Cooking Strike and Probiotics Work

I’ve been having strange dreams about ready made food and lamenting the ability that others have to just eat what they want whenever they want. With more get to gethers and being away from the home lately I’ve gotten mildly glutened on several occasions. Boy, what I’d do for a Stouffers lasagna or a cup of noodle that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. As a result I’ve been on a cooking strike. Not really, but my creative energy, my small bit of determination (when it comes to meals) is “gone with the wind”. I wish I had started out with a love of all things kitchen and then discovered the celiac. Unfortunately the kitchen, on most days, is the last place I want to be.

What have you been eating lately? Rice cakes are myfaithful friend. So are nacho’s and Tinkyada pasta. How about you. What do you do when you want a TV dinner or frozen hash browns?

As a small aside I did re-discover that probiotics can help reduce the negative effects of getting glutened. Twice in the last couple weeks I’ve had to rush home and take a couple tablets loaded with healthy bacteria and then guzzle tons of water. It seems to speed up the digestion process and while it doesn’t stop the discomfort it definitely helps!

I got gluten-ed!

I hate it when that happens and these days I am much better at knowing ingredients so I rarely have problems with accidentally gluten-izing myself. 

BUT…

Yesterday Matt and I got to go out with Little Sis (Callie) and her husband Jason so we jumped at the chance to get away once as adults!  Don’t get me wrong, we love to hang out with our kids, but we haven’t taken time together, alone, since a month before Pee Wee was born and she is now 9 mo old.  Not to mention Cal and Jason are a couple of pretty cool “kids” (ha JK) themselves.

We started off the night racing through downtown Spokane in their sporty little Scion while I told a story that should have taken 2min but I managed to stretch it out at least a half an hour.  I’m the queen of making a short story long! I can’t help myself.  To further illustrate that  point, we skidded into the parkade and dashed up the elevator just in time to watch the last trailer and sat our little rumps down for Transformers 2.  I’m trying to think of the last movie I saw in the theatre and I can’t think of a single one.  Not to mention, I’m sure it has been even longer since I’ve actually made it for the opening scene!

A quick note on the movie. While it was enjoyable for us I have two sons at home waiting anxiously for the word on when they get to go.  My answer… “when you are 20!”  It had more language and provocative scenes than the 1st one.  There were also a couple pretty, might I say, greusome (alien speaking, hard to discribe) scenes as well.   Mikaela (Megan Fox) wore the same boob job flaunting top and clean white pants almost the entire show and had quite a few pin up shots just for the ratings.  Quite a few, as in every 5 minutes Little Sis and I were exchanging glances as Mikaela posed with pouty lips or long legs contorted in strange positions.  Ya, she pretty much lost the tough girl act in this one and turned into the trophy girlfriend.

So, for the kids- NO, not on your lives, for us- okay I had fun but then as I said before it has been nearly a year since they’ve “let us out of the house” so we aren’t hard to please.  Action, laughs, some sort of story… it works for me.

Sorry, that was more than a quick note.

About the gluten…

After the movie we walked over to PF Changs.  I was pleasantly surprised by a full page gluten free menu.  Had I not been warned, I would have also been surprised by the high prices but then, we are use to Wendy’s being a big splurge.

All four of us decided to eat gluten free to make things easier.  We had Egg Drop Soup, Chicken Lettuce Wraps (which were my favorite), Changs Spicy Chicken, Lemon Chicken and a shrimp and snap pea dish I can’t remember the name of.  For dessert the guys each had a gluten infested mini shot glass pie but they were exceptionally careful to wash hands, guard their forks and all the standard things that husbands who’ve had to live with food allergic wives know how to do.  Sis and I shared a Chocolate Truffle Dome beautifully presented with various berries.

We stuffed ourselves and happily made it home to round up the kids and sleep off all the goodness.

This morning though, I knew I’d been gluten-ed.  I texted my sis with a sad face “I got gluten!” She wrote back and confirmed that she too had not felt well.

It’s a sad thing because they have a great menu.  I won’t say that I’m never eating there again because, after all, it is an “at your own risk” adventure any time you eat in an unfamiliar kitchen but I was really hoping to make it out of there with a new favorite.  It’s just as well since at $20 a plate I can only expect it to be a once a year event.  Next year (ha ha) I’ll be sure to remind them that gluten free for me is an allergy not just a preference.  Maybe I can write them a better review next time.

I did learn something today in my discomfort, probiotics actually do help the symptoms.  I had never tried taking anything besides calcium, Tums type antacids (which are only a placebo for me) and today I tried 1/4 teaspoon of probiotics in water on an empty stomach.  That wasn’t difficult since I haven’t been able to eat anything.  After only about 15min I wanted to eat and have had better luck since taking it. 

I also heard that taking probiotics before eating out may help with accidental cross contamination issues.  I think I will start taking them all the time.  I do give some to my littlest for her digestion but I hadn’t gotten around to getting myself in that habit.  For the best results find a brand that is milk free as well as gluten and soy free.

To sum it up, beward of women with perfectly white pants during alien battles and definately try probiotics if you get gluten-ed.