Gluten Free, R U?: August 2018

Saturday, August 18, 2018

Poland

So tomorrow I will start my Poland adventure. I will be spending a week traveling Warsaw, Zakopane and Krakow.

I was worried at first about what I might be able to eat in Poland but luckily they have a very good Celiac Group and I found Gluten Free and Me on Facebook and in use with Find Me Gluten Free app I shouldn’t have any issues at all. In fact I am looking forward to gluten free pierogie in Krakow at Pod Baranem.

I look forward to trying the places I found before going and any new ones I might come across while in Poland. If you have any suggestions, please post them in the comments.

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Breakfast Republic - San Diego

Run, don’t walk and get to a Breakfast Republic. There are a few of them in the San Diego area and they are worth any miles you need to go to get there.

Different and delicious is the best I can say. We even ate there twice because there was more to try and I guarantee that we will go back any time we are near one. There is still more on the menu to be eaten.

First morning I tried the mashed potato omelette. Yes, I said mashed potato!! My favorite food in the entire world. This did not disappoint. So savory and tasty. On the side was multi grain gluten free bread and plain breakfast potatoes, yes more potatoes :) Add in fresh squeezed orange juice and I could eat this every day. Yum

My friend had the gluten free shrimp and grits which she raved about even before we arrived. I don’t eat shrimp but I did try the grits and oh my so yummy. The butter.... soooo good.

The second morning I tried the gluten free cinnamon raisin French toast with banana. I am not crazy about cinnamon raisin bread and somehow I was lucky and hardly had any raisins in my toast. The mix of the toast and the banana and the real maple syrup was beyond delicious.

I can not recommend this place enough. And the prices were very resonable.

My gluten free history

When I turned 30 years old, I started to gain weight that I couldn't lose and I was getting back to back colds. The final straw was I got bronchitis and I had to take an antibiotic to help me get better. The side effect for 4% of people on this antibiotic was gastrointestinal issues. Yes, I was part of that 4%. The medicine basically stripped away whatever had been protecting me through my first 30 years of life. You see I have always had gastrointestinal issues since I can remember. My father also had the same issues and my paternal grandmother too. I was so sick from the medicine (or so I thought) that I had to go back to the doctor and do a series of tests. During this time I was following the BRAT diet (Banana, rice, a, toast). Saltines and toast were my go to comfort, little did I know they were NOT what I should be eating. My co-worker gave me an article about food allergies and there was a quiz. You only needed to answer 4 of the 8 questions with yes to fall under their designation and I had answered 6 of the 8 with yes. I was on my way. My husband and I cleaned out all our cabinets of the 7 allergens… all that was left was rice. After a few weeks, I was feeling somewhat better when I stayed at a home where they told me to eat whatever was in the fridge. I saw the rice and started eating. Within a hour I was violently ill. I couldn't understand. I took the rice with me to work the next day and when I told my other co-worker about my issue she asked to see the rice. It was orzo… pasta… gluten/wheat filled pasta! I had my first allergen to check off the list as being an issue. It turned out at the time dairy and eggs were also triggers but I have since been able to add them back. My husband and I went on a full gluten free diet and within a few months I had lost my weight, stopped living in my bathroom, looked healthy and was not terrified to eat things any more. Now it has been 15 years and while I have gained some weight back (darn those yummy gluten free cookies and pretzels) my issues are still in check and I couldn't be happier to figure out what was wrong with my body and be able to fix it.