Day 1: Gluten Free/Dairy Free

So today was the first day on my gluten/dairy free diet.  Started off with some applesauce and passion fruit juice.  During weekends I am not a huge breakfast eater so this wasn't too big a deal.

For lunch I did a rice pasta with just some basic tomato sauce from Target.  I've already been doing some experimenting with gluten free pasta and unfortunately this one was not one of the better ones.  It claimed that it would stay al dente, even with overcooking, that was definitely not true even though I only cooked it the minimal time.  In fact the little spiral shapes started straightening out.  The pasta was extremely slimy, even after rinsing it.  Plus water got caught inside the little tubes which made my pasta sauce runny, blegh.  The taste was fine though.  I might use these noodles in a soup where the texture and water content would be better masked, not so much for Italian style pasta.

Spent a couple hours after lunch doing work but I got a craving for something sweet.  I had bought a box of Kinni Kritters Chocolate Animal Crackers which are gluten and dairy free.  I opened them up and had a handful  They were pretty good, at first they tasted pretty similar to chocolate teddy grams, maybe a little less sweet.  They are a little dry and powdery though when you are finished eating them, but overall a pretty good substitute for the real thing.  I would definitely buy them again when I just feel a need for some processed children's cookies :-)

Going gluten and dairy free for two weeks starting tomorrow.  So in celebration I went on a gluten and dairy binge at Buca Di Beppo with my friend Jen tonight.  Here is me and a fabulous pizza.  And Jen's thumb, hahahaha.  

Ugh.  It's not so much giving up the gluten that is the problem, but the dairy is going to be a real stickler.  Slathering stuff in butter and cheese can make just about anything tasty, but I can't do that for the next two week.  Boooo.

Well I will be blogging about my various gluten and dairy free adventures over the next two weeks.  Hopefully that will distract me a little bit.  

For the last couple of years I have been battling hypothyroidism.  Started off about two years ago when I would literally be falling asleep at my desk by the last period of the school day and then go home and collapse in bed for several hours.  Got my thyroid tested and turned out I had hypothyroidism (which runs in my family).

Since then they've been fussing with my medication with various levels of success.  During the last go around the endocrinologist wanted to test me for celiac disease because it can affect how you absorb nutrients and medication.  So got the test done and of course, my thyroid is perfect, but the celiac test came back positive.  Great.......

After finding a new general practitioner and having a long discussion with her I will be embarking on a two week long gluten and dairy free diet.  Yes, two weeks is not that long but I have a feeling this gluten free business will be permanent.  So I might as well blog about this adventure because I love wheat....and I don't wanna say goodbye to it.  So might as well have an outlet for this as I go along the process.  And maybe fill a niche, because there is not a lot of gluten free information that is Hawaii specific.

So starting Sunday November 4, it is gluten and dairy free time!!  Let's see how this goes.