Chicken stir fry

The last couple of weeks have been busy. Last week I started working on Mondays as a paid volenteer.  Basically it pays for my gas to get there. This week Drew had a conference in Springfield for work for 3 days so I went with him and enjoyed the free room, hgtv, and the pool. Today is errons, baking for my aunt, and a job interview.  Tonight's dinner is super fast and easy so here we go:

In a skillet put a little olive oil then start tossing in veggies.  Tonight will be carrots, onion, garlic, broccoli, zucchini, peas, and peppers. Once the carrots start to soften I throw in uncooked cubed chicken breast. You can cook the chicken first then throw in the veggies or stager when you put the veggies in depending on how cooked you want them. Once everthing is cooked put a little sweet and sour sauce in long enough to coat everything. Serve it with your favorite rice.

You will need to be careful when buying sweet and sour sauce, many of them have wheat (lots of soy sauce has wheat and soy sauce is in most Asian dishes). I buy mine at Aldi but they don't always have it so stock up.

This is also really easy to adjust for lots of people or just one. If I am makimg it for my self I use a small chicken breast so I mainly get veggies. Don't like a particular vegtable? No problem, don't put it in.

I told you it was easy!

No bake Cookies and a wreath

We have a church dinner tomorrow and I haven't felt like cooking lately so I decided to fall back on my favorite no bake cookie recipe so here we go:

In a pan on medium heat melt/stir together 1/2 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup milk, and 4 Tsp cocoa powder. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Take off heat and add 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 cup peanut butter, and 4-5 cups oats. Using a cookie scoop or spoon put mounds on wax paper until cool.

Note: these are NOT gluten free. I can eat them because they have no wheat but oats do have gluten.

Now onto the wreath. I have been slightly obsessed with wreaths lately. I bought a grapevine wreath at a garage sale and decided to try to make an Easter wreath. I am pretty excited with how it turned out. Here is hoping it sells at the flea market.

Need an easy crochet project?

Here lately I have become obsessed with making dishcloths. Most people think these are to pretty to be used to wash dirty dishes but everyone who does likes them. They take an hour or two to make and you can make 3 with a 3 oz skein of Sugar'n Cream yarn.

Here is what you do:

Using an I hook Chain an even number (I like either 30 or 32)

Row one: Single crochet in second chain from hook. Chain one. Skip a chain then single crochet in next chain. (So you are putting a single crochet in every other chain with a chain in between)

Row Two through the end: single crochet in each chain one space, chain one, and repeat until the end. (It is easy to miss the last stitch so look for the "V" made from the stitch on the previous row and make you sc after that. You will be making a sitch in your last chain of each row.)

Keep going until it is a square. Tie it off, weave in the ends, and go do some dishes!

Note: using a yarn that changes color is easier to see where you need to make your stitches. This pattern also makes a really cute baby blanket, just chain more at the beginning.

Mexican Chicken

Last year Drew did a weight loss competition. In the end he won loosing 40 pounds but doing it was only half his battle. I had to find new ways to cook chicken that would be healthy, g free, and easy. This one takes the cake for easy. 

Mexican Chicken

Boneless Skinless Chicken breast

Salsa

Shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Put the number of chicken breast you need to feed you family  in a baking dish. Dump some salsa on top. Put a handful of cheese on top of the salsa. Cover with foil and bake for 45min to an hour.

I love this dish served with rice and my hubby likes to mix in corn as well. One time I forgot to make rice umtil we were sitting down to eat.  We decided to put some instant rice in the liquid left in the baking dish and cover it back up. About 5 minutes later we had salsa flavored rice! 

See I told you it was easy. The best part is you can cook as much or as little as you want and it doesn't take any extra time.

Peanutbutter Cookies

Let's face it. Gluten Free mixes are expensive and sometimes hard to find one you like. Once you find on, or use gfree flour they don't always taste the best or stay soft. An awesome cook from our church found this recipe and started making it for church dinners. I passed it along to a friend and she won "best new cookie" at a cookie exchange. It is so simple, tastes every bit as good as a regular cookie, and is cheap to make. So here we go:

Peanutbutter Cookies

1 c peanutbutter

1 egg

1 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Mix it all up and place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. 

Yep it is just that easy. You can add in chocolate chips if you would like or anything else.

Scrubbies

Today you get a crochet project. I've been making lots of dish scrubbies lately. They are a quick easy project for watching tv.

Here is what you need:
-3 yards of nylon tulle
-Size I crochet hook

 What to do:
-cut tulle in strips about 2 inches wide and tie them end to end.
-chain 4 and slip stich to first ch
-chain 3 then dc in ring 16 times and slipstich to first stich.
-chain 3 then dc in each space. Slip stich to first stich
-Do everything again to make two circles.
-Single crochet both circles together.
-tuck in the ends

 Note: leave the ends around two inches long. They serve as stuffing to make your scrubbie a little thicker.

Eating Out

When I first starting eating g free I found eating out challenging to say the least. I didn't cook anything today so I thought I would pass on what I've learned. First things first, don't be afraid to ask questions. They look at you like you're crazy but more often than not, they've delt with it before. My favorite thing to eat out is Mexican. They key is to order things with corn tortillas and ask them to switch the wheat ones out. The secon place I eat at a lot is McDonalds. Order a burger without a bun. If you eat someplace that has onion rings make sure they aren't fried with the french fries. My last hint is most chains like Applebee's and Chilis have allergy information online and can also give you a printout while your there.

Just a helpful hint

Today I don't have a recipe, just a helpful hint. When I first went g free it was really hard for me to find quick meals and on Wednesdays it always has to be quick or leftovers. I forgot to put away dinner last night so our leftovers for tonight went in the garbage. Tonight is now soup night. It is really hard to find soup to eat. Almost everything contains wheat starch as a thickener. However, Progresso has become my go to soup. They have several varieties but my favorite is the Chicken and Wild Rice one. They also oh a creamy mushroom that works with casseroles (it is kinda runny so I don't use as much).

Back At It

It's been a while but nothing much has really happened. Most days I feel good and I've learned to control a lot with diet. In August Drew and I went to see a maternal fetal care specialist to see what challenges we would face if we were to have kids. Our biggest risk would be delivery. We would have to have a planned c section with a colon rectal surgan on hand because there is a good chance of cutting into bowel. We have also joined the YMCA so we can both get into better shape. In my mind I can do a lot more than I can actually do so it should be interesting. The gluten/wheat free diet is going well. I have found I can get away with trace amounts and a small amout of wheat starch. Which brings me to what I am going to start using this blog for. I've had people ask me what I eat because they are going g free or know someone who is. So from now on I am going to start posting recipes and good products I have found. I will alao probably start posting craft projects too. Recipe #1 Tonight for dinner I made croc pot chicken. I just threw a couple chicken breast in with half a bottle of bbq sauce. Make sure you check your sauce if you need it g free, I like to use the hickory sauce from Aldi or Sweet Baby Rays. Cook it for about five hours on low. About 30 before your ready to eat pull the chicken out and shred it using two forks then throw it back in the pot until your ready to serve. I like to eat mine with potato chips but it is also really good made into bbq nachos. My hubby likes it with pepperjack cheese on bread with some onion and green pepper.

Well we made it through Christmas and January and I am feeling good. I ended up having to go wheat free after all but I am still in the process of figuring out how sensitive I am. When I first started as long as it didn't contain wheat I was fine. Now I am having to cut out the stuff that says it may contain traces of wheat. On the plus side I have discovered I now like cooked veggies so I have something to eat!

A Touch of Thanksgiving

Good news! I am feeling better. I still have to spend a lot of time in the bathroom but it is becoming an exceptable amount. I really think the prednisone is working so I hope that means I wont have to try a glution free diet. I am still trying to stay away from milk, chili powder, and heavy tomato products however, I did have some bbq'd sauce and had no problems. I am so thankful that God has gotten me this far and I know he will continue to bless us. I know there will be other hard times to come but I will appreciate right now while I have it!

Behind As Always

The last c-diff test came back negative. The doc decided to perscribe this powder stuff to help thicken my stools up. It took forever to get it because of insurance and pharmacy issues. I finally got it last Thursday and got down about half a dose. It made me feel horrible that night. I felt like I always had to go to the bathroom. I ended up being able to see the doc on Monday. He ran several test including one for vre. It hasn't came back yet but the blood work came back showing inflamation that is most likely due to pochitis. He perscribed pednisone so maybe that will help. He is also worried about glution causing problems so he is checking for that to, I am praying it comes back negative.

Here We go again....

We got drew feeling better. As for me the vanco helped for awhile then I had to go back on Cipro. that then helped until about Friday when things started to crash once again. I got in to see the doc this morning. I am thinking it is c diff again. He did a stool sample and gave me a script for more vanco if it comes back positive. I should know more tomorrow.

I got the medicine problem settled. There is one pharmacy in Columbia who sells liquid Vanco. They had to get some kind of approval from the doc for insurance but they said if I could pay for it they would refund me what insurance did pay. It was only $135 so I'm not to worried. In other news Drew is now sick. We thought maybe it was mono because I am really tired too. We both went in and saw the nurse practitionar today. She didn't think it was mono but had us do the blood work to check. She did a flu test on Drew and it came back negative so who knows whatsoever wrong with us. We will see how we feel tomorrow.

So frustrated

Thursday I got a call mid day saying the stool sample came back negative for C-diff. I asked if I should take the vancomiacine or cipro. She didn't know so they were going to have to talk to the doc and call me back. I waited for the rest of the day and herd nothing. Drew started calling him today and on the second call they told him that I knew what I was suppose to do but he finally got the nurse to call me. The doc decided to put me on vancomiacine. After the parade we went out to Wal-mart and they didn't have any. They called every pharmacey in town and noone had it. Finally they found some at Killgores in Columbia but they only had name brand. The nice lady at wal-mart then ran it through our insurance and it was going to be around $1100. For the generic it was still going to cost $450. The sad part is if I could get myself admitted to the hospital it would be free because I have hit all max out of pocket costs. I am going to call Monday and see if there is something else I can take. I also keep thinking back in the day they told me the generic doesn't work as well but I could be wrong about that. What do you do just go ahead and pay it? I just keep thinking what if it doesn't work? Its not like they will refund my money if it doesn't work like it should. Meanwhile the diarrhea had gotten worse and I also have really bad gas. It doesn't hurt but I can feel it as it moves into my pouch and it is uncofortable. I am actually sitting up because I kept having to get up. Today is one of those days that Felix looks like a good deal....

I didn't get better over the weekend so my gi doc decided to do a stool sample yeasterday and a Sig flex today. He is pretty sure I have C-diff again. We have to wait for the stool sample to come back to make sure. If it is I have the perscription to get the right antibiotic.

I am getting really bad about posting. It is such a pain to do it from my phone but thats what I have. The antibiotic helped out a lot but the last couple days I was on it I seemed to stop responding to it. My last day taking it was Monday and now I am having problems again. I keep having to get up tonight so I decided to just stay up for awhile. Tomorrow I am going to call the doc and see if I can get back on the cipro or steroids. The good news is my leg pain is getting really better. When I did some blood test my b-12 levels came back really low. I have to do shots for 8 weeks. Maybe it will help my energy too although I have never noticed a difference when I've got them before.

Some of you may have heard I was having problems again and that is true. Tuesday night right before going to bed, I ended up having some bright red blood when I went to the bathroom. We called the doctor on call at the hospital and she told us that it was normal but if it increased to a cup of blood in one hour we needed to go in. The next day I called Dr. Safar and he decided he wanted to see me next week. The blood continued throughout the day and my frequency of using the bathroom increased. That evening I ended up going 5 times in an hour and every time there was more and more blood. We called Barnes again and they still didn't seem to concerned. The doc did tell us we might want to go to the local ER to have my blood levels checked out. Drew and I decided to head to Boone because they would have the type of doc I needed if something was wrong. By 3 am they had decided I had pouchitis and gave me a cipro (antibiotic) and a percription for 10 days worth. Thursday we called to follow up and they decided to have me come in at 1. The problem is it was already 11:20 and it takes over 2 hours to get there. It didn't really matter we still had to wait 2 hours. Basically it was a huge waist of time. All we really learned is I am probably drinking to much water and not enough salt. I am feeling better. I'm not having to make as many trips to the bathroom and the blood has decreased. The best part is I am finally able to sleep through the night! Monday I go see my gi doc in Columbia and I have an appointment with Safar for Thursday bt I don't think I will need to keep it.

My doctors appointment went well (and really Fast) today. They took my staples out, decided I should load up on more fiber, and told me if I was still going to the bathroom 20 times a day to give him a call next week and he would perscribe something to help. So I came home and ate a bowl of cereal that claims to be an excelent source of fiber with some benefiber on it and took two imodium pills. I'm still going a lot but it is a bit thicker. I really hope things start getting better soon. This being sick all the time is getting really old. My legs are hurting now too. I don't know if it is from walking more then I have been (we went to world market and target as well as walking through the hospital) or what. It feels like I need to keep moving. I'm actually out on the couch because I couldn't lay still, kept getting up to go to the bathroom, and didn't want to wake up Drew. If you have ideas either for fiber or the legs let me know.

I am starting to feel better for the most part but now I feel like I did when I had uc. My biggest problem now is my bottom hurts. It is raw from going so much, it hurts from sitting on the hard tolit seat, and it feels like I worked it out too. I am also losing weight because there isn't much I can eat and I feel better when I don't eat. Amanda is taking me to the doctor tomorrow to get my staples out.