Fortunate

Lately I've found myself spending a lot of time in reflection. Even if it's just a few minutes here and there, and I really do have to consider myself fortunate. Has life gone the way I had planned over the past few years? Absolutely not. Would I change it for anything? Absolutely not. Life isn't always easy, and it doesn't always do what we want it to. But it's hard to ignore that things do seem to happen for a reason. Arron and I were considering moving half way across the country to Minnesota, but I just couldn't seem to get a call back on a hospital job, and there were NO internal openings for him to be able to transfer his job. So we looked at Portland...same thing...no luck. Then we find out that the girls will be coming to live with us because their mom made some less than desirable decisions. So we decide that Arron should go back to school and we should move to Olympia to be closer to my family. Unfortunately, a job closer to home just hasn't happened for me. Until now. I've interviewed at St Joe's in Tacoma and the manager has told me that I'm her selection for the position, now I'm just waiting for HR to do all their HR things and call me with an actual offer and a rate of pay.

My sister, as many of you know, has Celiac disease. To those who don't know what that is, it is a complete intolerance of gluten. Which is found in wheat, barley, rye and other similar grains. So no bread or pasta or beer or processed foods. "Modified Food Starch" is a sneaky way of saying "I also probably contain gluten" so the only way to know on those foods, is to contact the manufacturer. But even if it's processed in the same facility as foods that contain gluten, you can almost be certain that it's been cross contaminated, and ultimately, will make her sick. It seemed to me that after...what...I guess a few years now...of being gluten free (GF) she had finally gotten used to it. She had figured out how to make meals she could still enjoy, but it involved LOTS of salad to keep it simple. I could tell that she hadn't lost hope for good bread, but she certainly hadn't found it yet. I was keeping my eyes and ears peeled for any possible options that might be good.

I remember that after she first got diagnosed she had to go to New York for work for like a week. I decided that I was going to make lasagna for her to have the night she got home. So I went to Top Foods and grabbed a box of Tinkyada pasta and thought...well, it's worth a shot...and maybe with all the other flavors, she won't notice the weird brown rice pasta...so I made the lasagna. And it was awesome! And she loved it! The thought I'd put into making something she thought was a no-no. The way I made sure the sauce and everything was (as I call it) "Manda-friendly". Well just recently she's been told there is a whole new host of foods that she may be intolerant to. So, for the next 8 weeks, no dairy, no egg yolks, no red meat, no dark green leafy veggies, no alcohol, no caffeine, low fat, and LOTS of soluble fiber. Which doesn't sound like the end of the world, until you remember no gluten either. So...it's rice, chicken, turkey, potatoes, and umm...steamed veggies.

I found the the Gluten Free Goddess and she's been a God-send. Karina is the writer of the blog and she too is GF, dairy free and egg free. She actually has more allergies, but since she was diagnosed with those later, many of her recipes contain things she now knows are no-no's. I made her vanilla cupcakes for my sister's birthday last weekend and they were pretty good. Totally different for a "normal" gluten-laden cupcake, but tasty. So I've been expirementing with things like Vegan Mayo, alternative flours, rice pasta and others, to find tasty, healthy options for both my little family, and my sister. I made a tuna pasta salad last weekend too that was Manda-safe and still good. I'm going to try and chicken corn chowder this weekend. I'll let you know how it comes out. As I experiment, I'll post anything that turns out edible here. :)