A Lifestyle Change

     I went back to the doctor this week. My blood work is normal, but as I told him about the changed I have had since I altered my diet, he declared that I do, indeed have a gluten intolerance. I cannot begin to tell you how happy it makes me to finally know what is wrong with me. Finally, I have a solution to my physical problems.
     It has been easier than I thought it would be to cut gluten out of my diet...at least, it has been easy to do so at home. There have been a couple of incidences...The first was Saturday. My family and I went down to St George. We went to a restaurant that we knew would be friendly as far as food selection went. Well, the meal went fine. After the meal, the trouble started. Our waitress brought us fortune cookies...and without even thinking, I ate one.
     It has been an interesting experience. I suddenly have to think about what I eat. I have to look at packaging in the store. I have to bring my own treat to a lot of things...I have had people feel like they need to cater to my new needs. I simply tell them that I am fine and do not want to be an inconvenience.
     I think of all my experiences in the last 2 weeks, one in particular smarted the most. My sister was hosting a Pampered Chef party tonight. I received a voicemail telling me what was on the menu: sourdough pizza and brownies. I deleted the message and hung up. In telling my friends what the message was about, I burst into tears. I think this experience has brought my new diet changes into focus more than any other event.
    Okay ENOUGH of the doom and gloom. As a chef, the diet change has opened up a whole new line of creativity when it comes to food. I have experimented quite a bit over the last few days, but haven't had time to record anything. After all, finals are a week away for me!
     My most recent experiment involved chicken. Here is the recipe:

4 chicken thighs
2 cups chopped cabbage
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
2 TBSP Olive Oil
2 small limes
2 tsp basil
pepper salt
Appx 1 tsp Lemon pepper
Appx 1 tsp season salt

Pour the oil in a non stick frying pan. Sprinkle the basil, lemon pepper, season salt and three dashes of pepper onto the oil. Cut one of the lime's in half and squeeze both halves into the pan.

Cut the chicken into cubes and put into the pan. When the chicken is browned, add the peppers, onions and tomatoes. Cook until the chicken is done, and the veggies are soft. Season with salt and pepper if you wish.

My take on this experiment:
This meal was delicious! I absolutely LOVED it! The great part of this was that you can eat this mixture plain, or put it over rice. I will definitely be cooking this again in the near future.

Changes:
Above is my original recipe. When I make this again, I will probably saute the onions and peppers before adding the chicken. THEN when the chicken is browned, I will add the tomatoes and cucumbers.

Happy Eating!

PS
To any out there who are thinking of cutting gluten from your diet, I would strongly recommend reading The Paleo Solution, by Robb Wolf. It was pretty informative and has made my transition a lot easier.