Gluten Free Eating--day three.

So Monday started out like any other Monday. I put my oldest on the bus and went back to the house to fix breakfast for the youngest one and myself. Since I wasn't in the mood for cereal, I decided that I'd fix eggs. Eggs that came out of the dairy section of my local supermarket. Wonderfully high in protein eggs. To my eggs I added some gluten free cheese (I'm giving up bread for godsakes, you really want me to give up cheese too? Little steps here.)

The Gluten Free diet is often referred to as the Stone Diet because of how "natural" it is and is similar (so everyone seems to think) to how Cavemen Eat, although there are no ingestion of stones involved, there are also some drastic differences. For example, cavemen ate tons of relatively "raw" meat until the invention of fire, and it was always fresh, because as we all know. refrigeration was relatively unheard of until the early 20th century. They also ate fresh veggies, but ate very little grains or potatoes. This is where the Stone Diet differs from the Celiac diet. There are many grains that celiacs can eat. They can also eat all the potatoes that they want, and most cheese, as long as there isn't an emulsifier that contains wheat added to the product.

So back to my diet for the day. After consuming my yummy breakfast of eggs and cheese with copious amounts of coffee (something I will never give up, or I will absolutely die, as I'm highly addicted to the delicious light brown liquid). I packed up my three year old and headed into town for a day of wheatfree shopping, lunch with the husband and fun in the rain.

On Sunday at work I had done some research relating to Gluten Free diets, etc. and attempted to make a shopping list of everything that I wanted to look for. I also downloaded a sample diet from the Amy's website that can be found here.

I had originally planned on going to Ellwood Thompson's which is a organic supermarket in downtown Richmond that is supposedly a wonderful store with a wide variety of foods for all kinds of people. We ended up not getting there. My little one was having a meltdown about being in the carseat (a recent development in my world) so I decided instead to go to a place called Good Foods Grocery, which I've driven by a ton over the past seven years, since it's down the street from my Pediatrician. After passing it and having to do a u-turn (something else that's not unfamiliar in my world, I get lost constantly) I found it, parked my mommy mobile, unloaded the screaming and at this point, utterly pathetic three year old and walked into the store.

What a great little place! Not only is everything clearly labeled as to what it contains (something that is rather annoying in regular supermarkets, where you have to read every single label), but in the event that you miss the rather obvious marking on every single container (that would be me) there are little labels on every shelf that indicates the "Gluten Free, Wheat Free" products. How awesome is that? Makes it so easy to figure out exactly what you want!!

I was able to find a lot of good stuff, most importantly, convenience foods that I can microwave at work and eat, without all that much work. Being a nurse, having something that I can heat and eat is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

So here's what I got a Good Foods:
Amy's Black Bean Enchilada (it was soooo good the first time, I just had to have another!)
Amy's Garden Vegetable Lasagna
Amy's Rice Macaroni and Cheese
Amy's Lentil Soup
EnviroKidz Organic Frosted Flakes
EnviroKidz Organic Cheetah Berry Crispy Rice Bars
Enjoy Life's Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (you should also know that I have a major sweet tooth, and being able to find chocolate chips that taste good has been a struggle in the past when I've tried to go gluten free!)
Tinkyada Rice Penne Pasta
Tinkyada Rice Spiral Pasta
Bioanturae Spaghetti
Caesars Manicotti
Caesars Stuffed Shells
Glutino 3 Cheese Pizza
Glutino Spinach Pizza
Samisbakery Millet and Flax Bread (this I was the most skeptical of, as all the bread I've tried in the past sucked).
Annie's Gluten Free Rice Pasta and Cheddar
I also purchased Corn Tortillas sold by Chichi's. (the cheapest thing I purchased), Brownie Mix, Pancake Mix and rolled oats ('cause it's getting cold here and I like oatmeal in the morning).
After leaving Good Foods spending a little over $100 (by no means is maintaining a GF diet cheap, but worth it) I headed over to my friendly, neighborhood Chipotle to get lunch for the hubby and I.

Chipotle (which I love by the way) is Gluten Free, with the exception of the flour tortilla. Here is the information re: gluten, from the official website. One suggestion I got from a Twitter friend is to ask the preparer to change gloves before preparing your food, as some wheat might transfer from the flour tortilla. I'd also read (from another Twitterer) that Chipotle had corn tortilla. My Chipotle said "yes, we have them, but they tend to fall apart", so instead I had a yummy and delicious bowl. It was truly yummy. It should be noted though that for people who are also allergic to Soy, Chipotle would NOT be a good place for you, as almost all there food has soy in it.

After dropping my groceries and my little one off at home I headed to a class that I am taking. I took two snack with me, a EnviroKidz bar and two of the chocolate chip cookies. I ate them after leaving class on my way home. The EnviroKidz bar was ok. I made the mistake of letting my little one pick the flavor out, and she picked based on the animal on the box and not the flavor. I've never been a big fan of Berries, but overall, it wasn't bad and wasn't overly berry. I also tried two of the cookies, which were actually quite delicious. They were definitely chocolatey and soft. I read the label details because I was interested in what made them so Sweet. There were several different juices added to give it sweetness and firmness, they also had Rosemary in them, which I couldn't taste. Overall, it was pretty good.

That's all I've got for now. After tonight, I'm going to talk about what I had today and how I"m going to handle working the weekend on a GF diet.
Stay Tuned.