Before getting to the walking taco bit, I should explain that a few months ago I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. You may be asking yourself, what the heavenly crap is that? I'm not smart enough to explain the mechanics of what the disease does to my body, but I can explain the effect it has on my life. Gluten, a protein that occurs naturally in wheat, barley, rye, and other grains (as well as unnaturally in many processed foods) is strictly verboten. I'm sure I'll post more about it in the future, but I bring it up here only to point out that I lost a lot of the foods I love to eat with this diagnosis.
I miss pizza. Katy actually prepared a gluten-free pizza earlier this week that was wonderful, but she had to spend two and a half hours in the kitched to do it. That's a far cry from picking up the phone and waiting for the doorbell to ring.
Most of the changes are like that. Food selection can no longer be spontaneous; it requires a lot of planning and forethought. There is one notably tasty exception: the walking taco.
Take a bag of corn chips. (I recommend Fritos original corn chips, but any will do.) Open the aforementioned bag. Insert taco meat. Insert shredded cheese. That's where I stop, but my wife will continue to pile on lettuce, tomato bits, and sour cream. Insert fork.
The hardest step here is browning the meat. Fortunately, that ranks very high on the list of the three cooking tasks I can do without adult supervision. (The other two are boiling pasta and putting things on a cookie sheet.) It isn't quite as convenient as picking up the phone, but it does strike a good balance between tasty, cheap, and easy.
February 21st, 2006 at 1:04 pm
What’s great about this image on the Fritos bag is that it gives you a picture of the contents. The chips shown are the actual size you will find in the bag. It’s also the actual quantity.
September 5th, 2006 at 8:09 am
Okay this is very random, but I was just doing a search in Google for Mabbitt and as trying to avoid having to think any more about my philosophy essay, and yeah I stumbled accross your site. Just so happens that I am also gluten intollerant.. Weird co-incidence huh?
Anyways, I enjoy the diet most of the time, used to hate it when I was younger but now I realise just how healthy it is.. And mum always cooks up some good gluten free food.
September 6th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Hi, Nick. As illustrated by this post, I guess, I still find ways to eat gluten free and avoid eating healthy. Actually, my overall diet is healthier, and I’ve toned the walking tacos down to a couple of times a month instead of four or five times each week.
That is a little strange about the Mabbitt-gluten connection. If I remember correctly, there is a genetic predisposition to this condition, but the statistical increase was something like: your chance to have it jumps to 1% (as opposed to half a percent) if someone in your immediate family is affected. Who knows how far genetically removed we are from each other?
Good luck on the essay!
June 21st, 2007 at 9:26 am
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