Time for an Update!

Well a lot has been going on in Atlanta, and since I haven't checked in for a while, let me fill you in to what I've been doing for the last year.  No one wants to read a year's worth of info, so here's my year in pictures...

I lived it up with gluten free hamburgers and onion rings at Yeah Burger,

...and I got bangs!

I got really into juicing

And did some sophisticated comparisons to pieces at the High.

We ate A LOT of crawfish!

We even checked out some of the schnazzy spots as well, like King and Duke.

I made Christmas cookies

and drove to work in the middle of the Snowpocalypse.  Yikes.

We made margaritas for Cinco!!!

I visited cousins in Nashville,

 went to Bonnaroo,

and even made it to a Braves game!  

I have to say, I was a much bigger fan of watching baseball than I ever thought I would be... I think the peanuts sealed the deal for me.

We did a ton of camping in some of the most beautiful spots and lucked out with gorgeous weather the whole time.  It has been a seriously wonderful year!

 So there you go--a quick, painless update of my year.  Now back to the food!



Home Again, Home Again

         I've made it!  At long last, I am in Atlanta, and I have to say, I love this place already.  In my life, I have primarily lived in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Clemson, South Carolina; and Boone, North Carolina.  While I have loved all of them, none of them are booming metropolises, and the thought alone of picking up and moving into a studio apartment in Atlanta without a job or friends in the area has at times felt  more than a little suffocating.
        
         But having been here for about a full week now, I'm really feeling settled.  I have found three grocery stores, one of which is a Whole Foods...I don't even know how to behave in there...there are so many gluten free options.  I have obtained a library card.  I have found a good Mexican restaurant.  I have been busily on the job hunt. 

 Pan seared halibut on top of shiitakes and shallots, served with spicy, garlicky kale.

          Today I found the Peachtree Road Farmers Market at St. Phillip's Cathedral and bought some beautiful silver oyster mushrooms as well as a Bear Claw (blackberry and honey) popsicle from the King of Pops stand there.  It was delicious! 

  King of Pops truck...I live in a food truck mecca...

William and I also found a great Vietnamese restaurant, where we had pancakes and pho.  It is hard to beat a meal of pancakes and pho, particularly when you can both eat, leave a generous tip, and pay only $15.  I cannot wait to try all of the awesome little Asian spots in this city.

Yum!  Vietnamese pancakes with shrimp and pork, served with lettuce, mint, and nuoc cham.

Ah, yes, I'm very glad to be settling in here...now back to that small matter of finding a job...

Tonsil Free

Ever since I was a child I've wanted to get my tonsils removed.  Days of missed school combined with a diet consisting of ice cream, popsicles, and pudding still sound just about like heaven.  What I never learned is that if you wait until you're an adult to get this procedure done, the whole process lasts for around three weeks.  That's three weeks of force feeding yourself enough ice cream and popsicles that you don't become malnourished and get put on an IV...I am only on day three.

Fortunately, there is a whole other food group that I have failed to mention so far, and it happens to be my favorite thing to eat in the entire world:  snow cones!  Not snow balls or shaved ice.  Seriously, those are the worst.  I'm talking about snow cones from the green snow cone stand in the Oaks District in Hattiesburg.  These syrup drenched ice concoctions are the only things that have been pulling my through...along with my My Little Pony coloring book and of course my large bottle of liquid Lortab...but I think the snow cones are doing most of the heavy lifting.

Old Ways

Ok, I'm not a vegan anymore.  In fact, I think it only lasted for 2 weeks.  My love of all things pig and William's late night Jimmy Johns cravings quickly overcame our desire to be a little bit healthier.  While we were a little ashamed to give up so quickly, we comforted ourselves with the thought that compared to most people in America we are pretty damn healthy!

To prove this to myself, I recently bought a giant box of clementines and am determined to eat my way through them before any go bad---cooking has been on the back burner.  But before my latest feat of conquering citrus, I was doing a little Thanksgiving cooking!  I have to say, my gluten free, dairy free dressing was pretty delicious.  William's family seemed thoroughly impressed with it--I didn't let them know that the amazing taste was due to the pound of spicy sausage used in the one tiny pan of dressing.  Can't get enough pig.

Back on Track!

            One of my best friends, Kelsey, recently got diagnosed with fibromyalgia.  Kelsey and I worked together in Clemson, but we really became friends because of our illnesses.  When we met, both of us had been sick for years, and neither of us had been diagnosed.  We seemed to bond over everything:  how our teachers thought we were faking it, how our doctors thought it was all in our heads, how are boyfriends were sweet and stuck by our sides, and most of all, how hard it was to deal with an illness that could shift suddenly from day to day. 

You never know how you’re going to feel when you wake up.  Some days you feel almost normal.  It’s an amazing feeling—you can do anything!  Maybe you’re getting better!  Maybe you’re always going to feel like this!  But on these days, you invariably do too much, and by the end of the day you’re a wreck.  Other days, you are certain that it’s impossible to get out of bed.  On these days, you spend half of your time in the bathtub, usually with a cup of tea or, more realistically, a cup of tequila. 

The key for people with a chronic illness is to make a schedule and stick to it.  Everyday.  No matter what.  On good days, don’t do too much.  On bad days, get the hell out of the bath and maybe even put on a little mascara.  I’m finally settling into my schedule.  I wake up around 8, go for a walk, do some yoga.  I eat breakfast and write and look for jobs.  I play my guitar, hang out with William, and finally go to work around 1:30.  After work, I cook dinner, get in bed by 10, and read a book, something positive.  I’m one of those people who needs a lot of positive reinforcement. 

Kelsey has her schedule too, and you know what?  We’re actually pulling it together.  Yes, some days are still hard, but we’re sticking to our schedules and growing stronger everyday.  We’re eating well and exercising and encouraging each other, and we’re both doing really well.

What I’ve Been Eating:

Nuts and berries

Guacamole

Apples and peanut butter

More tacos

….I’ve really got to get back to cooking!

School Lunch

I’ve recently started working at an elementary school’s after school program.  I am the 2^nd and 3^rd grade leader, in charge of 22 extremely rambunctious kids who have been sitting quietly for seven and a half straight hours and certainly aren’t about to be quiet for one minute more.  The job is challenging but rewarding even though some days I’m “the meanest person EVER!” referring back to the whole trying to stay somewhat quiet thing. 

Last week, I asked some of the kids what they had had for lunch that day.  The vote was split:  “Pizza!” “Nachos!” When I laughed and said that that must have been a pretty fun lunch, they just shrugged their shoulders.  “Nah, it wasn’t very good,” they replied.  Really?!  We’re serving them nachos and pizza, and it’s not even good by an 8-year-old’s standards?!  Now I would love to talk about the fact that Congress just decided to consider the tomato sauce on school pizza to count as a vegetable, but instead I’ll just tell you about what I used to eat at school:  Lucy lunches.

I think Lucy was my friend in preschool, although I couldn’t tell you for certain, because the only thing I remember about Lucy was that she had the best lunches.  Most kids took sandwiches in their lunch boxes, mainly peanut butter and jelly.  Lucy on the other hand never had sandwiches.  She always had a mix match of smaller items:  apples slices, tortilla chips, carrot sticks, string cheese.  I don’t know what about this was so exciting, but it is still to this day my favorite type of lunch.  Not only was it fun, but it was healthy!  And she and I both Loved our lunches, which is more than my kids could say about nachos and pizza. 

What I’ve Been Eating

Chinese New Year’s Dinner:  White rice with stir-fried bok choy, carrots, and spring onions and fried shrimp with spicy garlic honey glaze.  This was Amazing!

Sushi:  Veggie rolls made with cucumber, carrot, and avocado.

Breakfast Quinoa:  Bring ½ cup of quinoa, 1 cup of vanilla almond milk, a cardamom pod, and sprinkle of cinnamon to a boil.  Then cover and reduce to a simmer for about 15 minutes or until the quinoa is translucent.  Serve hot with a little brown sugar.  The perfect thing to fulfill that oatmeal craving!  (Celiac Fact:  Less than 2% of people with celiac disease react to oats, but with my track record, I’m not taking my chances!)

Down and Out

Recently while I was listening to Regina Spektor, one of my all time favorite singer/songwriters, I heard a line that I hadn’t noticed before:  “The genius next door was bussing tables.”  And I realized that’s where I am right now…except at least that genius has a job.  Ok, I’m not saying that I’m a genius, but I am quite smart.  I graduated with a great degree from a great university, and here I am sitting in my apartment, sick as a dog, jobless, and I’ll admit a little hopeless right now.

 My celiac symptoms aren’t getting better yet, and my compromised immune system is causing all kinds of other problems.  Today I had to wander outside to buy chicken broth for my cold, yogurt for my antibiotics, and ginger ale for the vomiting that my antibiotics are causing.  I bought all of this while hobbling around the grocery on my cane because my celiac induced vertigo is back.  Let me tell you, I looked like a mess!

But don’t feel bad for me (and trust me, you won’t once you finish this sentence) because I just got back from Fiji!  That’s right, Fiji, the tropical island on the other side of the world.  William’s all too generous aunt and uncle invited me to join them along with William and his two brothers for a week in tropical paradise.  The five of them spent most of their days scuba diving, while I sun bathed, went to the spa, and sipped alcoholic drinks from coconuts.  As it turns out, Fiji is the perfect place for people with celiac disease or dairy allergies seeing as the majority of their food consists of fruit and fish.  Everything I had there was delicious!

So now back in my apartment in cold, gray Boone, I’m looking at pictures from the trip, admiring my extra freckles in the middle of winter, and realizing that maybe all of this is going to work itself out after all.

What I've Been Cooking:

Chicken Broth:  combine various chicken pieces or a whole chicken to a stock pot along with carrots, celery, onions, garlic, peppercorns, parsley, thyme, and salt.  Cover with water and let simmer away until chicken is cooked through.  Strain and you're done.  I like to freeze mine in muffin tins so I can heat up an individual serving when I'm feeling sick or add some to sauces.

Snob Diet

I recently heard about the newest fad diet out there right now called the Snob Diet.  I love that this is being marketed as a “hot new diet,” seeing that this has in fact been the way that cultures have been surviving for thousands of years.  The key here is to cut out cheap, unhealthy foods including the ever-terrifying “diet” foods and to substitute whole foods.  Brilliant!

In every article I’ve read about this diet, the main selling point is this:  instead of eating lots and lots of non-fat, no sugar added frozen yogurt, you can actually eat a normal amount of premium (read “high fat”) ice cream and actually lose weight!  Well, of course people are freaking out over this!  However, people seem to get a little more skeptical when they hear what else this diet entails…Cooking. This fact has made dieters deem this diet option completely unreasonable.  Several reviewers take issue with this diet’s “assumptions that everyone has the time/mental energy” to cook their food. 

Trust me, guys, I know firsthand that cooking every meal and snack that you consume can be hard.  It eats up your free time and some days can be really draining.  But here’s the bottom line.  Cooking your food connects you with your food.  Something about putting in the time to chop, stir, and cook gives you an understood appreciation of your food that you can’t get from just buying something premade at the store.  So get in the kitchen and start cooking!  You and your family will appreciate it, and you may just lose a few pounds in the process!

What I’ve been cooking:

Stir-Fry:  Always keep some cooked brown rice in your fridge.  It only takes 10 minutes to throw a quick stir-fry together using whatever else happens to be in your kitchen at the time.  I make my staple stir-fry with carrots, celery, onion, and egg.  Add a little soy sauce, chicken stock, and cayenne, and you’re ready to eat!

Potato Hash:  This is by far William’s favorite dish these days.  Julienne a couple of Yukon golds (we conveniently use a mandolin), toss them with a little oil, and bake at 350 for about an hour, stirring a couple of times.  Top with crumbled bacon, green onions, and a fried egg.  This is a perfect cold weather dish!

The Diagnosis

Today I had a flashback to the moment I was told that I had celiac disease.  I was standing at the restaurant where I work, and long story short, everyone was having one of those days.  Working in a male dominated workplace like a kitchen, it can be hard for a girl to hold her own, and I pride myself for never having given into some girly things like, oh, crying when people are yelling at me.  Today though?  I had one of those “almost crying, unable to exhale, trying to pull myself together in public” kind of moments.  And that’s when I had my flashback.  

 The last time I had that feeling was four months ago.  I was sitting in the waiting room at the hospital, in line to get even more blood tests done.  I had been feeling sick for over a year.  What had started as low energy and dizzy spells grew into muscle spasms, blacking out, hypothermia, and extreme mental fuzziness.  All types of doctors tried all types of tests.  They had me worried about heart problems, a brain aneurysm, a brain tumor, and finally, when they thought they had ruled out everything else, hypochondria.  Thanks, Docs!  One doctor finally decided to test for celiac.  I wasn’t worried—I didn’t have any of the common symptoms.  That’s why the phone call caught me so off guard.  It was the most severe case my doctors had ever seen.   

Thirty minutes later I was back at home lying in my bathtub.  Even then it felt like one of those weird scenes from an indie movie where the main character loses her mind after a tragedy.  My face was covered in mascara, and I was laughing hysterically, reminding my mom how I had always dreamed of being a chef and had just graduated with food science degree five days before.  A few hours later (literally) I had made it out of the bath and into my bed where I stayed.  I realize the whole thing was pretty overly dramatic, but I’m sure that those of you with the same diagnosis have a similar sob story.  Fortunately (and ironically) for me, the best meal of my life was only two days away…