Seizing My Day

Yep… that would be me… the she who still cooks (barely)

if you make it to the bottom there is a carrot cake “recipe” (fyi)

Some of you might actually remember my old blogging days ( a short two years ago…ha ha ha) when I shared recipes about once a week… anyone?? Bueler?   nevermind… =)  back then when I started my blog I had actually thought *just maybe* I would become a food blogger b/c I loved to cook…. and after watching Julie and Julia and discovering The Pioneer woman… well… I thought is was meant to be!  *cough*cough*  Well… that was ONE year BEFORE…I went Gluten Free … (which was one year ago)…I took the GF plunge due to digestive issues…*cough* cough*  I can’t believe I am confession this to the wild world of bloggers!… I have uclerative colitis issues actually …or well.. they think… either way I do have a form of IBD…. otherwise known as inflammatory bowel disease… Soooooo I didn’t just loose gluten… gluten was just the last thing I lost… (for those of you who are sayin … “what?”… google it… I can’t bare to share anymore!  ha ha ha…

You see over the last 10 years I assumed I had something of the sort… with all my “issues” I figured something was up… I mean most people don’t have to take pepto or something of that sort on a daily basis… *sigh* =)  slowly but surely I found my trigger foods (without doctor support yet) and found some but not a lot of relief from not eating certain foods.

Life is what it is and you roll with it, right?  (or in my case you suffer if you don’t roll with it)  *sigh* =)  After I complain a little I usually just roll with it!!  and make jokes….  better to laugh than cry.  right?  right.

My trigger foods are citrus based, acidic based, fiber based, gluten based, dairy based, green veggie based, spicy (tragic) based …etc. etc. etc. ….  is there anything left to eat??

NOT much. No tomatoes (ack.. HUGE loss), no onions, no peppers, very little spice, no beans, no lentils, no oranges, no eggs, very little dairy, very little salad, very little grain, no oatmeal, no fried foods, blah, blah blah… you get the idea… and never mind I have high blood pressure which means I have to be careful with that too…

anyway.. without complaining too much I am basically trying to say …sometimes I get tired of it all and lose my desire to cook …b/c well… what the Heck am I supposed to eat anyway!!??  =)

with that said.. with a sly smile on my face… I embraced gluten free cooking for the first few months… it was challenging and kind of an adventure!   and then I sort of went into a cooking depression if you will…  I mean seriously … I can’t cook very many of the Pioneer Woman’s recipes anymore… (HUGE LOSS… really!! I love most of Ree’s cooking!)  I on the other hand began to cook a lot of gluten free pancakes b/c it is one of my only food pleasures left in life … ha ha ha… don’t get me wrong I love some of the yummy pancakes I have come up with… but… you can’t live on pancakes alone!

then life picks up and gets busy (9 months out of the year in our case due to our little soccer player!) anyway… it becomes even harder to feed my self, my picky eaters (a whole different post)  and lets not forget my poor husband…. who rarely complains and eats a lot of pasta these days!!

why am I spilling all the beans, complaining a little and well… blogging about IBD… good grief… what has my world come to?  … I kid… I kid!  I decided recently I NEED to get out of this cooking slump.. this lack of blogging slump… and embrace my busy life… my gluten free (everything free) life… ha haha… and roll with it!  I love blogging and interacting with y’all.. and I miss it!  So the real truth behind my blogging slump lately… is partially driven by my pity party about cooking/food… and lets just say I spiraled a bit from there.

Without anymore whining, complaining or negative thoughts … I am going to start researching gluten free and IBD friendly cooking… and embrace it!  and when I master a recipe or two … share it!  surely one or two of my readers will be able to relate… and maybe… just maybe the rest of y’all will like my recipes even if you  don’t need to be GF ++  or should I say minus minus?   It will be a slow start but eventually I am going to try to share a recipe once a week… wish me luck!   I am cheating today b/c my “recipe” is from a box!  (ooops!)

Gluten Free Carrot Cake!

I started with 1 cup grated carrots, 1/2 cup applesauce and a TBSP of vanilla

I could have just stirred them, but I decided I would ‘blend them up a bit’

I didn’t puree them… it was more like a chunky puree

it looked like … well… never mind!

I poured it into the bowl with 2 eggs slightly beaten & 2 heaping tsp of Cinnamon

stir, mix, blend, whisk all that together…

then I opened the box, cut open the packet and poured it over the top

really complicated process that part was!

if y’all remember my kitchen has terrible lighting

especially in the winter months!  bear with my over edited, artificial lit food pics!

blend again… I use my pastry blender b/c I love that thing !

it is WAY better than a spoon!

Next up… Prep the Pan!

I prepped my pan with olive oil cooking spray and sugar cinnamon

I would NOT have used sugar cinnamon

if I had read the sugar per serving content first (*oh my stars SWEET*)

go ahead… pour it in the pan…

y’all know how to bake a boxed cake right?

easy sneezy… that is pretty much what I did… =)

Jenn style… with a few things changed!

adding applesauce & cinnamon

of course I should have reduced the EGG!  oops.

It was VERY moist … and SWEET… OH my stars!!

but yummy…

I LOVE carrot cake… and usually I would frost it with cream cheese frosting

but this one was WAY too sweet to add any further sugar!

anyway…  this is the box brand I used…

it IS really good… though too sweet for my taste.

it wasn’t gritty either which is a huge plus in the GF world…

but I will keep looking!

24 g? or mg? of sugar per serving is TOO much for this chick to swallow!

a regular Betty Crocker Cake mix is 18 g? or mg?  =)  for comparison!

anywho … speaking of packaged foods…

my hubby has been VERY “curious” about SPAM lately

he has never EVER been introduced to Spam

growing up in a small town.. where trailer trash jokes are funny…

I grew up eating the salty stuff…

and I think I even liked it in my mom’s scalloped potatoes?!

anyway… for some reason the joke has been surfacing for months in our circle of friends

so my hubby finally asked me to make some the other day…

and I humored him… against my better judgment!

Lets just say… this amateur cook will NOT be humoring him again!

even though he thinks it might be good to keep some on hand… (WHAT?!!)

*sigh*  ha ha ha

(ps I am truely Sorry if you like Spam…I hope I am not offending anyone… I just can’t endorse it…its way to unnatural… way to salty…and the texture alone makes me want to… oh… never mind… )

I am going to click publish and run b/c I have to take my home schooler to a class !

hope I don’t regret my unedited post!!

See y’all later!

Blessings~

Jenn