Poppi

Here they are. I'm so happy. We had a playdate and everyone (kids and adults) loved them.

I'll post the recipe later if anyone would like it.

After several frustrating baking disasters I made really good chocolate chip cookies! Yay me!

Even with my brain not working and my whole body aching from a glutening yesterday I still managed to produce delicious cookies.

(Can you tell I'm very excited?)

I love to bake so every baking success is cause for celebration and the failures are very frustrating to me.

Hmmm I never thought about it being from the via pack. And, I've been traveling extensively in the last week. WHEN I travel, I take a dozen via packets with me. And, I've been on the road for the last week.

Yesterday was a really bad day (as was the last week). I had my last Via at approximately 11am yesterday morning. This morning, was a little bad. But, I'm fine today.

Interesting that it could be the Via.

Which kind do you drink? Last week I had the Caramel and was fine but this week I bought the Italian Roast and it's been bothering me.

I never had an issue with coffee until recently. In fact, I was a swimmer in high school and I used to drink it before morning practice when I was only 15 or so.

And, I have been drinking the Via packages as well.

Looks like is sayonara coffee for awhile. No big deal. I have a 100 pack of green tea in my office and at home.

Interesting! I wonder if we are both reacting to some contamination in the Via packets. Maybe I'll try a double double from the Tim Horton's across the street tomorrow and see how that affects me.

Hi, I'm Sara. I'm in Nanaimo. I'm not formally diagnosed but have been gluten free for 4 weeks now and am feeling great. The couple little slip ups and the horrible results have convinced me not to make myself ill for official testing.

I only drink the Starbucks Via sticks though so I think I'll try some other coffee in case there is some contamination in the Via.

Yup. I cut out coffee at the same time as gluten and have since found that it doesn't agree with me. Stomach cramps, slight muscle ache and headache within the hour. I just drink tea now. I do miss my coffee though.

I just got a very sincere apology. I told him I almost fainted at sharing time in our middle son's classroom this morning. (I take our chickens in once a week so the kids can see them growing from chicks to egg layers).

He feels awful but was just sincerely hoping I was wrong about the gluten. He knows how hard this past month has been for me and was still holding out faint hope that it was all a series of amazing coincidences. I think he gets it now. I certainly do.

I've been texting him all day detailing how bad I feel.

"Wow. still feel like crap"

"Man, do I feel awful"

"I have a KILLER headache"

"Back hurts sooooo much"

I figure just because he gets to go to work doesn't mean he gets to escape my complaining.

And we will have a talk tonight about the whole issue. He just wants me to be happy and in some way hopes that I'll find things I can eat through experimentation. I get it. I did tell him this morning though that I cannot be a good wife and mother when I'm sick and that I refuse to make myself sick on purpose every time he has a day off just for experimentation sake. It sucks but this is my life now. Instead of trying to find ways around it I need to find ways to make it awesome.

I wonder about that too. I did replace my wooden spoons because they are cheap but I'm sure someone in the house will use them for gluten foods eventually. I simply cannot afford to replace my pots, not going to happen.

I also wonder if all non-stick pots are equally bad. Ours are non-stick but not Teflon and I keep reading how Teflon is bad.

So my dear sweet husband who is usually the most supportive of men talked me into eating gluten yesterday as a bit of an experiment. I'm not formally diagnosed but I have been gluten free for 28 days now and I feel amazing. Better than amazing!

So I ate a mini danish.

What. The. Hell.

I'm coming up on 24 hours now. My back still hurts, I'm dizzy, nauseated, cranky, sore and generally annoyed at myself.

The issue now is that he seems to want me to do a series of experiments with different amounts of different gluten containing foods. I love him to death and he is a loving and wonderful husband but I think he's living in this fairy world where he thinks I will magically discover that I can eat gluten on the third Tuesday of the month when Saturn is in line with Mars if I stand on one foot and face South or something.

Blah. Vent over.

They also have the most amazing Nanaimo Bars. The service is slow and it's definitely not a great place to take little kids but it was nice to go out for a sandwich and a treat and not have to ask a million questions.

No, I do not eat things that "may contain wheat" or are "manufactured in a facility that processes wheat". It's just not worth it.

I understand you on the food restrictions, it's hard. I ate out for the first time in a month yesterday and it was kind of scary instead of being the carefree experience it used to be.

As far as lunches/dinners/family occasions may I suggest:

Tabouleh made with quinoa (I make a huge bowl of this once a week and I'm lucky if my husband doesn't eat it all before I get to it)

Any kind of sandwich on Udi's rice bread (my favourite bread so far)

Pizzas on kinnnikinnick pizza crusts (super good, you'd never guess they're gluten free)

Burgers on kinnikinnick hamburger buns

Fried or scrambled egg, ham and cheese on a toasted kinnikinnick english muffin

Gluten free pantry and Pamela's both make great brownie mixes and you can make them even better by adding almonds - eat them warm with ice cream. YUM!

Learn how to make a good flourless chocolate cake and take it to your next family gathering with fresh fruit and whipping cream - eeveryone will love it

A big salad with grilled chicken, steak or salmon and a balsamic dressing

Rice noodles with a thai coconut curry sauce

Make or buy some BBQ kabobs and keep them in the freezer so you can grab one for a family BBQ or a lunch with salad and a baked potato

Spaghetti and meatballs with corn or rice pasta

My biggest suggestion would be to make a list of all the foods you love and either find a gluten free version or learn to adapt the recipe yourself. This is a great time to become a good cook.

Duh. I just noticed you said no dairy as well ... sorry.

Just wondering if there is anyone local on here. It would be great to compare notes.

Thanks for the support everyone. I'm feeling much more positive today. Nervous about eating out with my oldest son but hopeful that it will be a good experience.

Yesterday was an interesting day, we had about 16 people over for a BBQ and luckily we have 2 grills so I have cleaned one well and it is now the gluten-free grill and it's nowhere near the other grill so I was able to cook my food safely and enjoy the company of our friends and family. It was a bit sad not having the same food but part of that was the last minute preparation and potluck nature of the day. I had my own food and it was very nice.

I'm still having "why me" moments but I'm sure that takes a long time to go away.

I went into M&M meats yesterday and asked if they could help me find something gluten free to throw on the BBQ. Well they were lovely, the lady went into the back and printed up a list of 170 gluten free items carried by the store.

I had a few different types of kabobs and the gourmet stuffed potatoes yesterday afternoon and felt great! I only had a few bites of eat item because I wasn't super hungry but I would now feel confident buying some more food from them.

I picked up:

maple salmon skewers (maple flavour was too strong in my opinion)

marinated BBQ pork kabob (very nice)

marinated buffalo chicken kabob (boring)

gourmet stuffed potatoes (pretty good)

loaded baked potato soup

sirloin burgers

strawberry fruit juice bars (yum!)

They also had these little foil BBQ trays called grill buddies (I'm sure I've seen them elsewhere) that you can take with you so you can grill your food on a possibly contaminated grill or maybe to have someone grill a gluteny item on your clean grill at home.

Butterball Turkey Franks are gluten free. According to their website:

Specifically, gluten is not present naturally in turkey. Only two of our retail products currently contain gluten: Butterball

Thank you. I am feeling really emotional right now. I tried a few gluten-free recipes in the last couple of days and they were all disasters (cookies, pancakes and muffins). I've had moderate success cooking from gluten-free boxed mixes but I love baking from scratch and nothing seems to be working.

My Dad and I aren't close, we speak for a few minutes once every other year or so. It was a few years back he mentioned Celiac and I just said, "Oh, wow" and then forgot all about it until earlier this year when my arthritis was starting to cripple me and the migraines were becoming a daily problem.

In my home I can do well. I'm a great cook and a researcher by trade so I feel safe here. It's the eating out and travelling that make me feel all panicky. My son and I are going to a local restaurant on Sunday that claims to be happy to accommodate gluten-free diners and has gluten-free bread products on hand for burgers and such. I'm willing to try it but I'm nervous. It's hard to trust a stranger with your health.

My husband and I are going away without the kids for a few days in the summer and I'm already obsessively researching restaurants in the area. God only knows what I'll eat at the wedding we're going to while we're away.

Okay. Deep breath. I can do this.

I just don't want to.

I don't want this to be my life.

Please excuse the pity party, I'm very new to this gluten-free thing. My Dad has Celiac so I decided to try out a gluten-free diet to see if it would help my laundry list of health problems. It only took 3 days for me to feel better than I've ever felt in my life. My fatigue, nausea, joint pain, depression, constipation, canker sores and migraines are all gone. It really is amazing.

On the other hand I am really scared and upset about having to live like this. I want to travel the world and eat everything I can get my hands on. I want to go back to baking 10 loaves of bread each week and being the go-to person for cakes and special desserts. I want to eat anything, anytime and I can't and that makes me want to scream and cry.

I haven't decided whether to gluten myself for an official diagnosis but I don't think I will since I get really sick even from a few crumbs in the butter dish.

Tell me it gets better, that you get used to the restrictions. I need a little hope and sunshine right now.

Not sure about candida but I certainly have sinuses that act like barometers. Whenever the weather changes suddenly from sunny and clear to cloudy and/or rainy my sinuses go crazy. It's like the worst hayfever attack ever and nothing helps. The attack lasts all day and a good night sleep usually sets me mostly right again.

It's been better since I went gluten-free but it's not gone. I think it's a symptom of my generally inflammatory state and I have hopes that it will resolve as my body heals. Only time will tell though.

I've only been gluten free for 22 days now so I haven't had an major glutening accidents.

I have had 2 incidents of very minor cross contamination. The first time I was at a birthday party and only ate my own food except for a couple pieces of vegetables from a tray and a hot dog with no bun. The second time DH made me some toast in the morning and put peanut butter on it from the wrong jar.

Both times I felt unbelievably tired and fatigued within 30 minutes. For the rest of the day I was exhausted, bloated, nauseated and the brain fog was intense. In fact, the peanut butter incident was on Saturday and today (Thursday) is the first day I feel great again.

I use San-J Wheat-Free Light Tamari. It's way cheaper than some other wheat free tamari and I really like it. I think it tastes a lot like Yamasa which used to be my favourite soy sauce.

I'm on Vancouver Island and I have bought it at Fairway (which I think is local) and Save-On Foods (Overwaitea).