Eating Out Gluten-Free

I've eaten out quite a lot the last two days...by my standards anyway! Since I started trying to avoid eating gluten I've been a bit worried about eating out, but I've been pleasantly surprised that I've at least managed to find something to eat!

Yesterday morning, Liam and I had to go see the registrar to discuss the final details of our wedding ceremony - what readings we will have, songs that will be played, order of ceremony etc. We arrived half an hour early so decided to go for a coffee first. I hadn't had breakfast so was pleased to see they had a couple of gluten-free options on the cake counter. I went with orange and almond cake, as well as my usual skinny latte.

This was delicious! They also did gluten-free chocolate brownie, but even I couldn't justify that as breakfast! I normally enjoy non-chocolate cake more anyway, and this orange and almond cake was no exception - lovely and dense with a marmalade layer on top, yum!

The rest of yesterday's food was eaten at home - a massive green smoothie at lunchtime.

This contained a banana, spinach, frozen pineapple, frozen mango and milk. It was so filling, almost uncomfortably so - I felt bloated for a good few hours after this, whoops!

Mid-afternoon, I had a pre-workout snack of medjool dates stuffed with homemade chocolate-coconut-brazil nut butter before going to circuits. Circuits was tough last night! It was the first time I'd been to the new set-up. Previously it was set-up as a clock face, working in groups of 3 and doing each exercise for 30 seconds before moving on. Now it was set up in 5 identical lines of 6 exercises each. We were in teams of 5 and had to work our way up the lines, first doing 10 reps of each exercise, then 15, then 20 before the exercises change. We did 3 different groups of exercises, including step work, free weights, ab exercises, weights using a bench and cardio including burpees (I'd only ever seen these talked about on blogs before so a new experience!), jumping jacks etc. I was exhausted by the end of it!!

Luckily the lovely Liam (!) agreed to make me dinner when I got home - I was too tired to move and probably wouldn't have eaten else. Gluten free pasta with leftover sauce from the lentil cottage pie, topped with grated cheddar.

Mmmm. I do love a big bowl of pasta when I'm exhausted/in need of comfort!

*******

This morning, Liam and I headed to Taunton to see his final exhibition - where his and all the other 3rd years' work was displayed. The end of his degree if you like!

We stopped at a petrol station first for him to top up and check the oil. I grabbed a coffee while I waited...

I'm glad I did as we ended up having a longer wait than anticipated! We had to scrap a car a few months ago as the engine ran out of oil without Liam realising (I don't drive - I'm not completely being a feeble woman by naming him!!) and so the engine burned out. Therefore today, when the engine was almost out of oil, Liam was perhaps a little over eager and put the whole 5 litre bottle in. Turns out you're only meant to put 2 litres max in at a time, as we learnt when Liam pulled out and smoke started pouring out of the back!! Luckily, there was a garage attached to this particular petrol station, so they drained the excess oil and 15 minutes later we were back on the road. An expensive lesson learnt, but at least it wasn't worse - when Liam saw all the smoke he initially thought it was going to be another write off, eeek!!

Anyway, we did eventually make it to Liam's exhibition. Here are a couple of the photos he took...

There were lots of computer screens, each displaying 2 students' work, with their portfolios alongside. As well as examples of their best 3D pieces. A lot of work went into the seemingly simple exhibition but I think it did a good job of displaying as much work as possible whilst still allowing people to easily move around the small room. It was just a shame that it didn't look like people had been looking through the portfolios - they still looked pristine!

We also looked around the exhibitions done by the fashion and fine art students while we were there, but photos weren't allowed to be taken in those rooms.

It was then time to head into town to pick up my engagement and eternity rings! After a week & a half without them, I'm so happy to have them back - my finger has felt like it was missing something the whole time!! 2.5 sizes smaller, they now fit perfectly so aren't constantly swivelling on my finger, and have come back all clean and sparkly too, yey!

My Mum was looking after baby today and said there was no rush to get home as he was being good as gold (thanks Mum!) so we went in search of somewhere to have lunch. We decided to go to Brazz as the menu looked good, and it had gluten-free options clearly marked. So far so good. Except that the only gluten-free mains were steak or mussels. Yuck. Those are two of the few foods I wouldn't have eaten even when I did eat meat! Luckily I liked the sound of the gluten-free starter - "Goat's cheese mousse, beetroot, apple, celery salad and candied walnuts". I also ordered a side of buttered new potatoes, which I was very glad of when the food arrived! Pretty, but tiny!!

I loved the flavour of the goat's cheese mousse, and those little spheres on the top are made of apple.

Surprisingly, once teamed with the potatoes, this did actually fill me up. I always have room for a sweet treat though. Especially when it comes in the form of a Starbucks skinny vanilla iced chai latte!

Please excuse the food baby going on in my tummy!! More importantly, I ended up with a 'venti' sized latte for the price of a 'grande' as they'd run out of 'grande' sized cups...success, although I could barely walk back to the car after drinking all that - my tummy was so sore!

I managed to think about eating again 5 hours later though...even after the biggest of meals, I never go too long without thinking about food! I finally got round to cooking my first ever kabocha squash!

I asked on Twitter for advice as to whether or not to eat the skin, but received mixed opinions...

I decided to go without skin today as the squash had been hanging around my kitchen a while and was looking a bit old. Next time I will give the skin a try though!

Liam kindly volunteered to chop it all (and remove the skin after my gentle reminding!!) as he was worried I'd chop my finger off - me and big knives don't get along well!!

I roasted it for 20 minutes in some coconut oil, and then ate the whole squash with goat's cheese on the side.

I thought there would be some leftovers for tomorrow, but nope, I ate it all!

This was really tasty, but it wasn't quite the earth shattering "I must go out and buy another one right this minute" experience I'd built myself to expect! Am I missing something?? I only cooked it in coconut oil - any recommendations for spices/flavourings to cook it in, or things to eat it with?? I will definitely be buying another one to try again, but at the moment I cant see that it's much different than butternut squash (gasp! I know, sorry!) but I'm eager to learn!!!

As I said earlier, I was pleasantly surprised that, even down here in Devon, there were gluten-free options available to me when eating out. Although they are obviously limited - I didn't see any gluten-free options available that would also have been vegan, for example. Where I live, the restaurants often only have one vegetarian option at all, usually cheese based, so again no good for people following a vegan lifestyle. I haven't eaten out in my town since stopping eating gluten...I'm still not convinced that will be possible except for relying on sides of vegetables, but at least I know I can find something to eat in the bigger towns/cities. How do you deal with eating out if you have different eating habits/requirements to those normally catered for? Do you take your own food with you or do you usually find that restaurants are pretty accommodating? I normally have a snack bar or two in my bag, but today I didn't as I knew that if necessary I could just have an iced chai latte in Starbucks and then have lunch at home, so it was a pleasant surprise to be able to eat lunch out relatively easily!

Oooh, before I go, don't forget to enter my giveaway - you have until tomorrow to be in with a chance of winning some of my favourite treats!!

Meat-Free, Gluten-Free BBQ

Well, for me anyway! This afternoon we went to a BBQ at my Mum’s partner, Colin’s house, for his birthday.

I was in charge of preparing vegetarian dishes. There was one other vegetarian, but inevitably I prepared way too much food…luckily, as is usually the case, the meat-eaters ate some too!

I made marinated mushrooms from How Sweet It Is…



and halloumi kebabs with peppers, courgette and red onion (which I brushed with a lemony oil mix)…



I served the mushrooms with mozzarella melted into them, and I had mine in a gluten-free ciabatta roll (which was actually pretty good!) with avocado, and then covered the other half of the roll in houmous to eat with the kebab. Plus some coleslaw, boiled egg and beetroot…this was a really yummy plate!



People kept asking me if I missed eating meat, and I was able to answer completely honestly, no. However the one thing I did miss not being able to eat was the homemade chocolate cherry trifle…



Made by Colin, I know from previous tastings that this is delicious. However, the first week into eating gluten-free, my willpower was strong enough to resist, so I stuck to fresh strawberries & raspberries with some double cream for my pud. I wish I'd found time to make Katie's Chocolate Chip Blondies, they would've been perfect! Next time!



Yum. I was so full from my main plate that I didn’t really need anything else anyway. At the time I thought that I hadn’t eaten that much, but actually, it was more than 600 calories in my BBQ plate, not counting the apple juice, fruit & cream, cups of tea etc. No wonder I’m still feeling full now! We didn’t eat until 2.30pm anyway which is really late for us, and we’re off out for a friend’s birthday drinks tonight, so I may well end up having Pimms & lemonade as my “dinner” I think!!

We all had a really good time this afternoon…thanks to everyone involved! Baby especially was overjoyed as Colin’s daughter and her husband had brought along their dog Woody. Children + animals = lots of fun!





I’m not really much of an animal person, but even I think these photos are cute! The children had such a
great time with him...he provided them with much more entertainment than the "boring adults"!!

Right, off to go get ready for this evening – Liam’s Mum is due to be arriving in 10 minutes to babysit. Time has flown by today!

Hope everyone else is enjoying the long weekend! Anyone else been having BBQs? What are your favourite BBQ foods? My Mum had done the usual burgers, sausages and chicken kebabs, but I loved my mushroom burger! The halloumi was really good too, I’d never had it before but it went really well with all the BBQ veggies. Yum!

Attempting To Eat Gluten Free

Apologies for not posting the last few days. When I published mine & Liam's engagement story I wasn’t feeling 100%, but as I’d written most of it over several days (searching for all those old photos took a long time!!) it was easy enough to post it. Since then though, I’ve just been too tired each evening to write a post and I didn’t want to force it. But today I’m feeling a bit better, and eager to share some food photos!

Since Monday, I have been trying to avoid eating gluten as I’ve been having some digestive issues recently and want to see if eating gluten-free will help. Of course, the best way to start a new way of eating is probably to stock up on any “new” foods beforehand. I didn’t do that though. I am hoping to make it to Waitrose tomorrow to investigate gluten-free pasta, bread etc… Any recommendations for good brands to buy? I know I can still eat rice, quinoa, potatoes etc, but as I’ve been feeling sluggish because of my cold too, a lot of my recent meals have erred on the snacky side!

So let’s go back to Tuesday… By the way, please let me know if you see any foods I’ve eaten that contain gluten, there’s lots to learn as I go along!

Tuesday morning, as with most mornings, started with a smoothie. A Cocoa-Raspberry "Pudding" Smoothie to be exact.

My taste buds were back! Chocolatey liquid with a tang from the raspberries. Oh yes.

Tuesday lunch was one of those “snacky” meals I was talking about. Parsnips roasted in coconut oil with a sauce made of smooth peanut butter and Kara coconut milk to dip the veg in.

Yum. Whenever I make roast parsnips I always tell myself I should make them more often. These were so good. The dipping sauce was good too, although a bit runny. It started off too thick so I added a bit more milk, and then it went straight to the other extreme, oops.

The dinner I’d planned for Tuesday was already gluten-free. Risotto. Although we were seriously lacking in fresh veg so it was a bit of a ‘throw whatever we have in’ kind of meal! Risotto with sliced leeks, frozen peas and pesto stirred in at the end.

This was nice, but a bit bland. I didn’t use any stock cube as I’d read that Oxo cubes contain gluten. I don’t know how far to go with the gluten-free foods. I’m not saying I’m coeliac so to some it may be a little obsessive to avoid every little thing, but then what’s the point of trying it if I don’t give it 100%. I’m not going to be able to tell how my body reacts to avoiding gluten if I still let some gluten slip in.

My after dinner treat more than made up for any possible blandness in the risotto anyway. This is one of my new favourite treats – well I did use to eat frozen grapes years ago, so I suppose its a ‘rediscovered’ treat. Frozen grapes with a couple of squares of dark chocolate.

I’d forgotten how much I love frozen grapes…like little sorbet bites! These were really good quality grapes as well that helped, we got them for pennies as the supermarket had messed up on reductions (the grapes were on offer 2 for something but then were reduced as well because of short date, and the way the till works it still takes off the amount as if they were full price to match the offer. Does that make sense?! Bargain anyway!) so it was good to be able to freeze one of the packs so they didn’t go to waste.

On to yesterday, and another smoothie. This time I decided to skip the spinach in favour of a pretty colour! A banana, lots of frozen mango, the last of the fresh strawberries and Kara coconut milk. I skipped the xanthan gum and used extra milk so I could drink this through a straw.
This was sooo good. Tasty and refreshing. And it made two glasses full, yey!

After breakfast, I took baby to Lidl to stock up on fresh fruit & veg. We also have a Waitrose in our town but I prefer Lidl for the quality of fresh produce.

Red grapes, blueberries, pineapple, butternut squash, courgettes, sweet potatoes, broccoli and an avocado. I also bought tins etc for the others (and goat’s cheese for me, yum) but the veggies were what I was most interested in!

Having said that, the first thing I ate after getting back didn’t include any vegetables. It did include grapes though, and goat’s cheese – mini lunch #1 – I ended up having lunch in two parts yesterday as I was in a super snacky mood!

Yum. I love the combination of cheese and fruit, and the goat’s cheese from Lidl is one of my favourites at the moment. I’m so pleased summer is nearly here – fresh fruit being more easily available and better quality is great!

Lunch #2 was another snack type meal. I’ve hardly eaten any “proper” meals the last few days, but all the food I’ve eaten has been delicious regardless. Carrot sticks and chopped apple with houmous to dip.

Baby insisted on sharing this with me, although he kept licking the houmous of the carrot and wanting to re-dip. Cheating!!

After lunch, “disaster” struck. In the form of a half finished jar of PB&Co Dark Chocolate Dreams.

Let’s just say that after I’d finished this jar was scraped so clean that it wouldn’t even be worth making oats-in-a-jar in…whoops.

While the rest of the family ate dinner, I was having my ears pierced. I’ve left it a bit late to wear normal earrings for the wedding/on honeymoon (they say 6 weeks healing time and wedding is in 5.5 weeks) but 3rd time lucky! I first had them pierced when I was 12 or 13, but they never healed properly as Mum insisted on putting the thick starter studs back in each night even after the 6 weeks healing was up! Then I got them done again about 6-7 years ago, but haven’t worn earrings since baby was born 17 months ago, so the holes have closed over. Anyway, ramble over – I missed dinner because I was having my ears pierced.

After the DCD incident, I wasn’t overly hungry anyway, so I picked up yet more snacky food from Co-Op on the walk home from town.

Peppadew peppers stuffed with cream cheese, and coleslaw.

The coleslaw was nice but the stuffed peppers were too spicy for me. Liam ate the rest of the pack and even he found them a bit too much!

Right, almost there! Super-long post tonight, but I do like to get back up-to-date when I take a day of two off from blogging – otherwise photos end up not getting posted and stay lurking in my head crowding things up instead!!

Today I have been super tired as I didn’t manage to get to sleep until 3am last night/this morning. I needed a coffee. But I was out of milk. Enter Total 0% Greek yoghurt, 2 tsp coffee and 1 tsp cocoa powder mixed with a small amount of boiling water, and Sweet Freedom. Into the blender, and voila…

This was surprisingly good! A bit tangy due to the Greek yoghurt, but it also meant it had a lovely thick texture. The start I needed to the morning! This ended up counting as breakfast in the end, which wasn’t what I’d planned but I won’t complain. The protein in the yoghurt kept me going until lunchtime.

After my success with the newly discovered frittata making method at the weekend, I decided to make a quick frittata for lunch. I just sliced up one courgette, fried it in a little oil, and then poured 2 beaten eggs on top to cook.
 I made a quick sauce to go with this with tahini, Kara milk and a little agave nectar.

Another frittata success! It cooked through and didn’t stick to the bottom of the pan, yey!

Baby enjoyed this too. A tasty, quick lunch. I’ll definitely be making frittatas more often now I have a more reliable cooking method to use!

Unfortunately, I was peckish again soon after eating this. I ate a small bowl of Rachel’s vanilla yoghurt, Jordan’s fruit & nut granola and fresh blueberries.

I love this yoghurt and granola. It wasn’t until after eating that I realised the granola probably wasn’t gluten-free, oops. What are people’s thoughts re oats and gluten? I’ve read in some places that oats only contain gluten because of contamination, so you can get gluten-free oats. But then other articles/sites say that oats react with the body in a very similar way to gluten anyway. I’d be interested to hear people’s thoughts as I do love my oats, especially in the colder months for porridge! This bowl did give me a bit of a tummy ache, but I think that was more psychological/due to overeating rather than anything more sinister!!

We were meant to be going to Waitrose this afternoon, but I was just feeling so tired and sluggish. Hopefully we’ll manage to fit it in tomorrow instead, I’m all out of tofu for starters…dire times!! I do love a bit of smoked tofu for a quick lunch.

I wasn’t feeling awake enough for anything elaborate when dinner came around either. The others had pasta with a passata/bacon/veg sauce. I fancied mozzarella and avocado, but the avocado isn’t ripe yet. Luckily I had these lurking in my freezer…

homemade guacamole from when I had a glut of avocadoes a while back! Wahey! I defrosted two of these to have with the mozzarella.

Yum. This was delicious. It doesn’t look like much, but it was really filling. I haven’t had mozzarella or avocado for a while. Why do I keep forgetting to eat these great foods that I love??!

Ok, food over. If you’ve read this far well done, and thank you! I have a couple more photos to share…flowers! Our house is looking lovely at the moment, with not one bunch of flowers but two!

Tulips from Liam for our engagement anniversary…

and flowers from my Mum as today was her last day at work and she was given, among many other gifts, two bunches of flowers. Plus she’d already got lots of tulips at home from her friend who visited at the weekend, so she passed some of the love on to me!

These are so pretty, thanks Mum! Obviously the flowers aren’t currently sitting on my carpet (!!) (can you imagine with the children…would be a spillage waiting to happen!!) but dotted around the downstairs rooms brightening the place up! I love fresh flowers. I must treat myself to them more often!

Ok…time to see if this posts ok. This has been my first time writing a post using Windows Live Writer. So much quicker to upload photos with it, so if it posts successfully then I will definitely be using this from now on…fingers crossed!!