A New Way of Living

Where have I been?  Working on solving the food allergy problem, working (the paid kind) and being a taxi service for my family.  Whew.  The good news: I love my family and it is well worth it.  The bad news:  looks like I am allergic to not only gluten, but dairy and eggs as well.  I am going to have to find a whole new way of cooking and eating.  I never cheat on gluten, as I know the consequences.  I was wondering if the occasional egg would hurt.  Answer is yes - had a scary reaction to one in some GF banana bread I made for R's birthday.  Had it again with the GF cupcakes I served for her party, as one of her classmates is allergic to wheat.  The dairy seems to kill my stomach, while the eggs cause full on hives, nausea and dizziness.  So, any of you out there who are gluten, dairy and egg free, send in your suggestions and resources!

I'd Rather Deliver Pizza

How's this for a way to make money?

CLOO' is a service designed to help city dwellers make some spare cash by renting out their bathrooms to people who are desperate to find a clean place to pee. Hey, times are tough, and, where there's a need, there's a market.

You can see how the service works in the video at the link above. In their own words:

CLOO' is based on one simple truth- we all have to pee. Though in urban cities finding a clean, available restroom is difficult & frustrating. That's where CLOO' comes in.

CLOO' is a community of registered users who choose to share their bathrooms and make city-living easier, while earning a small profit. Using social media connections, CLOO' shows what friends you have in common with the host, turning a stranger's loo into a friend of a friend's loo.

The next time you're desperate to find a bathroom near you, you can use CLOO' and the power of your social networks to find friends of friends who will let you use their bathroom for a buck or two.

This Makes Me Smile

Found this on a great blog called CMYBacon

Titled "Impatient".

PURE organic bars

Last week I had a fail with the PURE cherry bar (yummy, but not looking good on the allergy front).  Today I tried their chocolate brownie bar.  WOW!  Love it.  I will die if cocoa turns out to be one of my allergies.  Just sayin'.

Next week is when I officially start adding things back.  (yes, the chocolate was a bit of a cheat, but you do what you've gotta do).  I had a reaction a few days ago that seemed to be linked to limes, which were not a banned food.  Hmmmm.  Avoiding them for the next week then trying again to see if it was a fluke.  I figure I'll add back the easy ones first - not too hard to eat a cherry or a lime.  Then on to the complicated stuff like dairy, soy and corn.

Finally, An Energy Bar that Tastes Good!

Well, as you could tell from the previous post, Lara bars were not a huge success.  Today I tried the Pure Organic Cherry Cashew bar.  Yum!  This I can live with.  A little itchy now though - maybe cherries are one of my culprits.  Nooooooooooo!  I'll keep you posted.

Lara Bars

Ever heard of Lara Bars?  They are everything-free.  As far as I can tell they all have the same ingredients: dates, nuts, and sometimes some unsweetened fruit.  Then they put a different color wrapper on them and tell you they are different flavors.  That said, the lemon was not bad.  However, the banana bread flavor tastes like burned banana bread.  Not the taste I was going for.

On the plus side of this diet, rice milk, frozen strawberry, kale and agave nectar smoothies are really good - no kidding!  The color is not too appealing, but the strawberry sorbet flavor more than makes up for it.