a change of plans.

about two weeks ago i had a food allergy skin test of all the foods. if youve never had it done before, its a pretty interesting process; food extracts are pricked into the skin and watched for twenty minutes before being measured. it looks like this:

its actually not that unpleasant. really the sitting perfectly still for twenty minutes was the worst part. well, and i got sick for three days afterward, but that was because i was allergic to 14 of the 60 things. soy, wheat, peanut, walnut, chicken, oat, almond, hazelnut, sesame seed, navy bean, pea, celery, cantaloupe and watermelon. some of these i could really care less about, like watermelon and chicken. now i dont know if youve noticed from my previous recipe posts, but carbs, especially the wheat kind are kind of a HUGE part of my diet. and by that i mean is most of my diet is wheat based. like, ive been known to eat an entire loaf of bread, just for fun. 

i got a phone call from the doctors office today confirming that i do, in fact, have celiac disease, which basically means that gluten (from wheat products) wreaks all kinds of havoc inside my body, and is probably responsible for all my (many) other health problems. so no more wheat for me. in addition to all of these allergies, ive also had issues with foods that have eggs or certain kinds of dairy. so my options at this point are REALLY slim. did i mention were on an INSANELY tight budget right now? what about my tidy little meal planning and shopping routine? i need to gain ten pounds, how is that going to happen now?

i have no idea what to eat. i like to think of myself as a pretty creative person (i mean, i did attend art school), but i just cant even begin to sort out what this means for me, and more importantly, for my family. every time i try, i just get so overwhelmed and cant even focus (this would probably be a good time to mention that i didnt finish art school). 

i dont know. im just going to have to figure this out piece by piece. i still have more doctor appointments, i have A LOT of research to do, i have to take it one step at a time. ive made a tiny bit of progress, i bought some (ridiculously expensive) cashew butter and gluten free bread, and i learned how to make plain vegetables less depressing by roasting them:

tonight i made broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage, just plopped them on a cookie sheet, drizzled with olive oil, added some salt and pepper and baked at 400 for about half an hour. it was really easy, cheap, and yummy (the broccoli kind of tastes like truffles!), so i suppose this will be a new staple of ours. 

well just have to see how this goes.