Traveling with Allergies

I am so sorry I haven't been able to post anything since I have been traveling!!!  For some reason, in Argentina I couldn't log-on to this site.  But, never fear, here I am, with some tips for eating whilst traveling and some amazing photographs of some of the food I tried in South America.

First things first:  I was in Argentina for two months.  They are a culture heavily influenced by the Italians and Germans.  Therefore, they are very much a bread, pasta, pastry & pizza culture.  Eating here with a gluten & lactose allergy was challenging.  A typical "porteno" breakfast is a medialuna (pastry/croissant) with jam and some tea.  Obviously this was a problem.  So, I ate loads of fruit for breakfast - apples, bananas, oranges.  While I realize I was seriously lacking in protein in the morning, this was for a fairly short period of time, and I just dealt with it.

Lunch - ok so sandwiches are huge in Argentina.  Again, this is a problem.  While gluten-free isn't new here, there really aren't too many options.  My typical lunch was anything from rice to arabian food to a quarter of a chicken to mongolian BBQ.  So, there are choices, but you have to be aware of what ingredients go into the food your eating.  This is where your pro-active research needs to come into play.

Dinner - Fortunately, the people I stayed with in Buenos Aires were amazing and worked around all my annoying allergies.  Vegetable soup was a staple in our house.  STEAK!  The steak is world-renown in Argentina and for good reason.  I NEVER got one that was over or under cooked.  It was always perfectly medium rare.  Yum.

Dessert - You need to be very creative with dessert.  In households the typical dessert is fruit, which I love.  The first night I was there we had a whole baked apple and it was fantastic.  When you go out it is pies and pastries and cake, but there usually is a fruit dish available for dessert. 

HOWEVER, while traveling in El Tigre (the delta in Buenos Aires) we happened upon this charming German restaurant (only accessible by boat taxi).  There was this dessert listed and I had no idea what it meant in Spanish or German for that manner.  So, we asked and it's whipped egg & champagne.  I had never heard of such a thing and it was... AMAZING.  For the record it's called:  Sabayon.  I looked for this dessert over and over and only found it in a couple places throughout Argentina.



One last note:  BE WARY OF STREET FOOD!  Street food is amazing!! MOST OF THE TIME!  Try everything and have fun, just be very careful and probably carry some pro-biotics with you.

Put It On A Stick!

This blog comes to you by request - fancy that!  Want to make some mouth watering-summer aromatic GF/DF food?  Go buy yourself some sticks!  Ok, well the proper term would probably be skewers, however, sticks just sounds so much more.... "rustic."  I love rustic food, rustic cuts of food... mostly because my chef in culinary school made sure our julienne cuts were to perfection or you failed!  Let me tell you how hard it is to cut carrots into perfect little rectangles- let's repeat carrots -- rectangles (oh right) - picture orange blistered and cut up fingers.  And WHO CARES if your carrot is in a perfect little rectangle?  I certainly don't - I just want to eat.  Alright, back to summer - food - yum.  

So, go get some sticks/skewers.  Then get your protein of choice - beef, chicken, tofu. shrimp, etc... - marinade it for an hour or try a dry rub.  I chose shrimp with a 5 Chinese Spice Rub (you can buy or make your own).

Next, you're going to want some serious vegetables.  I picked zucchini & yellow squash because they're in season, on sale, and taste fantastic.  I did a tiny coat of olive oil, lightly kissed with salt & pepper.  (HINT- put the skewers through the skin, not the meat part of the zucchini/yellow squash so it doesn't fall off!)

Grilled tomatoes are also quite amazing and they look pretty.  Here's a couple tips to eating well 1.  Your food should never all be the same color!  Why?  Because you eat first with your eyes.  Pretty things taste better.  AND when you have a good mix of colors you know that you are getting in a lot of good food groups.  2.  Choose foods that are in season!  Why?  They probably weren't trucked in from some other region of the world - like strawberries in winter - let's be serious.  Your carbon footprint is smaller and you're getting food that is more fresh.

Start up your grill to a medium heat.  Put the zucchini & yellow squash first, because they will take the longest.  After about 7 minutes, flip them over.  They should have strong grill marks.  After about 2 minutes, add your shrimp.  After another minute or two add your tomatoes!  Flip the shrimp and tomatoes briefly.

One minute more and ta da!  All done!  Now you have a perfectly healthy GF/DF summer meal.  With, hello!!, no dishes!  (Who likes doing dishes!?!?!)  Now that's perfection.

Tuna Puttanesca Anyone?

Not running to the grocery store today made my brain work in creative ways of what to figure out to make for dinner.  After a long trying day I decided on simple yet filling spaghetti know I had a GF noodle and a can of tomatoes at home.  Then, after a much needed break from my day, I decided that that was way too simple and needed to figure out how to get more veggies and protein into my dinner.  After running through my Rolodex of food & recipes in my head (again, it helps if you devour food magazines & cookbooks)  I realized I had all the ingredients I need to make Puttanesca.  Now, if you've never heard of this dish, don't freak out - you probably have all the ingredients you need to make this in your fridge right now- go open your fridge and pantry.

Pull out a clove of garlic, an onion, olives, tuna, olive oil, pepper, tomatoes (fresh or canned), and quinoa or whatever GF noodle you have available.  If you have capers grab those too!  I also just happened to have hearts of palm in my fridge and thought huh - yup, they're going in there.

Now, start your water for your GF noodles.  Then start a medium-sized sauce pan at medium heat.  Meanwhile (FYI - meanwhile is the secret to cooking- you should always be doing something else while other things are already started), so meanwhile you'll want to get started on the chopping.  Start with the garlic, then the onion and cut your olives in half (pieces go better in the sauce than whole, but that's a personal preference.) Now your frying pan should be hot enough to add the oil.  When you can smell the aroma of the oil go ahead and add the onion and garlic.  

Your water should be close to boiling for the noodles so go ahead and add those as well.  MAKE SURE you watch them as GF noodles are finicky.  Meanwhile (see how that works!?!?) you'll want to get your can opener for anything you grabbed in a can (like the tomatoes or tuna) and get those opened.  Stir your onion mixture and add in the olives, tuna, capers (hearts of palm).  Mix together well.  Now add the can of tomatoes & stire again.  CHECK YOUR NOODLES!

Ok, so turn the tomato mixture to low so it doesn't splash up all over everything (including you)!  Now, when you drain the noodles try to save some of the water they were boiling in.  Dump the noodles back into the pot and add the tomato sauce mixture.  Then add a little bit of the noodle water to loosen the dish up a bit.  Stir.  Done. Eat.  Ta Da!  You just made GF/DF Tuna Puttanesca, and I'm guessing that took you less than 30 minutes.  Add a good pinch of pepper.  The capers & olives should give you enough salt so there is no need to add any more.  Enjoy!

How to Start

I'm not going to lie to you.  Having any food allergy really sucks - a lot.  And it's really hard to get started.  I cheated a lot when I started but now I'm totally gluten & dairy free (and feel much better and probably have three times as much energy!)  However, I didn't realize the benefits until much later into my year of experimentation.  It took me probably an entire year to get a hold of everything, so don't get discouraged right away.  

This is what I did- pick one meal, just 1, let's say breakfast, and figure out what you can eat.  I'll wait why you go get a pen and paper........

Breakfast Meal Option 1:  Fruit, 2 eggs, tea (this is what I eat every morning as I'm a creature of habit.)

Breakfast Meal Option 2:  Steak & eggs (i usually get this when I go out - ask for no dairy in your eggs though)

Breakfast Meal Option 3:  Oatmeal (just be careful if you're really sensitive to gluten- some oats are not GF)

Breakfast Meal Option 4:  GF french toast, soy butter & syrup (my great grandmother used to put jelly or raw sugar or powdered sugar on her french toast instead of syrup)

Breakfast Meal Option 5:  Betty Crocker GF Pancake Mix, soy butter & syrup  (Also, you want to watch your soy intake - everything in moderation- I play around with soy milk, almond milk and hemp milk)

If you still don't know what to do and just can't make yourself start feel free to email me or comment and I'll be your cheerleader.  Just remember one day, one meal at a time.

Achilles Heel - Sauces -

My food 'achilles heel' is sauces.  They are killer.  Did you know there is gluten in soy sauce!?!?  SOY Sauce.  You can't be serious!  (Note: you can get GF soy sauce.)  ALSO - there is gluten in ketchup, some spaghetti sauces, most chinese sauces, most pasta sauces, seriously the list goes on and on.  So, here's the skinny on that - MAKE YOUR OWN!  Life is so much easier when you can control the ingredients going into your food.  However, I am a realist and know that you will eventually have to leave your house to eat every once and a while, my suggestions are this:  


1.  When in doubt- leave it out or
2.  Ask.  

However, don't ask 45 questions- ask if they have a gluten free menu or if the item you're looking at is gluten free.  Don't ask about every single item on the menu.  Food industry people hate this- we make fun of you behind your back for making us late to every other single table we have to get to.  Just get a grilled chicken sandwich with green beans, heck get a steak (go big or go home, right?), but don't take up 20 minutes of our time.  We get it.  You have a food allergy.  Who doesn't?  It is YOUR responsibility to know you're disease.  


As someone on both ends - ordering and taking the order - I get it.  Food allergies suck- you definitely don't want to make yourself sick.  Taking a food order that seems totally wacked out from someone with food allergies isn't a picnic either when the chefs look at you like you just ran over their dog.


Now that I got that out - sauces.  Sauces are yummy and they serve a purpose in food.  You just need to be creative with them.  For example, Alfredo sauce... dairy and gluten there's no way right?  So, try the roux with oat flour and a little xanthan gum.  Instead of milk, use soy milk (unflavored).  Then for flavoring I used vegan mozzarella cheese.  Let me tell you - it was disgusting!  But, hey at least I tried, right?  You have to keep trying until you figure out what works for you.   


Good luck and happy creating!

What do I tell the nice people who made me dinner?

After a good year of struggling not eating anything with lactose or gluten in it, I feel fairly confident in the brands I choose, the meals I make and the amazing flourless dark chocolate cake I bake.  Then, you throw me into someone else's world of cooking and it's like - "Sorry, I can't eat that, even though you've just spent a fortune on it" or "Sorry, I can't eat that even though I know it took you two hours to make."  Then, I feel really bad, because they don't know - it's not like I wear a sign that says "please don't add butter or flour to that."  Maybe I should bedazzle a shirt that says that to avoid these awkward conversations.  How do you avoid this?  Well, today, I don't have the answer.  I'm still working through this.

"I'm allergic to wheat and lactose." Oh, yes, this will totally explain to the nice family making dinner for you that you cannot eat scalloped potatoes and ham.  NOT!  They're going to look at you like you're one of those people who should live in a bubble because you're allergic to everything.  So, what next - try to get around it without telling anyone or asking any questions - so when you're in the bathroom later crying in pain... you're right, that's a great solution.  Next!?!?!  

Being sick sucks...

One week, a doctors visit, religious use of my neti pot, three gallons of o.j. and three different meds later I'm STILL sick.  Having Celiac when you're well sucks because you always have to pay attention to what you're eating.  But having Celiac when you sick sucks even more because you don't have the energy to constantly review what you're eating.  So, I enlisted the help of my friend, Progresso.  A lot of their soups are actually gluten-free.  They say so right on the back.  Made my trip to the grocery store fairly painless.

I also had some chicken in the freezer so I threw that in a pan, grab some chicken bouillon for stock and started some chicken soup.  Grab whatever veggies you have in your fridge, cut them up and saute them up a bit, throw them into the stock.  Cook your chicken mostly all the way through, but then throw them into the pot as well.  I like to throw some beans in mine and my mothers secret ingredient to her soup- stewed tomatoes.  I know it sounds weird, but try it, it's good.