Daiya Pizza

A few weeks ago, my sister and I were discussing what to eat for dinner, and I said, "Is it too much to ask for a gluten-free, dairy-free pizza?" She looked at me and said, "Uh, yeah. It is."

I realize that this small town will probably never have a restaurant that offers a DF GF pizza, but you can buy frozen ones! I had to hunt and hunt for one, but after trips to three different stores, I found one! Exactly one.

Daiya Foods mushroom & roasted garlic pizza, to be specific. I really wanted one with meat on it. I'm honestly not a fan of vegetarian pizzas, but when the decision was between a pizza with meat on it and a pizza that won't make me feel sick later, I chose the vegan option. I'm okay with this.

When it comes to ease and time of prep, it's a pretty classic frozen pizza. Didn't take much work, or much time. When it was done, the cheese didn't look melted. The photo above is after it came out of the oven. I thought the cheese was still frozen, but when I poked it, it was melty and hot.

The pizza was relatively good. The toppings were great, and the crust was good. But honestly, I'm not a huge fan of Daiya cheese. I have heard endless raving compliments about it, but I don't like the way it clings to the roof of my mouth. Mind you, I've always had issues with that. I stopped eating peanut butter for years because it freaked me out when it clung to the roof of my mouth. So maybe this is just me. Anyways, the pizza was good. And I didn't feel sick all night after eating it. Two wins.

I will probably buy this again, although I'll probably hunt for a different flavour. I liked it well enough, but I like to try other things too.

I guess I'd give this pizza three stars. It was good, it wasn't amazing, but it didn't make me sick.

Yam Fries

I am a huge fan of yam fries. Actually, I'm a huge fan of yams. Hubby doesn't like them so much, but I love them. I quite often order yam fries at restaurants, but I don't buy them often, because hubby doesn't love them. I did buy one recently, and I plans to boil and mash it for dinner some night.

Then one night, while hubby was working late, and I was home alone, watching Netflix, one of the bloggers I follow posted a pictures of her yam fries for dinner on Instagram. And suddenly, I decided I really needed to make yam fries. I've made this recipe before, and I'm pretty sure I've blogged about it before. So I found the pin, I sliced my yam, and I made yam fries.

And that was that. They don't take long to make, and you can prep them way ahead of time and let them soak. You're supposed to let them soak for up to half a day, but I let them soak for as long as it took the oven to heat up, because I was impatient.

Peel, slice, soak, shake, drizzle, bake. Easy-peasy, right? I wasn't totally satisfied with the texture of my fries, so I'll try to remember to slice them thinner next time. They were still delicious, and I whipped up a really simple dip which I love, but I know isn't for everybody. I just mixed mayonnaise with mustard. 

Daiya Cream Cheese Style Spread

Every time I pick up a new pack of my dairy-free cheese, I notice all the other dairy-free products. It's crazy, isn't it? Butter, sour cream, cream cheese, you name it, you can get it dairy-free. I usually eye up all the options, and then buy only what I actually needed.

Cream cheese is my biggest weakness. I used to be a bagel-addict. I probably ate a dozen bagels every month, sometimes more. If I was out of cream cheese, I'd eat peanut butter or Nutella on them, but cream cheese was my very favourite thing.

I honestly have not bought a single pack of cream cheese since my diagnosis.

Not one.

How depressing is that? I consider it, every now and then, but what would I eat it on? Whenever I buy bread products, I usually have a plan for them. I'll buy a pack of gluten-free sliced ham and a loaf of bread and eat sandwiches for lunch a few days. Or I'll buy a package of gluten-free crackers and a little package of goat cheese. Bread products are such a luxury for me, that I haven't wanted to "waste" one on cream cheese.

But I caved. I bought a package of gluten-free sandwich bread and a little container of Daiya cream cheese style spread in strawberry flavour.

La Bamba Cafe in Saskatoon

On Sunday, my husband, best friend and I had dinner at La Bamba Cafe. It's another one of those hidden gems. It's just off of 8th St, which is a busy thoroughfare, but the restaraunt is in a strip mall that includes a dry cleaner, a pet groomer, a confectionery, a dentist, and a Christian Science bookstore. It looks a little sketchy, and I questioned that I was in the right place, and then I wondered what I was about to walk into.

Kergano's in Moose Jaw

There's this restaurant here, that I have heard mixed reviews about. It's kind of a hipster place, and I've heard it's expensive. M went there once, before we were even married, and he said the servings were huge, but the prices were high. He had this poor opinion of it, and every time I brought it up he shot it down. I essentially gave up, even though I don't think you should ixnay a restaurant because of one experience (unless that experience was baaaaaddd).

Today, we were wandering around downtown, looking for something to eat before our bank appointment. I suggested Kergano's, he shot it down, I got frustrated. I didn't think his reasons for not wanting to go were valid enough. He caved, and we went. Although neither of us were all too happy about it.

I had literally no idea what I could possibly eat; because it's a local place, I didn't bother to Google it.

The inside was nice. It is a small restaurant, but decorated well, and has a fresh kind of feel to it. The decor is very shabby chic. We were the only customers in there, so it was nice and quiet.

The menu was short, although it looked delicious, there wasn't a whole array of options. And basically every single option was a burger or sandwich.

I informed the waitress (after looking over the menu) that I have a gluten allergy, and she said they have a gluten free bun! I got really excited. Then I asked her to go through all of the menu options, because the font was really hard to read, and I needed to know specifics.

One burger had onions rings on it, one was breaded and deep-fried (although she informed me they could "bread" it with coconut and deep-fry it - no thanks), one had a gravy on it... Almost every single one was unsafe. Which means that the restuarant is for gluten-free people who don't care about cross-contamination, or about small amounts of gluten. I decided on their regular burger, because she said the patty was made in-house, but first asked if it had bread crumbs or anything in it. She said, and I quote, "No, I can't imagine they would put bread crumbs in a burger." She asked the chef, and came back. It did.

So I got a veggie burger. Which I was still totally excited about. I was still going to eat a burger with a bun in a restaurant. I had a side of spinach salad, figuring it was the safest bet, and it was delicious. When our plates came, M asked me if I was sure the bun was GF. I picked up the top piece and squeezed it a little. Hard, dry, and unpleasant. Yep, it's GF. Okay, it wasn't like a stale bun, but you know as well as I do that you can squeeze a bun and tell the difference. Kind of depressing, huh?

My veggie patty fell apart every time I took a bit, but I didn't mind at all. You know why? That means there wasn't a sufficient binder in there. And I am A-okay with that.

So... Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes. The food was pricey, but I've seen way worse. Will we go back? More than likely. M seemed to change his mind a little, realizing it wasn't all bad, and they do have a GF bun. Will we frequent it? Hell no. They don't know the first thing about a gluten allergy, and I don't want to have to walk the waitress through each ingredient again. Having a GF bun is great. Having a burger with bread crumbs in it, to go on a GF bun? No thank you.

Overall, I'd give them probably a seven out of ten. M might give an eight, from a non-GF viewpoint, but either way, I would suggest checking them out.

Day 37: Easter Dinner

One of the things most celiacs seem to struggle with is holiday dinners. Your choices seem to be:

1. Go to a restaurant with your family, and hope they pick a safe one, or eat beforehand, and don't eat anything there.
2. Make the whole dinner yourself, and include little to no items with gluten.
3. Go to a home-cooked dinner and either risk it, or don't eat anything.
4. Help somebody make a dinner so that it is gluten-free and you can trust it.

I kind of think celiacs have trust issues...

So, I didn't actually decide to do anything with either side of family. I kind of figured if either want to make a meal, I don't want to complicate their lives, but I might show up. Instead, Banana decided to do an entirely gluten-free dinner with my help. She did make most of the dishes, but I was at a minimum aware of what was in them, and mostly just stirred things together when she handed them to me.

Tonight was the night, although we've spent much of the last week prepping (to minimize work today). The dishes on the table were:

1. Ham
2. Scalloped Potatoes
3. Mashed yams, with a glaze
4. Green beans
5. Spinach and strawberry salad
6. Deviled eggs
7. Rice casserole
8. And Trifle!

Okay, so everything was just so delicious that as soon as everything was ready we just dug in, and I completely forgot to take pictures for you! I took some after dinner, which might show you how delicious everything was... But really, I'm sorry this looks like somebody's leftovers. It was just too good to waste time taking pictures!

Ham is one of those sketchy meats that usually contains gluten. As such, we were hunting for one that said gluten-free, when we found a bone-in shoulder that said gluten-free. Not the usual type, but it was GF, so we were happy! We mixed up maple syrup, mustard and brown sugar and brushed it on the ham and then covered it and baked it for about six hours. It went in the oven just after lunch, and came out in time for us to carve and serve. We repeatedly brushed more glaze on over and over throughout the day. It came out tender, juicy and delicious.

Scalloped potatoes usually contain flour. I don't really know why though. You don't add it to the milk to thicken it, you put it as a layer between the potatoes and then pour milk over top of it. So we just scalded the milk a little longer, made it a little thicker, and skipped the flour altogether (as per suggestion of Banana's aunt). It was really delicious. There were of course layers of thinly sliced potatoes, and sharp cheddar cheese and swiss, and I think onions and spices. I didn't put it together, but I did supervise it's baking time. Which was until the potatoes were soft, and then remove the tin foil until the cheese browns. It was a very creamy, cheesey dish.

The yams are pretty self explanatory. We peeled and chopped a few sweet potatoes and then put them in the oven with a lid on until they were mashable, and then we mashed them. We boiled equal parts maple syrup and butter until it thickened (and tasted amazing) and then drizzled that on top of the mashed yams and cooked them a bit longer.

The green beans were put on the stove with a bit of garlic and some butter until they were cooked. And then we ate them.

The spinach salad was really simple. Spinach, sliced strawberries, slivered almonds, crumbled goat cheese, poppy seeds, and a raspberry vinaigrette. Very simple, but flavourful! And easy peasy to toss last minute.

We mostly made deviled eggs because I remembered I had a deviled egg plate I've never used. And Banana wanted to dye Easter eggs with her cousin, who is spending the weekend with her. So she dyed eggs, and then we deviled them. Mixed the yolk with mayonnaise, a bit of mustard and a splash of vinegar, topping them with paprika.

The rice casserole was probably one of my favourite dishes. We cooked up a bunch of wild rice and brown rice blend, and then mixed it with slivered almonds, dried cranberries, and slices of dried apricots. It was very colourful as well as sweet. Half an hour or so before dinner, we poured about half a cup of veggie broth over it and baked it. Chicken broth would be just as good, but we were also cooking for a vegetarian.

Ah! And my favourite dish! The trifle! I could probably devote a whole post to this one! Mmm... Layers of homemade lemon pudding, GF pound cake, freshly whipped cream, blueberries and raspberries! Does it get better than that? Okay, it might. I don't know. I haven't had every trifle ever. But this was perfect. Banana's ten-year-old cousin actually put this all together, that's how easy trifles are to make. She also decorated the top, which I just loved. 

I don't think the eight of us got even halfway through this thing, despite how amazing it was.

So! That's my gluten-free Easter dinner. Not as hard as it sounds, huh? I mean, if you're going to cook everything at home, you need to be careful about reusing bread knives, cutting boards and pans, but if you are aware of cross-contamination, and ensure things like mayonnaise and honey either come from a squeeze bottle or are brand new, you should be fine. Things like that tend to be things other people forget or don't think about, but if you help or remind them, it's sure to be simple!

Hoppy Easter, everybody!

Day 16: A Day of Eating Out

Well, today I had to brave my fear of eating out and ordering food. All day, really. We didn't have much for plans when we woke up, but early on my friend (the one who just came home from Thailand) asked if I wanted to go the bigger city with her, so she could get a new phone. Yeah, we live in a small town, in case you hadn't picked up on that. She had evening plans, so we wouldn't spend all day there, just and in-and-out kind of trip. I pointed out that I needed to eat soon, and she said that Wok Box, which is one of our favourite restaurants totally has a gluten-free menu.

So, excited, we took off. We went to Wok Box first, because I was hungry, and now... I had to order. I guess I have a couple of times, I just avoid it as much as possible. I said, "Hi, umm, I'm gluten-free. I want the Pad Thai." My brain was just somewhere else, so every question he asked I had a hard time answering, and I felt really dumb. I also felt really obnoxious, and like "one of those people". I hate that. My friend said the guy practically rolled his eyes when I started talking too. Ugh. I could have just died. So. I had my Pad Thai. It was delicious, and spicy, and apparently not very authentic, but I don't really need to eat true Asain food in Canada...

So we went to the mall, and she got a new phone, and then basically just came home again. She did buy shoes too, I guess. Back in town, we did some quick grocery shopping. Just the stuff I couldn't live without, like milk and butter and greek yogurt.

And then for dinner, she had planned a week ago to have a "Welcome back to Canada" dinner with her friends, and hubby and I were going. So we pretty well got home, unpacked groceries and then went right back out for dinner at Boston Pizza. She picked there because she knew they have gluten-free options.

One of her friends there is a vegetarian. I kind of wish I just had to be vegetarian. It's a lot easier and there's a lot less crossed off your list.

Anyways, I decided on the gluten-free pizza. Thought I might as well get it over with and try one. This time, I ordered, a "Hawaiian pizza with the gluten-free crust, and I have a gluten allergy." Which seems waaaaaay less obnoxious, and actually makes it more likely they'll change their gloves and stuff. People who eat gluten-free keep telling me not to trust BP's, because they don't worry about cross-contamination, but our roommate works there, and he says they usually treat any gluten-free food like and allergy and change gloves and stuff, so....

Also, the more I read celiac forums, and talk to celiac people and stuff, the more confused I get. Some people (being the majority online) are super anal. Like, to the point that you basically should just never eat anything you don't make yourself at home from ingredients that say gluten-free on them. And then I talk to people that just make sure they don't actively consume gluten. I don't know how much I'm going to worry about cross-contamination. I guess once I start feeling better most days I can judge whether or not a certain amount of contamination was too much for me. Like lots of people say they went to a restaurant and that was a mistake so they'll never go again, or they learned not to do a certain thing, or whatever. But right now I have a hard time telling if I've crossed my line because I feel crappy all the time.

Anyways... I think I'm going to avoid going out for dinner for awhile. I felt so awful the whole time, I was probably the worst company ever. I know I'm whiny and sick and complaining, so I should just quarantine myself until I get better, instead of forcing myself on others.


Oh! And my mom made a trip to the big city today too. She stopped by the gluten-free bakery for me, and bought me some yummies! I considered telling that I could just do it because we were there, but we didn't have much time, and I know she wants to be helpful and supportive. I really appreciate her. She bought me waffles, cranberry orange bread, cinnamon raisin bread, and some pizza crusts, all frozen. And she gave me a cake she'd had in her freezer. So now my freezer is full of yummy safe things. =]