Picazzo's Pizza

I had gourmet pizza last night and it was fantastic!  If you are gluten intolerant and want a fun (though slighly pricey) night out, check out Picazzo's Pizza.  Almost everything on their menu is, or can be, made gluten free.  There are only a couple of things off limits.  It's the first time in a long time that I've been able to sit down and consider eating anything on the menu!  

I ordered a gluten-free pizza with chicken and artichoke hearts.  It was a little skimpy on the sauce, but otherwise delicious.  What a luxury to eat the leftovers for breakfast!  I recommend this restaurant to anyone living in AZ or OR.  They go to great lengths to ensure your pizza is safe from cross-contamination (even though nothing is ever guaranteed 100% at any restaurant) and the staff seemed very well educated on Celiac, which made for a very relaxed evening.  I enjoyed a great meal, free from illness or sleepiness.  Ah, heaven!  :)

I want for to eat pizza!

The other day my doctor told me that Garlic Jim's serves gluten free pizza with a corn-based crust.  And I was all excited that I could finally eat pizza!  Yummy pizza, even!  But alas, no.  It was a lie.  I called and the crust is rice-based.  However, this allergic girl just may order one anyway, and let the narocolepsy take her down in a fit of pizza-induced ecstacy.  One nap won't hurt.

UPDATE:  I broke down right after I wrote this and ordered one (with the encouragement of the family...they're such enablers...lol.)  I have to say it was AMAZING.  Total ecstacy.  It was greasy like a Pizza Hut pizza, and I didn't even mind the thin crust.  I'm a thick crust kind of girl, but at this point, any real pizza is heaven.  I'm happy to report that despite it's rice-based crust, I had no adverse reactions to it after I ate it.  No nap, no weird feelings.  Yay!  I did wake up with some burning gut this morning, but I suspect it could just be cross-contamination.  Rice never does that to me.  I'm almost inspired to buy plain rice and see if it really is an option for me.  Cross your fingers!  :D

Outback Steakhouse

When I first started this gluten-free diet, I thought I'd never have anything good again.  I lamented about it endlessly.  But tonight was a triumph!  Chocolate Thunder from Down Under is gluten free!!  I used to crave this dessert when I was pregnant and who knew it was one of the only things I ate back then that was ok?  I cried when I found out this was ok to eat, and tonight's meal was absolute bliss (they have an entire gluten free menu and the salmon was absolutely delicious!)  I look forward to eating more very soon!  :)

Evil Salad

Yesterday I ate at the cafeteria because, even though I brought my own food, I was really craving a salad.  Plus it was super cold out and I wanted some decaf coffee, which I can’t consume regularly, so I have to find someplace to buy it on occasion.  So I went in and told them I wanted a salad but was afraid to order because I can’t eat gluten.  They recommended the greek salad they had (which had extra non-greek-salady things in it like artichokes and garbonzo beans) and swore up, down, and sideways it was gluten free.  So, like a sucker, I got it. 

It was extremely tasty, which always makes me suspicious, but I ate the whole thing.  And then the sleepiness hit.  Ooooh I was so sleepy I wanted to put my head down on my desk and sleep all afternoon.  I could barely think, which is bad when I have to do calculations and mix chemicals all day long (it’s ok, not dangerous ones!)  I was so mad…”Not gluten free!” I thought.  Ha! 

I was dreading feeling sick that night and was praying that I would only have to deal with the extreme sleepiness and nothing more.  ”I can handle sleepiness” I thought.  It’s hard but not physically painful.  Well turns out they were right.  I didn’t get sick.  So it was something else in it that made me sleepy (like that’s difficult.)  I won’t order it again, but I do sort of trust their judgment on the gluten thing.  Sort of. I tried a different salad today that didn’t have dressing and I did just great. :)

It’s times like these that I feel so defeated. I work so hard to feel “normal” every day. When something like this happens I get very frustrated. Like what’s the point of trying when it’s so easy to lose it all? It’s like I’m taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back, but I’m still going forward. (no, the Paula Abdul reference is not lost on me. An “American Idol” ad just happened to come on the TV at the moment that I wrote that.) So I can’t get too discouraged. I’m still working my way up the learning curve, after all.

A Successful Night Out

Last night I went to a party at the Adrianna Ballroom in Portland, OR. As soon as I got my tickets, I was concerned about the dinner menu. So I e-mailed one of the party organizers, who put me in touch with the staff at the ballroom. I was very polite and simply asked if there would be any gluten-free food, or if I should simply eat ahead of time and skip the dinner. They were courteous and sent me the dinner menu right away. I decided that the salad and the beef would probably be ok to eat, so I e-mailed them again just to be sure the beef didn’t have any hidden gluten in a seasoning or marinade. They were very nice and promptly sent me the ingredients, which were fine.

When I got there, I was a little nervous, because we arrived late and everyone had already been through the buffet. I was worried that they had mixed the utensils and cross-contaminated. However, despite the mess on the buffet tables from sloppy serving, the salad was at the very beginning (with separate optional dressings…very nice!) and the beef was at the very end on its own table because it was being sliced by the kitchen staff.

The dinner was amazing and I brought my own cookies in my purse for dessert, so I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything. My first gluten-free dinner out was a success. I did not get sick or sleepy from the food at all. We had a lovely time!