Gluten Free Lifestyle

For Lent this year, I made the decision to give up gluten. Many friends and acquaintances have recently been diagnosed with Ciliacs Disease or another similar gluten intolerance. Because I hear how much of a challenge this can be, I decided to walk in someone else's shoes for the next 40 days.

It is a sacrifice for me to give up breads and other grain related foods. It's taking careful meal planning. Dining out can be difficult. Luckily, I don't do that often. The biggest challenge for me, is determining what to substitute for the wheat products I'm used to. Products marketed as gluten-free are often very pricey, but I don't have the budget to increase my spending. So far I have been eating a lot of rice as a side dish. I went to the grocery today and picked out raw beans to try to cook. I did pick up one box of gluten-free rice crackers, and one bag of rice pasta. I'm mainly trying to eat more raw foods, though.

Another challenge I'm taking (unrelated to Lent) is to examine our grocery budget and determine how much I spend a week to feed Alex and myself a healthy diet. I was inspired by Indianapolis Foodie's recent posting.

While I'm guilty of shopping at one of the big box stores, I try to shop the edges. I buy dairy and produce, and only hit the middle aisles for beans, rice, baking ingredients, canned chicken, and frozen fruits and veggies. I'm slowly trying to incorporate more local stores and products, but I'm still feeling a little lost on where to shop. I know of one yummy meat market, and I know that farmers markets will start springing up all over the city around April or May.

Anyway, I want to show that you can eat healthy on a budget. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Fabric Scraps and Crafty Fun

I've got a lot of fabric scraps and I'm trying to come up with some good crafty ways to use them up. I don't have quite enough to piece together a quilt, unless it was really random, and I have considered putting together 12 inch random squares, but I'm trying to get more fabric for that one.

Another project I want to start is a braided rug. My grandma used to make them with all her scraps. I need to do some research, but it has potential.

Racer really likes the fabric scraps. I has to keep refolding them after he knocked them off the shelf. Eventually, the cats won, and I put the scraps in a tote so that they could have the shelf for looking out the window.

Out going Swaps

I found the most wonderful Web site. It's called Swap-bot and you can find it here. It's free to join, and once you join you are able to browse and participate in all kinds of "swaps."

Anyone on the site can create a swap. Swaps may be homemade items, craft items, purchased items, post-cards, or about anything you can think of. Swap groups may have 2 people or many, many more. You may send to one partner or many partners. I've signed up for 4 swaps so far.

My first swap was for an ATC (artist trading card). This was a really fun swap. I got to make my first ATC, which I quilted. I forgot to get a picture of what I sent, but this is what I received.

My card was from Rachel, who actually runs swap-bot, which was pretty neat. A lot people also seem to send a variety of extras, which is a pleasant surprise. My package contained some swap-bot postcards, buttons, ribbon and candy.

I have two swaps ready to be mailed on Tuesday. Once as a recipe swap. I sent 5 recipes to a girl in New York City. The other is a Weight Loss Accountability Swap, which is a 4 week letter swap.

I'm also in a fabric swap, but as I receive my fabric, I'll share more about that!

A Snowy SuperBowl Sunday

I live in Indiana and like much of the Mid-west we got inches and inches of snow on Friday. In Indianapolis, the roads were cleared and navigable by early Saturday morning. About an hour north though, at my parents house, snow is still present everywhere, including the Interstate.

I came up to visit while Alex spends the day with the guys drinking beer, eating the treats that their wives, mothers, and girlfriends sent with them, and watching the big game, which is especially exciting because of the Colts.

I spent a lot of time thinking about what to send with Alex. I wanted to make something impressive, but Alex is so picky. He doesn't like any traditional dips, especially those based with cream cheese or sour cream. I really wanted to send a Touchdown Taco Dip shaped and decorated like a football of course, but he wouldn't have eaten it, and I knew I needed to send something he would eat, too.

The decision: stuffed sandwiches. I got up this morning and started on some fresh white bread. Once the bread was kneaded and had risen, I rolled it out into a big rectangle and layered one half of the dough with ham and provolone, and the other half with turkey and cheddar. I baked the loaves for about 40minutes until the bread looked golden brown, and the cheese started bubbling through the bread seams.

Alex wrapped them up in aluminum foil so that they could be tossed back in a hot oven a few minutes before serving time. I'm excited to hear the reviews.