muffin tins OR 12 regular muffin tins OR a 9x11 cake pan.
6. Bake the mini muffins for 20 minutes or the big muffins/cake pan for 30 minutes.
7. Cool on a rack and then place in a sealed container or ice.

A Healthier Version of Pumpkin Muffins

4      Eggs
1 Cups of  Coconut Sugar
1 Tablespoon Stevia or Sugar Substitute
3/4 Cup Oil
1/4 Cup Apple Sauce
15 oz Canned Pumpkin
2 Cups Maninis Gluten Free Flour or Pamelas
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
 (I always add a small amount of nutmeg and cloves.  1 Cup Unsweetened Carob Chips)

Mix up and bake the same as the original version.

GF Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Pot Pie is one of my all time favorite things to eat.  It has a beautiful flaky crust and a creamy delicious chicken fiddle.  It is my all time favorite comfort food.   I found an amazing recipe for this pie a few years ago and made it faithfully for my family. 

 Then I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease and my life changed.  I felt like all my favorite food was now poison to me.  It was a sad day for me.  But then I moved on and decided that I will find a way to enjoy all the foods that I did before.  If I can find the recipe, then I can find a way to modify it to taste delicious. I don't hold with all this nasty Gluten Free "food" that is out there.  Most of it is extremely hard to swallow and tastes pretty bad as well as costing a fortune.

So I set out to find a way to make my favorite chicken pot pie.  I use an amazing flour called Maninis Gluten Free.  I threw away my rice flour, potato flour, guar gum, xanthan gum and all the rest of it.  Maninis flour is made from ancient grains and is so similar to wheat flour.  I substitute it cup for cup in all my baking and cooking.  Just about everything turns out amazing and delicious.  So I tried the Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pie Crust with the Maninis GF flour.  It is flaky, golden and about as good as you'll ever get with out wheat in it.

I got my dough mixed up and threw it in the refrigerator  waiting to be rolled out.

Then I tried to make the filling for my pot pie.  This was much harder to do GF.  My original recipe calls for condensed cream of chicken soup.  Well, just about all soup has wheat in it.  All of it.  If you look hard enough, you can find it GF-but it is not the same consistency or taste.  I bought it once and won't ever buy it again.  So I tried making cream of chicken soup from scratch.  It was good, but didn't have the same consistency and was a lot of work (on top of making the whole pie).  I tried different recipes using chicken broth and fresh veggies.  But couldn't find the right taste or consistency for me.  After lots of attempts that were close, I finally came up with a recipe that was simple and tasted great.

 It was a hit with my whole family (except for my littlest one and she doesn't like any food that has vegetables and meat in it-sorry kiddo, this is what we are having).  My sister in law even came down the next night to see if she could have the last piece.  Enjoy this creamy and easy GF Chicken Pot Pie.

Chicken Pot Pie

Makes 2 full pies.

Make Pie Crust: 4- 9 inch rounds  Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pie Crust

Pie Filling:  3 T Butter, 3-4 cups frozen mixed vegetables, 2 1/2 cups sour cream, 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, 1 1/2 cups shredded (or little cut up cubes) sharp cheddar, 2 cups cooked chicken-cut into bite sized pieces, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning.

You can substitute 1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup for the heavy cream.  That’s for those of you that can have wheat.

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Melt butter in sauce pan.  Add the veggies and cook until soft and no longer frozen.

3.  Mix sour cream and heavy cream in a large bowl.

4.Take veggies off heat and add all ingredients.  Mix well.

5.  Spoon into unbaked pie shell.

6.  Cover with top crust and fold top edge under bottom crust.  Flute with fingers or fork.  Cut slits in pie.

7.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until crust is golden brown and bubbly. 

8.  After baking, let sit for 5 minutes then serve.

I make 2 pies out of this recipe.  Then I bake one for 20 minutes, cool it, wrap it in saran wrap and tin foil and freeze it for later.  The second I bake for dinner and enjoy it.

GF Cinnamon Rolls

I love spending time with my little girl.  After dropping Bekah off at school, we decided to have a snack and make some cinnamon rolls.  She was so cute as she tried to spread the cream cheese all by herself. 

Hot cocoa is always a part of our snack too.  

Now off to start the cinnamon rolls.  Hannah loves to help.  She is always the first to jump in and help with anything.  Hannah is so good at stirring ingredients together, turning on the mixer, measuring and pouring ingredients and licking anything she can get in her mouth.

I made these Cinnamon Rolls for my family.  I added a step that my mom always did when making her cinnamon rolls. She would put the pans on the stove and heat them on low with 2 Tablespoons butter and a 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Once the butter melts, turn off the burner and prep the cinnamon rolls. Then place the rolls in the pan. The bottom caramelizes and is amazing.

Hannah helped stir the butter while it was melting.  This is definitely the best part of the whole sweet roll.

The dough took a long time to rise.  However, once it was risen, it rolled out very nicely.  I was surprised since GF dough is normally really fragile.  It held together well and made great cinnamon rolls.  Hannah had a blast learning how to roll out the dough.  She did a pretty good job too!

The butter was really hard since it had just come out of the freeze a few hours before.  I did a trick that I saw on Pinterest for getting butter soft.  They said to grate the butter into a bowl and then use it.  It totally worked.  Here Hannah is spreading the grated butter on the dough.  I found out later that she thought it was grated cheese we were putting in the cinnamon rolls.  She sure makes me laugh.

Hannah put the sugar on all by herself.  She also tried to sprinkle on the cinnamon.  She kind of dumped a bunch in one spot, so I helped spread it out evenly.  I love having helpers.

I split this recipe in half and made two pans of eight.  It was perfect.

Love this girl.

  All ready to let the rolls rise.

We had these for dinner!  They were delicious and were all gone within a short period of time.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

I grew up eating Cottage Cheese Pancakes.   I loved them!  They were always good and buttery and filling.  Now as a mom, I still love them.  When I have nothing defrosted and no other ideas for dinner, I turn to this quick, easy and delicious dish.  My kids love them and normally will eat the whole batch.  We normally serve them with apple sauce and hot cocoa.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

From the kitchen of Rhonda  Trevethick.
Prep time: a few minutes

Mix together:
      3 eggs
      1 cup cottage cheese
      1/4 cup flour (whole wheat, white or GF)
      2 Tablespoons melted butter
      Dash of salt

Cook large dollar size cakes in frying pan with butter.   I have found that in certain pans, they will stick.  I used my well seasoned cast iron griddle with some butter on it and they had no problem.   Enjoy them hot!

Energy Bites

I am constantly looking for healthy gluten free food to make for my family and me.  As I was purusing through pinterest, where else would I be?, I came upon something called Energy Bites.  I had never heard of these before but they looked interesting.  I could easily make them gluten free and super healthy too.  So I pulled up the recipe and made a batch.  As I was putting it in the fridge, I stole a taste.  It was so good and delicious that I immediately made another double batch.  Since then I make a triple batch each time I make them and always have some on hand in the freezer.  They are a quick, healthy and fillilng treat for the girls.  I actually take 3 or 4 as part of my lunch at work.  These are amazing and fun to make.  The girls love to help me make them.  We work on clean technique ( such as not licking the spoon and putting it back in the bowl), measuring ingredients, counting, stirring, sweeping (if they have helped stir), and working as a team. The girls call them injury bites since they keep forgetting how to say energy.   Silly girls!!    Here is the link to make these for your family.
http://fooddoodles.com/2011/06/28/one-bowl-all-natural-no-bake-energy-bites/
Bekah measures the oats and spreads them on a sheet to toast.

Here are most of the ingredients we used in this batch.

Hannah works on adding the honey to the bowl.

This is a great hands on activity to build motor skills.  Bekah works very hard on getting out the peanut butter to fill up the measuring cup.

Hannah loves getting the honey off her hands.

Team work is great thing.

Bekah had to sweep the floor since stirring is very hard work and easy to get the ingredients flying across the room.  Hannah helped with the dust pan and then danced in joy when it was done.

After chilling the dough, it is easiest to use a cookie scoop with a soft back to press the dough into it.

Once they are popped out of the cookie scoop, you can freeze or refrigerate them like this or roll them in a ball. 

This is how much my triple batch made.  Yummy!  I freeze them like this and then put them into a ziplock baggy and store them in the freezer.

For the nut butter, I was just using peanut butter.  Recently I discovered coconut butter and use half of that and half of peanut butter.  It is really good.  I use gluten free Oats so that this is gluten free.  I always add in crasions and/or raisons.  This time I used pistachio nuts as well.  I love adding sesame seeds, poppy seeds and sunflower seeds.  Any thing little and healthy is fun to add in.  Each time I make it, it tastes slightly different.  

My Journey to a Healthy Life Continues

Five months ago I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Overnight I gave up eating pasta, bread, cookies and most of the food that was currently in my cupboard. This really was the start of a new life. My body began to heal slowly as it was not constantly under the attack of gluten. Shortly after this, I discovered my body was not healthy enough to process most dairy, so this was cut out of my diet as well.

I am still on a quest to be healthy and to feel good. It didn’t just stop with a gluten free diet. I thought that it would, but it didn’t. This is my story.

On a gluten free diet I had to say no to so many yummy things, I thought that I should be able to enjoy all the other gluten free things that I wanted to. I was making cookies and treats and buying lots of gluten free candy so that I didn't feel deprived. I had some good GF (gluten free) bread, rice chips, GF crackers and other high carb, processed food. Life was good.

This fruit platter was for my kids. I now leave off the chocolate on my bowl.

I spend a lot of time on the intranet reading blogs and finding recipes. I found a bunch of great blogs written by others who have stopped eating all the highly processed, high-carb foods and have started eating healthy food. Most of these people did it for the health of them or their children. So many of their stories are similar to mine.

One site I was on was really interesting to me. It is called Lexie's Kitchen. This is about a mom who made some radical changes to her families meals in order to help her toddler live a healthier life due to medical challenges he was having. I started reading stories that were shared on her site by others that had made the switch from processed to whole foods. Since I had made major changes to my diet in order to become healthy, I submitted my story. A bit ago I was hosted on her site as a guest blogger. Here is a link to my story and her website.

http://www.lexieskitchen.com/lexies_kitchen/2011/11/10/making-the-switch-sarahs-story.html#comments



I was feeling good most of the time, but still not all of the time. I had tasted what it feels like to be healthy and I wanted it all of the time. I have been on a path to change my life style so that I can be as healthy as I can. I want to feel good and to have energy to do what ever I want.

My diet had changed in some radical ways, but I could tell that I was still eating things that made me feel sick and sluggish. It wasn’t until after Halloween that I finally figured out what it was. We had made delicious home made caramel apples and caramel popcorn. I was loving the great tasting gluten free food that was supposed to make me feel good, yet I was still feeling so ill. After the second night at work (I work night shift in the NICU) I finally decided I had had enough. I wanted to get healthy. I wanted to feel good.

As I said before, I really liked Lexie’s Kitchen blog and enjoyed reading other people’s stories about how they made the switch from processed to whole foods. About this time I read a story of a lady who had made a radical switch to her diet three years ago. She talked about how and why she tossed out all the processed food and started buying things that she could recognize. Her energy level increased and she started feeling so much better. Her story and the others on this website truely inspired me.

So much so that I began a new phase of getting healthy. I finally decided to stop eating most processed foods and I have now cut out almost all sugar. My diet is mostly veggies (though I do need to work on eating more of them), fruit, meat, safe grains and some dairy.

This was really, really hard to do at first. I love sugar and chocolate and anything sweet. I ate something sweet every day. My body craved it. I couldn’t say no. But I finally got to the point that I wanted to feel good more than I wanted the sweets. So I stopped buying candy and cookies that were safe for me to eat and were tempting me. That night I decided to make the switch so I took my two little girls and my sweet sister in law, Shonna, to Trader Joes. I loaded up the basket with veggies, fruit, nuts, dried fruit, eggs and salad. I started eating these good things instead of the processed food I used to eat.

For those of you who are interested here is a glimpse of my current diet.
Breakfast: GF Oatmeal with raisons or craisins and a touch of honey. Corn tortillas with eggs and cheese. Fresh or frozen fruit smoothies. Occasional GF cereal (mostly GF Chex). And of course hot cocoa (Lactaid milk) with a bit of sugar and cocoa powder.
Lunch: Left over dinner. Chicken tacos. Salad. Fruit. Smoothies.
Dinner: Home made dinner every night. Mostly lots of different chicken recipes. GF pizza crust with my toppings (super yummy), Beef-any way you can make it, Rice, veggies, fruit, salad. Occasionally we have GF pasta with pesto, alfredo or spagetti sauce (all home made).
Snack: Fruit leather, nuts/seeds, fruit, chips and hummus, carrots, celery with peanut butter, dried fruit, mozzarella cheese stick.

It has been four weeks since I changed my diet to a truely healthy one. The cravings are gone. I don’t want or need sugar every day. My body has more energy and the sugar highs and lows are gone. I love feeling like this. It is amazing! I truely wish I could go back and do it all again.

I would really love to hear your story. What changes have you made to get healthy? How have they impacted your life? Your families life? Feel free to share it in the comments or with a link to your own blog.