The Gluti Girls...

Back home

There is so much to do after coming home from a trip!  I have been swamped with things all week.  Somehow, the laundry kept growing and growing.  I'm not sure how we got that many things in our suitcases! 

I don't have much time to post anything of any importance, so I thought I would make a quick photo post of our trip!  

Here's some of the strange people I was traveling with for 12 days.  The second young man there in the blue shirt, that's gluti boy.  Non-compliant gluti boy.  My first born.  

My favorite place.....walking on the bluff.  Kati and Charli.

Grace.  She hates the ocean.  

Charli loved the beach!

Is that cute or what??

Got to love this city.  A drinking fountain just for dogs!

Notice that blue ocean in the background?  I want to go back!

Charli under the table with a treat while Kati and I eat at our favorite Mexican place, En Fuego.  

My pizza from Sammy's Woodfire.  Sundried tomato with goat cheese and basil.  Oh my.  

In and Out.  Need I say more??  Now I really want to go back.  

Crab stack from The Chart House.  It was really dark in there and impossible to get a good picture!

If you can only go to San Diego once, and are limited on your time, don't miss out on the Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma.  There is a lighthouse and a monument.  The views of the city are beautiful.  

This is my husband's silly band in the water fountain at the San Diego County Fair grounds in Del Mar, California.  The two in the middle (two trumpets) are my husband and son.

That's Adam.  Yes, he is underwater.  He is playing the trumpet while underwater.  I might have posted a similar picture of this last year.  He's got quite a following that show up to see him do this.  Pretty wacky.  

Traveling again

I know I've been absent the last couple weeks.  It's travel time for us.  Last weekend we were at a Brass Band Festival and this week we make our annual trip to San Diego.  I've been packing like crazy!  

When we went to San Diego last year, we ate in our room a lot.  This year, I don't have a room with a kitchen, so we will be eating out more.  I will have a toaster oven and a microwave.  That will help making breakfast, lunch and snacks.  

We know the area really well and the restaurants.  I know where Kati and I can get a safe meal.  Since last year, there are several pizza places making gluten free pizza.  I can't wait to try them all!  And, of course we will go to the In and Our burger!  

There are several things I can't wait to try from the local grocery stores here.  A couple local bakers are making gluten free breads and I know of two groceries that sell them.  If I find them and try them, I'll be sure to post something.  I download a blogging app for my phone so we'll see how that works just for fun!

Meanwhile, with such a crazy week of packing and last minute things, I'm making a large pan of lasagna so we can just heat and eat our evening meals for the last couple nights we are home.  No time to worry with being in the kitchen and I don't want to eat out this week at all.  I don't have a special recipe for this one.  Just some gf noodle, jarred sauce and cheese.  Simple.  

I'm packing my carry on with enough food for the day.  Yesterday,  I made some pesto chicken and frozen two servings of it.  The day of travel, I'll take it out and put it on a chebe bun for a sandwich.   By the time it's lunch, it will have thawed out!  I also have:

Shelton's gf Beef Jerky

Veggies and a packet of Ken's salad dressing 

dried fruit

nuts

Better Balance gf pretzels

Baby Bel cheese

Mary's gone crackers

Think Thin energy bars

Hope you are all enjoying summer!  It's so hot and humid here.  I can't wait to feel those San Diego temperatures!  June gloom here I come, it's way better than the June muggies here anyday!

  

Camp List

Kati is leaving for her annual kids camp with a church group.  She's a counselor every year. I thought I would post the list of the food we bought for her to take along to give ideas for mom's with kids going to camp.  The camp she goes to lets her put her food in the kitchen.  When it's time for meals she can go in the kitchen and prepared whatever she needs to eat.  Of course it helps since she's an adult.  We tried to stick with either shelf stable food or frozen meals she can heat and eat.  If your child's camp lets you bring food for them, maybe this will be a starting place for ideas.

Peanut Butter

Canned Chicken (with a pop top)

Canned Tuna (with a pop top)

Lays Stax potato chips

Bag of gf Corn Chips

Fruit cups

Applesauce in individual packages

Fritos Bean Dip (with a pop top)

Amy's Tomato Soup

Annie Chung Sushi in a box (Take out the soy sauce and replace with gf soy!!!)

Fresh avocado to make sushi

Potato Buds (she loves mashed potatoes!)

Chex

Hormel Chili

Amy's Frozen Mac and Cheese

Amy's Frozen Lasagna

Amy's Frozen Mexican meal

Glutino Bagels

One loaf homemade gf bread

Small packets of mayonnaise

Small packets of gf soy sauce 

We got the soy sauce from a store called Minimus Biz.  They sell individual packets and small quantities of things.  These are great to take traveling!  Check them out!  Please note that the Annie Chung Sushi contains a soy sauce packet that does have gluten.  We take it out and use the gf soy sauce.  Annie's website says that the sticky white and brown rice are gluten free.  The nori paper is made from seaweed with no other ingredients listed.  I have not personally checked if it's gluten free so it's something you might take into consideration.  We eat seaweed nori all the time and have not had a problem.  

Moreno Valley, California

I'm here at Moreno Valley, California. We've been here since a week ago Friday. My husband's band is playing at a fair near there. We go home tomorrow.  

Travel day coming here went really well. Our flights were all on time and the weather was great. I knew we would have a layover in Minneapolis, so I printed a list of all the restaurants there and their locations. Luckily, I did not need that list since I brought enough food along with me in my carry on. The day before I prepared some Chebe buns and baked some chicken tenders and froze them. The day of travel, I made my sandwich with the frozen chicken. By the time I was ready to eat, it was all thawed out. 

Upon arrival here, we found an In N Out Burger to eat dinner at. I love their burgers! Kinda bummed that I can't eat the fries any more, but I enjoyed a lettuce wrapped burger without them. After dinner, we went in search of a grocery. We really had a hard time finding on since we've not been in the area before. We did find a market, but I didn't find a lot there. I got enough to get me through the week end. Our room has a refrigerator and microwave. I brought a toaster oven along with me and some other staples. Here is my suitcase pantry with all the essentials. 

 

The first day of the fair was a long one. We had to be there at 9:00 am. They had scheduled shows for the group up until 7:30 that night. I had only brought lunch with me! Believe me, there was nothing substantial for me to eat at this fair that was gluten free plus free of my list of "the 15" other items I can no longer have. By the time we left the fair, jet lag and starvation hit me all at once. I got back to my room, made a sandwich, ate, had a melt down (translation, cried like a baby) and went soundly a sleep. 

The next morning after breakfast, we headed out again in search of a grocery and found a Fresh and Easy Market. Wow, died and went to heaven. Everything but gluten free bread. They had many freshly prepared foods that are all natural and gluten free. Many of their products have gluten free right on the label too! Armed with a refrigerator full of food, I was now ready for the week ahead. That day for lunch, I had hot dogs made my favorite way with a lightly toasted tortilla, cheese and mustard. Just roll it all up and enjoy.

For dinner I packed some Fresh and Easy precooked chicken.

I layered it in my tupperware with the chicken on the bottom and tomatoes and goat cheese on top. When I heated it in the microwave at the fair, the cheese melted down on to the tomatoes and chicken. I put that on top of some brown rice. I have found that most good supermarkets have some kind of precooked rice that are shelf stable and ready to heat in the microwave. I also found some cut butternut squash at Fresh and Easy and cooked that with some honey, butter and cinnamon. It made an easy dinner to heat up in the microwave at the fair.  

Today we heading into Riverside. On the internet, I found an Italian restaurant that has gluten free pizza and pasta. The restaurant is called Ciao Bella Ristorante. The restaurant is in a very nice setting. They have a great patio seating area where we enjoyed our lunch. Wouldn't you know it, the day I go they are out of pizza crust. I decided to order the pasta. I haven't had pasta at a restaurant in so long! The staff there seems very accommodating to the gluten free diner. My waitress recommended the sauce that normally comes with the gnocchi. It was a cream sauce with rosemary, basil, tomatoes and shrimp. Wow, it was so good! If you are in or near the Riverside area I highly recommend it.

 This is my husband Steve with our drummer, Judy.  

And my beautiful pasta...  

Here's the crazy band.

I'm glad it's our last day here.  I am ready to go home.  I am tired of cooking out of a hotel room!  I've missed two Colts games, and from what I understand, at this very moment of typing this, they are kicking some Ravens butts!  I will have also missed two episodes of Heroes and a debate. 

Before I left on this trip, I had been out of sorts so to speak, since finding out about all these other food issues.  I had not felt like cooking at all.  I was a little thrown off.  Since being here, I have my motivation back.  Geeze, if I can make it on the road for 11 days with all these food issues, I can make it anywhere!  This trip has been good for me.  I've learned to be even more creative and I can't wait to get back home to my own kitchen and cook again! Pray we have good flights, I miss my kids, mom, dogs and my kitchen.  Can't wait to get home:)

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!