To Wheat, or Not to Wheat...

I'm doing an experiment.  It all started with a giant bowl of pasta.  Followed by weird stomach pains.  I don't really know if these pains were caused by the size of the bowl, by the pasta itself, or maybe they were just coincidental.  But it happened a few times... hence my experiment.

I'm attempting to go 2 weeks without consuming gluten. 

THIS IS HARD!!

Do you know what gluten is?  I knew it as "that stuff that makes bread dough...doughy."
But it's also a magic ingredient that's in just about everything!  Cookies, chicken broth, soy sauce, cookies, cookies... did i mention cookies?

So, in preparation, i did my research and stocked up on some gluten free cookie supplies.  Here's what you need to know:  packaged gluten free cookies are pretty gross.  Homemade gluten free stuff is DELICIOUS!  I even found a "cookie" that I can claim is breakfast.  Here's a scone recipe, right off the package of baking mix!  IT'S DELICIOUS!  (I'll be honest, the only scones I ever baked before were weight watchers... and therefore a huuuuge dissapointment.  but not these!!)

Here's how good these are: I went to take a picture of them, and ended up eating half of one, even though I wasn't hungry!! Mmmm.

Click Below for Recipe 

Praying for a good harvest

This coffee is so disappointing!  I could say that about most of my food over the last 24 hours, since I'm "eating healthy" after a weekend full of cookies and holiday food.  Then again, I had a hot dog for dinner.  Guess I'm taking the gradual road to eating healthy... also, my hot dog was not disappointing.  Neither were the cookies.  Have you seen the commercials for the "whonu" cookies??  They're pretty good!  But Husband ate half the box in one sitting like he usually does with Oreo's (how is he not fat?).... we'll see how he handles all that fiber he didn't know he was eating, muahaha.   

Speaking of fiber, my garden isn't dead yet!  It looks dead, but I've got a few green tomatoes and baby peppers, so there's life yet!  Look at this guy I found while cutting down my spent sunflowers this weekend!  I never saw a praying mantis disguised as a stick before...

And here's what my sunflowers looked like!  They were ENORMOUS!!

Gaviota, gaviota

Here's a story about what happened to me and my sandwich this past weekend:

Mmm, Sandwich!

 

Just Chillin, taking it all in.

And here we go!

Ugh!  I think I just got attacked with a beach umbrella!

Oh my god no, it's alive!  And it wants my SANDWICH!

This is ridiculous!

Go away you jerk! It's my sandwich!

oh MAAAAN!

That's when family stepped in, while I ran screaming toward the seaweed infested waters to cleanse my hair of seagull cooties.  Then, since I was still hungry, I ripped off portions of my sandwich highly likely to contain seagull cooties, and proceed to eat the remainder of my sandwich under protection of an umbrella and family guard, because this was no normal seagull.  It was ENORMOUS, and when husband threw a sandal at it, it barely flinched.  No fear.  I think I finally met someone who wants cookies more than I do!

It's late. I feel old.

Monday, 9pm.
2 glasses of wine, no dinner (but I did have 2nd lunch)
Close my eyes on the train... enter "the spins".
I'm the only 28 year old I know who gets tipsy from 2 glasses of wine, at a work function no less!

This reminded me of a story, but I forgot what it was... So here's another one!

A few weeks ago, husband and I took some friends to the U2 concert, as a birthday present. It was really hot out, but there was a lovely breeze at the new meadowlands stadium (which I'm allergic to, but that's a story for another time). We brought some subways to tailgate, and had some beer and hot dogs (because I condider it blasphemous to go to a stadium without consuming beer and hot dogs!). Once settled into our seats, Husband and i got into a very serious conversation about who knows what, paused, did the wave, continued. I pointed out that we'd just had our very own "when harry met sally" moment just in time for us to resume serious conversation, pause, wave again, resume serious conversation, crack up laughing! it was wonderful!! I'm so proud to have a husband who appreciates these special movie moments the way i do. Later on, it got kind of hot way up in our nose bleed seats, but I took a nice refreshing shower when the drunken idiot behind us spilled his beer on my head.

http://movieactors.com/actors/brunokirby.htm

Mmm, Chemicals!

What is it that makes blue box mac and cheese soooooo delicious?  (Chemicals!  Boooo!) 

In honor of giving my mother in law a "real" american meal that I loooooved as a child, I went all out last night, not only did we have mac and cheese from the box, but we put hot dogs in it too, kiddie style.  Delicious! Only thing missing was a little ketchup, but I thought that was taking things too far.  And ok, i'll admit it... the adult in me came through, I mixed in some (lots of) broccoli to cut the guilt, and only put 1/4 of the recommended amount of butter (seriously? 1/2 stick of butter per box?  And does anybody really only prepare 1 box at a time?)

It may look gross, but you just need to look at our eyes to tell it was delicious.

PS - Don't fear, this is not the only american food I've exposed my mother-in-law too.  We've also had lots of hamburgers and grilled vegetables, chili, sandwiches, salads, lasagna made with no cook noodles and sauce from a jar, and a variety of other "short cut" or "improvised from the pantry" recipes.  But we forgot to have meatloaf or taco salad!  Oh no!  MMmmmm, taco salad... is it too early to start thinking about lunch?