I got up early this morning, and fussed around in the bathroom forEVAH, in hopes of looking nice for today’s photoshoot. I even plugged in the curling iron and brought out the tweezers, it was serious… we left early, and waited… and waited… and finally the photographer, who was obviously upset… sent us home. We were supposed to be using the college’s studio for the shoot, and no one ever showed up to unlock the building. The day was pretty, it would have been misty and wintery if we did the shoot outside, but there was no sun, and with the studio locked… no way to get to the lighting equipment.

So we rescheduled for next week, in the tiny living room of my house. The photographer is bringing her own lights and equipment, all we have to supply is ourselves! That means I have a week to get the house in picture perfect shape…Girl’s Night this week is at my house anyways, so now I just have double the excuse to scrub scrub scrub. Thanksgiving Dinner preparations are well underway… cream of mushroom soup is being cooked, the onions for french fried onions are soaking, the pie crust will soon be assembled, the bread for stuffing is rising, and PDP has been put to work peeling potatoes for a new mashed recipe I am trying tomorrow.

I’m taking advantage of this massive cooking to put things into the freezer, we have extra pie crust, so I will definitely be putting together a turkey pot pie, and since I’m making Cream of Mushroom soup, I’m going to make tater tot casserole, and put one in the freezer…This is the first year I’ve cooked Thanksgiving gluten-free. Although I’ve known about my issue with gluten for years, I never stuck with the diet, citing cost and inconvenience as reasons. With our income stable, and a kitchen that is all mine… I can’t justify cutting corners anymore, and have been gluten-free for months now…I tried to find an actual date somewhere, but don’t have one… I’d like to say April or May… the change in my health is drastic.. Although the weight loss has slowed, I -feel- good, and that’s something to be thankful for.

Part of what I’ve learned in the past few months, is batch cooking makes everything easier. I make lots of soup when I can, toss 6 chicken breasts in the crockpot instead of 2, make two casseroles, one for eating, one for the freezer, and save anything that’s leftover… it all comes in handy. I eat a lot of soup and leftovers for lunch, and PimpDaddyPain, bless his heart, will eat cold leftovers, so I don’t even have to make him something different.

There is still so much day left, and it feels like I’ve been up forever. Back to the kitchen, I suppose.

xoxo

A day late, I know… but we’re not doing our Thanksgiving until Sunday, so I’m still technically on time. And oh man, I am really looking forward to Sunday… we’re going all out, even though it’s only the two of us… a 22lb bird (leftovers for weeks!), green bean casserole, roasted asparagus, biscuits, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie, brownies, and mint chocolate cookies. We may have friends stop in later in the day, but even with feeding them… there will still be tons of leftovers. My step-dad gave me a bunch of salad containers (the type you get at the deli) a while back, and I am going to pack them full and eat them for lunches for at least the next week…plus turkey and rice, and turkey soup, and turkey sandwiches…

Yesterday we went to dinner with family, I ate very carefully, and actually need to give my Aunt-in-law props, she knows about my reaction to cloves, and made sure to only put them on one half of the ham… and she made her yams w/marshmallows from scratch, because she wasn’t sure if I could eat the canned kind. I enjoyed the ham, the turkey, the yam casserole, and some deviled eggs and cheese. It was difficult at first, to trust the situation and eat, but she kindly answered my questions about what she cooked everything with, and how she made things… and I enjoyed what I could.

Unfortunately I was sick, and swallowing was difficult, so I didn’t eat much. Went into work today, and had to come home… can’t work in Telesales if you don’t have a voice! It hurts to talk, swallow, breath, move… it’s all in my neck and throat… I do have a bit of a couch and a stomach ache… oh, and the headache.. It’s gross. Luckily I took tomorrow off, and already have Sunday/Monday off, to get better. So Chris and I went to the store and spent the grocery gift card we got from his Boss for Thanksgiving on the rest of the things we needed for Thanksgiving, and then went to Fred Meyer for Wall-E, and Hancock… and came home. I slept until about 6…

There’s enough snow on the ground we have to park down on the street now instead of behind the house, which sucks… but it’s a good thing we did, because some idiot got stuck in the driveway earlier and we had to pull him out. I guess slicks and our driveway are not a good combination. Although Chris said when he took the cars down to the street that my car went straight up and down with no problem, I guess those studded snow tires that cost a fortune were worth it. We plasticed off the windows in my office (it looks tacky, but whatever, its warmer!), and we’re doing the rest of the house tomorrow… looks like the snow showers are here to stay, so we’re trying to get the house warm before it gets really bad. It was so cold last year I slept with a blanket over my face.. We’ve since replaced the bedroom windows (yay for having a glazer for a husband), so it stays warmer… but the rest of the house still needs weather proofing.

Anyways, the entire point of this post was to put up the pictures from yesterday… I will have some more for you in a few weeks too, tomorrow morning we have an appointment with a local photographer who is going to do a shoot with Chris and I. It’s a Christmas present from Chris’ Uncle and his girlfriend (who is my friend), and I’m really looking forward to it. So for now, here is Thanksgiving 2008, Part 1. (you can find the whole set on my myspace : )

I am cheating a bit, and posting my menu on Sunday… but I thought I’d jump in on the Org Junkie bandwagon and play along there too!

This weeks Gluten Free Menu Swap is being held by, Angela, at Angela’s Kitchen! She’s picked greens for the ingredient, and I’m not really incorporating them much as a focal point, although we have ramped up our veggie/salad eating now that winter is here and the snow is coming. Snow… yes… in less than a week. Clinging to the last days of fall with fresh produce can only do so much, but I will certainly try.

I love doing the menu swap. It gives me time to really think about what we’re eating. My conscience insists on publishing a slightly healthy list, and then of course, because I’ve purchased it - we must eat it, right? If you’re ever looking for food accountability, this works like a charm. No more rotting veggies or spoiled meat. Ever since we’ve started buying our meat in bulk, meal planning has become much easier - and grocery shopping incredibly cheaper. For this weeks menu all I had to buy was fresh produce, and some herbs… everything else was in my cupboard or deep freeze.

Monday:
Taco meat w/green peppers, over rice.
(with normal taco condiments, such as cheese, salsa, and sour cream!)

Tuesday:
Rotisserie Chicken, in the crockpot… w/hot crash potatoes, and green beans.
(I am combining two recipes, click & click)

Wednesday:
Girls night out for me! PimpDaddyPain will most likely have Grilled Chicken Breast Salad, and I will make myself one when I get home from seeing The Changeling.

Thursday:
Maple & Sage Glazed Pork Tenderloin w/snow peas, and biscuits.
(Recipe from this months issue of Cooking Light)

Friday:
Steak, baked sweet potatoes, salad, and garlic toast.

Saturday:
Pizza and salad!

Sunday:
Roast in the crock pot, mashed potatoes, maple glazed carrots, and brownies!

And there you have it! PDP and I have been bantering over who packs lunches for several weeks now that I’m working again. Finally we decided I would pack lunches, if he stopped eating sandwiches. It makes it so much easier, because now I can pack both our lunches at the same time. We eat leftovers, or salad, and packed veggies… and while he gets a nutty bar and reeses peanut butter cups, I eat a delicious apple and a bite sized snickers. (And what makes packing lunch even easier, is the fact we buy the big tubs of pre-washed, organic mixed greens, all I have to do is throw it in some Lock & Lock with some cut up veggies and I’m done!)

Any one on any sort of diet knows that the food you can eat, always seems to be more expensive. Eating gluten free is the same way. When you first start, the prices are overwhelming, but then you get used spending a lot more for a lot less, and soon you’ve adjusted and you’re healthy, and it’s completly worth it.

And then you want pizza. Pizza you don’t have to make the dough for. Specfically, you want Amy’s Pizza - because it’s good enough, and you even sort of enjoy the texture now. $10.79 is the typical price for Amy’s Rice Crust with Real Cheese (and it’s smaller than typical frozen pizza)… when I found it at Fred Myer’s for $7.99 I smiled and bought two. It gets better though, today we were picking up country style ribs (oh my, PimpDaddyPain will eat pork if I make my bbq ribs, yay!) and some cheese for Mexican Lasagna, and what do we happen upon?…

Gluten free (still Amy’s) pizza for $5 each. I bought 6 of them, and double checked the end of sale date twice. I have two weeks left to go back and get more. I hate to say it, because it sounds silly in my mind… but we’ve budgeted another $70 for more pizza. I miss pizza, I hate paying so much for it, it’s the one thing I still blink at and sometimes put back because $10.70? Yeah, that’s not a price tag you get used too… now $5?

I can totally do that.

How’s that for a post title, huh? Chris got home Friday night, and we had company yesterday… I made rotel dip, and white chicken enchiladas and god, I am so glad I used my big pan, because I have enough for 3 days of lunch at work too.

Tonight we sat out with the neighbors and chowed down on bbq and salad while playing with guns. Yes, there were real guns, but none of them had bullets… the guns we shot were just bb guns and a paintball gun.

So what if I missed the targets 99% of the time? It was fun! Riding the 4 wheeler was even more fun. At first I said no, because the one brought out tonight is small, and I’m not… but I’m glad I did. It was actually a blast. Maybe next time I’ll try the big one… who knows.

On to this weeks menu! Chris is home this week (yay!), so I have to do more than heat up something. I don’t like eggplant, which is this weeks ingredient, and neither does Chris. Normally I would give it another try, just one more… but Chris has been wonderful the past few weeks, and tried fresh tuna, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, stir fry, AND tomatoes, so I am not going to push another thing on him… out of everything he tried, only the tomatoes got a hard no, and the mushrooms and sweet potatoes were an “eh”… fresh tuna and stir fry (plus the sweet potatoes and mushrooms) opens our menu options up quite a bit, so I am not going to complain.

Thanks to Fresh Ginger for hosting this weeks menu swap!

Monday
Breakfast: Rice Chex & coffee
Lunch: Enchiladas
Dinner: Mexa Slop

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Rice Chex & coffee
Lunch: Chicken & rice soup
Dinner: Steak, corn on the cob, and baked potatoes

Wednesday
Breakfast: Rice Chex & coffee
Lunch: Enchiladas
Dinner: Teriyaka Tuna Stirfry and rice.

Thursday
Breakfast: Rice Chex & coffee
Lunch: Pot Roast Soup
Dinner: Grilled chicken, sweet potatoes, and peas

Friday
Breakfast: Rice Chex & coffee
Lunch: Enchiladas
Dinner: Salmon & Corn Chowder (in my new slow cooker, yeehaw!)

PimpDaddyPain is going to be out of town Tuesday morning - Friday afternoon this week, so I am revisiting a few favorites of mine the three dinners I get to myself.

This weeks Gluten Free Menu Swap is being held by Cooking and Uncooking, and the featured ingredient is coconut. I love coconut, and am going to see if I can’t find some coconut water (it’s natures natural electrolyte, if you haven’t tried it… do! I love it, and pick it up on sale when I can…) at Huckleberry’s when I go shopping.

Monday: Roasted chicken quarters with peas, and salad.

Tuesday: Taco soup with grilled cheese arepas. (trying a new recipe for taco soup this week)

Wednesday: Colcannon and beer.

Thursday: “Faux Chicken” Tempeh Sticks, sweet potato fries, and red cabbage salad. (I must add here that I just LOVE tempeh. I found it on sale a few months ago and picked it up, having no idea what it was. A quick call the manufacturer and I was reassured it was safe for consumption, and I went to researching. There all sorts of recipes out there for it, but my favorite way to eat it so far is gently doused in seasoning, fried lightly, and wrapped up in romaine with sliced tomatoes. Delicious.)

Friday: Steak, baked potatoes, and roasted broccoli.

Saturday: Hamburger and onion gravy, over baked potatoes, with green beans.

Sunday: Tortilla Patata, bacon, and poached eggs.

Next week I won’t be posting a menu. As soon as PimpDaddyPain (no, I don’t foresee getting over this new name anytime soon) gets off work next Tuesday I am driving the already packed car to Moses Lake to pick him up at the job site, and we’re heading down to Oregon for my sister’s wedding. So I’ll just eat leftovers Monday and Tuesday (PDP will be out of town for work again), in hopes of clearing out the fridge of any food that will spoil. It means I’ll have to go grocery shopping the moment we get back on August 10th, because I start work the next day and will need a lunch…