panne rizo

I recently went to Vancouver B.C.and before we went my mom found on line, a gluten free bakery called Panne Rizo. We went there before our drive home.I got a carrot cupcake with frosting,delicious but messy.We also got cinnamon rolls,raspberry cookies and biscotti cookies.A good thing about the bakery is that the food is in boxes so you get a few of the item you want unless you get a big pastry.I cant wait to go back to Vancouver.The bakery is in Kitsilano, near the Burrad Bridge.It was one of the best gluten free bakeries ever!


Panne Rizzo
1939 Cornwall Ave
Vancouver B.C. Canada
phone 604-736-0885

oatmeal

I love oatmeal but, since I went gluten free I couldn't find oatmeal that it least took 5 to 10 minutes.But my family recently bought rolled oats from gifts of nature. But the first time we had it the bowl we cooked it in was not cleaned enough so the oatmeal tasted like chicken but i thought it was meant to taste like that but it wasn't.Its actually very good and if you want to nuke it, it would take about 7 min. I was so happy.

hamburgers

p.f. Chang's is a Chinese restaurant that has a gluten free menu. We had a great idea after having one of the gluten free appetizers:lettuce wraps. It was chicken a few vegetables and a few other ingredients and was wrapped in lettuce. The idea was since the gluten free hamburger buns i had was too dry we had the idea of wrapping the burger with lettuce it was delicious and healthy.

camping

Okay, I got back from camping a few days ago, it wasn't that bad. What we packed was hamburgers for dinner (ener-g brand buns.)Hot dogs with no bun (there is a gluten free bun for it from ener-g too but I like my hot dog without a bun usually.) For breakfast we had eggs and gf pancakes (made with pamela's mix). At night we had marshmallows and chocolate(Hershey's) but, unfortunately no Graham cracker- we couldn't find any. Also when I wanted a little snack I had Doritos's (only the blue bag is gluten free) and tortilla chips with salsa. I'd definitely say that if you like camping you should be fine with the foods.

Ice cream

A few weeks ago the ice cream truck started coming down my street. At first I woud go up to the ice cream truck and didn't know what to get. Finally, a few days later my mom says, I can eat all Blue Bunny products except the obviously gluten items like cookie dough, so know I cant wait for the truck to come down my street. My mom looked up the information online. Also, in other ice cream news,the cake ice cream from Dreyers (Edy's on the East Coast) is surprisingly gluten free.

Gluten free camping

Next week I will try something I haven't done since I went gluten free: camping. I went camping alot before I went gluten free. But, this will be the first gluten free camp trip. My family will probably make pancakes with Pamela's baking mix.It tastes great. Then for snack I'll have some rice cakes, for lunch hamburgers or hot dogs with Ener-g buns. For the smores I'll bring Hershey's chocolate marshmallows, but no graham crackers because I cant find any gluten free ones. I will need to remember not to share or cross-contaminate my skewer. I can't wait.

Disneyland

On the 5th of April I came back from Disneyland. Disneyland is a great place for celiacs. Just go to the city hall in the park and ask for a list of gluten free items. You' ll get a great list of gluten free foods including candy, ice cream and many more.It is a great place to eat gluten free. Ask the chefs at any of the restaurant and they will show you what is gluten free. We were going to have dinner one night at Goofy's kitchen because it is also gluten free,but we decided to stay and do more rides, so we had gluten free pizza for dinner instead. We also ate Mexican food and great burgers. I definitely want to go back if I could. It's great to be able to eat almost anything, easily. It's the best gluten free place.

The nicest thing someone has done for me since I went gluten free

On Friday two of my classmates had a birthday and one of them brought me a W.O.W. brownie.That was the nicest thing that anyone has done for me since I went gluten free. http://www.wowbaking.com

On the 21 of March I will have my first gluten free birthday party(my real birthday is on the 17th of March not 21st.) and it will be naturally gluten free. We will be having tacos.The gluten free taco sauce is La Victoria (it says gluten free on the bottle). The gluten free tacos are Old El Paso corn taco shells and the gluten free shredded cheese is Tillamook. The lettuce and tomatoes are naturally gluten free. We will have ice cream instead of cake for dessert(the gluten free brand is Breyers natural vanilla. My party will be a sleepover. For breakfast, the cereal I will provide that is gluten free will probably be Trix and Fruity pebbles, you need to double check the Fruity pebbles box because it is made in lots of different factories and some are manufactured in a factory that also uses wheat.This will be a good party because I don't have to risk my friends hating the food.

Two weeks ago I did a presentation on celiac with gluten free girl (a.k.a. Shauna) to my class and so I will be trying to put it on youtube and my blog. But if I can it will probably have to be in two or three parts because it is pretty long.

Yesterday (2/13) my mom picked up bread pudding from DaVinci's Bakery. It was the best gluten free food I ate since I went gluten free, so if you pass by DaVinci's get their cake and bread pudding because it is great!

birthday parties

Going out is the hardest part of having Celiac, because you have to be careful what you eat. You have to trust that the waiter knows all sources of gluten in the food, and that the food's ingredients don't contain any gluten. But at your house it's the safest because you know what is in your food.
Going to a friend's birthday party could sometimes be annoying having to answer everybody's question: "why aren't you eating the cake"?

It would be good to bring cake but unfortunately the only place that I know where to get cake is in Seattle which is DaVinci's Bakery in Greenwood, and Flying Apron in Fremont. If you live in Seattle those are some places to buy cake. If you do not live in Seattle you should bring ice cream, the only one I know that is gluten free is Breyers all natural ice cream. Also if you are going out and want ice cream then I recommend going to Baskin Robbins because if you ask they can show you the list of ingredients the ice-cream has.

Being a celiac

I started blogging to talk about gluten and gluten free tips. Although I was diagnosed last September, I have already learned a lot about being gluten free. Being a Celiac has helped me discover some foods I like more than foods with gluten, like Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oatmeal.

I'd rather be gluten free than being able to eat whatever I want because I want to get rid of my pains. I now know that the pains I experienced in my body were due to being a Celiac.
Some people would never want to be a Celiac.

Being a Celiac can be hard for many people (so hard they might have to sneak gluten) my tip is to look for foods that taste better than normal foods (the ones with gluten), but you'll have to try new foods or you can try to find foods that you like that don't have gluten. Before I was diagnosed with Celiac, I ate Fruity Pebbles and then when I became a Celiac I found out I could still eat it, but I have to check the box each time, to see if it says made in a facility that produces wheat. So be careful what the box says. Post cereals (owned by Kraft) will indicate on the box if the cereal is made in a facility that produces wheat. So if it does not say that, then you may very well be able to eat it. Which was good news for me since I liked this cereal very much. :-)

Overall I think Celiac helped me in three ways. One it opened my eyes to trying new foods. Second, it made me realize that some of these foods were better than the gluten versions, such as the Glutino Crackers and the Andean Dream Quinoa Cookies I've come to eat so much of. And third and most important, going gluten free has stopped the pains I felt throughout my body!

Don't let Celiac stop you from eating good foods, it may be hard but it is not impossible, try some of these foods:

Glutino Crackers
Andean Dream Quinoa Cookies
WOW Chocolate Chip Cookies
Amy's Kids Meal (only Baked Ziti)
Pamela's Pancake Mix
EnviroKids Organic (not all check the website)
Erewhon Cereals
MI-DEL Arrowroot Cookies

For me, eating breakfast and dinner turned out to be not so tough, but lunch is another matter. I can't just go to McDonalds and eat a hamburger, or get a slice of pizza. I recommend just eating home or packing a lunch but if this is not possible, then try some Asian food such as Thai or Vietnamese food (but you have to ask the person to make sure!). If Asian is not your thing then try Romio's Pizza (West Coast) or Pizza Fusion (if one is in your area), you still should check with the person taking your order.

Be careful about places that say they are gluten free. I went to a Red Robin Restaurant which had a gluten free menu, however this menu indicated that the ingredients could be cross contaminated with gluten containing ingredients. This meant I could not eat anything on this menu! :-( That day my dad bought me ice-cream for lunch from Baskin Robbins. :-)

The following is a list of foods I ate before I was diagnosed with Celiac which I still can eat:

Fruity Pebbles Cereal (check the box if it says "made in a facility that produces wheat" then you can't eat it.)
Frito's Corn Chips
Dorito's Chips (blue bags only)
Trix Cereal
Breyer's Natural Vanilla Ice Cream
Marshmallows
Wonka Candy
Starburst
Skittles
Tootsie Products
Hershey's Chocolate Bar

But remember to always double check before you eat any of these foods!

bye.