A Good GF Pizza Is Hard To Find

May 18, 2012 by Jennie | 1 comment

… but you can make one at home.

Okay, all punning aside, you may have heard that Domino’s recently started selling gluten-free pizza crust with a catch – it’s not safe for Celiacs. Here’s the official statement from the Center for Celiac Research.

People in the Celiac community are up in arms about this, and understandably so. Why would they sell a gluten-free pizza crust that isn’t safe for those of us who can’t eat gluten? Because they can charge extra for a pizza that probably costs little more to make. Now, if they were taking pains to ensure the crust was really gluten-free and educating their staff on cross-contamination, I think that charge would be justifiable and as it is, they’re kind of exploiting the fact that people are willing to pay more for GF, but that’s a whole post in and of itself.

But the real point I want to make here is that I’m okay with Domino’s saying that their gluten-free pizza isn’t safe for Celiacs. There are other restaurants (and I can think of one in particular) that while they offer gluten-free menus, are equally lax about cross contamination and aren’t as up front about it.

Also, even if it was certifiably gluten-free, I doubt I would eat Domino’s pizza because I never cared much for it, and the pizza I make at home is way better. And that’s really the point I want to make with this post.

My favorite GF pizza crust is the mix from Bob’s Red Mill (but honestly, I don’t usually follow the instructions – I like to add a couple tablespoons of ground flax to the mix and halve the oil). One mix makes two individual sized pizzas, which works well in our house because we like different pizza toppings. And Hormel pepperonis, by the way, are gluten-free.

After digging through my photos, I only have a couple of delicious pizza photos to share (I guess most of the time, I’m so excited to eat that I forget to stop and take a photo).

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First up, pizza sauce, green bell pepper, onions, olives, and pepperonis.

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And this one with pesto, slices of leftover chicken, zucchini, tomatoes, and kalamata olives.

Anyone else out there totally okay with this Domino’s thing? What are your favorite pizza toppings?

The Best Advice I Can Give You For When You’ve Been Glutened

May 16, 2012 by Jennie | 1 comment

Monday night, I ate a salad from the Whole Foods salad bar. Tuesday morning, my stomach let me know that it did not appreciate that decision. Yup, glutened again.

For the record, I’ve eaten at the Whole Foods hot bar many times with no ill effects, and probably will again, and I’m VERY cautious about avoiding anything with gluten and also anything next to gluten. For example, they had some very fresh and tasty looking roasted veggies on the hot bar on Monday night, but they were next to the giant vat of mac n’ cheese, so I passed on those. But what can you do – sh*t, as they say, happens.

So Tuesday morning when I woke up, I knew right away that I was not well, and that it was going to be a long, awful day. After all, the last time I was glutened, I was out of commission for an entire day with not just a stomach ache but also a headache and lethargy. I’ve since called it the worst glutening of my life. Yesterday morning, I figured I was in for more of the same.

Instead, after resting for about an hour, I felt fine. I got up, got dressed, and took myself to work, where, other than being low on energy, I felt pretty much fine all day. And after 10(!) hours of sleep last night, I feel like myself again today.

It’s not hard to figure out the difference between these two glutenings (both, I’m sure, were the result of cross contamination, and probably a pretty insignificant amount of gluten). Back in October, I was six weeks into massage school and literally in the middle of my first term’s midterms, so I was either at work or at school or doing homework, and averaging about six hours of sleep each night. So what make me react so, er, intensely to that little bit of gluten? Stress, of course!

Now, back when I started this blog, I had this idea that everyone should eat the way I do. I’m not so misguided anymore – I know plenty of people cannot eat nuts, which are among my most major food groups, and that plenty of people can eat gluten without the reaction I have. Among other things – my idea of a healthy diet is probably a little different from yours. Also, I eat an entire pint of ice cream in one sitting every week, and am still addicted to diet soda, so maybe I’m not such a great role model after all.

But this I can say for sure – stress is bad. It’s really hard on our bodies.

Since I finished school, I’ve been making an effort to read actual books, and go walking outside, and spend time with my boyfriend. I feel better in general, but knowing that stress makes me react so much worse to a little bit of gluten, de-stressing is going to be a bigger priority.

What have you been doing to destress lately?

Salads From The Week, May 6-12

May 13, 2012 by Jennie | 1 comment

In case you missed it, I’ve challenged myself to eat a salad a day for the month of May. Here are the ones I ate this past week.

But we’re just going to glaze right past last Sunday, because unless pho counts as salad, I didn’t eat one.

Monday, May 7
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I think I forgot to mention this, but Joel wanted to take on the salad a day challenge – but only if we could have taco salads. One week in, we finally made them. Romaine, ground beef, olives, beans (I used kidney, he had pinto) tomatoes, avocado.

Tuesday, May 8
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Ham steaks and pasta salad. Mine had Tinkyada rice pasta, steamed zucchini and green beans, chopped tomatoes, and was smothered in pesto.

Wednesday, May 9
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We made these enormous green salads. A mixture of romaine and spinach with chicken, chopped apple, apple chips, and walnuts, and was dressed with basil oil and balsamic vinegar. I forgot to add it before I took this picture, but I had some goat cheese on mine as well.

Thursday, May 10 – No pictures, but I had some leftover pasta salad for lunch and a little three bean salad, which you’ll see in the next two pictures, as a snack before dinner.

Friday, May 11
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We had a barbecue at work, which I never feel comfortable partaking in because of the huge tubs of hamburger buns and cookies. I used to feel a little resentful about this, but in the past couple of years, my tactic has been to bring something that I’m really excited about eating instead. This time I brought my own barbecue food – hot dogs, carrot and celery sticks, and three bean salad (garbanzo, kidney, and green beans, dressed with apple cider vinegar, olive oil and stevia.) I ate it with the only barbecue food I felt safe eating – a bag of Lays potato chips.

Saturday, May 12
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More barbecue food! A hot dog swimming in ketchup, more three bean salad, and a Caesar salad. Up until last month, it had been years since I’ve had Caesar salad, and I’m not sure why – it’s questionable at restaurants because of croutons, but otherwise, gluten-free and is one of my favorite salads.

Also from this month:

Chocolate Orange Biscotti and Stevia Giveaway

May 10, 2012 by Jennie | 4 comments

I’m very excited today to bring you my first ever giveaway on the gf-gf!

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I’ve long been a fan of NuNaturals liquid vanilla stevia as a sweetener in my coffee, so when the company asked if I would be interested in trying their new lemon and orange flavors, I was like “duh!” Well, I managed to say it more eloquently than that, but I was pretty excited.

If you’re unfamiliar with stevia, it’s an herb that is often used as an alternative to sugar. It’s naturally zero calorie, and has a negligible effect on blood sugar. Some brands have a bitter aftertaste, but NuNaturals does not, and their new flavors are made with real lemon and orange ingredients.

Both the lemon and orange stevia flavors are gluten free – in fact, the only NuNaturals product that might be questionable for us Celiacs is the More Fiber Baking Blend, which contains oat fiber. Ron from NuNaturals informed me that the fiber of the oat does not contain gluten and they try to source gluten free ingredients, but the oats cannot be labelled certified GF. Personally, I’m avoiding it in favor of other products that are sure to be safe.

I’ve made great use of the lemon stevia to make a sugar free lemon poppyseed dressing. It’s just the juice of one lemon, 10 drops lemon stevia, 1/4 cup olive oil, and 1/2 tsp poppy seeds.

And the orange stevia is the star ingredient in these chocolate orange biscotti. These biscotti are gluten free, dairy free, and sugar free, but full of flavor – they got great reviews from my official taste testers. Please click here for the recipe.

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So here’s the part you’ve been waiting for – the giveaway!

NuNaturals would like to share a bottle of each of their new flavors of stevia with four readers of the gf-gf. You have up to three chances to win.

1. Required – tell me in the comments what you’d like to make with lemon and orange stevia if you win.
2. Optional – “Like” NuNaturals on facebook.
3. Optional – Tweet something like “I entered to win @NuNaturals new stevia flavors from @thegfgf http://www.thegfgf.com/?p=2132”

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

You can also use the promo code BLG0612 to take 15% off of your entire order on the NuNaturals website (good through June 30). And shipping within the continental U.S. is free on orders of $35 or more.

Here’s the fine print:
Giveaway is open until Monday, May 14th at 9pm (PDST), at which point, I’ll close the comments on this post. The winners will be selected randomly and will be notified by email, so be sure to leave a valid email address when you comment.
Winners must have a street address (No PO Boxes, please.)
NuNaturals sent me these products free of charge and is providing the prizes. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Thanks for entering, and good luck!

Celiac Awareness: It’s Not That Bad

May 8, 2012 by Jennie | 6 comments

May is Celiac Awareness Month, and the twitterverse/blogosphere/whatever has blown up with posts about Celiac Disease and the gluten free diet. I think most of it is really great – lots of helpful advice and conversation.

But some of it is more like a Celiac pity party. You know the kind – being gluten free is so hard, celebrities are making a mockery of how I eat, I’m starving but can’t bear the thought of one more Kind bar …

I get it. I have been there, and I’m sure many of you, readers, have been as well. There are times when having Celiac sucks. Just last weekend, I had to send my breakfast back at a restaurant because they put toast on my plate, and the waiter tried to pin the mistake on me for not being more clear about my specific dietary needs. At that moment, having Celiac sucked.

Most of the time, though, having Celiac isn’t so bad. Actually, I think those of us who have been diagnosed with Celiac, stopped eating gluten and started feeling better are pretty lucky. I know several people with mysterious gastrointestinal maladies who probably wish they could simply stop eating gluten and start feeling better.

I remember my first bout of indigestion – I was seven. It was the middle of the night, and my stomach hurt so bad I couldn’t sleep, and I thought ‘I wonder if something I’m eating is making me sick’ (I tried to use this as an excuse to avoid eating my vegetables, but that didn’t exactly fly at the dinner table). It was, in a way, relieving, to find out fifteen years later that it was something I was eating.

Also, there are enough really good favors of Kind bars that I never really get sick of them.

It’s totally fine if you disagree, but please, let’s keep the pity parties to a minimum.

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