Helen's wheat free blog

Gluten free airline food: flying UK to Canada

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Wed, 01 May 2013 10:47:00 -0700

After my less than tasty (or safe) gluten free meals experience flying from Canada to the UK, I decided to ensure I had plenty of food in my bag for the return trip.

However, the hot meal that arrived was almost acceptable. Chicken in a sauce with rice, okay so I gave that a miss, and my husband happily ate that after eating his salmon. But a manufacturer wrapped bread roll from Lifestyle Healthcare, clearly stating wheat/gluten free on the packaging, along with ingredients, was a tasty surprise, and not like a rock either. I slathered it with Laughing Cow Cheese Triangles that I'd fortuitously brought on board, and it was very acceptable.

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Great gluten free pub grub at The Brook Inn

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 07:56:03 -0700

While on a recent visit to the UK we spent some considerable time trying to locate safe gluten free eating options, an exercise that turned out somewhat frustrating. However one gem, and only a few km's from where we were staying, popped up, The Brook Inn at Washbrook.

Located in a small village just outside Ipswich, Suffolk, The Brook Inn is a traditional English pub serving pub fare. But with one very important difference, a large proportion of the food served is gluten free, including the fish & chips.

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Gluten free airline food: flying from Canada to the UK

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 13:49:00 -0700

Airline food has never really been that nice. Although there are a lot of challenges in creating food to serve to an aircraft full of people, things haven't particularly improved in the nearly 30 years I've been flying.

I've been served wheat bread rolls dumped in the middle of a gluten free food tray, been offered cakes, muffins and pastries, and a variety of things wrapped in clingfilm purporting to be gluten free, but without any ingredients listed how would I know they really were?

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No more blog comments

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:46:00 -0700

Why can't you make comments to these blogs any longer?

Well, thank the mindless spammers who spend hours every day posting totally incomprehensible or rubbish comments to the blog postings, in an effort to get links to nasty little websites or Facebook pages totally unconnected with wheat free or gluten free living.

When we launch the new website comment posting will be back, in the meantime please accept our apologies.

Is hospital a safe place for celiacs to eat?

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 08:02:00 -0700

If you are a celiac and go into hospital for any unscheduled/scheduled stay lasting more than a few hours, then you would expect to need to eat at some point. However, many patients have reported a disturbing lack of education over the foods that a celiac can and can't eat among hospital caterers, and even the nurses caring for them.

Because hospital catering services can differ significantly, and are based on the contract awarded to a particular caterer e.g. normally the cheapest quote wins, it means that the standards of food and catering can vary widely.

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Start a Small Food movement

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 12:27:42 -0700

While I absolutely applaud the labelling regulations that make manufacturers state if a product does/may contain wheat, e.g. "this product was processed in a facility that also processes wheat..." it's making it more difficult to find non-contaminated sources of products. Let me explain.

A couple of weeks ago I ran out of walnuts. You would think that this would be easy to remedy, not so. In the local health food store the big bins of nuts etc are a contamination certainty as people indiscriminately move the scoops between bins, ensuring good cross-contamination, and hence "no-go" areas for those people with food allergies or intolerance.

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The original gluten free diet

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:39:29 -0700

Did you know that Stone Age man followed a gluten free diet? Well he did until the Agricultural Revolution about 10,000 years ago, after that his digestive problems evidently started.

Stone Age man ate meat, fish, vegetables and fruits, there were no grains in his diet, no dairy, no legumes and no potatoes... sorry all you spud fans, Stone Age man did not go hunting with a handful of potato chips or fries to go with his Mammoth burger.

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Domino's offer gluten free pizza

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Mon, 28 May 2012 14:31:07 -0700

Is it an attempt to include celiacs in their clientele? Or just an attempt to get more feet in the door?

While gluten free pizza is now on the Domino's Pizza menu, the company says that it's not recommended for people suffering with celiac disease. Er what? Well, the pizzas are cooked on the same surfaces and in the same ovens as gluten containing products. Oh, so it's not really a gluten free pizza at all? Nope.

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Does your gluten free lunch need a snackTAXI?

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:05:06 -0700

How often do you carefully mark your ziplock baggie gluten free lunch with your name only to have some greedy/shortsighted/hasty person grab it from the cooler anyway?

Does the overwhelming tide of plastic bags thrown out by the average household every year bother you?

Do you think that there must be a better alternative to disposable plastic bags for all those packups for school, work, recreation etc?

If so, snackTAXI™ might be just the thing you're looking for.

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The Allergy-Free Cook Bakes Bread Book Review

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:21:00 -0800

Not another gluten free recipe book you groan... well hold that thought because you might be pleasantly surprised by The Allergy-Free Cook Bakes Bread: Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Egg-free by Laurie Sadowski.

The book contains useful information that, while it might seem obvious to experienced coeliacs, will be useful to those people new to gluten free. And although the recipes are vegan, as well as gluten free, we think it would be easy to substitute butter or milk for vegan buttery spread or non-dairy milk if you don't have vegan versions available, the book gives tips.

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The Allergy-Free Cook Bakes Bread

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:01:14 -0800

How many of you miss bread since going wheat or gluten free? And if you've read our previous blogs you'll no doubt agree that decent gluten free breads are few and far between.

So can you imagine our excitement when we were asked to review a new book called "The Allergy-Free Cook Bakes Bread" written by Laurie Sadowski? It's a whole book dedicated to gluten free, dairy free and egg free sweet and savoury breads.

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Why is it so difficult to make good gluten free bread?

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:02:23 -0700

There doesn't seem to be any consistency in the various gluten free breads on the market. Why? If some gluten free bakeries can do it why can't others? There are still gluten free breads being sold that are just the same hard, crumbly brick they have been for the last 10 years.

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Pricey and cheating

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 10:30:06 -0700

Although I try to steer away from too many sweet things I do find that granola bars are a useful "get you out of hunger" standby, especially if you're out and about and there's no wheat free or gluten free foods available.

Anyway I got really keen on the JK Gourmet gluten free granola bars, my favourite being the Nuts & Cranberries. At $2.99 each they are a little steep in price, but very tasty.

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All good things come to an end

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:37:00 -0700

If you read my previous blog on the GF Patisserie then you'll know how impressed I was with their great bread. Really good tasting bread that didn't crumble or need toasting.

An impromptu visit to Calgary saw me heading home via Cochrane today to pick up a supply of their yummy bread and burger buns.

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Chef believes that coeliacs are attention seekers

nospam@example.com (Helen Fletton) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:16:00 -0700

Chef Damian Cardone admitted on his Facebook profile on March 10, 2011 that he thinks coeliacs on gluten free diets, who request gluten free meals at the restaurant he works in, are timewasters and its all in their "disturbed little heads". He freely admits to serving high gluten pasta to anyone asking for gluten free.

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