Gluten Free... The way it has to be!

Early February I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease after years of tummy issues, and I am happy to say I feel soooo much better.  My 'issues' were something I just started to think were normal and it was how it would be for the rest of my life... Thank Goodness it isn't, well only if I say good bye to GLUTEN!

So all my experimenting with Paleo was very helpful, but I was always off-roading on the diet.  So my body never had the chance to heal.  On Paleo I wasn't aware of cross-contamination, which means gluten could be getting in without me even knowing.  I have read blog after blog, forum after forum, and slowly becoming more and more comfortable making decisions at the store and out at restaurants.  I have told myself, I may be gluten-free, but I will never give up my love for food.

My Extraordinary Adventure of Taste has taken a turn... I don't expect to for my food to be any less than extraordinary, it will just be gluten free... the way it has to be!

Two weekends ago Andrew and I celebrated 4 years! I know time flies... I was a little worried my new way of eating was going to ruin our celebration, so I did everything I could to make it seem like nothing changed.  We had dinner at our favorite restaurant, Olio Pizzeria. I was a little nervous being so picky and having special orders, but our waitress was so nice and always made sure everything was safe. 

We drank our special bottle of 2010 Pinot Noir from Tyler.

Enjoyed gluten free parma pizza!

And for dessert... butterscotch pudding.

Cheers to 4 years!!! Love you Andrew. 

Modern, but what was I thinking!

Andrew and I recently traveled down to the Orange County area to see some friends and visit his family. Sunday before heading home we went to a restaurant, Stacked, with a new modern way to do service, the iPad waiter.

So the whole concept was derived around the idea, that the customer can order what they want, how they want it, and when they want it all from the touch of an iPad. The iPad drove the process, but there were still kind concierges greeting us, checking in, and delivering food so it wasn't all computers.

We started out, browsing the menu on the iPad and the visual image of each dish made it a hard decision everything looked so good. First we ordered drinks and then SENT TO KITCHEN by a simple button. Next we each selected and customized our dishes by passing around the iPad and selecting all the options, SENT TO KITCHEN.

So you are probably thinking what a cool new experience, but I decided to take this new experience to the next level and order the Turkey, Cranberry, and Brie pizza. Did you just puke in your mouth, I didn't I thought wow, it must work they have it in their menu. Never again will I make that assumption, it was really bad, like really BAD. Sorry, this is really my fault, what was I thinking!  Not only were the toppings funky, there was a strange taste in the pizza dough.

So I cleansed my pallet with a slice of pepperoni pizza (something normal, but still had a strange taste in the dough) and an ice cream cookie sandwich... Yes the pictures and the idea of creating my own special sandwich totally got me! Here it is, creamy vanilla ice cream between a peanut butter cookie and a chocolate chocolate chip cookie.  Now this was delicious, pretty hard to mess up.

While I love the idea of the techy and modern concept... I think Stacked needs to work on their food and I need to work on my ordering!