Gluten Free Expo Toronto
Canada’s Gluten Free Expo is on this weekend in Toronto. If you’re in Southern Ontario this Sunday, go check it out.
The Do’s and Don’ts of Accommodating Dietary Restrictions at Dinner Parties
This article passed through my Twitter stream today, via foodie and fellow SEO, Graywolf:
Dos and Don’ts: Accommodating Dietary Needs at Dinner Parties
Obivously this is something readers of this site will be familiar with, but it’s becoming a more common issue for regular folk as the occurrances of all dietary restrictions seems to increase.
With my group of friends, the protocol for dealing with dietary restrictions was established early, with two of my highschool friends being vegetarian. It became an unspoken rule that when we got together for meals, they brought their own if they couldn’t eat what was being served. In our younger years, we’d usually just get together for barbeques, so the vegetarians only had to supply their own meat substitute.
Dish Freely: Find Gluten-Free Dishes at Restaurants
Dish Freely is a new iPhone app I just found out about that helps those eating gluten-free find dishes at nearby restaurants that they are able to eat. Users can also add new restaurants and dishes, and rate the ones they’ve tried.
I cannot tell you how awesome an idea I think this is. I’m a huge fan of location-based apps, food apps, and well… apps in general (I do work in mobile marketing, afterall). Combining those with a tool that helps me find food I can eat safely is just brilliant. And with the numbers of people eating gluten-free increasing every week, an app like this is going to be so helpful to so many people.
Pizza Crust Comparison: Topper’s vs. Pizzaville
In my first gluten-free pizza crust comparison, I looked at Pizza Pizza and Pizza Nova. With more and more pizza chains coming out with gluten-free crusts, I’ve been able to test out a few more. This time, I’m comparing Topper’s and Pizzaville.
Guelph Student Cookbook
Apparently this has been available for some time, but I recently found out about the Guelph Student Cookbook, created by the University of Guelph’s Central Student Association.
The cookbook supports the CSA foodbank, which is operated by and for students at the university. From the introduction,
The goal of this cookbook is to provide food bank users with the knowledge and skills needed to make healthy choices and prepare nutritious food with limited food choices and budget…
All of the recipes in the book are simple, nutritious, and budget-friendly. As an added benefit, some recipes are identified as vegan, gluten-free, and party-sized.
Caesar’s Gluten Free Vegetable Lasagna
One of the things I miss is the convenience of frozen meals. I know they’re typically not the best nutritionally, and they often cost a lot, but on days when you just don’t feel like cooking they’re better than fast food. But they’re filled with additives that contain gluten.
While gluten-free frozen meals do exist, you can’t just run into any supermarket and pick one up. They’re usually found at specialty shops, like Portions in Guelph.
Bountiful Pantry Country Corn Chowder
On a trip to Vermont this past winter, I came across Bountiful Pantry soups at several shops. Several of their soups are labeled gluten-free. I love corn chowder and decided to try it.
All of Bountiful Pantry soups are packaged, dried ingredients, and preparation is merely adding liquid like stock, milk or water. Ingredients are listed on the back, and they all contain foods you can actually recognize – corn, potatoes, onions, etc. The clear packaging shows off all the ingredients as well.
But despite the gluten-free label, the ingredients I could read and understand, something in the soup made my stomach unhappy.
San Zenone Organic Corn Pasta
I normally eat brown rice pasta, but decided to try a new brand of corn pasta I saw on the shelves at my grocery store – San Zenone’s 100% organic corn pasta from Prairie Harvest.
Corn pasta tends to be a bit more expensive than brown rice pasta, but it tastes less “nutty” than rice pasta and doesn’t get gummy when you cook it. I actually found San Zenone tasted much like what I remember wheat pasta tasting like, so this might be a good one to try if you’re new to gluten-free pasta. I had it with some tomatoes, olives and oil, and found I didn’t need a thick sauce to help camouflage the taste.
Wendy’s Joins the Ranks
Yup, that’s right, Wendy’s has now joined the ranks of fast food restaurants publishing gluten information on their websites. As of February 2011, they published a list of regular menu items that contain no wheat, barley, oats or rye.
You can see the complete list in this PDF: Canadian Menu Items without Gluten.
Some surprises in the list:
- hamburger patty
- Frostys
How many of us are afraid that burger patties are gonna be full of filler? *raises hand* So that’s kind of awesome. Also, Frosty’s? I’m always a little skeptical of ice cream too, so this is freaking good news! You can bet I’ll be partaking in some Frosty-goodness this summer.