GF foods in America

I have been in America for 3 days now and up until tonight I hadn't really found many GF foods. Tonight though I went to the hotel restaurant and had a steak with mushrooms and fries, then for desert I had a piece of flourless chocolate cake. It's nice to have these options, especially when traveling :)

Gluten Free Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone :)

On the menu today for my GF Christmas are the following foods:
 - Jelly Belly Jelly Beans (Mum brought me a tray of 50 different flavours)   :)
 - GF Ham
 - Chicken
 - Pavalova with a Byron Bay chocolate biscuit crushed over top and then Spring Hill's GF (and nut free)  Rocky Road cut into chunks and put on top
 - There might be some plain cadbury chocolate consumed as well

Yum Yum Yum!!!!!! Can't wait

Gluten Free eating in Shepparton

Hi. I am currently in Shepparton Victoria at the moment visiting family for Christmas. I have found 2 places that do GF pizza's so far, they are Riviera Pizza and Pizza Place. The Woolworths has a fantastic range as well, they stock some of the foods I can only get in IGA's in Perth. Oh the biggest excitement was that I found WizzFizz in a store and it's GF!!! I haven't had one since I was a kid :)very exciting

Kinnerton Allergy Friendly Chocolate

So I was looking in the Christmas food section at KMart this afternoon and came across Kinnerton's Luxury Belgian Milk Chocolate. It is egg, nut and Gluten Free and it tastes Devine!!! I checked their website (www.Kinnerton.com.au) and it appears that this chocolate is also sold in Big W, Target, Aldi and Coles. I wonder why I have never noticed it before? Not to worry I have found it now :)

The Inglewood Hotel - tasty Gluten Free food

I had a lovely lunch at the Inglewood Hotel today. Carl and I had been meaning to eat there for awhile but hadn't got around to it, so when my Dad rang to see if we wanted to go out for lunch it was the perfect choice. Lunch was with my Aunt Sue and step-mum Or as well.

The Hotel had a very good menu, It was reasonably priced and they had fantastic GF options too. I had the chicken ceasor salad (of which it being GF was an option, best I've ever had) and a piece of GF Venetian cake, which was chocolate flavoured, this was an option on the specials menu and was delicious). There was also a pineapple and coconut flourless cake on the menu, imagine that people, 2 dessert options and neither was a bowl of fruit!!

The room closest to the car park (verandah bar?) would make a great place to have a function. I will definitely be having my next function here.

The Inglewood Hotel gets 2 thumbs up from me :)

Coles

Hi

Well I don't have much GF related to report at the moment. But I will tell you that I have been impressed with what the Coles in Bedford/Inglewood have been stocking lately. They are getting more and more varieties and brands. Anyway, so I emailed them today to tell them that I was impressed. I think everyone should be told if they are doing a good job :)

Take care xoxo

GF chicken caesar salad

Tonight I have made a chicken caesar salad at home for dinner. It was so yummy. I used the Kraft Caesar salad dressing as it is GF and did not put any crutons in. I did add avocado though :) I love them!!! Nice simple dinner.

Subiaco IGA

I was in Subiaco last weekend having lunch and seeing a movie with a friend for his birthday and stumbled across the Subiaco IGA (Mercado's). We had some spare time before the movie started (we were seeing The Town, not a bad movie, quite enjoyed it actually), so went in a checked it out. It is one of the best IGA's I have even been too. They had a lot of different GF foods, such as the Byron Bay biscuits that I love, GF lollies, and GF bread!!!!! I was SO excited I honestly never thought I would be eating bread ever again as i find that i don't like the taste of most GF breads, but this bread is fantastic. I brought the Ciabattine dinner rolls by Schar. Check out their website: http://www.schaer.com/en/gluten-free-products/bread/ they have a variety of GF breads and I swear this IGA has them all.

Now I will warn you that this is also the most expensive IGA that I have been too but I found it was well worth the cost as the food is very tasty. I don't mind paying a bit more for quality :)

I swear IGA's are the saving grace for West Aussies that can't eat Gluten.

DariFree

DariFree (no I haven't spelt it wrong) is a milk alternative. It has been created by Vance's Foods (http://www.vancesfoods.com/darifree.htm). They say that it is fat free, lactose free, gluten free and Cholesterol free. It comes in a powder form and all you have to do is add water. Once made up it will last for about a week in the fridge. I ordered a container from Allergy Friendly Foods (http://www.allergyfriendlyfoods.com.au/) and tried it yesterday. I put it with GF Cocoa Bombs and found it a little sweet but easy enough to eat overall. It is better than not being able to have my favourites at all.

Well worth a try if you are looking for a milk alternative

P.S I googled converting quarts to liters, it said 1 quart is equal to 0.94 of a litre

Freelicious

I have found that the GF Freelicious crackers are a great option for lunch or a snack. They taste like normal crackers, you can have them with cheese, tomato, ham, whatever you would have had with a 'normal' cracker really. They will be fantastic in summer time. These can be brought at the major supermarkets like Coles and Woolies and also can be brought online.

Macro Wholefoods Market

I went grocery shopping at Woolworths last night at my housemate's request. I don't mind Woolworths really, but I just find that Coles has a better range of GF foods. Anyway, I was quite surprised as Woolworths have now introduced a brand called Macro Wholefoods Market, which have organic products that are also GF. They have corn chips, popcorn and packet mixes. I was very excited by this as I haven't been able to find the Cole's organic corn chips over the last few weeks and so haven't been able to have my nachos :(

It is always exciting to find new GF foods and even better when I find them in my local store :D

www.selectglutenfree.com.au

I received my first lot of on-line ordered GF foods in the mail on Friday, this lot was from Select Gluten Free. It did take awhile for the package to arrive but somehow I think that could be Australia Posts fault rather than the supplier, either way I have been give free postage for my next order by Select Gluten Free ... which I have just used :) so YES I was very happy with the food that arrived.

My favourite food from the package was the Byron Bay GF Triple Choc Fudge Cookie. It was divine. In the new order I have ordered 5 more, plus am going to try the Sticky Date cookie this time as well. My friend tells me that they can also be brought at Coffee Club cafe's so will have to visit a store next time I see one.

My next favourite was the Springhill GF (and nut free) Rocky Road. It was soft, not too sweet and so yummy!!!! I have ordered 5 this time. I thought I should stock up while the postage was free ;)

Last but not least my next favourite was an item that I hadn't ordered but the supplier added for me to try and that was the Shepardworks Strawberry & Cream lollies. Yes they do look exactly like the 'normal' Strawberry and Cream lollies you see in the supermarket, but they are gluten and dairy free. They are quite morish and I must admit that the packet didn't last long. I have ordered another packet in the new order plus am going to try the Milk Bottles as well.

So there you go a very successful order from Select Gluten Free. I am very excited that I now have so many snack foods to eat. They are good to take to work or on a trip so that I will always have something with me that I can eat :)

Ordering GF food on-line

Over the last two weekends I have found sites to order GF food from. This is the first time I have ever ordered food from the internet so I will be interested to see how it goes.

I have ordered from the following websites:

 - Select Gluten Free: http://www.selectglutenfree.com.au/

 - Allergy Friendly Foods: http://www.allergyfriendlyfoods.com.au/

Do many people order their gluten free foods on-line? It seems like a smart option as there are so many foods out there that I haven't seen in stores.

Fingers crossed x

Long Live Giant Buttons

I had a scare the other night after eating some (a lot) of giant buttons I had a severe tummy upset. I couldn't believe that my body was rejecting them, I love them so much. I just couldn't let our relationship end like this so tried them again last night and no tummy upset this time (thank the lord). So, it must have been the dinner I had earlier in the evening, it was made with gluten free wraps but maybe there was something in the sauce? Doesn't matter really as long as the GB are safe. Let the obsession continue ;)

Breakfast and the Omelette Maker

I am one of those people that has always had cereal for breakfast. I would have a few different boxes of cereal on the go and would happily alternate between them everyday, 365 days of the year. When I was told of my gluten intolerance I changed over to GF cereal, no problem, there are a few different varieties out there and they are bringing out new ones fairly regularly.

However even after changing I was still not feeling the best in the mornings. When I went and saw the Gloria the kinesiologist (for allergy testing) she told me that my body isn't that keen on milk powder or soy. Damn it!!! I decided to keep any tolerance limits my body did have for milk powder for my chocolate addiction and tried to have my cereal with rice milk but seriously that was gross, I just couldn’t do it. Gloria suggested that I eat Oats with water, now I know what you are thinking oats are gluten but remember Gloria has determined from the allergy testing that I am more allergic to white flour and wheat than gluten itself. Anyway it's all a little confusing to me, but I didn't really get a reaction to the oats and water, so that is what I ate.

After a couple of weeks of this I was getting very bored with it, so decided to have a cooked breakfast on the weekends when I wasn’t so restricted by time. I have tried the GF pancake batter which wasn't too bad and made a medley of mushrooms, bacon and put avocado and cheese on top, which was nice, and then I tried to make an omelette and that's where I went wrong. They are very hard to make, who knew? I had never eaten one before but thought it looked easy, nope I was wrong. After yesterdays disastrous attempt my housemate was inspired to go out and by me an omelette maker. It is a round plastic thing that folds in half, comes with instructions on the back and is the most fantastic invention EVER!!!! I just made one and it tasted amazing!!!! 2 eggs, some water, mushrooms, cheese and a microwave later, I was eating the best breakfast I had, had in such a long time. Apparently this contraption costs around $5 or $6 (the brand is Starmaid) and seriously I LOVE it!!!! If you don't have one, do yourself a favour and go out and get one. Best invention EVER!!!!

Gluten Free and Me

Welcome to my blog, my name is Tamara and I have spent a good part of this year learning about what it means to be gluten free as well as what coeliacs disease is. After medical tests one doctor told me that I have coeliacs disease, then after another test a different doctor told me that I was just gluten intolerant. Since then I have been to a Kinesiologist who did some allergy testing on me and she says that I am actually intolerant to white flour and wheat (more the bad quality of wheat that is in many Australian products). Anyway, from this information I have decided to go on a gluten free diet, hoping that it will make me feel a whole lot better.

The journey of gluten free eating begins ...