Restaurant: YEAH! Burger

Gone are the days of me asking for my burger without the bun and the waitress going; "so I take it you don't want the fries either?"  No, I want the fries, if they're gluten free, I just don't want the bun!  In short, I'm addicted to this place. 

I have been here probably 3 or 4 times now.  The buns are not always consistent, but it does seem like the bakery they use is getting better.  The last few times I was there they were good, and didn't fall apart.  All of us who have had a gluten free bun, know they don't stay together very well.  I highly recommend you check it out.  Even if you don't eat gluten free, it's good, and has a great vibe.  In the old West Egg they have redone the place to have an awesome patio.

Oh Yeah, they have gluten free beer too!  They serve Bard's and Greens.  I truly enjoy Greens, it's a Belgium beer and is one that won't turn your non-gluten free friends away.  It does only come in the pint bottles so you may want to share.

Shaun Doty is behind Yeah Burger!, so if you like Shaun's you'll enjoy this place too.

Gluten Free Foods My Be Contaminated

Hi all,
I'm sorry I've been MIA.  I've had friends and family visiting, and then have been traveling.  But I'm back and ready to share more.  My travels include lots of good things to share. 

In the first post from my hiatus, I want to share this eye opening article that was on MSN today.  I have to admit, I actually thought foods that were packaged with the gluten free label were being tested and there were FDA regulations on when you could mark something gluten free. 

Now, those items tested that were contaminated in this article were not labled gluten free, but it's still worth reading if you are on the super sensitive side and can't have a fleck of gluten.

Happy Reading!

Restaurants: Trip to DC Proves GF Friendly

My recent trip to Washington, D.C. over Memorial Day proved to be very Gluten Free Friendly.  It was pretty hard to not wonder if D.C. would provide me a healthier lifestyle with all the gluten free restaurants and options.  Here are the places we went that were very friendly and accommodating to my dietary needs.

Sette Bello, Clarendon, VA: Don't have a Gluten Free Menu, but were extremely cognizant of the GF diet and made sure my meal was made just for me.  I got he Risotto Primavera and it was to die for.  

On a different note, Sette Bello is just a great spot to chill.  There were 5 of us out for dinner and drinks.  Since people were showing up at different times we ate in the bar/lounge area and chilled for close to 2.5 hours.  They also have wine flights here, so we all enjoyed trying wines from different regions in Italy.  Which for a wine lover like me was great. 

Scion, Dupont Circle, DC: Scion does have a Gluten Free Menu for Lunch and Dinner.  We went there for brunch and even though there was no GF menu for Brunch the staff was still very familiar with what I could and could not eat.  Of course I was very disappointed that their breakfast potatoes were not GF, but the omelet was great and the Fruit Bar was a nice added touch.

Hello Cupcake, Dupont Circle, DC: This cupcake spot was a great find for someone who regularly doesn't find fresh gluten free baked goods.  They have 1 gluten free cupcake a day.  On Saturday they had Tiramisu, and I have to say, I don't generally like this dessert because I don't like coffee or espresso, but I decided to try it and it was great.  On Sunday they had Lemon cake with either strawberry butter cream icing or lemon icing.  I went with Strawberry and it was too good to be true.  We google to see if there were other Gluten Free bakeries in town.  Red Velvet has gluten free cupcakes as well, but they only make chocolate gluten free cupcakes from what I read.  So Hello Cupcake gets my vote for being GF friendly.

Red Mango, Multiple Locations throughout the US (sadly not in Atlanta): When you walk in, on the wall in big bold letters it says Gluten Free.  I almost jumped up and down and yelped, I actually may have done that. 

Red Mango is an all natural frozen yogurt shop.  It has four flavors a day, my favorite was Madagascar Vanilla.  You pick your yogurt flavor and then you can add fresh fruit toppings.  This yogurt is low in calories and has probiotics in it, so it's a treat that you don't have to feel guilty about. 

Red Mango also makes made to order Parfaits.  I didn't get one, but it looks like you could get a parfait without the granola and it would be gluten free. 

Sticky Rice, H Street, Washington DC: This is a gluten free, vegetarian and vegan friendly restaurant.  The waitress was great at answering all of my questions about what I could and could not eat.  They have sushi and noodles that are gluten free.  And they even have gluten free soy sauce.  The chef was good at modifying a sushi roll that wasn't originally gluten free so I could still have it.  I only got sushi, so i don't know how the noodles are, but they looked good.

Taste Test: Pierogies

So one of the things I miss most about my days before Celiac Disease was my baba's (grandma) pierogies.  My mom being 100% Ukrainian, pierogies were a staple in my family's kitchen.  Yesterday I was shopping at Return to Eden and found Conte's Peirogies.  I figured I need to try these.  I've tried other gluten free pierogies and didn't like them, but this packaging made me think they'd be worth a shot.  Here is what I thought.

• Taste: Good - I had the potato and cheese ones, and the filling was fairly consistent, needed more onion for me, but I can fix that with my own onions on top next time.
• Texture: Average - They use ravioli pasta it seems instead of a dough.  So they were a little soggy. 
• Appearance: Average - Since they got a little water logged they didn't look like something I'd serve to visitors, but for just me they were good. 
• Preparation: Easy - They needed to be boiled for 8 - 10 minutes.  So pretty simple.  I used to always pan fry mine as a kid, so they would get a little crunchy.  Or if we had time we'd bake them.  Not sure since the outside is more like Pasta if this will work, but maybe I'll give it a try.
• Overall: Give them a try - It's going to be hard to be Baba's Pierogies, but these are a good second when I'm missing home since I can't eat traditional ones anymore.

Recipe: Parmesan Crusted Chicken

This first recipe posting is in honor of my love for Italian Food and my journey to find ways of having Italian without Gluten.

I have to thank Rachael Ray for her love for easy-quick meals because I got this recipe from her and am addicted. This Parmesan Chicken is easy to make and I've found 3 different ways to serve this one chicken recipe. Learn how to make this chicken and people will think you're a gourmet chef.

Chicken Ingredients/Tools:

• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Course pepper
• 2 cups shredded (not grated) Parmesan, I've found that the Kraft Shredded Parm Next to the grated is the hardest, you need to make sure it's not too soft or it will melt
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast fillets. I find the fillets to work best because you can really taste of the Crusty Parm when you eat the chicken
• Wax Paper

How To:

1. Heat a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. You want to make sure the pan is very got when the chicken is added so that Parm gets crusty quickly and doesn't melt into the pan.

2. Pull out 2 feet of wax paper and pile the 2 cups of Parmesan on the wax paper

3. Season both sides of each chicken breast or fillet with pepper

4. Firm press the chicken into the Parmesan Cheese and coat both sides of the chicken with as much cheese as possible

5. Add 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil to the skillet to coat the pan

6. Set chicken in the skillet, and for chicken breasts cook until cheese is golden, about 6 - 7 minutes on each side, for chicken fillets they only need about 3 - 4 minutes on each side.

Tip - sometimes the parm falls off the top of the chicken when you put it in the skillet, so I like to pat some more parm onto the uncooked side of the chicken before I flip it. Make sure you don't try to add parm to the side of the chicken that's been cooked (I probably don't need to say that).

Now that you know how to make the chicken here are your three meal options.

Meal Option 1: Pasta Option with Tomato and Basil Mixture (you can actually have this mixture anytime you make the chicken)

Tomato Basil Mix Ingredients:

• 4 plum Roma tomatoes or small, vine ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 15 to 20 leaves fresh basil, pile leaves, roll then thinly slice

How To:

1. Combine tomatoes and basil into a small bowl and season with salt and pepper.

2. Make yourself some gluten free pasta - my favorite is Tinkyada Fusilli - it is the closest I can remember to wheat pasta and has a good consistency (would need to start before you make the chicken)

3. Once the chicken and pasta are complete toss the chicken, tomato-basil mixture, into the pasta with a little EVOO, and if you have it, fresh mozzarella.

Meal Option 2: Lite Caesar Salad

Doesn't get much easier than making the chicken, picking up some Romaine lettuce, tossing the two together and dressing them with some gluten free Caesar dressing.

I've found Marie's Parmesan Caesar Yogurt Dressing to be wonderful and it is 1/2 the fat. Hence, the lite in front of Caesar Salad (plus there are no croutons, unless you have found some GF ones you would like to add).

Now, most Caesar Salads don't have tomatoes in them, but I LOVE tomatoes so I have made the tomato-basil mixture above and added it to the salad.

Meal Option 3: Eat the chicken alone as a balanced meal with a starch and a vegetable

I have found that this chicken goes best with broccoli (broccolini is my favorite) or asparagus. I tend to make fingerling or little red new potatoes as my starch. Just pick your favorite sides and you'll be in heaven because the chicken is that good!

Why Gluten Was My Enemy And Is Now A Friend I Haven't Seen In Years

In 2002, or maybe it was the fall of 2001, all I know is I was to be enjoying my Senior year of college, my stomach started to take a toll on me. I was in constant pain, and constant discomfort every day. The pains were always there, and I would try to comfort my stomach with soup, toast, saltines, all of which I now know I can't eat.

After a few months of going through these pains day after day I went to my doctor. Understand, my doctor was a dear family friend, my godfather to be exact, who had changed my diaper and knew all about every childhood allergy, illness, injury I had ever had and heard all about how worried my parents were that I never had a 'good' day. So I trusted him, and he wanted only the best for me. When he walked into his exam room I was curled up sleeping on the table (when you're in as much pain on a regular basis as I was and a Senior in college, sleep wasn't a common occurrence). In his Irish accent he says "Megan, dear, wake up", and once I stirred myself out of my sleep we got to chatting about what was going on. Being completely in tune with my life from talking with my Dad often and now talking with me, he said he really believed it was stress, that I had too much on my plate, and asked me what I could get rid of.

My gut reaction to letting something in my life go was NO. I needed to being doing everything I could so I could get a good job, have a good future, and continue to be the overachieving perfectionist I was. But then I thought for a while, and realized I was stressed, and wasn't enjoying life at all, and I realized something had to give.

I thought a minute, I am a Senior at Carnegie Mellon, at the same time am getting my Masters, neither of which I could quit. I was in a sorority that I was committed to and at the time was the only thing that was making me happy, though I wasn't making the sisters around me very happy (to this day I apologize for how unhappy I was). I taught aerobics 4 nights a week, which to give up would be stupid, why not get paid to workout if I was going to workout anyway. And, I had an internship that was 40 minutes away from campus 2 days a week, that didn't bring me any joy anymore. Once I rattled off everything I had going, or not going in my life, I came to the conclusion, I'm going to quit my internship.

That next Tuesday I walked in and apologized to my boss, explaining that I had too much on my plate and while I had learned a lot I needed to focus on graduation, and that hopefully one less thing would help me feel better. He was great, said he totally understood, and he wished me well. Unfortunately, as you can probably predict the one less thing on my plate didn't do me or my stomach much good. I gave it a few weeks to see if time to heal was needed and back to the doctor's I went.

This time we knew we had to start searching for what was wrong to at least rule out things. So we put me on the purple pill, set me up with a GI specialist and started running tests. For two years I was poked, prodded, had three endoscopes, multiple blood tests and switched doctors before we made any progress.

After ruling out that I didn't have ulcers and it wasn't my gallbladder we went in for my third endoscopy to yet again find nothing. Wanting desperately to find out what I had my mom says to the GI doctor, I just saw on the Today Show something about Celiac Disease, could that be it? The doctor didn't believe it was the cause of all my issues but was just as determined to figure out what was wrong with me. I really think he just didn't enjoy the singing I did in the recovery room after anesthesia.

My mom and I headed over to Quest Diagnostics to get my blood taken. I can tell you, at this time I thought I really hope this isn't what I have, I love pasta, bread, pizza, anything Italian and I don't eat any meat but chicken.

About a week later, I am sitting at my desk on my project site, at this time I was a consultant, and the phone rings. It was the GI doctor's office telling me I have Sprue. I was like what? I wasn't tested for that, I was tested for something called Celiac, an intolerance to gluten, what the heck is sprue. The nurse said something like sorry, "it's called Celiac Sprue, you tested positive, the doctor needs you to come back in and get some tests run so we can determine the severity of damage to your intestines". Damage, don't tell at 24 year old she could have damaged intestines.

As I said, I was a consultant on client site, which happened to be in Harrisburg, PA, when I found out my life was going to completely change, I just didn't know how. So I called my mom, told her the news, told my manager I would need to be out of the office for tests the following week, and quickly started to research Celiac on the Internet.

Here is where I start my tale of how Gluten went from being an enemy to an old friend I haven't seen in a while.

After my diagnosis, and realization that traveling to Harrisburg, PA, which had just gotten a Starbucks in January of 2004, was probably not the place to find gluten free food, I asked my company to let me go from my project to take care of my health. They kindly let me leave and allowed me to work on projects that didn't require travel for the next year. When it looked like travel was going to have to become a part of my life again I got scared, I need a kitchen, I can't eat out easily, I am still figuring out what this whole thing means and so I parted ways with consulting.

At this time Gluten was so the enemy in my life. It was keeping me from being what I wanted to be, I felt like it was holding me back. But what I found in the next six months of my life after consulting, where I focused on myself, what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be, where I was happiest, wouldn't have happened if Gluten hadn't forced me to take care of myself.

In the past six years since my diagnosis I have a career I love, not one that just suited what a piece of paper said I should do, and a new found appreciation for food, Gluten Free food to be exact. I know how much I hated Gluten every day for so long, and was jealous of all the people who would eat bread at the dinner table before our meal came. I know other Celiac friends I do or don't know have have felt or are feeling this way. Now, it is finally time to share with others my recipes, tips and tricks to eating out and ways to not offend friends when they tried to make dinner for you, so that Gluten can be just as much a long distance friend you'll never forgot you once loved to hang out with, to you as it is to me.

I hope you'll keep coming back and that my past years of living Gluten Free will help you, a friend or family member through their journey of life without Gluten.