Bad Break-up

 

Dear Whole Foods,

Are you mad at me?

I am so confused. I can’t believe you’re breaking up with me…we’ve been together for so long. In the good times and the bad; in the gluten times and the gluten free times. I’ve been there…spending way over my grocery budget, to make our relationship work.

I played your games…I bought the frozen loaf of gluten free bread from the freezer for over six dollars. I made it work. I felt okay with our arrangement. The arrangement where I pay WAY TOO MUCH money for frozen bread, and you offer me inexpensive 365 brand gluten free mixes that work great!

Remember?

Gluten Free Calzones

Gluten Free Pancakes

Gluten Free Lemon Pound Cake

Gluten Free Pizza

Gluten Free Brownies

Gluten Free Muffins, Cornbread, and Cookies!!

I can’t believe you didn’t even tell me to my face…I had to hear about our break-up through a friend. I thought we had more than that. I know I’ll get over it. And who knows, maybe you’ll make it up to me. Or maybe it will just take…time.

Love- Gluten Hates Me

 

In case you haven’t heard, Whole Foods has discontinued the 365 brand gluten free mixes. Sadness.

First Time for Everything

 

Oh friends…where has the time gone? It has been crazy stressful in the world of Gluten Hates Me, and as much as it’s exciting…it’s also weighing me down.

Let’s start with breakfast, and then first bit of stress. This week consisted of what I can only call “The Dreamboat” of gluten free oatmeal!

Bob’s Red Mill gluten free oats whipped with 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup milk, and 1/3 banana; topped with:

Peanut Butter & Co Dark Chocolate Dreams. Heavenly,

Gabriela, you are the best!!

The first bit of stress is that Parrish and I have started the process of hopefully becoming first time home owners.

Since moving, Parrish and I have been paying nearly a grand each month in rent, and in Wilmington the rent wasn’t much cheaper. Every time I pay my rent, I die a little inside. Over the weekend, my bestie sister really drove the point home for me, STOP PAYING RENT!

The only thing that was holding us back was our own perception that we can’t do it. I’m quickly discovering that we can! Which is exciting BUT…there is a little voice in the back of my head that keeps yelling “Are you kidding me? You’re can’t do this, grown ups do this. You’re not grown up!!”

So stay tuned in the coming weeks, and feel free to give me any advice! Seriously. Luckily, we do realize that we ARE FIRST TIME home buyers. We’re not expecting to find our dream house, but we are hoping to find a nice place we can call home!

And of course my second bit of stress is the wedding. Again, exciting but stressful. I hope to be buying my wedding dress next week (AHHHHH!!!!) I’m hoping that I like the dress as much as I do online!

Typically when I’m stressed I eat…unhealthy foods. It’s something that I know about myself, and if I’m super aware, I can bypass eating the bad stuff. Meal planning has been super helpful, but Parrish and I didn’t plan for this week. All day today I could feel the stress eating away at me, and so in the early afternoon I started looking for a healthy recipe. That way by the time I was starving I would have a plan.

My go-to for healthy recipes is Heidi Swanson of 101 cookbooks. Her recipes are typically easy and always approachable. I was craving a veggie burger and found everything I was looking for in her ‘Ultimate Veggie Burger’ recipe. In the post, Heidi talks about making a veggie burger that doesn’t need a bun…um hello?!? You guys know how I feel about gluten free buns! This recipe is perfect for gluten free folks! And…I guarantee gluten lovers will devour it too!

I give you a gluten free veggie bun!!

To find this recipe, just visit Heidi’s website! I followed the recipe to the letter, except for the toasted breadcrumbs. I used Glutino’s Gluten Free Breadcrumbs. They worked perfectly!

I stuffed my veggie burger with a laughing cow cheese, avocado, and hot sauce!

I honestly can’t believe this recipe worked out!! Remember the last time I tried to make a veggie burger? Eesh. Not only did this veggie burger hold together, but it WAS the bun!!!

I enjoyed this recipe so much, that I immediately went over to Amazon and purchases Heidi’s book!

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Off to bed and to watch House Hunters: First Time Home Buyers Edition…or maybe just a few episodes of The Office! :)

Love (and snow) is in the air

 

I honestly can’t believe it’s snowing right now. Yesterday the weather man said the system would miss us…and it’s snowing right now. Two inches have accumulated…and it’s still snowing. Thankfully it’s nothing like what hit D.C. Phew! –Sorry Jess ;) On the plus side, it’s the perfect snow for building snow men. Look at this snow ball I made in less than 10 seconds!!

SUPER STICKY!!

Today has been all about Valentine’s Day! And I have to be honest, I’ve loved every minute of it! At work today, I helped tons of guys pick out earrings for their sweeties. I could give my opinion on good earring choices all day long. And then when I arrived home this afternoon a surprise was on my door step from my Secret Bloggie Valentine!!

Gabriela of Une Vie Saine hooked it up!!! I was nervous that whoever picked me wouldn’t realize that I was gluten free, but she totally recognized and rewarded!

 

She included two different gluten free cookies.

The BEST peanut butter ever!!

Holy deliciousness. More about this tomorrow. I foresee a guest starring role in my oats tomorrow!

Preserves! AND…

quite possibly one of the best smelling perfumes evah. Hands down.

Thanks Gabriela!!!!!!!!!

If you follow me on Twitter (hint hint) then you know that this afternoon I spent some time creating a classic Valentine’s Day treat. Chocolate covered strawberries!

I’m embarrassed to say, that I’ve never actually had a chocolate covered strawberry until tonight.

Where the heck have I been?!!

These babies are tastily delicious. And gluten free of course!

I made a big batch for our Chocolate Tasting at work tomorrow. Sweet!

Although, I’m already nervous about driving in all this snow…

As you can tell from the first two pictures, I got better with the white chocolate the more I practiced. The dark chocolate is 70%, so I really felt like I should add the white chocolate to keep it more sweet than bitter. Good choice!

I even dipped the “ugly” strawberries for Parrish and I to share on Sunday when I force ask him nicely to take me to see Valentine’s Day at the movies.

Fake it ‘till you make it...

 

If you follow me on twitter, then you know that I had a SEVERE case of Monday’s today. So instead of blogging about today, I thought I would tell you guys about last Friday :)

Last Friday started out with:

Whipped Gluten Free Oats with classic toppings

In the mix: 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup milk, 1/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill gluten free oats, whipped with 1/2 banana and topped with 1 tbsp. brown sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Classically delicious :)

Then I hopped off to work with an anomaly on my head:

 

Wavy hair!!

A few weeks ago, when I was in Wilmington, I went to my hair stylist and had her chop off 10 inches. Remember how long it was?! This is the second time I have donated to Locks for Love, and I was more than happy to do it. I have STICK STRAIGHT hair. It takes an entire canister of hair spray  to hold even a hot roll! So Thursday night I tried something new. I took my shower that night and slept with my hair in little twists. Much to my surprise, it came out all twisted!! AND stayed in all day. (Can you believe it Alex??!!)

Work was work. We had arranged for an artisan to come visit from Uganda, and she was finally flying in on Friday!! Her name is Ninah and works with an artisan group named Uganda Crafts 2000 Ltd, and we’ve carried their crafts for years. It has been SO amazing meeting and spending time with her. No days off for two weeks, but ehhh…it’s part of the job.

After work I came home to the best cheeseburger:

Cheeseburger Dog!!! Gluten Free and Frugal :)

Yes, gluten free buns are expensive! SO…when Parrish wanted to have hot dogs and hamburgers in the same week, I had to get creative…because there was NO WAY that I was going to buy GF hot dog and hamburger buns. Uh uh. Not happenin’. So I asked Parrish to make my burger…dog shaped. And they came out perfectly! Parrish used a meat grinder my Dad bought us, and ground sirloin steak for the patties. Tasty :)

******************************LINK it Up:

A new blog I’m loving : Closet 365 – One girl, one closet, 365 days without repeating an outfit!!

Guess who doesn’t eat gluten : answer found here

The perfect Valentine’s Day gluten free cupcake!

Loving these Calendar Wedding Date Keepsakes!!

Thanks Kate!!

 

Kate posted this video on her blog, and I just had to repost! After last nights episode I was left with MORE questions. This song captures it perfectly :)

Snow. Lost. Gluten Free Calzones.

 

The past few days have been a “flurry” :) of snow days. Several days later, I’m beginning to see how folks get tired of snow. We live on a fourth-dary road. (A road after primary, secondary, and third-dary) So it’s still a giant sheet of ice and snow. Not to mention that NONE of the snow has melted from our yard. I hope I don’t sound like I’m complaining, because I do still love snow. It’s just so pretty :) Plus friends stop by:

Luckily, Parrish and Max have been pretty good about going on snow walks with me.

Yesterday I braved the roads and headed in to work for a few hours. Luckily the primary roads were pretty clear and I made it there safe and sound. We have an artisan coming from Uganda this Friday, so there is a TON of work to do.

And today I was off! But I was determined NOT to treat it like a snow day. So while I was laying in bed this morning, watching the Weather Channel, I made a list of things to do. Number one was make a rockin’ bowl of gluten free oats:

1/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill GF rolled oats whipped with 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup milk, and half a banana sliced thin.

I topped the oats with cocoa roasted almonds. This bowl was SO GOOD!!!

I’m happy to say that I did get most of my list accomplished today. Floors swept and mopped, kitchen cleaned (for real), and errands ran. The only room I didn’t get to was the bathroom, but that’s a quickie. I’m not sure how Max sheds SO much and still has fur…but he does. Needless to say, there is always sweeping to be done. You’d think Max would help, but he spent his day like this:

Don’t let his cuteness fool you. He snores BIG time!!

For supper tonight, Parrish and I made a SPECIAL treat in honor of LOST :)

Gluten Free Calzones. Tasty!

I made the dough earlier today using the 365 Whole Foods Brand Pizza Crust. I divided the crust into 6 dough balls. I froze 2 balls and refrigerated 4. Refrigerating the dough really helped. While prepping the stuffing I sipped on my Favorite. Wine. Ever.

Black Box Cab Sav.

You know the best part of this wine aside from the taste? I opened this box over a week ago and it still tastes PERFECT!! I love how long this wine lasts. I don’t drink much wine and I hate wasting bottles just for one glass. But why am I telling you guys this? Ya’ll already know I LOVE THE BOX!

For stuffing we used:

Sauteed spinach, onions, peppers, olives, garlic, cheeses, and

Did you know that Hormel pepperoni is gluten free? Fatty but gluten free.

The key ingredient was actually Christmas present I bought Parrish:

It’s an infused olive oil with tons of chunky herby goodness

I rolled out the dough to the width of a quarter and cut it into a circle to make for easy calazone-ing.

I made two big calzones and one mini. Baked at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

Veggie.

Meaty.

Baby.

I brushed the calzones with olive oil to help the crust brown a bit more. Gluten free crust never seems to completely brown, but the olive oil did help.

The calzones were super tasty! And I have MORE than enough left over for lunch tomorrow.

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Okay friends, sorry to post and run but LOST is on!! It’s only been on for 7 minutes and I’m already confused!!!!