Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes (my favorite!!!!!)

My mom makes the best mashed potatoes EVER.  This year we had to subsitute pretty much everything, but the potatoes, because of me being dairy free.  I am going to post the original recipe, and then  in parentheses I will put what we substituted.  I made the mashed potatoes today and they are delicious!!

Mashed Potato Casserole

5 lbs. potatoes, peeled and chopped
6 oz. cream cheese (Tofutti brand Cream Cheese)
1 c. sour cream (Tofutti brand Sour Cream)
2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. salt
pinch of pepper
2 T. butter (BestLife brand buttery sticks)

Cook potatoes in salted water until tender.  Drain, then mash until smooth.  Add remaining ingredients and beat until light and fluffy.  Cool slightly and spoon into a large greased casserole.  Dot with a little more butter.  Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.  This can be prepared 1-2 days in advance.  Remove from refrigerator about 1 hour befor serving and bake.

Tofutti brand just sounds disgusting, but the mashed potatoes taste like normal ones.  I promise!!  The sour cream is weird by itself, but I had some in my chili tonight and it was good :).  Hope y'all enjoy!

Chipotle!!

Eating out can be difficult when you have celiac disease or if you are just avoiding gluten.  Some resturants have a gluten-free menu, others have "gluten-free" items although they are not advertised that way.  Depending on how sensitive you are, you can order something that should be gluten-free and hope for the best.  Most places understand food allergies and can accomodate you, but not all resturants are educated about food sensitivity.  There is not always time to stop by a resturant and it is usually easier to go to a fast food place, but that can be dangerous.

Chipotle is not neccessarily a "fast food" place, but it is quick and not too expensive.  I went there the other day with my daddy to have lunch!  Before we left, mom went online to Chipotle.com to see if they had nutrition/allergy information.  It turns out that Chipotle is the bomb.!  http://www.chipotle.com/en-US/menu/special_diet_information/special_diet_information.aspx This link will take you to the "Special Diet Information" which specifies different common allergies and what you can eat from their resturant.  So that way I already knew what I could order, and didn't have to ask or stand awkwardly figuring it out :).

When I ordered, I told them I was gluten-free and they immediately changed all their gloves and serving utensils.!  I was like, "Whoa, y'all are awesome!!"  One of the workers told me that their tortillas (corn and flour) are made in the same factory; that means cross-contamination is a possibility.  I had soft tacos with chicken, pinto beans, brown rice, pico de gallo, and guacomole.  It was soOOOooo good.  Dad and I also had chips and salsa.  We got tomatillo green chili salsa (I think) it was really yummy and the chips were perfect.  

I will definitely be eating here more often.!  So delicious and all the workers were very friendly.  They are very big on being all natural and having local farm raised meat.  Not all of their meat comes from small farms, but they try their hardest and keep getting more and more.  Pretty much they have good stuff!  So go there!  It is located by Target, right next to Vero and Tutti Frutti.

Snack :D

        Salty food is my favorite!  I would much rather eat salty stuff then sweet stuff.  Pretzels were my favorite snack but then gluten kind of screwed that up... BUT I found really yummy gluten free ones!   I am pretty sure you can buy them at different stores, but I get mine at the Willis Kroger.  They are Glutino brand gluten free pretzels.  They come in stick shape and regular shape! FUN.
        I usually eat them with peanut butter, but I tried off brand nutella today which wasn't bad, I'm just not into that much sweet/chocolate.  The off brand nutella is Peanut Butter & Co. brand Dark Chocolate Dreams.  It is all natural and that good stuff!
        Ohh!  They also have yogurt covered pretzels and chocolate dipped pretzels :) mm!

Lava Cakes! mm:)

Flourless Mini Lava Cakes 

(first recipe ever! exciting tehe)

Ingredients:

~ 1 stick butter (I use gluten free "buttery sticks" sense I am dairy free)
~ 4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
~ 2 egg yolks
~ 1/2 cup sugar
~ 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Butter 4 ramekins (6 to 8 oz. in size)
3. In a saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat stirring constantly. Then stir in sugar and remove pan from heat.
4. In mixer, beat 2 whole eggs and an additional 2 egg yolks. Add vanilla and continue mixing.
5. Very slowly add chocolate mixture into eggs going slow enough to make sure you don't cook the eggs
6. Once everything is incorporated well, pour chocolate mixture into all 4 ramekins. Place ramekins on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes and then place on cooling rack. 6 minutes for small ramekins!
7. Cake continues to cook in ramekins so if you want to be sure to have a liquid center you might want to pull out a minute early. It really depends on your desired doneness.

Ok so I just typed everything the recipe said I didn't come up with the weird wording! Hope y'all enjoy!

My Happy Place (and the not so happy place)

        Coffee is the bomb and I highly doubt I could live without it.  BUT it can be difficult to get, because gluten is in EVERYTHING (frustrating!!!!).  Usually I make coffee at home.  I am pretty sure most coffee beans are gluten free..unless you buy flavored coffee beans.  My mom buys unground beans and grinds them herself, then makes coffee for me :).  I like my coffee full of sugar, cream, and all that good stuff!  As of right now I am going dairy free as well as gluten free so I use Silk French Vanilla creamer.  It is very yummy and I don't even have to add sugar to it if I use that creamer.  Sometimes I use dark chocolate almond milk instead of the creamer (Silk Pure Almond brand, ya silk is pretty much awesome).
        Starbucks is my favorite place for coffee, but its so dang expensive.  Their syrups are gluten free and they can make your coffee how you want it, like with soy and no whip cream :P.  I usually get a soy caramel frappucino with no whip cream or a caramel macchiato (sometimes I get it iced).
        This part of the post sucks... Last week I was being all nice and friendly and bought a coffee at the college because a girl I know works there.  After I had paid and I was watching her make it I realized she was making it with milk, but it was too late so I was like whatevs, I will just take stomach acid and it will be ok.  So I drank the dadgum coffee and started to feel horrible.  My stomach was killing me and I thought I was going to puke.
        After my first class, during break, I was going to eat some lunch and then go work out.  YEAH RIGHT, I am so dumb... I didn't want to eat anything, but I forced myself to eat a little because I knew I needed it to work out.  When I went to work out I couldn't understand why I was so lightheaded and nauseous.  I ran 1 mile and then walked for the rest of the time; it was terrible.  I still couldn't understand what was going on and I was so mad at myself for being so out of shape.  After I took a shower and was heading to my next class I realized that one small coffee had ruined my day.
        BUT I didn't expect it to ruin my whole week/month.  It has been a week and two days and I wasn't able to work out until yesterday.  My tummy still feels bloated and hurts a little but not as bad as it did.  My mom thinks that there was probably gluten in the syrup or something that she put in the coffee.  SO moral of story: don't just assume it is gluten free, and pay attention to what you are eating/drinking.  Oh yeah or you can like ask if they do gluten/dairy free stuff at their place.  PEACE.

Saturday Night Dinner!

        Basically every saturday night my family has hamburgers for dinner.  I dislike hamburgers because they are greasy, so instead I eat turkey burgers!  They are delicious!  You wouldn't think that gluten would be in meat, but it is.  Sadly, I can't eat at Mckenzies anymore :( they marinate their meat in some sauce containing gluten.  ANYWAYS we buy Kroger brand ground chuck patties (tehe patties) and Kroger brand seasoned lean turkey burgers, both gluten free :).   See nifty photo??

         Heinz ketchup and Hellmann's mayonnaise are gluten free. (I hate mustard so I don't know which brand is gluten free) The hamburger buns I buy are  Gluten Free Houston, they are good but crumbly.  We also had apples and green beans :).  Yummy yummy dinner!

Why I am a Gluten Freek

        I went to the doctor to get blood taken (a lot of it!) in August for testing to see if I was allergic to anything.  We (my mom and I) were wondering what I could be allergic to because I had horrible acne and felt sick constantly.  My symptoms included: tummy ache anytime I ate, bloating constantly, headaches, itchy skin, pain in joints, acne that a dermatologist could not solve,  and emotionally miserable at least 3 times a week.  In addition to us wondering, I have wanted to go into modeling so we went to an agency and he thought, because of my acne, I could have a yeast overgrowth.  

        So once my results were in (August 11th) we went back to the doctor to talk about them, she said I have the worst case of celiac she has seen in 5 years and I have had it my whole life. GREAT. So I was pretty thrilled to not be able to eat anything with any trace of gluten in it!  Gluten is like in wheat, rye, barley, and sometimes oats.  Sometimes things that you wouldn't expect to have gluten do, basically I have to read every label and unless it says "Gluten Free" I can't eat it.  Also I was slightly allergic to dairy and soy, the doctor said she thinks this is just for 6 months until my gut heals form being destroyed by gluten.  

        Eating gluten and dairy free is hard and depressing BUT I feel soooo much better when I stay away from gluten, it is crazy how big of a change it is.  That is the story of why my life sucks.  More and more people are realizing how common celiac is and so it is easier to find good gluten free store bought things and I have found a lot of yummy recipes :).