Vegetable Curry with Quinoa

Hummus and veggies

For my gluten free bachelorette party myself, my best friend Fiona, my mum and three of my favourite American ladies spent the evening eating delicious food at Red Avocado in Iowa City followed by a little gambling at the nearby Riverside Casino. We had a fantastic night!

Red Avocado is probably my favourite restaurant in Iowa and I praised it in my post during our last trip to the mid west. There wasn’t anywhere better that I could think of to share a girly night with a bunch of lovely ladies. What made it even better was that one of my friends is a fellow gluten free-er so it was great to able to introduce her to a new and safe place to eat! She loved it! We all did

For the table we ordered hummus with vegetables for dipping and a huge bowl of seasoned cashews. Fresh and delicious! There are a good number of gluten free options on the menu (although you have to ask as they are not labelled as so) which made it difficult to choose but I decided I was in the mood for something with a little spice so I went for the Vegetable Curry with quinoa and tempeh. A huge portion and absolutely fantastic! Four of us were drinking so we ordered a bottle of Argentine torrentes which was sooo tasty and the perfect compliment to our amazing dinner!

The second half of our gluten free evening was spend at the casino where we gambled about $10 between the 6 of us. The excitement really began when Darcie won $23 playing slots and then Fiona with her life changing $4.20! What a great night.

Fiona and her winnings

Meagan and I losing our dollars

Happy Darcie

John's Grocery, Iowa City

Amazing lasagna by post

Our wedding is taking place in John’s parent’s yard and we plan to serve a buffet style linner. As we had only a month to plan everything, we assumed that finding a local place which does gluten free catering would be a problem. I’ve never had to deal with any sort of catering in the past but finding a place in south eastern Iowa to not only make gluten free food for us but to make it safely and cross contamination free didn’t sound like the simplest task!

Luckily for us we discovered a small supermarket in Iowa City (less then an hour away from where we’re getting hitched!) that can make us gluten free lasagna. Dee, the deli-catering manager at John’s Grocery said that gluten free lasagna would cost the same as ordinary lasagna which sounded great to me. I’m tired of getting ripped off and charged more for something safe to eat but they weren’t going to do that

Most importantly their practices of keeping gluten free preparation safe and cross contamination free for customers sounds good. When they have a gluten free order the kitchen is completely sanitised by staff one evening and then for a second time the following morning. Work is currently being done on the store to put in a 100% gluten free kitchen but unfortunately this won’t be up and running before our wedding.

They make four different types of lasagna at Johns. As we plan to order such a large amount (enough for 100 servings) I thought it would be nice to be able to try the lasagna in advance. As we are currently living on the west coast, a couple thousand miles from Iowa, this made sending samples to us a little more tricky but it happened! Dee prepared a couple of small lasagnas and sent them out overnight to San Francisco. When they arrived at 1pm the following day they were still chilling in the ice which surrounded them. All we had to do was heat them up and they were ready to eat! One was Italian sausage and the other was ground beef. Both were delicious but John and I agreed that we found the sausage one far tastier so we’ve decided to go for three large Italian sausage lasagnas and one vegetarian.

John’s are also making our wedding cake. Vanilla, tie-dye cake! Yummy!

John y yo in Argentina!

I love cake but unfortunately more often than not cake does not like me. My fiance (I like the sound of that) and I have decided to search for one big gluten free cake for our wedding but with little more than a month until our big day this may be a challenge. I’m so excited! The search is on…

We have chosen to get hitched in Iowa, in John’s parents’ yard. The wedding is in July so hopefully it will be nice and warm and we think their lovely spacious, green yard will be such as pretty place to say our ‘I do’s’. Having chosen Iowa as our location, that means I’m going to have to find someone in Iowa who can bake me a wedding cake..either that or someone who can deliver it to me without too much trouble and cost.

…Much to my surprise I have discovered three different places in Iowa City that can make me a gluten free cake!

Teddy Bear Bakery, is the bakery business of a lovely woman named Greta which she runs from her home in Iowa City. Whilst she bakes both glutenous and gluten free cakes from her own kitchen, she is aware of cross contamination issues and takes precautions in order to limit the risks. When I asked her about how she keeps her gluten free baking, gluten free, this is what she told me.. All of her gluten free products are kept in a separate sealed plastic bin, including a sifter just for gluten free baking, which never touches anything but the flours for gluten free baking. She uses a sanitizing dishwasher, so that all utensils are machine washed and sanitized, counter tops are sprayed with sanitizing spray and aluminum baking pans are dipped in sanitizing solution for 30 seconds and air dried between uses of any kind. I was planning to get my cake from Greta until I discovered I could get gluten free cake from the same place that is catering our gluten free buffet. In my mind if a kitchen is being de- glutenated for the purposes of preparing my gluten free lasagna then why not have them make my gluten free wedding cake too!

John’s Grocery in Iowa City is where I’ve decided to get my gluten free wedding cake from. I heard that they did gluten free catering from a fellow gluten free bride (thank you Beth!) and when I contacted and spoke with Dee Jurgens, their deli-catering-bakery manager, I was convinced that they were a good choice.

John’s also sound like they have good measures in place to avoid contaminating customers…when they have  gluten free order, the whole kitchen is santitised the night before and then again the following morning before cooking begins. Gluten free products are kept in sealed bags away from their glutenous cousins.

John’s are making me a gluten free wedding cake, large enough to feed all of our guests. It’s going to be vanilla, tie-dye cake with chocolate frosting. I can’t wait for John to stuff a huge piece into my mouth and hopefully once all the guests are gone there will be a few sneaky slices left for us to polish off!

The third place I found that does gluten free cake is Fairgrounds Coffee House. They are a 100% vegan bakery in Iowa City and luckily for the gluten free of us, they have a gluten free bakery menu with lots of amazing sounding gluten free cake, cookie, muffin and scone options!

Their gluten free menu clearly states at the top ‘Celiacs please note: This is not a wheat-free facility.  All gluten-free baking is directly supervised by Christine Alexander, owner of Fair Grounds Coffeehouse and Bakery to ensure quality and crosscontamination control of ingredients.’   This sounds to me like the bakery are aware of how important cross contamination control is for celiacs and are doing their best to prevent this. In non 100% gluten free facilities we can never be 100% sure that no contamination will occur but I will usually go for it if I speak to whoever is making my food and I feel as though they are doing everything they can to prevent cross contamination.

Photos of our gluten free wedding cake and an update on how (hopefully) tasty it was to come soon…

The Gluten Free menu

A great place for blind coeliacs!

When I first heard that a restaurant called Carlos O’Kelly’s had a gluten free menu, my American friends all laughed. They told me it was a Tex Mex restaurant and they would never have expected them to cater for Coeliacs. Luckily for me, they do and their gluten free menu has lots of tasty things to choose from!

My first (and so far only) experience of Carlos O’Kelly’s was during Ragbrai when myself and a few friends ate dinner at the one in Waterloo, Iowa. A sign on their door said ‘Braille and Gluten Free Menu’s available’. A blind, coeliac’s dream and pretty good news for me too!

I called the restaurant prior to going to reserve a table and to ask whether they prepare gluten free dishes separately from non gluten free meals. I was told that they did.

Their gluten free menu is pretty varied and includes starters, taco salads, fajitas and enchiladas. The gluten free sides which come with most of the dishes are black beans, corn or a dinner salad. All of their chips and salsa are gluten free and lots of this comes free with your meal.

Chips and salsa

Shredded Beef Enchiladas

I ordered the shredded beef enchiladas, which are made with corn tortillas topped with chili con queso, cheese, sour cream and chives and a side of black beans. When our server brought my friend’s meals she informed me that the kitchen had accidentally put rice on my plate and were starting over again. I’m guessing the rice is not gluten free as it wasn’t one of the options for me so I was happy to hear that they were preparing me a fresh and safe meal. My enchiladas were quite the cheese fest but a very tasty treat and completely gluten free.

Bikers on Ragbrai

It’s almost time for RAGBRAI….

What’s that I hear you say? Well, it’s an annual seven day bike ride across Iowa. RAGBRAI is the oldest, largest and longest bicycle touring event in the world and this year my boyfriend is taking part. Riders begin at Iowa’s western border on the Missouri River and finish, a week later, at the eastern border at the Mississippi River. It’s a week of cycling, drinking and camping and it should be a really good time. As I’m currently in training for my marathon, I opted to be the support vehicle driver for him and his buddies. That way I can fit my daily training runs into each day.

Each night is spent in a different town across Iowa and there are many vendors and stalls selling various foods to provide sustenance to starving cyclists. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, most of the foods for sale are the usual glutenous treats that I am forced to stay clear of…..

….As a result of this, I must come prepared with a week’s worth of gluten free food.

My gluten free food bag is filled with 3 boxes of Chex cereal, milk, plain and caramel rice cakes, yoghurts, corn tortillas, sandwich ham, babybel, grapes and a couple of Tootsie Rolls. I also have one pack of maki sushi, 3 containers of rice, tuna and a bottle of wheat free soy sauce.

My diet over the week won’t be the most varied but it will be 100% gluten free! I plan to pick up some fresh veggies en route to eat with my rice and I’ve heard that there will be corn on the cob in most of the overnight towns so I’m looking forward to nibbling on that.

I’m prepared with enough food to last me the week as I don’t want to have to rely on finding anything gluten free. Anything I do come across en route will be a much appreciated treat, which will vary my week’s diet!

UPDATE: RABGRAI was lots of fun! What a unique and crazy party experience!

When it came to finding gluten free food however, that was a different story. I was very glad to have my own food

Corn on Ragbrai

with me as there was almost nothing gluten free to eat en route. I was able to find sweet corn only twice (and never in the overnight towns). The rest of the time I ate the food I had brought with me or popped into the local Hy-Vee for extra supplies. Tequila, cider and wine were my gluten free drinks of choice throughout the week.

I wasn’t biking so having my food with me in the van made things pretty simple. I can’t imagine how difficult it would have been to ride for the whole week though…stopping in each town to drink and party without much chance of finding something gluten free to balance out all of those calories being burned! I’d be very interested to hear about the experiences of any other Coeliacs on RAGBRAI, especially if you managed to ride for the week, as I’m contemplating riding myself next year and would love some advice on how you did it without gluten!

All of this training means that I’m hungry pretty much constantly and finding interesting and varied gluten free meals to eat gets pretty difficult. Much of what I’ve read talks about loading up on carbs and since many carb filled foods tend to also be filled with gluten, I’m careful to ensure I still get enough carbs whilst remaining gluten free.

I’m doing the first half of my training in Iowa and my second half when we move to Argentina, 2 months before the race.

Tasty Chex for breakfast

Vegetable sushi

My tasty tortilla lunch

Cream of Rice with pineapple and cinnamon

In Iowa

I like to start my day with a bowl of Chex. On a short run day I’ll nibble a few pieces of fruit before my run and leave the cereal for afterwards but on a long run day I’ll fuel up with cereal first thing when I wake up. I’ve starting mixing corn, rice and honey nut Chex and I love it. Some days I substitute Chex for Cream of Rice, which tastes great with fruit and cinnamon.

For lunch, I’m all about corn tortillas with various fillings. Recently my favourite is ham with cucumber/spinach and cottage cheese. If we go out for lunch, I like to fill up on lots of Sushi with wheat free soy. New Pioneer Co-op in Iowa City does some great, fresh Nigiri and Maki sushi sets, which are gluten free. They also have wheat free soy. When buying pre-packed sushi, always check with whoever prepared it that it’s gluten free and stay away from imitation crab meat and any sauces. Fish Nigiri and either fish or vegetable Maki are usually the best bet.

Blue Bunny with strawberries

Yoplait yoghurt

Glutino breakfast bars

Envirokids snack bars

I find myself getting hungry between meals, especially on my long run days, and I try to keep my snacking pretty healthy. I eat a lot of yoghurt (normally Yoplait as the fat free is gf and says so on the label) with rice cakes for dipping, gluten free bars, lots of fruit, and sometimes a bowl of Blue Bunny vanilla Ice Cream.

For dinner I find myself eating lots and lots of rice. Lucky for me I love the stuff but I still like to bring new ingredients in to eat with it to spice it up. Some of my favourites are Chilli with rice, ground beef with pineapple salsa and rice, black beans with rice, Kimchi with rice and Bolognese with rice. On the few occasions I don’t have rice, I eat various omelettes, tasty Iowa sweet corn or gluten free sandwiches (although I’m yet to find a great tasting gf bread in the States)

Tasty chilli

Yummy Iowa sweet corn

Running around 40 miles a week means that I can eat pretty much whatever I want but I try my best to eat the right things to fuel my body and prepare me for long distances. I don’t eat as much variety when it comes to my meals as I did in my pre-coeliac days but I’m working on this….

In Buenos Aires

My marathon training diet had changed quite a bit since moving to Argentina but thanks to a few great gluten free stores and eateries, I’m managing to keep my carb intake high. Cereal was such a huge part of what I was eating in the states but as there is no gluten free cereal to be found here, I’ve had to make a few changes to my diet. Before short runs I eat a cereal bar and if I’m going on a longer run I like to have a bowl of crushed up rice cakes with milk which is the nearest thing to a bowl of cereal here. Almost every day, the first thing I eat post run is a big bowl of polenta with fruit and cinnamon.

Pre-run cereal bars

Polenta with apples

For lunch, I’m all about the empanadas (usually ground beef or chicken) or gluten free baguettes with ham and cheese from Celigourmet. As my weekly mileage is increasing I’m all about eating between meals too so I find myself eating a lot of yoghurts, fruit, nuts and chocolate covered gluten free snacks. My favourite snack here is Chocoarroz which is two small rice cakes stuck together with a layer of dulce de leche and covered in milk or white chocolate!

Choco Arroz

Empanadas de carne

Celigourmet baguettes

Tasty yoghurts

Dinner in Buenos Aires, like in the States, is almost always something with rice (or rice with something the night before a long run). Here I eat a lot of rice with egg and cheese, rice and veggie stir fry or my favourite, chilli with rice. Again, not a huge variety in what I’m eating but I try to vary it as much as possible and I enjoy everything that I eat.

Morgan's delicious Gluten Free tamales

Our friend Morgan prepared some special gluten free tamales and guacamole for the evening’s dinner. Morgan is an organic farmer in Mount Pleasant. As well as growing a great variety of delicious tasting organic veggies in her gardens (which make great additions to many of the gluten free dishes I make), she also makes various baked goods such as breads and muffins, which I’ve heard are great despite being highly glutenous! She wanted to try her hand at something gluten free for our symphonic, fireworks picnic and decided to make tamales. Tamales are traditionally made with corn flour anyway so nothing had to be substituted here in order to make them specially gluten free. She prepared her own stock as she didn’t want to risk possible glutenation from store bought varieties and checked any other ingredients she used to ensure everything was 100% gluten free.  Some of the tamales were filled with black beans and some with pork…they were amazing, as was the home made guacamole, and they went perfectly with the beautiful, multi coloured and extremely loud fireworks.

I’ll have to get Morgan’s tamale recipe to make these again myself…..mmmmm!

The Red Avocado

I’d been meaning to try The Red Avocado for a while but we always seemed to be in the vicinity between the hours of 2pm and 5pm, when it’s not open. It’s a vegan restaurant in Iowa city and I’d heard that they do quite a few gluten free dishes too. I haven’t found too many gluten friendly restaurants in Iowa that also have personality so I was very excited to try this locally inspired, organic place.

I emailed the restaurant to find out about their gluten free options. They didn’t provide information on which of their dishes were gluten free as their menu is bi-monthly and focuses on local and seasonal ingredients. They did say however that a number of things are gluten free and others can be adapted to be. They also said to mention that I am coeliac when I call to reserve a table.

Vegetable Peanut Satay

Quinoa Fiesta

The red Avocado’s menu is awesome. There serve a wonderful variety of delicious sounding dishes, filled with interesting vegetables, grains and spices. It was extremely difficult to decide on what to choose as I wanted to try everything. After more pondering I decided on the Vegetable Peanut Satay, which came with tempeh and quinoa. Fantastic! My boyfriend ordered the daily special (also gf) of quinoa salad with corn chips and black bean hummus with a side of corn and coconut soup. Again, scrumptious!

It’s not the cheapest of restaurants but the organic, locally produced, fresh deliciousness of each of their dishes makes it worth the price. I can’t wait to return and try something else!

The menu

Corn and Coconut soup

Blue Bunny ice cream

When the sun is shining and the heat sweltering, what better than a freezing cold bowl of delicious, creamy, ice cream….

For a while now I’ve wondered whether I’m being over cautious when it comes to finding safe ice cream. Are all ice creams gluten free unless then have some obvious cake or cookie topping or do some varieties include certain flavourings or colourings that may contain gluten? I figure the later is probably true which is what keeps me from freely ordering ice cream whenever I get a taste for it.

Welcome Blue Bunny, an ice cream company which started in Iowa but whose products are now available all over the States.

Their website provides specific gluten information as well as general allergen information. This is what they have to stay about the gluten free status of their products:

Gluten Content of Blue Bunny® Products
Obvious gluten-containing ingredients in Blue Bunny® products include items with wafers, cookies, brownies, cookie dough, bisque and pretzels. For the safety of our customers, if any ingredient such as a flavoring, stabilizer, emulsifier, color or coating contains gluten, it will be named in the ingredient statement. In general, Blue Bunny® products are gluten-free unless they contain obvious gluten-containing ingredients or gluten content is otherwise noted in a product’s ingredient statement.

Good news, gluten free ice cream lovers! As long as we stay away from anything cookie or cheese cake related and nothing else is mentioned on the ingredients statement then it looks like we’re good. Blue Bunny’s selection is vast and from checking out the labelling it appears that most of the amazing flavours are suitable for coeliacs!

Vanilla with strawberries!

Bone Fish in West Des Moines

I was in Des Moines last weekend to visit friends and enjoyed a wonderful meal at Bone Fish in West Des Moines. On their website you can download their gluten free menu. (I found it strange that their gf menu is an exact replica of the ordinary menu but with GF beside the gluten free items. Why not just make this the menu that everyone gets?) Anyway…there were a variety of dishes to choose from and they all sounded really good. The friend we were visiting said he had been to this restaurant a couple of times and really enjoyed the food so we decided to give it a try.

Gluten Free menu

When we got there the place was packed. It was Friday night around 8pm and it looked as though half the city had decided that tonight was the night for some Bone Fish. We were given a beeper and told a table would be ready in 30ish minutes. I don’t normally tend to go to big popular restaurants where you have to wait for a table but since we had driven across town to get there we though we had better wait.

I was glad we did because the food was delicious. While our server was taking our drinks order, the floor manager came to say that he noticed I had a gluten free menu and wanted to make himself known if I had any questions. I asked whether any of the glutenous items were prepared in the same pot/pan/grill as the gluten free items and he said that anything fried would be done in the same fryer but all other items were prepared separately (this seems to be common practice in most restaurants). I couldn’t see anything on my menu that would be fried but I was going to choose something grilled anyway so I wouldn’t have to worry.

Fresh grilled salmon

If you order one of the grilled fish dishes, it comes with your choice of one of their ‘signature sauces’ and two sides. I went for the Norwegian Salmon with mango salsa and sides of jasmine rice and a vegetable medley. Very tasty! My boyfriend also ordered from the gluten free menu so that I could have a taste. His Longfin Tilapia with chimichurri sauce was pretty good too.