Last night's No Starch Stirfry Cauliflower, broccoli, a red pepper past it prime, mushrooms, carrots, asparagus, and a tablespoon of walnuts, sauteed in a tablespoon of olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. Cook it til you're bored. Include onions and add gf soy sauce and serve over rice for a more traditional stirfry. Personally, I'm working on minimizing grains, and the great taste is driven by the veggies. Make a lot and enjoy! I was so taken with the attractiveness of my dinner last night that I snapped a picture of it and shared in on Twitter in a short conversation with @gfdougie (who also has a helpful blog: http://glutenfreetip.com/). I was flattered when he asked for the recipe, because it is essentially just fresh vegetables cut up and and a tablespoon of chopped walnuts sauteed in a little olive oil in a non-stick pan with some Trader Joe's smoked sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, and sometimes (but not last night) I throw on some nutritional yeast. If you are thinking "I could never take the time to chop all those veggies," here are some tricks:
1) Buy them already cut up if possible. Produce Junction sells bags of broccoli florets. It's easy to find mushrooms already sliced. A nutritionist friend of mine suggested this to me a long time ago, and I felt strangely freed from the guilt of not doing all the chopping myself. 2) Since many fresh veggies are fine eaten raw, chop them big (which goes much faster) and cook them longer or shorter depending on your patience level. This won't work for folks who have trouble with raw veggies, but I find them most enjoyable when there is still some structure left to them. Not crunchy exactly, but that place between crunchy and soft. "Cook it til you're bored" is a common phrase in our house for recipes. 3) See my blog post on Beans and Greens (another common go-to dinner in my house) for other ideas for seasonings to keep things interesting. Keep it easy! I've recently become a BIG FAN of Kind Bars -- nutty and fruity and I want to eat them like candy bars. Hundreds of calories consumed in less than a minute. I need to stay away from them. Fortunately there are many options. Since we're loaded with post-Easter hardboiled eggs around here, I thought it would be a good time to share my video with tips for fast, easy, cheap, healthy gluten free snacks and breakfasts. Your tips? Scott, Sara and me in the midst of a terrific day. It's back-to-work Monday after a beautiful, fun, family-filled holiday. By the end of yesterday evening, my friend (and third cousin once removed!) Sara and I were commiserating about our lack of enthusiasm for the coming work week. Later in the evening, My younger son Scott was also feeling sad and though the boys have one extra day off before school starts, there was a general feeling of let down and blah about the place.
Scott tends to have fears about things, so while we were on our evening walk with the dog in our sedate and picturesque suburban neighborhood, I gave him some of my sage advice, taken from a Xena episode (and those people borrowed heavily from MANY sources): We eventually become what we pretend to be. It's also the inscription on the plaque from my martial arts instructors and pals when I got my black belt in Tae Kwon Do in 1997. I suggested to Scott that when he feels frightened that he pretend he's really the bravest boy around and that he can handle anything. By the end of the walk we both had conquered the fear of barking dogs and on-coming vehicles and hastily-approaching pedestrians and were laughing and comparing our superhero costumes, blatantly disregarding Edna Mode's "No Capes" advice. Even Bugsy the schnauzer had one. It helped and we were both feeling a little better. This morning while out on my run I remembered that the 27th anniversary of my coming out of the closet is this week. I can so vividly remember how scared and freaked out I was. I didn't have a picture in my head of what a happy gay person looked like, so in the vaccuum of it, I conjured all kinds of unpleasant outcomes for myself. If I had known then that my life now would be as healthy and happy as it is and that I would have a wonderful spouse and kids, I wouldn't have been worried at all. Finally, I reminded myself of all of the gifts in my life: An Abundance of Love, Family, Health, Purpose. What's to feel blue about? I'm putting all these things into my strategy for finding the joy in this Monday: 1) Come from a place of gratitude and accept the contribution and learning from my current situation 2) Remember where I want to be and imagine how it will feel when I make it my reality 3) Act as if I've already reached it and enjoy the experience I hope you had a great weekend too, and that your week ahead is bright. Technology is amazing. And to answer a couple of questions: 1) Is the kitchen at the top of my website my actual kitchen? Yes it is! Well, in my mind anyway. Got to have something to shoot for, right? My current kitchen is featured in the video below. 2) What kind of camera do I use for my videos? Camera, shamera. It's my iPhone! I can upload directly to YouTube. Amazing. 3) Why haven't I figured out to turn the phone sideways so that it's oriented on the screen correctly? Ah, but I have! I just haven't demonstrated my learning. Plus I need to do an experiment to figure out which way to turn it so that I don't do a video all upside down. 4) What editing software do I use? None! You'll note that they are all expertly done in one take. If I really goof up, I start over. It's sort of the difference between stage and screen. No telling what kind of excitement might unfold in this "live" format! 5) Is this all I do all day? No! Not yet, anyway. Mostly I go to a day job and then I spend meaningful time with my family on the evenings and weekends! And I work out! But still, I want to do this more. Thanks for visiting! Oh, and check out my video tips on how to live happy and gluten free even if you share your space with gluten-eaters. I made and posted some new videos on easy gf living. Find them here on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/clairebakerOK?feature=mhee
Let me know if there are other topics that would be handy to hear about. I'm happy to share how I deal with any particular challenge regarding easy gluten-free living. Frankly, if it's not easy, I won't be sticking with it, so I figure out a way to live with ease, which makes me happy, and I don't mind having celiac. |
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