Great Resources

My Mom and Dad came over today for a visit and they brought presents! 

I'm so beyond excited! The hubs and I are headed to Spain on Sunday. A bit nervous about the whole gluten thing overseas. When we get back I want to cook my way through my new books. I'm so excited to try this. 

💗Thank you again Mom and Dad💗

Cookies!

I love baking. I love sweets. I was bummed about leaving behind cookies, cakes, pies and other tasty treats. Well, I found a delightful book in the bargain section at Barnes and Noble. Love that place. 

I picked up this little gem. I am going to try all of them! Now the problem... Do I pick randomly or go in order of the book? Thoughts?? 

A new pizza place

Tonight we met my in-laws for dinner at this new pizza place called Blast 825 Pizza. It's like subway, but for pizzas. And man it was GOOD! Everything there is gluten free except the meat balls. They offer a gluten free pizza crust that was delicious. 

You have the option to build your own pizza or they have preselected options of you can't decide. I couldn't decide, so I went with the island blast minus the jalepenos. 

I highly recommend this place. It's tasty and affordable! Personal pizzas are only $7.95. However for us gluten free peeps, the pizzas are $9.95. This place is located next to chipotle across the street from the Galleria. 

Yum!!!

In-n-Out

Yes, In-n-Out has gluten free items! The special sauce is gluten free. That means...drum roll please....ANIMAL FRIES!!!!! 

This was my fabulously, delicious lunch! A double double protein wrap and animal fries. Yum! And oh how I have missed you bit no more! I will be back! 

A fab dinner

I'm so beyond excited! Hidden Valley Ranch now has a lite version that is not only msg free but gluten free as well!!! And it tastes like the normal ranch dressing! I'm so excited!!! 

The proof is on the bottle:

For the rest of dinner, I found a wonderful gluten free penne pasta at Costco:

Dennis made an amazing pasta sauce from Prego. Prego is gluten free. He added sautéed onions, sliced black olives and sliced chicken and artichoke sausage. Also gluten free. 

I made a scrumptious salad and used my new gluten free (squeeee!!!) ranch dressing. I'm still incredibly excited about that if you couldn't tell. 

Here's our spread: 

Oh by the way, that gluten free beer you see off to the right, yeah that one. It was horrible! Don't buy it! Trust me. I'm going to try some other brands. However, red wine is gluten free. Yay! 

Enjoy!!!

My Progress

I have been loving this gluten free way of life. I feel good, been loosing weight and have more energy for working out! I stated out at 163 pounds. I'm now at 155 and holding steady, however, I'm lean and muscular! I love my new body! I love being healthy and fit! 

More potato chips!

I have discovered that Glutino is more awesome than I have ever imagined. I am a big potato chip fan. Glutino's sour cream and onion potato crisps are awesome!!! So much so, that even the hubs said he would eat them. That's huge. 

I have also purchased Glutino's yogurt covered pretzels. Haven't tried them yet, but I will check back in with a report. 

Sushi!

Sushi is awesome. However, most of the super yummy rolls I used to get were covered in sauce that has gluten in it. Boo. But, I do love sashimi! Yay! Thus gluten free. Woot! 

The hubs and I went out tonight for some sushi. He had the yummy rolls that I used to have and I got sashimi. We dined at Arigato sushi and the great thing...they had g free soy sauce!  Yum! 

I recommend this place for your sushi fix. I will be trying out other places. PS: miso soup, yeah. It has gluten in it. 

Have You Had Your Dos Today?

I enjoy Dos Coyotes. It's good Mexican inspired food made with relatively healthy ingredients. My hubs and I needed a quick dinner and thought let's try Dos. I haven't been there since going g free. Let's see what they have. 

They have a ton of stuff! We walk up to the register and I said hello, what's gluten free. The nice young lady reaches over and pulls this out! A gluten free menu! Love! They have quite a few tasty options! I love that I can still get my favorite borito but in a bowl! 

I love Dos and will be back to try other g free stuff. 

Eggs Benedict!

I was sad to think I would never be able to eat eggs Benedict again. How wrong was I? I found g free English muffins (they are ok. Still looking for a better brand) and a g free hollandaise sauce! Oh man! It was delicious! 

I uses this sauce and added 3 table spoons of butter. Served it over English muffins with poached eggs and ham. So delicious. I highly recommend this brand. I found it at Raleys. English muffins were purchased at Whole Foods. I had bought food for life g free English muffins made from brown rice. It was ok. 

Anyway, enjoy this awesome sauce!!!

BBQ Side Dishes

I love BBQ's. I love all the food options that people bring. However, 90% of them are no bueno for us G Free peeps. My friend invited the hubs and I over for a BBQ and said bring your favorite side dish. My friend is so sweet, he promised the ribs that he is cooking on his brand new awesome BBQ'er are G free. He's making the spice rub. That is awesome!!! Since he was so generous, I wanted to bring some delicious, but G free items to share. I even had a request for some G free cookies my friend's girlfriend liked. LOL, I am slowly converting them! Here's what we are bringing:

G Free Deviled Eggs:

This is my favorite, go-to deviled egg recipe:

6 hard boiled eggs, halved and yolk removed

2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons of Mayonaise (I used Real Food Mayonaise with Olive Oil. It's G free)

1 tablespoon of yellow mustard

2 teaspoons of distilled white vinegar

1/4 teaspoon of salt or to taste. I find this to be a lot of salt. But, I compensate by adding 2 heaping spoons of sweet relish.

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

paprika for garnish.

Scoop yolks into a bowl and mash. Combine all the ingredients above and stir virgoursly. Add back into egg halves. Sprinkle paprika on and enjoy.

G Free Macaroni Salad:

I LOVE maraconi salads. The problem...its packed with the G. I love the All Recipes App for iPhone and iPad. I find the recipes I want to make and then substitute for G free stuff. Here's the recipe I used for macaroni salad and man is it delicious!

Creamy Macaroni Salad:

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dry mustard powder

3/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

3 cups of g free elbow macaroni

1 1/2 cups of mayonaise (again, Real Food Mayo with Olive Oil)

1/2 cup of sour cream (I used organic sour cream)

1 5 oz can of evaporated milk

3 Tbs of finely chopped Green bell pepper (I used a whole organic green bell pepper)

3 Tbs of finely chopped Red bell pepper (again, the whole one)

1/2 cup of finely chopped Onion (I just used half an organic onion)

1/2 cup of finely chopped celery (I used 3 stalks of organic celerey)

Hormel Bacon Bits (optional)

1) mix all spices together in a small bowl. Set aside

2) cook macaroni elbow pasta

3) whisk together mayo, sour cream and evaporated milk in the bowl you will be using. Make sure it's blended well and smooth. Stir in spices until well mixed. Add in Macaroni, followed by the veggies. I then finished it off with bacon. Hornel bacon bits are G free and make everything better. Refridgerate and enjoy. 

So, those are the 2 items I made that are coming with me to the BBQ. The cookies I am bringing are the Mi-del cookies I had blogged about earlier. For the record, the Mi-del vanilla cookies are to die for!

Here's a pic of my favorite elbow macaroni.