Celiac & Weather

Man I've been a blog slacker lately. I've been really busy at work, which is good for me but bad for my blog and I didn't have a home computer until My mailman brought me my charger yesterday!! Now I can blog a little more often.


I've felt really run down the past couple of days and I was blaming it on me just being stressed out but yesterday My stomach started bothering me which led me to blame celiac disease. I know I've explained this before but you're about to hear it again.

Celiac Disease is something that I have that keeps my body from being able to break down the proteins that make up Wheat Gluten. Those proteins get stuck in the villi inside my intestines, which are the little hair like objects that absorb nutrience and vitamins. Once those villi get clogged, they are no longer able to absorb the good stuff I need, and I start feeling really run down and sick. It usually takes about 2 to 7 days after I ingest gluten for my stomach to start hurting depending on how much wheat gluten I ingest. I didn't ingest much this time so It wasn't too bad of an episode.

Anyway so in a few days I should be back to normal and until then I'll just have to deal with feeling rundown and headaches/bellyaches. At least I know what it was though...The delicious protein shakes I've been eating for dinner at the gym. I talked to the guy that makes them and apparently the Meal replacer is what has wheat in it, and he only puts like a table spoon in the shake so he said he could put extra whey in the shake instead of meal replacer and it would work just as well so I'll still get to enjoy those delicious German Chocolate Shakes!!

Today We're experience icy-rain and everyone is freaking out about it.  And when I say freaking out about it I mean that all the grocery stores are all out of milk and bread and the school and half of the businesses are shut down.  We don't get much snow in Arkansas, only ice.  We've had some pretty bad experiences with ice storms so everyone gets pretty excited when there is a chance of ice.  It's not bad on the roads at all right now but It's supposed to get worse so I guess I'm just outta luck on the milk and bread if we get iced in because I'm all out and I wasn't one of the ones who ran to the grocery store at the first sign of ice.

I thought I'd post some photos of the "horrible" weather we're having here.

The monstrous Icecicles on my roof.

This is the Court house across the street from my work.  The flags are frozen!

Seriously it's only like 33 degrees outside but it's raining and freezing to all the trees and fences and I don't understand the panic!

That's a piece of string that used to have a tag on it.  It's on my oudoor table and I'm too lazy to cut it off...made a pretty photo though..glad I didn't cut it :)

This fence row doesn't have as much ice on it as it did this morning because Birdie got her head stuck in it trying to get her ball that rolled under the fence and she wiggled so much all of the ice fell off.  She was rescued by her momma and is fine, embarrassed but fine.

I Seriously hope the trees don't get too much more ice because I have 5 HUGE oak trees in my front yard and I REALLY don't want to pick up sticks all spring.

Ok what a boring post...Sorry!  If you're experiencing bad weather for real be careful out there!!! 

Queen of all Give Aways!

***Congrats to ZeeMaid winner of the prize package from Betty Crocker and Dawn the winner of the Necklace!! Thanks to everyone who entered!***


I'm having a WONDERFUL Monday!!

Guess who was voted Homecoming Queen today!!!???

No...not me...

My Little Sister Melissa!! I'm so super excited for her!!! She is so excited too! I can't wait for her to go dress shopping and pick out a dress. I might pretend I'm in homecoming too so I can try on dresses... Do you think I could pass for a high school senior?? Oh that would be so fun.


I'm So excited that I think I will give some stuff away!! Last week Betty Crocker contacted me and asked if they could send me a Betty Crocker Gluten free snack pack...um yes please!!

This was on my porch this afternoon when I came home from lunch. I couldn't wait to tear into it!!



This was what was inside. Fruit Roll ups, Fruit Gushers, Fruit by the foot...Oh I've died and gone to heaven! AND it's ALL GLUTEN FREE! The Create a Bug gushers are Fat Free and only contain 60 calories. Birdie and Banjo tore into the yoyo and frisbee while Sean and I enjoyed a quick game of pickup sticks...all included with my package. I immediately ate two fruit roll ups and one fruit by the foot and had to have Sean hide the box so I wouldn't eat anymore.


The people at Betty Crocker want to give you a prize pack too!! AND...Even though I haven't quite launched my etsy website yet...it's still a work in Progress... I've decided to go ahead and include one of my stone Necklaces as part of the giveaway.



So leave me a comment and tell me what your favorite childhood snack and or toy was AND blog about my giveaway..and you'll be entered to win the Betty Crocker prize pack and A Super Cute Jenna Made Necklace! Or you can just be boring about it and leave your name only :) I'm going to leave it open until Next Monday so Lots of People can have a chance!! Have a Great Monday!!! I Know I am!

Click here to see the entire Blog Hop List....

Whoa Betty

Betty Crocker you will be the death of me!!! As most of you know I'm on a Gluten Free Diet because of My Celiac Disease. Gluten is what is in wheat flour. As long as I keep it out of my diet, I'm great! This eliminates most of the foods that would make my butt HUGE, like bread, cookies, cakes, you know, all the fattening stuff.

But now Betty Crocker has come out with a line of Gluten Free Foods. Now, there are a lot of gluten free recipes for cakes and cookies, but they are all a little dry, grainy, and crumble very easily.

Our Kroger and Our Wal-mart here in Benton hasn't had the Gluten-Free Betty Crocker line on the shelves yet, but Linda in the Claims department here at work saw them on her shopping trip in Little Rock and picked me up a box of Cookie mix and a box of Cake mix.

I made the cookies on Saturday and OH MY GOSH. I was in heaven. I'm a little addicted to Sugar, which sucks because too much of it will cause me to be hypoglycemic. But I didn't care this weekend! I ate half of the box of cookies before I baked them. Then the other half I ate for dinner. Can you believe that!!?? I ate Cookie Dough and Cookies for EVERY MEAL.

I felt very guilty because they were so good I couldn't believe they were gluten free! They weren't grainy, they didn't crumble, they were AMAZING. I can't wait to try the cake but I'm gonna wait at least a week so I can work off all the cookies I ate last weekend (yeah right) ha!

I went to bettycrocker.com and they have tons and tons of recipes that are all gluten free that you can make with the cake and cookie mixes. Like the Ooey-Gooey Rocky Road Bars...Just that title makes me hungry!
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 box (19 oz) Betty Crocker® Gluten Free chocolate chip cookie mix
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
3 cups miniature marsh mellows

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, mix butter, egg and vanilla until blended. Stir in cookie mix until soft dough forms. Press dough evenly in pan.
2. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until top is golden brown and center puffs slightly. Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Let stand 3 to 5 minutes or until chocolate begins to melt. Gently spread chocolate evenly over crust.
3. Set oven control to broil. Sprinkle nuts and marshmallows over melted chocolate. Broil with top 4 to 5 inches from heat 20 to 30 seconds or until marshmallows are toasted. (Watch closely; marshmallows will brown quickly.) Cool 30 to 45 minutes to serve warm or cool completely, about 2 hours. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. Store tightly covered.

Oh Lord help me stay away from fattening food!!! If you're on a gluten free diet...or even if your not, these are AMAZING try them now!

Applebutter Jeans

Things have been a little stressful in Jenna's world here lately. If you happen to think about it..slip me into your prayers!
Last night I went over to my In Laws for dinner. My MIL had made some Applebutter, which was a new little treat to my taste buds. I'm not quite sure but I believe it was made with Apples, butter, sugar, and a few teaspoons of HEAVEN. It was delicious! I was advised to use it on my pork chops and Oh...My...Gosh.... Angels sang when that sugary treat of goodness touched my tastebuds. I wonder what else I could put Applebutter on?! Chicken?? Muffins?? I should probably just skip the eating process and put the applebutter in the back of my jeans pockets because that's where it will be (on my bootay in the form of cellulite) if I don't just forget it ever existed. Oh... the joy of applebutter.

While I was there I decided to make a Dangerous Chocolate Cake. Someone had posted a blog about it a few days ago. I don't remember who or where, but it reminded me that I needed to make one. My MIL has the recipe so while I was over there last night I made myself a very dangerous chocolate cake.

MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

• 4 tablespoons flour
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking cocoa
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
• Small splash of vanilla

Notice I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten free all purpose baking flour.. it worked perfect!!

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT!

(They aren't kidding about the cake rising over the top, me and my in laws stood in front of the microwave like idiots taking bets on when it would fall. Just look at the picture above...it looks like the cake is about to explode)

Leann had gotten this e-mail a while back from a friend and we both wondered how long it took someone to figure this recipe out. Thank you whoever you were, from microwave chefs all over the world!

Here's the finished product! After it cooled I cut it in half and added icing. Delicious!

I Love you so much I hate you.

I have an ongoing "Love/Hate" relationship with food. Right now I hate it. Food makes me feel yucky all the time. I wish I didn't have to eat. That would be nice, but then again I would miss out on some pretty pleasureful tasting food. After a week a few weeks of Sugar Crashes and accidental Gluten contamination I have decided that I'm going on a diet. So here's my plan...

Instead of working today at work, I made a menu for myself.... I wonder if anyone from my work ever came across my blog if they would think I was a slacker...I'm really not, I work really hard most of the time ....but back to my plan...

I've made a low cal menu that consists of Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, & another snack. I'm going to go to the grocery store and get everything I need for a two weeks supply and I'm really excited about it. This is a very low maintenance "I don't have to cook" menu. Sean doesn't eat raw fruits or veggies...he's a meat and "taters" kind of guy...so he's gonna have to fend for himself in this new kitchen.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you what I was eating, and let you know how my "diet" was going cause you know they say when you make other people hold you accountable it works better. Anyway...

Keep me motivated blog friends!! Please! I need you...
Thanks a million!



1500 calories daily (Gah I'm gonna be Hungry!!)

Thursday:

Breakfast:
1/2 cup peaches
3 egg whites
1 piece of toast with 1 tsp margarine
1 cup milk

Snack:
3/4 cup of wheat free cereal
1 T of Peanut Butter

Lunch:
1 oz Grilled Chicken w/2T Parmesan cheese
2 T ketchup
1/2 cup cooked onions
1/2 cup Lima Beans

Snack:
1/2 cup %1 Milk
1/4 cup Wheat free cereal

Dinner:

Turkey sandwich w/
1 piece bread
1 oz turkey meat
1 slice fat free cheese
1 T mayo
1 cup carrots

Snack:
1/2 cup 1% milk
1/4 cup Wheat free cereal.

wow that sounds so nasty and healthy...and just so you know i LOVE cereal...that's why it's on my menu 8 times a day..

P.S. Sorry Sean..You're on your own buddy! I'll make sure to buy you some Pizza Pockets and fish sticks!

Milk & Cookies

So I decided I would start a diet this week and try to loose a little bit of excess belly fat by working on my calorie intake. I've failed miserably. I found these AMAZING cookies at Kroger, which is my new favorite place to grocery shop due to their awesome gluten-free selection.

These are Pamela's Mini Chocolate chip cookies, wheat and gluten free. I was hungry so I opened up the bag in Kroger and snacked on them while I shopped, before I knew it I'd eaten half the bag. I may see these cookies later on my love handles but it was totally worth it. Each bite was a little taste of heaven for me. I rarely get the pleasure of cookies having Celiac Disease because they just don't taste like the originals. Pamela's mini cookies were about as close as it's gotten to the real thing. Oh you just don't realize what have until you have it taken away. I miss you flour, especially in chocolate chip cookies. Dipped in milk. Ok I'm going to go get some more cookies before bed time.



Goodnight!

Informational Post

I awoke this morning to a loud noise that happened to be Banjo playing with his toys. Lazy Birdie was still asleep between my feet at the foot of the bed. I also awoke with an unwanted guest in my ear, nose, throat, and chest in the form of a sinus infection. Great. I got an antibiotic and maybe we'll get it wiped out. Until then everyone will have to hear me talk with b's at the end of every word and hear me cough up my lungs.

So I'm currently reading a few different books, one of which is Elizabeth Hassleback's "The G-Free Diet" Which is a great book for those of you who have Celiac Disease or are interested in finding out about it. Celiac Disease is becoming diagnosed more and more but we still have a long way to go before it's commonly known and correctly diagnosed. In this book Elizabeth mentions something that really made me think about the way our country operates. She thinks that the reason Celiac Disease is uncommonly known about and misdiagnosed is because there isn't a drug that cures Celiac Disease and the Drug Companies essentially own the Health care system and without a Medicinal Cure for Celiace Disease why promote awareness?

I halfway agree with her on this. I don't know much about the Drug industry but I do know that since there isn't a Drug out there to cure Celiac Disease then there isn't a lot of money being poured into an awareness campaign by Drug Companies. It makes you wonder, If there was a medicinal cure for Celiac Disease would less people go undiagnosed? Would less people suffer? Would Gluten free food be more accessible and cheaper for me? Tell me what you think...

My New Blog

So after checking out My cousins Blog for months and months I've decided that blogging looks way more fun than work. So it's Friday, and after a REALLY long week of dealing with one difficult account I've decided to "take the day off" and sit here to create a blog. Just don't let anyone at work have my blog address and I'll be fine.

My Hopes are that this blog will allow me to run into all kinds of people who can whine with me about Celiac Disease and how wonderful it is. For those of you who don't know what celiac disease is (which you all do because probably only three people are reading this, and they are all family) "Celiac Disease (CD) is a lifelong, digestive disorder affecting children and adults. When people with CD eat foods that contain gluten, it creates an immune-mediated toxic reaction that causes damage to the small intestine and does not allow food to be properly absorbed. Even small amounts of gluten in foods can affect those with CD and cause health problems. Damage can occur to the small bowel even when there are no symptoms present. Gluten is the common name for the proteins in specific grains that are harmful to persons with celiac disease. These proteins are found in ALL forms of wheat (including durum, semolina, spelt, kamut, einkorn and faro) and related grains rye, barley and triticale and MUST be eliminated." http://www.celiac.org/

Some long-term conditions that can result from untreated CD:

Iron deficiency anemia
Early onset osteoporosis or osteopenia
Vitamin K deficiency associated with risk for hemorrhaging
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies
Central and peripheral nervous system disorders - usually due to unsuspected nutrient deficiencies
Pancreatic insufficiency
Intestinal lymphomas and other GI cancers (malignancies)
Neurological manifestations
Gall bladder malfunction

Other associated autoimmune disorders:
Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH)
Insulin-dependent Type I Diabetes Mellitus
Thyroid Disease
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Liver Diseases

So, as you can see, Celiac isn't fun. I have an Iron Deficiency and no matter how hard I try to keep away from gluten I still get it Somewhere!! I'm positive I have lots of other vitamin deficiencies but I hate taking vitamins so I don't really have room to complain. A week ago last Wednesday I was diagnosed with Hypoglycemia too so that's another thing I have to look forward too, it's not too bad though, just more regulations to my ever shrinking diet.

On a positive note I'd like to give you a few pictures form Mine and Sean's wedding on June 7, 2008 and our honeymoon in Aruba.

As you can see we had quite a time. The picture of the rock stack is what all the tourist do for good luck in love and fertility. Sean refused to build one, so I did while he wasn't paying attention.

We had a blast except when Sean disappeared for a couple hours and I thought he was dead. I even went as far as trying to file a missing person's report with the hotel, but they wouldn't let me until 24 hours had passed. (I guess these things happen a lot) Apparently After the Casino Closed at 4 am Sean tried to comeback to the room but didn't have a key and I was already asleep in the room and never heard him. He decided he would go down to the beach and sleep on one of the comfortable hammocks. I woke up around 5 am and couldn't find him. I went to search the beach around 7 am, and around that same time, Sean decided to check to room and of course, we missed each other. So he decides I'm probably still asleep and that he would walk across the street to McDonalds and get a egg McMuffin. At this point I'm hysterical and frantically asking everyone I see if they've seen him. I decided that He either drowned while taking a midnight swim, or got mugged while trying to walk next door to another casino. around 9 am I called my parents and just cried and cried. I hadn't even been married a week and Sean was dead. As I'm on the phone with my parents, Sean walks in and can't figure out what is so wrong. He apologized and felt really bad and we decided we would just stick together for the rest of the week. (the next week I checked my debit card statement and found an 87 dollar charge from the hotel for calling the USA for about a 15 min. phone call)--thanks Sean. Other than that we had a wonderful time Snorkeling, Deep Sea Fishing, Sightseeing, Swimming, Para sailing, Gambling, Drinking, Eating, & Getting Massages. But after 8 days of gambling, swimming, fishing, and looking for Natalie Holloway (and Sean) , we had to come back to reality.

Right after we arrived home, Sean bought us a Wedding present....Banjo.

I've been in love with him ever since. He's now almost one and tomorrow he will have a new baby sister. We will pick her up in Conway and I Cannot Wait for him to have someone to play with!!

This is Banjo at 8 months old. (just so you know I will be using this blog as other mothers do, posting blogs about what their child did today, or how much they are growing. I consider Banjo my child and you will be updated on how much he is growing and what his daily activities are.)

So until the next post...

Jenna