Stocked Pantry

I paid a visit to the Hadley (near Northampton, MA) Whole Foods this past weekend. Let me tell you, they are STOCKED with gluten-free food. If you ever find yourself in Western Mass, this is the place to go.

They had a huge selection of Tinkyada pasta - probably every brand they carry, I was psyched to see the lasagna noodles, and am currently making my first gluten free lasanga.. YUM.

I also got scones, cookies, baking mixes, etc etc... They had the Chebe Mixes which I hear are great, so I can't wait to make those. The list goes on. Whole Foods is such a great store, I would shop there all the time if I could afford it!

So since I made the lasagna tonight, I will be making the apple pie tomorrow, I'll fill you in.

Going Apple Picking

Can't eat: Store-bought Pie Crust

Can eat: gluten free version... So what's the best one? Should I do it from scratch? I always used to buy the pre-made stuff, since it takes so long to peel & cut the apples anyway! I found a recipe on celiac.com that seems pretty easy: Pie Crust Recipe

So, let me know if you have any suggestions! Also, I plan on picking A LOT of apples, so any other ideas of what to do with them would be great!!

In-between-er

I'm 1 month gluten free today - so why don't I feel AWESOME?!?!

I almost feel like I'm MORE tired than I was before. I'm also feeling more "cloudy" & forgetful than I was before. I left my keys in the door to my apartment the other day!!

Is this gluten related? Why is it worse? I guess it will take a while for the iron levels to get back up. I was just re-tested yesterday to see how they're coming, I'll be very interested to see that!

Uggh.. just wanted to vent a bit.

Pancakes & Sausages

OK - grocery shopping wasn't so bad, I was being overdramatic. I DID spend over $100, but I also bought a cart full of stuff. This Shaw's also had a decent little GF section.

SO for breakfast this morning we made some delightful pancakes and sweet italian sausages. I used the Kinnikinnick pancake & waffle mix - for the first time to actually make pancakes (see below: used for Apple "Crisp" first time). They were great! Tasted just like regular old pancakes. I screwed up the recipe too because I wasn't paying attention - just added more mix - and still they turned out well. Throw a couple of sausages on and YUM. Now why can't get just get diners to make gluten free meals like this?? Maybe in the future.

Happy Saturday!

Time to re-stock the pantry...

This used to be a fun activitiy for me, now it's a little scary, only because I now know that I will not spend less than $100 and it will take much longer than normal so that I can read labels.

All you celiacs out there know what I'm talkin' about.

I'm also living with the boy now - and it's incredible how much food the two of us go through - amazing! He consumes more soda/juice/fruit than any person I've ever encountered.

Back to the gluten-free. SO, tonight, my challenge is going to be to NOT buy gluten-free foods that "aren't supposed to be" - you know, the good stuff like Tinkyada Rice Pasta and ALL (wonderful) Kinnikinnick products, things that tend to have gluten in our world that I still want to eat, so therefore spend more money to get the gf substitute...

It will be interesting, I'll probably end up with ten pounds of potatoes, and two giant sacks of brown & white rice.

Wish me luck.

My favorite restaurant: gluten-free-style

I paid a visit to my favorite restaurant, Neptune, last night for the first time since being on the diet.

Luckily, I know the Chef, so I told him about my new "diet" and after the look of shock, he told me that pretty much the entire menu was gluten free except the things that blatantly stated bread or pasta. He doesn't use any weird ingredients, not that I thought he did.

SO - I had a delicious Alaskan White Salmon with an avocado creme, sausage & other delicious things on the plate, totally gluten-free. YUM.

I kept reaching across for the oyster crackers that sit on the bar, and mentally slapped my hand away from them each time.

There is an excellent wine list there... Thank God I can drink anything my little heart desires on the extensive list.

Now I just need to get to know every chef of every restaurant in Boston so I can make sure my meals are A-OK.

Can't eat: Apple Pie

BUT I CAN EAT: Gluten Free Apple "Crisp"

Since it is getting cool out, Fall is in the air, and I had a craving for apple pie or apple crisp. I decided to experiment.

I cut up & peeled about 6 apples (Macintosh), in pan on the stove I heated brown sugar & butter with some cinnamon, nutmeg & allspice... poured this over the apples & then made a little mixture of Kinnikinnick Pancake/Waffle Mix with more brown sugar & spices & mixed it up with the apples. In the oven for about 40 minues - and voila! A cake-like delight of apples that tasted very much like apple "crisp".

I put the crisp in quotes because it really wasn't crispy, it was more mush/cake-like, which I prefer. My mother made the same thing but just used gluten-free flour (as opposed to the pancake mix) and her's was TOO crispy.

I will have to try again to see if I get a new outcome, I missed the Oats in this, and I guess I'm still not sure if I can eat the oats, but if anyone has an alternative GF idea, that would be appreciated...

1 outta 122, not bad...

Last night we went to Sunset Bar & Grill in Allston for a drink - we chose this location because this particular bar boasts 122 types of beer, and we thought, they MUST have a gluten free choice. While scrolling through the extensive list we came upon some parenthesis that said (Gluten Free) - hooray! It was a brand called Bard's Tale, check it out:

Not the best pic, it was taken using my camera phone. Anyway, it was really good! Even Matt had a bottle with me & he said he would drink it normally. I will definitely be back to have one, and found out they sell it at various distributors in the Boston area, so I'll be picking some up. If you want to see if they serve this brand of gf beer near you, check out their site: Bard's Beer

Foods that I LOVE right now.

Since I'm still getting used to this diet, I'm in adjustment mode still. Sometimes I still think I can eat pizza, but alas, i cannot... Unless it's Amy's GF frozed.

SO - food that I'm SO happy I've found are the following:

1. ALL Kinnikinnick Prodcuts (especially the bagels & baking mixes), check them out: Kinnikinnick's Site

2. Tinkyåda Pasta. Tastes like real pasta! This is a big deal to me because pre-diagnosis, I ate at least a pound a week, here they are: Tinkyada's Site

3. And finally, LARABARS... YUM. Just ordered a case of these, perfect as snacks to bring place where people just don't get it, their site is pretty cool too: LaraBar's Site

We'll leave it at those three for now. All those out there who are experienced gluten-free shoppers are probably well aware of these, but for the newbies like me - get these!

But I can eat this....

OK, so I have celiac.

People just don't know what that means...It's always a minimum of 10 minutes to explain it, and at the end of the conversation you get sad-face from your audience, but really, it's not that bad - it could be much, much worse.

My sister has had it for four years, and she's been pretty successful with it - she's forged the way through crap food to find the best, and now I get to just take that information and be on my happy gluten-free way.

Not sure the intentions I have with this blog quite yet. But I thought it would be a nice way to document my celiac journey & hopefully post helpful information for those who have questions.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!