• Took frozen fruit out of freezer and got out my blender.
• Took my vanilla soy milk out of the fridge.
• Filled the blender about half way full of frozen fruit and added some soy milk.
• Blended the two together.
• What I ended up with was a thick ice cream like mixture that was really good!!
• The less soy milk you add the thicker your “ice cream” will be.
• Add more soy milk and you will have a fabulous morning smoothy.

Enjoy!

The panic:

I was panicked because I did not know how to feed myself, I did not know what to eat.  One moment I was frolicking through the kitchen making anything I wanted to eat, the next I was struck dumb with the realization that gluten is in everything!   The fortunate thing was that I had already gone off dairy so I only needed to figure out how to live without gluten, which is a huge task.

I started out slow, rice cakes, peanut butter, fruits, veggies and soy/rice milk.  Once I felt confident that I would not starve I slowly began to cook recipes again.  I have this great cook book called Extending The Table, and it was a life saver at first.  Most of the recipes are from other parts of the world and rely mostly on vegetables, lentils, beans, rice and spices.  This was perfect for me; quick, easy recipes that tasted good and did not make me ill.

The sorrow:

Sorrow came every time I would think about how much harder it was to feed myself, thinking back on the way thing used to be made me sad.  Thinking about all of the foods that I loved that I could no longer eat made me sad. Going into a pastry shop or smelling pizza made me sad.

Over time the sorrow has faded but it is not totally gone and maybe it never will be.  Living a gluten and dairy free life is not an awful thing but the gluten free substitutes in many cases are just a shadow of the real thing. The same pretty much goes for dairy as well, rice ice “cream” just ain’t as good as real ice cream.  I will say that the more time that goes by the less I crave the things I used to love and that helps a lot.

The grief:

After a few weeks of trying to put on a brave face and smile my way through this colossal change in my life I decided that what I needed was to grieve the loss of gluten and dairy in my life.  This may sound really silly, and in fact I do feel a little silly saying it but it really helped me.  I was not just saying goodbye to pizza and pasta, I was saying goodbye to my lifestyle.  I was saying goodbye to the way I used to cook, the way I knew how to cook.  I was saying goodbye to easy breezy dining out and care free cookouts.  Allowing myself to grieve those things helped me be able to welcome in a new way of living and cooking, it helped me welcome my new lifestyle and all that came with it.

The silver lining:

Over the past 1-1/2 years I have learned a lot and the silver lining to this new diet is that I eat healthier, feel better and have learned a lot about cooking.  I have been blessed to be able to help others transition into a gluten and dairy free lifestyle and that is really a special thing to be able to do.

So, even though I desperately miss pizza and pastries this little shake up that like gave me has turned out not to be half bad.

Well meaning person: Would you like some cake?

Me: No thank you. I cannot eat gluten/wheat.

WMP: Oh.  Would you like a sandwich?

Me: No thank you. I cannot eat bread.

WMP: Oh.  Would you like a donut?

Me: No thank you. I cannot eat flour.

WMP: Would you like some ice cream?

Me: No thank you.  I cannot eat dairy either.

WMP: What can you eat?

Me: It appears I cannot eat much:)

The thing about these conversations is that the well meaning person ends up being more frustrated then I am because they don’t know what to feed me.  Being gluten and dairy free is not only hard for the person that cannot eat the food it is also hard for the people that want to feed us:).