New Jobs, Old Foods

I started a second job today! I will be working in two very different places, and I'll have a pretty packed schedule, which I do to myself anyways, so now that I _actually_ will be busy, it's very exciting. I am in the process of figuring out my food regimen for the next week. This is going to be one of those things where I have to, like, think ahead. Eek. I can do this!

Anyways, above is another picture of what has become Nathan and my default meal - the taco bowl. This one in particular was especially nice, because I used some of my leftover tempeh fajita stuff, which was just tempeh crumbled and mixed with spices and garlic and love, of course. Also, the beans are spiced and thrown in with corn, which is one of my favorite ingredients. Lately I've been forgetting I have it though. It's hard for me to keep up with what's in the freezer for some reason. Heh.

And, below...a beer I am very fond of. It's not absolutely amazing; it's just a solidly good beer. And it's local! Woo!

Vegan Tex-Mex Bowl

This bowl puts together some of my all-time favorites in the tex-mex food genre: avocados, corn, brown rice, tomatoes, cilantro, those damn Morningstar Crumbles, lime and corn tortillas. I also had chips and salsa with this. Delicious. You know, it was incredibly simple to put this together. Really, not much needs to be done. Just chop the veggies, heat up the fake meat (I've never heated it in the microwave because I like making it just a tiny bit crispy on the stovetop), and cook the beans and corn. Nice to put some spices in with the beans, like paprika, salt, cumin, garlic powder. And Valentina sauce at the end! And warm the tortillas. Always warm the tortillas. It is ALWAYS worth the effort.

That is all from me. I just got home from an incredibly intoxicating Thai dinner (Titaya's - way better than Thai Kitchen), treated by Nathan. I'm going to go eat some pie now and veg like I have never vegged.

Introducing Gluten

Going through this process of re-introducing different kinds of foodstuffs into my system has been really good in actually introducing, for the first time, some grains and whatnots I hadn’t really cooked with or, in the case of kamut, had ever heard of. It was time at this point in my regimen, to introduce gluten, and see how that felt. So I did a little research into kamut, and then found the following recipe online. Then it’s just to get cooking.

Kamut is a type of wheat that has a only a very small amount of gluten. It is very similar to durum wheat and is one of those grains that have to be simmered for about an hour to cook (so cook a lot!). It is reputed as being tolerable by those who are allergic to wheat, but still off-limits for those who can’t deal with gluten. So it’s a good start when you want to check for a wheat allergy.

From how I felt later that night, I don’t think I am allergic to wheat, which, really, I’d much rather have as the case. What is the difference, really? Well, according to the INTERNET, a wheat allergy is the body's response to the specific grain, wheat, whereas a gluten intolerance is not an allergy, but an autoimmune disease, where the body attacks itself! Whoa! The reason why it's more annoying than a wheat allergy, is because with a gluten intolerance, one is to avoid gluten entirely - all gluten products, which include such yummy things as wheat bread, many pastas, delicious cakes and cookies, malt vinegar, vegetable protein (morningstar crumbles! NOOO!), soy sauce, etc.

So, I'm sure I'll be talking about this quite a bit in the next coming days, as I'll be starting my wheat introduction shortly. Here's the recipe I tried (it is super good, really, really good):

Oh, I found the recipe here.
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1 lb. kamut, steamed with 1 tablespoon garam masala spice mix
or 1 t. each cinnamon, ground cloves and ground coriander
(Recipe uses 4 cups of the cooked kamut; leftovers make great salads)
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 green pepper, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 tablespoon minced fresh gingerroot
1/2 cup bouillon
4 cups cooked kamut -- see note above
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 can pink beans or light red kidney beans
pinch cayenne, or to taste
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1 vine-ripened tomato, chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro or Italian parsley leaves

Bring the onion, green pepper, carrots and ginger root and 1/2 cup of
bouillon to a boil and simmer, covered, until the carrots are tender,
about 15 minutes. Stir the cooked kamut, raisins and beans into the
vegetable mixture and add the cayenne to taste. Just before serving,
stir in the peas, tomatoes and cilantro or parsley leaves. (EASY!!!)

8-10 servings (between three hungry people, we just almost ate the whole dish)
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The kamut was awesome, scrumptious, even. It had a super satisfying texture - like rice on steroids! The dish itself had a great variety of texture; the peas, carrots, beans and raisins in particular created a nice little bite medley, and it's very pretty when cut up and put into little bowls.
Now, when I had this (nervous laughter here...), it was also my first night with beer, so that in itself kind of messed up any speculations into whether I was allergic to wheat or intolerant of gluten or not. Whoops. I can say, though, that the beer definitely messed with me. My stomach was killing me after I had just one bottle. Since then I’ve been unable to handle beer without my stomach hurting a ton (cramps, at one point it felt like I was being stabbed in the intestines). It's the same reaction I have had to bagels. It’s not looking good. As I’m typing this my stomach is hurting, and I know I haven’t been avoiding gluten very well. It’s a bit childish, I know, but I may take awhile to admit defeat and just give up gluten altogether.