Life in Peoria

It's been a while!

I had somewhat forgotten about this blog, but I was just thinking recently I should try and go back to it.

Since the last time I posted, I moved from Urbana to Peoria, Illinois, and I've been loving it.

I am currently engaged to, ironically, the first friend I made here (how's that for fate!?), working at the local community college, and we just recently moved into this amazing new condo (after a series of unfortunate events and unhappy living situations, and then finally it just fell into our laps! B"H, or Alhamdulillah as we say in Arabic!)

This presents both an opportunity to cook more (a reaaaaaaaaaaaal kitchen for once!!!) but also some interesting kosher issues, as we have decided to let a friend move into our spare bedroom so he can improve his living situation (we didn't like where he was living before and we finally had an opportunity to help).

So, we have portioned out the kitchen into Môrgan's and The Guys'. The oven is self-cleaning (PRAISE THE LORD ALMIGHTY!!!!!OMG), and we don't have a dishwasher (aside for roommate Mikail, who says he really likes doing dishes), so it shouldn't be too difficult. Plus, lets be honest, Cherry Garden Chinese is RIGHT across the street and the only gluten is what they use for the fried food, so I've become a fully Jewish cliche...

I've always loved labeling my drawers with these little color coded electrical tape pieces. Though, you can see, I haven't exactly unpacked yet.

We'll have a full house for dinner tonight. I'm thinking of cooking mujaddara, perhaps with a little chicken for the boys, since I'm not sure how they'll feel about eating vegetarian.

B'vracha!!

Oh Lunch...

I've recently moved from Champaign-Urbana to Peoria, IL. It's a nice change. Peoria is about twice the size, still a bit of a college town, so there's always something to do, for relatively reasonable prices.

With a move comes new employment! I'm still looking for, what I like to call, a big girl job, but w/ only a years worth of experience under my belt in an internship, and in this economy, I have yet to see the fruits of my labors. Regardless, I have some child-care work (my go to money maker), and as was bound to happen, I am going to need to start bringing my own lunch with me. Yikes!

You see, previously, I either ate with the kids I watched (there are no lunch breaks in child care, but there is free food, yay!), or I had time off to go home and make food. But currently, three days a week, I'm working in two different cities in one day, both 30 min from home, and 30 min from each other. So, a sack lunch it is.

One problem. I have no idea what to make for lunch.

What does one usually make for lunch? Salads... sandwiches, soup, easy mac...

I like salads, but honestly, I'm not good at that whole breakfast thing (this may change... if it does, I'll blog about that then), so I've gotten into a habit of a European lunch. Big meal in the middle of the day, smaller one later for dinner.

First of all, I highly suggest this system. It really gives you an amazing burst of energy mid day. I remember when I started eating really good lunches, because one of my clients worked from home, so she made the most awesome Israeli or Russian food for lunch and her, myself, and the kids all ate together. I was amazed that I felt so damn good at 2pm! Previously, by the mid afternoon, I was ready for another nap. I'd go home, plop onto the couch, eat a snack, and veg until I felt I could power through the rest of the day. If I worked until 5, that last 3 hrs were brutal.

But amazingly, when I ate, I had energy. Funny how calories work, haha!

So, what I like to do (though this requires cooking, and sometimes that's just so much work!), since I skip breakfast, or I only eat a quick bite, I prefer to have a decent lunch. This has previously been whatever I could get my hands on. Then at 3ish, I eat a big meal. This would really be my dinner. Then at 7ish, I'd eat a snack. That's more like "supper".

Again, this is mostly theoretical, because it requires planning, and cooking, two things I hate doing on a regular basis.

So, yeah... No idea what I'm supposed to put IN my lunch. Salads are not substantial, gluten free sandwiches kinda suck, anything canned or with the word "easy" in it is NOT gonna happen.

I... wha... Rice? I have no idea... I guess left overs from the previous nights dinner... I'm not really sure, I'll let you now how this all works out...

An Example of What Not to Do

So, I would like give you all an example of why I made this blog. I'm about to move at the end of this month, & money has been very tight, as I've been saving for things like boxes, a u-haul and the dreaded deposit. Plus my kitchen is partially in boxes and in utter havok (for the record, it's not so much a kitchen as it is a sink and a stove in my living room). So last Thursday night, this is what I ate for dinner, an ounce of dates, half a coconut (and all the water, yum!), a can of artichoke hearts and a can of sardines.

Yup. This is a normal meal for me, really. Happily enough, it was only about a $2 meal, and that's what is most important at the time. To make up for it, I have spent the weekend at my boyfriend's sister's house, & she is a master baker, especially in gluten-free & vegan. I really don't care for the vegan part, I enjoy my eggs and milk, but I had gluten-free soft pretzels and I saw the Pearly Gates for a second. Doc, as I call her, (because she's honestly a doctor), said "I'm glad you mildly enjoy them" (they were sort of gritty, and cornbread textured), and I looked at her funny and said "is there anything about me that looks 'mildly' joyfull? I'm in shangri-la right now." Then she made red velvet cupcakes without my even having told her that I wanted them!

Well, hopefully next month proves more productive for my cooking efforts!

More on malnutrition

Well, the bruising and fatigue are back, but I've been lucky enough to have been eating quite a bit of meat lately.

It just so happened that I started reading the wall of the Facebook group for people with Celiac's, and there was a conversation on malnutrition problems. Apparently, one can continue to suffer from complications absorbing nutrients their entire life, even on a gluten free diet, and especially every time one has an accident. A few weeks ago, I had a really nasty accident (I knew there was a good chance the food was all gluten heavy, but I had failed to prepare, and there was honestly no other food for two days. Big mistake!) Also, never ever ever go to McDonald's if you have any dietary restrictions. They pretty much suck for making accommodations.

So, it turns out iron deficiencies are quite common for people with Celiac's disease, and it is possible that I could suffer from this my whole life. Dukes! And, since it's an absorption issue, the problem isn't that I'm not eating enough of it, it's that I'm not keeping enough of what I eat.  Double dukes!

One answer was to take a multivitamin. I guess the idea is to take more than the average person needs, because then the likelihood of my absorbing enough is higher. Honestly, I should be doing that anyhow. Taking a multivitamin not only helps fill in the nutritional gaps, but it can boost your immune system!

Another idea that came to my mind was that I should work on gaining more muscle and loose some of the extra pudge in my easily bruised areas. That one is really just an idea that I had based on the fact that fat body parts bruise easier (the capillaries are stretched further, I believe. I read about all that very long time ago, so the details are fuzzy).

All-in-all, it's something I'm going to start looking more into.

Camping Adventures

Okay, so this is a tad late, but I did want to post about a recent adventure. I went on a camping trip, and while a "feast" was provided for everyone both Friday and Saturday night, both nights the food consisted of food that was pimarily gluten heavy and non-kosher. Having known this ahead of time, I planned my own meals all three days, and prepared accordingly. It was an interesting adventure, as I've pretty much never planned meals like this.

Thursday night, I made Ranger Stew. It can also be called Hobo Stew, and a few other names I don't remember, but basically, it's a bunch of veggies, and a meat of choice wrapped in tin foil, then thrown into the bonfire until it's cooked. An awesome choice for camp outs. I just chose to throw some kosher hotdogs into it, with veggies, but it's probably best with ground meat. And if you don't keep kosher, and are feeling adventurous, use rabbit meat.

Friday, in the morning, I made Mujadarrah. This time, I added beeffry, which is beef bacon, and I fried the onions in the bacon grease. Best. Idea. Ever. It was so insanely good. I under spiced it, but once I go enough salt in it, it was so good that everyone ate it up, even though it was suppose to last 2 days. I was also told to add some maple syrup, but I forgot.

Friday for lunch, I made my famous shakshuka, because I make that every camp out, but the peppers were not spicy at all. Shakhukah is, apparently, also called "Eggs in Purgatory". It's basically crushed tomatoes, boiled, and eggs are dropped in. I don't think it's common to add them in the shell, but I imagine some people do. I prefere to just drop them in, so that they're sooooort of poached, but not that fancy. It's middle eastern comfort food, and it's amazing. When I was staying w/ friends after my live-in boyfriend broke up with me, they made this for breakfast the next morning. It was the most appropriate breakfast food I could have eaten that particular day.

For dinner Friday, I was planning on making ginger talapia, a dish my aunt taught me. I didn't end up cooking, because I was pretty satiated from lunch, and it was bitter cold and raining, so cooking was no very appealing. The dish is super easy though, just fry the fish in some olive oil and quite a bit of powdered ginger. Then add some lemon juice to garnish, and serve w/ a green veggie.

Saturday breakfast, I ate left over shakshuka (it was below freezing all night, so the food was well preserved), lunch was skipped, though I had planned on making jambalaya for the first time. I won't post the recipe, because I didn't try it out. Dinner was my friend's mom's chicken stew, and it was amazing.

First, you want to cook the chicken, so put a little bit of water in the bottom of the pot, add the chicken, and leave until it's food (test it by cutting into it, the juices should run clear, and the meat should show no pink). Then, cut the chicken into pieces, throw away the bones, and add vegetables, probably carrots, celery, etc. You MUST add potatoes. If you don't add something startchy, it will be soup, not stew. Then add your spices and herbs, I just added salt, pepper, peprika, and dill. Cook until the veggies are soft.

There you have it! A gluten free camping weekend. And honestly, the food all came out pretty awesome.

Rosewater Rice Pudding

Quick update today. Found this recipe a few days ago. I'm always looking for yummy ways to make rice not so boring.

Rosewater Rice Pudding

Okay, it doesn't look like the easiest recipe. Rosewater, saffron, rice flour... none of these being things I keep in my pantry on a regular basis. And saffron is not known for being cheap (for a while it was worth more than gold by weight. I'm not joking!), but apparently you can leave the saffron out, and I suppose the other two ingredients are good to have around from time to time.

Iron: It's apparently really bad when you don't get it...

So a real post now.

Well, I should mention, I'm pretty much a weekday vegetarian. I have become very conscious about where my meat comes from, and I try to avoid industrial farming as much as I can, so I've started only eating kosher meat, organic meat, local meat, or hunted meat. I also try to keep as kosher as possible, so I don't eat pork or shellfish, and I don't mix meat and diary. I have a pretty mild case of lactose intolerance, so I don't drink milk, but I do eat cheese. I also try to only eat kosher cheese (did you know that rennet, an enzyme used for making cheese, comes from the stomach of a cow, and the most common source of rennet is the byproduct of veal production. I really dislike the concept of veal, so I really don't want to contribute to it myself).

Also, meat is expensive.

So I pretty much don't buy it. I'll sometimes eat it if my friends buy it, and I know that it's the only thing I'm going to eat. I probably could make a better effort to avoid it, but if I was that organized, it would make this a very boring blog. Baby steps.

Now, I have plenty of friends that are vegetarian, and they've been awesome at teaching me how to make up for a meat-free diet. I was actually really surprised to find out that diary usually is a better source or protein than meat. I've started eating greek yogurt for breakfast, aaaaaaaalmost every morning, (w/ honey and corn chex cereal, or if I have the money to spluge, granola! yum!), and since I eat about half a cup, that provides me with about 10g of protein. Did you know that an average hotdog only had 5g of protein!?

Also, a Russian-Israeli friend of mine, who is also a vegetarian, and because she's Russian and Jewish, she is an AMAZING cook (I have two of these... they're goddesses), introduced me to this Lebanese dish called Mujadarrah. Holy crap, it's amazing (well when she made it. Mine came out super bland, but I'm working on it). Apparently it's called "vegetarian meat" or something like that, cause it's supposed to be really high in protein, and I think lentils and rice make a complete amino acid. Anyhow, word of advice, make a giant pot of it the day before you really want it, because it takes a long time to cook. It's sort of a "put it in a pot and forget about it for a while" dish. But it's super easy to reheat, so it's worth it (Of course, I don't have a microwave, so that's not exactly true for me, but I make due).

Unfortunately, I kept forgetting about another little nutrient I usually get from meat. Iron.

I crave red meat after I've been sick, or after my "lady time", so my body likes to tell me exactly when I'm low on the stuff, but since I've been limiting my red meat intake, I seem to have gone past that point and ventured on into "hmm, why am I so tired all the time" territory. Now I could be totally wrong, and maybe I'm just coming down with a cold or something, but considering I can count how many green vegetables I've had in the past week on one hand, I think it's safe to say I'm not doing what I should be anyhow.

So I bought a bunch of spinach and a bag of brussel sprouts at the store, and because I'm odd, I was super excited about this adventure, because I absolutely LOVE spinach and brussel sprouts. I also love beets, and Tali says that beets are high in iron too.

Here's the down side, I then proceeded to eat both the bag of brussel spouts and the spinach as a meal. Not on the same day mind you, but basically, I'm like a fish, if you put it in front of me, I'll eat until I pollute my own environment.

I tend to do stuff like this a lot. I bought some chicken in Skokie, all excited, cooked it, stored it, ate it all in one day. >.<


So, basically, the moral of this post is, balanced meals.

It is a good idea to always have rice cooked, and ready to eat. Then, I can mix it with something else yummy and good for me, like a leafy green, or on fancy occasions, meat. That way, I fill up on something that costs a dollar per pound (:hyperbole!:, but seriously, rice is freaking cheap), and I still get all the yummy variety and nutrients I need, without smacking my lips and thinking "well, that was a $5 meal, and now I have no more chicken".

But, at least I've figured breakfast out.