It has been a lovely week here in southeast Michigan. The weather warmed up enough to melt a lot of the snow, though people tell me that it is only a teaser. Still, I have had the urge to be outside and have started a bit of garden work today...mainly clean up from the winter. The grass looks beaten. It is brown and the ground is still frozen pretty solid. My mulching experiment has done nothing so far..the cardboard has not broken down yet.
My need for green was so strong that I went out and bought a couple of houseplants and a set of small pots and herb seeds for growing indoors.
One of the loveliest things about this late winter- early spring time of year are the Cardinals. The line up on the back fence...their red pointed heads bobbing around while they take turns at the suet feeder.
It reminds me of how I have been feeling these past few weeks on my path. I experience the impulse to 'clean up' myself and my environment...inner and outer. I did not have a completely successful week this past week. I did not really cook much last weekend and that makes a huge difference in the success of my week. I ate out quite a bit this week and while I did not get into a lot of gluten, I got into enough of it to experience some side effects from both it and from dairy. So it seems official that I am sensitive to them both.
My ill effects included the familiar extreme drop in energy with the need to sleep following ingestion of wheat flour, and GI symptoms as well as headaches. I tried to switch to drinking my morning coffee black but just did not enjoy it as much.
I have tried a few new products this week: Silk soy coffee creamer, Bob's Red Mill GF pancake mix and Kinnekinnik frozen gluten-free english muffins (tapioca). The English muffins are worth the expense (roughly $2.00 per muffin). They are wonderful and I have no idea how they get them to be crisp and soft (not powdery). They are so wonderful (and expensive) that they are a great product to purchase for something special or for GF company. Really excellent. I found them in the Natural Food section of Kroger in the frozen section. I have also seen them at Whole Foods.
The Bob's red mill GF pancake mix is a bit of a miss for me. There is something funny in the taste of the pancakes...anyway, it just doesn't work for me. Plus, I experienced post prandial drowsiness after eating just 2 small ones...so they must be very high in sugars. I am looking forward to finding a good recipe for the homemade variety if anyone knows of one.
Finally the Silk Soy coffee creamer (purchased because the Almond milk was revolting in coffee and because I was just not satisfied with black coffee) is also revolting. It is actually sweetened with something that is just not right with coffee. Obviously trying to simulate the natural milk sugar (lactose) it just does not make it. So for me, I think that I would rather drink my coffee black. Yes, the obvious is that I should stop coffee altogether. Well, that will come but I don't think that it is good for me to restrict too much all at once. I found going off gluten pretty simple. Committing to organic foods has added expense to my grocery shopping. Eliminating dairy to that list has been challenging.
I am doing something a little different this week with my reflective portion. I have decided to interview a couple of people who have made healthy changes to their lives. These are still in progress, so as soon as they are complete, I will edit and post.
I have some cooking in my future today: I have black beans soaking to go into the crock pot over night; I am making a red and white quinoa salad that I am looking forward to, and also trying a new recipe passed onto me by a friend from the NY Times living healthy section- Beets and Spiced Quinoa. So a couple of new things to keep things interesting. Have a wonderful week.
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