GF in Riverside

It's been a minute since I've posted on this page, but work has been busy ya'll!

Speaking of work, Thursday I had to do a class at the Department of Health in downtown Jacksonville.  While looking for lunch options I used my "Find Me GF" App. If you don't have this app, you seriously need to get it. Plus, it's FREE! Amazing Bonus! So with my app we found this GF restaurant in Riverside, a downtown district, called Corner Taco. I think Mexican food can easily be called my favorite. 100% of reviewers in my GF app said it was Celiac friendly and it had a $ for price. Sounds pretty good to me! When we walked in I looked at the menu and NOTHING was labeled GF. "Greeeeaaaat," I thought to myself. "This isn't going to end well." So I asked the lady what on the menu what is GF? "Everything except the croutons on the salad." ....Say what?? I had their fire roasted tomato salsa and two of the carnitas tacos. OMG! It was delicious! Plus, this little meal plus a 15% tip cost me $10 and was more than I could finish so the salsa came home. Also, I am HUGE supporter of the importance of customer service and I have to say, they were on point! Everyone was friendly and as my colleague and I were leaving we exited the restaurant and one of the employees poked his head out the door and told us to have a nice day. Say what?? He literally followed us outside to make sure to tell us to have a nice day. Mind. Blown.

After we finished at the Department of Health we stopped by a local bakery I heard was, again, Celiac friendly called Sweet Theory Baking Co.! It's an adorable bakery in the same neighborhood as Corner Taco. When we pulled up I noticed there was a sign that said "Gluten Free Options." Again, my ever optimistic GF mind thought, "Craaaaaap!" When we walked in they had a FULL CASE of GF items which ranged from cookie sandwiches, brownies and cupcakes. AND their selection changes daily. WHAT?? I am in love!

Sorry for forgetting to take pictures, but my mind was just blown away. Two amazing celiac friendly meals in one day. It was just amazing. Plus, I will be going back and promise to post pictures on my next adventure to this amazing neighborhood. Speaking of Riverside, I'm trying to convince my husband we need to look for houses there. They're amazing and have so much character. Just my style!

Thanks for taking the time to read this quick post. I hope ya'll have an amazing Saturday and I promise to bring you more GF friendly products in the near future. (I'm currently working on a GF skincare post)

xoxo,
Mary

Justin's Organic Peanut Butter Cup

Hi!

I was introduced to this product by a vlogger I follow on YouTube called missglamorazzi. Mostly her vlog is about beauty products with hair and makeup tips. But she also does monthly favorites which is where I heard about Justin's Organic peanut butter cups. They come in regular and dark chocolate. I believe most health food stores carry them. I found mine at Whole Foods. But there is also a line of organic peanut, almond, and hazelnut butter flavors that I have yet to try and I've seen the peanut and almond butters at Publix with all the other peanut butters.

But enough about that! Let's talk about the dark chocolate peanut butter cup I tried.

Like I said before I found mine at Whole Foods and I believe they cost about $2.50 for two. And there was a bag of them for around $7. I went with the dark chocolate. I usually find milk chocolate too sweet especially with peanut butter. However, the Justin's peanut butter wasn't as sweet as Reece's peanut butter. This isn't a bad thing. By any means. I actually prefer it. But with the bitterness that comes with dark chocolate, I wish it was a tad sweeter. Next time I definitely plan to try the milk chocolate to see if the sweeter chocolate makes a difference.

The cup is the average size of a Reece's cup. And in each package there is almost a cradle like piece of cardboard they sit in so they're not melting together. Also, I should probably share, that I keep mine in the refrigerator. I like them cold. Is that weird?

Here is one of the tasty little cups I ate. It has a nice peanut butter to chocolate ratio, which, let's face it, is VERY important. If there's too much peanut butter, I'm not a fan. But these were pretty nice. They also had a nice crispness to them. I don't know if my chocolate was like that because I kept them in the refrigerator, but if that's the case, I highly recommend it. Because it was awesome and I loved it. 

Bread, Glorious Bread!

Did you sing the title to the melody of "Food, Glorious Food" from Ice Age like I did when writing this? If so, you and I are on the same page my friend. I love bread! Giving up bread was one of the hardest parts of deciding to go gluten free, as well as giving up pasta. I love pasta and bread. You might think my obsession with bread and pasta comes from my heritage. However, we are anything but Italian. No, my family just love carbs.

My first experience with gluten free bread was a nightmare. First, I had to go to the overpriced health food store and pay over $6 for it. Second, it was moldy within 3 days. And, finally, it was awful! I'm sort of happy it molded because it gave me an excuse to throw it away! What was so bad about it? It was so grainy it felt as though I was eating sand. Yep, that's pretty bad.

Thankfully, I did not give up my quest because I found some good bread! Today, I am bringing you Rudi's Gluten Free Multigrain Bread. In addition to multigrain they also offer Original, Cinnamon Raisin, Tortillas & Wraps, Ciabatta rolls, Pizza crust, Buns & Rolls, Stuffing and Cherry Almond Bars.

So how is this bread? It's good. It's bread. You can keep it frozen and toast it anytime you want to make a sandwich or let it thaw out. But let me warn you, if you left it thaw out there are a couple things you must know.

1. It will stale pretty quickly. But, if it does, just toast it. Toasting it takes out the staleness.

2. No frozen gluten free bread will mold quickly because it's not made with enriched flour. Enriched flour in all of it's over processedness does not stale because it's "enriched"

So, would you like to see my sandwich?

Yummy bread! It even has little flecks of grains and seeds just the way I like it. Something about them makes the bread feel more healthy, right?

Since going GF I have switched to the JIF Natural peanut butter with honey. According to Publix it's GF. I know there are more healthy alternatives out there, but, for now, this works!

And here's my yummy lunch. There's just something wholesome about a PB&J. And watermelon and lemonade? Yep, add those to the list of my favorite foods. I just can't get enough, especially when it's getting warm. Nothing like watermelon and lemonade in the Spring/Summer!

What types of GF bread are you enjoying? Is there a GF jam or peanut butter you think I should try? I would love to hear what GF foods you are loving! Until next time!

xoxo,

Mary

Blake's Gluten Free Chicken Pot Pie

Hello!

Today I bring you something other than cookies. Pretty exciting, right? I was excited when I found this.
My husband and I were at Target looking for something for me to take to dinner for work. I was settled on soup when I saw this little gem in the frozen food section.

I believe they cost around $3.50 and are a reasonable size. This is the only flavor I saw as well. So no beef or turkey. But I'm ok with that because pot pies are one of my favorites. Makes me think of days gone by and family. Yes, I've only ever had the frozen, but, once again, I'm ok with that.

So, the question you've all been asking, how was it? It had it's good and it's bad points, but, like I always say, it's better than none at all, which is where I was before I found these.

Instructions tell you to place it on a cookie sheet and wrap it in foil. I admit, the foil had me confused a bit, but I'm one to follow instructions. I figure they're there for a reason, right?

This is the pot pie before wrapping it with the foil and it has a delicious cornbread crust. I've never had a pot pie with a cornbread crust, but I love cornbread so this gave the pot pie another initial, YES!

So here it is all wrapped in its aluminum glory! As I stated before it takes about 40-45 minutes to bake so you can make it as you're getting ready for work, as I did. When it finished cooking I removed the foil to find the cornbread topping had stuck to the aluminum foil. Bummer! But I needed something to bring to work for dinner so in the tupperware it went. I should, also, probably add that my husband and I tend to throw our pot pies over rice. It's delicious. You should try it!

Here's the picture of the pot pie after I reheated it and dumped it out of it's little pie container. It was a bit watery so I'm happy I made the rice. And after I put it over the rice?

Oh, YES! That is a yummy bit of pot pie and rice heaven! It still had bits of the cornbread in it, but it was still delicious. The cornbread clumped together and tasted like dumplings! Plus, check this out.

Oh yeah! That's one large, yummy, chunk of chicken! In addition to chicken, it also contains peas, carrots and potatoes. It was pretty delicious I tell you. Definitely something I will be buying again and for $3.50, what's not to like? That's a whole meal for under $5.

What types of things do you like to take to work for meals? Are you considering the pot pie over rice? Until next time!

xoxo

Mary

Lucy's Cookies

Hi!

Sorry for the hiatus last week, but work was crazy and I needed a bit of a nothing week, if you know what I'm sayin' and I believe you do! So now let's get started!

I need to start out this post by explaining that my husband is the sweetest. First, when I first told him my idea of going gluten free he didn't look at me like I was crazy. Second, he supported me in the best way possible. Not only did he sacrifice his figure by eating all the non-gluten free snacks in the house, but he declared that he too would be going gluten free so as to not have any temptation in the house. Can't get much better than that, right? WRONG!

The company my husband works for has a pretty good gluten free network. I'm sure you're asking, "what does that even mean?" Well, he works in a hotel that offers a lot of gluten free options to their guests such as sacks, dining, etc. So the other day he brought me home one of the snacks the hotel offers and they were MORE COOKIES! Whoever said you will lose a ton of weight on a gluten free diet has not met someone as determined as me to find gluten free baked goods. With that being said, I plan to try them all. Without further ado, here are the cookies he brought home to me.

These are the Lucy's Gluten Free Chocolate Chip cookies. They are also vegan! They do not contain peanuts, tree nuts, milk or eggs. A box of these, which includes ~10 cookies, retails for $9.94 on Amazon. In addition to cookies, the Lucy's brand offers other delicious sweets and links to where you can buy them are here.

Now, what do I think of the cookies. They're ok. As you can see from the picture, my chocolate chip cookies didn't have many chocolate chips and this seems to be the one complaint I saw on Amazon as well. Let's face it, if you're calling them chocolate chip they need to actually have some chocolate chips! Also, I'm not sure if was the flour blend they used, but their after taste was not as favorable as the Glutino cookies I talked about in my previous post. Don't get me wrong, these cookies are better than NO cookies. However, I did prefer the Glutino chocolate chip cookies when it came to taste, texture and price. With that being said, I think the Lucy's brand is an excellent choice for someone with severe food allergies and is better than no cookies at all.

Once again, thank you for reading this post and possibly my blog...all 3 posts! It's a start. Feel free to comment below and let me know how you feel about Lucy's cookies or any other cookies! Is there a product you think I should try and review or even a recipe? I would LOVE to hear from you.

xoxo
Mary

Glutino Gluten Free Cookies

Hi!

When I first began my gluten free (GF) journey one of the things I dreaded the most was giving up the baked goods. I don't have what you would call an over indulgent sweet tooth, but I don't like being limited in my choices of food either. Let's face it, I like to eat what I want when I want to eat it. Well, that is no long an option, now is it? So for my first food related post, let's talk about cookies.

Ah yes, cookies! And what better time to talk about cookies than Girl Scout season. I was so excited when I realized it was February and my favorite little girls in their adorable little uniforms would be selling things like Thin Mints, Samoas and, my favorite, Savannah Smiles. And then reality hit! I would not be having Girl Scout cookies this year and, possibly, ever again!

While perusing the many aisles of my favorite grocery store, Publix, we came across the GF section. If your Publix does not have this I strongly suggest you check a different Publix. I have discovered that not all Publix are created equal. There are approximately 5 within a 5 mile radius from my home and only ONE has a GF section. But in this GF section were Glutino Gluten Free Cookies.

In addition to the chocolate chip there is a generous selection of other flavors. My Publix had the vanilla creme and chocolate vanilla creme cookies AKA Oreos and blonde Oreos. I do plan on trying these in the near future. However, on the Glutino website it shows the other cookie varieties they offer. I am dying to try out the lemon wafers. Mmmmm lemon wafers....

Sorry! Back to the point at hand. The texture and taste of the chocolate chip cookies reminded me of Chips Ahoy! Of course they had that "not made with enriched flour" taste. I'm not sure how else to describe it. It's different, but not in the way it would deter you from these cookies. Another plus, they retail, at my Publix anyway, for $3.69 for 18 cookies! In the world of GF, that's cheap! But they don't taste cheap. They taste delightful. Especially with a glass of milk.

So I ask you, GF readers, have you tried Glutino cookies? Did you enjoy them compared to other brands? I would love to hear what cookies fill your GF heart with joy!

xoxo,

Mary

*Nothing in this post was sponsored or endorsed by Publix or Glutino. Pictures and thoughts are entirely my own*

My Journey to a Gluten Free Life

Let me start by saying that I do not have Celiacs Disease. Nor have I ever been diagnosed with a gluten intolerance or allergy. However, for the past 8 years I have suffered from a random myriad of symptoms that have no common etiology except for gluten intolerance. These symptoms would be anything from migraines, joint pain, stomach cramping, nausea, constipation, etc.

I was in the hospital a few times from 2007 – 2012. Most of these visits were brief and generic, and after some medication and fluids I was sent on my way. Last year, things changed in more ways than one. My husband and I had officially relocated to Jacksonville, FL where I was to begin my first career as a medical technologist at the Mayo Clinic. Sounds pretty exciting, huh? I was excited. And then I got sick. This time it was bad. It happened on my second day of orientation at work. This time the meds and fluids didn’t help. Between February and April of that year I spent approximately 2 weeks in the hospital with 5 days being my longest consecutive stay. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is having almost every GI lab, scan and procedure performed and they find nothing. They diagnosed me with Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome (CVS), put me on an anti-depressant as well as an arsenal of pain and nausea meds, ‘should my symptoms reoccur’, and sent me on my way.

I don’t take ‘last resort’ for an answer. It’s a cheap way of saying ‘we don’t know what’s wrong with you’ and ‘we’re sick of guessing.’ I looked up CVS. Did my research. Spoke with people who’ve had it themselves or knew people with it. They, as well as I, don’t believe this is what I have. For some reason gluten intolerance was still nagging at the back of my mind. I felt like I saw articles, recipes and products for it everywhere. So, just like I did with CVS, I did research, talked with people who had it and all of a sudden I had a light bulb moment. (You know, that moment where the light bulb goes off, everything is suddenly clear and makes sense?) I knew it wasn’t Celiacs Disease, they tested for that. But then I saw Gluten Intolerance. There is no test for a Gluten Intolerance. The only way to know if you have an intolerance is to give up gluten products for 3 weeks and see how you feel…

Well, I’ve been gluten free since January 2014. Yep, a little over a month. And I feel GREAT!!! So here I plan to share with you my likes, don’t likes,  things I think are amazing, and those I think are a drag, ups as well as downs as I navigate this very exciting yet, most of the time, frustrating world of being Gluten Free.

xoxo,

Mary