Ugh.

I am hereby boycotting viruses.

I am sick.  Again.  For the third (fourth?) time in six weeks.

Plus, it snowed all weekend.  What's UP WITH THAT???

It was a soup-and-juice-and-vitamin-C weekend (can you directly inject vitamin C into your bloodstream, 'cause that would save a lot of time):

Anyway, it turned out ok, because I discovered something really exciting last week and I got the chance to try it out.  Behold (and don't hate me because I'm a geek):

You're thinking: "Rolled oats?  Really? You got excited about rolled oats?  Get a grip, woman."

And you'd be right, except for one tiny detail you may not have picked up on:

"Wheat FREE".  For a Celiac, those words are golden.  Oats are almost always contaminated with gluten from other crops, regardless of whether or not they are processed in the same facilities as other grains.  There is cross-contamination in the field, which makes gluten-free oats incredibly difficult to produce.  I've been hunting high and low for a very long time and suddenly my local farmer's market has begun carrying them.  Without me hounding them about it first!

Hence my excitement, people!  {Well, my excitement was somewhat squelched by the price tag, butletsnottalkaboutthatok?}  Imagine!  I could make apple crisp!  Oatmeal!  Date squares!

For the first time in over 3 years, I broke out my awesome oatmeal cookie recipe (though I didn't have oat bran, I just used rolled oats in lieu).  And they were good.  Are good, I mean.  'Cause I didn't eat them all.  Yet.

Check this out (it really made me laugh):

No, the cookies are not meant to be lacy.  Gluten-free cooking is tricky.  Wheat flour has natural binding properties (from the gluten) which is lacking in other flours (rice, garbanzo bean, potato, etc).  You have to add starches and gums to the mix in order to avoid what you see in the above photo.  I forgot to add the xanthan gum for this first sheet of cookies.  I used some for the next batch and they turned out great:

I used sweetened carob chips instead of chocolate, as the hubbie is allergic to chocolate.

Also, a shout out to all the vegans out there (or veggiesauruses, as my hubs like to call them): the milk in that there glass is not your average dairy.  It is the absolute best milk alternative I've ever tasted (and I've tasted a few, given that we are low-dairy {asthmatic} in this house and try to avoid the real stuff).

It is this:

We use the Original Unsweetened for cooking/baking and the Vanilla Sweetened for drinking with cookies.  Yum!  The Vanilla Sweetened is also really good to use when making things like sweet scones (with blueberries or raisins....oh my...I'm getting hungry) or crepes.  It doesn't have that woody soy milk aftertaste and is easier on the system, at least in my opinion.

If I suddenly start complaining about gaining weight, just ignore me.  I can't seem to control my stomach.