A little research with a little snack!

I sparked an interest in food when my family went vegan for a while when I was about 10 years old.  It was the first time I actually started thinking about food.  My diet has gone through many changes over the years, not always for the better.  Most of these changes have to do with adding “this” or taking away “that.”  I am constantly trying to evolve my diet into what best fits my beliefs and what my body will allow me to easily digest.  To me if you take care of yourself by what you put in your mouth, your body will take care of you back; by having fewer medical bills and prescriptions for disorders such as IBS.  I know of a lot of people who have “cured” many of their ailments through a change in their diets.  Of course there are things that cannot be cured by food, for instance I have difficult knees.  My patella doesn’t track right and my outer quadriceps leg muscles build much faster than my inner quadriceps, which result in dislocations of my patella.  Not fun! I have had many knee surgeries to try and correct this problem but really the only thing I can do is work out my inner quadriceps to keep them strong.  I wish I could solve this issue with food as well but unfortunately this is something that has been an issue for most of my life and one that I have grown to deal with.  Keeping my weight low and being active helps my knees stay on the right track.

  

I am talking about this because I feel that so many issues we face can be helped by just being aware of what we are eating.  A lot of the packaged foods today are made so that you will want more, and more and MORE!  With one bite you are hooked and after eating said food, you are left feeling hungry still.  I cannot believe the changes I have gone through in just a little over a week of being gluten free.  Firstly food cravings are gone! I cannot believe that in just a week I haven’t craved a thing! (This does not happen to everyone)  I also feel satisfied a lot sooner and find myself saying “I’m all done.”  This is not normal for me.  I have always craved food and when I would feed my cravings I felt like I couldn’t get enough.  I believe this was due to the fact that my body was trying to tell me something.  Probably, HELP!  It was in need of feeling satisfied.  Like I have said in previous posts I have a long way to go but I am hopeful about my future relationship with food.  I encourage you all to look at what ails you and do your own research to see if food can help make some of your issues dissipate. Here are some articles that I have been looking at;

http://www.irritable-bowel-syndrome.ws/gluten-free-diet.htm

http://www.suite101.com/content/a-gluten-free-diet-a106058

http://gicare.com/Diets/Gluten-Free.aspx

http://naturalbias.com/is-your-gluten-free-diet-still-harming-your-health/#comment-17968

And now I will send you off into the worldwide web with a little snack;

Chocolate Popcorn!

*1 serving of popcorn is about 3 cups popped popcorn. However my popcorn has some chocolate on it so it depends how much you want to make. My recipe is just a cup.

½ tbsp organic popcorn kernels (can find in bulk at some grocery stores.)

Lightly cover bottom of pot with oil.

¼ cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips (dairy free and gluten free, just lovely chocolate!)

Put covered pot on High Heat, once kernels pop, shake pan and take off heat once popping sound slows.  Put aside.  Place chocolate chips in a small saucepan and turn put on med. Heat.  Stir continuously, until all melted.  Place popcorn on lined cookie sheet and spread out.  Drizzle chocolate over top with a spoon.  You can either leave it with the drizzle or mix to further cover popcorn.  Leave until chocolate is no longer melty.  Than devour!

If you want to make this ahead of time and save for later you can put popcorn on cookie sheet and put in oven on 250 for an hour, stirring every 15min.  This will dry your popcorn out so that when you indulge later it won’t be chewy.

 I <3 popcorn and I <3 chocolate and the two make a lovely couple!

Peace, Love and Eat Well,

                                    Ashley