Lentils

A quick lesson on lentils.  They are lovely.  They are naturally gluten free.  Lesson over.  Thank you for coming. A bit more?  
Lentils are an incredibly versatile legume, very rich in protein and fiber.  They come in an array of colors which all have a slightly unique texture and appearance.  My favorites are:  

• Brown or Spanish pardina which hold together in cooking beautifully
• French green or puy lentils which are a bit more expensive but worth it
• Green, muddy colored which are the more common and can easily be purchased in bulk
• Black which are my at-the-moment favorites!  They resemble little tiny seed beads prior to cooking.
• Red which tend to mush up more quickly than the others, making them not my favorite but a clear winner with my youngest, Eleri.  

I should say a couple of things about cooking lentils.

~Do not salt while cooking.  It will only make them tough.  
~The pot needs a lid but it must be left ajar to allow steam to escape.
~20-30 minutes is usually enough to cook them.  The longer they cook, the softer they will be.  I personally like them firmer than the rest of the family so I strive to land somewhere in between al dente and mush.

Here is our weekly lentil dinner recipe (adapted from my dear friend Barbara)~

Lentils with Balsamic/Bacon/Avocado

2 cups lentils washed, picked over and drained

8 cups water or broth or combo of both

~Bring to a boil, turning down heat to low and simmer with the lid slightly ajar for 20-30 mins. Test to be sure the consistency is what you want  before draining.   Drain MOST of the water, leaving enough to keep them swimming but not drowning.

1 sweet Onion, diced 

4-5 Tomatoes, fresh (or tinned work fine-aim for organic whenever possible) cut into small chunks

Olive oil (Extra Virgin)

Balsamic vinegar

~saute onions in a splash of olive oil for 15 minutes on low.

~add tomatoes to onions and continue simmering for 15 minutes more.  Throw in a garlic clove if you feel like it.  Remove before serving if thrown in whole.

~add onions/tomatoes to cooked lentils and continue to cook over low heat.

~add glugs or splashes (up to you) of the balsamic and the same of the olive oil to the lentils and continue to simmer on low until you are ready to eat.  You may want to add more olive oil to create a nice coating and to keep them all comfy cozy in their pot.  Lentils are a cozy kind of food!

~add salt & pepper to your liking and stir the lentils around a bit.  

Bacon (either slab, sliced, pancetta) We like Brandt Beef, all Natural Cowboy beef bacon.  Amazing!

 ~cook the bacon until crispy and drain

Avocado

~cut into chunks

And there you have it.  Serve the lentils in large shallow bowls.  Top bacon and avocado!

I leave the olive oil and balsamic on the table so everyone can add a bit more if desired.  Libby actually pours the balsamic into a spoon and eats (drinks?)  it that way.  Eleri asks me to make them without any so... you never know.  Enjoy!

Love

Love

I love food.  I love reading about food.  I love eating food.  I love cooking food. I love serving food to my family. I love that my family loves food. Okay, especially my food.  I love that Libby is in the kitchen right now (home sick today)  creating her own recipe with GF Chex cereal with some concoction of cinnamon and sugar.  I didn't point out, thoughtful and supportive parent that I am, that Chex actually makes a cinnamon cereal but hey... she's happily engaged and creating a recipe for her page on the blog. When she got the diagnosis of Celiac Disease, I swear one of my first heart stabbing thoughts was 'she'll never eat another baguette in Paris!'  More sobbing!  A sensible friend asked "oh, were you planning another trip to Paris?"  I stammered 'well no, actually, no we aren't but...!'  So okay, maybe I was taking on a bit too much angst for the first week.  Now that we are almost a year into this,  I have a bit more clarity and a more positive nibble on reality.  While it is true, she cannot ever walk along the Seine and enjoy a baguette, she can walk though the streets of any town, village, city or countryside and enjoy her life.    There are alternatives.  There are options.  There are choices.  There will be love.  Love for food.  Love for travel.  Love for adventure.  Love for her wonderful, unexpectedly altered, life. And I go on cooking and creating and caring for my family.  And possibly planning another trip to Paris!

Vitamin E... the natural healer

Wednesday, April 18, 2012 Vitamin E... the natural healer Not so fast!  It is a wonderful natural healer UNLESS you have Celiac Disease.  A lover and a fighter all at the same time.  Damn you tiny golden capsules!    Most, but not all, vitamin E is derived from wheat germ.  WHEAT germ.  Really?  So the sticky goodness that I often apply to help in healing Libby's lips either from the constant fever blisters she gets, or from her biting the hell out of them because of the fever blisters... is not a good thing for her?  Heal the lips, hurt the gut. Just more ying and yang,  push and pull, one step forward~two steps back, nonsense in this 'find the gluten' game. A manual please, Mother Nature. Please read more about this yourselves to be sure,  and draw your own informed conclusions.  I've read studies where doctors say skin absorbs what is topically applied, others say it cannot unless 'engineered chemically to do just that (i.e. medicinal patches).'  I found these two interesting links today while trying to find more info on GF vitamins, lotions, shampoos etc. http://www.celiacchicks.com/products/vitamin-e.html http://www.greatcakessoapworks.com/handmade-soap-blog/index.php/how-much-does-the-skin-absorb/ Posted by Kel I Am at 10:51 PM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

On a cold dark stormy night...

Weeeeellll... okay, it  actually didn't start out on one of those but I have just always loved that opening line!  Wow... after re-reading the below post I may have gone on a bit but it is the tale of the beginning so bear with me... and get a drink!


Here is where we started...  In Mexico.  Yep.  Mexico and a really bad case of Giardia.  Mine.  While having a lovely time down there with our dearest friends I became a smuggler.  A smuggler of hidden travelers.  Damn Border Patrol doesn't seem to care a bit about those though!  Nope.  Just a 'free to cross ma'am! Welcome home!!'  At least they could have shouted a hearty 'shame about those pesky intestinal critters you're harboring!'  Nada.


Anyway... In 2006,  I was finally (a miserable 3 weeks later and a glorious 18 lbs lighter)  diagnosed with Giardia, a nasty intestinal bug common to south of the border travelers.  During one of the routine tests, along with Giardia, I showed positive for Celiac Disease.  What? What the hell is that?  I was referred to a GI doctor who's appointment I cancelled twice and then made the stupid decision to just ignore the diagnosis, and go about living our Foodie lifestyle that we had been thoroughly enjoying for years.   My rationale?  I wasn't going to change my way of life or my family's just so I didn't get bloated and feel like my jeans had shrunk 2 sizes while i was sitting in the restaurant having dinner.  'Craziness' I said.  Not giving up my pasta.  My bread? no way!  NEVER did I hear how dangerous it was to think like this. NEVER!  Not a mention of the possible dangers of future stomach cancer, diabetes, thyroid disease, stunted growth, brittle bones to the point of early on-set osteoporosis... all possible if Celiacs is left 'untreated'.  Which of course means to completely STOP eating ANY and ALL gluten... for the rest of your life.   I had always had a 'funny stomach' and always lived like that.  No big deal.  


Jump ahead 5 years (March, 2011) to when I was sitting having margaritas one night with some friends and one of the women mentioned that another's 5 year old was just diagnosed with Celiacs.  Now my dear friend 'A' (haven't actually asked her yet if I can use her name so she will be just 'A' until she gives me the nod) looked across her salted margarita (me? I'm a NO-salt kinda drinker by the way) at me and said 'you know it's hereditary right?'  Ummmmm... 'no.'  Again... no doctor EVER told me this.  And we have a good doctor!


I had an honest to god Oprah moment and called the good doctor the next day and asked him to see Libby, then 8.  I said I wanted her checked for Celiacs.  A simple blood test.  Although Libby would NOT agree with that assessment.  He asked why.  See... I told you he is that good!  I said because for all of that year (3rd grade) and possibly the year prior, she has been miserable.  I was like Oprah on crack.  So many light bulbs were going off I thought the paparazzi had entered the room.  All of her complaints of tummy aches, constipation, diarrhea (and both at the same time!),  feelings of nausea (thank god for spell check), the beginnings of a cute little belly on her always slight frame, being afraid of (SO sorry my dearest) leaking bowels, the odd inability to focus at school, her being the next to shortest kid in class and generally just not feeling well, were ALL coming back to scream at me "BAD mommy. REALLY BAD mommy!!"  So he took the blood but assured me it was doubtful she had Celiacs.  A week later he wasn't so smug (actually he wasn't smug at all-he's just too handsome to be anything other than handsome, oh and a really good doctor) and told me she was indeed positive for Celiac Disease.  Of course I knew it.  I knew she had it from that first sip of my margarita.  Mommy intuition maybe but I knew what the outcome would be.  On the scale of 0-30 (30 being high) her count was a whopping 140!  Our girl was sick.  Seriously sick. 


I was devastated.  I sobbed.  My husband cried.  My mom and sister cursed and wept.  I sobbed some more.  I was scared.  I felt angry.  SO very angry.  Still am.  My friends expressed sympathy.  The good doctor expressed genuine surprise and amazing sympathy and compassion... at least i think that's what he was saying but through my racking sobs it's hard to be exact.  


But I couldn't bring myself to tell my sweet baby girl that it came back positive.  I just couldn't.  She knew Celiacs was what we were looking for, but hoping like hell it wasn't.  I had of course, during that very long week, Googled my arse off (my husband is from Wales but doesn't actually pronounce it as arse but it seems so much more 'friendly' doesn't it?) with searches on Celiacs, poured over every written word, and in-between-the-lines, like an über sleuth and so I was REALLY REALLY sure we didn't want a positive result.  So we kept it to ourselves for nearly 3 weeks. My husband (henceforth referred to as Hugh)  knew that I needed to be able to deal with it myself before being able to tell Libby, without completely falling apart before her lovely and trusting blue eyes. But how to positively convey to her the truth?  The truth being that her life was about to change drastically and a lifetime of 'going without' was to be her future.   We are such a food loving, cooking, restauranting (no love from spell ck on that one!)  family that I couldn't imagine how to tell her that that was over.  Remember now, this was in the beginning stages and my information has since grown and our world has widened since that miserable day.  A longer blog would ensue if I were to  mention the 'disease' aspect of this damn disease! Another day, another blog.   Hey, I like that... but probably not an original.


I wanted desperately to be able to tell her on my own terms and with a positive spin.  She is one of the most intuitive people I know (especially where I am concerned) and she kept suspiciously asking if Dr. M had called.  I was evasive at best but then one day she and I were walking alone in the park, after dropping my younger daughter Eleri, at ballet and I told her.  Just said it.  My voice got a little shaky and she put her sweet, soft hand on my arm, stopped me in my tracks, looked up right into my eyes and said "It's okay Mommy.  I'm going to be okay.  Don't cry."  I was a sobbing mess but was the proudest mommy (NOT to be confused with DMB's Proudest Monkey) on the planet at that very moment.  A referral to Children's Hospital came next and a fortuitous placement under the excellent care of Dr. Kimberly Newton, head of the Pediatric Celiac clinic at Rady's Children's hospital.  She did the required intestinal biopsy and without a doubt, confirmed that Libby had full blown Celiac Disease.   


Oh yeah, and I don't actually have Celiacs.  No siree.    False positive in 2006.  That happens.  Go on about your business.  New blood test and a biopsy to boot, you know~just to be sure... nope, we're sure.  Are you people kidding me?  She has it but I don't?!  I have never wanted to have anything more in my entire life than to have Celiacs so that Libby wouldn't be alone in this.  Alone with this.  Alone.  I actually contemplated telling  her that my results came back positive as well.  Actually, I can't swear I didn't tell her that before I snapped out of it and realized what a disservice I was doing to her, and to our relationship.  I wanted to walk this crappy road with her.  I wanted it to be our thing, together.  But it is hers.  Diagnosed in March, 2011~gluten free since May, 2011.  And better.  Not completely, yet, but certainly much better.  And me?  Just a 'funny tummy' apparently.


And this is what began our new life as a gluten free family .  So...


Another day, another blog!


~k

and here we go...

     Welcome! Really, was that the best I could come up with? Actually, it is. Hopefully things will improve and I will be able to write with more interest and originality. But for this first "official" post, I am struggling. Nerves? Weird. To make it worse, my struggle is with telling you the truth. Yeesh! Okay my gluten free followers... I am sitting in one of my favorite coffee houses in North Park (San Diego), because I am pretty sure that you must sit in a coffee house in order to blog, and am enjoying the city's best mocha and a gluten containing muffin.
      If you took the time to read my Who Me? section, then you will already be generously on your way to forgiving me because you know that it is my daughter who has Celiacs and not me. I will occasionally tuck in here, or  another similar, while the girls are in school and order that muffin, or a croissant. I can't always say it is worth it though. I wash my hands 3 times before collecting them from school, I furiously scrub my lips and drink copious amounts of water to get rid of all traces of gluten that could infect my sweet girl with one kiss from me. Worth it?  No!  I am writing through tears (i do that a lot!) because it isn't worth it!  Damn it.  I will say that it is less and less of an occurrence as time goes on.  Maybe because of my newfound and growing knowledge, or my insurmountable guilt at being able to eat whatever the hell I want that my daughter can't, or the real danger to her from my cross-contamination,  or that i don't always feel well after eating gluten products now after going almost without them for about a year.
      I will stop here I think for two reasons. I have only 4% battery left (and no power cord) and because I have SO much I want to share, ask, explore through this blog but I want it to be enjoyable to read and written in somewhat of a coherent fashion. I will share our long road to where we are today in the hopes that someone will find it helpful and possibly hopeful. I will share recipes (my first passion is cooking) that Libby and I discover together and ones I have developed. I will blog a bit about restaurants who adhere to the GF safe cooking practices and those that don't (but say they do!)  Libby herself will have a 'column' that she can share anything that comes to her beautiful mind.  Oh and so much more!  I do hope you return.  I promise to always try to be honest and somewhat interesting.
 Kelly