June 10, 2009

It has been a long time since I have posted on the blog. I would like to update everybody on how I have been. My health has been much better over the past year and I hope that everybody else has been able to keep their health as well.

It have learned recently of somebody who has just been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. If anybody has some pointers for him to start out, it would be great if you would like to post them to the blog. We all know how difficult it is to make the transition to a gluten-free diet and support is always a good thing.

Until Later,
Kara

October 2008

I have been so busy that I just haven't been able to view this site very much. I hope that everybody else is doing well. I know that your lives are probably just as busy as mine.

School has been crazy lately and I am happy to say that I have made it through the first quarter. I am taking some hard classes and they haven't buried me yet. If anybody knows anything about pre-calculus, chemistry, or German, you can sure help me out. They are probably some of my hardest classes.

I hope that everybody is staying healthy and that things are going well.

Kara

Summer

Well, it has been a long time since I have visited the site. I have been so busy. The last week of school was hectic. I had one teacher that likes to wait until the last week of school to assign a bunch of stuff. We actually created a book that last week and it was over an inch thick.

Summer is going great for me so far. I have stayed healthy and been able to do things with my friends as well as earn some money.

I am very excited for the next few weeks. Henderson is having their community days next weekend and I am going to be involved in the parade and dodgeball tournaments for FFA. It is just so great for me to be able to participate in some of these activities. My birthday is also coming up in less than 2 weeks. I am excited to be turning 17!

I hope that all of your families have been doing well. I continue to remember you all in my prayers.

Kara

Taco Bell

My husband and I were craving Taco Bell tonight and since we are going to be in Lincoln tomorrow, decided to see if we could eat there. I LOVED their website. Very informative and they understand the difference between allergy and intolerance.

They have four suggestions from their menu for gluten-free diets.You can choose from a tostada, a couple of salads or bowls. They go through each one to let you know any changes you need to make, like asking for no sauce or no red strips. The disappoint is that their beef does have gluten in the form of barley and oats, so you have to stick with chicken. I don't mind, but I could see A. minding.

We might try it tomorrow. We are picking him up from diabetic camp and then going to buy groceries.

Venting

I just made my first gluten-free pie crust. Ergh. I thought regular pie crust was tough to deal with! I used the Gluten-Free Pantry mix. They are in the oven now, so we'll see what happens. And I have to admit that the second one rolled out better than the first, but it just frustrates me.

I LOVE to bake. My grandma always baked pies and cakes and great desserts and my sister and I have followed suit. That's the hardest part of this for our family. Aaron is used to eating great baked goods. He's used to desserts all the time. And he doesn't complain too much, but he does get really excited when I do make some GF cookies or cupcakes for him.

We have tried to change our perspective. Instead of, "Does it taste like a pie?" we try to just treat it like another new recipe I've tried and see if we like it without comparing it to anything. But you do miss the old favorites.

I was really happy the other day to find a cinnamon roll recipe on Celiac.com. But, as I'm reading the recipe, it calls for a batch of "Workable Wonder Dough". So I click on that to see what it requires. To make "Workable Wonder Dough" you need 2 1/2 cups of "Wendy Wark's Gluten-Free Flour Mix"! So, I go to that link. I can't remember what all that required because when I went to print off these three recipes (to make ONE 8" pan of cinnamon rolls, mind you) the website doesn't print well at all, I got partial recipes and pages with half of it blank. It will have to be a less hectic time than this month before I tackle that.

I just want to make my son cinnamon rolls! Or Runzas, or pizza pockets or fresh strawberry pie! I guess it just comes down to this, I just want my life to be normal again. And it never will be. And I'm still working on accepting that. Aaron does better with all this than me. I probably sound incredibly selfish, and it's not always this way, but when it comes to baking I feel as if something really important has been ripped away.

Chances R

We had a great experience this weekend. We haven't tried Chances R for about a year, the last time we tried eating there we didn't have good luck. We heard from a guy from Hampton who has celiac that it is one of the few places that he eats because they do a good job of watching the gluten. So I called the chef after the rush hour one day and discussed our situation with him. He told me to call and ask for Holly and make a reservation. When making the reservation let Holly know of our dining needs and she would arrange everything for us and let the chef know our needs. We ate Sunday noon family style, had a wonderful meal and Kara didn't get sick. Our wait-staff was wonderful, the food wonderful, had 17 of us setting around a table and Kara was able to be a part of everything. Was a great experience.

Penny

UPDATE

Wow! It has been a really long time since I have even checked this site. I have been so caught up in school and other activities that I really don't have time for a lot of things anymore. I was just thinking that it might be a good idea to update everybody on what is going on here with me and to find out if things are going well for you. I was just wondering how Sabra is getting along. Is she getting any better? I just wanted to let all of you know that the flu seems to be going around once again. Surprise, surprise, but I was not the first one to get it this time. I think that everybody in my family has already had it.

I'm doing well in school and have been having a lot of fun. We had our prom and it was so much fun. I went out to eat with one of my friends and didn't get sick. Well, until I got the flu from my dad, that is.

I hope that everybody else is doing well and that you are getting your problems answered. I pray for each of you and keep you in mind.

Kara

I'm Back

I just got back from Mayo yesterday. I am completely exhausted from all of my testing, but I got the results back from most of my tests and they pretty much looked normal. The doctors all told me that I was doing a good job with my diet and that I looked like I was doing well. I also really liked my doctors and enjoyed my appointments. It was a great experience and it was very educational.

Kara

Brain Fog?

As a parent of a celiac, I notice that at times our daughter is just "not there". Is like she mentally checks out for a while. It is hard to determine if it is because of her blood sugar numbers, being glutened, being nine years olf or just being distracted. For example, in school she knows her mulitplication facts - most days. Then she will not know what 5x1 is and is plainly confused. Or we will be reviewing for a test and she will insist that they didn't cover something in class and is just clueless about it. I've read about some celiacs who say it is like a 'brain blip' or "brain fog" - kinda like short term memory loss. I would like to here from any of you about this. I don't want to use it as a crutch for her not doing well in school, but if there is something to it; I want to get on top of it and help her learn skills to work around it. The school has been hesitant to do any testing and I would like more information to see what if anything can be done.
Thanks!!

HyVee - Grand Island

I had a chance to go to the Grand Island HyVee that just opened and they have soft shell brown rice tacos, which is something we have been searching for. The whole family liked them better than the hard shell tacos. They also have the Tinkkinaya (bad spelling) doughnuts that we have not been able to find in Columbus and Omaha for the past 6 months or so.

Red Dye #40

Sabra is still battling the occasional stomach cramps that just knock her down. She has a multitude of blood and stool tests and nothing unusual has showed up. We go in April for an abdominal ultrasound. After keeping a food log we're wondering if eating "red" things make her stomach hurt. Cherry drinks & lifesavers, strawberry jello, and spaghetti sauce seem to bother her, but not everytime. After comparing ingredients Red #40 is the common denominator. Has anyone looked at this for themselves? I googled Red #40 and it has quite of number of bad things associated with it, but it was not much on medically documented material.

Mayo

Hey, I just wanted to update everybody on my trip to Mayo. I will be going on Mar. 25. I will update this after I get back as I don't know much right now.

How is everybody else doing? I was just curious as I have been thinking and praying for you all.

Kara

Pampered Chef Stoneware

I used to sell Pampered Chef, so their stoneware is all I cook with. Is that a problem with celiac? You don't wash stoneware with soap and water, you just scrape it off and use warm water. I have broke stoneware and the seasoning is only just the top layer, it's not saturated with stuff. But, I use these for pizza, cookies, everything. Am I contaminating A.'s food by cooking it on the same stoneware?

It's hard to explain, but hopefully someone will understand what I mean and what I am asking! :)

MO

Gluten-Free pasta spotted at Wal-Mart!

One last post before I go. Wednesday I was in Wal-Mart in Lincoln and noticed they had actual GF pasta! I can't think of the brand name, it's not one we've tried. I think it starts with a D and has an Italian name. Previously I've only seen it in the health food store before. They had rotini and spaghetti. I got so excited I almost cried! It was also a dollar and half cheaper there than what I had seen it in the health food stores for.

One thing that I should let people know, we don't have internet at home. And I don't feel right going to blogger at work so my posts will probably be erratic. But, be patient, there will probably be days when I do like today and do a lot of posts!

Good news! Our oldest won the 5th and 6th grade division of the county spelling bee and will be going to districts tomorrow!

Have a great weekend!

Taxes and GF food

You may all know this, but two days before we were to get our taxes done I was looking at the celiac.com website and discovered that you can claim the price difference of GF foods on your taxes as a medical expense.

This works for us because we were already itemizing because of all our medical expenses this year and we paid for our own insurance until October. If you don't have huge medical expenses to claim, this may be too much work to be worth it. We had to leave A. on our other insurance policy that we pay for, so we will continue to do this. We will be getting our tax return in two weeks! Yeah! Maybe I can pay a hunk on medical bills.

Newbie

I wanted to let people know our situation. Our son was diagnosed with diabetes in August and with Celiac in November. We are the newest ones here to figuring out this lifestyle.

That probably showed in my doctor's visit last week. We were at a GI doctor appointment for follow-up after our biopsy. When I told the doctor that I had put our youngest on the GF diet too because he had all the symptoms, he was not happy. He didn't really chew me out, but I was feeling pretty stressed out with life and it was either the way he looked at me or how he said it, I burst into tears. It can be so frustrating sometimes. Wondering if you are doing everything right or not, thinking of the ten ways you goof in a day, here I thought I was doing something right. So we have taken our youngest off the diet for the next 2-3 weeks, then we are to get his blood tested and see where we go. Funny part? He's been off the diet for a week and no symptoms! Maybe I was wrong after all. Wouldn't that be great?

Restaurants

I have found some restaurants that serve gluten free food and are really good about it. A few of these restaurants are listed below.

Fast Food:
Pretty much the only place that I ever go for fast food is Wendy's. They have baked potatoes and I really like them. I do have to tell the kitchen to make sure that the person making my potato has not handled a hamburger bun, or that they need to put on clean gloves.

Restaurants:
There are plenty of restaurants in this area that I eat at.

Texas T-Bone in Grand Island is very good about keeping things from getting contaminated. They let me bring my own steak seasoning in and grill my steak on aluminum foil so that if there is anything on the grill, it won't contaminate my steak. They make sure to use clean utensils and also bring out ingredient lists if a person needs them. I usually order the Sirloin Steak with my own seasoning, a loaded baked potato :), and a ceasar salad with no croutons. The ceasar dressing here is gluten free and I have checked it personally.

Red Lobster is another place that has gf foods. I like some types of seafood and crab legs is one of my favorites. If I tell the manager that I have this allergy, then everything goes smoothly. I also like the ceasar salads here. The only downfall is that the cheesy rolls that I used to love always smell soooo good and they are tempting even though they would make me extremely sick.

Noodles and Co. I just tried this restaurant today. It was so great. There is one at 14th and P in Lincoln. There is also one somewhere in Omaha. I'm not even sure what I ordered, but it was really good. They have a menu on the wall. Anything can be ordered with rice noodles and they have what they call a gluten crash kit. This just means that they cook everything in separate pans with separate utensils and notify the kitchen that it is for a gluten allergy so that there will be no cross contamination. My mom also ordered gluten free so that I could try her meal as well as my own. I brought the extras home so that I could take them to school as lunches this week. The restaurant is kind of like fast food when you order. It was fairly cheap and I got a gigantic plate of food. You sit down with the number they give you at whatever table you want. They bring your food out to you and it is on real plates with real silverware. In case you were thinking that it would be like Fazolis. Its not. It is more of a casual dining place without the cheap plastic.


These are just a few of the places that I like to eat. I hope you have as good of luck at these places as I have.

Kara

Dealing With Friends

Well, I really don't know much about diabetes, or how it affects people, since I don't have diabetes. But, as a celiac, my friends tend to make comments to me about eating something, or they catch themselves in the middle of asking me if I want their brownie or donut. I have gotten to where this doesn't bother me very much anymore because I have really begun to like my gluten-free food. But there are times when it makes me a little bit mad and I want to yell because they just can't seem to remember. When this happens, I just have to remind myself that they don't deal with the celiac every day, so they don't think of it naturally like I do. Other than occassionally forgetting about my celiac, my friends have been great in accepting my celiac. They are willing to try a bite of my food when I bring something new and are also willing to learn a little bit more about what I can eat. Over New Years, my friends and I made pizzas with Kinnikinnick pizza crusts and everybody had fun and really liked my food. This great support from my friends has really helped me through this time while I have been adjusting to my allergies, even in those times when they make me want to scream.

Ridiculous Comments

Well, in the two years that I have had celiac, I have heard some pretty funny comments.

One of these comments is from a time that I went to Runza. My mom ordered a hamburger for me with no bun. She asked the girl taking our order to tell the people in the kitchen that they needed to make sure that there was no crumbs that could contaminate me. The girl was embarassed to tell the kitchen about it so she asked her manager to tell the kitchen because it was for a food allergy. The manager turned to my mom and asked her what kind of allergy. Mom told the manager that it was for a wheat allergy and that I was highly allergic so she needed to tell the kitchen. The manager turned to my mom and flat-out said, "We don't have any wheat in this establishment." My mom snapped back something about how every bun in their kitchen was made of wheat. Then when we got the food, my mom made me open it at the counter to make sure that it was done right since the manager had told her that they didn't have any wheat in the restaurant.

Reliv

Well, I am going to start trying Reliv to see if it helps my situation out a little bit. If any of you have tried this product or know anything about it, I would like a little bit of feedback. I will try to keep you updated on how Reliv is working for me.

Kara

Using the Blog

Well, this page may not be as easy to use for everybody as I probably assumed because obviously I am a teenager and I don't know how familiar all of you are with this kind of technology.

In the top right corner is a link that says "New Post." If you would like to create a new topic, this is where you can do so.

Under each main topic is a little purple link that says comments. You can also click on the topic title to expand the view and see all of the comments connected. You can then click on the newer post or older post buttons to go from one topic to another in this view. If you would like to post or view other comments, you must click on of these links. When creating this blog, I didn't realize that was how it would work, but this has been the best option that I have explored.

There is no limit on how many topics or how many comments each topic has, or so I understand, so feel free to write in with any news on your family, or any questions you have for the rest of the group.

I can always rearrange the blogs so that different ones can be on the top so that people can see them first if that is needed. I can also change just about anything on the site here if you need me to for any reason.

Happy Blogging.

Kara

Favorite Gluten Free Recipes

Finding recipes that work gluten free can be difficult. I thought that it would be great to start by sharing what some of our favorite gluten free recipes are.

My favorite recipe is...
Chocolate Sheet Cake

2 c. Authentic Foods Multi Blend Flour
2 c. sugar
Mix together in large mixing bowl.

1 stick oleo
1/2 c. shortening
3 TBSP cocoa
1 c. water
Bring to boil. Pour over flour and sugar, mix well.
Add 1/2 c. buttermilk, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. soda, 2 eggs.
Mix well. Pour in a 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 1 pan. Bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Five minutes before the cake is done, combine and bring to boil:
1 stick oleo
3 TBSP cocoa
5 TBSP milk

remove from heat and add 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 c. nuts, 1 box powdered sugar.
Beat smooth an spread over cake while hot.


This is my great-grandma's recipe and I encourage you to write down your favorite recipes and maybe even try mine.