New Blog

I am starting a gluten free food ideas blog. There are many already out there, so the more the merrier right? Check it out. Add yourself to my list and link your site with mine. I need to get permission first but there is a blogger that is linking all GF food blogs together and as soon as I ask her, I will post her link. We can be one big community.

Seriously

Sometimes I feel like everything I eat is making me sick. It is so hard to feel good. I thought I had this “gluten thing” figured out but I was wrong. Tonight I had a salad. That I made. What could have made my stomach turn? I don’t feel “glutened” as they call it on celiac.com, but I don’t feel very well. My stomach hurts. I don’t feel like I have been kicked or punched in the stomach (that’s what I read on other sites). I just have a simple stomach ache. But what’s the point of eating gluten-free if I’m just gonna have stomach aches anyways? Honestly. I am so frustrated, like I can’t figure it out. I want to call my doctor that diagnosed me and punch him in the nose. Maybe he is wrong. Maybe I have some other disease that makes the villi in your intestines lie down. Because lets say I do have celiac disease… why do I feel sick still?

The only thing that has changed is the fact that I can actually use the bathroom. Before I was diagnosed it would be days even weeks before I could go. Not weeks but maybe a week and a half. Now, I just eat something my stomach doesn’t care for very much and voila.. potty. Haha that’s funny and TMI. Sorry.
How can I help others if I can’t even help myself? I need to find out if other people went through this stuff when first diagnosed. If it’s true and these are the stages.. then some new celiacs are going to be psyched that I decided to blog this stuff. I just get so aggravated and don’t know what to do. I wish I could read someone else’s blog to know if this is real. Am I going through the stages or not?

I know that in 6 months, I’ll forget the fact that I went through a very emotional stage when I cried over everything. Everything happy that is. (insert story here)So funny. I was stopped in traffic one day and a friend of mine informed me that there was a race going through our city. It was a pre-Boston marathon. But still a marathon. I thought that was great. All those people out there running to raise money for a good cause. I wish I could do that. I have never been able to run. I’ve tried. A couple times actually. Anyways, my point. Sorry, I do that. We sat there for a good 30 minutes cause you can’t stop the marathon runners and I could hear the people clapping. I thought “how sweet”. Then I saw some firefighters out there clapping, supporting the runners. That’s all it took, I lost it. I started to get all choked up and just started to cry. My friend had no idea what my emotions were capable of so he looked at me like I had two heads. I called my mom to inform her that there was a marathon going on and I was crying. I also told her that there were firefighters cheering them on and I thought that was amazing. She laughed at me and asked “Did you really just call me to tell me that you’re crying?”. I sure did, and it was funny. Cause you see, I didn’t just cry. I laughed at the fact that I was so emotional. Every time I cried, I laughed. So you see me with tears (not watery eyes have you) streaming down my face and laughing. Not the kind of.. oh I’m laughing so hard, I’m now crying. Nope, I’m laughing, cause I am so stupid right now for crying. haha funny huh? Hopefully everyone with celiac disease goes through that stage cause its awesome. Back thankfully over. Ready for the next stage.
OK. Gotta run. What the heck am I going to title this?

Gluten Free vacation in the Dominican Republic

I went on vacation. To the Dominican Republic. I was NEVER sick! I felt great. The people there were more than accomodating. I ate amazing food. I talked to the guest relations people and they helped me pick my restaurants. One day we got a note that said for me to go to the front desk. I had to meet the head chef cause he wanted to talk to me but we needed a translator to be there. Every restaurant I went to, I handed the waiter/waitress my gluten free card (I'll explain). It was funnt to see their faces as they read what I was handing them. Then they would go to another eprson and show them, then the manager.. haha It happened like this every night. It was kinda neat, I felt special. They really wanted to help. Unlike here.. where everyone seems to be put off or maybe they have to work a little harder. ugh. lets not go there.

So I bought this card that explains I can't eat gluten in spanish. Here is the info.

Soy alérgico al trigo, al centeno, a la cebada, a la avena, a la salsa de soja y a la
malta.

It says that I am allergic to wheat, rye barley and oats. Then it adds soy sauce and malt. I think thats there because people dont realize they have wheat or gluten in them too.

This thing was my life saver. Seriously. I thought I lost it once and almost cried. It was bad. Of course, I practically had the thing memorized. haha

OK OK, so where did I go? Iberstar Bavaro, in Punta Cana. Also the Iberostar dominicana and punta cana. You can barely tell the difference between the restaurants. My only suggestion is this!! If you drink, plan a few different ways to drink rum and vodka. I was limited enough, and running out of ideas was terrible. And I used to be a bartender!

Ok. time for bed for real this time!

Food trouble, no longer

All Celiacs need to join Celiac.com

This is an ongoing list of name brand Gluten-Free items.

Here

I can only hope to keep up with all these items. The thing that confuses me is that Hersheys bars are GF right? But the minis aren't? It's the same food but smaller. Its so hard to remember. When in doubt.. leave it out. I can't say how many times I've thought of that in the past month.

There is plenty of food to eat and so many options for quick meals, dont get discouraged. Just wash your hands, dont eat from the same chip bag as others, read labels every time..

Being Celiac has it's positives too. For instance, we eat better and are aware of germs. We wash our hands.. a lot!!, we don't bother with foods that have ingredients we cannot pronounce.. see? It's not so bad. (I say this now.. wait till tomorrow or next week.)

I am trying to stay positive.
can you tell?

Links to GF Foods

Which Necco products are Gluten Free?

woot woot!! Love these things.

KRAFT will label their products clearly and if something contains gluten, it will be in paranthesis. Here is a good place to look.. KRAFT

Dove and Ghiradeli are GF. Always check for yourself.


Hood products that are GF are here


Gluten-Free pasta


This is one of my favorite places to find new GF foods


The following candies are gluten-free:

Andes Mints, Blow Pops, Butterfinger, Canada Mints, Candy Stix, Charleston Chew, Charms Pops, Chunkys, Clark Bar, Dots, Dove Chocolate Bar, Jelly Belly Jelly Beans, Junior Mints, M & Ms, Mary Janes, Necco Wafers, Nestlé Turtles, Peeps, Peppermint Patties, Russel Stover (almost all), Skittles, Sky Bar, Snickers, Spree, Sugar Daddy Pops, Sweethearts, Conversation Hearts, Swedish Fish, Three Musketeers, Tootsie Pops, Tootsie Rolls, Wonka; Bottlecaps, Gobstopper, Laffy Taffy, Lik-M-Aid Fun Dip, Nerds, Pixy Stix, Runts, Shockers, SweeTARTS, Tart N Tinys, and Nerds

Will that hold you over for a bit? haha

The best way to find out if an item is GF is by going right to the source. The second best way (IMO) is typing in.. is _______ Gluten free? In the search engine (Google of course)and reading the article. Most of the time I will see the topic is from celiac.com and I click on that. I trust anything I read from there. Those people are Celiacs and would not steer you wrong.