During my recent visit to Trader Joe’s, I picked up some gluten-free waffles.

I’m a big fan of ‘regular’ Belgium waffles, but I wanted to see if these gluten-free waffles would fill the waffle-void in my breakfast. sure enough, they did.

I was near Trader Joes the other day after having lunch with my parents. I needed to pick up some gluten-free bread, some fruit, and some other items.

Now it seems like “every time” I go to Trader Joes (3x now), I get an employee that has celiac disease as well as able to point out where certain gluten-free items are. Certainly makes going there an added bonus to have someone that understands my specific dietary needs.

I was near the crackers, but didn’t see the Glutino crackers my church serves at communion. I asked a nearby employee if he has seen them in the store, he double checked and came back to tell me they didn’t have it but pointed me to some alternative crackers to try. Kinda funny side note: when I showed him my phone with the email with the Glutino item name, he first read my name in the email and thought I was asking if they had any, “Chad” from my ‘items to bring’ list. They don’t carry any such Chad item – apparently.

Then he inquired whether or not I was specifically looking for gluten-free items. I noted I was, he then told me (asked me) to stay put while he walked off. A minute later, he came back with a printed list of all the items they have that are gluten-free.  I had a copy of this (at home) from the last time I was there, but since that copy was in fact at home, it was nice to have a spare, I could keep the new copy in my car.

The employee noted he had celiac disease and proceeded to give me a tour of some of his favorite items. Since I was only there to pick up a few things, I made mental note of where some of these favorites were for my next adventure.

I’ll have to double check my list has all of these items: Top 10: Gluten-Free, Vegan Products at Trader Joe’s

I don’t eat a lot of cereal these days. My breakfast is more of a coffee, KIND bar, fruit, or avocado type of approach. But when I do have cereal – lately I’ve been on a Chocolate Chex kick (did you read that like I’m giving a personal testimony in a commercial?). Best of all,  the indicator on the box that notes, “gluten-free”. Let’s not discuss other aspects of this cereal’s nutrition.

(Insert obligatory, “sorry for not posting for a while” apology here:________)

I can’t recall the last time I had bread or pasta that wasn’t gluten-free. I wanted to get to the point where gluten-related products aren’t a part of my daily diet. The items I ordered in restaurants were gluten-free (as far as I knew) and I’m generally making better decisions even if I still can’t exactly correlate having gluten with specific symptoms.

Recently, I tried some 4C Crumbs-Plain, Gluten Free breading for my baked chicken that turned out to be pretty good. Best of all, it tasted like regular breaded chicken to me. As it should.

I continue to get various gluten-free related items (mainly cookbooks) in my recommended products by Amazon emails which I’ve been compiling to eventually share on this blog.

A friend recently made some gluten-free banana bread muffins that I quickly consumed after helping her move. I had to double check with her they were indeed gluten-free because they tasted good, and I thought for sure – gluten free muffins can’t be this good. Then again, being diabetic for a while I’ve learned that sugar-free or low sugar items taste pretty good.

Also, the gluten-free Glutino crackers my church serves for communion are pretty good too. I need to find myself a box or 2 of these.

Tonight, after work I went to a Hy-Vee (a grocery store for you non-midwesterners) for a gluten-free gala they had going from 4-7. Essentially, there were about 6 or so sample stations with various gluten-free things to try: chips, KIND bars, some type of sausage, another meat with some sauerkraut, some special type of drink I didn’t try, and granola. The granola was so good, I picked up some of that. While I was there, I did some grocery shopping and was pleased to see in almost every aisle, they had a sign that noted there is a gluten-free item which as someone with ‘silly-ac’ can certainly appreciate.

I was hoping the gala had more options to sample and more things I didn’t know I like that is gluten-free to add to my repertoire of gluten-free items.

All Things Gluten-Free ~ HyVee

Last night, after work I met up with my mom at Culvers for dinner and to get some stuff she had for me and catch up on life.

Before I got there, she had picked up the Mindful Choices Around Gluten guide to see what gluten-free opens both she and I could pick from. She may not have celiac disease, but she’s going on this adventure with me, “80% of the time…” she committed to trying.

I ended up with the roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes and green beans, but with no gravy. After a mix-up with the gravy, they brought out my order and hers, it was great and I even had leftovers.

It is certainly nice to see restaurants that have available options and cater to the various diet trends out there so they can stay relevant. After all, they don’t want to lose business because a family can’t go to Culvers because one of them has celiac disease or some issue with gluten.

When I got home, I was pleased to see she had packed away some gluten-free banana bread and other gluten-free items.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit, I’m no scientist (I’ll wait while your shock wears off), but today I tried an (unscientific) experiment… on myself.

No, I’m not seeing if I turn into Spiderman if a spider bites me. This afternoon, at a Lincoln Stars hockey game, my group got the ‘all you can eat’ option with our game tickets.

Given, I was not in a controlled environment (how unscientific of me)… there was no placebo; I was a straight up eating the bun/buns with my food. Too bad the nachos and cheese weren’t one of the ‘free’ all you can eat items. It was a split second decision, I have yet to regret.

Now, The game is over (the Stars lost) and I’m home to see what effect my cause had.

This isn’t something I plan to test a lot, but every now & again, I want to have a better idea of how gluten affects me; for me to know and share with my doctors. Since the blood test results, my results have been inconclusive.

And no, don’t hold your breath for a published paper by me in Scientific News.

Until then, I may need to find myself a lab coat.