Quinoa Salad

Before going gluten free I had never heard of quinoa.  I eat it pretty frequently now.  It's perfect for a summer salad.  I use Ancient Harvest quinoa, which I can find in my grocery's gluten free section.  If you don't have a GF section, try the organic foods section.  It's really quick and easy to cook, tastes good, and is full of protein and nutrients.  I serve it in a salad with fresh vegetables.  You can use any vegetables you have on hand, but this is my favorite:

Quinoa Salad

1/2 cup Quinoa
1/2 cup cucumber, seeded and diced
1/4 cup red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1/4 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

Dressing:
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare quinoa according to package directions.  Rinse in cold water, then place in a medium bowl.
Add cucumber, bell pepper, and tomato.

In a small bowl mix together lime juice and vinegar.  Slowly add the olive oil, whisking until smooth.

Pour the dressing over the quinoa mixture and stir to mix all the ingredients and coat with the dressing.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

May be prepared ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator.

I served this salad with salmon last time I made it.  I broke the leftover salmon up into pieces and mixed it with the quinoa for a tasty, healthy, and filling lunch the next day.

Lunch at Panera

I have always enjoyed lunch from Panera.  When I was eating gluten I always had half of a Bacon Turkey Bravo sandwich with a cup of soup.  When I discovered my gluten allergy, I asked questions and figured out what I could eat.  I always tell the cashier that I have a gluten allergy, and ask them to please notify the people preparing the food.  I have eaten at Panera several times, and have never had a problem. 

Usually, I eat the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad, but when my husband and I went to lunch there I saw a salad that looked good -- Steak and Blue Cheese.  I asked the cashier if it had gluten in it.  She thought about it for a moment, then said, "Huh.  Gluten? . . . No, I think it's fine."  So I asked her if she could look it up in their handy nutrition guide that lists all of their foods and the allergens.  After about five minutes of searching, she couldn't find the salad.  So, she told me again that while she couldn't find it, she was pretty sure it was ok.  I asked for a manager. 

The manager was not pleased about having to stop what he was doing to help me.  He barely looked at me, flipped to the front of the book and told me that the steak salad had gluten, but I could try the barbecue chicken salad or the Fuji Apple salad, with or without chicken.  Before he could walk away, I said, "Wait!  I wanted to know about soups too!"  He wasn't happy, but looked up the soups for me too. 

When I placed my order (Fuji Apple salad with chicken and a cup of tomato soup, without the crouton), I asked for the food handlers to please be notified that I needed my food to be gluten free.  She did not, apparently, because I was sick within 10 minutes of finishing my meal.

On my previous visit to Panera my ticket said: *GLUTEN FREE.  The people fixing my salad called me up to the counter to make sure they were doing everything I needed them to do (I explained about cross contamination, and they assured me they'd take every precaution).  This time, my ticket only had my order on it.  No one asked me what they could do to prevent a reaction.  The manager could have cared less about my needs.  I realize that the restaurant was busy, and he was busy.  But, that lunch ruined my day.  I had a headache, was fatigued, felt nauseous, and ended up taking a three hour nap because I didn't have the energy to do anything on my long list of chores.  When I woke up the following day I had some swelling around my eye, a headache, and eye pain.  That was two days ago.  Today I still have eye pain and slight swelling.  Because they were too busy to take care of me, I suffered. 

It's upsetting because simple precautions could have saved the day.  I wish that more restaurants would take the time to educate their employees on food allergies.  It's unrealistic to never eat out.  I'll just have to be more picky about where I choose to eat, and more up front about what I need to stay healthy.

GF Pizza at CPK

I went out to lunch with my friend, Christina, today.  Eating out now is not as easy as it once was, though.  I was delighted to see a few weeks ago that California Pizza Kitchen is now offering gluten free pizza, so we went there.

They have a few appetizers on their small cravings menu that are GF.  We started with corn chips with guacamole.  The guacamole was delicious; They add corn to it, which adds just a hint of sweetness.  Then, I had a BLT Pizza. 

It's a cheese and bacon pizza with lettuce on top.  The GF crust they have is great!  It's the best GF crust I've had (even better than my homemade crust!).  The server told me that they have a special prep area just for the GF food, and they use a GF pizza cutter to avoid cross contamination.  This is good enough for me, but I know some people are more gluten sensitive than I am. 

I'm so happy to be able to enjoy pizza, and a lunch out with my friend without having to be difficult.  It's especially nice that they have some GF apps, since normally when eating out I can't enjoy a starter with my friends.  For more information on what CPK offers for the gluten sensitive, here's a link to their website: http://www.cpk.com/menu/pdfs/gluten-free.pdf

About Me

Living gluten free is pretty new to me.  It was an experiment to see if it would help me feel better.  That was five months ago, and most days I feel great!

In November 2010, I started having headaches that were accompanied by blurry vision in my right eye, the occasional loss of peripheral vision, and insomnia.  I would occasionally have eye pain as well.  My vitamin levels were extremely low (B-12 & Vit. D).  The thing about this headache was that it NEVER WENT AWAY.  I had this headache 24 hours a day, 7 days a week  Sometimes it was less intense than others, but it was always there. 

Because my opthamologist found that I had swelling of my optic nerves, my neurologist thought that I might have intercranial hypertension (psudotumor cebri).  I had to have a lumbar puncture to rule that out.  After that, doctors said I simply had migraines and would have to deal with it.  That wasn't good enough for me; I was set on finding out what was wrong with me, because I was sick, miserable, and couldn't do much besides going to work.

After a conversation with a colleague, I decided to eliminate gluten from my diet.  I gave up gluten in March 2011.  Within 2 weeks, I was sleeping better and waking up without a headache.  Another two weeks later, I rarely had headaches.  After a visit to a new neurologist, and a neuro-opthamoligist, we found that my vitamin levels were back where they should be and all of the swelling in my optic nerve was gone. 

With the support of my husband, my family and my friends, I'm committed to staying gluten free.  Most of the time I feel great.  I get a headache occasionally still, and whenever it happens I cannot believe that I was able to function (albeit not entirely well) for almost 5 months with a constant headache. 

This blog is about my experiences about learning how to live without gluten.  I'm thankful that I started this at a time when many others are GF, so I am having an easier time than many other people have had and am able to learn from other blogs, books and websites.  I've always loved to cook and bake, so now I'm having to learn how to do that without gluten.  Some things taste better than others, but I keep trying!