Gluten Free's Not So Bad

I've been neglecting the outfit posts, and I apologize. I don't have a good excuse, except to say that I was at a spa all day Saturday for a bachelorette party and then out all night with the girls. And yesterday was filled with cleaning the apartment and napping. (You know; I was tired from the exhausting day at the spa. ;)

But I did want to share my excitement over this blog. I've made three--count 'em, three!--recipes from this blog so far, and I'm loving it. These pictures (taken on my fancy new Android phone) don't do the yumminess justice, but I just wanted to show you what we've enjoyed eating the past two nights.

Quinoa Taco Salad: So good with the lime juice and chunks of avocado. I served it with a pork tenderloin, rubbed in chili powder and roasted. Next time I make this, I'll add some more colorful stuff, like tomatoes, and reduce the amount of red onion.

Vegan Coleslaw Recipe with Peanut Dressing: The non-vegan part that I added was the chicken breast, of course. This coleslaw was really tasty. It had some great Thai flavors like cilantro with lime and peanut: a great combo. I only used 3/4 of a head of green cabbage. (It didn't seem worth it to buy a whole head of purple cabbage just to add a little color.) Next time, I'll add more cilantro and maybe beef it up with some brown rice or cellophane noodles and eliminate the chicken. This would be a great lunch dish.

And I still haven't posted about my first recipe to memorize. next time I make it I'll give you the details (and tell you how often I had to look back at the recipe.)

I don't know how many of you know, but the hubs and I have nearly eliminated gluten. He noticed while he was in Hong Kong that he felt slightly healthier, and the lack of gluten was the only thing that could've triggered that. I've known for a while now that dairy doesn't do my body good, and I think gluten is a culprit as well.

It's not serious, but both of us feel better without gluten or dairy, so we're trying to stay away from it (except sometimes on the weekends when I just really need french toast).

So today I bought gluten-free bread from Rainbow Groceries. Here's why: We just got a toaster oven at work, and I really really really want to make a peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich, but it's just not the same unless it's toasted.

I'll give a full report on the gluten-free bread later this week.