Beehive State

Utah, people working together.  Utah, what a great place to be!

Nope, I'm not rambling random rambles about the great state.  I'm actually singing thee Utah state song.  Bet you didn't know it!  Unfortunately that's all I know and I owe that much to Canyon View Chorus.  Speaking of Utah, that's where I went for spring break and it was wonderful.  I love Utah.  Seriously.  I love it more than I ever could have imagined.  Living outside of Utah reminds me of why I love it so much.

The trip included Dad's birthday dinner, shopping with Mom, date night with sister Whit, gluten free goodness, Easter eggs, sugar cookies, kaladescopes, mummies, more shopping, lunch dates, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, nephews, Grandparents, and sunrise Easter devotional at Snowbird.

Check it out.

Crinkle Cookie Joy

When people find out about my death sentence of a gluten free diet they always ask two questions:

"Isn't that really hard?"
"What do you miss most?"

You'd think I'd have a solid answer to that second question, but I almost always have to think about it for a while.  It depends on what I'm craving at the moment.  My top picks for the most missed food are asiago cheese bagel, fish and chips, and cookies.  It's not like I ate a lot of asiago cheese bagels, but it was the occasional treat I loved and there is absolutely no gluten free substitute for a soft asiago cheese bagel.  Fish and chips are a double no:  beer battered and deep fried.  There are cookies with all the special flours and xanthum gum, but please, those do not compare.  Until now.  I found the softest, most delicious and rich cookies here that have absolutely no flour!

Picture from here

Whether you're gluten free or not, I suggest trying them.  Gluten free heaven!

Disney: Day 1

I almost forgot just how much I love Disneyland.  Especially Disneyland in the winter, when hardly anyone is there.  When we got the park we walked right onto Thunder Mountain, which quickly became Jack's favorite ride.  We would spend the rest of the trip hearing him say, "I want to go on Thunder Mountain," about every 5 minutes.  By the third day he was forbidden from saying those words, so instead he'd say, "you know what I want to do."

It started raining a little after lunch then it rained....and rained....and rained the rest of the day.  The good thing about rain is that it makes the lines so much shorter.  Bad thing is it makes three little boys (especially a 2-year-old) very angry.  After a full day of Disney and a whole lot of rain, we sent Ryan to BJ's for some dinner and gluten free pizza for me!  Yum :)

The boys loved driving the Autopia cars

Dumbo in the rain!

There are three great things about this picture: 1 - Luke's dazed look.  2 - Jack's classic "trying to smile naturally" smile.  3 - Conner's obvious dislike towards his poncho and the rain.

G-Free Treasure

This is a story with a happy ending.  It starts in an office one Thursday morning with the snow, lightly falling to the ground.  In this office, there was a girl conducting health assessments, who loved burgers.  After an unfortunate turn of events, the girl stopped eating gluten and could no longer eat her beloved burgers and fries.

If you haven't figured it out yet, the girl in this story is me.  I've passed by the "4 weeks" date when I was supposed to give gluten another shot.  The problem is that I've been feeling so good that I'm scared to try gluten again.  But the burgers.  Oh, the burgers!  After a morning of testing peoples cholesterol and suggesting the stay away from bacon and burgers I was set out to find myself a bacon cheeseburger.  I'd heard a rumor that Astro Burger had gluten free buns and french fries.

Rumor confirmed.

Hello new favorite fast food place

No Astro Burgers, Thank you!

Bye Bye Wheaties

After much debate and a holiday season full of delicious baked goods I've finally decided to take the step I've been putting off for a long time.  I frequently have problems with my stomach and don't feel good most days.  Celiacs disease was ruled out, but there was still the possibility of a wheat sensitivity.  I was sick of feeling like crap so two weeks ago I gave up gluten to see if it makes any difference, and I'm having mixed feelings about how things are going.

Pro:  I've felt better for the last two weeks than I have in a long time.
Con:  No more wheat.

I was told to try it for 3-4 weeks and see if it makes any difference in how I feel, but so far it's looking like I'm going to be a gluten free girl.  Goodbye cake and cookies.  Goodbye hamburgers on normal buns.  Goodbye asiago cheese bagels.

I'm still learning what foods are ok to eat and what restaurants to go to.  Any advice and recipes are welcomed with open arms!