Pizza|Style|Chicken|Empanadas

I normally love empanadas; I mean, how can you go wrong with pie crust and cream cheese?

You can go gluten-free wrong, that’s how.

Despite this quick favorite going “wrong” however, the family still enjoyed them, so I’ll share anyhow.

I define an empanada as anything that stuffs cream cheese into a pie shell. Pretty open slate, and if you use pre-cooked chicken pieces and pre-made pie shells, hey – easy peasy, 1-2-3. Since our family has mostly gone gluten-free (“mostly” meaning gluten-minimal), I thought I’d try to incorporate a sans wheat version of one of my faves into the family recipe Rolodex.

Gluten|Free|Witch|-|Week|1

Being that this started out as a cooking blog, such a big change to my (and my family’s) diet seemed incredibly relevant… So here’s another share!

Everyone gets older and, with that, come some mandatory changes like…slower metabolism, i.e., weight gain. We all have personal body wishes of course, and mine were never realistic, I’ll admit; however, I was growing particularly upset with not so much the post-baby fluff, but the absolute inability to get rid of it! Not to mention the bloating… One small snack at lunch, and I looked 6 months pregnant! I’d have a flat stomach mid-morning, and post-lunch I wanted to sit at my desk in a potato sack because I was so uncomfortable in anything but my maternity jeans.

So frustrating!

On another note, I had no energy. Not just, “I stayed up too late” tired, but constant fatigue. Even getting dressed was a chore. It really seemed to be more than a lazy lifestyle problem and I was ready to try any semi-okay fad diet just to get something to budge whether that “something” be the scale, my mommy fluff, or just my energy levels.

So I remembered hearing about “gluten-free” diets and how it can be life-changing for people. Then, the more I read, I started thinking, “I could very well be a walking textbook case for Celiac Disease!” Now, I’m not going to self-diagnose by any means, but if making one simple change to my diet could potentially change my whole quality of life for the better…why not?