My First GF What I Ate Wednesday!

Welcome to my first gluten-free WIAW! Thanks to Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for hosting – as always!

I’ve made it most of the way through my first week of eating gluten-free. It has been challenging, but not impossible. I’ve definitely been able to find plenty of things that I can eat – and even found a few things that I like better than their regular counterparts! I’m sure as I continue on this new part of my journey, I’ll find plenty of hits and lots of misses!

I forgot to take pictures of everything I had today, but I can definitely tell you what I had – and post some pictures with links where you can find out more about what I ate today!

Breakfast was an Udi’s multigrain bagel. Bagel?? Yes, bagel. I have to admit, these are not like what I’m used to at all – I grew up in New York, so bagels are typically chewy and dense. These bagels are kind of fluffy, and a little crumbly. Definitely best toasted. Worked great for an egg sandwich yesterday. Today I had one with some veggie cream cheese from my favorite bagel shop. My counter guy looked at me a little funny when I just ordered coffee and cream cheese…but once I told him why, he totally understood. Here’s what the package looks like – and I have to say, they’re not bad. Not real New York bagels, but they will do in a pinch.

Learn more about Udi’s products by clicking on this picture of their yummy bagels!

I had a hard boiled egg with a little sea salt and pepper for a snack mid-morning. For lunch, I’ve been taking a break from my usual salads. When it gets cold out, I like to have something hot for lunch. I’ve found some really great frozen entrees from Amy’s. One of my favorites – and what I had for lunch today – is their Light & Lean Roasted Polenta with Swiss Chard. It’s really delicious, gluten-free, and has only 140 calories!

Click on this picture to learn more about Amy’s Kitchen and their awesome products!

I had a couple of small clementines along with my polenta, and it was quite a satisfying lunch! Mid-afternoon, I got the munchies and had a couple of sharp cheddar cracker cuts (square slices of cheese!) with Crunchmaster Multi-Seed crackers. They’re super crunchy, and definitely stand up to cheese! They are rice based with sesame, quinoa, flax, and amaranth. They have a hint of tamari flavor. Yummy!

Click here for more information about Crunchmaster products!

 

I was craving pizza for dinner, which is a definite GF no-no…unless you happen to have one of these babies on hand!

Click here for more info about Against the Grain Gourmet!

So…I decided to get together some of my favorite pizza toppings…

Click here for more info about that delicious Applegate Farms sausage!!

Loaded and ready to go into the oven…

Out of the oven and ready to eat!!

 

YUM! It was delicious! The crust was crispy, and the toppings were cooked just enough. It took about 15 minutes in my oven – starting from frozen and cooking the pizza directly on the oven rack. I’ll definitely be trying this again with different toppings!

Finally, time for dessert. Brownies. Think good gluten-free brownies can’t possibly exist? Think again! Try this awesome mix!

Click here for info about King Arthur Flour’s gluten-free products!

I added some Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips to the batter and topped it with some chopped pecans before baking. I think these brownies are better than most of the regular commercial mixes out there. They came out fudgy, chewy, and super chocolatey. In fact, I don’t think I’ll be making them again anytime soon…not because I don’t like them, but because I like them too much!!

Well – that’s my first official gluten-free WIAW! Hope this is helpful to any of you who are starting out with GF like I am!

Do you have any favorite GF products?

 

What a Wacky Week!

This week has been incredibly busy… I realized today that I haven’t posted anything all week! I worked like a crazy person to get ready a really big presentation on Thursday night (after 10 pm at a meeting that lasted until almost 11:30!!). Thankfully it went well, and now that project is behind me!

I finally got around to replacing stuff in my fridge and freezer that I lost during our hurricane power outage last week. I knew the bill would be big, but whoa! I spent almost $250 at the regular grocery store, and almost $50 at Whole Foods. Granted, I replaced every condiment – I’m nervous that way. Plus, I bought all the regular stuff that I would have bought for the week, so I guess it wasn’t THAT bad. I made my favorite Turkey, Sweet Potato and Goat Cheese cannelloni for dinner last night. It still amazes me that my husband will eat sweet potatoes that way! I cubed and roasted a few extras to make some sweet potato hash with chicken apple sausage – I can’t for the life of me remember where I found the recipe, but this one looks pretty similar. It makes a great brunch or a quick dinner. That’s another way I can sneak in sweet potatoes without too much protest from my better half.

On another note, a couple of weeks ago I went for an endoscopy to check up on a few issues I was having a while back. At that time, I was getting awful stomach aches anytime I ate anything solid – it was really terrible. It seemed at the time that it was worse if I ate crackers or toast, so I started suspecting that I had celiac or some kind of gluten intolerance issue. Luckily, I haven’t had that problem lately, but I do have occasional tummy troubles. I really should keep track of when it happens to see if there are any patterns, but yeah…I’m a little lazy as far as that goes. Well, I got a call this week that things looked okay for the most part, but there was some persistent inflammation in my duodenum (here’s where that is). The doctor sent me for some bloodwork to check for celiac this time. I am really hoping it’s not the case, but if so, I’m going to have to change a lot in the way I eat. I love whole grain things – bread, English muffins, crackers… I am also finding that a lot of people that have celiac also have issues with dairy. That would be even worse!! I’m not sure what I’d do without yogurt, cheese, and a cold glass of milk once in a while. Yes, I know there are alternatives to all these things, but they’re just not the same. I am all about almond milk in my smoothies, but not to drink straight up! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Not too much else happening here at the moment. I’m bound and determined to get back into my link-ups this week, so look for more posts!

Do you deal with any food allergies/intolerances?

Any favorite substitutes?