As promised I went out to the garden this week to check on the garlic we planted this fall.  I was pleasantly surprised, after pulling back the straw I discovered sprouts!

Here’s another shot of three sprouts in a row.  It took me a minute to figure out this was actually the garlic, I’m guessing it is a white sprout instead of green because we had it covered in straw to protect the garlic from the cold.

We planted a cover crop mixture provided by our community garden, I believe it is hairy vetch and a couple of other types.

Jacob had a good time getting outside and exploring.

He is looking so big compared to pictures I took of him last summer!

Around Wednesday of last week Jacob started coming down with something and I took him to the doctor on Thursday to find out he had an ear infection and respiratory syncytial virus.  When adults get RSV they usually think they have a bad cold, but it can be worse for kids causing dehydration or wheezing (luckily Jacob has had neither thus far).  Well, Wednesday night Jake was up all night screaming resulting in Jeremy and I trading off staying up with Jacob.  Jeremy ended up with about five hours of sleep and I ended up with about three.  Of course, having no sleep, Thursday night I started getting sick and Friday night so did Jeremy.  We’ve been trying to rest up and drink plenty of liquids and we are all starting to feel better.

All weekend we didn’t feel like cooking and luckily had some frozen meals in the basement from this summer that we could heat up.  But after a few meals, we had exhausted what sounded good in the freezer.  We couldn’t really duck out and grab to go food now that I have to eat gluten free, so while I was putting Jake down for a nap, Jeremy made me some comfort food here at home.   We had grilled cheese and tomato soup from a box and it was all quite tasty.  To those of you that don’t have to eat gluten free, this probably doesn’t sound to hard to figure out, but good gluten free bread is hard to find, and canned or boxed soups and broths are notorious  for containing gluten.

So how did we pull this off?  By using Udi’s Gluten Free bread and Imagine Foods Organic Creamy Tomato Soup.

Udi's Gluten Free Bread and Imagine Tomato Soup

First of all, I love Udi’s gluten free bread.  It is made here in Denver by a bakery that makes regular bread as well, but they also have a dedicated facility for their gluten free bread.  It is by far the best gluten free bread that I’ve found in the grocery stores.  It is very easy for me to find in the store around here , since it is local, but unfortunately it is not easy to find in other areas.   Some Whole Foods stores carry it, and when I was at my parents house in Edmond, OK for Christmas my sister who lives in Tulsa brought some home from the Whole Foods there.   I haven’t tried the whole line of Udi’s gluten free products, but the white bread makes really tasty grilled cheeses.

The tomato soup we had was Imagine Foods tomato soup from a box, which is allergy and gluten free and ended up being really tasty.    Even Jacob with his multiple food allergies can eat this soup, but even if you aren’t on a restricted diet like our family, this soup tasted really good and is natural and organic.  Be warned though, you can only get about two bowls of soup out of the box.  On Sunday, I wished we had another box to heat up.

So, there you have it, our gluten free comfort food for when you are sick, or just not feeling like cooking.  When I was at the store today I grabbed another box of the tomato soup so we’ll have it when the need arises again!