Losing the Gluten

I have extreme eczema on my hands.  It gets so bad that I can't straighten the fingers on my right hand without splitting the palm-side of my knuckles and creating open sores that keep me from doing just about everything a mother with four children should be doing.

What does this have to do with anything? 

Food!

Food allergies, to be exact.

I'm openly admitting that I am going against online advice of not having myself tested for food allergies before cutting foods out of my diet.  I have my reasons and they mostly have to do with money and my fear of needles.  But I'm also an adventurer, and I'm willing to experiment.

I found out that gluten intolerance, which a doctor suggested might be my problem a few years ago but I didn't want to listen, has several symptoms that I'd like to eradicate from my life.  Those include: digestive problems, headaches, fatigue, depression, acne, eczema, and (the one that scared me to death) miscarriage.

Having endured two miscarriages in the last year, I'm willing to be a little excessive in my menu planning.

So my food plans have been altered the last couple of weeks.  I'm testing out a gluten intolerance.  Yeah, no bread or cookies.  Hello?  Those are pretty much my favorite foods! 

So I have to get a little creative with my menus. 

Less bread, more fruits and vegetables.

Here is a sample of a gluten free dinner we had last week:

Summer Vegetable Quesadillas

Place one corn tortilla on your frying pan (no oil necessary).  Sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese.  Add some chopped summer veggies (I used squash, zucchini, onion, some sort of pepper from my sister's garden, and tomato).  Add another light layer of cheese and then a second corn tortilla.  Carefully flip (good luck with that) and then serve.  Top with fat free sour cream and/or salsa.

It was really good.  As long as you're sparing with the cheese, it's really not a bad caloric dinner or lunch. 

Going without gluten hasn't been too hard..... yet.  But I do have to be aware to keep gluten free snacks on hand.  Otherwise those cookies for the kids' lunches begin to call my name and I have to be very rude and ignore them. 

I don't like being rude.

Leftover Easter Eggs

I am growing tired of hard boiled eggs.  I only had 3 dozen but my mom did 4 dozen of her own and has shared.  I'm tired of them.

They are an easy snack and since I don't like the yolk, it is a very low calorie snack for me.  But I'm tired of them.

We've had potato salad, egg salad sandwiches/wraps, deviled eggs, plain hard boiled eggs.  I've put them in my tuna noodle casserole (I actually liked the addition there) and on salads.  I'm getting tired of them.

Am I repeating myself?

So when I found the following recipe, I was intrigued.  Good reviews even though it sounds yucky.  The best part ... you aren't even supposed to realize you are eating Easter Eggs!  Fabulous.  So I made them.

My verdict ... yum.  Yum, yum, and yum.  They were easy.  They used up some of those Easter Eggs.  You can't taste the Easter Eggs.  You can eat the dough without worrying about salmonella because there are no raw eggs!  And, because I made 60 little cookies instead of 12 giant ones, I can eat three for less than 300 calories. Score!

If you still have a plethora of eggs and having cookies around won't hurt your healthiness plans, give it a try.  I doubt you'll be sorry!  Oh, and I cut the number of chocolate chips in half ... two cups would have been overkill for me and mine.  I also substituted a third of the white flour with wheat flour to grain these puppies up a bit.

Hard Boiled Egg Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), cut into small chunks
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and diced finely
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine flour and butter in a food processor and process until mixture is the texture of small crumbs. 
3. Add the salt and baking soda and process until just combined.
4. Add sugars, vanilla, and boiled eggs. Pulse again until mixture comes together.
5. Add chocolate chips and combine by hand using a wooden spoon or clean hands. Egg whites may still be visible in the dough but will disappear as the cookies bake.
6. Make golf ball sized balls of cookie dough and place them on parchment lined baking sheets. Flatten balls of dough slightly with your hand.
7. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are lightly browned.
8. Remove cookies from oven and let them sit on the cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

*Disclaimer: Although we aim to keep this website about health and exercise and good nutrition, I'm not sure that this recipe follows that premise.  To try and remedy that, the entire batch makes about 4100 calories.  Divide that by the number of cookies you made and you'll get your per cookie calorie count.  There.  Does that make this post qualify now?*