Most people go out to eat at some point during the month. Just because you now follow a gluten free diet does not mean you should be exempt from going out with your family and friends to eat. It might be a little more difficult, but it is possible.

My husband and I scoured our local towns for restaurants we could eat at. Some chains are getting the idea and starting to have a gluten free menu, which is great! Others are still behind the times... but I am sure they will jump into the ball game soon enough ;)

Other than calling ahead, or going in and asking numerous questions of your server, you can go to http://glutenfreeregistry.com/ Using this website we were able to locate an AMAZING, organic, restaurant that had gluten free items listed in their menu, which we were able to see on their website! When we went on our anniversary trip to California, we used this website to find restaurants and bakeries we wanted to visit both near and far to the area we were staying. While this website does not contain every restaurant in the area you are looking at, a lot of restaurants who want more gluten free customers are hearing about this site and adding their names to the list. Note to self, if your server looks at you dumbly when you ask if they have a gluten free menu or what items they might be able to make gluten free, ask for their manager. I can tell you of many, many stories where we got contaminated at restaurants and banked our health on a well meaning (most of the time), server who did not want to ask questions in the kitchen about the food. We paid for those mistakes, and I would hate for you to get sick because someone didn't want to make the time to do their job, serve you, the customer.

 

Most people when they hear that I eat a gluten free, mostly grain free, dairy free, sugar free and mostly starch free diet (pretty much a paleo diet) ask, "Yikes, well what do you actually eat?!?" There are TONS of different foods out there safe for your body that do not contain gluten! The easiest way to ensure success in the process of going gluten free is thinking of the foods that you think you cannot live without. When I went gluten free 5 years ago, I thought I couldn't live without pizza, ice cream, and cakes/doughnuts, so those were the very first foods I learned to make or where to buy them. I scoured the internet over different brand name ice creams, and researched/tried many different gluten free products. (Please keep in mind that the information below was before I went low carb/dairy/sugar free.) Below are the results I found:

Pizza - I like making my own crust.
- Pamela's all purpose, gluten free baking mix is a great source for all baking/cooking needs requiring flour. Their chewy pizza crust however is nothing short of amazing. 
- I have also recently discovered Chebe, and they are great for hand-held pizzas.
- If you are looking for a pizza already frozen, I HIGHLY recommend choosing Garlic Jim's. They are a chain that make gluten free pizzas onsite and now sell them frozen. We add extra meat to our pre-frozen pizzas because we find them lacking. However, aside from the meat issue, we love Garlic Jim's veggie pizza that has artichokes, onions, pesto and many other goodies.                                                                                                             - And last but certainly not least, we like the frozen, pre-made, Kinnikinnick brand. They are great crusts, and make fabulous garlic toast :) http://consumer.kinnikinnick.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/consumer.home.html                                                                                                                                                                        
With pizza now covered, I moved on to the next thing...ICECREAM!                                                                   
This is a personal area. See my favorite to boot is Tillamook's Peanut Butter Chocolate icecream...and it's gluten free!!! A lot of brands will say on their website what things to look for if their icecream is not gluten free. It is however becoming more common for them to start labeling their icecreams in case you can't remember what that specific brand said. PLUS, homemade icecream is AMAZING! I highly recommend making your own if you can.

Next was doughnuts! Doughnuts were something I didn't have for years. Kinnikinnick has the best in my opinion and my favorite are the chocolate covered ones :) They are very cakey, and are so yummy. I like them straight out of the freezer. Another idea is to use the Pamela's baking mix and make your own doughnut holes following their instructions. (They have a lot of great recipes on their site all using their flour.)                                                  

Once I had some of my favorite foods in stock, I didn't feel like I couldn't make it. Everyone is different in their food choices, but the point is to find the things you think you can't live without, and figure out how to have them gluten free first.

A few other notes on my personal preferences:

Noodles: Tinkyada brown rice noodles are great. Buy them in bulk on Amazon.com for a better discount than you will get in the store. They have spaghetti, spiral, lasagna, elbow, etc. Quinoa noodles are good also, but I would recommend going with the Tinkyada noodles first while you get adjusted to the differences of life without gluten.

Bread: I prefer Udi's bread. It is the best in my opinion, of all the gluten free, pre-made breads. They also make some delicious bagels, muffins, and pizza crusts.

Box mixes: My husband and I like the Pamela's. But we LOVE the gluten free Betty Crocker mixes that you can now find at most, if not all, grocery stores. They are in yellow boxes, say "Gluten Free" on the front, and have chocolate chip cookies, brownies, yellow cake, and chocolate cake. My husband prefers the Betty Crocker over any mixes we have tried to date.

Also, check your local Co-op. Ours makes a bunch of gluten free items such as lemon cloud cake, tiramisu, peanut butter bars, pies, etc.

Just remember, anything that you can make that has gluten, you can make gluten free. :) Life without gluten is possible and can still be just as delicious!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

If you have been toying with the idea of going gluten free, it can be quite overwhelming when you starting thinking about all the things that gluten is in. The easiest way I can think to describe the process is looking for simplicity when it comes to food. Fresh vegetables, fruits and meats are all gluten free. I would recommend familiarizing yourself with the foods you can eat first, and then look at the list of things you cannot eat. A good rule of thumb is EVERYTHING that is processed/manufactured has the potential to contain gluten. This includes, but certainly not limited to: cereal, seasonings, pre-seasoned meats, sauces, frozen potatoes, ice cream, etc.

A lot of people will tell you that going or being gluten free is a fad diet. To the skeptics I would say, you don't have to live in my body and deal with the months of repercussions that eating gluten would have on me. I get severely protective of the way I choose to eat because of all the health problems I have and the way God has and is healing my body by maintaining a strict diet. Whether you have many health problems or not, I believe most people desire better health to live the remainder of their days on this planet with as much comfort as possible; which requires taking care of yourself. If you are concerned after reading: http://www.treelight.com/health/nutrition/Wheat.html and http://www.celiaccentral.org/disease-symptoms-checklist/ that you might have a gluten allergy/irritation or Celiac's disease, don't hesitate to try an elimination for 30 days and see how you feel. Most people I know who try going gluten free feel better within this time frame. Others feel worse as their body detoxifies itself and may need longer. Whichever category you fall into, I hope you find the path to health you have been looking for.

When my husband went gluten free during our courtship, it took a lot of convincing from me to get him to even try it. He had severe issues with dairy, intestinal issues, acid reflux and thought he might have an ulcer in his stomach. 2-3 months later, thinking nothing had changed by going gluten free, we went out for dinner and he got contaminated at the restaurant. The next couple of weeks he lived in intense pain with all of the same problems rearing their ugly head. He realized that he used to live that way daily, but now was free of all the issues by eating gluten free. He has now been gluten free for over 3.5 years and says he will never go back.

While sacrifices are made going gluten free, the benefits far outweigh the sacrifices. If you are thinking you couldn't possibly give up your macaroni and cheese, your pies, doughnuts, etc, the good news is that anything  containing gluten, can be made gluten free!

To get started on your gluten free diet, I would highly recommend reading http://www.glutenfreeliving.com/how-get-started.php on the practical steps. While you are learning how to read labels, I would also recommend keeping a print-out of the Unsafe list provided on Celiacs.com (also in last post).