The holiday spirit seized me in the grocery store a few days ago. As I reached for my usual Almond Milk I noticed two Seasonal Flavors of Silk Soy Milk: Pumpkin Spice and Chocolate Mint. I’d tried the Egg Nog for Thanksgiving (and it seemed okay…), so I thought, hey! This could be a way to get some Christmas Cheer in a glass. So for breakfast this morning I had a decadent GFCF breakfast of Chocolate Mint Silk and Chocolate Chip Muffins ( Kinnikinnick). Yum! But then about 10 minutes after eating, I noticed I was starting to get stuffy… Then my eyes were itching. And then my throat was scratchy. And pretty soon I was wearing my “Allergy Mask:” a hot, red, itchy face that I only get when I’ve eaten casein. What?! But all Kinnikinnick products are manufactured in a dedicated gluten and dairy free facility! It can’t be the yummy muffins (yes.. I had two 😛 ) that caused my allergy reaction. So it must’ve been the Silk. Actually, come to think of it, I had a similar (yet not as severe) reaction yesterday when I had I had a glass of Pumpkin Spice Silk. By a meeting at 11am my face was bright red and itchy. Allergic reaction for sure. But I was so busy I didn’t take the time to track it down and try to figure out why. But today, well, today I took a look at Silk’s website. And I’m very surprised to see that Silk products can not be certified Kosher Parve! All of their soy milks are heated on the...
When I’m in the grocery store, running late with an antsy five-year-old, the last thing I want to do is have to read and decipher every last little ingredient of a potential new food. But being GFCF often means having to do just that. So I’m always looking for reliable shortcuts, ways to the cut time it takes to maintain a strict gluten free and casein free diet but not take any chances with G or C contamination. Enter… Passover?! Yes! Since I’m not Jewish, I had some vague ideas about the dietary restrictions that Passover dictates, but didn’t know any details. Everyone kept telling me that I should stock up on things during Passover because of all the extra kosher products that were released during that time. So I did a little research and found out that while “kosher” doesn’t nessicarily mean anything with reguards to strictly avoiding dairy content in a food, anything that is Kosher Parve does indeed mean something: Any food labeled Parve means it doesn’t contain any meat or dairy, hence there’s no possibility of casein and safe (for the “CF” part of our GFCF diet, anyway… We still have to be cautious of the gluten content). I found a WONDERFUL article on kidswithfoodallergies.org that gives some great information about the Kosher and Parve labeling I kept hearing about…. You can read the repost below or check out what they have to say on their site: Kosher Labeling and Dairy or Milk Allergy ———— “Kosher” foods are foods which meet Jewish dietary laws. These dietary laws prohibit the consumption of certain foods, require that foods be processed in...
Fast food that’s GFCF?! Who knew it was possible? But it is at Pollo Tropical Today I had lunch with my DH at our neigborhood Pollo Tropical and had a wonderful meal, yet again. This is my go-to place for fast, easy, always GFCF food. Pollo Tropical is actually a member of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), so they’re really aware of the considerations necessary to accommodate food sensitive people. The staff at the three Pollo Tropicals I frequent are always super nice and friendly. And every single employee I’ve ever interacted with has taken my food allergies very seriously and were extremely conscientious with the gluten. Since going GF on Dec 3rd, I’ve probably been here a dozen or more times and have NEVER had any reaction. So, what do I eat here? I love the Tropichops! It’s a bowl of rice and beans with your choice of meat on top. I usually get the Chicken Tropichop with white rice (I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the yellow rice has gluten in it, but it’s not listed on the official Pollo Tropical Allergy List… but I always get white to be safe) and black beans. They have a Regular and a Large, but the large comes with a side Caesar salad, so I always get the Regular (and it’s more than enough to eat.. I usually take some home!). To spice it up a little, I put on a bunch of mild salsa from the salsa bar. And I usually get the combo meal (adds a side and a drink). For my side I always get the super delicious Plantains. They’re...
Oh my gosh!!!!!!! I never thought I could have another treat from the Ice Cream freezer section again. But I was so wrong!!!!!! I found these WONDERFUL coconut, non-dairy, gluten-free frozen treats at the grocery store yesterday. The brand is So Delicious and the treats I purchased were Coconut Almond Mini Bars. And I must admit I was more than a little dubious about them. Any company that gives itself a name like that is either trying too hard to make up for a poor-tasting product or not terribly creative in the name department. But after I tried them I actually agreed with their self-chosen moniker because they really and truly are SOOOOO delicious!!!!! I was so very, VERY excited as I sat there rolling my eyes in yummy ecstasy, reveling in the fact that there are actually yummy dairy-free treats out there. And apparently there are a lot more from the same company!! Before I ate the Coconut Almond Bar, I did a quick search to be sure it was GFCF (it says Dairy Free all over the box and the ingredients seemed safe, but I just wanted to be sure about the Gluten). When I got to their site I found that So Delicious is a very, very allergy friendly company. (I don’t know why I was surprise to see this… with an “ice cream” treat that’s not made from milk, their target allergy demographic should have been obvious to me!) But they have a wonderful Allergy ID Chart that lists every product they have and if it’s ingredients include Almond, Coconut, Corn, Dairy, Egg, Gluten, Peanut,...
Eating out and being truly gluten free and casein free is proving to be very difficult. There’s milk and gluten in SOOO many prepared foods. I’ve been hearing from people that going to oriental restaurants is the way to go: not a lot of dairy in general and plenty of rice and veggies. So today for lunch we went to Pei Wei to give their Gluten Free Menu a try. I was initially a little disappointed with the number of items to choose from (there are currently only five menu items) but all of them seemed to be dairy free too. I ordered the Vietnamese Chicken Salad Rolls without Thai peanut sauce (they are in the regular menu under the Salad section). When ordering, I told them about being allergic to dairy and being gluten free. The girl behind the counter was a little confused about the whole “gluten free menu” thing and deferred to a more experienced employee. She, fortunately, knew all about the gluten free menu button on the computer, so she showed her “go here to the Gluten Free Menu, then just push the item and that’s it.” When our order was delivered, the server made a point of saying “Gluten Free Vietnamese Chicken Salad Rolls” when he announced the order to see who had what. That was very encouraging. And then when I ate the first bite… YUM!!! They we absolutely delicious!!! Fresh and tasty, the chicken, veggies and mint came wrapped in a nice soft rice paper. It was nice and cool and light, but with three full rolls to an order, very filling and satisfying....
