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Italian Healing

22. August 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Fucking Gluten, Travels · Tags: Fucking Gluten, Life in Germany, Travels

It has been a rough few months for us, so we escaped for a few days to the sea! Our old friends, Angelo and Christele, are in Sardegna visiting family, so we took the chance to visit them even though it meant we would be FORCED to enjoy the Mediterranean paradise in summer – sigh. The things we do for friendship. While we were there, our other friend, Elena from Milan, was there with her family but on the other side of the island. It was a crazy two-hour drive to get to her, but it was nice to see her and the family again.

The last time we were that was in June 2005 when these same friends had a church wedding there. A LOT has changed since then. Namely, five new little people have come into our lives, and we are all really tired

Having been feeling a bit depressed about food lately, I think going to Italy is possibly the best therapy I could have chosen. Italians love food, they do it well, and they process very little. Every restaurant we went to had absolutely no issues with gluten-free food. They all offered gluten-free pasta if I wanted pasta, plus the ‘second’ dishes were mostly all gluten-free since everything was made fresh. I ate a lot and LOVED it. I rediscovered my love of good food.

As my friend Sarah reminded me, the slow food movement did start in Italy, so I should’t be surprised. Fortunately, Angelo and Christele follow this philosophy in their own cooking as well, so when we had dinner with the family, it was also amazing – young goat, ratatouille, simple pasta sauces (with my special pasta), simple salads. For breakfast and lunch, we had a lot of fruit (it was hot), prociutto, salami, cheese, bread for them and GF crackers for me. The seafood, was AMAZING. I think I will have to save up all of my seafood eating for Italy because I was kind of losing my flavor for seafood that isn’t terribly good in land-locked Germany.

Ok, enough about food (but seriously, AMAZING). We fell into a routine pretty quickly: breakfast, beach, home for a rest, dinner, bed. Pretty simple; at the end of every day, Matthias and I were wiped out but happy. We stayed in an apartment that was just around the corner from our friends, but it wasn’t the best place for small kids. It was actually the same place we stayed in 2005, but I remember it seeming a lot more relaxing then… wonder why. So, our strategy was to get the kids out of the apartment as much as we could. It was a crazy, but energetic week. We had a blast. The kids really enjoyed the energy.

All of the kids played pretty well with each other and on their own at the beaches. I would have loved to have more time to catch up with Angelo and Christele, but having five kids under age 7 around makes that kind of tough. It was really nice just to be with them again though. Good friends are like that. We hope to actually be able to have conversations again in a few years.

We would like to make Sardegna and annual thing, so we need to start looking for a better place to stay with the kids. I like the idea of having a place that we get to know on vacation where the kids can settle in and chill on days when we don’t feel like running around. I may start working on that this week (because my actually ‘to do’ list feels a bit overwhelming to deal with). Some years, we can overlap with friends again.

I am so happy we went. I was was pretty nervous heading out considering how little energy I have had, but apparently, this was just the kick in the butt my body and spirit needed. I never would have guessed that I had that much energy in me. I credit the food. Did I mention it was AMAZING!?

I uploaded a bunch of photos here, but I’ll post a few here too.

This is us waiting for the airport shuttle to pick us up. I am thinking, “I really don’t know if I can handle this.”

Fast friends. The kids remembered each other from December when they first met, and they got along really quickly

The first beach day! Clair’s arm bands only lasted a few hours, and they never went on again the entire trip. She refused to wear them because the other big kids didn’t. She started getting braver in the water.

We are, seriously, the palest people on the beach

Our vacation neighborhood.

We spent a lot of time chatting and playing with kids on the terrace with Angelo’s family. Lily keeps asking for Nonno.

Happy Matthias

This is the view from my favorite beach. Angelo practically grew up here, and there aren’t many tourists. The water is super calm so the kids can play well. Plus, you can dive off of a pier, which is always fun.

A little time was spent in town having espresso and ice cream

Il Fungo – the mushroom rock formation near Angelo’s home. When we would get lost, we would start looking for the giant mushroom. The view from it is amazing.

Lunch with old friends next to the beach!

Four days in, and things finally caught up to Clair. sleeping during the day is almost unheard of for her. Lily was passed out on the next towel too.

Enjoying friends and home made wine from Angelo’s dad. It was a BIT strong but tasted great.

Food!

Loving gelato

This is me with the typical number of children attached or in my vicinity. The second photo is a rare sight of me without children close enough to be in the photo!

We went to dinner at a fancy resort on the last night. I don’t actually remember much because the kids were insane (we started dinner around 9:00 PM, and they had been going strong for a few days – so not really surprising). I wrangled the kids as much as I could so Matthias got to enjoy a bit at least.

At the airport with the filthiest children in the world (who rolled on the filthy floors just to make sure they were totally disgusting). it was not my proudest parenting moment. As I sat down in my seat on the plane, I realized the the combination of Lily and me was repulsive! I was a bit ripe from being out in 95 degree weather all morning, and Lily had apparently decided to poop again somewhere between the terminal and the plane. As we were on a small commuter plane, there was nothing I could do about it. Plus, she passed out on me (continuing to sweat) for the entire flight. The guys next to us was coughing now and then, and I am pretty sure it was because we made him gag – like I said, proud parenting moment.

Whole food breakfast ideas

15. July 2012 · 3 comments · Categories: Daily Life, Fucking Gluten, Inspiration · Tags: Fucking Gluten, Health experiments, Inspiration

When I was a vegetarian for 8 years, I didn’t often eat imitation meat. I didn’t stop eating meat in order to eat crappy imitations of meat (which a lot of imitation meat products seemed to be), so I would just eat something that vegetarian with not resemblance to a meat product at all unless the occasion called for a tofu sausage or veggie burger.

So, now that I am not eating wheat-based food, I am coming across a similar issue. I am eating gluten-free processed stuff here and there to fill in the gaps in my meal plans that I haven’t sorted out yet. I can get almost any imitation of wheat-based baked goods and pastas, but I want to move away from imitation food toward whole food as we ease into this life style. I am used to the wheat-based staples of the western diet, so I am giving myself some time.

Dinners are pretty easy because we had a larger selection of dishes that are naturally gluten-free or use easily substitutable ingredients. Lunches are generally left over dinners or awesome salads (I am good at salads). I am struggling with figuring out a whole food selection of breakfast ideas.

For me, breakfast was usually something with bread or cereal. Those are both out in the long term, and I have to say that I can only take so many eggs in my life! I need some inspiration for whole food, non-egg breakfasts!

I realize that this may just become a conversation between Ravyn, Cliff and Sarah, and me, but does anyone have any good whole food breakfast favorites?

Gluten Free in Regensburg

10. July 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Fucking Gluten · Tags: Fucking Gluten

Dult 2012 As I get out and about in town, I am planning on keeping tabs of the gluten free goodies I come across. I haven’t used my blog as a resource before, but there is a lot to learn on gluten free living, so I need some place to write it all down in case I forget where I got something good. I’ll be updating this from time to time, so it is by no means a complete list.

There are too many web resources for me to even go into, but I think it is important to know where you can go to lay your hands on something the same day (since I am such a poor meal planner). If any of you local folks notice things that I have missed, please feel free to add a comment, and I will update the list accordingly.

Stocking Up
First, there are a ton of places to get gluten-free products if you need substitutes for cooking at home:

Kaufland – Seitz and Glutano brand flours and pastas.

Edeka – You can actually go online and get a list of their GF products here. They have a few gf products among the normal selections of pasta, cereals and flours. They mostly have Schaer brand from what I have seen. Their meat counter is well informed on gluten contents of their meat products, in my experience. Edika also has a few gluten free pasta sauces and other sauces in their ‘Bio” section.

Rewe – recently started selling a gf product line for breads, pastas and cookie treats called “Frei von“. I haven’t had a chance to try them yet, but they are all together in their own little section.

Alnatura – They have the typical gf substitutes for bread and pasta, but I go to them for gf mustard, corn-based pasta (my favorite gf pasta), a few non-grain based flours.

Reformhaus – They have a good selection of gluten-free products including beer and ice cream along with the more typical bread/noodle substitutes. There are three in town (David, Am Stadtheater, and Vilsmeier in DEZ), and each has a slightly different selection.

Biomarkt (DEZ) – This place has a nice selection of GF mustards, mayo and some sauces from a particular brand (need to get the name). They also have a nice small meat counter with pamphlets from the producers about the quality of life for the animals they use. I haven’t read through it yet, but the fact that they even produce the pamphlet is a good sign about the health of the animals before slaughter. I also found coconut oil there, which I have had a hard time tracing down. I need to check the Asian market for that too.

Butchers – most of the local butchers are proud to tell you that their products have no additives and are therefore, gluten free. The one in DEZ told me this, and the butcher at the Edika in Rennplatz also went on and on. The only place that I found this not to be the case was the Kaufland in Alex center, but in that case, I suspect the one person I spoke with just didn’t know herself, and so she kind of said sorry (she was at least polite about it). I am going to go back another time and speak with a more informed colleague.

Eating Out
If you want to eat out in Regensburg, many places seem to be very aware of gluten issues and some have a list of any menu items at have gluten.

Cafe Lola has a gluten free breakfast, but unfortunately, it is the only gf item on the menu, and I wasn’t terribly impressed. It mostly fresh fruit, cheese and a few slices of not so great gf bread.

Dean & David in DEZ has a breakdown of their entire menu under the counter. Some of their soups and salad dressings are GF. The woman I spoke with couldn’t find the list of their fabulous curries when I stopped by, and most of them are gluten-free! Unfortunately, the peanut one is not – that is going on the to-do list of new recipes to try!

Retreat!!

26. June 2012 · 3 comments · Categories: Daily Life, Fucking Gluten, Health experiments, Yoga · Tags: Fucking Gluten, Health experiments, Yoga

I kind of skipped May and most of June here. That stomach virus I had way back in April, well, it was just the beginning of a particularly unpleasant few months. Long story short, I am never going to eat gluten (intentionally) again. There is a HUGE story behind that, but this isn’t yet the medium to go into it. I will, most likely be posting stuff about the Yoga of gluten-free living though.

In the mean time, the girls and I are on our personally designed retreat at Oma and Opa’s house. After such a rough time, I needed to be taken care of a bit. I highly recommend the Oma treatment. I have had far too much time with the kids, but I haven’t had to clean or cook in over a week, and I have gotten some rest. Matthias, on the other hand, is immensely enjoying having the house to himself and the rare gift of silence!

Just to clean off the dust on the blog a bit, here are a few photos from the last month. I don’t think I’ll get to posting videos tonight, but I have a great one of Clair that needs to go here soon. You can see all of this month’s photos on the Flickr page.

Before we ran away to Oma, I took the girls out strawberry picking with Penny and Micha. Lily basically sat in the field and ate like a kilo all by herself; her friend Callum probably took another kilo as well. Clair picked a few and spent most of the time talking and hoping around and squishing the plants.

Once we got to Oma’s, we also had to watch a lot of fussball because it’s the European cup and Germany has made it to the semifinals (where it is sure to lose again Italy). Lily has the Deutschland shirt. It is a bit tight, but it fits good enough considering she has slept through every game.

In Oma’s neighborhood, the “Eiermann” (literally ‘egg man’) comes a couple of times a week with fresh produce, meats, dairy and of course, eggs. It’s just like the ice cream man when I was a kid, just not as fun.

There is a playground here from when Matthias was a kid (some of the same equipment is still there). I think he liked seeing some photos of the girls on his old stomping ground.

Clair painting.

Since I really didn’t want to deal with bored kiddies, I ordered a trampoline for the backyard. It is small, but it does the job!

Testing out the zoom in the new digital camera (lily looking adorable)

Me. Doesn’t it look like I didn’t just have the worst few months in a really long time?

Lily eating…. she spends a lot of time doing this

Contemplating art