Gluten Free Restaurants

I guess I'll continue to be amazed what some people think of the gluten free world out there. I never knew there were so many people who needed to watch the gluten in their foods. Also high on the list of food allergies are: corn, soy, dairy, and sugar.

So anyway...back to restaurants. I've been both pleasantly surprised and have gotten rude awakenings when it comes to what restaurants are willing to do for their customers. For instance, I have yet to meet a McDonald's employee who could care even the tiniest bit about my allergy to wheat. They simply must have enough other customers that it simply doesn't matter. My daughter loves them...so I keep asking. I should just give up. On the other hand, Burger King has been wonderful. I ordered a kids meal and they served my burger in a salad bowl and put my mayo, tomato and lettuce on the side. They also upgraded my fries to apple fries. Those are simply apples cut into the shape of fries and are served in a box that looks like a fry box. Most family style restaurants local and chain have something I can have. They offer salads, breakfasts, steaks, etc and that's always a go-to for me. What I love are the places that go above and beyond. The Italian place with gluten free bread sticks, pizza, or pasta. The Mexican place that has a dedicated fryer for frying corn chips only and separate appliance for heating flour tortillas vs corn ones. The chain restaurant that has a multiple allergen menu and there's actually quite a lot you can have. So places I have discovered that are large chains that have a gluten free menu are: Taco Bell- they use chicken instead of beef and serve you chips and corn tortillas. Olive Garden- yes, I was excited too since my family LOVES Italian food- They have gluten free pasta, steaks, chicken, and salads. It's awesome. Applebee's has a pretty decent cross section. They have something for every taste and hunger level. Salads, an appetizer, a couple entrees, and a good old hot fudge sundae...or dish of ice cream if you want. Culver's cooks their buns on the grill next to the burgers but they cleaned the grill for me and switched my fries to mashed potatoes (they use real potatoes) with butter instead of gravy. One place that really surprised me was Red Lobster. They only have 3 wheat free things on the menu. Those are: lobster, lobster tail, and crab legs. Even the fresh veggies are served with some sort of seasoning with wheat in it. They also didn't seem to care about my plight. Several chain buffet restaurants have offered to cook my food separately and serve it directly to me. I hope that one day, the people who don't care will realize what they're doing is bad for business but until then....we can have Olive Garden!

Father's Day Meal

It's Father's Day and I like to make one of my husband's favorite meals. My husband is a meat and potatoes man so you vegetarians will have to skip this one. This is the first year I'm doing it gluten free. This year I'm serving meatloaf, green beans with red potatoes and chocolate mousse. This is the same mousse I made for Valentine's day. The recipe can be found in a blog post around that time. I'm using fresh green beans and child labor to snap them. I prefer to use the smaller B size red potatoes. I wash them and cut them into quarters. Then I cook them together with salt, pepper and chicken broth. Sometimes I add a little seasoning ham but I don't have any today. The recipe I'm sharing today is for the meatloaf. I just mixed it up and it's chilling. I will post a picture later when dinner is ready.

This recipe only needed to have a few adjustments but it's amazing. My family really loves it and I'm hard pressed not to have family show up if they discover it's what we're having for dinner. So I always make more than we need. Leftovers are awesome if we don't get extra dinner guests. I use a good quality hamburger. I prefer 85/15 for the best flavor. Too much higher fat content and there's not enough meatloaf to go around. Plus you really don't want all the extra fat floating at the bottom of the pan. Before I went gluten free, I used to put a couple slices of bread in the bottom of the pan to absorb the fat. I tried that once with gluten free bread. I didn't work. So I won't be doing that again. The other way is true also. You don't want too low of a fat content because fat gives meat it's flavor and who wants flavorless meatloaf?

Mom's Famous Gluten Free Meatloaf
1 1/2 lbs hamburger 85/15
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 medium onion (I prefer yellow or Spanish), finely chopped
1/4 cup milk- anything but skim
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp butter
1 egg, beaten
1 cup gluten free rolled oats
Salt and Pepper to taste

1.The night before or early in the day. Add milk and some pepper to the meat and mix well. Chill overnight or for at least 2 hours.



2.In a sautee or frying pan add the olive oil and butter. To this add the chopped celery and onion. Cook over medium heat until the onion is soft. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

3. Remove the meat from the fridge and mix it again. I prefer to use my hands. You will need to wash them several times during the process so keep a towel or napkin close by.
4.Add the egg and mix again. The mixture should be squishy and wet. Add half of the oats and mix again.
5. If the celery and onions are cool to the touch, add them and mix well.
6. Add the rest of the oats and salt and pepper. Mix well again.
7. Form into loaf and put into loaf pan or square cake pan.
Chill for a hour so that the flavors mix well.
8. Bake at 350 for approx 1 hour. Meat should be browned. Set aside to rest for 15 minutes before cutting. This will assure that the meatloaf should hold its shape and not fall apart too much.

Monday's Experiment

Every so often I get a taste for something fancy. Today I cooked all the veggies in the freezer. I had a bit of this and bit of that. Then I attempted to make Hollandaise Sauce. It's one of the few things I have trouble with. I can make homemade bread, a souffle for an entrée or dessert but the Hollandaise eludes me. I have made a mock sauce that tastes similar without the problems that tend to happen with the regular version. So tomorrow you can clean your freezer, eat and then go shopping for more veggies.



Remember to use the whole fat varieties as the low fat ones have gluten in them. Also make sure sour cream is 100% sour cream. I like Breakstone's or Daisy. I made a small batch but this can be doubled, tripled, etc to fit your needs

Mock Hollandaise Gluten Free
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayo
1 teaspoon lemon juice- fresh squeezed is best
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

In a small saucepan, combine sour cream, mayo, and mustard. Turn heat on stove to medium low and heat mixture until warm. DO NOT BOIL . When warm, add lemon juice and stir until well blended. Add salt and pepper. Serve over veggies or poached eggs.

And Down it goes again.....

What is that? My weight. It's the middle of May and I've done nothing to my diet and exercise plan except remove wheat and gluten products. Oh and I no longer drink anything with saccharin or sucralose (Splenda)in it. I always liked Splenda but your body doesn't know what to do with it so it stores it. Your mouth gets the sweet taste which causes insulin to be released but there's nothing for the insulin to work on so it turns to fat.

So now I'm eating real ice cream, real sour cream and real butter. The lowfat/ reduced fat versions have wheat in them. They use a thickener to keep the mouth feel. Think of it as dairy gravy base. I'm also using stevia to sweeten things. I'm a diabetic so I don't eat sugar but if you're not a diabetic (or have hypoglycemia) then you should stick with plain old cane sugar. My Grandma calls that 'table sugar'.


I've been experimenting with recipes again and have discovered that making fried chicken with your favorite recipe and substituting corn starch or tapioca flour for the AP or whole wheat flour makes a very nice fried chicken. Just check the label of your spices for hidden wheat. Use plain spices instead of mixes or blends. You can mix paprika, salt, pepper and garlic powder without adding wheat but apparently the food industry cannot.

So back to the numbers. Numbers don't mean anything. It's what is happening to my body. My face is slimmer and my pants are falling down. I have more energy and my skin looks good. Soon I will have to go shopping. I'm looking forward to it.

The Great Gluten Free Bread Debate

I've been talking to some people I've met along the way in this journey of mine. They want to know which bread I prefer. The truth is, I prefer the homemade bread recipe my friend Amy gave me. It's awesome and I've been able to make some adjustments to it. I would love to share it with you but, since it's not mine to give, I cannot. So back to the bread you can buy. The top two favorites are Rudi's and Udi's. To keep the consistency and fairness, I bought 1 loaf of each. I bought the same variety (whole/multi-grain), at the same time, with the same approx exp date, and kept under the same conditions.

Then came the testing. As far as flavor goes, they're both pretty good. They both toast really well and when toasted hold up pretty well for butter and jam.

I tried a wide variety of combos and this what I've learned:

Grilled Cheese- Rudi's: crispy on the outside, mush on the inside. Udi's: crispy on the outside, creamy cheese on the inside.

Vegan Sprout sandwich: Hummus spread, Alfafa sprouts, seed cheese. Udi's: Held up to the hummus spread. Didn't crumble too much while I was eating. Rudi's: Hummus made the bread soften and get mushy. Sandwich kept crumbling while I was eating it.

Peanut Butter and Jelly (PBJ): Udi's: Held up well tasted good. Sandwich stayed intact bite after bite. Rudi's Held up ok. The taste was there but the sandwich started to fall apart after I had taken a couple of bites.

Bologna: Rudi's: Was okay until I decided I need mustard. This bread is just not good for adding anything wet to it. It crumbled almost as soon as I started eating it. Udi's: Tasted good. Held up to mustard and also to mayo.

Homemade croutons: I buttered and baked both breads and they both worked well in this instance
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I will try more combos but, for now, I can say that I like Udi's hands down every time. It holds up to condiments and also works great as toast or as a dipping bread for eggs or soup. I can use it either toasted or plain which allows it to be my wheat bread substitute.

Rudi's only holds up when toasted.

Update Blog

Ok, I'm back to walking and can stand for 15 minutes at a time. So I will be back to cooking and creating recipes. Today I made the Quinoa Pilaf again. Ate some for lunch with leftover baked chicken from last night's supper. I'm making all the recipes from before so I can remember what flavors worked best together. While I've been off my feet, I tried several pre-made things and found them.....rather disgusting. I can't wait to get back to fresh flavors and no more boxed flavors. I'm going to try a cake this weekend. I made cupcakes with almond meal and they were wonderful. Hopefully the cake will be great too.


See you all soon

Missing food

Almost 3 months into my journey of gluten free and I really miss some of the things I used to eat. Every so often I try to convince myself that one bite won't hurt. Well, I'm wrong. It does hurt. My mouth tingles, my skins gets flaky and itchy, and my stomach doesn't react very well at all. All that from a small morsel of something containing wheat. Last week, I ate 1 bite of chocolate cake. Oh so good in the mouth. Oh so bad for the rest of me. Even the mouth didn't like it 2 hours later. Hopefully I'll get it one day and stop torturing myself. In the meantime some friends have passed along some great recipes for gluten free bread. I'm hoping to tweak something into hot dog buns. What I wouldn't give right now to hold (and eat without fear) a Vienna beef Chicago style dog with the works. When I say the works I mean poppy seed bun, cukes, tomatoes, glowing green relish and mustard. Not yellow mustard but a thick, hearty, German-style brown with lots of character. The other day I made a polish and served it on a green lettuce leaf. I got the flavor of the dog and the toppings but it was missing the poppy seed bread. As soon as I am out of this cast, I will embark on the task of making bread. No pictures today, just the ones in my head.