Is gluten-free worth it?

Is avoiding gluten worth it? The only answer is: It depends. Your body may be able to handle gluten just fine. Me? I know that gluten does bad things to me: migraines, upset stomach, bloating, mental fog, tiredness - all of these things happen when I eat gluten. I’ve known this for years thanks to first going gluten-free for a month four years ago, and then to going Paleo three years ago. Despite this knowledge, I kept eating grains for the last eight months. I’ve been cutting down significantly since January 1st of this year, but hadn’t completely given it up because I kept craving bread. This past weekend was a bit of an eye-opener for me though. Let me share…

On Saturday, I went out to lunch at a Tex-Mex restaurant with a couple friends. I ate chips and salsa and queso, and then the taco salad. The food was good, and the conversation was better. We ended up sitting in the restaurant for two-and-a-half hours, and by the time we got around to leaving, all of us felt like we needed a serious nap. I’m not much of a napper; I usually only take naps when I’m ill. So, I fought to stay awake and be productive Saturday afternoon. I felt miserable though. My head felt pinched and throbbing, I was having trouble keeping my eyes open, and my sinuses started acting up - my nose, cheeks, eyes, and ears all became a burning type of pain. I ended up laying down, but not sleeping for an hour Saturday evening before heading to a friend’s house for a Candlemas party. My friends and our conversations kept me there for the duration, but I felt worse and worse as the night wore on.

On Sunday, I ate no gluten and no cheese. I still ate some grains, like quinoa, but I managed to steer clear of the pizza, brownies, and bread at the superbowl party. The result? No headache. No stomachache. No lethargy. I didn’t notice it during the day, but by the time I was heading to the party, I realized how much better I felt then than I had 24 hours before. It was incredibly satisfying to feel energetic and not to have a low-grade headache in the background of my life. So I made a pit stop at My Fit Foods and picked up a gluten-free salmon dinner to eat instead of the pizza I had been planning on eating. It’s only been five days so far, but reminding myself of the huge improvement in how my body felt between Saturday and Sunday has been giving me enough motivation to say no to those urges to eat a cookie or stop at the store on the way home to buy some pita bread and cheese.

Here’s hoping I can keep it up…

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a recipe:

Butter Chicken
1.5 lb chicken, cut into 1-2" chunks
2 Tbls coconut oil

1 - 14 oz can coconut milk
0.5 cup tomato paste
1 sweet onion, diced
5 cloves, garlic, smashed and minced

3 Tbls arrowroot flour

1 Tbls garam masala

1.5 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp chili powder

0.5 tsp cinnamon

0.25 tsp cayenne

salt and pepper to taste - I used about a pinch of each

1. Heat the coconut oil in a large pan over medium-high heat.
2. Add the diced onion and garlic, cooking until the onion becomes translucent.
3. Mix all of the ingredients except for the chicken into the pan. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
4. Mix the chicken into the sauce and transfer to your slow cooker. Set on low and cook for 6 hours. Then enjoy.

I seem to have a think for Indian food these days. Stay tuned for my next post on Paleo naan.

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Last Sunday, I went into work for 7.5 hours. On my way home, I was thinking about what I had at home and what I could make for my meals for the week. My mom had mentioned having soup earlier in the day, which made me think about tomato soup. I went through the pantry inventory stored in my mind, and decided I wanted tomato basil soup. I had everything at home that I would need, excluding the fresh basil, which I had to go to two stores to find. Ridiculous! Anyways, here's what I did, and honey, it tastes good.

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

1 15-oz can of diced tomatoes, no salt added

1 15-oz can of crushed tomatoes, no salt added

1 12-oz can of tomato sauce

1 8-oz can of tomato paste

4 cups chicken broth

1 1/5 tsp ghee

1 cup finely diced onion

1 cup finely diced carrots

1 clove garlic, smashed and minced

~5 leaves fresh basil

1 tsp oregano

1 pinch sea salt

fresh-ground black pepper

1/2 cup coconut milk

Place all of your ingredients, excluding the coconut milk, into a crock pot. Stir, then cover. Set on low for 8 hours. After cooking, use an immersion blender to break down the ingredients into smaller pieces (if desired). Stir in the coconut milk and serve with a chiffonade of basil. Enjoy!

I just happened to have 5 different types of canned tomato products at home. You could use one of the jumbo cans of crushed tomatoes and use that in place of the 2 15-oz cans of diced/crushed tomatoes. Also, if you like your tomato soups to have a little chunk to them, stick with diced tomatoes instead of crushed tomatoes or the tomato sauce. It's what you make of it, so have fun.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

I think this may be one of the dishes that I was most excited about making. It's been on my list of foods to Paleo-ify for over a year, but I just never got around to it. I think I was a bit intimidated of attempting an Indian dish, which I've never ever tried before. And there's a large number of ingredients, but it's all pretty easy to throw together, especially when you do a slow-cooker version. Win! It tastes delicious. And if you're like me and don't eat a ton of meat at each meal, this concoction can last you for a while. I made this last Thursday. So far, I've had it for breakfast on Friday, breakfast and dinner on Saturday, breakfast and dinner on Sunday, and breakfast, lunch, and dinner today. And I've still got enough left for another 4-5 meals. That's a total of 12-13 meals, that I got out of one crock pot. Double win!

Anyways, I hope you LOVE this as much as I do! And did I mention that this is Whole 30 and 21DSD-friendly? Well, now I have...

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

3 lb chicken breast, cut into 1" pieces

1/2 yellow onion, finely diced

1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 Tbls grated ginger

2 small jalapeños, stemmed, sliced in half, and seeded

1 - 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, salt-free

1 1/2 cup grape tomatoes, whole

3 Tbls tomato paste

2 Tbls coconut oil

2 Tbls lemon juice

2 Tbls Garam Masala

1 Tbls cumin

1/2 Tbls paprika

2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp cayenne pepper (for extra spice, add an extra 1-2 tsp)

2 bay leaves

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp turmeric

1 can coconut milk (shake well before opening)

cilantro, chopped for serving

1. Mix all of the ingredients, excluding the chicken in a large bowl.

2. Pour half of the tomato mixture and half of the can of coconut milk into the slow-cooker. Add the chicken, then cover with the remaining ingredients.

3. Set on low for 8 hours.

4. Remove bay leaves and jalapeño.

5. Serve by itself or over cauliflower rice.

Whole 30 - Day 15

Well folks, I'm done with two weeks of Whole 30. It's not so bad. This is the third time that I've done a super strict version of Paleo. I did a Whole 30 last fall at Thanksgiving time, then I did a 21DSD mid-May of this year. I haven't been struggling too much with any temptations. As I've mentioned before, the only times when I find myself wavering is when I'm unprepared for hunger pangs. And when people eat chocolate chips cookies in front of me. I've managed to tamp down on these desires out of willpower and the realization that in the past week, I've only had a couple instances of a stomachache or a headache. Before going Paleo, I had become so accustomed to having low-grade headaches on a continual basis that I was able to ignore them altogether for the most part. After starting Paleo, the frequency of these headaches decreased significantly; however, during this summer, I started experiencing more headaches again - not every day, but roughly every other day. In evidence of the benefits of Whole 30, I noticed yesterday that I hadn't suffered through a headache in four days, and with that realization I recounted the past week and realized that I've only had a couple stomachaches in the last week. It lines up with what I had read in both Robb Wolf's book and in the Hartwig's book, that it takes two weeks of the absence of the harmful foods for your gut to heal. I definitely recommend giving it a try.

Even though it was Labor Day (hope you enjoyed the holiday, by the way), I was up at 5:40 a.m. to drive to the river for a morning row with one of my double's partners for an upcoming regatta. We decided to meet at 6:30 a.m. to practice rowing together in a double. You know, it might be a good idea to practice with someone before you compete with them... just maybe. We rowed for about an hour before returning to the boathouse. She went home, whereas I stayed for the 7:30 a.m. club row, meaning I was on the water for about two and a half hours this morning. I ran an errand on the way home from crew, showered, and immediately started cooking. Suffice it to say that I'm worn out now.

The first thing I started cooking was Korean Beef Short-Ribs, based on the recipe from Michelle of Nom Nom Paleo. I saw this post last week and decided I wanted to give it a try. Check out the recipe on her site... Here's some of my pics.

I got 2 lb of short ribs:

After broiling for 5 minutes on both sides.

All of the seasonings. Everything except for the chicken broth got blended together to make...

...the sauce

After putting the broiled ribs into the crock pot, the sauce gets poured evenly on top, before the chicken broth gets added at the bottom of the pot.

After cooking for 9 hours, the meat was literally falling off of the bone; when I used tongs to pick up the meat, the bone just stayed in the crock pot.

If I remember, I'll try to stop myself from scarfing down all of the short ribs before I take a photo of them tomorrow.

And that's a wrap. Y'all enjoy your evening now, ya hear?

Update: here are the photos that I promised...

Whole 30 - Day 10

Yeah, this may not look like the most appetizing meal, but get past the appearance, and give it a try anyways. It's a yummy way to incorporate cabbage into your meal, and it comes wrapped up in a package. Awesome.

Pork Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Stuffing

1 head cabbage

2 lb pulled pork

1 carrot, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1/2 onion, diced

1/2 green pepper, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp oregano

pinch of salt and pepper

Cooking Liquid

2 Tbls tomato paste

2 cups beef broth

2 tsp white vinegar

1. Rinse the cabbage and remove the leaves individually. You'll need at least 8 leaves depending on how much meat you actually use, but I used around 12 leaves. And keep in mind that the leaves get progressively smaller...

2. Place the 3-4 cabbage leaves in a microwave-safe bowl (depends on the size of bowl that you have available). Pour ~1/4 cup water into the bowl, and cover with saran wrap. Microwave for 3-4 minutes until the cabbage leaves are soft. Repeat as necessary.

3. Mix the stuffing ingredients together in one bowl, and the cooking liquid ingredients in another.

4. Put ~1/4 cup of the stuffing into a leaf...

...and wrap the sides of the cabbage leaves over the stuffing.

5. Place the cabbage roll face down into your slow cooker. Repeat with the remaining cabbage leaves and stuffing. It's okay to stack the rolls.

6. Pour the cooking liquid over the rolls, and set the slow cooker on low for 6 hours. My programmable slow cooker can only be set on low for 8 or 10 hours, so you may need to set a timer.

Before:

After:

7. Carefully remove the cabbage rolls using a large spoon. The cabbage is very soft and can easily tear.

8. Eat.

Pulled Pork

Pulled Pork

5-6 lb pork butt roast - bone-in
1 yellow onion, sliced
3 Tbls chili powder
1 Tbls parsley
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix the spices together in a large bowl (large enough to hold your pork roast).

Use your hands to rub the dry spices onto the pork roast.

Put one layer of onion slices at the bottom of the crock pot. Then put in the roast and cover with more onion.

Set the slow cooker on high for 4 hours, then change setting to low and cook for 4 hours.

Remove from crock-pot and transfer to a bowl/plate to let cool for a bit. Then grab a couple forks and start shredding.

21DSD Day 7 - Paleo Chili

Slow Cooker Paleo Chili
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground turkey
24 oz. can of diced tomatoes

2 cups beef broth

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 poblano pepper
1 jalapeno

1 small yellow onion

2 Tbls parsley, chopped

1 Tbls cumin

1 Tbls chili powder

1 1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1. Toss everything together into the crock pot. Set for low - 8 hours. And you're done. (Don't you just love it when there's only one step? At least after you chop everything.)

Chemo - Part 9 - Day 8

This morning I woke up at 5 am to get ready to drive back to Texas. I took the dogs outside and continued to pack up my car. At around 5:45 am, my parent walked into the hallway and was not looking so good, so we made the decision for me to stay in Atlanta for an extra day. I brought my suitcase back into the house, headed up to my old bedroom, and climbed back into bed. I didn't go back to sleep though. Maybe because of the lack of sleep, we haven't done too much today. I've been trying to catch up on work emails from the past week. Unfortunately my mailbox is so full that I can't even send emails. No good.

On the bright side, today was better than the previous two days. Things get worse as the day goes on though. Maybe it's just because of getting tired throughout the day, despite a few naps/lie-downs. We did go for a short walk today (just part of the way down our street), so that's really good! And we've been pushing fluids today (I even managed to gulp down over 5 L of water), which is almost always recommended by doctors for well, almost everything.

I was out of the house for a little while this evening. I met up with my friend Darby for gluten-free pizza at Mellow Mushroom (Yes, this is the place I rave about every once and a while!). Then, I swung by LF's house to return the dress that she let me borrow for Steeplechase on Saturday. In the two hours that I was gone, we hit a fever of 101.5 F and were applying ice packs and cold washcloths to cool down. When I last checked about 5 minutes ago, the temperature was down to 98.7 F.

The plan is to return to Texas in the morning. So let's hope all goes well tonight. And to finish off, here's part of the results from my day of cooking and cleaning on Sunday...

Chicken Broth
2 chicken carcasses (from 5-lb chickens)
1 onion, cut into eighths, and layers peeled apart
5 carrots, scrubbed, peeled, and cut into ~ 2" pieces
4 stalks celery, scrubbed and cut into ~2" pieces
10 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
4 cloves garlic, peeled, but whole
sprinkle with black pepper
water



1. If you have a whole roasted chicken, pull the meat from the bone and save for a different recipe. It's fine if some meat remains on the bones. Place the bones in your slow-cooker.

2. Toss in the chopped veggies and seasonings.

3. Fill water up to the brim of the slow cooker. Cover and set on low for 8 hours. Stir occasionally.

4. Use a large strainer to remove the bones, veggies, and herbs. Then pour through a cheese cloth to remove all of the little remaining bits.

5. Cool in the fridge before attempting to freeze.

Chicken broth is good for constipation, dehydration, fatigue, nausea, sore mouth, and difficulty swallowing. It's easy for your body to digest and is generally rich in minerals since it's made from bones. For that reason, it also provides iron.

Chemo - Part 2 - Day 1

Today was our first day of chemo. We all went to the oncologist for this first one so that we would know what the procedure is for when I'm not in town. Each patient gets a reclining chair in a "room" with curtains as walls between each patient. There is a small TV with 15 channels and a DVD player for you to use, but my family each brought something to do. A book, the newspaper, and my iPad for typing up this blog post. Oh, and for your first day of chemo, they give you a folder of information for you to review if you wish. My dad is currently highlighting the important parts of one of the booklets. Did I mention that we came prepared with highlighters? Yeah, that's how we roll...

Today's cladribine drip took two hours, but the overall visit lasted four hours. We were told to expect each visit to take roughly that long. We started off with Zofran, "The Mercedes of Anti-Nausea Medications," which is taken orally, so requires some time to kick in. After that, we chatted with the nurse for a little bit. She gave us a brief summary of what to expect and what to watch out for: shortness of breath, red blotches, itching, lower back pain, and sore throat. If we notice any of these, we're supposed to let her know immediately. (So far, so good.) The nurse then inserted the IV, which is to be kept in for the next three days. Who knew that an IV connection could remain for that long? She connected a bag of saline "to keep things flowing" and then connected the cladribine bag via a pump which maintains a steady flow of the chemo drug.

Because we were here during lunch hour, we each brought something to snack on. Altogether we brought water, yogurt, almonds, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, Toasted Oatmeal Squares cereal, a Diet Coke, Sweet Potato Scrambled Eggs, carrots, celery, and pistachios. I ate the eggs.

Here's what I put into my Sweet Potato Scrambled Eggs (mainly a mix of leftovers):

2 eggs

1/4 cup baked sweet potato, mashed

1 handful of celery, chopped

6 cherry tomatoes, quartered

a pinch each of oregano, basil, salt, and pepper

Start with the celery in the pan, adding the tomatoes once the celery has softened a bit. Add the sweet potato, whisked eggs, and seasoning, cooking until the eggs are done.

This morning, before heading off to the doctor, I whipped up some Stuffed Peppers to cook in the slow-cooker while we were at the doctor.

Stuffed Pepper with Rice

4 bell peppers, thoroughly scrubbed

1 1/4 lb ground beef

1/3 cup + 1 Tbls olive oil

2 Tbls lime juice

3 chipotle peppers

2 tsp adobo sauce (the sauce that canned chipotle peppers come in)

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup chopped green bell peppers

2 cups cauliflower, roughly 1.5" diameter bunches

1. In a medium-sized bowl, mix the olive oil, lime juice, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, cumin, oregano, paprika, pepper, salt, and green peppers. Mix in the ground beef and set aside.

2. While the beef is marinating, prep the bell peppers (you can use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and remove the white flesh on the inside of the pepper.

3. Put your cauliflower into a food processor and pulse 6 times, or until the cauliflower has been reduced to rice-sized pieces.

4. Heat ~1 Tbls of olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Transfer the ground beef mixture to the skillet and brown the beef. Once the beef has finished cooking, remove from heat and stir in the cauliflower.

5. Spoon the ground beef and cauliflower into the bell peppers, leaving 1/4" of space from the top. Brush the outsides of the peppers with a little bit of olive oil.

6. Place the peppers into the slow-cooker, cover, and place on the lowest setting. Cook for 2 hours.

Before

After

This really only needs to cook on low for a couple hours, but let it go for as long as you're away. I'd suggest cooking this one weekend while you're at home doing chores, or running a few errands.

Another note about this dish. It can be pretty spicy depending on how many chipotle peppers you add, so this would be best at the beginning of chemo before any potential stomach/intestinal issues pop up. Spiciness doesn't always agree with people.