We have physical confirmation people!

We began the gluten free journey just a couple of days ago and my hubby has found intestinal relief suddenly. We don't really visit doctors, so no we have not gotten any exact confirmation, but what is more revealing than a fix to the problem from a slight (actually quite major) diet change. For my family, going gluten free is something that truly needs to be planned, not to say it isn't a major change for others as well. Being a vegan and gluten free is a whole other animal. We have been reading labels like crazy, we always do, and it seems a whole bunch of gluten free items have egg in them. So the conclusion or solution is that I will just have to make our own bread, baked goods, granola, etc. As I have mentioned previously, it is just so important for us to plan ahead or my already skinny husband is going to start losing weight and we really don't need that to happen. I am trying to be as supportive of his lifestyle change by joining him in the gluten free life, not an easy thing to do. We bought our first few, of many, gluten free cookbooks and "gluten free lifestyle for dummies", as well as new types of flours and pasta, to get us prepared for this new lifestyle. My hubby suggested that we get rid of everything with gluten in our house, unfortunately I have quite a few bags of ww flour and other things with gluten, so I suggested that I make things for the kids, because really why do the kids need to cut out gluten right now?
Now on to our day...
So today was a busy, wonderful day. The weather was in the 60s and I have been craving hiking, so we took the kids on the blue ridge and found a hiking trail. This ended up being a 2.8 mile hike to the Folk Art Center, that was very windy and quite steep in some spots. This hike, as wonderfully refreshing as it was, seemed to take forever, especially with the kids complaining after one mile that their feet hurt and some holding of kids following their complaints. So once we got to the Art center, I handed over our water and snacks to the hubby and took off with the dog back to the car, this time walking along the blue ridge parkway. Once I drove the car to the Art Center parking lot, we got to enjoy the center. There were so many beautiful quilts, pottery, wooden figurines, and many other handmade goods. Once we got our fill of art beauty, we went to a pizza joint for some vegan gluten free pizza...not too shabby. After lunch, we hit the bookstore to research all things gluten free and to enjoy some delicious coffee. Once we familiarized ourselves with exactly what giving up gluten meant for us, we went to the grocery store and bought a huge amount of groceries...nothing packaged, except for quinoa/rice pasta. We had a wonderful dinner of quinoa with pinenuts, portabellas, onion, garlic, and sundried tomatoes. I also made cabbage sauteed with garlic. Yummy. Overall, this day was quite wonderful, eventhough we left the cleaning and the laundry for some other time.

My favorite picture is of my very tired little man, ready to fall asleep at the dinner table. Which reminds me, it may be time for me to zonk out as well.

Peace,

Yasmin