I went to dinner at a relatives, and they had brownies for dessert, which were very hard to resist, so I had to come home and make some I could eat. I usually do without dessert, other than maybe some fruit or berries, but when everyone else is eating it, it's difficult to completely deny myself.

So, I gave up on trying to make the brownie recipe any healthier than it has to be. I had tried using less sweet rice flour, and I tried adding some protein powder, but it didn't really hit the brownie craving like they should. So this time, I just took my standard recipe and substituted 1/2 cup veg. glycerine for the 1 cup sugar, and 1/4 tsp almond extract for the tsp vanilla. Here 'tis:

Nonnie Brownies

1/2 cup (1 cube) butter

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup vegetable glycerine (or 1 cup sugar for secretors)

2 eggs

1/2 cup sweet (glutinous) rice flour

1/4 tsp. almond extract

1/4 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 325 Degrees F., grease a brownie pan.

Melt butter in saucepan, remove from heat.

Add cocoa powder and mix well

Add eggs one at a time and mix well

Add vanilla, salt and sweet rice flour, stir just until just mixed, don't overmix.

Pour into pan and bake for 25 minutes or until done. Check often toward end as glycerine seems to smoke a bit if cooked too long.

Serve with almond butter...takes place of the old standby, milk, that we can't have.

Do use sweet rice flour, as regular rice flour doesn't work very well. I've also been told that quinoa flour works nicely. If you're a type that can use regular sugar, do so. The glycerine makes them quite dense. I'm wondering if some baking powder may make them fluffier.

I feel honored to be blogging since January, it has really helped me stick to the plan. I've enjoyed virtually meeting so many like-minded people who are also willing to give up the tasty but dangerous junk food we're constantly confronted with, in exchange for better health.

I'm happy to discover that I've had 15000 hits! I hope I've helped in all your efforts to improve your health and compliance, through my discoveries and hiccups along the way.

Today I discovered a delicious little drink... pure pomegranat juice with lime-essense sparkling water. About half and half. It's delicious. I didn't mean to buy the flavored sparkling water, but this was an excellent use for it. Lime juice squeezed into plain sparkling water would work for it as well, and you'd avoid whatever they mean when they list "flavorings" on the ingredient label. Another tasty find is canned tuna fillet packed in olive oil. Just add a little salt or Trocomare, and you're set, you won't miss the mayo anymore.

While I'm at it, I found some nonnie-compliant rice snacks. Must ration them to stay in bounds on O-nonnie grain allowances... Soken Brown Rice Petals, and Eden Food Wheat Free Brown Rice Chips. I must warn you, they are hard to ration, but for emergency car food or a rare treat, they're great.

My challenge for this week is, like Natalie, to cook and eat more vegetables. Also, to cook more meat instead of eating out. I've been doing way too much eating out lately, and for a celiac that's especially bad. The latest edition of Living Without does have a nice article on three chain restaurants that now have gluten-free menus...PF Chang's, Outback Steakhouse, and Wildfire. Getting BTD compliant is still a challenge, but at least celiacs can be eat more safely when eating out at these places. I only hope I can resist Outback's gluten-free dessert, it's absolutely not BTD compliant, but sure sounds tempting...I won't describe it here though.

Oh, food advertising is getting to me lately. I see these foods on TV and billboards and it sets my cravings off like crazy. I don't even watch that much TV, but every time I turn it in I'm hit by the junk food advertisements. I see a slice of pizza on TV, and I suddenly remember how it tasted so very long ago. Grrr. At least, with celiac disease, I'm not REALLY tempted, because I remember how it felt...gluten comes to life inside me like a spiney alien trying to take over my body from the inside. Oh, I got a good laugh when I visited silly-yak.com... they have a plain grey T-shirt that simply states: "wheat sucks" I must get that T-shirt, it makes me smile.

Anyone know of any anti-wheat sites, I've seen many anti-dairy and anti-soy, anti-everything except wheat. I see some that are celiac or allergy related, but none that are just plain anti-wheat. Is it that the wheat industry is so strong, or more likely that wheat just has a strong hold on us and nobody cares if it's doing bad things to them?

Hello all! I've been travelling around the west for the last week, now I'm back to my computer and my kitchen. I'll be happy to get back to my local health food store. As many huge shopping centers as I went by, I'm happy to be back to a place where I can easily find what I need. I've realized that it's actually quite fortunate to have two health food stores in a town this size.

I set out to be good while travelling, but often failed. My son's emergency supply of candy became my snack once, I only had a few jelly bellies, but it was enough to cause motion sickness and a headache that day. From now on I'll get him candy that only he likes, as jelly bellies can be too tempting for me. I ended up eating lots of eggs and steaks, that part was good, but sometimes couldn't turn down the sugary drinks in place of the bottled water I should have been trying. I did find that Knudsen's makes Spritzer's that are sweetened only with fruit juice, the ginger ale version is O-nonnie compliant with sparkling water, grape juice, ginger juice and ginger flavoring.

As for my truly stupid moment on the trip, at least I saved that for the last day of travel and didn't suffer the full consequences until I got home. I used to get the zesty chicken bowl from taco bell quite often, but forgot to tell them to leave off the tortilla strips, and didn't realize the dressing was on it, that used to be in a seperate packet. Unfortunately, both items have gluten in them. ugh. Wasn't even worth it. I guess one avoid leads to another, which eventually leads to the big one...wheat. And I was so careful to always order my scrambled eggs and omelettes from the shell, not a mix, because at some places the mix has wheat in it. Dr. D'Adamo's blog on learning from failures applies to me here, and I'll certainly be more mindful in the future.

I came down with a head cold over the weekend. I usually have pretty good control over my sweettooth of late, but the second I felt this cold coming, I wanted candy. That makes no sense as sugar hurts the immune system, so this was bad timing. Maybe I subconsciously wanted to be sick so that I could take a break?

I ended up having some sugar, though not as much as I used to often eat. I also tried a diet soda when I ran out of sparkling water. It tasted awful! I can't believe I had any in the house. Plain sparkling water is way better than diet soda in my opinion. It did a number on my stomach too, that and the sugar I had the same day, worst gas and indigestion I've had in a long time. I'm so glad to have my stomach back to normal now, after a few doses of sip right tea. I don't plan to put myself through that again.

The good news is that I'm overcoming that cold, which in others who had it turned into a mean sinus infection. I rubbed shea butter in my nose, it's a natural decongestant, and it feels good too. I also used saline nasal spray. I managed to entirely avoid over the counter medications this time. I am thinking of investing in one of those neti pots, I think that would have been very helpful. Summer colds are so miserable, I guess it's the heat, I could hardly stand walking outside with it.

The other good news from this weekend is that I survived another pot-luck dinner without eating avoids. I brought a turkey, cranberry, almond, broccoli salad, and ate mainly that. My very blunt neice didn't hesitate to tell me how yucky everything on my plate looked; her plate had a roll, ham, and potato chips on it. But I'd rather have her tell me my plate looks yucky, than tell me I'm fat (like she did a year ago).

I'm glad my son likes healthy foods, some kids these days won't even touch a vegetable...some adults too, for that matter. I like vegetables, but sometimes I'm not organized enough to cook and eat them...I've got to work on that.

Thanks to all for the comments and questions! I'll miss the active presence of the other type O non-secretor, and supportive pioneer to the BTD, Heidi. Her presence and help on the early dadamo forum was instrumental in getting me started on the diet back in 1999. I'm sure I can't fill her shoes, but I welcome any questions in the O non-secretor department!

Mostly those are thyroid questions lately as I mentioned that I've gone off levoxyl recently. So here is my personal thyroid timeline...

1989-1990, at the tender age of 14 I became a vegetarian for one year. Ate tofu, plenty 'o whole grains, nuts, but didn't cut out dairy or eggs... oh, and yes, a few vegetables.

1991-1992, had symptoms of hyperthyroid as is often seen with beginning stages of Hashimoto's, blamed it on hypoglycemia though my blood sugar levels were normal, and never got a diagnosis.

1994 severe case of mono, age 19

1995 mono morphed into chronic fatigue,

1996 undiagnosed hypothyroid, borderline normal TSH, but told not to worry about it and sent off with Zoloft, which didn't help so I quit taking it.

1997 TSH finally went above range, got tested and found to have Hashimoto's, started taking synthroid

1998 thyroid fatigue morphed into extreme sleepiness from another antidepressant, Paxil, got off it, and on Wellbutrin

1999 By this time, very overweight, on antibiotics nearly every month for UTI's or sinus infections, fairly high cholesterol. Wellbutrin worked, but time to get off it with the help of jogging. Soon injured my back while playing with nephews, didn't feel well for some time... Also, was unable to lose weight whatever I tried, counted calories down to 900 a day, but still gained a pound on that, so gave up on calorie counting.

August 1999, came across Eat Right 4 Your Type at a friend's house and read it there. Hmm. Interesting. Saw notation to a book by Dr. Bland, Genetic Nutritioneering, and bought that one.

October 1999, started to admit that wheat may do bad things to me. Ate the breakfast of champions a couple hours after waking up, it had been a good morning, but now I had to go back to bed feeling depressed and achy.

December 1999, FINALLY stopped eating wheat and implementing a few other points from the BTD. Dropped 14 pounds in two weeks, and started to see some HOPE!

Lost 35 pounds overall, before I started to cheat again. I gained 10 pounds in 2001 from corn intake, then another 10 pounds over the holidays.

2002 Became pregnant. A few months into it, the doctor reduced my Levoxyl for the first time (I don't remember when I switched from synthroid to levoxyl, if you're wondering). Ended up gaining, GULP!, 50 pounds during the pregnancy. (was still cheating, wheat free, but little more and eating corn and dairy a plenty)

2003 as a new mom, lost 30 pounds over time without dieting as could be expected. Healthy baby boy, by the way.

January 2004 Started BTD faithfully once more after stomach problems started to act up again. Gradually lost 30 pounds by August, and gradually reduced levoxyl to 0. The BTD has helped me feel better physically and emotionally, and helped me get though a stressful time in my life.

Since 1999, I've gone from needing upwards of 4 prescriptions at any one time, to needing none. I've gone from thinking I'd always suffer from some condition or another, to knowing that my body can heal itself when given the right resources. The proof to any diet/way-of-life is in the pudding, and this is the only plan that works for me and my health... even if it means I can't eat real pudding anymore! After all is said and done, I would never choose any other path.