The Un-Gluten Guy (My Gluten Free Recipes & GF Adventures)

So we put together dinner.  Well my wife started and left everything on the counter for me to cook.  Not only was it good and healthy but the kids liked it and I had leftovers for lunch. Lemon Chicken She got the recipe  here Essentially you marinate a whole chicken with salt and lemon juice.  Our lemon tree is full so this was a perfect recipe for us.  Marinate it overnight. Oven to 425.  Make a Gremolata which is a combination of parsley, garlic and lemon zest and rub over the chicken with butter. For the gremolata you can zest one lemon, finely chop one bunch of flat leaf parsley and mince one clove of garlic.  You can add more of either ingredient to you liking and add salt as needed. Cook 40 minutes then cover and reduce heat to 375 degrees.  Baste and cook until meat is 170 degrees Potatoes I had a bag of potatoes and 15 minutes.  Into the microwave for 5 minutes.  Cut them into quarters.  Heated a pan with butter...

Okay, so I'll have to make them again and take a picture because I ate it. My wife asked if she could make me a muffin after dinner.  Muffin?  Sure, why not. "What's in it?"  I asked. "Flax seed" she told me She got the recipe from Jorge Cruise, who is an author, nutritionist, weight loss guru. He was on the Doctor Oz show and presented the  recipe here . He has a few options and she tweaked one for me. Get a coffee mug - yes, a mug. Put in 1/4 Cup ground flax seed 1 tsp. baking powder 2 tsp. cinnamon 1 egg 1 tsp. sugar 2 Tbsp chopped walnuts 1/2 of a banana mashed His recipe calls for 1 tsp of coconut oil (we didn't have it) and 1 packet of stevia instead of the sugar (I'm a plain sugar guy).  She also added the banana. Now put it in the microwave, yes the microwave, for 50 seconds. Out comes a light fluffy muffin.  Have it for a snack, have it for breakfast, make it at work. I was impressed and it was good. The Un-Gl...

VEG or  Vertical Earth Gardens  is a local Southern California company that specializes in vertical (duh) hydroponic gardens great for growing your own, well, everything. In going GF I wanted to know where everything that I eat is coming from and even though herbs and vegetables are "safe" it was nice to know that we can grow them in our own backyard pesticide free.  And, nothing is fresher than freshly picked. We first saw this at Kitchen 1540 in Del Mar; we were there actually before I was diagnosed, so I can't comment on their GF food.  Sitting outside we saw a kitchen worker come out with a large metal bowl and they started clipping off herbs.  I walked over to two massive VEG structures full of all sorts of herbs and lettuce. There was a tiny sign about the maker - The Vertical Earth Gardens. We did some research and learned more and thought that this would be a great thing for us.  Usually the backyard is filled in the summer with overgrown po...

Well, I'm back.  It was tough, I got glutened, and I found it much harder in Philly to find safe places to eat.  I'll give you a run down of where I went and what I found. Off the airplane we stopped at Whole Foods  on South Street.  They had a small selection compared to our Whole Foods in San Diego, but it is a smaller store.  I was able to stock up on some cereal, bars and other staples. Presidents day morning we went for breakfast.  First place - no hot food due to a fire in the kitchen.  Second place closed.  Third place - back to the hotel.  We ate at  Lacroix .  They were helpful.  Breakfast is an easier thing but I had eggs and fruit. Dinner we met friends for sushi at  Hikaru .  I didn't have my GF soy sauce so it was sans sauce.  I talked to the guy at the sushi counter and he had no tempura or fried pieces up, so no cross contamination. Our go to place, a bit pricey but safe, was Smith and Woll...

So I have a trip coming up.  Used to be the difficulty was in booking flights, car rental, a place to stay and packing. That's easy now.  The real issue - what am I going to eat?  Where am I going to eat?  When can I get to the supermarket and will they have what my market has?  How much food should I bring? The plane ride is easy.  I always bring food, but now instead of a sandwich its a GF buffet. I'll pack nuts, some GF bars, and fruit.  I'm also going to put together a quinoa salad with some tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese and a vinaigrette. But like you have done I've already browsed the internet for restaurants, checked the hotel dining services, looked for local blogs and lost some sleep thinking about it. But I'll let you know how it goes.  If I can find a few restaurants that can serve up a protein with some vegetables without cross contaminating my plate I'll do fine and hopefully find some cool restaurants in the meantime. ...

The one thing I miss are a cabinet full of snacks.  I was keen for Triscuits and Cheez-Its but obviously those are out now. So we went on the hunt for new varieties and as you can guess some are better than most.  I am really sensitive to a Gluten Free label is not always enough, when they are made in factories that process wheat I sometimes react. We tried Blue Diamonds Nut-Thins and they taste good.  Thin, crunchy and nutty and the cheese one is tasty (kids like them too).  Unfortunately for me every time I eat them I react a bit.  They are labeled as made in a factory that processes wheat - so I'm not sure if that is it or something else but I stopped eating them. Glutinos' crackers are a hit.  Think of a Ritz cracker.  Crispy, light and a few flavors.  My wife loves them. Hol-Grain was one I found recently.  Not a hit.  Dry, not very tasty.  I'd skip it. Crunchmaster  is my new favorite.  Crispy, crunchy an...

Well, I topped 1000 views of my blog.  Since I don't track my own views and I don't have 1000 friends and family members it must mean that someone else is looking too.  Thanks. I changed the look around a bit so I hope you like it.  People wanted a way to be a follower and see when I update it without having to keep it in your bookmark and I set it up to view on your smartphone. Don't forget to look back at older posts.  There are some great recipes (mango quesadillas, pasta, steak and fish dishes).  There are a lot of good reviews of GF food products too. More to come so keep checking back.  More restaurants, more reviews and more recipes. The Un-Gluten Guy

Every so often we run into a problem that leads to grief.  Death is the most common scenario where we hear about the 5 stages of grief.  Grief may be due to  the loss of a loved one, the loss of a pet or a particular diagnosis.  For me it was my diagnosis of Celiac Disease. I still find myself cycling through these stages and thought about the Kubler-Ross model one day while in the Supermarket of all places.   I found myself angry while walking down the aisles because there were so many things I can not eat anymore. For those of you that don't know Dr. Kubler-Ross wrote a book "On Death and Dying" that was published in 1969.  She was a Swiss Psychiatrist that passed in 2004 and was most well known for this model of the 5 Stages of Grief.  She found that most people when faced with death go through these phases but not in any particular order. I found that I was going through these same phases. Phase one is Denial .  This was a short phase ...

The  National Foundation for Celiac Awareness  is a great new organization and web resource that I found.  Someone sent me page out of a magazine with a story about Alice Bast and her diagnosis of Celiac disease and the effort that followed in getting people, doctors and restaurants aware of Celiac Disease. There is a whole section for kids, too. They have information about the disease and symptoms for those that are curious or still searching for a diagnosis. They have 90 minute web-based course for restaurants, chefs and staff that goes over the disease, cross contamination and how to adjust recipes.  I am going to start getting the SD restaurants aware of this.  I hate being somewhere and having to pull out a GF bar while my family eats or whip out my cell-phone to search the web to find a nearby GF restaurant.  Wouldn't it be nice to have a GF symbol (hey, its SD maybe a GF inside a surfboard) to know that I could walk in and have a GF meal. - T...

So we visited  SALTBOX  inside the Hotel Palomar in the Gaslamp district in downtown San Diego. All I have to say is "you have to eat here." Not only was the food great, the atmosphere cool but they were the most Gluten Free accommodating restaurant I have been to. So my wife called and spoke with the manager, Nic, who said that they can accommodate someone with celiac and they will put together a menu of what I can have.  Well when we arrive the waitress, Lygia, lets me know she was made aware of my Celiac disease and that they were bringing out a special menu. The sous chef, Neil, had gone thru and highlighted what was GF and crossed out thing that would be changed to make it GF.  He came to the table, was super nice and has a family member that has to eat GF. I started with the Hamachi Crudo with vanilla scented picholine olives, local citrus and arugula.  This was delicious, light but complex with the different flavors and textures. Next we sp...