Going Gluten Free

For 3 weeks I had been feeling terrible. A very painful abdomen, waves of nausea and general discomfort for the majority of the day. It came on gradually, but after three weeks I was leaving work early because I just didn't feel well enough to be there.

I had seen 3 doctors about the pain and one said it was nothing to worry about, the second mentioned the word 'mass' and scared me quite a lot, and the third told me to go and see another doctor at my surgery - a doctor who takes the time to listen and does her best to diagnose.

After an appointment that lasted well over half an hour, and once I had answered a lot of questions she pointed out that my digestive system didn't feel too good, and the fact that my Dad is Coeliac made her think. "Very interesting" she said, and recommended that I go gluten free for a while and see if it helps.

It's been just over a week since that appointment, and I have cut gluten out of my diet. And how do I feel?... Good. Ach, I hate to say it, but I do. I feel much, much better. Damn my father!

There are two killers for me here. Killer number 1 is that gluten free food can be horribly expensive. Killer number 2 is... cake! Oh cake, and biscuits, how I love you! What am I going to do without you in my life?!

But I have ways around this. Having lived with my Dad's diet for nearly 20 years I have learnt a thing or two and the best tip I learnt is to eat naturally gluten free foods. Such as cornflakes and snack-a-jacks. These are eaten by everyone, regardless of a gluten free diet and so are much cheaper. The only thing I should really have to substitute is pasta and the pasta isn't that awful so I'm sure I'll be fine with that.

But I will also have to learn to bake from scratch again. I shall not be defeated! I will need to learn the science behind baking so I know what I need to do to ensure I can fix any mishaps that may pop up along the way. I will use this to make me a stronger and ignite the passion to bake within me...

... and if I do fail I'll just concentrate more on cratfs. See? Not all bad.

In all honesty, though, I have caught this respectively early and so my reactions won't be half as bad as my dads, who is incredibly poorly after having just a sip of ale. I shan't be so bad that I need to stress out the poor hostess who has invited me to a dinner party, or kindly decline going out for a meal because I can't be sure what has been put in the sauce. No, it won't be that bad. If I am good for 99% of the time, the other 1% won't kill me.

Maybe every now and again indulge in a Krispy Kreme?

As for what I'll be posting on here - I am determined to eat like a normal person and so will be posting cheap recipes that maybe just happen to be gluten free, or if I have substituted anything I shall mark where you normal people don't have to!

I'll be looking forward to finding new blogs to read and I think I have already stumbled across a little gem. Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried runs an event called "Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free!" (from which I have taken the image at the top of this post!) so I plan to spend a lot of time reading it.

I would love any recommendations. Have a good weekend!

Show Home Inspiration

I have somewhat of a massive fascination with looking around houses. To be more precise, I have somewhat of a massive fascination with looking around show homes.

I'm visiting my parents at the moment and a new development is being built at the top of their road and to satisfy my curiosity, Matthew and I wandered up there to have a bit of a nosey. I do like to go dressed nicely and look as though I am intending to buy and look around the house believing that I am, in fact, going to buy it. We sat on the sofas (very comfy!) and admired the layout of the bedroom before going up to the attic floor and fantasising about how Matt could turn it into a studio for himself.

The best thing about looking around show homes, though, is the use of design. It's hard to not get enticed by the cleverly missing wardrobes and lack of television in the front room, but occasionally you get to see something that sends ideas whizzing about in your head. That something was some wall art in a bedroom.

The wallpaper was patterned with large images and above the bed a mismatched array of empty frames were hung to display the pictures on the wall. Topped with a ribbon or two, these frames looked absolutely stunning and made me dig into my bag to get out the camera and take a picture. It was a fantastic way to create a feature on an already busy wall, without making it look as though too much was going on.

It's a shame, really, that rented accommodation doesn't allow me to do something like this myself but it is definitely going into the memory bank to be brought out again when I am able to decorate a bedroom as beautifully as this.

Ah, one can only dream...