Category: gluten-free

AIP and Restaurants

Eating outside your home doesn’t have to be hard! Here are some examples of what I’ve eaten at restaurants in the last week or so. I see to have a thing for beets, I guess.

Steamed mussels (all-you-can-eat by the way!!) and grilled beets. This is my new favorite meal!

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Arugula salad with oranges, blueberries, beets, and salmon. Olive oil and balsamic on the side. It was dark.

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Intro to Autoimmune Protocol

Years of being on thyroid medication and being gfree still isn’t making me feel good. So, I had my thyroid antibodies tested and they were quite high.

That brings me to the autoimmune paleo protocol: elimination of inflammatory foods for a month to bring them back to see what’s making my body attack itself.

It sounded horrible at first. I can only eat fruits, meat, fats and vegetables (excluding nightshades). No grain, sugar, dairy, processed foods, nuts/seeds or eggs.

So begins my journey.

It’s been only a couple days but I have already found that meal planning is key.

This week I’m eating AIP chili, ground pork with veggies, bacon and more veggies, poached pears, and soup made with bone broth and leftover turkey.

Pics on Instagram, recipes to follow someday.

 

Celiac Awareness Day (was yesterday)

Since I don’t like “awareness” days of any kind, I chose not to celebrate or announce it yesterday. What is the point of an awareness day when most of today’s society is aware of situations and they just don’t care? Or don’t have the means or time to take action?

Instead of a boring list of what does and doesn’t have gluten, and why you should care, here is a fun article for the Day After Celiac Awareness Day:

Gluten-free Celebrities

1. Rachel Weisz – didn’t even know who this was until I googled her. Apparently she was in a lot of movies and married Daniel Craig.

2. Elisabeth Hasselbeck – LOVE her. She’s on The View and wrote an amazing g-free diet book that I highly recommend to anyone, even non-Celiacs (see the lovely quote from the book below.)

3. Ryan Phillippe – hottie actor from my youth. Has he been in anything good recently?

4. Geri Halliwell – Ginger Spice, my 2nd favorite Spice Girl (Posh, Ginger, Sporty, Scary, Baby – in that order).

5. Emmy Rossum – didn’t know who this was either, an actress who sings? She’s in the movie Dare, which just happens to be in my Netflix queue. Maybe I’ll watch it now.

6. Chelsea Clinton – daughter of the former president. She’s not that interesting, probably because she’s a vegan and that’s just weird.

7. Bill Clinton – former prez. He insulted my dad and Italians one time when my dad met him and chatted him up. Slightly more interesting than Chelsea.

8. Zooey Deschanel – LOVE her. Can’t wait for the new series New Girl to start on TV this fall. I loved her mostly in Elf, Weeds and Failure to Launch.

Each meal left me bloated and gassy, with  sharp, explosive pains in my abdomen. No matter what I ate, I would soon be doubled over with cramps, awful indigestion, diarrhea – or all of the above simultaneously. I soon became all too familiar with the location of any and all bathrooms.

-The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide, page 5

Celiac Awareness ribbon

I didn’t know the Celiac awareness color was light green when I made this blog. How fitting.

G-Free Review: Joey’s Seafood & Grill

I love seafood, but I don’t love that it’s expensive. Joey’s is the perfect combination of quality, price and g-free accommodations.

It’s a regular favorite for my husband and me.

Until Joey’s, the Hubs didn’t even like fish and now their fish fry is “the best” and the only one he will eat (without complaining the whole night, that is). That’s fine for me because there are so many things I can have!

My usual dish is the pound of crab legs because it’s affordable and amazing. I’ve also had their shrimp and scallops – both were of excellent quality which I didn’t expect for such a casual restaurant. G-free safe cooking styles for the shrimp and scallops that I’ve had so far have been “blackened” and “sauteed Cajun” – both I would highly recommend (but stay away from the Cajun if you don’t like spicy!). Safe sides I’ve had were the french fries, mashed potatoes and coleslaw. Since I love all three, I rarely venture from those, but someday I’ll see what else they have.

MMMmmmm… butter.

The place is usually empty except for Friday and Saturday nights, the service is as wonderful as the food and they took the time to answer my questions about gluten free seasoning and options. The servers I’ve had were surprisingly willing to substitute glutenous foods for safe options in those “combo” dishes that usually come with an attitude when you want something not listed.

If you have a Joey’s Seafood & Grill near you, try them! See if it’s the best fish fry… and if it isn’t, you didn’t have to spend too much to find out.

MMmmmm… crab legs.

G-Free Grade = A

Spice World

Yes, I love the Spice Girls CD… and no, this post is not about that.

I recently found out some great news: Penzey’s Spices (one of my all-time favorite local stores) is 98% gluten free*!!

They have a spice for everything: dips, salsas, every meat and vegetable, baking, grilling… you name it. I usually just check the back of everything I want and then buy it if it looks safe. I don’t have to do that anymore. I didn’t want to trust the rumor, so I emailed Penzey’s and got an immediate response about their products when I asked which 1-2 items were not gluten free.

Ingredients are clearly listed for our spice blends. Some ingredients used in blending that contain possible allergens include, Soy protein, lactose and dehydrated cheese. Soy protein is used in Chip & Dip Seasoning, lactose is used in Taco seasoning and the dehydrated cheeses are used in our line of Cheese Seasoning Blends. A meticulous clean up is performed after production of these items. Penzeys soup bases are produced at another facility and are known to contain allergens. Penzeys Spices no longer sells MSG and does not use it in blending. All other items are free of common allergens.

The email was much longer but I was really happy with the response time and detailed answer. I love Penzey’s and if you don’t have one near you, consider buying from them online!

My favorites: Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle (amazing on popcorn) and Fox Point Seasoning (amazing on steamed veggies).

And, while looking up those links, I saw some amazing recipes on the website that will likely be showing up here.

Cute Penzey's Kitten
found this on someone’s blog… penzey’s + kitten = amazing
*There is one spice that isn’t gluten free and it’s the Beef Soup base, but since it’s made at another facility, it won’t cause contamination. Other soup bases may contain other known allergens, as well.