McDonalds
Ok, so honesty time here... I love McDonalds. Always have done. Ever since I was little and barely ever got to eat it, I've been in love with it. Of course there is way better food out there, and of course there's even better "fast food" out there, but their fries will always have my heart. You can't beat them. And so as soon as I booked our trip to Finland, I knew there was something I was definitely going to try... Gluten Free McDonalds!
Scandinavia is way ahead of the times, and actually I think most of Europe has this too, but for McDonalds to offer GF buns here is a wonderful thing. We were in Helsinki for the night and I couldn't resist heading here and ordering a few burgers. We never do things by halves and so we sat down & took a bite of each of them just to see if it was anything like the original. Was it as good as I remember "normal" McDonalds being? No. But was it wonderful to eat a burger with a bun from there for the first time in years? Absolutely! I look forward to when this becomes a reality in McDonalds across the world, but for now it's probably safer for me and my waistline that it's only in countries I rarely go to!Kakslautten Resort
This has been on my list to visit for years now. And so, after never being able to go because of Caleb's schedule, I decided this year I was going to make it happen. I booked it back in March... March (!) - because it sells out so quickly (well at least the igloos do) and honestly, I was waiting for something to go wrong all year so we wouldn't end up going, but we did and it was just... magical. BUT, what about the food I hear you say? Well, before we arrived I made sure they knew about my allergy and seeing as Europe is super understanding, they made sure to check with each dinner what I could and couldn't eat. A couple of the waitresses were a little confused sometimes, but they always double checked with the manager to make sure they were getting it right for me, which I really appreciated.
The first night was a beef steak with a carrot & root veg puree & for the gluten free option I got roast potatoes instead of a gratin, which I wasn't mad about seeing as I love roast potatoes. This place is all inclusive (because there's literally nothing else around) and so I wasn't expecting 5 star meals (because all inclusive never are) but it was tasty. The dessert was a molten lava cake which I obviously couldn't have, but I was fine with a bit of ice cream and berry coulis. Caleb and I had a couple of bottles of wine and then spent 5hrs talking over dinner and it was such a perfect first night. An absolute dream.
On the second night I didn't find the dinner as tasty, but it was fine - chicken with rice and root veggies & a cream sauce. I'm not a big cream sauce kind of girl and it was flavorful enough, just not my cup of tea really. The dessert was a raspberry parfait, which had a white chocolate base and that was gorgeous. Once again they checked on what I could eat and George the manager made sure to speak to me about what was in each of the dishes, so I wouldn't feel nervous.
We also had breakfast included which was a buffet, but I mostly stuck to greek yogurt and fruit because I wasn't trying to over indulge. I wasn't sure what else was GF or not, but I'm sure if I had asked, they could have told me what was safe. As I said before, they were very accommodating for me, and I was very grateful. This resort was truly special and I can't get over all the experiences we got to have. Obviously this is a food blog so I won't go off on all the wild things we did, but I will say that dog sledding through northern Finland was a dream come true and sleeping in a glass igloo under the stars was beyond words. If you can go, please, please do.Thank you Finland!
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