I recently got an e-mail from a woman who lives in rural Canada who had checked out my website and noted that my material didn’t really speak to her: The restaurants are not near her, and she can’t get a lot of the prepared/packaged foods that I have reviewed. This was really good feedback. I took it as encouragement to build out my website to have greater appeal to people who don’t necessarily live in a major metropolitan city. Watch for more improvements! I also thought it would be interesting to do a little research when I visited my brother and sister-in-law in Roswell, NM. I figured Roswell was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so sure getting GF products would be a challenge, right? Wrong. Turns out, Roswell’s not that little. They have a couple of grocery stores, including a mega-Walmart. I decided to do a little research at Walmart (I know that many think they are evil-incarnate, but it’s way affordable and MANY people shop there. Don’t hold it against me!) Not only did they have all of the perfectly normal, regularly occurring GF food, they also had half a row of shelving labeled Gluten-Free, and carried things like GF Bisquick. In ROSWELL. I found that to be pretty promising. But still. I passed a number of “towns” that were hundreds of miles from a grocery store. What if I lived there? Here’s how I’d handle it: Have a kitchen garden and grow things I like to eat, if I have the space. If I don’t, make friends with someone who has the space, or start a community garden (as it is part of my Day Job, I can tell you more about that if you are interested.) Experiment with seasonal veggies. Vegetables are naturally gluten-free, and we can all stand to eat more of them, especially the green variety. Learn how to freeze, can or otherwise preserve fresh produce. If I’m growing it and can’t eat it all when it’s ready, I hope I’d learn how to extend its edible life and eat it on into the winter months. I occasionally freeze my overabundance of kale and collards from the garden, but I have to admit it's kind of time consuming. Still, if I couldn't go to a grocery store anytime I wanted, I'd get better and faster at it, I'm sure. Get good at cooking beans in interesting ways. Beans are available everywhere, and really nutritious. Get a rice cooker and embrace rice as my go-to grain for breakfasts and dinners. Rice is available at stores even in the middle of nowhere. Don’t forget eggs. I always forget eggs. Mail order. For that gf birthday cake that you have to make, one can get gf baking products on Amazon.com or directly from the manufacturer. If you type in Gluten-free foods at Amazon.com in their "Grocery and Gourmet Foods" menu, there are 3,540 listings. The products there would be a splurge, but certainly in the realm of possible. Stock up when in the presence of gf food. I grew up on 80 acres of land between Guthrie and Edmond, OK. I wouldn’t call it remote, but it was Small Town Oklahoma. We’d go into Oklahoma City (oft referred to as just The City) and there are health food and specialty shops there that can accommodate GF needs and provide specialty vegetarian products that are hard to find elsewhere in that part of the state. Of course, it could mean just going to the nearest town with a real supermarket and stocking up on Rice Chex and Corn Chex. Sure it’s a breakfast food, but everybody needs the opportunity to just eat a bowl of cereal for dinner now and then. Salty snacks: Popcorn. Potato chips. Tortilla chips. Read the labels of course, but many of these offerings have no gluten present. Sweets: Fruit. Rice pudding. Custard. Ice cream (read the label.) Crustless pies. Other suggestions for our GF friends in remote locations? Leave a comment here or send me a note through my contact page. From the Roswell, NM Walmart While I was in Albuquerque last month, I used the google machine on my iPhone to find a place to eat that was near the school where my brother-in-law teaches on the east side of town. I went with the tried and true search Urbanspoon [zipcode] gluten-free vegetarian and came up with a number of choices. After a couple of days of huevos rancheros, I was looking for something a little lighter. I found a place that was near the Sonic where I had stopped to get a limeade and do some research, the Annapolis Tea Company, or as they abbreviate, A Tea Co. The menu on the web indicated that they do all kinds of sandwiches and soups (as well as tea), and the sandwiches could be made on GF bread for an additional $1.00 fee. The menu looked promising, so I headed on over, fully intending to get a salad.
Even though I got there after closing (who knew?), the owner asked what I wanted. I bailed on the salad when I saw the sandwich choices, and picked a hummus, avocado sammy with fancy homemade pickles. He said that he could accommodate, so I took a seat. He brought out a well-endowed stack made on thick-sliced gf bread which turns out was made by Udi’s. It was everything a girl could want in a vegan gf sandwich: moist but not soggy, enough texture from the bread and crunch from the pickles to counterbalance the smooth spread of the hummus, sturdy enough to not disintegrate and big enough to feel like I’d gotten enough to eat. The owner tells me that he does gf and vegan soups every day, in addition to the sandwiches. If I had stayed in town longer, I would have liked to have tried them. The best I can do is to encourage folks to visit A Tea Co so that the restaurant stays in business and I can go visit on my next trip. Even as I type this, I’m on a non-stop evening flight to Phoenix. I had every intention of packing myself a bevy of interesting foods per usual. Alas, a work commitment ran long and I barely had time to zip my suitcase shut before my ride to the airport arrived. I did take a moment to grab a container of leftover edamame-black bean-cauliflower-broccoli-tomato-green chili salad [note to self: start making up better names for your food conglomerations], some raw nuts and raisins, and three apples into my bag. This actually turned out to be a lot of food, but since I hadn’t eaten lunch, I was feeling as if I were one meal behind. So, since I got through security with a little time to spare, I decided to hunt for a healthy gf food option as well as a bottle of water and maybe a cup of coffee.
I was in luck! Au Bon Pain shown like a beacon at the entrance to C concourse. And, as I expected, they had soups clearly marked with their ingredients. Alas, the only vegetarian GF offering was eggplant soup in a tomato stock. Didn’t appeal AT ALL. My family of origin were not eggplant eaters. My partner Jenn is actively opposed to eggplant anywhere near her food. I’ve attempted to work it in to an occasional recipe, with no real homerun to show for it. And I really didn’t want to pay airport prices for a soup I didn’t think I’d enjoy. The quest continued. I passed a number of food places that I thought would not work. I lingered at the Chinese place in the food court area, and decided not to brave the steamed veggies over white rice. It didn’t sound that appealing and I didn’t think I could get to a place of confidence about non-contamination. Finally I looked at the refrigerated case in the Le Bus corral (for non-Philadelphians, Le Bus is a pretty cool establishment that serves good food in a number of locations in town. I had no idea they had a place at the airport.) For context, this Le Bus was very Starbucks-esque: mostly all about baked goods and coffee. They did have bottled water and yogurt, so I decided to give those items a go. I collected the water and vanilla Siggi’s brand yogurt from the case and ordered a small coffee. I was scandalized when it rang up at more than $8! The yogurt was $4, and the container was small, so I told the man who rang me up that I could live without it. Unfortunately he was unable to fix the order and his attempts to reach a manager or implement a work-around solution failed. I said that it must be fate and that I’d go ahead and get it. He was very sweet and suggested that I could get something different, maybe a muffin or something?, from the baked goods offerings. I declined, but asked if he could throw in a banana. He said yes! I felt better about spending $8.57 for water, coffee, yogurt AND a banana. Whew! Who knew it would be so hard! Of course, if I were starving I would have just sucked it up and gotten the soup at Au Bon Pain. Still, it was like a game to see what I could come up with that fit my dietary criteria, my budgetary limits, and my personal tastes. And since I packed enough provisions I knew I wouldn’t starve if I walked away empty-handed. Oh, and the Siggi’s Yogurt! It’s very PC, as yogurts go: happy cows, no BGH, no artificial anything. Clearly marked as gluten-free. Not overly sweet, and quite thick. Maybe a little too thick. The packaging waxes poetic about it being akin to skyr, the national yogurt-like product of Iceland. I was very dense and filling, and in hindsight I’d say it was a $4 value. I’m not sure I liked it $4 worth. I had the vanilla flavor and I wonder if I would have liked a fruit flavor better. I bet I’d like the vanilla WITH something or ON something, I’m just not sure what. Oh, the coffee was good though a little coffee-shop strong and delightfully hot. Unfortunately when juggling all my stuff at the gate the lid detached and I splashed hot beverage down the only pair of jeans I had for the trip. Grrr. The banana was a little beat up I think by my own hand as I juggled hot coffee, a backpack, a rolling suitcase, a bottle of water, a container of yogurt, a spoon and a couple of napkins getting to gate C23. The water was cool and refreshing and just as I expected it to be. Check out this YouTube video of Warren Macdonald: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkw0XLGEjWI&feature=youtu.be
I get to see him give a keynote address at the Virginia Governor’s Housing Conference in a couple of weeks. I will be there to make a presentation about the work I do for my Day Job. I was a little annoyed that my boss punted the presentation to me, but not really. I enjoy presenting, traveling for work is still a bit of a novelty so I look forward to it rather than dreading it, and I get out of the office for two days. The downside is that I’m still a bit behind in my work from the week I spent (mostly) at a conference in Albuquerque in October and a couple of days in Phoenix visiting family in early November. All annoyance vanished when I looked into the conference in greater detail and watched this video about the keynote speaker. Not that I want to spoil it, but you’ll notice right away that the guy is missing both legs above the knees. This guy climbed Mount Kilimanjaro WITH NO LEGS. One thing he says in the video is that of the top 10 challenges he faces every day, maybe even the top 15, not one of them has anything to do with the fact that he is an amputee. What’s his quote? What we see is what is (or something like that.) We are limited only if we see ourselves as limited. Change your thinking. About EVERYTHING. Have a great life. No excuses. Thanks to all of you who took the time to do the survey! Results are still coming in, but most of the people who have responded so far have been gluten-free for a relatively short period of time and have come up with a number of ways of managing their dietary needs in creative and successful ways. My goal is to put together a non-medical, non-judgmental guide to helping others figure out the best, easiest, and healthiest way to live happy and gluten-free. If you want to receive a summary of the results of the survey or want more information about the guide when it's ready, sign up on my Contact page and I'll keep you in the loop.
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