Ahhhh June. I feel like I've been so busy, and yet I don't feel like I have a lot to show for it!
Couch to 5K? Umm, no. I'm not even going to pretend it was the weather this time. I. Just. Haven't. Done. It.
Sigh.
BUT....I have continued eating better and I've been more active, taking my son to the park, going for walks with my friend, etc. I've been enjoying the summer, which makes me healthier and happier all around!
I've kept up the daily blogging and the Gluten Free Weekly Menu Plans, as well as consistently adding books to my 100 in 2011 list. I've been updating the blog tabs and planning out some future changes to the site.
I've gotten back to my writing now that I'm waiting for my professors to read through my thesis draft, and I've got a few story ideas I'd like to explore. So the plan is to carve out some dedicated time to have my butt in the chair and hands on the keyboard, writing, writing, writing.
We have two short trips planned for the summer, a wedding, our anniversary, a few birthdays and hopefully a few days home as a family to just kick back and relax!
Hopefully by the next update the garage will be painted and the garden will be providing me with some edible goodies. I'm also hoping that the little home office "nook" in the basement will be done and ready to use. Going back to work in the fall means binders, textbooks, and student papers that need a place to go, and currently the dining room table is the go-to spot. That needs to change.
Let's see what the next month brings!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Wordless Wednesday
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| Astilbe |
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| No idea what these are, but I like them |
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| Marigolds. They smell yucky, but they protect my tomatoes |
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| Don't know what these are called either. |
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| My lillies |
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| Waiting for these to flower! |
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Sabine Lisicki Gluten Free
On the heels of Novak Djokovic's announcement that he was going gluten free for health reasons, another tennis player, Sabine Lisicki of Germany, has also announced that she is gluten intolerant. Lisicki had battled cramping and illness in the past, even collapsing on court during a match. She spoke about her condition briefly today during an interview at Wimbledon. She mentioned that her gluten intolerance had been affecting her stamina and general overall health, and although she feels better now on a gluten free diet, she also commented that it takes time for the body to adjust to a new diet.
This is an important point for me, because unlike many food allergies or intolerance where removing a single ingredient can be straightforward, removing gluten in all forms requires making several dietary changes for the average person, particularly since it is so prevalent. Gluten is not only found in those products you would expect to see it, it is often also lurking in products where you wouldn't expect to find it.
Like certain types of vinegar.
Or soup broth.
Or salad dressings and BBQ sauces.
Not to mention the simplicity with which cross-contamination can happen.
Toasting that slice of gluten free bread in the same appliance that toasts regular bread? You could be cross-contaminated.
Since one's diet changes so drastically when gluten is removed, it stands to reason that an adjustment period is natural. Especially if the intestines have been damaged from exposure.
Lisicki seems to be adjusting well though. Today she won her quarterfinal match at Wimbledon, and will be playing in the semi-finals on Thursday. As for that other gluten-free player, Djokovic, he plays his quarterfinal match tomorrow.
Could there be two gluten free athletes in the semi-finals of one of the most prestigious tennis events in the world this year?
This is an important point for me, because unlike many food allergies or intolerance where removing a single ingredient can be straightforward, removing gluten in all forms requires making several dietary changes for the average person, particularly since it is so prevalent. Gluten is not only found in those products you would expect to see it, it is often also lurking in products where you wouldn't expect to find it.
Like certain types of vinegar.
Or soup broth.
Or salad dressings and BBQ sauces.
Not to mention the simplicity with which cross-contamination can happen.
Toasting that slice of gluten free bread in the same appliance that toasts regular bread? You could be cross-contaminated.
Since one's diet changes so drastically when gluten is removed, it stands to reason that an adjustment period is natural. Especially if the intestines have been damaged from exposure.
Lisicki seems to be adjusting well though. Today she won her quarterfinal match at Wimbledon, and will be playing in the semi-finals on Thursday. As for that other gluten-free player, Djokovic, he plays his quarterfinal match tomorrow.
Could there be two gluten free athletes in the semi-finals of one of the most prestigious tennis events in the world this year?
Monday, June 27, 2011
Look at all the green goodness...
I mentioned a while ago that I was going to expand my measly little garden a bit this year to try and supplement the food share delivery we get during Spring, Summer and Fall. All the rain we've been getting has been good to my garden. Here are a few shots of where it's at!
Can't wait until everything is ready to eat! The bok choy I already pulled and cooked it with the chicken dish in this week's menu. I'm looking forward to plucking the first plump pea pod right off the plant and adding it to a nice fresh summer salad!
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| My expert gardener |
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| Fennel |
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| Kale |
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| Green beans and different varieties of hot peppers |
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| Hot banana peppers |
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| Basil, Parsley, Cilantro and Rosemary |
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| Garlic and leeks |
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| Garlic |
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| Tomatoes |
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| Green Peas |
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| Eggplant |
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| Mini Tomatoes |
Can't wait until everything is ready to eat! The bok choy I already pulled and cooked it with the chicken dish in this week's menu. I'm looking forward to plucking the first plump pea pod right off the plant and adding it to a nice fresh summer salad!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Gluten Free Weekly Menu Plan
Monday: Steaks marinated in Argentinean Chimichurri sauce & Vegetable Kebabs. Chimichurri is a green sauce that I marinated the meat in for a few hours before grilling it. I'll serve it with some more to dip.
Tuesday: Chicken with black olives on a bed of bok choy. I was going to serve it with a beet salad, but we had that for lunch.
Wednesday: Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Steamed Broccoli &
Cauliflower and Jasmine Rice
Thursday: Creamy Tuna Vegetable Pasta Salad
Friday: Chicken Tostadas made with shredded leftover olive
chicken served with a Caesar Salad and Refried Beans
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Cleaning out the basement
Today we tackled the basement. Well, most of it. We are lucky that our house came with a finished basement when we bought it, with plenty of storage space included in the design. Unfortunately, that means plenty of space to put all the crap we don't always feel like sorting through or putting away properly throughout the year. Closet under the stairs, cupboard beside the cold room, the cold room, the furnace room, closet in the spare bedroom in the basement....
So today was the day. The day we got things under control.
We started under the stairs, pulling out all the randomly place baby items and packing things in boxes according to function- maternity clothes, baby supplies, baby clothes according to size, Christmas and Halloween decorations, wrapping paper and gift boxes, etc. Now the area under the stairs is organized and clean and I keep opening the door just to check it out. Gone is the hanging ghost leftover from Halloween that my son used run from every time we went down to the basement.
Next, the furnace room. It really shouldn't have anything stored in it at all. I watch those home renovation shows; the ones that remind me that proper air circulation is necessary in that area and that stored boxes create a fire hazard. It's enough to keep me up at night. Now, the items have been removed and sorted into their appropriate boxes. Except for a box of cassette tapes that I'd like to pretend I'm too young to own and an antique vacuum cleaner that we inherited from our old apartment and felt the need to bring with us to our new house. Even though we've never used it and there's central vacuum in our house. It's avocado green and looks like that cute robot from Star Wars. It stays.
Finally we hit up the cold room. That room is lined with plain wooden shelves that we managed to fill with all manner of things in no particular order. We boxed most of it up and placed it all on the farthest shelves from the entrance and voila! A clean, spacious cold room ready to do what it was built for- keep my canned goods, onions and potatoes cold.
The next step will be preparing the play room to be a useful space for not only my son, but also my husband and myself. Storage for toys, comfy, functional furniture and some sort of a fireplace or safe heater.... but that's a post for another day!
So today was the day. The day we got things under control.
We started under the stairs, pulling out all the randomly place baby items and packing things in boxes according to function- maternity clothes, baby supplies, baby clothes according to size, Christmas and Halloween decorations, wrapping paper and gift boxes, etc. Now the area under the stairs is organized and clean and I keep opening the door just to check it out. Gone is the hanging ghost leftover from Halloween that my son used run from every time we went down to the basement.
Next, the furnace room. It really shouldn't have anything stored in it at all. I watch those home renovation shows; the ones that remind me that proper air circulation is necessary in that area and that stored boxes create a fire hazard. It's enough to keep me up at night. Now, the items have been removed and sorted into their appropriate boxes. Except for a box of cassette tapes that I'd like to pretend I'm too young to own and an antique vacuum cleaner that we inherited from our old apartment and felt the need to bring with us to our new house. Even though we've never used it and there's central vacuum in our house. It's avocado green and looks like that cute robot from Star Wars. It stays.
Finally we hit up the cold room. That room is lined with plain wooden shelves that we managed to fill with all manner of things in no particular order. We boxed most of it up and placed it all on the farthest shelves from the entrance and voila! A clean, spacious cold room ready to do what it was built for- keep my canned goods, onions and potatoes cold.
The next step will be preparing the play room to be a useful space for not only my son, but also my husband and myself. Storage for toys, comfy, functional furniture and some sort of a fireplace or safe heater.... but that's a post for another day!
Friday, June 24, 2011
Five Things on a Friday: Random Thoughts
1- I'd like to wish my friend Sonia a very happy 5th wedding anniversary. I was there when she met her hubby, saw their beautiful backyard wedding (anyone who thinks backyard weddings can't be sophisticated and stylish need to check out their photos), and have watched them bring two gorgeous children into this world together. May they enjoy many more years together.
2- If I hear NO one more time from my two year old today I may lose my mind.
3- New York Fries are gluten free. It is our go-to indulgence when I take my son to the food court and it makes me happy to know that there will always be at least one food court option that is available to him. He enjoyed them today with a side of blueberries from home!
4- Family bathrooms in malls with the little toilets close to the ground for kids are the best thing to happen to public washrooms since, well, ever. My little guy liked using it so much we had to go back twice.
5- Someone forgot to tell mother nature that it's summer. I'm tired of the rain.
Have a fantastic weekend. I'll be back tomorrow and as always, will post my menu plan on Sunday!
2- If I hear NO one more time from my two year old today I may lose my mind.
3- New York Fries are gluten free. It is our go-to indulgence when I take my son to the food court and it makes me happy to know that there will always be at least one food court option that is available to him. He enjoyed them today with a side of blueberries from home!
4- Family bathrooms in malls with the little toilets close to the ground for kids are the best thing to happen to public washrooms since, well, ever. My little guy liked using it so much we had to go back twice.
5- Someone forgot to tell mother nature that it's summer. I'm tired of the rain.
Have a fantastic weekend. I'll be back tomorrow and as always, will post my menu plan on Sunday!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Thank You!
I was checking my stats yesterday, and I realized that I've reached a few milestones with this blog. First, this is my 199th post, so tomorrow's post will be my 200th post since starting on December 3rd, 2010. Those who know me personally wouldn't be surprised that I've found 200 things to chat about in the past 7 months!
What I'm pleasantly surprised about is the fact that people are reading what I chat about! Yesterday my blog passed 10 000 page views. This may be small potatoes to those of you with super-popular blogs that average that many hits a month, but for me, this is cause for celebration!
I owe everyone who has taken a peek at my blog over the past 7 months a gigantic THANK YOU! Whether you're a regular reader or only check in occasionally to see what's new, I appreciate it. Knowing that people are reading encourages me to continue to post everyday, and to keep looking for new things to talk about.
If you're new to the site and haven't had the chance to really look around, start with the About Me tab to get an idea of what I'm all about!
The Menu Plan tab includes the weekly dinners I serve my family, all gluten free and dairy free. I update it weekly.
The Recipes tab includes some of the recipes I enjoy preparing, and is updated regularly.
Gluten Free Travel has posts about places I've been, and is a mixture of personal experience posts and recommendations of things to do and where to find great gluten free food. This tab gets updated every time I travel. Over the course of the summer, there will be posts about Rice Lake, Ontario and Washington, DC.
Product Reviews includes all the reviews I've written about products and services, mainly related to living gluten free. This tab gets updated every time I post a review.
The About GF/Celiac tab is next on my list to update. I've been compiling information to add to the tab, and the plan is to have it up and functional by the end of the summer.
Finally, the 100 in 2011 tab is where I post the books I've read over the course of the year. I signed up for a reading challenge, to read 100 books in 2011. Click on the tab to learn more and sign-up for the challenge yourself! I post the titles and the authors there, and I'm open to suggestions. I would love to hear what you're reading or any recommendations you may have!
I would be remiss if I didn't encourage you to check out some of the fabulous blogs that I follow as well. Scroll down the right hand side of the blog to find my blog list. It updates regularly, showing the five blogs with the most recent posts. Some of these bloggers were the first to follow my blog, and a good deal of my traffic was generated, especially in the beginning, from their sites. These bloggers are funny, smart, interesting and well worth a read.
Finally, if you're interested in following, you can click on the Follow tab on the right hand side, or you can enter your email address in the Receive Updates in Your Inbox box to get my daily posts delivered right to your inbox every day.
Happy reading, and THANK YOU again for making this blog a success!
What I'm pleasantly surprised about is the fact that people are reading what I chat about! Yesterday my blog passed 10 000 page views. This may be small potatoes to those of you with super-popular blogs that average that many hits a month, but for me, this is cause for celebration!
I owe everyone who has taken a peek at my blog over the past 7 months a gigantic THANK YOU! Whether you're a regular reader or only check in occasionally to see what's new, I appreciate it. Knowing that people are reading encourages me to continue to post everyday, and to keep looking for new things to talk about.
If you're new to the site and haven't had the chance to really look around, start with the About Me tab to get an idea of what I'm all about!
The Menu Plan tab includes the weekly dinners I serve my family, all gluten free and dairy free. I update it weekly.
The Recipes tab includes some of the recipes I enjoy preparing, and is updated regularly.
Gluten Free Travel has posts about places I've been, and is a mixture of personal experience posts and recommendations of things to do and where to find great gluten free food. This tab gets updated every time I travel. Over the course of the summer, there will be posts about Rice Lake, Ontario and Washington, DC.
Product Reviews includes all the reviews I've written about products and services, mainly related to living gluten free. This tab gets updated every time I post a review.
The About GF/Celiac tab is next on my list to update. I've been compiling information to add to the tab, and the plan is to have it up and functional by the end of the summer.
Finally, the 100 in 2011 tab is where I post the books I've read over the course of the year. I signed up for a reading challenge, to read 100 books in 2011. Click on the tab to learn more and sign-up for the challenge yourself! I post the titles and the authors there, and I'm open to suggestions. I would love to hear what you're reading or any recommendations you may have!
I would be remiss if I didn't encourage you to check out some of the fabulous blogs that I follow as well. Scroll down the right hand side of the blog to find my blog list. It updates regularly, showing the five blogs with the most recent posts. Some of these bloggers were the first to follow my blog, and a good deal of my traffic was generated, especially in the beginning, from their sites. These bloggers are funny, smart, interesting and well worth a read.
Finally, if you're interested in following, you can click on the Follow tab on the right hand side, or you can enter your email address in the Receive Updates in Your Inbox box to get my daily posts delivered right to your inbox every day.
Happy reading, and THANK YOU again for making this blog a success!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Wordless Wednesday
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| My son and his cousin Mya, playing on the quintessential piece of backyard equipment, the swing set! |
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Too cute for words
We spent Father's Day at my parents' house, enjoying the sunshine and spending the day in the backyard. We put my son down for his nap in his cousin's room upstairs, and headed back outside. About an hour later, I went in to check on him. As I stepped into the kitchen from the back porch, this is the sight that greeted me:
He must have gotten side-tracked by the bag on his way outside and decided to wedge himself into a corner with the bag of veggie chips. Thankfully they're gluten free! Some moments are meant to be captured for posterity. That little grin says it all!
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