Archive for the ‘Gluten Free’ Category

[By Wolf]

Have you ever had that feeling of flavor filled nostalgia?

We recently took a trip to Disney World and had a wonderful time. During all of our planning we each thought about what things we really wanted to do that would make us feel satisfied after the vacation was over. One thing on the list was to go have pineapple Dole Whip at the Tiki Room.

Well, we did have some Dole Whip at the Magic Kingdom and to our extreme satisfaction, we were able to have it 3 times. We found that the Polynesian Resort had self serve Dole Whip at one of its eateries. There we created MOUNT DOLE WHIP.

Now it’s in our brain … and taste buds. We are looking for Mr. Dole Whip.

I tried a recipe tonight that left us wanting. It tasted more like pineapple ice cream. It wasn’t tangy enough and was too creamy and too sweet.

The recipe used:

1 quart of pineapple juice
3 cups of whipping cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 cups of sugar
and top it off with milk

The family all agreed that it was really good pineapple ice cream, but not the elusive Dole Whip.

So, the search continues. Perhaps we need to start with a sherbet or sorbet recipe?

Wolf will be going to his Reserves duty in Georgia for almost two weeks this summer, and we were considering whether it might be fun for the kids and I to go along and make a bit of a vacation out of it. (More for us than for him, poor thing!)

We’ve done this type of thing before, when he did some duty time at the Columbus, Mississippi base, and had a great time. We thought of that one more because he has family in that area, but really it’s fun to get away anywhere!

The complication is that this will be the first time we’ve gone anywhere since I started eating a gluten free diet back at the end of February.

No casual stops to eat out along the way… Even “obviously gluten free” things (such as meat) can have gluten containing seasonings on them – and restaurant staff doesn’t always know.

It’s not simple to “just swing by the store and pick up anything we didn’t pack”, since many stores have a very limited (or even none at all).

Certainly I will plan and pack – and I AM a planner! – but being the first time, I know there will be lots of things I never even think of.

Do any of you who are further along this path have any tips for gluten free travelling?

Sorry, no photo credit to be had. I picked it out of a composed meme picture floating around on Facebook…

Although the lab work from the end of last year came back negative, my doctor was just as convinced as I was that the pattern of symptoms was very clear: I likely suffer from some degree of intolerance to gluten.

The only way to find out, really, is to go gluten free and see how you feel – after 4-6 weeks’ worth of vigilance. You have to allow time for all the gluten to be fully purged from your system, then additional time for your gut to heal from the stress and damage.

I began my gluten free diet semi-coincidentally at the beginning of Lent. We don’t observe Lent, but since that was when I was ready to begin anyhow, it seemed a nice symbolic and easy-to-remember date.

Since I was planning to share my reviews of gluten free products and recipes anyway, I decided to put them “out there” in the world a little more. I am now the Biloxi Gluten Free Examiner at Examiner.com. If you click through you can see a page listing everything I’ve published there, as well as subscribing to my feed if that interests you.

In two weeks I’ve learned a lot… In some ways it’s even harder than I thought, but in some ways it has been easier. I’ll keep updating you on my journey – but don’t worry, the focus of the blog isn’t changing. (That’s part of the reason I started posting that content over at Examiner.com).