Move over PF Chang's.... Cucumbers

If you've been reading my blog for a bit you may have picked up on my obsession with PF Chang's. The closest one is about six hours away so take out is not an option. Instead I rely on our travels out of Telluride to get my fix and our recreations. I'm slowly working my way through the menu as I have a great version of street noodles and thanks to Heidi I can make a mean lettuce wrap. This summer finds me craving cucumbers and I'm now doing a good spin off of those. On our trip east last week I found out that there is a PF Chang's closer then I thought. Massachusetts has a funny way of making everything seem far away to a native Mainer like me. I think nothing of driving 75 minutes to the food store each month, 30 minutes minimum to get downtown and back or 15 minutes to yoga but when we're in MA a 20 minute drive takes you three towns over and is a hassle. Dave somehow failed to mention just how close we really were to Peabody until I Google'd it.
Now I can just enjoy these after a "quick" jaunt to the store for cucumbers...
Peel cucumber and slice or dice as desired, I'm a fan of thin slices.
Add a splash of vinegar (.5 to 1 tablespoon) and soy sauce (2 to 4 tablespoons) let sit in fridge overnight and enjoy... or if you like it crunchy eat right away. These have a light pickle quality from the vinegar and a salty flavor from the soy.

A bit of blog love...Lettuce Wraps... a la PF Chang Style

One of my favorite things about reading other blogs is being able to relate to another person's gluten free story. Each of us arrived at the gluten-free lifestyle a different way but we each stay for the same reason- to feel good and enjoy food again. Posting recipes and sharing food via the internet, blog love at it's finest.
Dave and I have been making lettuce wraps for years but the other night we dug up Heidi's recipe over at Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom and used it as a guide to make PF Chang Style Lettuce wraps. So good and a great dinner for two...

I'd like to blame my lack of blogging on spring. I'd love to say that the weather's been great so we're spending time outside with the dogs at night instead of the kitchen but that's sadly not the case as we had over a foot of snow last week Yes, it's May. Yes, I do miss spring. Yes, it's mostly melted now so I can start to pull out chacos until the next snowstorm later this week.
Dave's a snowmaker and groomer at the ski resort so we're readjusting to making dinner for two again. I'm spending a lot less time in the kitchen making and perfecting new recipes and experiments. When I dine alone, I tend to get obsessed with a new dish. Dave won't go for that as he likes variety. We're trying to move into summer mode even if Mother Nature has other ideas for us.

and of course we hit a PF Chang's...

 Our checked bag arrived on Thursday afternoon, a mere 4 days after us. It was an exciting moment to be able to have wardrobe options again plus a more pragmatic pair of shoes then the Danskos I wore traveling and the flip flops I had tucked in my carry on as area was getting pounded with snow and the snowbanks stood 5 feet high.  I had lots of time to work on my knitting and finished a few projects during our visit.

From Droid think outside

On Saturday we packed up and jumped on a bus down to Boston- the roads were getting slick and our early flight on Sunday didn't leave much of a margin for error. We packed our bags with my gluten free snack festival and headed into a hotel near the airport. We checked in and asked about area dining and if the in house restaurant had a gluten free menu- the uncertain look had Dave convinced that my idea of heading to PF Chang's wasn't so crazy after all.

From Droid think outside

 I had used my droid navigation while on the bus to figure out that we could easily take the hotel shuttle to a T stop on the blue line and swap to the green line and end up a block away from PF Chang's. It was a Saturday night and the place had a 50 minute wait so we opted to eat at the bar so we could make it to bed at a decent hour. We even walked through the city a bit after dinner, grabbed Dave breakfast donuts at Dunkin's and made it back to to hotel within 3 hours. There wasn't much time for sleep as we were up at 3:30am and on a shuttle soon after.

From Droid think outside

The best part about our 6am flight on Sunday from BOS to ATL to MTJ was that all worked out we arrived by noon in the mountain time zone, hit a quick food shop were reunited with our monster puppies back in Telluride before the lifts closed at 4pm.

gluten-free travels

Before our road trip to Maine I did some prep work... I bought a case of chocolate Bumble Bars, a pack of Udi's Bagels, a few boxes of Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks and did some research. We drove from Colorado to Maine along I-70 the snaked up through the East coast on 84, 290 and 95. I'd plan out PF Chang's and Whole Food stops based on distance from the interstate, our hotel or dinner time.

I had all the potenial stops written down with the phone number and address so we could punch it into Gertie, our trusty GPS. We left Colorado at night and took turns sleeping and driving throught the middle part of the country and made it to St. Louis for a much needed sleep and a double whammy- Whole Food's and PF Chang's within 5 minutes of each other and I-70. Love. Love. Love.

  It's kind of a strange obsession but I've never had a reaction to either place. I picked up some trip snacks, cut fruit for breakfast and sandwich meat at Whole Foods and dinner at PF Chang's.

The next day was also a bonus as we drove through Indianapolis for lunch and had enough left over for dinner as well. This was one road trip where I had no chance to feel hungry or deprived.

 

Dave was a good sport about it too. We stopped twice on our drive east (two days in a row) and  three times on the way home (we took our time) and usually ended up with leftovers for the next meal/snack as well.

We did mix it up and the only constant was the lettuce wraps as we both love them so much.

Out of all the Whole Foods we stopped at- Denver St. Louis, Indianapolis, Portland, Maine was our favorite.

They had a great soup bar that I hit twice and options for Dave too. Plus they had a good supply of Udi's products for our time in Maine as well.

I did make a point to stop at our old food store and was shocked that the last year and a half they went from having a small shelf space for gluten-free products to 6 times the space and a lot more products.

 They even had a line of cake mixes I hadn't heard of before. Sara had picked up their strawberry pound cake and it was the bomb, great strawberry flavor with a nice moist texture.

 Cheers to Hannaford  for getting on board and making sure glutards can eat safely. 

a little road trip

Last week we took a small road trip. Living in the southwest corner of Colorado means that to get to any major Colorado city requires at least a few hours of driving. Google Maps estimated it to be a 6 hour drive. Mother Nature turned it into an 8 hour drive. We left the house at 6am bound for Colorado Springs, armed with my gluten free road snacks like Stretch Island Fruit and Peanut Butter & Jelly flavored Lara Bars. The weather was just starting to move in and within the first ten miles I realized that this was not going to be an easy drive. It was still dark and fat snowflakes filled my 4Runner's headlights making me drive slowly. As the light grew the driving became easier but it was still slow going. By the time we hit Monarch Pass I realized that the windshield wipers really needed to get replaced and the thick slush killed what little use they had left. We made it over the pass with a few stops for clearing the window and found an auto parts store for new super storm grade wipers. The trash outside the store was filled with old wipers and we went inside for the item of the day.

Our mission of the stormy day?

A new puppy- we were on our way to meet our new puppy. He is a one year old golden retriever and was in need of a new home. He was living in Colorado Springs and we ventured through the storm to pick him up. We were pretty excited as the Springs is also home to a PF Chang's and they just added new items to the gluten-free menu! We started with the Lettuce Wraps then enjoyed the spicy Gluten Free Beef a la Sichuan and Gluten Free Fried Rice. I'm not a huge fan of the beef dish as I'm not a celery fan but loved the lettuce wraps as always. It was a good treat after a long, hard drive that day.

I even got the Flourless Chocolate Dome to go for the ride home.... yum. We did a monster round trip and after dinner and a quick stop at REI we hit the road with our new puppy for some more fun winter driving.

It was all worth it to wake up at home the next day with our new pup. We've named him Mayhem and I took him on his first gondola ride on his first morning home. He's settling in well to our home and life with his big brother Chaos. He doesn't even mind that I'm a glutard!

Chaos, age 5 and Mayhem, age almost 1

Lettuce Wraps

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I usually crave hearty meals during the winter but lately I've been wanting veggies. These lettuce wraps have been filling that void. We've been making buffalo flavored chicken and white rice then building the wraps with a lettuce base, a small scoop of rice, chicken and shredded carrots. I like a dash of soy sauce on the rice (gluten free of course). We fold each wrap as we pick them up. Who needs PF Chang's when you can make these at home?  A bit of spice bundled in cool lettuce....

my version of street noodles

One of my favorite restaurant meals is the simple street noodles from PF Chang's but since 7 hours is not a reasonable drive for take out I've been working on making them at home. We have these at least once a week and make a large batch so that I can have leftovers for a lunch or two.

This is my recreation of PF Chang's Street Noodles.

Prep:
Boil water for noodles in a pot that can also have a steamer placed on top
Cut veggies. Use at least 1/2 cup of mixed veggies plus 1/2 medium onion and 3 cloves of garlic. I like 'em all small and uniform. Take your pick- broccoli, carrots or something else fun. I saved a lot of time by getting sliced carrots the size of matchsticks from the food store. I'm kind of an OCD carrot cutter and was spending at least 20 minutes cutting them into matchsticks.
Cut chicken (thin slices) and marinate in a gluten free Asian sauce (1-2 breasts) I usually make up a bunch and freeze in packets for future meals in the marinade. San- J has a good selection of Gluten Free sauces or sometimes I just use La Choy Soy if I'm out of marinade

Cook:
Steam veggies (but not the onion or garlic) on top of boiling rice noodle water until desired tenderness then drain and set aside
Saute onions and garlic in 2 Tablespoons of toasted sesame oil (TSO)  then cook chicken.
Boil Mai Fun noodles for 4 2-3 minutes, drain then rinse with cold water. (6oz will feed 2 people and have leftovers for lunches)
Add 1-2 more tablespoons of TSO and add noodles and veggies
Add 2-3 tablespoons of gluten free soy sauce to the noodles and cook on a high heat.
More TSO and Soy Sauce may be added for more flavor. The noodles will absorb a lot a flavor and high heat is recommended.