I just recently found MyGlutenFacts.com and usually I'd just put a link to it on the left side under "Links" (yeah, I know clever)... but seriously, this deserves a post all to itself. Why? Because it contains an AWESOME product database and each product is categorize according to if it's soy free, sesame free, gluten free, dairy free... you get the point... even vegan. It's amazing! Again, I'm just starting with it, but I believe you can save a "My products" list and then access it from a mobile device. Be still my heart! Oh what it takes to make me happy now a days... HA! Anyway, I suggest you check this out if it even mildly interests you. If you do go there please be sure to comment on this post and let us know what you think... I'm very interested!
Note: You will have to register for the website but it's painless and I did it... totally worth it! Oh, and info is updated every 90 days.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Lasagna in a Bowl - low carb or GF
I originally got this recipe from About.com but ended up changing it to meet our tastes and needs with being low carb and then eventually gluten free (GF). We loved it, even my 3 yr old daughter. I'll give you my version but the link to the original is above.
This is an assembled "lasagna", with all
the lasagna flavors, but created individually in each person's dish, in
a fraction of the time. It can also easily be made with whatever veggies you like, just watch the higher carb veggies like sweet potatoes or carrots, but I have used those shredded in sauce before.
Also, I double the sauce batch and keep some in the freeze for a really quick dinner during the week
Ingredients - Sauce:
- 1 lb ground beef cooked and drained (1 lb makes about 6 servings w/pasta, 4 w/o pasta)
- 1 shredded zucchini
- 1 shredded yellow squash
- 1/2 small diced onion
- 1/2 package sliced mushrooms, diced
- italian seasoning to taste
- minced garlic or garlic powder to taste
- **after cooking the meat mixture be sure to drain really well**
- Add 1 jar of spaghetti sauce (lower the sugar, the better the carbs)
Per Serving:
- layer of sauce
- (at this point if you want a whole wheat pasta or some spagetti squash (GF) then you could add the layer here)
- 1/3 C ricotta cheese
- 1/4 C shredded mozzarella cheese
- layer of sauce
- 2 T parmesan cheese
Preparation:
1. If using pasta or an alternative, be it spaghetti squash or something else2. Cook the meat the "Ingredients" list. Drain off the fat.
3. Heat the ricotta (microwave works best), be sure to cover with a paper towel.
4. Layer in bowl: sauce, pasta (or alternative), ricotta cheese, ground meat, mozzarella, sauce, parmesan.
A Little Backstory - Part 2
So you know my insulin is skyrocked but no diabetes... yay! But, my family dr knows something is up since I'm on Metformin yet my insulin is this high, so she sends me to an Endocrinologist. I'd been diagnosed with PCOS for 5 years, yet this was the first time I'd gone to an Endo's office specifically for this sort of thing (shocking!).
Anyway, we talk, tests are run, etc... and low and behold it's no longer a suggestion for me, but a "prescription" (her words) I MUST lose weight. It's lose the weight or I'll get diabetes soon. Also, the way I need to lose it that's going to work for me, due to the PCOS, is a very low carb, low cholesterol diet. Basically, South Beach Phase 1... for three months, until I see her again. I need to get off all complex carbs, white carbs.. not good! She was right... it's working.. I've lost about 10 lbs in a month.
So what about these allergies... I'm getting to that. I've always had seasonal allergies. I take some medicine in the Spring and Fall and I'm done. When I was younger I even had this odd thing where I couldn't eat strawberries, or then I couldn't eat too much tomato sauce and orange juice or I'd start to wheeze and get a really upset stomach. All of that latter one had seemed to sort of back off, or maybe I just knew how to control it better. But then about a month ago (mid August) everything changed....
The itching started just a little, then it became unmanageable. I was itching from head to toe, all over my body. My daily medicine didn't help, the little pink over the counter pill didn't help... nothing! After two days I went to the dr. She could visibly see something was wrong with my skin so she gave me a medicine to take during the day and one for night and ordered a full allergy blood test. One week later I got the results and things wouldn't be the same again... I was told I had a wheat and sesame allergy. Also, mold and cat allergies. I was to continue the medicines, change my eating habits and see my dr in 4 weeks. Yep, that's it... I was on my own for research, etc... I felt like a fish flopping in water for awhile. Heck, I didn't feel like it, I was...
Next post, how this flopping fish discovered what was going on through trial and a lot of error....
Anyway, we talk, tests are run, etc... and low and behold it's no longer a suggestion for me, but a "prescription" (her words) I MUST lose weight. It's lose the weight or I'll get diabetes soon. Also, the way I need to lose it that's going to work for me, due to the PCOS, is a very low carb, low cholesterol diet. Basically, South Beach Phase 1... for three months, until I see her again. I need to get off all complex carbs, white carbs.. not good! She was right... it's working.. I've lost about 10 lbs in a month.
So what about these allergies... I'm getting to that. I've always had seasonal allergies. I take some medicine in the Spring and Fall and I'm done. When I was younger I even had this odd thing where I couldn't eat strawberries, or then I couldn't eat too much tomato sauce and orange juice or I'd start to wheeze and get a really upset stomach. All of that latter one had seemed to sort of back off, or maybe I just knew how to control it better. But then about a month ago (mid August) everything changed....
The itching started just a little, then it became unmanageable. I was itching from head to toe, all over my body. My daily medicine didn't help, the little pink over the counter pill didn't help... nothing! After two days I went to the dr. She could visibly see something was wrong with my skin so she gave me a medicine to take during the day and one for night and ordered a full allergy blood test. One week later I got the results and things wouldn't be the same again... I was told I had a wheat and sesame allergy. Also, mold and cat allergies. I was to continue the medicines, change my eating habits and see my dr in 4 weeks. Yep, that's it... I was on my own for research, etc... I felt like a fish flopping in water for awhile. Heck, I didn't feel like it, I was...
Next post, how this flopping fish discovered what was going on through trial and a lot of error....
Monday, October 10, 2011
A little backstory - Part 1
Why am I starting this blog? Why is it "My New Life?" Some of you may know, some of you may not, so I figured I should start at the beginning. Well, not the beginning... that would probably be somewhere when I was about 10 and got my first period... yeah, let's not go back that far so bore anyone with any of that teenage psycho babble issues. I'm sure we've all been there done that... particularly if you've found yourself interested enough to stay on this blog this long and continue reading.
So to lay it all on the line, I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and have been diagnosed with wheat and sesame allergies (continuing to get more information on this... just found out in the last month about this). I'll add info links to these on the left side as time goes and in blog posts since I've gained LOTS of info through researching.
Anyway, I was diagnosed with PCOS at approx. 26 when my husband and I were trying to get pregnant. The first OBGYN told me I was in "a gray area" and "maybe" had it. Alrightly. Come to find out, there's no real gray area... you do or you don't. As I continued in our infertility struggle and saw a reproductive endocrinologist (RE), I was told "uh, yeah, you definitely have PCOS." While I've never had cysts I've had many of the other symptoms. After moving from a Northern state to a Southern, getting settled, finding a new RE, I was now told my uterus was bicornate... shaped like a heart, instead of the upside down triangle that it should be.... awesome! This had nothing to do with PCOS, just me, a birth defect in fact. So, I was scheduled for surgery. Oh, this was in late summer 2007 if anyone wants to keep track.
Once I was healed up I had an IUI and boom I was pregnant with our baby girl in October 2007. Only 2.5 years of trying. Whatever! We were thankful, yet cautious. We went the surprise route on gender and in June 2008 our princess was born. I was extremely uncomfortable as the pregnancy progressed and it was hard to walk. I eventually developed preeclampsia as well and she was delivered at 36.5 weeks. As the drs said, she was "small but healthy." God had blessed us with our beautiful girl and and we thank him each day for that.
From the pregnancy and pre-e I gained 65 lbs... yeah, I know! I lost 20 in the first week after having her. But in the last three years since it's been a big struggle for me. I'd lose a lot and actually I can get down to within 10 lbs of my pre-preg weight and that's about it.
And now, my insulin has sky rocketed... not blood sugar, just insulin. So, stay tuned as I bring part everything to present day and where things stand now... with PCOS, and how these allergies came about... I know, on the edge of your seat kind of stuff :)
Real quick... why "My New Life"? In my head and sometime out loud I say "in my former life" when I could eat lots of carbs (you'll see in part 2), or I could eat wheat, or I didn't have to care so much about labels, or I could put what I want on my skin.... so this you see, this really is "My New Life."
So to lay it all on the line, I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and have been diagnosed with wheat and sesame allergies (continuing to get more information on this... just found out in the last month about this). I'll add info links to these on the left side as time goes and in blog posts since I've gained LOTS of info through researching.
Anyway, I was diagnosed with PCOS at approx. 26 when my husband and I were trying to get pregnant. The first OBGYN told me I was in "a gray area" and "maybe" had it. Alrightly. Come to find out, there's no real gray area... you do or you don't. As I continued in our infertility struggle and saw a reproductive endocrinologist (RE), I was told "uh, yeah, you definitely have PCOS." While I've never had cysts I've had many of the other symptoms. After moving from a Northern state to a Southern, getting settled, finding a new RE, I was now told my uterus was bicornate... shaped like a heart, instead of the upside down triangle that it should be.... awesome! This had nothing to do with PCOS, just me, a birth defect in fact. So, I was scheduled for surgery. Oh, this was in late summer 2007 if anyone wants to keep track.
Once I was healed up I had an IUI and boom I was pregnant with our baby girl in October 2007. Only 2.5 years of trying. Whatever! We were thankful, yet cautious. We went the surprise route on gender and in June 2008 our princess was born. I was extremely uncomfortable as the pregnancy progressed and it was hard to walk. I eventually developed preeclampsia as well and she was delivered at 36.5 weeks. As the drs said, she was "small but healthy." God had blessed us with our beautiful girl and and we thank him each day for that.
From the pregnancy and pre-e I gained 65 lbs... yeah, I know! I lost 20 in the first week after having her. But in the last three years since it's been a big struggle for me. I'd lose a lot and actually I can get down to within 10 lbs of my pre-preg weight and that's about it.
And now, my insulin has sky rocketed... not blood sugar, just insulin. So, stay tuned as I bring part everything to present day and where things stand now... with PCOS, and how these allergies came about... I know, on the edge of your seat kind of stuff :)
Real quick... why "My New Life"? In my head and sometime out loud I say "in my former life" when I could eat lots of carbs (you'll see in part 2), or I could eat wheat, or I didn't have to care so much about labels, or I could put what I want on my skin.... so this you see, this really is "My New Life."
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