London, UK

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a while. As I'm sure you were too, I was very busy over the festive period with two weeks in the UK! I'm back on American soil now (a lot heavier than when I left) and ready to bring in 2017! This year has been quite the journey, sometimes literally, and I'm looking forward to what the next one surprises me with. But, before I step into all things January (and probably detox mode), I have a couple of posts from my time over the pond. This first one will be about the bakeries I visited and the second will be about a few vegan/vegetarian eateries that Caleb & I tasted too! So let's crack on...

Cookies & Scream

Ok, Ok, I know I've written about these guys before, but as we were in Camden again, there was no way we weren't going to go back. The GOSH Brownies are THE softest, moistest, most chocolatey brownie I've ever had the pleasure of eating since having to be GF and I'll be damned if I don't promote them every chance I get. I have no idea how they create such magic (probs witchcraft), but whatever it is, I'm won over by it. Oh, and their Choc Chip Cookies aren't half bad either. I couldn't even wait for a photo before tucking into both. Next time, I must try and have one of their "milkshakes"; remember this place is vegan, so dairy free too, which makes their achievements even more astounding. GO EAT HERE.

NYC, NY

It's December! This year has gone by so fast I feel like I've been constantly moving, yet haven't visited half the places I wanted to! Stomach issues still a daily battle, maybe the new year will refresh my intestines and make them magic (stranger things have happened I'm sure!) In about 10 days I'll be back in the UK & Ireland hunting for places to eat, so feel free to leave suggestions in the comments, but for now I can share a couple of quick places from a trip I made to the Big Apple recently.

St Louis, MO & Cleveland, OH

I'm not sure if anyone else goes through phases where they feel really fed up with their non-working bodies, but I've been in a bit of a funk lately. I've been exercising more, eating healthier and my body is just not happy. I've been having all kinds of intestinal problems and it's really getting me down. No matter what I do, sometimes I just can't win, then have to let it all ride it's course and I guess right now, that's the thing to do; but doesn't it just get a bit tough sometimes? People who don't have to go through this every day, will never understand & it gets a bit tiresome having to explain (and run the risk of constantly sounding dramatic), but never mind - today is a new day!

Last week I joined Caleb for three days on tour and managed to find a couple of hidden places that were really impressive and definitely worth a visit from anyone who reads this blog. First up, St Louis!

Recipe - Plum Crisp

I love to follow Nigel Slater on social media as he always does wonderful autumnal & winter recipes. If you're not sure who he is, he is a British chef who has a wonderful way with words. As soon as I saw this online I had to try it as I just love plums. I love any fruit that is sharp/sour, and what is better than a dessert that's like a crumble? Nothing! 

So, today I made his recipe in GF form (although I cut the quantities more than in half for myself as I was the only one home). Here are the results: 

St Petersburg (Tampa), FL

The Cider Press Cafe

Recently I was on tour with Caleb again, and although most of the places I was with him didn't have anything GF specific nearby, a surprising turn in Florida meant we had a great meal! Florida is, although somewhere I avoid in the summer (don't even bring up the humidity), a special place for Caleb & I, because it is where we first ever met, six and a half years ago!

As I waited for Caleb to finish soundcheck I did a local check to see what was in walking distance that I could eat. When on tour I do have tendencies to eat badly if I can't find anything helpful / no juice bars, but, to my surprise, St Petersburg was actually flush with indie places to eat for the both of us (caleb has been Vegan for a while).

Columbus, OH

Hot Chicken Takeover & Bake Me Happy

Last week a great thing happened in Columbus. For as long as I can remember I've been told about how good Hot Chicken Takeover is; which is really helpful when you can't eat it and love fried chicken (see previous post). Well, finally I was going to have a chance to try it! I'd just like to quickly preface the rest of the post with the fact that years ago when I did eat fried chicken, I ate it very rarely, but of course you can wait for a London bus for years and then five will come at once. So, this will be my second fried chicken post in as many weeks - my apologies!

Supermarkets, UK

My last visit to the UK was in July, but I never got around to writing about a few of the cheeky little finds I found in the supermarkets. Last time I did product reviews from the UK I focused solely on one shop, but this time I visited a few just to check out what small bits they offered. I will of course do more of an in-depth review on each of them in the future, but here are some little treats I found. First up is Sainsbury's...

Sainsbury's

The Sainsbury's I visited actually had a terrible GF section (and I'm not sure they're ever much better in different locations). The area was very small and didn't really have anything I hadn't seen before (e.g bread, rolls, wraps). It pretty much offered very little for the GF life, other than the usuals...until I spotted something very special indeed - Free From Sticky Toffee Pudding!

I had recently been looking up recipes to make my own Sticky Toffee Pudding for the autumn but as it was here (what a coincidence), I thought it would be rude not to buy it, and eat the whole thing! It was delicious. It tasted exactly like my memories of a steamed pudding, and there was plenty of toffee sauce pouring over it, it was exactly the type of Sticky Pudding, I had memories of. I (of course) added some cream (because I'm terrible), and the combination was an absolute winner. I would definitely recommend this - I honestly couldn't even tell it was GF, which to me, makes it a success. I now (kind of) forgive Sainsbury's for having that laughable selection for coeliac sufferers!

Oahu, HI

Last week I got back from 9 days in Hawaii. Caleb was playing a show on the Oahu island and was going to stay afterwards before flying off to Japan, so I told him if he got to stay in Hawaii, I definitely was allowed to join in on the fun too. A few years ago me & Caleb actually got married on Shipwreck's Beach on the Kauai island, and it was magical. It was my first ever visit to Hawaii and it was just as I imagined it would be - volcanic, tropical, indescribable. This time, as I said, we were on Oahu and it had a very different feel to it when we first got there. The first couple of days we stayed in Waikiki as his show was in the area and there were tons of tourists. This Hawaii didn't feel as secluded, but the volcanoes were still everywhere, as were the beaches and it was still just as beautiful. After the show was done we left Waikiki and all stayed at an Air BnB in the Hawaii Kai area. This area was a lot quieter and felt more like the Hawaii I remembered. It was perfect.

Now, down to the food. For the most part we cooked at our Air BnB, grilling, light meals, breakfast etc. but there were a couple of times that we tasted a few local places and so, although this won't give fellow celiac sufferers a lot of ideas for Oahu, there's a great place for cake and one restaurant that you should definitely visit...

Columbus, OH

Ever since I was little, my favourite food has been pasta. I wanted it for every meal, I lived off of it my first year of Uni (as well as chip butty's. Whoops.) and my cupboard/fridge was always full of fresh & dry versions. When I learned I had coeliacs, I was livid. I mean, it made perfect sense as to why my body hadn't been functioning since I was tiny (seriously ask my parents about the amount of prune juice & orange with sugar they had to give me), but I was so angry that I'd no longer be able to enjoy such a great love of mine.

Well, times they have a changed. Not too much - it's still impossible to find GF Tortellini anywhere (let me know if you have a hook up that isn't ravioli), but these days leaps and bounds have been made in the Italian way of life for us sufferers and this post is about some places I just had to try in our hometown...

Recipe, HOME

I haven't had fried chicken in years. Caleb & I make a healthy oven baked GF version with GF panko (the recipe of which I will also put up here at some point), but we tend to not make the real stuff because it's so unhealthy, until last week when we had a serious craving...

I'd been dreaming about it for a while and so had he, so we spent a while texting about creating something great and of course the kind of texture we wanted for the coating. I obviously suggested Southern Fried (because it's the best), so Caleb said he would come up with a recipe that would be as close to that as he could get. Whenever I ate fried chicken growing up (which was rare) I would tend to just peel off the coating and leave the chicken; mostly because I'm very picky about chicken meat, but also because, let's be honest, the coating is the best and most important piece. And that was our aim.

So...here's our recipe for GF Fried Chicken - that you can of course modify to your liking. I've also put in a recipe for some Chipotle Aioli that Caleb made to go with our food. That day we also used our T-Fal Actifry to give us low calorie chips/fries to go with our beige dinner - as if we cared about calories (!) and they turned out beautifully!

London, UK

The second half of my recent trip to the UK was spent in London. I managed to actually spend some time with my nephew, Max (which is quite hard to do when he lives over an ocean), and I got to spend some time with Caleb doing, well, not a lot.

We stayed in Camden as I quite like it there, although it didn't occur to me that it was the beginning of the summer holidays in England, so it was even more crazy than usual. Which was fine, we just had to take the back roads so we could actually walk to places.

Southampton, UK

I recently spent 9 days in England and I ate... a lot of food. And I mean a lot. I've had to break it down into three posts; which I'm just going to say is normal and hopefully you won't think about the volume of items I consumed...

I started my trip with a visit to Southampton. None of you will be aware (because why would you?), but I lived in Southampton for 8 years. I went to the University of Southampton and loved the city so much I ended up just staying. My parents could never figure out why, but it was mostly the people and the groups that felt like family that kept me there. A few months back a group was created on Facebook for a club that had shut down about 10 years ago (and that I had gone to religiously for a few years) and a reunion night was planned - so I obviously had to go. I stayed with three friends (Soraya, Rosie and Brombley) whilst on my trip and this is a breakdown of the many items I ate when I was in their company. I didn't document every meal - otherwise this blog would be a novel, but here are some of the items I enjoyed.

Columbus, OH

I hate sushi.

I haven't eaten fish since I was about 10, I never cook rice and soy sauce is straight from the devil.

Most the people in my life really enjoy sushi or fish, and Caleb especially loves it. He eats fish in all ways, shapes and forms and believes that the rawer it is, the better. He has to sacrifice eating it a lot because of me, so if I can find a way to eat it with him, I try to; usually without much success...until now!

Fusion

I first tried Fusian three years ago when my friend Casey was visiting; I was trying to be healthy and I forced it down and that was that. I didn't touch it again and didn't even think about it at all, until they opened up another one at Easton and I decided enough was enough and I should try it again. The main reason I can stomach Fusian is it's build your own Sushi - what a saviour!

England, UK

First, I've got to apologise for the lack of a posts. Lots of traveling, seeing family, cancelled weddings (due to appendicitis!) and getting back into work hasn't left a lot of time to write up my recent trip to the sacred (currently falling apart) homeland.

So now that's out the way, I'll let you know that the majority of this post is going to be focused on one giant supermarket's GF selection. Every time I go back to the UK I'll review a different chain, but for this trip, it's Tesco. Before I rate their items though, I have to give a special mention to one of the loves of my life, Pizza Express.

NYC, NY

What do you think of when you think of food in NYC? Maybe a big steak, maybe whatever the latest trend is, but I'm betting it's usually pizza; a NY slice. Well, same. I haven't had a NY slice in years and it kills me. I have always been a "the skinnier the pizza the better" so for me NY pizza is leagues above deep dish. It's actually been the subject of many debates with Caleb's family because they just love their Chicago Giordano's and well, I just don't think I ever could. To me, pizza isn't about the base, it's about the toppings, so if the base can be as thin and light as possible then I'm onto a winner.

On Monday Caleb was going to be in NY for his latest album's release show party (buy the album here) so I went & joined in on the fun. Literally flying into NY for 24hrs, I decided I had to find a couple of spots for not only myself, but for this blog. I've eaten at a couple of GF bakeries before in the city which I didn't go crazy over (and were before this blog) so I decided to scope out some new places.

Mozarelli's

I imagined myself lazily walking around the city in the sun finding my stops and taking my time ordering. Well, in fact, I somehow ended up on Caleb's press tour for the day, so this really affected my timing. Luckily one of his radio stops was right by the Flat Iron building (one of the only iconic NY buildings I haven't seen, that was on my list) which also, as it happens, was right by Mozarelli's!

Online, WWW

Firstly, as someone who isn't GF out of choice, this isn't going to be a blog about being crazy healthy. I am not a "bad eater", but I definitely believe in balance and so this won't be about finding healthy alternatives to bad food. I love cake, fries and pizza just as much as I love salad, avocados and fruit, so don't expect this blog to be a certain way. It won't be. My search for GF food and eateries covers junk food just as much as health food, so please don't expect a bunch of posts about Kale; it's not going to happen.

Now, after saying that, a lot of people talk about the benefits of doing a "juice cleanse". A lot of the time people haven't got a clue what they're talking about. And a lot of the time people just like to be doing what everyone else is doing, but juice is one of those things that people are actually right about.

I personally discovered how much juice cleanses benefit my insides, when I randomly decided one day that I needed a boost. I hadn't done a juice cleanse before and I was adamant that I was going to do a 3-day cleanse and dive straight in and everything would be magical. In short, I was one of those people and I quickly discovered that 3-day cleanses... are very hard. By the end of it I felt famished and I just wanted to chew a piece of food; but I also discovered that for someone whose intestines don't always want to cooperate, it was a great way to give them a reset. I haven't done a 3-day cleanse since, but I actually do, do (ha) day cleanses very often. My body can hold onto a crazy amount of food (sorry to be graphic), and I can feel sluggish and bloated and gross all the time, and so, every so often it actually feels nice to not be eating anything and to give my body a bunch of nutrients and even more fruit, veggies and supplements. There are two companies I use nowadays, one local and one that I get great deals with online using Groupon. This is about the latter. (I will of course be giving the run-down of the local juice company I use at a later date, because woo local.)

Columbus, OH

As this blog progresses, you'll start to notice that there will be a lot of posts about Columbus, and that's because I live there. For all the traveling I do, I obviously also spend a lot of time here, forever searching for awesome places to eat, so expect a lot of time dedicated to the hot spots of this city (this is not one of them fyi).

The Cheesecake Factory

That being said, yesterday Caleb and I decided we wanted to grab a quick bite to eat and ended up choosing The Cheesecake Factory (as I said, not a local hot spot, but from time to time I will also be blogging about the standard, quick, chain places to eat too). Now, if you're American, you know that this isn't the fanciest of places to eat, or the most courageous in cuisine, and if you're from anywhere else you might not be aware of their GIGANTIC menu or their vomit-coloured interior, but it's definitely a safe place for people in groups to usually find something they can all eat. The Cheesecake Factory has always been (kind of) ahead when offering GF items. They used to have a separate menu, but these days they've incorporated it into the usual one - just look for the GF symbols. The company are also very aware of cross-contamination, so they get a big thumbs up from me about using separate water for pasta and grill plates etc.

Washington, D.C

Sometimes, I love to be a tourist and do the “tourist” type things. I travel frequently, but it doesn’t always give me an opportunity to see the sights or “must-sees” of each city or country, so for the past couple of days I visited Washington D.C with my sister-in-law so I could do just that.  The Lincoln memorial, Arlington Cemetery, The White House, I saw it all!

Of course, this blog isn’t about the sights, this blog is about my search for gluten-free food and living. As I was only there for a short amount of time, I managed to fit in just two places: Old Ebbitt Grill and &pizza. The first, had great cocktails, a tasty piece of steak and were super helpful when I told them of my allergy and the latter was just, well, it was great!

And After All This Time...

It’s been years now. Years since I found out what was wrong me, and still it’s a daily struggle.  The constant fluctuation of bloat, the wondering if something I ate had a hidden ingredient or just the huffs at having to spend a fortune on “safe” food at the supermarket. It affects every day of my life and so I’m here to share this never ending journey with you.

A lot of the time I curse the “trendy” people who say “Oh I totally have coeliacs, it’s awful isn’t it.” (and then help themselves to another bread roll) and sometimes I’m begrudgingly thankful because it means that now more people than ever know what it means to be gluten free; however basic the understanding. I travel a bit and it plays havoc with my insides. I’m forever searching for places to eat in every city or country I go to, and so, I thought I’d create this, a blog about finding hidden gems for sufferers (or places to avoid), good and bad encounters, comparisons of products, brands that I think everyone needs in their life and sometimes I’ll even just share my own recipes (and maybe sell items!). Somewhere in this blog, I hope you find what I have to say interesting.

It’s pretty unbelievable the amount of time I have to dedicate to an area that most people don’t even need to think about, so I might as well share what I’m learning along the way. And after all this time, I’m definitely still learning.