Gluten/Dairy Free Finds and Reviews

What's left to eat?

I just ordered 12 lbs of Pamela's Products Amazing Bread Mix because its so good I could weep.

I bought more Glutino Lemon wafer cookies last night, they taste like the normal wafer cookies I ate as a kid.

K-toos - not very good by themselves. They leave a weird aftertaste that I am still trying to figure out. I'll name it the Icky Gluten Free Taste. Not at fan of the IGFT. I still hold out hope for a purpose for these cookies, I miss my Oreo substitutes, Joe-Joe's from Trader Joes!

Glutino Multigrain crackers - Too savory! I'm not a huge fan of lots of herbs and seeds in my crackers, these have a LOT. Very good crunch, I just want them to be bland crackers to eat topped with tuna or peanut butter etc.

Envirokidz Cereals - so far so good! I bought one of each flavor, so far The koala rice krispie imitations are awesome, chocolate flavored even! Today I had Panda puffs, reminds me of Kix!

Lunch every day
I live for my lunches! I have a sammy with homemade bread, olive oil mayo, fresh cracked black pepper (yes we keep a pepper grinder at work) some turkey lunchmeat and sky high grean leaf lettuce. I also have an apple, grapes, carrots with hummus and some sort of snacky cookie like thing

More to come on dinners!

Gluten free??

I shall now be known as the gluten free scientist. Actually, the dairy free, gluten free scientist.

After MANY trials and tribulations with my health, my neurologist of all people recognized that I may have an intolerance to gluten. So I've been gluten free for a week now, with some occasional "oops, I didn't read that label good enough."

I'm feeling better. Not great yet, but better. I kind of didn't want this to be the answer, like what is left to eat??? But I'm doing good, granted I have spent about $300 in a week on food and supplements, but I like to eat!

So here's the plan according to the doc (who spent over an hour in the room with me and I seriously love, she made me feel normal when everybody else made me feel crazy!)

1. maintain my dairy free diet
2. additionally, go gluten free
3. drink copious amounts of water
4. take 4 prescription fish oil pills every day (they are good, no fishy burps!)
5. take B-12 supplement
6. take Histidine supplement (its an amino acid)

So that is in addition to my heart medicine, and my vitamins and as healthy a diet as is still available to me!

I've done a lot of cooking/baking/eating

Verdicts so far:
Bob's Red Mill GF Flour (all purpose) not for making cookies!!!! It's very "beany" the aftertaste is the strangest thing EVER

Pamela's Products GF bread mix is heaven sent!! I made it in my bread machine today, Oh Pamela, I love thee!

Glutino Flax bread, in the freezer at Hiller's - decent, like dry multigrain bread, good with a nice dollop of mayo, black pepper, turkey and an insane amount of lettuce. Would make a terrible PB &J tho

More to come, this scientist needs to go to bed, busy day in the lab tomorrow!

How to Install a kitchen sink

How to Install a kitchen sink

Difficulty: 2-3 beers, one handy homeowner, and one future father-in-law

First: assess the situation

Sure, it doesn't look that bad at first. Then I'll explain to you that the little bowl is really really little, and also happens to be where the garbage disposal is. The faucet is ancient and difficult to maneuver and adjust. And, it is UGLY. Washing dishes sucked.

Besides, once I saw what I could have instead:

Isn't she pretty? Thank you very much generous people that came to our housewarming party! Your Lowes cards got put to quick use!


So now it is time to do battle. Turns out Sir Ugly Sink is cast iron. Heavy would be the word I would use. Larry and Dad had more choice vocabulary.
Dad appears to be field dressing the sink or something. It's dead man, let it go.

Now begins the fun part. It should have been easy, we bought the same size sink as was in there already. Should drop right in.
Ha
again I'll say it,
Ha!

New beauty sink is much bigger
So now what do we do?


First get one of these guys; a handy homeowner

and...
a few saws.
There was a lot of sawing involved. I'm still finding sawdust in my spice rack. I don't ask questions.

So now here is where we stand:
Did I forget to mention I'm also getting an under sink water filter?

There is my handy homeowner man putting it in right now.

So anyways, after much swearing and a leak that required a trip to the hardware store, here is what we have:
fodder for the scrap yard

a new water filter! No more brita pitcher! Aren't you all so jealous?

a beautiful new sink and faucet! She's so pretty it almost makes me want to do dishes.... almost.

And most importantly:
Happy homeowners!

It's a beautiful day for demolition

I love our house, I love the size of our yard. I did not love all the crap growing everywhere. Crap is very hard to get rid of; gardening and landscaping are not for sissies.
Let us just take a moment to really understand what we are working with here:
Kind of hard to see, but seriously, stuff is eating the porch

it gets better

What is that thing?
I think at one point in it's life it was a raised flowerbed
Now it's where bushes and disgusting plants go to die a horrible death

Oh, you want more?
There you go.
Just let that all soak in
Scary bad, isn't it?

So begins the demolition
day one: remove the crap
This was really hard, the bushes had really deep roots
Estimated weight loss from sweating: Kelly - 2lbs Larry 10lbs

But, we got somewhere!

Larry and I got it to this point
Then the reserves were called in

The rest of the job got pawned off on Larry's little brother
Why did he have to do this you ask?

Here's your answer:

this is little brother's truck
with Larry crawling in the engine compartment
I think we've answered all the questions now

Back to the matter at hand

Are you dying to know what my yard looks like now?


Success!!! It's amazing how much different it looks with that awful thing gone. I've been working a lot in the flowerbeds in front of the house too, they already look better but have a long way to go.

Home ownership is not for sissies, and we haven't even got to the good stuff yet!!
Next on the list is outdoor lighting and a new kitchen sink.
Stay tuned!!

Tales from the backyard

One of these days, I promise I will get outside and post pics of all our hard work. We have been working in the yard the past 3 weekends and it is really coming along great. I love my house and my yard, the yard just needs a lot of work, but we are doing wonderful things with it. Our yard is 1/4 acre and has been a little neglected but it already looks so awesome. I love my riding lawn mower, I mow the lawn and Larry weed whacks and rakes. We have a good system going. Yesterday we chopped down grape vines that are taking over the entire corner of the backyard, along with a bunch of trees and bushes. Can't wait to get out there again next weekend!

Why yes, I am a homeowner

Really and truly, we own a home!!
Today is Friday the 13th and we closed on our first home today. Brave souls, aren't we? We get the keys on Monday!! So this weekend will be spent packing and getting things ready, the next few weekends will be spent moving. Wanna help?

I'm getting married for real now!

It's all so real now!
We gave people money, so it is going to happen!
We are getting married in Frankenmuth, with our families with us. I think it will be nice and intimate, I didn't want a huge blow-out affair, not to mention we don't have that kind of money! I am sill in shock at how easy it was to set everything up. We went up yesterday, saw the site and the restaurant, put down deposits and that's it! It's like having a wedding coordinator. Both places will call me the week before to finalize some details but basically all I do is show up and they will make everything else happen! We even picked out napkins and centerpieces, food, everything. We just have to figure out what songs to walk down the aisle to. I don't even have to worry about flowers, they call me and ask colors and do the rest. So really I just have to get myself a wedding dress and Larry has to get a suit, other than that its mostly like just get there, the will get us married!
Best decision we made about the wedding so far! I know we are kind of bummed we cant celebrate with our friends, but that's what our epic housewarming party will be for!!!!!