Why I Love P.F. Chang's

We went to P.F. Chang's for our 2nd wedding anniversary this past weekend. Yes, we drove through the snow storm. Three years in a row, including our wedding day, there has been a snow storm. Lucky us. On the plus side parking was easy, there weren't many people there and it was easy to run a few errands at the mall. The bad part, it took us an hour to get there from St. Paul. The reason we chose P.F. Chang's is because of their extensive gluten-free menu found here. They have done an outstanding job of making gluten-free food without sacrificing taste. We had a server explain to us that for them to make the transition to GF was very simple, most of the changes came in the sauces. Say what you want about chains, I can go to any major city and find a P.F. Chang's for dinner. My other fall back is a burrito bowl at Chipotle.

The staff at P.F. Chang's have a good routine for serving gluten-free customers. The GF meals come on different plates so that you can easily tell them apart. They know to bring you GF soy sauce. Many of them have tried the items on the GF menu and even have said that some of the dishes are better GF.

So far my favorite is the GF Mongolian Beef. It's my understanding that this is on their signature dishes. I've had a server them me this dish GF is better then the original. The famous lettuce wraps can also be ordered GF. The flourless chocolate cake is really good.

As a side note, I've noticed that many places we go to that have GF free food still have gluten in their foods. I realize this afterwards when I get a pounding headache. Guess what, not at P.F. Chang's they take GF serious.

Never thought I would say that P.F. Chang's is my new favorite restaurant.

Gluten Free Ice Cream Sandwich

I've been looking for a good gluten-free ice cream treat. Enter Julie's Organic Ice Cream. I've seen Julie's products in every co-op I've ever shopped in. I have only seen these sandwiches in one store. 

They are delicious. I love that they are a reasonable size and it's clear when I'm done. When I buy a pint of ice cream I tend to eat it out of the container and then all of a sudden it's gone! Oops. Having a clear portion is helpful. The cookie doesn't get too hard in the freezer, it's soft enough to bit in to but not so soft that you have cookie all over your fingers when you're done like the big name ice cream sandwiches. The ice cream is delicious. It holds it shape well in the sandwich and doesn't melt all over the place. Like most ice cream treats they are spending, just over $5 for the box. Still cheaper than going out for ice cream. 

To sum it up - I love them!

Babycakes Bakery

Who doesn't want to go this bakery? Babycakes NYC looks amazing. Friends in NYC, LA and Disney check this out and let me know what you think. I wish they had one in the Twin Cities. Everything looks amazing and they ship to MN! They also sell cookbooks.

Pizza a la Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free

 This pizza was an experiment on two levels. This is the first time I have had Glutino's GF frozen pizza crust and dairy-free cheese. Let's start with the crust seen in the picture and found here. I was skeptical because I haven't particularly liked the frozen pizza crust. Especially since baking the crust myself has become so easy. I was pleasantly surprised. I like the size, it's filling without being too much. It rises, not many GF crusts can do that and not taste dry and like cardboard. I thought this one was great. It was a little on the dry side but not enough to stop me from eating it. Thank God too because there are three more crusts in the freezer.

Now the cheese. I'm still not sold on dairy free eating for myself. I haven't seen a huge benefit. My stomach feels a little upset by the dairy but what I want to happen hasn't happened and we'll leave it at that.

This is the kind of dairy-free cheese I decided on. Mostly because I thought rice was safe alternative and it was already shredded. A plus so I don't have to do any extra work. Galaxy Nutritional Foods can be found here. They make a variety of dairy-free cheese including a vegan cheese. So what did I think. It's obviously not the same as cheese but it works. It's fine. I would be just fine if this what I had to eat for cheese for the rest of my life. If your like me and you gauge the pizza's completion based on the melting of the cheese, this alt-cheese will not melt like the real thing. You have to watch it. I've made pizza since and the cheese sort of melts, browns and bubbles. Just be watch it at the end.  

Eating Gluten-Free is too easy now

I'm starting to feel like I've gotten a pretty good handle on what has gluten and what doesn't. And since I don't want anything about my life to be easy I'm experimenting with also being dairy free. Once Christmas is here I'm going to have to eat dairy again - Christmas cookies! There is no way I'm missing out on that fun. I don't know if you know this but my Grandma Phyllis makes the best Christmas cookies in the history of the planet. That might be an overstatement but they're damn good cookies.

I won't go into my digestive details about why I'm doing this dairy-free experiment but people keep telling me that too much dairy can cause digestive issues. In fact one of my doctors said that nearly 75% of the world's adult population have lost some forms of being able to digest lactose - see here on Wikipedia also in the same Wiki article it says,

Pathological lactose intolerance can be caused by coeliac disease, which damages the villi in the small intestine that produce lactase. This lactose intolerance is temporary. Lactose intolerance associated with coeliac disease ceases after the patient has been on a gluten-free diet long enough for the villi to recover (BMJ Textbook of Gastroenterology, Chapter 11, Celiac Disease, Dr.Jamie Gregor & Dr. Diamond Sherin Alidina).


The term coeliac is the Greek work for celiac. Which apparently is the actual spelling and North America is the only place that spells it celiac. Seen here on Wikipedia.


So really I have no idea if this going to help. All I know is that there is a lot of room for improvement. I'm on day 8 and so far no improvement. It only took one week to feel better after starting my gluten-free diet. I hope I learn something soon. The next big step is trying the non-dairy cheese. At least I got the gluten-free pizza dough that tastes amazing. Here's hoping...

Chicken in a bag

This is super easy and tasty. I don't think the photo does this justice. I'll keep working on that.

In a large plastic bag mix:
3 Tbsp of cornstarch
2 Tbsp of GF soy sauce (sometimes I add a little more soy sauce - the kind I have isn't very flavorful so the more the better)
1/4 tsp of garlic powder
1/4 tsp of ginger (I used paprika because I didn't have ginger. It worked out great).

Next, put the chicken in the bag, shake it and than bake however you feel. I usually put in a fry it. I find that frying is an easier way to tell if the chicken is done. Insert lack of FDA oversight joke here. I think the next time I make this I'm going to cut the chicken into strips. I've also thought this would be a good mix with a veggie stir-fry with rice or rice noodles.

I love how simple this recipe is. You can have some fun with it too. You get to shake a bag. Let out that frustration from the day!

Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: gluten-free holiday baking, 2010

Great recipes for holiday treats and a good explanation about why baking using weight instead of volume is so important for GF baking.

Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: gluten-free holiday baking, 2010: "Let's bake, shall we? It's December 2nd. Most of you have probably gathered your recipe cards around you to take notes and make substitu..."