That Redheaded Sister

Archive for the ‘Food’Category

Gluten Free and a GIVEAWAY!

The hardest part about a diet is the lifestyle changes you have to make. Maybe you ate ice cream every night (guilty) or you ate fast food more than 4 times a week (I know people that do this). When you diet, usually you have to cut those habits out. While I have done your typical diets: Weight Watchers, No Carb, count calories, etc, I have found them to make my life more stressful. I dont have time to track calories in and calories out. I want to sit at a meal and not feel like I need to deprive myself because I dont have any room on my spreadsheet for it.

This year my resolution was to not track my weight and eat smarter. I was sick of being driven by a number. While we have made a lot of great changes to our diets at home, we were missing something. Something seemed off.

Matt has been reading Wheat Belly by Willam Davis and has passed some interesting information to me that has made me realize I can solve some of the issues I have been having. Since reading this book, we have decided to convert our household into a gluten free home. Some people may say we are just jumping on a bandwagon of some sort, but for the two weeks I have been comparing gluten vs gluten free, I have noticed a difference.

*DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor (I only play one on tv) and I am very new to the gluten free world. What I have to say is just my observation.

How this started: Matt is lactose intolerant. His sister is extremely allergic to gluten. I have the energy of a slug. Matt came to me after hearing about this book saying he could possibly not have lactose intolerant, but could be bothered by gluten (not allergic to the ice cream, but to the cone). He told me that he read two slices of WHEAT bread has more sugar than a Snickers bar. This amount of sugar causes your insulin to spike and crash rather hard. This explains my energy. I have not checked to see if this is an accurate claim, but I can tell you when I eat pasta/bread, I feel awful after.

You can form you own opinions on this, I am just here to share my experience.

When Matt came to me and told me this is what we should try, I sighed and told him I didnt want to change my entire lifestyle for something that is going to cost more. At least not during my busy time. I had the same misconceptions that most people have about gluten free. Gluten free does not mean carb free. You can still have potatoes, fruits, ice cream, etc, it is the WHEAT you have to drop. I have to admit, it has been pretty easy. Our base has already been pretty healthy, but you do start to notice what has to go and somethings have an easy replacement (rice cakes/potato chips instead of pretzels) and some have been harder (pasta for gluten free pasta or rice pasta).

Last week I made a 100% gluten free pasta and meatball dinner and surprisingly it was good. Granted the pasta and breadcrumbs were higher in price, which made me cringe.

Ingredients:

Brown Rice Noodles

Ground beef

Onions, chopped

Gluten Free bread crumbs

1-2 eggs (depending on quantity of meatballs)

Salt and Pepper

Fresh basil

minced garlic

For the meatballs, I combined all of the ingredients in a bowl and browned them on the stove. This took about 15 minutes. I cooked the pasta according to the package and brown rice pasta takes a little longer than the regular stuff.

After the pasta was done, I tossed in some EVOO, sprinkled some salt and pepper over, and dug in. (In case you didnt know, I dont really eat red sauce. Im weird, I know).

It was mighty delicious!! Honestly, I dont think I could tell a difference in the taste. What i did notice is when I was done eating, I didnt feel heavy and disgusting as I do whenever I eat pasta. Even the smallest amount bothers my stomach, but this didnt. Relief!

Ok enough about this change in lifestyle. You are here for the giveaway, right? Well in keeping with the gluten free theme, I asked Larabar if I could try a few of their bars and host a giveaway. They were gracious enough to send me 3 flavors I chose and 1 that I asked them to pick at random.

I got a Pecan Pie, Coconut Cream Pie, Peanut Butter and Jelly, and Cappuccino. My favorite was definitely the coconut cream pie. I expected peanut butter and jelly to be because I have a weird obsession with PB, but CCP was so tasty!! AND gluten free. Winner for me!

Larabar is giving away a caddy of 16 flavors to one lucky reader. Pretty awesome! Its great to eat before a run (which is what I do) and perfect for an afternoon snack (hello time between lunch and late night dinners).

To enter:

You must be a US resident. Sorry to my friends abroad.

Please leave a comment for each entry

For 1 entry – Tell me what flavors you would try

For 1 entry – tweet about this giveaway

For 1 entry – link this giveaway up in your blog

For 1 entry - Follow @larabar on the Twitter

For 1 entry – Like Larabar on Facebook

For a bonus 2 entries – follow my blog. Its not a requirement to win, just a bonus!

This giveaway will end at 11:59pm June 18th. I will choose a winner at random June 19th.

Now I am off to eat gluten free pizza from Dominos!

Have you ever tried gluten free?

What was the craziest diet you tried? Did it work?

13

06 2012

by Heather
posted in Food, Healthy eating, Weight
10 Comments

Sugar, oh honey honey

You are my candy girl and youve got me wanting you.

This was a tough week for me in three areas: motivation, food, and work. Since I stopped training for the month, I thought I would be more pumped up to cross train and lift weights. Thanks to our friend Mr. Allergy, this has not been the case. Just to prove I am not exaggerating my condition both my mom and Matt are STILL on inhalers because of the allergens floating in the air. Yesterday I left work and deemed my nose useless for breathing. I had a sinus headache and felt all around like crap. Today my nose is acting like the Trevi Fountain and my trash can is littered with tissues. I cant keep up. I dont know why this year has been so bad, but its nearly debilitating. We need a good rainstorm and some spring cleaning to remedy the situation.

Lets talk food. We have been making some bad grocery store decisions lately. I mean bad. I dont want to admit it, but because we are a loving and supporting community I am going to tell you all of the sugary items I consumed this week (dont worry, I did consume other non-sugary items)

Chocolate and Vanilla Wafers. Vanilla is no more.

Fruity Pebbles. I love the pebs, but my stomach doesnt. I have really cut back on buying the sugary cereals, but I needed this to make my sister’s bday cupcakes and couldnt justify buying 3 boxes of cereal with as much as they are.

Bday cupcakes. Luckily I only had two in two days.

Low Sugar fudge pops. Still has sugar even at 40 calories

One Milky Way ice cream bar

A slice of pumpkin bread from Starbucks

Salty Sweet peanut bars

Holy sweet tooth this week Batman. No wonder I am so lethargic and unmotivated. I did well everyday (except yesterday) with making dinner. I kept portions semi under control. I made a roast, ravioli, and chicken tacos. Last night I had popcorn and cereal. Not sure what to do about tonight. I have to bake my mom’s birthday dessert request (king cake) and I have a very late softball game again (9:30). Pasta seems like the obvious choice, but I have already had pasta this week. This is my struggle every night.

Instead of saying that I need to write everything I eat down, I am going to start to focus on each meal as an individual. I could go crazy with meal planning and counting calories, but that sometimes stresses me out. (I am very aware of apps they have on the phone, but when life gets busy I have a hard time keeping up).

My first change has to be breakfast. I will shout it from the rooftops, I LOVE CEREAL. Its fast, its yummy, and easy.

Like I said, I had Fruity Pebbles all week. Within an hour of eating, my stomach would rumble partly from hunger and partly from disgust.

Today I made two over easy eggs, sausage and toast. I am still very satisfied (5 hours later). I am going to start with a good breakfast everyday. Eggs are quick and easy and full of protein and you can make them 18 different ways. My favorite is over easy and scrambled. Toast provides that crunch and sausage, while not the best, is a little cleaner to make than bacon. I am starting to like oatmeal again, so this will also be a contender as long as I can find a way to make it that doesnt taste bland and uses less sugar.

One week of awesome breakfast. I dont struggle with lunch very much, but once I conquer breakfast, its on dinner!

What changes have you made to your diet for the better or worse? Come on, admit it.

How do you like your eggs?

Random: to tweet or not to tweet?

ps I think I am going to test the old leg out this weekend and see if it has healed any. Training starts one week from Sunday

27

04 2012

by Heather
posted in exercise, fattening foods, Food, laziness, Lunch, Meal planning, Weight
1 Comment

Food on the Table

Happy Wednesday! This morning I opened my email to an interesting surprise. I received an APOLOGY email from the Cooper River Bridge Run. Well, we ALL received it. Before I even opened it, I knew it was only going to apologize for the delay in the start. I was right. They said they are investigating the situation and right now anything out on the web is rumor. We heard there was something on the bridge causing delay. hmm How about apologizing for the finish chaos? Thats more important! I did a little looking around and saw comments from people talking about the finish. As expected they said the same if not MORE! Someone made a great point….we had to walk through SEWER water to get to the park! I totally forgot about that.

Anyway, thats not what today is about. I was scrolling through my list of blogs and saw an offer on Fantabulously Frugal for Food on the Table. Food on the Table is a meal planning service that literally takes all of the thinking away from you. WHAT? Do you remember THIS post? I told you all how much I hate trying to come up with meal ideas and actually executing them.

I registered for Food on the Table. Its free if you register in the month of April. (The code is already populated but in case its SPRINGFREE).

After I registered (which was very easy), it asked me a few questions.

It asked which grocery stores I shop at and their location. I shop at the Farmers Market mainly for produce and Publix (because its across the street), but I always like a good deal so I check Kroger and Super Target every week.

Then I am asked what types of food I like.

I left seafood out bc I am the only one and I only eat shellfish

After giving it all this information it tells me where my sales are most likely to be found.

Now the fun part: choosing meals. You can also add your own and it will “shop” for you and tell you which store has the savings. Neat huh?

Once you have added your dinners for the week, it will calculate your total savings. You can now print your shopping list!

Pretty cool that it tells you WHAT the sale item is and what its on sale for. I emailed this list to myself and sent it to Matt for our next shopping trip.

They make an app for this, but I havent been signed up long enough to tell you much else. I am hoping this helps with the dinnertime woes.

I will try this out for a little while and see how well I stick to it.

For those of you who struggle with dinner, would you use something like this?

(Food on the Table has no idea I reviewed their site. I havent been a member long enough to really enjoy the full experience. I saw this pop up, saw it was free, and said “by golly I JUST posted on this and I need to share with my friends.”)

(Yes when I think out loud I say by golly)

(I sure do like reviewing things lately…I hope they dont mind! They should give me more to review, right?! Well I bet the CRBR 10k wont give me a race entry EVER!)

04

04 2012

by Heather
posted in Food, Meal planning
2 Comments

Dinners, Races, and Bike Crashes

Good evening all! I am currently suffering from a severe case of the sweet tooth. We have nothing. And when I say nothing, I mean NOTHING! The only sweet thing in the this house is raspberry jam. Le sigh.

How many of you have the I-am-not-creative-in-the-kitchen-so-everyone-suffers problem? When I get home from work, I dont want to cook. I dont want to stand in the kitchen and pay attention for any stretch of the night. As you know, Matt works the opposite schedule as I do, so I really have no one else to cook for. My fallback dinner: pasta. BAD BAD BAD. That is how I gained all of my weight my sophomore year in college. When I find a fantastic recipe, it requires the root of a tangerine bush from a small village in Peru. I checked, Publix does not carry that.

I wanted to go on a meal plan to save money and watch my calories but its hard when I am busy late nights at work.

What do you do for dinner when time is limited or when you are feeling lazy?

Today I put my name in for the 2012 Peachtree Road Race. I have never run this race, but this was the race I trained for and got me hooked into running so many years ago. It is a lottery based race, so I threw my name in with a few friends that formed a team, the Liberty Belles. This race takes place on the HOTTEST day of the year Im sure, July 4th. I will find out Monday if we have been selected to run the race. Fingers crossed!!

I thought this last story will help sympathize with my friends having bike issues for tri training. Today my friend and I decided to run a greenway by our house. Her five year old daughter was going to pace our run since it was mostly flat and she could go fast. We had a ton of fun. When there was a hill, I grabbed her handle bars and ran her up. Not an easy feat. We made it 1.1 miles when she decided she wanted us to race her. She started flying down the boardwalk and just when we figured out what was about to happen, it happened. She took a nose dive off the boardwalk into the swampy marsh.

She cried for a second not out of pain but from being wet. It wasnt long after the flip off the bike that we were all laughing about it. My friend carried her back to the car and I carried her bike back the 1.1 miles while telling her how she should tell her friends this story. There were trolls, rainbows, fairy godmothers, and princesses involved in that story.

I know tomorrow that my shoulders will be sore from carrying the bike (it was too small to push without hurting my back).

What do you do about being stuck in the kitchen?

Any races you are excited about?

What is your worst bike story? When I was little and had just learned how to ride my bike without holding the handle bars, I went down the street and lost control of the bike. I slid across the ground and ended up having a messed up hand, arm, and shoulder.