Things I forgot - Wheat-Free

• I read a lot of labels.  Did you know that soy sauce and licorice are made with wheat as the main ingredient?  And that chicken boullion has wheat in it?   I've found a good non-wheat soy sauce (Tamari Sauce), use chicken stock in the can, but have had no luck with a licorice substitute.
• I cheat once in a while - even when I'm not traveling or pregnant.  I guess that would be when I'm desperate :)
• Grocery stores seem to have jumped on the "gluten-free" band-wagon and have started to put tags on gluten-free products, or have an aisle(s) separate just for that type of food.  It always makes me laugh when I see a "gluten-free" label on products such as yogurt or other such foods that clearly wouldn't have gluten, but I guess some people just don't know . . . or maybe I'd be surprised by what they're putting gluten into.

Wheat-Free Diet

The following blog is for Brenda, and anyone else out there who wonders about going gluten/ wheat free.
When I was first diagnosed with my wheat allergy (I'm actually allergic to wheat, not gluten) about 4 years ago, I thought "what am I going to do?" because I LOVE wheat products.  I talked to a few of my friends, who also had wheat allergies, did research, and experimented, and this is what I learned. 

• I soon discovered that wheat-free cookbooks/ websites weren't really that helpful unless you had multiple food allergies or had never cooked before.  I found it was easier to just adjust my own recipes.
• One of the websites I looked at was www.sophiesafecooking.com 
• I had been making my own bread, so bread was one of the first things I tried to find a substitute for.  There are mixes and pre-made breads.  I tried multiple brands of both kinds.  Some were awful and  others were okay, but I've yet to find a great substitute for bread.  Mostly I just do without sandwiches or other bread unless I'm desperate, traveling, or pregnant ;)
• My favorite bread mix is Bob Red Mill's Hearty Whole Grain.  It's okay for toast or grilled, but I don't like it as a sandwich bread and it doesn't freeze well.  Some of the other breads that come frozen are a good alternate, if you just want a slice or two every now and again.
• When adjusting my dinner recipes, I use corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas, rice flour for thickening, rice pasta, wheat-free cream soups, and spice packets that don't use wheat as a thickening agent.
• Trader Joes has the best and least expensive rice pasta, but it only comes in a few varieties, so recipes like lasagna actually look a bit different (I actually use quinoa in place of noodles in lasagna because I get tired of the same old rice noodles).  If you don't have access to a Trader Joes, there are other rice pasta brands out there, but they're a lot more expensive.
• I used Wolfgang Puck's Organic soups because they were thickened with rice instead of wheat flour.
• When it comes to baking, I tried to make biscuits, brownies, pizza crust, etc. from scratch, but found it was easier and better tasting to use a mix.
• Pamela's makes good pizza crust and cookie mixes.
• Bob's Red Mill has a fabulous (and I mean fabulous) corn bread mix.  I like this even better than corn muffins made with wheat.
• There are a lot of different brands that make brownie mixes; I've tried quite a few and have found that most of them are pretty decent.  But then, they involve chocolate and sugar, so really, how can it go wrong?
• There are some decent rice crackers for snacks, but I actually prefer corn chips/tortillas instead.
• Overall, I had to learn to not expect as much from wheat-free/ gluten free foods.  There really is no substitute for wheat for it's texture and baking properties.  I also learned that it's more expensive to use wheat alternatives.  After going through withdrawals and just doing it, I found going without wheat wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.
• It took a few months of being wheat-free to really notice a difference, to completely get rid of the symptoms I was experiencing.  And now when I eat wheat, I usually notice a reaction within 24 hours, which reminds me why I stopped eating wheat in the first place.

I think I answered Brenda's 1 or 2 questions, and hopefully this has been helpful to others as well.

Needs vs Wants

• Want a new car, but it's on the back burner for now until it becomes a Need.  For now we'll shop for a car rack to hold all of our camping supplies when we go camping.
• Need to stop eating wheat . . . but I keep craving sandwiches, and crackers, and hamburgers on a bun, and . . .
• Want my family to be geographically closer so that I can do fun "cousin camps" like Brenda.
• Need to make it a priority to read my scriptures more.  You know it's bad when you have to search for your scriptures.
• Want to find more crock pot recipes.  I love being done fixing dinner at 9am.
• Need to figure out what we're going to do with Amelia while I'm giving birth to baby #2.  Ken suggested we just bring her with us . . . huh?  I reminded him of Amelia's birth and he realized that wasn't such a great idea.
• Want to get caught up on Amelia's scrapbook . . . but that will have to wait until I'm done with her Christmas stocking and the baby's quilt.
• Need to get a better attitude about camping with a 17-mon old, prior to going camping with an 17-mon old who doesn't sleep through the night when we visit Grandpa.

Eating Habits

     Being pregnant, I have to eat all the time, and I dislike it.  When I was pregnant with Amelia, I was so sick the first few months that eating was a chore, something I had to force myself to do.  I'm pretty sure I lost weight before I started gaining it.  And then when I had more of a desire to eat, I got heartburn with almost everything I ate, so I was still really careful about what I ate and how much.
     And with this pregnancy?  I started out feeling fine, just needed to eat every few hours to avoid getting sick . . . and now it has turned into eating every few hours to avoid heartburn.  And I crave sweets all the time, which thankfully, we don't have much of in our house, but I'm continually tempted when I'm out shopping.
     The result - I've gained almost as much weight in my first 5 months as I did during the whole pregnancy with Amelia - yikes!  Ken reminds me that it's okay to gain weight when I'm pregnant, and my Dr. tells me I'm still within the weight gain where I should be, but I'm just not happy about it.
     On a more entertaining note, I thought I'd mention a bit of Amelia's eating habits.

• Amelia will eat almost every vegetable that we eat; chard, brussel sprouts (unless they're too bitter - and then even I don't care for them), kale, broccoli, peas, carrots, zucchini, and frankly, there isn't many foods she won't eat.  I'm hoping this doesn't change, but I'm expecting it to so that I won't be so disappointed when she turns into a picky eater.
• She is at a stage where she wants to eat everything that we have on our plates.  The other day she grabbed a kalamata olive I had on my plate and put it in her mouth.  We had given her one a few days prior and she looked like she was going to cry while it was in her mouth.  I giggled because her reaction was similar this time; perhaps she'll learn to like them when she's older.
• Amelia eats so slow.  It usually takes her 45 min. - 1 hour to eat a meal.  That kind of drives me crazy, but it's teaching me patience.
• I admit that I'm a bit obsessive about clean hands, and unfortunately, I think I have made Amelia obsessed about it as well.  She'll hold out her hands to me and do the sign for "dirty" if she's got too much food stuck on them.  If it's just a small crumb or something on a finger, I just tell her to lick her fingers.  I know, I'm probably creating a bad habit there too, but she thinks it's fun.
• And speaking of dirty/ clean, Amelia has been obsessed lately about a clean binkie, which is funny, because I've never been obsessed about cleaning her binkie.  She always wants me to clean it for her, even if I can't see any "dirt" on it.
• She's getting better at using a spoon, but that's still a work in progress.

Very Random Thoughts

• It got up to 85F one day this week and that is too hot for me.  I am much happier when the temperature is the norm of 70F or so.
• We need to get a new chair for nursing/ rocking/ etc.  I can't decide if I'd rather have a glider rocker or a rocker recliner.  Any thoughts?
• Ken got into a band and has already had 2 gigs.  He's so happy, even if he does have to drive 1+ hours each way. 
• As I was dealing with the flat of strawberries that we picked, I thought "this is way too many strawberries for our family".  But 2 batches of freezer jam and a large ziploc full of frozen strawberries later, I'm thinking it was just the right amount.
• Researching, new (used) cars is overwhelming.  We're looking for an SUV type car, but not too big and not too small.  I've decided that I'd rather test drive them all, then to read about them.
• It's weird to me that lawns go brown here in the summer.  You would think that with all the rain in the Spring, Fall, and Winter, they'd have enough water to stay green year-round.  At least when they go brown, Ken spends less time mowing and more time with us :)
• What do you do with US flags?  Amelia got a small one at the parade.  I don't feel right about throwing it away, and I don't want her to play with it like it's a toy, so there it sits, on the counter, until I can figure out what to do with it.
• Amelia had a growth spurt - in length - and has almost outgrown her car seat.  So I've been spending the week researching car seats.  Who knew there were so many options/ possibilites?
• My new pet peeve: neighbors who mow their lawn with a weed-wacker, especially in the middle of the afternoon, during prime nap time.

Berry picking and more . . .

On Tuesday, we went berry picking.  Neither Amelia nor I had ever picked strawberries before, but we were ready for action.  We had our hats, our buckets, and our old clothes on.

There were so many rows and so many berries.  Thank goodness we only had 2 buckets to fill.

 Of course, you can't pick berries without eating a few (or more than a few, in Amelia's case).

But we did it, we filled our 2 buckets (with Ken's help) and still had smiles on our faces.

Apparently the berry picking and lack of naps caught up with Amelia.  She took such a long nap in the morning, that we didn't have time to go hiking.  So instead, we spent some good quality time with Ken's Mom and step-Dad, which included going shopping at Wal-Mart.  Usually I put Amelia in a cart, but knowing that we had a long drive home afterwards, we just let Amelia run around the store.  She loved the mirror section of the store.  They were just her height.

And she thought the bike section was pretty cool too.  Even better when Mom let her ride around on one.  (Sorry for the un-rotated picture . . . I'm not sure why it went that direction, but I can't get it to rotate back.)

We had a great weekend with family and did almost everything we had planned.  Ken and Grandpa were able to spend time and play with Amelia, while Mommy got some much needed rest (and a break from taking care of Amelia full-time).  After a long drive home and a good night's sleep, we were all happy to return to the jobs we love.

4th of July Festivities

We went to Portland for the July 4th weekend.  On Sunday we went to a small farm where Amelia rode on a little train.  She loves trains.

 She got frustrated chasing the chickens though - they were faster than they looked.

 Then on Monday, we went to Amelia's first parade.  She made it through the whole parade and gave it her thumbs up.

 Her favorite part was the candy that they threw out.  Sticky sucker in one hand . . . sticky tootsie roll in the other (thank goodness Daddy was holding her).

Today we're off to pick strawberries and do a small hike . . . more pictures to come.