Cauliflower Rice

Last night was my first attempt with Cauliflower Rice.  Rice is honestly one of my most favorite things to eat so it was hard to eliminate from my diet.  I am okay to eat Brown Rice but I am still trying to stay as grain free as I can.

There are so many different things you can do with Cauliflower Rice.  I chose to have mine hot and simple because I cooked a bunch of veggies to go along with it.

Here is what I used...and I used a bit too much garlic (and I am a garlic freak) so you might want to cut it in half.

1 head of Cauliflower (feeds about four in total)
2 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste
A handful of cilantro
1 Tsp of smoked paprika
1.5 Tbsp of Olive Oil

Honestly all I did was pick the cauliflower off the head and put it in my food processor.  And added everything.  I chopped up the stuff really quick, because you can't let it get too food processed or it will be not "rice" like.

Mine came out more like couscous but that was fine with me.

I added a bunch of veggies with it :: zucchini, onions, mushrooms, celery.

For my mans...I cooked all the remaining meats from Thanksgiving that were in our fridge.  I really hate wasting any type of food regardless of what it is.  Luckily both he and I are not opposed to mixing a ton of random shit together at any moment.  That actually is how I cook majority of the time.  He is constantly surprised with how I make a complete full meal when there is barely anything in our fridge.

Turkey, Chicken, and Brisket.  I chopped them all up added a tiny bit of Vegan Mayo (I know go figure but he is obsessed with it) and cooked it all together.  He said it was amazing, but I would never know :)

I will be altering this recipe over and over again and might start living off of cauliflower.

Wheat Envy

So this whole gluten free deal, yea well I don't like it.  I have really been struggling with it.  Especially over these holidays.  I developed this mentality that maybe if I just follow the no gluten thing "most of the time" I would be fine.  Well yea, I will be physically living yes, and that is fine, but I will be in pain.  And lots of it.

I keep referring back to the fact that I used to eat all these things and it was okay.  But I tend to forget that I was constantly feeling crappy.  And after detoxing from gluten for a couple weeks and seeing how great I felt, I should not be okay with having this "most of the time" mentality.

This holiday I over indulged in plenty of foods that included wheat.  Even though I thought I did pretty well, the affects of it are not pretty.  I am still recovering.  Almost a week and I am just about free from indigestion, cramps, and bloating.  I have all these aches and pains throughout my body.  I constantly think, hey I worked out too hard at the gym, or hey I am just overly stressed, when really it could just be the affects of my lack of dedication to MY healthy eating habits.  The more and more I read about the negative affects of gluten the more it resonates that this is why I feel crappy.  I have a medical professional tell me I have an intolerance for a specific food and I continue to remain in denial about it.  I continue to make excuses.  And I certainly, continue to feel crappy.

NO MORE.

(and still in my head I think, "well maybe just sometimes")

I am going to use this blog to document my struggles with this and my journey towards being strong and feeling healthy.  All these other "wheat free" blogs are so inspirational but sometimes I feel like, "don't you ever mess up" and "how do you live this way all of the time?"

As a vegan, it is even more difficult (I think) to eliminate gluten.  I mean what the hell else is there left for me to eat.  And it actually makes me sort of angry inside.  I have thought about adding some animal products (such as eggs) back in to my life to make it easier, but it makes me really uncomfortable still.  I still think about this daily, but I am not there yet.

Oh and on a side note...my fiance found out he is allergic to gluten as well.  Which seems great right?  We can live this hell together??  Not so fast.  He decided that with this whole gluten hell thing, he is going to try out the Paleo diet.  And it makes me want to crawl into a ball and cry.  And cry some more.  How can this be, how can this even work?  Why me, why me? Over and over and over again.

But I am living, and for that I should feel thankful.  And not pissed off at the world because wheat makes me feel horrible.  It honestly is not the end of the world.  And even though sometimes I might feel like it is, life will go on without it.

So here I will be documenting, and struggling, and winning, and probably struggling some more.  But at least this can be my motivation to be a Super Stellar Healthy Eater/Blogger that rarely makes mistakes...Paleo and Vegan and Gluten free.

Wish me luck.

This is actually how we feel

Here is a quick and easy test to get an idea if gluten is affecting your health
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/gluten-sensitivity-self-test

And if you think it is please make an appt with Cheryl Broad for Allergy Testing here
http://www.artofwellnesscenter.com/

And if you then are hit with the worst news ever (according to me) here are some websites that have really helped me so far.

Against All Grain http://www.againstallgrain.com/

Wheat-Free http://www.wheat-free.org/

Inspiralized http://www.inspiralized.com/
*** soon to be the basis of my whole existence once I receive my new spiralizer in the mail***

Food Babe http://foodbabe.com/