To Gluten Or Not To Gluten

That is the question.

I've been seriously considering this for the past few days, because within those past few days...ok, ok it's more like the past few weeks, my stomach has been hurting.

Am I just combining food badly?

A few days ago, when my stomach was reeeeally aching, I asked my hubby if his stomach was sore and he said "no." So now I knew, it must be me!

I'm not sure if blaming gluten is the right place to start, but I figured it's probably the most likely answer and have tried to cut back (minus, making and eating better banana bread).

This cut included first and foremost with bread; I switched to a vegan bread for when I do decide to eat the stuff. And last night we made pizza using a spelt flour pizza crust that I got from the Farmer's Market yesterday...which was soooo good!

I think the more I monitor, the better chance I have of reducing the stomach soreness.

Sore stomach = not-so-happy Char.

I'm seriously considering starting a food journal as well, so if my stomach does start to hurt, I can look back and see what I ate earlier. And make the change!

The joys of having a fussy stomach!

Are there any foods that upset your stomach?
For others who have problems with gluten, are there any resources on the internet that you look to? Or have any suggestions? =)

Now, it's off to do some chem (goal #7) and also, today's the day to introduce the new food challenge item. It's...

endive!!


I'll hopefully have a (successful) post here by Saturday. And, if anyone has tips for working with endive, I'd greatly appreciate that as well. I'll try and do my homework better this week, than I did last week with molasses (which totally stared me down in the grocery store yesterday!)

Happy Sunday!

New Food Challenge

I know in my goals I posted that I would introduce one new food into my meal(s) each week and I haven't really been keeping on top of this one. So, in light of not appearing to follow through...this my attempt to follow through! I'm going to create a tab, called my 'New Food Challenge.' Each week I'll attempt to eat something new; here's the general ruling for it:

a) by new food, I mean something that I'm not familiar with, or let's say, something I haven't eaten within the past 5 years OR something I think I may not like/haven't liked in the past
b) this is no longer limited to just fruits and veggies; it can be anything
c) this is by no means to create stress, but to have fun with food and get creative!

There you have it. Should be simple and fun!

This week's challenge: molasses.

I'm currently using it in a glaze for my salmon as we speak!

Next plan: make oatmeal pumpkin bars using said food challenge ingredient!

I've never worked with molasses before so any pointers on what works well with it would be greatly appreciated!

Are there any new foods that you would like to try?
What are some new foods that you've just heard of?