Unstuffed Peppers

I sitting here asking myself "can't I just post the food porn and skip all the Chron's stuff" I just don't think that would be right. There are so many issues us Crohnies face that need to be addressed, more so then our obsession with food.

One of the big ones for me is the exhaustion. I'm always tired and there's so much to do that much of it doesn't get done. I'm don't want to be perceived as a "whiner" so I rarely ask for help. Right now, all things considering, I'm feeling good. The Crohn's is behaving itself, the histo has it's own issues but I have more energy now then when I was having constant Crohn's flares.

I'm back on Flylady, I use both google calendars and Cozi to organize my life and today I'm going to start Orginized Christmas. Being organized is against my nature. I make my living being creative and like most creative my brain just does not function in an organized manner. But I think with Crohn's it needs to. Any illness, especially if you are chronic like I am, takes to much away from us. We have very little energy to waist. We can't afford to take an extra 10 minutes running around the house looking for the car keys. That extra 10 minutes running around, bending up and down search under things for our keys is going to turn into 20 when our guts kick in from all the movement and send us running back to the bathroom.

So I know it's hard to go from a care free wild child to an organized got it together, lists and all, but it's worth the try. Give it your best and see if it makes things easier. That's all I ask.

Now when you want a little chaos back in your life you can make this:

It's Stuffed Peppers without all their beautifully organized lives. It's more real life, it's unstuffed peppers. It's ugly, it's messy, it's delish. As a matter of fact my Mr. Man said it's better then stuffed peppers!

The recipe came from here Almost Stuffed Peppers modified a bit from the reviewers suggestions.

Unstuffed Peppers

1 pound ground beef

2 cups water

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 large green pepper cut into 1/4-inch slices

1 medium onion, thinly sliced (I ran mine through the food processor, can't have the kids seeing them!)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 cups uncooked instant rice

1 14.5oz can tomato soup

I also set some shreaded colby jack on the table for people to add to their rice dish. I love lots of cheese, but Mr Man does not.

  In a large skillet, brown beef; drain. Set beef aside and keep warm. (I added a little garlic powder and pepper to the meat while it was browning)

In the same skillet, combine water, tomatoes, green pepper, onion and seasonings; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, until vegetables are tender. (I deglazed the pan with olive oil, scrapping up the good bits, added the peppers and sauteed them for a while so they wouldn't be so crunchy, then added the onions and sauteed until the onions were translucent. Added back in the beef and the can of tomato soup.)

Stir in rice; cover and remove from the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in beef; return to the stove and heat through. (I cooked my rice in the microwave and added to Th meet mixture once it had cooled a bit and soaked up all the extra liquid.)

Histoplasmosis

More to the point: Disseminated Histoplasmosis
That's what you get when your immune suppressants drop your immune system into the gutter and you live in the Midwest where histo is everywhere.

Bad News: I can't take any meds for the Crohn's because they are all immune suppressants & then the histo could come back

Good News: The Crohn's is doing better then it did on the immune suppressants anyway. My Dr says that there were a few cases of Chronies getting histo and having to go on the anti fungal medications that went into full remission. AWESOME! It nearly killed me but I'm doing much better. :)

Sooooo onto the food porn:

Garden Fresh Veggies, got to love them. Especially when they make such great salsa!!! 

This is a modified version of this recipe found at One Particular Kitchen

I used 18 tomatoes. We had a lot of small ones this year in the garden. Cut in half
1 large yellow onion cut into quarters
1 jalapeño pepper - cap removed
4 cloves garlic

Put everything on a pan and roast at 375 for about 30 minutes or until the onions are translucent, the tomatoes are soft and when you turn the peppers they are starting to blacken.

Allow to cool for just a few minutes then pop everything into the blender and blend. I personally think cilantro tastes like dish soap but if you like it this is the time you would add it, just blend it in with everything else.

Now Eat.

The Food and Music Connection

When I made the tuna tortilla's the other day as I was eating a song popped into my head. Not just the words to the song but the actual song, music playing and Fred Astaire singing "I'm in Heaven." I may be an old chronie but I'm not THAT old, what the heck is Fred Astaire doing in my head!

Well tonight I have found the dark side of this musical food connection. I opened the wrong drawer in the kitchen looking for something. I opened the "snack drawer" and saw a bag of pretzels. The song popping into my head when I saw them "Beth" by Kiss but the words are jumbled and warped. "Can't you hear me calling, I'll be right home to you, can't you hear them calling, oh what can you do, oh what can you do." "Just a few more hours and I'll be right home to you, You say you feel so empty, oh what can you do" Not only did it pop into my head but it is following me around the house reminding me of the gluteny goodness, tempting me to take just one bite.

Yea, I've lost it. :)

Product Review 'Cause You're Special Gluten Free Moist Lemon Cake Mix

Blogger has the hiccups. All my photos are currently missing, and I can't upload any either. It helps me feel a little less guilty that I didn't take any photos for this review.

I love lemon cakes and pies in the spring. I found the 'Cause You're Special! GF moist lemon cake mix at my local grocer and thought I would give it a try. The first thing to note right away is that the mix calls for 1/2 cup softened butter so be sure to set your butter out long enough for it to soften prior to mixing.

I baked my cake in a 9" round cake pan and set the timer for 25 minutes. The directions say to bake for 25 - 35 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. So at 25 minutes I checked my cake. It was turning sort of golden brown around the edges, still pale and a little wobbly in the center. I did the toothpick check and it looked clean, but the wobbliness really bothered me. I did the toothpick again and this time fan my fingers down the toothpick, and they came away wet so even though nothing was visible on the toothpick the wetness indicated to me that it was not done yet. Back in and set the timer for another 10 minutes.

This time when the timer went off the cake was a  lovely golden brown through the whole top. The cake had risen more and had a lovely dome to it. The toothpick came out clean and not damp, so I took the cake out and set it on the counter to cool. As the cake cooled that lovely dome deflated leaving an inverted wrinkled top behind.

Eaten warm the cake had a lovely light lemon flavor and a cake like texture with just a hint of the GF graininess. The top and sides had a bit of a baked sugar crispness that I really liked, however that was lost overnight as the cake cooled.

The next day the cake had transformed. The top had become moist and sticky, and the middle had become an almost thick pudding like texture. Not unpleasant, and I sort of like that kind of texture in lemon, but it's no longer cake like.

I topped my pudding cake with a lemon butter cream frosting:

2 cups confectioners' sugar


1/4 cup butter, softened

1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 tablespoons milk
 
I think it would have been a better frosting choice had the cake stayed like cake, and not like cake custard. I didn't frost the cake until the next morning but I had premade the frosting and didn't want to toss it. Maybe this lemon filling would have made a better toping for this type of cake.
 
1-1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest


1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1-1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar

2 egg yolks, beaten
 
My final opinion - if your looking for a light fluffy cake this is not it, unless you eat it straight from the oven. Looking for a more custard lemon desert this could fit the bill. Because of the fall it's not a pretty desert on it's own so it needs to be topped with something if you want it to look good, but the flavor is good and the texture isn't bad considering it's GF.

I'm GF But I'm Not Starving

Day 5 of being Gluten Free.

Last night I sat down and had dinner with the whole family. To be honest my families meals have sort of fallen by the wayside as I try to figure out how to cook for myself. Dinner was Crispy Rosemary Chicken and Fries from allrecipies.com. Yes I know that I hang out on allrecipies.com way to much but there is just so much there and the community is fantastic.

The meal went as expected with K and I eating everything, Maddie eating the chicken and veggies, and Chloe eating just the chicken. She will normally eat potatoes but these had skins, and we all know how gross that is. :)

It was a good whole family GF meal, even if it was a bit on the greasy side. It did photograph beautifully.

What I'm really, really excited about though, LUNCH! Lunch was fanfrickentastic! It was inspired by a allrecipies recipe of course called Tuna Lime Tostadas, but I turned it into something mostly my own.

1st I mixed all my ingredients. The original recipe made 8 servings and I'm just cooking for myself so I have to apologize that I don't measure, but I do taste a lot. :) I started with one can of tuna, several teaspoons of tostitos salsa - which is GF BTW, some chopped black olives and some chopped mushrooms. The original recipe calls for corn, but my guts are not up for corn yet, hence the olives and mushrooms taking it's place. I put all of this into a bowl and mixed it up. In a separate bowl I mixed up avocado, lime juice and garlic powder.

Then I used my GF tortilla's. I heated some oil in a skillet until it was good and hot, then dropped that baby in. The sizzle, the smell, the burning....... note here, do not walk away from your frying tortilla. :) I had realized I didn't season my tuna so walked away from my 1st tortilla and added the lime, a bit of cilantro, a dash of Old Bay, and just a pinch of fresh ground pepper. Then I went back to the stove and removed my burning tortilla, got out a new frying pan because the oil would have burned taste to it, put on a new pan, added more oil and started over.

This time I stayed right at the stove flipping and caring for my frying tortilla, while nibbling the small amount of unburned edges from the 1st try as this one became golden and crispy.

Once your tortilla reaches that beautiful golden brown crispyness remove it from the pan. You can pat the oil off with a paper towel if you wish, or just eat that too - it's what I did. I didn't see the paper towels anywhere and I wanted to eat!

Now top your beautiful golden creation with your tuna mix and top that with your avocado mix, then pick it up like a piece of pizza and enjoy!

All wrapped up

Let me give you a little tip about store bought pre made GF tortilla's - DON'T BUY THEM!!! Imagine taking a piece of cardboard, crossing it with Styrofoam and then try and wrap it around food. Not only so they crack and break all over but they taste like a cross between cardboard and Styrofoam also!

So I asked around to see if someone could tell me of a better brand, one lady told me "They all taste like that, don't worry you'll get used to it."

Oh no I won't!

Because I found the best GF tortilla recipe on the net! They were made by Mary Frances over at The Gluten Free Cooking School and they are awesome! HERE is her recipe.

And here are my beautiful, lovely, delicious tortilla's.

Now there is something I should tell you about these tortilla's other then the fact that they are fantastic almost normal food. They are a grand PITA to roll out, and not pita as in the bread but as in Pain In The....Well you get the idea. :) Time for another photo.

It's sticky, sticky, sticky. Did I mention that it was sticky? Mary Frances says that you use a LOT of flour, but then some of her reader complained about the texture of the rice flower, some said they still stuck. One said they used wax paper and cooking spray and that they popped right off into the pan. That's the method we tried. However they did not just pop off, and if you rolled them to thin they stuck to both sides of the paper and the dough was wasted. So I rolled them a little thicker, and they stuck a little but we got through it. It did give me only 5 tortillas that way though not 8.

Now I have to confess even though they are a huge pain to make I will be making them again, because they are just so darn worth it! One of Mary France's readers suggested a tortilla press and maybe I'll have to try one of those. Target has them for $17, definitely worth it if I'm going to be making as many of these as I think I will now that I have more then just lettuce to wrap my sandwich ingredients in.

ETA I have to add that both my girls loved these, and kept sneaking bites off my uneven edges. They both pouted when I made them wraps with the regular, real flour tortilla's because they wanted mine instead. They are just that good.

The Winding Road

Dear Readers,

Today I almost deleted my entire blog to start over. I actually did delete some of it. Not that there is much to it yet, or even any readers to care at this point, but before it was all gone I decided what was left could stay. Why would I want to delete it in the first place you ask? Because dear readers I have made my decision as to what this blog is going to be. I should have known it from the start, it's in the title already.

It's going to be a true diary of a Chronie, a record of the paths I take on my search for wellness, and this weekend the paths forked, and a decision was made. I have decided to stop bucking the trend setters, bite the bullet and try the "fad" cure all of cure all diets. GLUTEN FREE My taste buds weep at the thought.

It's not an over night cure but one that could take weeks, even months to see any change. I may not see any changes, but I won't know until I try. The meds have not worked, even steroids don't stop my symptoms. Why? Maybe something else is wrong, something else helping to cause all these problems and keep the symptoms going. If not an allergy to wheat that can show up on a test, maybe a sensitivity to it? At this point it sure won't hurt to try - won't hurt my gut that is, the rest of me isn't to happy about the idea of giving up our favorite foods.

I'm actually on day 2 of no gluten. Last nights dinner. Spaghetti Squash 1 from allrecipies.com. I have to say it was pretty tasty, but not my favorite meal by a long shot. As my taste buds detox though I can see this becoming a more of a favorite.

I actually woke up today, only on day 2 irritable and cranky and ready to already pitch this diet in the trash. Then I realized I was starving! But oh the hard work I had to do before I could eat. No more dumping a bunch of grains into a bowl and slopping on the milk. No I had to get up and carve the cantaloupe, destem the strawberries, pluck the grapes and make the orange juice. Take note dear readers and lean from my mistakes, do this at night and save yourselves some morning grumbling and the temptation to cheat.
Even my Chloe would eat all the colors of this rainbow. Which reminds me. I'm the only one that ate the squash last night, no one else would even try it.