Gluten-Free Babe: My quest to live gluten-free for 30 days

…so today I’m catching up. Let’s see, I had yogurt and Udo’s choice oil again, and a slice of toast (from the GF bread I baked on Saturday) with butter and honey. It was delicious! And some OJ/cranberry juice. For lunch, I had an Amy’s cheese enchilada; those are the only frozen meals I eat anymore, and they’re terrific.

I realized yesterday, after having read Vanessa Maltin’s Beyond Rice Cakes, that my multivitamin does have a no-no (dextrin, which could be wheat-derived) so I headed to Whole Foods to pick up new vitamins. After a helpful conversation with one of their staffers, I grabbed DailyFoods Medi-Safe, and will run them by the pharmacist in a bit to ensure they don’t conflict with my other meds. Also at Whole Foods, I checked out their GF selections. They post a few helpful signs on shelves, but most products aren’t labeled as such, so I got a list from the concierge desk - at 19 pages, it’s very comprehensive. I can tell I’ll be spending more time there.

When I got home I whipped up a fave pasta salad using Tinkyada pasta (on a reader’s suggestion) and it is fantastic! Love their pasta - it tastes just like my regular brand, and has a great texture. (I tossed it with steamed asparagus, fresh mozzarella cheese, fire-roasted red bell pepper, and some Italian dressing.)

We had pals Kirsti and Greg over for the afternoon and evening, and they brought yummy farmer’s market cheese, grapes and cherries. So thoughtful! Also gnoshed on some potato chips before dinner, which we ordered from our fave middle eastern place. I stayed simple with grilled shrimp and dill rice, and was really pleased - and I have tons of leftovers. It was hard to order over the phone, though; while the staffer did take some time to answer my questions, it was the dinner rush and it sounded noisy in the background. I feel fine about my choices, but I’m not convinced she completely understood my requests (which is why I kept it simple). More advance research will be important, I think, when eating out, so I need to get into that habit.

All in all, a very busy weekend, with WAY more cooking than I usually do. It was nice, actually! I could get used to this.