Category: Unsorted Reviews
Gluten Free Pizza…and salad?
I was ecstatic to see that Boston Pizza now has a gluten-free section in their menu. Cue the heavenly music…I can order pizza again!! I don’t eat “junk” food often, but when I do I like to know there is a safe option for me.
So this past weekend I decided to order some delivery from my local Boston Pizza – a caesar salad and a gluten free peperoni pizza. I used their new online ordering system and made a note on the salad: “wheat allergy – no croutons please”. Type in my delivery information and click send. A nice little email is sent telling me the estimated time my food will arrive at my door. I think, “Great! A gluten free feast of yumminess is on it’s way!”
The delivery driver arrives exactly when the email told me they would. I pay for my order. I dance into the kitchen eager to open the paper-bag wrapped packages of sweet gluten free goodness. I take the salad out (because even though I’m eating “junk” tonight, I still want to eat my greens first!), and this is what I see…
I called back to the restaurant and explained to them the situation. That I cannot eat this salad. The girl on the other end sighed and said a new one would be sent out to my house asap. Another 30 min. after I hung up, my salad arrived and I gave the driver back the original salad along with the receipt. 
Not a single apology from either the girl on the phone or the driver. While I understand that this was a mistake, that mistakes happen…for anyone with a gluten intolerance/allergy that salad was dangerous.
The staff that prepare the gluten free pizza have had training on how to deal with cross-contact. So, in theory, those of us who can’t eat gluten should be able to dine from there worry-free. In fact, I’ve eaten salad and GF pizza from this exact Boston Pizza before…without a problem. My problem is with the lack of knowledge that many people working in the food industry still have regarding food allergies. If each of us could educate just one person about it…imagine where the Gluten Free “movement” could reach?
On a more positive note…the pizza was divine. It was cold by the time I was ready to eat it and I had to re-heat it…but it was delicious. The GF crusts are from Kinnikinnick and have a very sweet taste compared to traditional pizza crusts. Regardless of my poor experience this weekend, I will most definitely order gluten free pizza from them again. My only real complaint about the pizza itself is that I wish they came in bigger sizes (currently they only offer personal sized GF pizza). It would be nice to have a GF pizza party with The Wheat Free Family!
{Brought to you by Erin}
Bikes and Bread
Saturday dawned silent and warm. Yes. Silent. The bobcats were quiet, off doing things in other areas of the compound. The Kids were off with their father on their third camping trip of the year. The world.. was… silent.
Puttered around for a bit then fired up the motorcycle. How else to spend such a glorious day than on the bike in search of bread!
You heard right. Catalytic and I headed out to Cochrane and the Gf Patisserie to try out their Gluten Free bread. I prayed I would not, once again, be disappointed and only find the standard grainy dry rice bread alternatives that are available in other locations.
I was NOT disappointed! The bakery smelt like heaven! The bread on the shelves ranged from white, raisin into foccaccia and more! I settled for a loaf of white, loaf of raisin and two chocolate brownies to eat right away.
They were amazing! Well worth the glorious trip for the amazing bread!
For the first time in over a year… my boys had PB and J sandwiches for supper and licked their fingers clean!
Millet – Clear as Mud
“Millet is gluten-free. It is not Grain Free!”
Just to not confuse new people to the disease and diet.”
Millet, common name for several species of the grass family (see Grasses), and for their small-seeded grain.
Millet is highly nutritious, non-glutinous and like buckwheat and quinoa, is not an acid forming food so is soothing and easy to digest. In fact, it is considered to be one of the least allergenic and most digestible grains available and … usually contains less protein than wheat or rye and more protein than rice.
Fundamental Flour Facts has a lot of info on this topic.
Still, much confusion seems to swirl around the word flour… The Concise Oxford Dictionary offers “any fine powder” as one of the definitions of the word “flour”.
Wheat is a cultivated grass, just like corn and rice. … it became imperative to divide flours into categories: gluten containing grass flours, gluten free grass flours and flours from other plants. I have been able to further sub divide the flours from other plants into ground nut flours, seed flours, legume flours and root or vegetable flours.
This is some of the information I have amassed through extensive reading and careful research. If it contains any inaccuracies, omissions, or errors please bring it to my attention, so I can correct the information. I am not a specialist of any kind, just one woman searching for a way to better understand the foods I eat, so that I can recover my health.
The Grass Family of Plants:…
Gluten Free Grasses or grains:
- Corn / Maize Flour or Meal
- Millet Flour
- Rice Flour – all varieties, white & brown
- Glutinous Rice Flour ( also know as sticky rice or Mochi )
- Wild Rice Flour ( the seeds can be cooked whole or ground into a dark flour )
- Sorghum Flour
- Teff Flour – dark and ivory
- Sugar Cane
- Bamboo
- Job’s Tears / Hato Mugi / Coixseed / Adlay / Adlai ( barley like in appearance, grain that is gluten free and can be ground into flour)
Please check out her site for MUCH MUCH more information!
Summary? Use with care! Determine if it is GRAINS you are allergic to, modified grains ( the genetically altered ones we use so commonly today) OR if it’s the glutens themselves (aka Celiac). If it makes you ill… DO NOT EAT IT.
Knorr Soup Lunch
I miss soups! While I really enjoy traditional Campbells soups and their economic addition to cooking for a family, I now venture to find affordable alternatives.
Knorr has caught on. Not only can you get some of their soups in ready to serve sizes for a hungry man or two ladies for lunch, you can also get pouches for approx $2.50 each. Two of these and some Red Mills Pizza Dough makes a great lunch for my family of 5.
That brings a family meal in at approx $10. Reasonable!
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Items that you might not recognize on the ingredients list. To Wikipedia!
maltodextrin - can be derived from any starch. In the US, this starch is usually rice, corn or potato; elsewhere, such as in Europe, it is commonly wheat. This is important for coeliacs, since the wheat-derived maltodextrin can contain traces of gluten. There have been recent reports of coeliac reaction to maltodextrin in the United States.[citation needed] This might be a consequence of the shift of corn to ethanol production and its replacement with wheat in the formulation.
Other authorities on gluten maintain the source does not matter because maltodextrin is such a highly processed ingredient that the protein is removed, rendering it gluten free. If wheat is used to make maltodextrin, it will appear on the label. Even so, the maltodextrin will be gluten free.
note: Soups may contain milk ingredients
Grocery Shopping RollerCoaster
So I found myself alone and with an hour to blow tonight. What better way to spend it than checking out a new Superstore location in the city and see what new hopes it carries. BLINK BLINK. Ya… well. Note to self. Do so first thing in the morning after a good cup of coffee. Those kind of excursions require either rum or some serious uppers!
Then.. like a gold ray of sunshine in the middle of a thunder storm… I stepped into THE AISLE.
The Aisle is the specialty foods section I guess. All Organic and such. I must say I am still annoyed with the Soy Cheese manfacturers ( see soap box entitled CASEINS!) but at least there were all the ones I had seen to date! Including the casein free one’s I had recently purchased. There were several of the decedent soy icecreams.. including the chocolate flake peanut butter one! MMMMMM and not only the CeliMixes.. but also the Kinnikinnak line in the freezer and on the shelves. Also another brand of …errr can’t remember the name.. will add it later.
Egg free ” mayo”.. and lots of other items redeamed my trip. Well worth it. NOW to start actually price checking! Off to eat kabobs and lettuce wraps .. with Praline Soy-ice cream for dessert.. maybe with whipped cream and melted Chocolate chips. ( milk free of course).
Hey! I’ve earned it 
Supplies local businesses like SAFEWAY!
They have been making Gluten Free And Casein Free Foods in our dedicated facility since 1991, generating its first sales in September of 1991 at a Farmer?s Market in Edmonton.
In June of 1997, new retail outlet of 2500 sq. ft along with 8000 sq. ft of production space and 2500 sq. ft. for administrative offices was established in the present location. January of 2001 saw an expansion of an additional 5000 sq. ft. to handle the demand and process needs of the new ALTA GFCF line of products. In the space of 10 years, the company has grown from a small home-based operation to one that can now meet the demands of a growing North American market.
“Kinnikinnick provides them with nutritious foods after their long cold winters of misdiagnosis and unsafe foods”
EDIT: Careful! Very few EGG FREE options!
Hidden Dairy!
Read labels carefully!
If you see any of the following items listed as an ingredient in a food, it will not be milk-free:
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http://www.foodallergyinitiative.org/section_home.cfm?section_id=3&sub_section_id=3
What others have to say!