Thanks!

To @Jenn for all of her wonderful comments and support!
I am working on a 'baking post' for later this week, due to your fabulous idea!

Sorry Guys

So, do you know what I have realized? I am TERRIBLE at blogging! I just do not know what to say. I have had writers cramp....really bad writers cramp.

         This blog was supposed to be about the day to day life of a teenager with Celiac. But I just do not know what to say! So, dear readers, is there anything YOU want to know about? Because I would be thrilled to answer!

Other than that, I have started a new regime for myself. A post AT LEAST four times a week, and that is if I am sick. Please hang in there, I am back on board!!!!

Halloween.

This will be my second halloween with celiac, and this one sure is looking a whole lot better than the last! Last year I was aboout 4 months into the diagnosse and not looking forward to not eating some of my favorite candies (KitKat, MilkyWay). Now, though, I am feeling better. I will be going trick or treating and you better believe I will be getting A LOT of candy. From Resees to Skittles, I will chow down on all (GF) varieties!

What is up with MilkyWay chocolate bars though? The company insists that the orignail kind contains gluten but MilkyWay Midnight does not. Any idea why that is? From what I can tell (and I have never had MilkyWay Midnight) they are virtually the same bar, but with different types of chocolate. And chocolate is supposed to be GF! Hmm...

Here are a couple different lists that I found of GF candy, but *of course* it is always good to double-check with the manufacturer directly. Happy Halloween!!

GF Candy List!

GF Candy List! (2)

BC and Me(2)

New Betty Crocker GF Bisquik!
 YAY!!

I cannot wait to try it! Have any of you guys and girls tried it? I have heard that the ratios you have to use are different from regual Bisquik. Is this true? Hm......

I cannot wait for pancakes. I am thinking of making them for snack. That feels odd, but I really love waffles, and I have not had them in over a year, so I think it would be worth it. :)

Sorry for not having a longer post! Expect one soon!

C.C.

To The Grandmother Who Commented

I am pretty sure that my grandparents run into this same kind of problem, and I will try to help you as best I can.

Fruits and Vegatables are great. I love them. But, I know that is pretty boring.
GF cookies are sold in most grocery stores, and since you can buy them pre-made and already packaged, there is no risk of contamination! The same goes for the wide variety of frozen GF entrees. If you would rather cook homemade though, the biggest challenge will be avoiding cross-contamination. Maybe your granddaughter could bring her own GF pots and cooking utensils when she comes? That way there will be minimal worries. Ask what she likes to eat. I know I enjoy pretty much all (GF) pasta. Cheesy pasta, veggie pasta, meaty pasta, plain-ish pasta. I LOVE IT ALL. Perhaps you and your granddaughter could work together on a meal that you both like and that is GF? Some ideas that I like follow..

Pasta(I told you that already)
Roast Chicken
Potatoes
   -Mashed, Baked, Double-baked, Tater-Tots...
Chicken Marsala
Turkey Tettrizzini
Beef Stew
Eggs
   -Omelets, Scrambled, Quiche....
Stuffed Peppers

**Most of your regualr recipes can be easily adapted to be GF. Just double-check all ingredients with your granddaughter or your son/daughter, to make sure they are GF.

Any more suggestions for her, readers??


UPDATE! Wow. Make sure to check out the comments for more absolutely fantasic ideas. Thanks for the added help!!

GF DOES NOT EQUAL VEGAN. OR ALL NATURAL.

The title says it all.
Example 1:
So, I am sitting at my lunch table today, and my music teacher walks through the cafeteria. To me, he says: "What are you eating?", (I am eating PB&J on a corn patty), and I answer, "PB&J on a corn patty". He says "Oh. Why not just bread?". Since, I really almost never feel like explaining about CD and my intolerance, I answer, something along the lines of "I am allergic to gluten." My music teacher then goes on for an extended period of time about how his daughter eats 'Lara' bars, and those are all-natural, and could he bring one in for me to try? They are all-natural! At this point, I had to make some excuse to leave, because I didn't have the heart to tell him that 'all-natural' and GF are not the same thing, and 'all-natural' often times does not mean GF.

Example 2:
I am over at my friends house, and a babysitter is over for her younger siblings. I have brought my own food. The sitter asks about it, the usual "why do you have your own food" type-question. I answer with my usual"I am allergic to gluten" type-spiel. The sitter then goes on to describe, in detail, her friend's vegan diet. Apparently, I should look into vegan-ism (is that a word? Spellcheck does not seem to think so), because it is "Full of whole grains, like wheat!". I am sorry, forgive me, but I had to respond to that. I was very polite, though. A lot of, "Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley, blah de blah de blah."

Thank you.
That is all.

C.C.

Dreams

That time has come. I am now officially a Celiac. Because now, in my dreams, I eat GF. Up until now, even though I eat GF all day every day, I have been eating 'normal' in my dreams. That is not to say I am particularly longing for non-GF foods, it is just in my dreams I was not a Celiac. I had never had stomachaches or anything. Again, I am not dreaming like 'oohh I wish.....' dreaming, just I go to sleep dreaming. But, last night, I wake up and realize I had been eating GF cookies in my dream. And checking to make sure they were GF, and doing all sorts of other GF things. Like, "did you use a different strainer?", and "Sorry, I would love to buy some of your Boy Scout Popcorn, but I have a lot of 'allergies'." Crazy? Yes it is. However, I like to think that now I can make myself some sort of badge or something. Because now, I AM OFFICIAL. (Don't ask me why being diagnosed for a year and a half and always eating GF does not make you official. I do not know).

C.C.

Chips

Chips.Chips.Chips.I love Chips. And, thank goodness, most chips are GF! Cape Cod chips are GF, (at least the Five Cheese, Salt And Vinegar, Cracked Pepper, and regular varieties. I eat a lot of those. :) I have experienced some trouble (possible contamination) with Lay's though. Their customer service was also not particularly helpful. So anyone know about the gluten status of Lay's/Frito-Lay's? Thank you!

Chips. Chips. Chips. I love Chips.

C.C.

GF Got Cool When We Weren't Looking

I am not quite sure how this happened, but it did. Gluten-Free is apparently, the newest trend. All the stars are going GF, and all the magazines have cover articles about this 'fad'. This may sound completely crazy, but I find that a bit annoying.  For so many people out there, it is not a fad. It is something that was forced upon them. I know I did not want to go GF, but I, like a lot of you, had no choice. So when I see that this celebrity and that talk-show host are going GF not because they are Celiac but because that is what is hot in Hollywood, it really bugs me. I, for one, do not get the appeal of a GF lifestyle unless you are a Celiac and that is your "cure". The food is more expensive, it does not taste even close to as good as gluten-y foods, and in most cases is WORSE FOR YOU! So why anyone is calling this 'The Diet Of The Century' is beyond me. I mean, just the other day, I made a recipe for GF cookies that used FOUR STICKS OF BUTTER. 4!! And it made less than one cookie sheet's worth of cookies.
Also, my blood heats up when I see an article, or an ad on TV for a new Gluten-Free food. "The market for GF is booming due to Hollywood's interest!", they say. But Hollywood is still not their biggest consumer base. We are. The ordinary, working-class Celiacs. CELIACS. Not people who go GF because it is'cool', CELIACS. The only reason the GF market is 'booming' is because the companies are trying to get noticed by Hollywood, and thus get some publicity and free marketing. Why aren't we good enough to give them free marketing and publicity? Why, instead of the recent spike in Celiac diagnoses, did it take the Hollywood crowd to motivate companies to make better GF foods?

Sorry for that rant. I am done now. (For now)
Thank you for listening,
C.C.


PS. I did not post yesterday or Friday, but that is because a)I was sick-ish, and b) I think 5 posts a week is plenty. :)

French Fries

The salt. The flavor. The yumminess. And the oh-so infrequently GF! :) So, who else does it drive crazy to be driving along, and see a fast food place advertising their fries, or chicken, or burgers? That drives me crazy. To be completely honest, I don't really miss the burgers, but the FRIES! I love fast food fries. Love them, I tell you. LOVE THEM. But, because the industry is usually to miserly to put in separate fryers for the breaded chicken and the fries, they are losing a growing customer base. (Poop on you, fast food!) So we make do with the bagged, frozen, fries you buy at the grocery store. I do know that Wendy's fries are GF, so that is very helpful. Mainly though, I just get some sort of cold, creamy beverage(milkshakes, frappes), when we must go to fast food joints. Pack a lunchbox is my creed.

C.C.

Meatballs

Meatballs. The perfect compliment to spaghetti. Good GF ones are out there, I am sure, but they have remained evasive.  We have not found pre-made GF meatballs, but have tried making some of our own using Gillian's GF Bread Crumbs. We will not try that again, if you know what I mean. The bread 'crumbs' turned out to be more like bread 'dust' and made the meatballs grainy and gross. One thing we have turned to is dinner sausage. Spaghetti and Sausage lacks the ring of Spaghetti and Meatballs, but we are not in a perfect world, and as such S&S will do. Our favorites are the Al Fresco pre-cooked ones, and I know those are GF, but am not sure about their other products.
We have a really yummy (albeit spicy) tomato sauce, but I cannot find it currently :)
So here is this one, which is also pretty good.
RECIPE

Birthdays!

So, my friend's birthday is this Friday, and I have agreed to bring a birthday/dessert-ish item to school to share at lunch. I would like to do something creative that could be made in individual portions, (cupcakes, cookies, something like that). She loves food, is turning 14, and obviously it is fall, so I would like to try to work with a theme like fall or food. Maybe. Also, it needs to be GF! I have a lot of homework, so nothing too complex. Any ideas?
What do you do for your birthdays? Tell me in the comments and I will feature some of your thoughts soon!

C.C.

Pizza

I used to love pizza. Any and all pizza. I would eat it for lunch and dinner for multiple days in a row. But then, after I was diagnosed, I stopped liking it. It stopped being appealing to me. I am so thankful for that. Because if pizza still seemed good to me, it would really be awful when we ordered some from the local pizza joint. I would have to look at it, and smell it, and want it, and know I could never have it. Like, ever. Never. And Heaven knows I feel like that enough of the time, so to not like pizza is just about one of the most amaing things. Especially because I have had a few GF pizzas in my time, and they are...umm... let's go with not so great. Maybe it's because I don't want the pizza that it tastes bad to me, but I have had only two good GF pizza's, and both of them were from the same place. If you are ever on the West Coast, you should check out Amici's East Coast Pizzaria, crazy name I know, because they are on the West Coast, but they made delectable GF pizza and I didn't get a stomachache, which means THEY WERE ACTUALLY GF!! WOO!

C.C

Frrrrozen

I love frozen GF foods. They are so helpful! For instance, if I am going over to a friends house, or to a party, I can just grab food out of the freezer and take it with me. Then, I can let it thaw out or store it in my friends freezer until meal time! It is soooo much easier(for me and my mom) than having to make something extra for me. My siblings are not so fond of the frozen items however. Because I can just grab a cupcake for a party (now that we found frozen GF cupcakes), we do not make an entire cake for me to bring! That was how we used to do it, which invariably left my siblings with some cake!
Another great thing about frozen food is how you can find them anywhere! We were vacationing this summer in a different part of the U.S. and to cut costs would eat in our hotel room every night. This was great for the rest of my family (all non-celiac) because they could just cook some pasta in a cheap little pot we bought, but it would have been such a hassle to make two different pastas in two different pots using two different strainers and two different spoons in the TINY little kitchen in our suite that we would just go out to any old supermarket, head straight to the frozen isle and pick up some dinner for yours truly! There was such variety too! One night I had Fettuccine Alfredo, the next, a burrito, and, on subsequent nights, I had everything from chicken to chili! It was great, and super fun to "order"/pick what I would have the night. It was kind of like a restaurant that was entirely GF!!

C.C.

BC And Me

I have found a new love. Betty Crocker. And her GLUTEN FREE LINE OF MIXES! I make the cookies at least twice a month, and the chocolate cake is a go-to for birthdays. The brownies are fudgy or crisp, depending on your taste. They rock.
I do have to say one thing, which is that the yellow cake leaves a little to be desired. It is dry and lacks the flavor of the other mixes, but I figure with enough buttercream frosting anything is delish! The same went for the chocolate cake, until we figured out how to make it amazing. And the simple way to "make it amazing" is to combine one box brownie mix with one box chocolate cake mix. Add all the ingredients, in all the amounts noted on the back of the boxes, but mix them all together. Then bake! Sure, you end up with a little more cake, but is that such a bad thing? I mean, I personally believe that extra cake is not a bad thing!

What's your take on Betty Crocker's GF mixes? Love 'em? Hate 'em?

C.C.

My Story, And The Story of Celiac Cake

About 3 years ago, I became a self-declared baker. I took on anything and everything. I loved it. The dough, the sugar, the smells all made me smile. I would make gift baskets with 10 or more homemade sweets in them over the holidays, and I would conquer a new cake design for family birthdays. I had discovered something I loved, and something I could do, and do well.

About 1 and a half years ago, after two years of stomach aches, stunted growth, and unexplained, unhealthy, weight loss, I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. This sucked. Royally. Royal suckage. Over two days, I had gone from food-restriction free to reading every. single. label.

After trying some of the Gluten-Free products out there, I was even more mad. One would think that with all the butter and sugar that goes into these GF recipes, someone could turn out something a little better than chalk or Styrofoam. And that awful aftertaste! A mix of baking soda and...and...puke. GROSS! So I figured is some big, wealthy company couldn't turn out a decent BREAD, let alone cupcake, my baking days were over. And they were for a while, because not only are the ingredients ridiculously expensive, everything, no matter how good it smelled in the oven, came out tasting like dirt. Or what I would imagine dirt would taste like. I've never actually had dirt so I'm not sure, but one can assume...although you know what happens when you assume...

Over this summer, I started looking up recipes again, trying new things. And I found some cool stuff. Some GOOD stuff. And I thought, I wish I could take that year back. Because I missed out. And I am SO done missing out. So, I want to give that year of eating  cooking/baking back to some other newly diagnosed Celiac. Because, shocking as it may seem, Life Goes On. So power through.

That, essentially, is what Celiac Cake is about. I am not some star going GF because it's trendy or cool in Hollywood now, I am just the average person being forced to change their lifestyle. So let us share in the suckage, and...

Cheers to us!

C.C.

PS, There is one thing I forgot to mention. I'm 13.