The Gluti Girls...

Finally home

We're home.  It's bittersweet.  I love Del Mar.   I miss it when I leave.  But, I love home too.  I missed my bath tub! It's so crazy coming home from a two week trip.  I have worked my way through a mountain of laundry.  I made a major trip to the grocery store.  Before leaving, we used up most everything in the house.  Now there is the issue of the dirty house.  Eventually, I will be all caught up.

he last week we were in Del Mar, we ate out a little more and I just got to busy to post.  We went to places I knew I could trust.  I love The Chart house right on the beach.  We went there one night and watched it get dark.  It was cloudy so we couldn't watch the sun set.  The food is wonderful there.  I had a crab stack thingy.  No crab stick here.  Real crab meat with avocado and mango.  Yum. Another night we went to an Italian place and we got pizza.  Yes, I said pizza.  I found out about this place online at Gluten Free San Diego.  It's called Borelli's Italian located in Encintas.  Apparently the man who owns this restaurant has a neighbor with celiac disease.  His neighbor helped him make a gluten free crust.  Oh, it was wonderful!  Kati and I really wanted to go back before we left but ran out of time. I had the greek pizza

Kati had the white pizza (just cheese, tomatoes and spinach I think?)

It was so good.  If you are ever near Encinitas, you must go there! We also had mexican a couple times.  The great thing about mexican in California is grilled fish tacos.  Geeze, I love them.  And they are so dag gone healthy!  Win, win.

I'm really glad I got to cook in the room a lot.  It really made things easier.  Especially with lunch and breakfast.  The hotel served a complimentary breakfast.  I would toast my gluten free bagel in my toaster oven in my room and walk down to the breakfast area with everyone else.  I could get cream cheese there and also a boiled egg, fresh fruit, juice and coffee.

If you travel, I think the toaster oven is the handiest thing ever.  I spent $30.00 on it.  The hotel is keeping it for me along with my dog crate until we return next year (we've been staying there for 8 years so they do things like this), but even it they weren't, it was worth the $30.00 to have it there for that long.  Heck, you could spend that on one breakfast out for the family.

Yesterday, when I did my food shopping, I went to our local Meijer's.  They have a pretty nice gluten free section in the dry goods.  I noticed a new pizza crust and decided to give it a try.  What's nice is it's already cooked and ready to go.  You can keep it on the shelf in the pantry.  No refrigeration necessary.  Today I made pizza for lunch.   I really liked it.  The crust was light and crispy but did not taste like Styrofoam.  It had flavor!  If you like a chewy crust you probably wouldn't like it.  I like my crust crispy. It's made by Rustic Crust.

You can read about it here.  They make it in a gluten free facility.  I am so paranoid now after the bread mishap a couple weeks ago!  Reading every label carefully. Here is the pizza I made with it.

Ewww.  Kind of blurry.  You get two 8 inch crusts in each bag.  I will buy them again.  I think they would be great to keep in the cupboard for a quick lunch or dinner. It's good to be home!

These are a few of my favorite things....

Sometimes God gives us blessings in disguise. That is the way I look at this whole gluten intolerance thing. When I first found out I couldn't eat gluten I thought life was over. I was very overwhelmed. I didn't even know where to start. I sat and cried when I found out I couldn't eat soy sauce. So many asian foods are my favorite. But then I learned some things... what to buy... what to eat... and how to find substitutes for my favorite things. I found out that the gluten free life is not so bad. It was a blessing in disguise. 

When I think of all the foods over the last 6 months that I would have eaten, that really were not healthy foods, but I didn't because of gluten being in them, then I am thankful. When my daughter found out she had the same problem, she cried as well. But now she has adjusted. It's so funny when we find things we like how excited we can get. 

Today we tried a new bread and it tasted so much like regular bread we got all excited! If you are new to this, don't give up. You will find things you like. Don't be afraid to try things. Almost every new gluten free product I find, I try. Now, just a warning, you will have to try a lot of things before you find what you like. But, try them just the same. 

I thought I would list a few of my favorite things I have found. Everyone has different likes and dislike so you might not like some of what I have listed here, but they are the products I have had success with. 

My very favorite gluten free product is Pamela's baking and pancake mix. I could not get along without this mix. I read about it on another blog. I use this for my flour in most all cookie, cake and muffin recipes. I have kept all of my own recipes that I have used for years and just use this for the flour instead of the wheat flour. Most times I have to add a little extra. For example, if the original recipe called for 3 cups of flour, I would use somewhere around 4 cups of Pamela's. What I like about her mix is things do not taste gritty. They stay moist too. I also use this mix to make a crustless quiche that turns out wonderful. In the coming months I will list some of my recipes and how I use this mix. 

My other favorite thing is Chebe bread. The kind of bread I miss is the kind with a crisp, chewy crust and a soft inside. Chebe satisfies that craving. The first thing I ever tried were the frozen rolls. They are about the size of ping pong balls. The crust is very chewy and crispy. The inside is a little gooey. But they really hit the spot. They also make bread sticks and pizza crust that come frozen. Then they have a dry mix that comes in different flavors to make into either rolls, pizza, bread sticks, cinnamon rolls etc. I always keep both the mix and frozen on hand. I have served the bread sticks to company many times with great success. They are always eaten until gone! 

I have not found any cookies that I think are worth the calories you have to consume to eat them. Therefore I do not buy hardly any gluten free cookies. And for the life of me I can't figure out why I can't find a good store bought one. I make a delicious home made chocolate chip cookie. So when I have a real craving I just make some home made. Glutino has a pretty good wafer style. So if you are looking for one to try that is store bought, I would start with that. 

Here is a short list of some other gluten free foods that are my favorite: 

rader Joe's frozen brown rice 

Trader Joe's Brown rice pasta 

Trader Joe's gluten free french rolls

 Trader Joe's Chicken apple sausage 

Trader Joe's Mini savory crackers 

Fit For Life brown rice bread 

Amy's rice crust pizza 

Lay's Stacks potato crisps 

Bob's Red MIll cornbread mix 

Mary's Gone Crackers 

Envirokids organic crispy rice bars 

In the future, I will try to blog about how I use these particular products and what I like about them. So, stay tuned. And yes, I did eat the chocolate after I finished taking the picture!