Gluten free travel - Austin Airport

So it’s no secret I travel a lot – both for work and personal although with work increases the desire for personal travel decreases….

So I thought I’d start collecting my thoughts on gluten free food at airports. It’s tough in airports when you only get so much time, and you only pass so many options it’s nice to know where options are exactly in case it’s worth a side trip!

So let’s start with my home airport – Austin! I will say that for such a gluten friendly town the airport options are just downright slim!

1.       Salt Lick – for anyone out of town this is a great stop if you haven’t made the trek out to driftwood (which I highly recommend. They do throw bread on about every plate so I ask for a glove change and just hope they haven’t put bread down in the exact spot my food is cut. Their sauce, sides and all meat though are gluten free.  A good limited cross contamination order is the baked potato with chopped beef….yum!

2.       Amy’s ice cream – now again the counter can contain some cross contamination because they throw the ice cream down, around, and up but as long as you pick a gluten free topping and avoid any of the specials that have gluten in them you are fine. My go to is Belgian chocolate with Reese’s peanut butter cup or with the turtle topping!

3.       Schlotzsky's -- now as of right now they don’t have the gluten free buns that they have in the store but they do have some good salad options.

4.       Maudie’s – the restaurants have great gluten free knowledge but the airport is minimal. Their chicken tacos are gluten free with corn of course, as are the nachos which are some good options.

5.       Admirals Club – on international flights when I’m lucky enough to get access they have a great spinach salad, meal bars, chips, and nut mixes for sale.

Anyone else find any other good options at AUS?

Gluten Free Review Austin: Jaspers

Jaspers in the domain is one of the best in center! It's good for dinner (a bit of a special treat night pricing) but it's AMAZING during happy hour.

http://www.jaspersaustin.com/jaspers-restaurant-menus/


The menu aside from the sliders and flat bread are gluten free. They use gluten free soy sauce and have a dedicated fryer that they use for the

Wine is all $5 -- and food/cocktails are $6...steals!

Review: Pizza Pizza!

So I decided to add a new set of topics to the blog -- Reviews! With gluten free foods some are just amazing (and even per my husband 'better') but we have all had those foods that make us shed a single tear missing gluten. Example: any bread in double plastic....

So recently I decided we should make our own pizzas. I have some mix that you do ALL the work but we decided to save those for another day and took advantage of Pillsbury making pre-made pizza dough.

It was great crust, a fun night and an even more fun at home meal! Will definitely be trying it again, and maybe even trying pizza rolls!

http://www.pillsbury.com/products/gluten-free/thin-crust-pizza-dough

Gluten Free Vegas - Part 2

Back to Vegas -- this is not my favorite city, but the food is great!

On this trip I stayed at the Aria so a bit of a different area than the past so a great opportunity to try some new things.

In the Aria:
Julian Serrano Tapas (x2) -- Yes this place was so good and had so many options I ate there twice! They bring you out a dedicated gluten free menu (and all allergies actually) so you aren't in question and you know the waiter isn't just guessing :)

Lemongrass -- Also in the Aria, was a nice restaurant to enjoy asian food - hardest to find for me! Sadly though the menu was pretty limited. They had a few curries, no appetizers, and in general limited. That being said my green curry was amazing and those I dined with greatly enjoyed their foods as well.

Five50
Had a quick lunch here in between meetings. They do not have gluten free pizza which was sad but not too surprising. Bonus: made me get a salad :) And I will say it was a great salad, and she was knowledgeable on dressings.


Outside of the Aria:
Holsteins -- Took a walk up the strip one day and stopped in here. Was a great burger place with normal size gluten free buns - Winning!! Their fries are not gluten free, but they were able to sub a side salad.

Aureole - Yes this is also in gluten free vegas part 1  but that was actually a trial for a large group dinner we had at this event. They were amazing to work with and able to accommodate gluten free in the pre set menu. And the bread...amazing!

Gluten free - Wilmington and Philly

Hello!

I was back on the road and to your benefit means I have more options for gluten free dining!

First stop: Wilmington DE. I had a meeting there that required a 1 night stay so I have 2 options for you.

Wilmington:
1. Mikimotos -- asian food. They are very knowledgeable, as well as having good options. I had 2 sushi rolls one with lump crab and asparagus and of course the Philly roll! We then split Pad Thai which was excellent and had chicken and shrimp. Really nice to have options and noodle entrees!

2. Washington Ale House - pub food. Was a bit skeptical as it was pub food which isn't typically nice for GF. They had good salad options so I ordered the cobb but was sad to be hear they had no dressing?!?! Now i'm not entirely sure if it was just a lack of understanding or really all their dressings contained flour - thinking likely they just weren't labeled GF so they didn't want to risk which I appreciate and had it not been a work lunch might have dug a bit more. They brought out oil and vinegar which worked out fine and the salad itself was good.


Philly:

We made the drive to the airport early to get some good food in Philly. We made our way to Morimoto Restaurant near the liberty bell. It was such a great atmosphere, very modern with great lighting.

While I was disappointed that their sushi was not gluten free -- malt vinegar in the rice (uggh hate when they do that!). They had this amazing dish that I might not have otherwise had ishi yaki bop rice dish prepared at your table in hot river stone, that I had with wagu beef. They basically brought a bowl out that was 450 degrees and cooked the beef, raw egg and made a fried rice of sorts - so good!

Want extra time? Plated...

So i've been trying to find ways to simplify my weeknights. One of which being finding ways to still have a healthy lifestyle BUT not spend all my eveing time at the grocery store, or finding recipes. So I took a look at my calendar and realized I had 2 crazy weeks so the perfect time to see how plated could help me out. Verdict: AMAZING!

Even with a gluten free diet I was able to find 2 good new recipes for us to try. My goal of course being to try some new things since they send you a test recipe that I can trust a bit more than some of my finds on pinterest.

Everything arrives pre-portioned in a box delivered to my house on the weekends, or office if I pick a weekday delivery.

My favorite part aside from the simplicity was the amount of food NOT wasted since they sent me for example just the tablespoon of tomato paste I needed not leaving me with 2/3 of a can sitting in my fridge for a week until I realize i'm likely not going to need it again anytime soon.

Both meals a success and husband approved even with new foods thrown in there like eggplant! Winning recipes, great instructions, and an easier night after work for us -- definitely doing again!

Also makes a great gift for new mom's etc. Try it out -- https://www.plated.com/invites/db9240

THE Vitamix

So you  might have passed by that amazing demo in Costco or that magical aisle in Bed Bath & Beyond and thought "Is it worth it?" Well I want to tell you that yes, yes it is.

I recently bought a Vitamix and I can tell you that I love it and use it often. That being said it's only worth it if you will use it (captain obvious yes) but I have plenty of machines that I also thought I would love this much that I don't use (insert juicer and dehydrator).

Things I love

• I can literally eat a salad for breakfast and it's AWESOME. I don't love vegetables so this is great.
• I can add supplements that I need for that day or how i'm feeling -- my favorites Chia seeds, PB2, protein powder, flax seed, etc
• When fruit starts to spoil or i'm about to go on a trip I can freeze it and use it later -- wasting less!
• It's healthy!

The above container has my favorite go to smoothie -- frozen banana, 1 cup almond milk, 1 spoon PB2 (or almond butter), chia seeds, flax seed and 2 handfuls of spinach/kale mix. Also you can easily add in frozen strawberries or blueberries to the above (with a bit of extra water) and it's very good.

Gluten Free Vegas -- Take 1

As promised I want to blog more about the restaurants and research I do when I travel. Not only does this help me when I go back to some places but I depend on blogs and lists when I travel to know there is more than boiled chicken and dressing free lettuce to eat. :) Plus the best part about travel is the food!

This trip I stayed at the Venetian since our show was in the sands. I was glad I did because not only is it beautiful it was a rare rain (flooding) in Vegas so was nice to not go outside.

Bouchon Bistro
It was great french food (and I was with 2 Parisians) so it goes beyond even my definition of good french. Not the biggest menu but they knew what they could do and were very knowledgable and went above and beyond to ensure I was safe. I had a salad with chèvre to start, and bread. For my main dish I had a trout with haricot verts which was very well done. For dessert (A++) I had three little chocolate 'bouchons' that were amazing little molton chocolate type dessert bites.

I also went back for lunch one day before the show started and had a great cobb salad. I also had the amazing chocolate dish again...I mean why not?

Canyon Grill
I had breakfast here one morning and it was very good. Labeled menu that had bread.

Sushi Samba
I ate at sushi samba in the far end of the Palazzo mall one day, it's dangerously close to the most amazing brands so walk with a purpose! They had a dedicate menu that was very large and were able to many things especially the rolls.

I got one roll that sounded amazing -- EL TOPO® salmon, jalapeño, shiso leaf, fresh melted mozzerella, crispy onion  They left off the crispy onion and I was fine! The roll was good don't get me wrong but there was barely any salmon on there and a  lot of cheese. The sauces though were very good and it had a great spice! I also got an avacado roll which was great, and had gluten free soy sauce. I tried the cocunut rice as well but was unimipressed as it wasn't the sticky rice consistency I had been told, and had scallions in it which were overpowering. 


Aureole
This place was amazing -- I mean you walk into a wine tower to start it all, which if you order one that is really high a 'wine angel' goes up and gets it. And the wine list is so big it has to be stored on an ipad and ordered by number -- very nice!

I started with a cheese plate which was 12 small bites of cheese served with bread. The bread was similar to little cheese bread balls and they were great. For my dinner I continued on my cheese fest and got blue cheese crusted filet mignon with mashed potatoes. For dessert I got a pineapple creme brulee which was so so but a coworker got the chocolate plate and I was able to steal a peanut butter ice cream ball dipped in chocolate...heavenly.

It was amazing an amazing meal and my favorite part of this restaurant was that the waiter was extremely discreet on any gluten related questions or changes I needed allowing it to not be a big deal at a work dinner which I greatly appreciate.


Take 2 coming when I go back to Vegas in November!

Fitbit Challenge

Ok so this might just be a challenge with myself -- but honestly those are what motivate me the most.

I spent the last 3 years being a fairly competitive triathlete/marathon runner and decided I just need a bit less structure in my life. That being said it also meant I need to be much more aware of my eating and ensuring i'm getting in a bit of healthy activity at the same time.

Hence the entrance of the fitbit. I just got it but I do like it so far! For the nerdy triathlete in me it has fun metrics and tracking that even encouraged me to go for a 1 mile run (ok really slow walk/jog) today! Yes, yes must keep life simple and easy but also allows me to be healthy!

I start riding horses again next week which i'm very excited about but I think this will also keep me aware of my exercise levels and has a food plan for times I want extra help (reality)!

NoGlu - Paris

My company is based in Paris and I am lucky enough to 'have' to go generally 3 times  year. I found this amazing dedicated restaurant on the most amazing little passageway near Galeries Lafayette.

I try to go every time i'm in Paris now and have yet to be disappointing. As a gluten free diner being able to not worry but also enjoy a warm chocolate cake dessert is worth whatever it takes you to get there! http://www.noglu.fr/

Last trip

Peach/Mozzarella salad, Mac and Cheese with chèvre and parmesan, and chocolate cake...yes I walked home

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