Freezer Cooking

 I love freezer cooking. It's a pretty basic concept, but the application is a little intensive.

Basically, you take some time, and prep a whole bunch of meals and put them in your freezer so when you want dinner, it's prepped and ready and just needs to be finished. Finishing varies on what recipes you do. I've done casseroles that just need to be popped in the oven for an hour or two, I've done barbecue meat that just needs to be thawed and grilled, but my favourite is slow cooker meals. You toss everything in a bag and then thaw it, dump in in your slow cooker and have dinner! Or, put it in a strategically sized container before freezing and then dump the frozen dinner in your slow cooker.

I haven't done this gluten-free, but I did do it a few times a few years ago. I always had a hard time getting all the groceries - it would take me a few days to find everything, and then I had to set aside an entire Saturday to do it all. I'm not sure how exactly I did things differently this time, but it worked a lot smoother.

I figured out what meals I wanted to make, made a combined list of groceries, went straight to the grocery store after work, got home around six, and by ten o'clock everything was in the freezer.

Daiya Pizza

A few weeks ago, my sister and I were discussing what to eat for dinner, and I said, "Is it too much to ask for a gluten-free, dairy-free pizza?" She looked at me and said, "Uh, yeah. It is."

I realize that this small town will probably never have a restaurant that offers a DF GF pizza, but you can buy frozen ones! I had to hunt and hunt for one, but after trips to three different stores, I found one! Exactly one.

Daiya Foods mushroom & roasted garlic pizza, to be specific. I really wanted one with meat on it. I'm honestly not a fan of vegetarian pizzas, but when the decision was between a pizza with meat on it and a pizza that won't make me feel sick later, I chose the vegan option. I'm okay with this.

When it comes to ease and time of prep, it's a pretty classic frozen pizza. Didn't take much work, or much time. When it was done, the cheese didn't look melted. The photo above is after it came out of the oven. I thought the cheese was still frozen, but when I poked it, it was melty and hot.

The pizza was relatively good. The toppings were great, and the crust was good. But honestly, I'm not a huge fan of Daiya cheese. I have heard endless raving compliments about it, but I don't like the way it clings to the roof of my mouth. Mind you, I've always had issues with that. I stopped eating peanut butter for years because it freaked me out when it clung to the roof of my mouth. So maybe this is just me. Anyways, the pizza was good. And I didn't feel sick all night after eating it. Two wins.

I will probably buy this again, although I'll probably hunt for a different flavour. I liked it well enough, but I like to try other things too.

I guess I'd give this pizza three stars. It was good, it wasn't amazing, but it didn't make me sick.

Daiya Cream Cheese Style Spread

Every time I pick up a new pack of my dairy-free cheese, I notice all the other dairy-free products. It's crazy, isn't it? Butter, sour cream, cream cheese, you name it, you can get it dairy-free. I usually eye up all the options, and then buy only what I actually needed.

Cream cheese is my biggest weakness. I used to be a bagel-addict. I probably ate a dozen bagels every month, sometimes more. If I was out of cream cheese, I'd eat peanut butter or Nutella on them, but cream cheese was my very favourite thing.

I honestly have not bought a single pack of cream cheese since my diagnosis.

Not one.

How depressing is that? I consider it, every now and then, but what would I eat it on? Whenever I buy bread products, I usually have a plan for them. I'll buy a pack of gluten-free sliced ham and a loaf of bread and eat sandwiches for lunch a few days. Or I'll buy a package of gluten-free crackers and a little package of goat cheese. Bread products are such a luxury for me, that I haven't wanted to "waste" one on cream cheese.

But I caved. I bought a package of gluten-free sandwich bread and a little container of Daiya cream cheese style spread in strawberry flavour.

EE Burritos in Saskatoon

This weekend, I finally got a chance to go back to EE Burritos. M & I went there in February, before I was diagnosed, and I haven't managed to get back since. I remember loving the food, but I had no idea how they were for gluten-free.

EE Burritos is this little restaurant on the corner of Ave P & 22nd St. It's not exactly a nice area, and as far as I understand, Ave P has quite the reputation. The restaurant is in a strip mall, and entering it is a little weird. They also host a small Latin American grocery store, so you enter into that, and the restaurant itself is to your left. The dining room is large, with several tables and a bar, and enough room to easily maneuver between the tables.

Antonella's Cheddar Pasta Sauce

I recently stumbled across a new brand at Safeway. New to me, not to the market. They are a Canadian brand, but all of their sauces are gluten-free. Meet Antonella's! They have four different flavours of pasta sauce, but I only bought two to start off with. I will, however, definitely be picking up the other two.

The two I bought

Catelli Gluten Free Pasta

Catelli came out with a GF pasta! I'm not sure when this development took place, but I love it. All of the gluten-free pasta I've bought so far has been brands I'd never heard of before, which isn't a problem, but it certainly is nice when you can buy something made by someone you've enjoyed before.

What I really like about Catelli's pastas are that they are made with four grains. White and brown rice, corn and quinoa. Most GF pastas are either rice, or corn. If I only bake with a blend of flours, why would my pasta be made with only one?

Finally! A GF Pasta in a Box!

My best friend has long since raved about her favourite boxed pasta and cheese. I'm not really sure what makes it so special, but it's probably more wholesome and less processed than Kraft Dinner. I mean, I love me some KD, but I have always avoided reading the ingredients. Ah, this is Old Me talking. Old Me loved KD. I would eat it every once a month, maybe two months, but when I did, I ate a whole box by myself.

I never bought a case, and I hardly ever had a box on hand, but suddenly, out of nowhere, a craving for some bright orange super-processed cheesey pasta would hit, and it would all I could think about eating until I ate it. M hates it, always has, always will. Partly because he doesn't like pasta, partly because processed cheese makes him sick.

Attempts to eat Dairy Free

So, I've (mostly) come to accept that maybe I can't eat dairy. I feel unwell every single time I eat cheese, ice cream, or a cream sauce. Milk in my cereal seems to be okay, but nevertheless, I decided to try cutting it out.

I went to the grocery store last night with this in mind, and looking for something to make/eat for dinner. M wouldn't be home, so I just had to feed me.

I grabbed some soya cheese (seriously though, my cheese should not be called a "loaf"), and some other things, and then realized I was holding a cheese and grapes platter. Come on, Robynne. I put that back, thought of some other ideas, and then went to pick out some whipping cream for alfredo sauce. Come on! I picked up some almond milk, and then debated yogurt. No, Robynne. I ended up with cottage cheese, because I just couldn't think of anything to eat, and then I forced myself to leave.

Day 23: Rice Cakes are not Styrofoam

There was a swap meet in town today, so Honey and I went to that. He has a motorcycle which he obviously hasn't ridden in months, considering it dumped most of a foot of snow today. But, you know, what would bikers do without mid-winter meet-ups and early spring sales? We bought a motorcycle helmet for me. I don't know when I'll ever ride, but now we have one that I like and fits. He also bought a riding jacket for himself.

We did a spurt of grocery shopping, and bought some Rice Minis. Last time I had some, Hubby only got to try the plain ones, and he determined they are Styrofoam.  Taste, texture, flavour, crunch; I guess if it quacks like a duck... This time I bought flavoured ones and made him try the caramel chocolate one, and he actually liked it. But mostly he just thinks I eat yucky food.

Then I went jean shopping with my mother. She used to hate jean shopping with me, but now that she's not footing the bill, and it's not her problem if I don't find any I like, and I'm much less dramatic, it's not so bad. I used to be a very melodramatic teenager. I mentioned this, and she says I've been high-maintenance since the day I was born. So there you go. Some of us are just always a lot of work. (:

I accidentally napped after I got home. Woke up almost three hours later disoriented and grumpy and tired. I should never nap, ever. Of course by the time I woke up, hubby wasn't hungry because he'd been munching the flax and oat granola bars all day...

So I made some pasta, and pureed some chickpeas and mixed them with some pasta sauce for dinner for one. I mixed one cup of chickpeas with 1/3 cup of water, and blended until it was a paste, and then mixed that with a jar of No Name pasta sauce (pretty standard sized pasta sauce jar), and added some spices. I used what I needed and then stored the rest for our next pasta dish. I'm definitely adding ground beef though, because the chickpeas didn't totally blend and have little chunks. It would be fine in a meat sauce, not so fine in a smooth tomato sauce.

And then I went to a movie with Banana! We saw Oz the Great and Powerful. Let me just say, it was amazing. I loved it so much. I would watch it again and again and again. Really amazing. Now, before you rush out and go see it, let me say that you maybe shouldn't trust my movie taste. I tell my friends I loved movies that it turns out they hated. I don't dislike very many movies (except ones like Hangover, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Watch that whole genre....). I've never walked out of the theatre on a movie, even if I disliked it, and a lot of controversial movies that people watch to dislike, I love. So... Don't take my word for it, but I loved it!

Day 19

I felt pretty wiped all day today. You know how you feel the morning after you threw up? Yeah... Didn't feel like eating anything, but I wasn't actually nauseous. Blech.

Anyways. I didn't come home for lunch today. Mostly because at noon I didn't feel up to walking the couple blocks to my car, and then I still didn't feel like it at two, or three, so I just came home from work early at four instead.

For dinner, my husband cooked chicken breast and bacon, and stir-fried it with leftover rice, GF soya sauce, and peas. It tasted just like the chicken fried rice you get from Chinese restaurants. I don't know about this new soya sauce though. Hubs said he cooked it down a lot, so it was stronger than it normally would be, but it was way too strong for me.

After dinner, my friend wanted to go shopping with me, so we went to Bulk Barn and Superstore and then to Tim Hortons for coffee. The kind of hanging out we used to do almost every night before she moved to Thailand. It's so good to have her back.

I love wandering around Bulk Barn now. I didn't buy anything, because I wasn't prepared, but I love looking at all the things I newly understand, and thinking about buying them. Like tapioca! I think I'll make my own tapioca pudding soon. Mmm....

Oh, and I discovered youarenotaphotographer.com today at work. My friend told me about it last night at coffee, so I spent my spare time looking at it. I had a good day on that regard, because I kept laughing.

Day Three: Groceries!

I woke up today pretty sick. I am paying for that bread last night. I also woke up pretty hungry, and ate more applesauce. Seriously need groceries.

After my husband was awake and dressed enough, we went grocery shopping.

Let me just say, it was painful. I know it's going to get easier, but today was hard.

In some time I'll know the list of cereals I can't eat, or at least the ones I can, and I'll know the other things to avoid, and where to look, but right now I don't. We just looked for things we want, and then read the ingredients. Did you know both Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes have gluten in them? Like what is that? I bought off-brand gluten-free versions of each, but come on guys.

I discovered our taco kits are gluten-free, which was exciting, but only the hard shell ones, and I prefer the soft tacos. But hey, it's only one more sacrifice.

My grocery store moved the gluten-free aisle since I've been there last, which I might not have noticed, had I not needed to buy almost everything there.

I actually think this whole gluten-free thing will make both my husband and I eat a lot healthier. We bought a lot more fruit and vegetables than we usually do, and I just looked sadly at the entire aisle of cookies. (However, I found some gluten-free chocolate chip cookies and bought those... I'm still getting used to the texture thing, though.)

We're having a taco kit for dinner tonight, mostly because it's something familiar. There are going to be a lot of unfamiliar experiment meals in our future, so we're starting off with tacos.

And then later tonight, we're double dating at the bar to shoot some pool. That's something I'm not up on yet. I know certain alcohols have gluten, and I have to be really careful about drinking. I've never been much for drinking before, so I've decided that until I get most of this under control, I'm not drinking. It'll just be easier to not worry about one thing while I worry about everything else.