Lotsa pics in this one. Then it gets serious. Then there's love. LOOOOOVE

First and foremost, I'm sorry I haven't posted in such a long time! I could list off a dozen excuses including the busy holidays, traveling, blah blah blah... but the fact is I just have been too lazy to post! And to be entirely honest, I have only tried a couple new recipes and felt they weren't really worth sharing on their own.

But here's what I've been up to since Thanksgiving!

Because I'm a human with taste buds, one of the things I've been missing the most since becoming gluten-free is garlic bread. My officemates often go to a local Italian place for carry-out lunches, and the smell of garlic bread is just. too. much. I love it, my mouth waters, and basically I die a little bit inside. And sometimes I cheat and have some and then feel gross.

When Delilah and I stumbled upon the Gluten-Free Gala at HyVee in October, one of the freebies was a boxed mix for garlic bread. Once I remembered I had this, I did a little dance of happiness.

Along with breadsticks, I of course also miss spaghetti on occasion. But rejoice! There are gluten-free pastas out there too. So I picked up a box along with some organic spaghetti sauce and was all set.

Making the breadsticks was a little awkward. The instructions say to add cheese, which I did, but it kind of all lumped in one section of the dough, so I had to re-roll and re-cut the dough a few times to get an even mixture.

They smelled delicious and looked fantastic.

The pasta was interesting. I followed the directions for length of cooking time, but the noodles came out overcooked and very sticky. Like, mushing together into one smashed lump of not-spaghetti. But I had faith. So I heated the sauce and was ready for a delicious dinner.

Now, I'm not sure if it was just the particular flavor of sauce I bought (I've had organic pasta sauce before and loved it) but I wasn't really a huge fan. It could have been that the noodles were, as previously mentioned, mushy. And sadly, the garlic bread didn't meet my expectations either. It's been so long now since I made this that I can't remember exactly how to describe the taste, but, well, it wasn't texas toast by any means. 

I haven't given up on gluten-free pasta, but I haven't tried it again since then either. Next time I will cook it for a shorter amount of time and hope that helps. I'll also keep looking for garlic bread alternatives. I'll keep you posted!

Christmas rolled around and we did Secret Santa in the office. I wasn't sure what I would get for mine, my friend Jeremy. But I figured, hey, everyone likes cookies, right? But not everyone likes my healthy, gluten-free brand of cookies. So I found a recipe online for Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies and decided I'd give them a shot! And it was so fun!!

The recipe called for using a stand mixer, and I at the time only had an electric hand mixer. I thought that might work, but after talking to some friends I decided it'd probably be easier with the stand mixer. Plus, it wouldn't hurt to own one anyway! 

I stopped by Target on my way home from work and bought the only model they had. It was on sale for only about $30 which was fantastic!

I'd heard about fancier more expensive mixers but felt that for now, at this time in my cooking life, this would suffice. And I am pleased to report it made making the cookies an absolute breeze.

So, without further ado: Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies (not paleo, not gluten-free!)
Note: This recipe calls for the dough to chill in the fridge for up to two hours - so make sure you've got the time before you begin!

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 + 1/3 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 TBSP milk
1 + 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon juice
5 tsp red food coloring
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for 30 seconds and set aside.

2. In the bowl of the electric stand mixer, whip butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. 

3. Mix in eggs 1 at a time, blending until combined after each addition. Mix in milk, vanilla, lemon juice and red food coloring.
(I like to get all of my ingredients portioned out ahead of time - this makes any recipe easier, especially the first time you make it. No rushing to measure/pour!)

Red food coloring looks gross on its own.

This could have been featured if Dexter Morgan ever had a cooking show.

4. With the mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Then stir in white chocolate chips. 

5. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill 2 hours or until firm enough to shape into balls.
6. Spend two hours drinking wine, taking selfies in your new awesome apron, and playing with your awesome dog. (This one wasn't on the website, but, I figured...)

Preach.

hey girl heyyyy

Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. WTF Mom, get off the floor.

7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour powdered sugar into a bowl. Remove dough from refrigerator, scoop dough out and with buttered hands, shape into balls (roughly 2+1/2 TBSP each). Roll cookie dough balls into powdered sugar and evenly coat. Transfer to parchment-paper lined cookie sheets and flatten slightly.

8. Bake 13-15 minutes. Allow to rest on cookie sheet several minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Enjoy!

yummmy!!!!!

This recipe makes plenty of cookies, so not only was I able to gift a lot of them to Jeremy, but I was left with a few for myself on cheat days! :)

Speaking of cheat days, Christmas was finally here! Olivia and I packed up and headed to Davenport on Christmas Eve. I was happy to be able to take off the two days after Christmas to maximize family and friend time. It was awesome. It was also filled with so much amazing home-cooked meals; I basically just said to myself: "Okay. You can eat this, and love it, and then go home and be BACK ON TRACK WOMAN!"

So eat I did. Cheat I did. And I looooooved it.

Preach.

Mom's famous chicken enchiladas (made slightly healthier by replacing sour cream on top with plain greek yogurt... Yum), some kinda magical french toast bake, barbecue pulled pork sandwiches, Happy Joe's taco pizza... I mean, c'mon. Let's be real. That shit was all delicious.

Christmas was amazing and wonderful. I love my family. We made an epic music video, because, duh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhH2zVUTHiU

We played Twister with my nephews, which was awkward and hilarious.

"Don't sit on your nephew. Don't sit on your nephew."

My parents bought me what I wanted most for Christmas: A brand new, anodized non-stick set of pots and pans!! Yay!! I'd been working with hand-me-down cookware and it was just not working out.

So awesome.

All in all, things have been going pretty well!

One thing I really want to share, and am very nervous to do so, are some before and after pictures of myself. The before pictures were taken around Labor Day Weekend (Sept 4th-ish) and the afters were taken around December 22nd. 

Let's ease into this before I get to the more awkward pics. Here's a fully-clothed before and after.

I had lost 22 pounds by this point. To say I'm excited is an understatement. As of today, it's 25 pounds. I've sort of plateaued, but I think that the over-indulgence during the holidays and re-balancing back to normal since then has been the reason there.

Okay, so, here's the other pics. The two on the left were taken the weekend I began my new lifestyle. The two on the right were taken in late December.

**WARNING** pale flabby skin ahead.... awkward... **YOU'VE BEEN WARNED**

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Okay here

merp

So, there's that. I shared this on Instagram weeks ago, because I follow and interact with a lot of other paleo, gluten free, health nutty types and they just EAT UP before and after pics (pun intended). I was terrified to share it there, but at the same time felt so proud of the physical transformation from just a change in diet. I know a lot more people will see this here, since I share these links on Facebook, AND I will have an article in our company newsletter outlining my progress which will also share this link. But I feel like it's necessary. I want to be strong and not be ashamed of who I used to be. I want to be able to show the transformation so that people truly understand. 25 pounds may not be a lot to some, it may seem like much more to others. I never thought I'd get here. 

I still have so much room to go. I want to lose another 20, but my progress has slowed. I have cheated a lot in the last few weeks (being on the road to Des Moines for work frequently means I eat Subway in the car frequently.) I have to get better about shopping regularly and I want to start trying new recipes. I've gotten lazy and have mostly been living off of the beef, quinoa and red pepper recipe, along with the chicken salad, and the occasional steak. My lunches have been bland mixes of cottage cheese with fruit, and quinoa chips with hummus. So, I need to slap myself in the face and remind myself I'm not done yet. Seeing these pictures helps me with that. Being faced with where I was is a constant reminder of where I don't want to return to. I hope that in another couple of months I can share with you more before and after pics, with even more weight off.

The greatest part about losing weight? BUYING NEW CLOTHES HELL YEAHHHH

So like none of my work pants fit anymore. These are the same pairs of pants I mentioned in my original blog post here, when I copied the entry I'd written to myself back in April of 2013. When I was so depressed and dependent on food and I'd have to leave the top snaps unbuttoned just to make the pants fit. Those same pairs of pants were falling off of me. My butt looked nonexistant (not a difficult feat) and I didn't even have to unsnap the pants to take them off. Add in the week of important meetings with 7 different credit unions over 3 days, and realizing I had no actual matching pants/jacket SUITS? You know what that means. SHOPPING!!!!

bam!

snap! (this one's my favorite suit)

I have to admit, there's been a lot of selfies in my life. I feel like, hey, I've worked hard, I deserve cute pics. :)

Our company holiday party was last night (well, just for Omaha, Lincoln, and Sioux-area) and I was so excited to have a great new dress that I felt fantastic in. 

Super classy mirror pics, huh? :) Anyway. Consider those some more "after" pics.

Moral of the story.... if you're wanting to get healthy and lose weight, at least consider going gluten-free and paleo. It's changed my life, and I'm incredibly lazy, never wanted to cook anything, and hate working out. But this has become an investment, and it's FUN to try new things. I guess if I can help one person feel better about themselves, I'll be happy. I can't thank Delilah enough for showing me the light. And, just in the same way book-lovers love to trade and share novels, I absolutely love sharing recipes I find and trying new ones my friends find.

Be happy, my friends. Feel the love. :)