THE CAMPUS CELIAC HAS MOVED

Hey ya'll-
I've up and moved over to Wordpress. Check out the new digs at http://thecampusceliac.wordpress.com/

Study Break

It's that time of the quarter, once again... finals. Duhn duhn duhnnnnnnnn. That time where I find myself forfeiting hours of Pinterest and Facebook to study in cozy corners of coffee shops from sun up to sun down. Lucky for me (being possibly the worst test taker west of the Mississippi), the majority of my final work is essay writing. I finished my anthropology paper (about the social networks of blogging) last weekend, which I am thanking myself for now, and my Italian culture paper is a work in progress-- I'd forgotten how much more difficult paper writing is when you really haven't quite wrapped your head around what you're trying to say. I'm a little all over the place with that one, but I have a feeling that it'll work out, eventually. I have two final exams: Hydrology and Communications in Popular Culture. The pop culture one's gonna be easy-peasy, I think. With the amount of television that I watch and magazines I read, I'm pretty much a pro at any pop-culture. The hydrology one, on the other hand...well, we'll see. Positive thoughts! 

Gluten Free Scone from Wash Perk! 

Any questions about Italian film history? Shoot 'em my way. 

Gluten Free Whole Foods Haul!

My first video... please disregard the obnoxious finger-in-camera in the beginning and the overall awkwardness.

Let me know if you want more videos!

http://youtu.be/oJcX5AQJ2xo

Enjoy Life; Crunchy Cookies

I'm officially an Enjoy Life super fan. They were nice enough to send me four boxes of delicious cookies from their new crunchy cookie line, and if someone gives me tasty gluten free cookies, I consider them my friend. So basically me and the people of Enjoy Life are BFFs now. They make some flippin good cookies.

Literally every flavor is amazing in their own individual way (they have Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate, Sugar Crisp, and Vanilla Honey Graham) and I can't seem to get enough. Let's just say those 11 pounds I unexpectedly lost last week are slowly getting gained back in the best way possible.

Let's take a closer look...

Everyone loves a good chocolate chip cookie, right? As said by my mom "They taste just like regular cookies!". Words of wisdom spoken, indeed. I think I ate the whole box in like 3 days. I regret nothing and have no shame, by the way. 

These remind me of those delicious brownie-cookie type things that I used to be able to eat B.G (before gluten). Of course, these have the crunchy texture rather than the soft brownie type texture, but I actually prefer it. There is something oh-so satisfying about crunching into a perfect chocolate cookie. 

So simple, yet so delicious. These guys have really grasped the concept of less is more- the basic ingredients of this cookie is a simple flour mix, cane juice, and cane sugar for the sweetness. The simple and natural ingredients in this cookie really makes all the difference: I love the fact that it doesn't taste overly processed and chemically altered like many sugar cookies do. 

It's like a graham cracker had a baby with a sugar cookie- a delicious baby! The honey flavor is subtle enough to not taste like straight up...well, honey. I don't think a honey cookie would taste very good, but maybe that's just me. Either way, the honey taste is nice and light with the graham flavor really making this cookie. I wonder how it would taste with some chocolate and a toasted marshmallow in the middle. mmmmmmmm

All of the Enjoy Life Crunchy Cookies are...

Zero Trans Fat

No Artificial Ingredients

Vegan

Kosher

Gluten-Free

&

Casein Free
yay!


Getch'yo self some and share them with friends... or not. 

This Only Makes My Cravings Worse

    I've been a sick lady lately. Pretty much positive it is due to taking some glutenous medicine- wouldn't really be surprised considering the pathetic nature of current FDA drug labeling. About a week ago, I was relatively healthy, maybe a little stressed, but generally good. Here I am now, permanently in bed at a hotel, nearly ten pounds lighter, a little (well a lot) worn for wear, with my momma (who flew in from Seattle, bless her heart) heating up some vegetable soup for me. Oh and, I'm missing the Young the Giant concert tomorrow. WTF, life?

    On the brighter side, Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family just started so that does make things at least a little better. And staying at a hotel is a nice change of scenery. And the fact that my mom is here makes my heart happy.

    Anyways, from Monday to yesterday (Thursday), I had pretty much zero appetite. My favorite foods suddenly made me want to gag and I just had no interest- or energy- to eat a thing. Sad, since eating is probably my favorite thing to do.

     By some miracle, I finally wanted to eat again last night. But of course, having not eaten even 500 calories total in the past four days, I've had to remember to take it a bit slow. I've been eating pretty three things: baked potato, boiled eggs, and vegetable soup. I'm a little weary of eating anything to heavy or flavorful, as I don't want to throw anything off BUT this has not stopped me from craving certain foods like a pregnant woman. And because I'm weird and tend to deal with cravings by torturing myself with pictures of the food I want, I thought I'd just share with you the lovely list of things I would be eating if I wasn't on my deathbed*.
      *I'm not actually dying, stop calling 911. 


Spaghetti Bolognese

French Fries

Chipotle Burrito Bowl

Grilled Cheese

A Burger That Looks Like This

Pizza

SO basically, I've been craving anything that is absolutely terrible for my health. But hey! I've lost 10 pounds, I have to gain it back somehow, right?
 

Eating Freely With "Enjoy Life"

This week was a hard one. I was faced with being sick, doing not so well on an Italian history quiz, and just being in a general slump. We all have these weeks, right? There's not always a whole lot we can do about this, but we can absolutely make it at least a little bit better through the one thing that will always be there to pick us up when we're down: Chocolate. 

The fine people of Enjoy Life sent me a couple of their brand spankin' new products: Double Chocolate Crunch Granola and Semi-Sweet Mega Chocolate Chunks. 

Deeeeeeeeeelicious. Yes, that's a 10 "e" delicious. 

I think I ate the entire bag of chocolate chunks in a matter of three days, and the granola has become a staple for my daily half cup of yogurt. The chocolate chunks are perfect for those who are dairy free but are looking for something with that rich chocolate taste- of course, they are perfect for anyone who loves chocolate period! These are great to use for chocolate chunk cookies, melting down for fruit dip, tossing in some cereal, etc. The chocolate crunch granola lives up to the "crunch" in it's name, having more of a cereal texture than oat-y granola texture, but I'm fine with that. The taste is not overly chocolatey, but definitely gives me that chocolate fix I need. 

Enjoy Life is great in that all of their products are free of: wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish, and shellfish, along with most of their products being also free of potatoes, sesame, sulfites, and casein. So perfect for people with multiple allergies! Along with the items I received, Enjoy Life also sells soft baked cookies, crunchy cookies (a new line), chewy bars, chocolate bars, chocolate chips, cereal, granola, and trail mix. 

Oftentimes, food companies that offer such a wide array of allergen free products are not sold is your regular old supermarket- sad, but true. Luckily for us, Enjoy Life is sold at pretty much every grocery store- everywhere from Kroger to Whole Foods, it's there! 

Check out where you can find Enjoy Life foods near you! 

Better Batter & Food Nostalgia

I had a moment last night. Well, a couple of moments really. One happened just after I'd finished filling my donut pan with some Better Batter chocolate cake batter. Almost as if out of instinct, I began to lick the spatula covered with the remaining drops of batter; something I haven't done for a long time. You see, raw gluten free batter mixes are often decent but don't quite hit the spot in the same way that those glutenous batters from my childhood did.

Better Batter is different. It literally tastes exactly like the chocolate cake batter that I used to eat way too much of. The consistency is smooth (not grainy like other gluten free mixes) and the chocolate taste is subtle enough to not be overly rich but it completely satisfies a sweet tooth.

There I stood in the communal kitchen, scraping the sides of the mixing bowl with my pointer finger until I'd finished off the whole thing. Good thing I'm not too paranoid about salmonella. I had a thought about how this action was so simple, yet so meaningful to me for some reason. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I thought I'd never eat (good) chocolate cake ever again when I first went gluten free. Maybe it's just a nostalgia thing. Either way, it was a reminder that, at first look, food is such a small part of life but in truth, it is linked with so many memories-mostly happy ones. I mean, who isn't happy while eating? Licking a spoon covered in chocolate cake batter was one of those small joys that I got when I was kid, so standing in my college dorm kitchen, 19 years old, licking that spoon as I did in my childhood was a slightly nostalgic, if not emotional moment.

The second moment of the night happened after the cake donuts had cooled and I'd "frosted" (with melted peanut butter) them. I took the biggest one off the cooling pan, put in on a plate, grabbed a fork, and sat down. Without doing anything but simply eating, I dug in, savoring every bite of this cake that tasted exactly like what I remember regular, not gluten-free cake tasting like. It was around 10:30 on a Friday night and I was sitting by myself in silence, eating some chocolate cake with a giant smile on my face. So simple, yet so calming and fulfilling at the same time.

I could've happily eaten every last cake donut, but I'd probably get a tummy ache, so I decided to leave the remaining ones out on a tray in the kitchen for my neighbors to enjoy-and enjoy they did! They were gone by noon the next day and I had several people going out of their way to tell me that they were delicious! That makes me feel good. Even if I didn't make them from scratch.

Thank you, Better Batter, for not only making me look like an awesome baker to my neighbors, but for bringing me back to those simple food memories of my childhood that I had long forgotten about.

*Stay tuned for a Better Batter pancake review coming up!