glutard travels in ski country

We took an extended weekend and traveled to Summit County, CO this weekend. We loaded the dogs in the 4Runner and weaved our way through the mountains. Lunch on the road was easy as we were going near City Market, I picked out some fresh cut fruit and other snacks for the trip. Dinner was more of a challenge.

 We met a friend in Vail and I broke some rules. First, I forgot to eat my snacks and was starving. Second, I didn't research as I thought I could handle being my own advocate. (don't do this on an empty stomach...) Third, I didn't send back unsafe food.  I had ordered a burger without the bun and explained that I could not have gluten to let the server know it was a medical issue and not the Adkin's diet. When my cheeseburger arrived and after the server left I noticed crumbs stuck on the cheese and on the plate. I was starved and scraped the cheese off. I had a few bites of salad and considered my options.

This was Thursday and we were going to be on the road until Monday. I didn't want to go to our friends house in the throws of a gluten meltdown. I picked at the poor excuse for a salad (wilted lettuce) and left the burger alone. When the server came back we let her know that crumbs had been spotted and that it was unsafe to eat. She took it off the bill but by that time I wasn't hungry anymore.  Lesson accepted and I won't return to Bart & Yeti's again.

The next day was off to a much better start. I had planned ahead for our ski day and loaded my pockets with Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks, Lara Bar and Enjoy Life Boom Choco Boom Chocolate Bars. Plus we hit Kula's Cafe in Dillon for a gluten-free breakfast of french toast to fuel me up. We proceeded to hit Kula's before skiing on Saturday and Sunday as well.

They had a great assortment of GF goodies for me to choose from, Sugar cookies and carmel bars with a rich chocolate layer! She had also made some GF banana bread and cobbers which I didn't have a chance to try at all. She makes her own GF bread and it made great toast and french toast.

The sugar cookies were leftover from Easter but on sale and still really tasty!

I also hit the Natural Grocer and grabbed some Boulder Chips and my new favorite pasta, Ancient Harvest to make for dinner. Overall it was a great trip and good to finally get out of town, ski some other mountains and catch up with friends and family.

Did you happen to notice my new Sigg Bottle... stay tuned for a chance to win your own!

lobster night

I am a native Mainer that does not like any type of seafood. I can't stand fish, clams or crustaceans. I even tried a small bite about two years ago. I was at Beaver Creek and everyone was raving about the fish that "didn't taste fishy", I tried a small bite and was overwhelmed by the fish flavor. (yuck) I do appreciate how much others love the stuff and our crew was lucky enough to enjoy a feast of it.
Our buddy Big Dave moved out here with us and comes from a fishing family. He used to spend his summers clamming before moving to Colorado. His family over at The Clam Hunter just outside of Bath, Maine shipped him out a dozen lobsters and a ton of clams for the holidays and he had some folks over on New Year's Day for a lobster bake. The crew devoured the feast, while I can't stand seafood I do enjoy time with friends and quickly made Betty Crocker Gluten Free Cookies and some Cherrybrook Gluten Free Brownies for the New Year's Day lobster bake and the gluten eaters all enjoyed them. They managed to make room in their seafood filled stomach to first sample then demolish the gluten free treats.

are things just peachy or am i going bananas?

things here at camp chaos have been busy... we celebrated dave's birthday with friends and our gluten free betty crocker cake mixes. Celebrated the famous Palisade Peaches from our farmer's market with a Peach Crisp... and a Granny Smith Apple Crisp for a bit of variety. I enjoy peaches but can't wait until it's time to pick apples! I had done some research for my crisp and devised a recipe. I have never had a problem with Oats and decided to go with my old quaker standby instead of searching for GF oats.... that was a mistake! It was a mild reaction but I still noticed and pawned the leftovers off on others.

Then last night we wandered the market trying to come up with lunch plans for the week and all I could think about were chocolate covered frozen bananas. I'm so picky that I can't buy the pre made box from the store... I have to make them. My patience wore thin as I melted chocolate (TWICE!) and I ended up with two decent looking banana pops and 6 that looked horrid but still taste ok. My melted chocolate became hard quickly and I was only able to coat two banana pops nicely before the chocolate got lumpy. I was irrationally mad about my failed banana pops.... ok i'm actually mad about other things and taking them out on my bananas.

I wasn't ever really diagnosed.

Last November when I started to realize what was causing my symptoms (the ones I realized were issues... and now looking back there are so many others that I didn't notice... who would have thought my joint pain would go away?) I quit wheat for four days and felt great. I reintroduced it and the sore throat, headaches and fugue came back. I did what anyone would do... I avoided what made me sick and eventually made it to the doctors. I "wheat loaded" right before going to the doctor so they could see what it was doing to me. However I never dreamed that it was anything but an allergy/intolerance. They took blood and ran it for a food allergy and also for celiac. My test came back as a negative for celiac but now I wonder.... was it a false negative? It was a good chunk of time that I had avoided wheat before going to the doctor. I gave up wheat then learned more about gluten and cut 99% of that out too (I'm not always careful) So many of my symptoms line up... I'm now having trouble tolerating dairy... I don't want to give that up too but I don't want to feel horrid either. Do I need to give that up or just cut back? Am I having problems because of something else?

I went back to the doctor and relayed my concerns.  I came armed with my theories and books. I told her what was going on and how I was feeling. I want to know if I am just having some "food issues" or if I have a real disease. She told me that if I am having an issue with a food then I should just give up that food... but it's not that easy. GF, wheat free, dairy free.... none of these are "easy" and while I know that my health has improved I have a need to know. Why could I eat Ben and Jerry's last month but now can't tolerate a bit of chese melted over veggies? I don't miss Milk. I've never really liked milk and didn't mind going to to a vanilla soymilk for cereal and baking. I do love ice cream.... I do love cheese... I can give those up if needed but I need to know if  I have to. She's referred me to a gastroenterologist and I'm waiting for information from them... I live in a small mountain town and nothing is close or easy to get to... for some reason I really want a true diagnosis... I need to know are things just peachy the way they are or am I going bananas?

betty's gluten free cookies

I miss a good cookie... Bob's Red Mill does a nice mix but the cookies have a crumbly texture and taste almost good for you. Betty's came out a little crumbly but had more of a cookie flavor.

I would definitely purchase Betty's Gluten Free Cookie mix again but may try baking gf cookies from scratch next time. Out of the three Betty Mixes I found at my local foodstore the yellow cake was my favorite followed by the brownies then the cookies. Cheers to Betty on a job well done for all the mixes!

Whoa. Betty!

Gluten free brownies......
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Yummy!

The yellow cake was moist an d like the yellow cake I remember from Betty! It even passed the test for 4 gluten eating friends.
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Betty's in the house!

Work in progress...... Details later!
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its here!!

Hidden in my local city market!
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things to love about food shopping....

while traveling back east I ventured into many food stores. Part of this was need and part was a desire to see what different areas would have to offer me. I was amazed at the GF selection in Bangor, Maine and planned on some serious stock up trips to Portland if I move back to Sugarloaf since the Hannaford in Farmington left a lot to be desired!

I have to say after visiting over a dozen grocery stores that I have it pretty good. Although I live in Telluride I do most of my food shopping in Montrose, which is a larger city about an hour away. (Telluride is a resort town and can be expensive.) My City Market in Montrose has a good variety of GF and wheat free products and I've been able to try many of them.

I became obsessed with Whole Foods on my trip and am now living 6 hours from the closest store so I have to enjoy the things I can find...and make my own fruit packs of red berries and fresh pineapple for breakfast. I've been working on my hummus recopies for summer gatherings and baking wheat free whoopie pies for birthdays.

This summer I should be able to find some more products to test.... Betty Crocker is going GF! That's right... my former birthday cake mixes can once again grace my pantry. Plus this fall they plan on labeling all the frosting as Gluten Free as well. I can only hope these hit shelves before my birthday this summer... perhaps they will be a bit more moist then some other GF brands....

Plus Chex Cereal is certifying more flavors as GF! I never realized that they had a strawberry chex cereal and now I have big plans for it... i believe it will lend itself to really good rice crispy treat substitutions.

One of the best products I found in my east coast travels were Liz Lovely Cookies that Carol found for me. They are made in Vermont are vegan and GF! One cookie makes a great snack for two or provide all day snacking for a drive from Connecticut to South Carolina.

But kate, why are you so excited for all of these new GF products? I thought you were just wheat free? True, I am "just" wheat free but in the months since being wheat free I have learned that it isn't much more of a stretch to be gluten free as well. Plus it's not bad for me to avoid gluten.