Eating Out Gluten Free

Today was a busy day for me and thus I had to eat out twice. I really don't like to do this because it is often unhealthy decisions I make. Today for breakfast that was no exception. My family was at Hardee's and I being super hungry looked on their menu talked to the person taking my order and decided on a "gluten free" low-card breakfast bowl. BAD IDEA! First it was loaded with cheese and greasy sausage which at one point I probably would have loved, but not anymore. My tastes have really changed especially with being faced with a gluten intolerance. So, I ate the breakfast bowl and within about 15 minutes found out I shouldn't have. I don't know if the person preparing my food didn't change gloves or somehow gluten found it's way into my meal, but it was there. I felt miserable! But, at least now I know not to get that.


For dinner I ate at Red Robin. For those of you who do not know what Red Robin is it is a american food restaurant. I have been doing lots of research on gluten free eating out and after my breakfast fiasco was worried about attempting to eat out again. To my delight it was FANTASTIC! Also, I explained to the waitress and she listened. I asked her to please make sure the staff changed their gloves and made sure that no gluten came anywhere near my plate. She was like we here at Red Robin really take food allergies serious and do everything to ensure your food is "clean" of allergens. I ate my meal still a little skeptical that I would feel sick shortly after. NOTHING! What a relief! I ordered that California Chicken Burger with no bun and instead of fries I ordered a side salad no croutons with the honey-poppyseed dressing. It was super delicious and I will definitely be going back in the future and with ease. I love that feeling.

Super Great Gluten Free Dinners

For the past three nights I have made some amazing totally gluten free dinners. On Thursday I made had gluten free chicken fettuccine alfredo using Trader Joes Brown Rice Pasta Fusilli. I have had other gluten free pasta that costs much more than this rice pasta that didn't taste near as good. Along with the chicken fettuccine I had green beans and applesauce with cinnamon. I can't say ENOUGH how amazingly tasty this pasta was. And, I only paid $1.99 per bag for this pasta which is such an incredible price. Now, with using the alfredo sauce it didn't make the meal super nutritional but I just can't cut everything out while getting used to eating gluten free. 


Ok, Friday night I made pork chops seasoned with thyme, cumin, paprika, garlic salt, onion powder and pepper. I baked the porkchops until done and ate it with some GF yukon gold mashed potatoes, green beans and applesauce with cinnamon. I obviously like green beans and applesauce! ;) This dinner was delicious!

Then tonight I made homemade pizzas using a GF pizza crust. When making the dough I sprinkled a generous amount of an Italian seasoning before baking which I feel like gave it an excellent amount of flavor. I made two separate pizzas so I can cut up and freeze and then just take them straight out of the freezer and reheat. Which is super nice because there isn't really a whole lot I like to eat that is quick. So the first pizza had red sauce, chicken, spinach, black olives and cheese. The other one had red sauce, bacon, sausage and cheese. They both were super fantastic. I used Bob's Red Mill GF Pizza Crust mix. I paid around $3.50 for a bag of the mix and it made two large pizzas.


I look forward to making more delicious GF meals! AND I am weighing in for the first time in about a month on Monday. I am nervous and excited all at the same time. I really hope to see a loss. No matter how much. The last time I weighed myself I gained 15lbs. That's a whole lot to gain when you are really wanting to lose weight! 

Todays Meals & Thoughts

Today went pretty well as far as eating gluten free. The problem with eating gluten free is it's either all or nothing. When I am eating gluten filled food I have stomach pains and intestinal issues after each meal and in between as well. But, unfortunately I am just kind of used to it. Now that I am eating gluten free and really making sure nothing that has gluten in it comes close to my mouth its like my sensitivity heightens. It's like one little bread crumb can upset my stomach. For example, for breakfast I ate 2 scrambled eggs with a slice of GF bread and a small amount of cinnamon butter with a Clementine on the side. All things I ate for breakfast were GF but my stomach started hurting soon after finishing my meal. So, that means that either by using the toaster that is also used for regular bread my bread got some crumbs on it or the cinnamon butter that has shared a knife with a gluten filled product got gluten in it. And because this is my second day eating GF I can feel exactly when I have encountered gluten. It also happened again tonight for dinner. I went out to Denny's with my mom and grandma. I ordered 2 egg whites with turkey bacon and chicken sausage. All of which is supposedly GF. So, I suspect the bacon was grilled on the same surface that the pancakes are made thus contaminating my food. Also, the entrée came with a side of bread and I asked the waitress if I could get fruit or yogurt as a substitute and it was going to cost me extra. I didn't want the bread and the other side but just a substitution. It just gets frustrating going out to eat and my husband and I really enjoy doing this. I will have to make it work though because this is now a lifestyle for me. I can't go back for my health.


I went to a whole foods store and found some good deals. I bought some GF pancakes (blueberry and plain 2 for $6.00), rice pasta ($1.99 a bag) as well as some spinach and some apples and so on. I think I want to make fish and rice for dinner tomorrow. We will see how adventurous I want to get.


Today's Meals:


Breakfast:
2 scrambled eggs
1 slice GF bread
1 clementine


Lunch:
Tuna salad on GF crackers


Dinner:
2 scrambled eggs
2 slices of turkey bacon
1 patty of chicken sausage
grits


Snack:
1 homemade GF brownie (MMMmmmm....)

Yesterday's Food Diary

My breakfast isn't the healthiest today because I haven't really been keeping healthy food around the house and so I had to work with what I had. I was planning on going to the store later on in the day so I just made something that was better than what I had been eating for breakfast.


Breakfast:
2 eggs scrambled
1Tbsp black olives
1Tbsp cheese
1 buttermilk biscuit
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon whip


Lunch:
I didn't get to eat lunch :(


Dinner:
I had leftovers it was a chicken and noodles plate which contained:
Egg noodles
Cream of Chicken Soup
Chicken Stock
Chicken
Sides:
Apple Sauce with Cinnamon


Snack:
1 cup of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream


So, not such a good day as far as food goes, but honestly its WAY better that what I have been eating! So, I will work to be a little better today. One day at a time, step by step; I will beat this!

Food Diary from Saturday

Hello! I have been missing from my blog this week and it makes me sad. I've just been super busy with work! Yesterday I stuck to my eating plan really well. My days food is as follows:

Breakfast:
Light Whole Wheat English Muffin
1 egg
1 slice of cheese
1 clementine

Snack:
Apples with low fat caramel dip

Lunch:
Lean Cuisine Pizza
Small Salad
1/2 fat ranch dressing
2 slices of a Chocolate Orange

Snack:
slice of cheddar cheese
1 wheat cracker

Dinner:
Parmesan Encrusted Tilapia
1/2 weight watchers mac & cheese
1/2 low fat creamed spinach
1 hard boiled egg
2 slices of Chocolate Orange

Snack:
1 cup of popcorn

I have NEVER eaten tilapia before last night and I LOVED it! I know it is not the healthiest kind that I ate, but if you knew me you would know I typically hate seafood. Literally, the only kind of seafood that I normally eat is canned tuna. I don't really care for shrimp although I am trying to change that and I don't like any other fish just yet. I baked the tilapia instead of frying it like the package mentioned. I will be having it for dinner tonight as well. I am hoping to slowly move up to buying tilapia that has no seasoning on it so that I can season it myself and make it very flavorful and healthy.

How Did I Do Over the Thanksgiving Holiday?

Thanksgiving is over, but I still have leftovers! I didn't do too terrible, but I definitely didn't eat healthy. I ate some white meat turkey with mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls and stuffing... SO pretty much ONLY carbs! :( I don't know my official weight yet because my weigh-in is on Tuesday, but I feel like I may have gained a little back that I lost last week. We will see! Oh and in my next post tomorrow I will tell you about a really neat new device I just got to calculate body fat percentage! It is really neat. :)

New Favorite Salty Snack

So, I LOVE these popcorn puffs. They are not the healthiest, but better than chips. Again I am taking one step at a time!

The nutiritional facts in these are as follows:

Serving Size: 2.5 cups
Calories: 140
Total Fat: 5g
    Saturated Fat 1g
Cholesterol: 0g
Sodium: 150mg
Dietary Fiber: 2g
Suagrs: 1g

Anywho, if you have a Trader Joes in your area and you like white cheddar, CHECK THESE OUT!

Today's Food Diary & Thoughts

Hello whomever is reading my blog... if anyone is reading this blog. Today wasn't such a good day as far as my eating goes. It's not that I ate too much, but the foods I ate were not the healthiest choices.

Breakfast:
1 cup of Cinnamon Life cereal
1/2 cup of skim milk

Lunch:
Small bowl of cube steaks cooked with brown gravy and no-yolk dumpling noodles

Dinner:
Small bowl of cube steaks cooked with brown gravy and no-yolk dumpling noodles
1 cup of green beans
1 cup of applesauce with cinnamon

Snacks:
1 small banana with 1 Tbsp of peanut butter
1/2 bran muffin

Drinks:
Grande Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha made with nonfat milk and without whip cream
Water

I needed to each MANY more veggies and fruits today, but I didn't plan appropriately. This just shows that for me it is very important to plan all of my meals ahead of time to make sure that I am eating as healthy as possible.

This week I have been trying to get into a habit of working out. Now, I am starting VERY slow because I have been out of the gym for quite some time. I've been only working out for 15 minutes a day for the past 4 days. I've been using the elliptical machine at my gym. Thursday I used this new machine and it is an elliptical, but slightly different. I worked out for 15 minutes on a hill program setting and the distance I covered was 2.01 miles and burned 204 calories--- in 15 minutes! Can you imagine if I used this machine for an hour and covered 8 miles and burned 800 calories!  That would be amazing and is a new goal that I am working towards. I still need to do my measurements, but I can't find my tape to use. I am going to get a new one tomorrow. I want to do these before I lose weight because I want to know exactly how I far I have come.