Pizza!

Pizza!, who doesn't like pizza? If you're like me, especially a college student, pizza is a food staple. Pizza is nutritious and cheap! But if you are on a gluten free diet, pizza is a treat. In my quest to find good gluten free pizza, I have tried many horrible tasting pizza. Basically cardboard with cheese and sauce on it, YUCK!! Back home in Northern New Jersey my mom found two restaurants that serve excellent pizza. She likes pizza more than I do! Mangia Tratorria in Glen Rock, New Jersey specializes in brick oven pizza. The gluten free crust is pre-made by Still Riding, a round disc of refridgerated pizza dough. I get the brick oven pizza with pepperoni and sausage. The crust is sweet and crispy.  Gooey mozzarella cheese is deliciously melted over a perfect salt to sugar red sauce. When I first tasted it, I thought I died and went to heaven. Price, a little steep at $16, but you get 6 slices so you can take some home for reheating. I would definitely recommend Mangia Tratorria, I give it 8 out of 10.

Pizza Fusion is just up the road from Mangia Tratorria in Ridgewood, New Jersey. The pizza at Pizza Fusion is artisan pizza and I feel the dough tastes the most like regular pizza dough.  Pizza Fusion uses organic ingredients and eco friendly pizza boxes, napkins and cutlery. Their motto is "Saving The Earth, One Pizza At  A Time." They roll the dough out into a square like oval, slather with red sauce and sprinkle generously with mozzarella cheese. DEVINE!! The crust is crispy perfection. Gluten free pizzas comes in personal size for $9 (4 slices) and a large for $18 (8 slices). If you like reheated pizza, I 'd purchase the large rather than the personal. In addition to their gluten free pizza, Pizza Fusion offers gluten free brownies, a nice finish to a great pizza. I highly recomment Pizza Fusion if you like artisan pizza, I give it a 9 out of 10. Please continue to follow my gluten free path. 

I love my carbs!

The biggest food and probably the most delicious food I had to give up or anyone has to give up when going gluten free, is BREAD! I would eat bread all the time, especially if it was warm and had butter on it. I could go to Panera Bread and buy a whole French baguette and probably eat the whole thing in one sitting. My mom and I have tried many different gluten free breads over the years and everyone of them was either too dry or would fall apart easily. She used to purchase bread online and have it sent to our house, good bread, but too expensive. While shopping in Whole Foods my mom stumbled upon a bread company called Udi’s. The bread is a smaller than regular bread, but it tastes like regular bread. Not only does Udi’s make bread, but they make cookies, bagels, muffins, pizza crust, buns and more. Udi’s hamburger buns are so tasty Red Robin and Pizzeria Uno use the buns on their cheeseburgers. Now you can go to Red Robin or Pizzeria Uno and eat a burger on a bun like everyone else!!

Another food I miss after becoming gluten free is pretzels, especially living in Philly. The city of brotherly love is known for  cheese steaks and Philly pretzels. I still have not found a soft pretzel that is gluten free, but I have found good hard pretzels from Snyder’s. My mom discovered them a few years back and said they were really good and tasted just like "real" pretzels. I hadn't tried them until this year, but they're really good. You can buy them at many grocery stores like Shop-Rite, Stop&Shop, Wegmans and other grocery stores. The price isn't bad, $3.69 per 8oz bag, not as big as it's non gluten free counterpart, but better than Glutino pretzels which cost $6 to $7 a bag, and don't taste as good as the Synders. Other then gluten free pretzel sticks, Snyder’s offers potato chips, tortilla chips, veggie chips and popcorn, all are gluten free. If you miss eating pretzels, I would definitely recommend trying Snyders pretzel. Please continue to follow my gluten free path.

Gluten Free Bakeries

Since I have the biggest sweet tooth, I am going to talk about desserts again. The weekend that my parents came up to Philly for my birthday, we stopped at a gluten free bakery called Sweet Freedom. My mom googled "gluten free bakery in Philly" so we could get me something sweet for my birthday. Sweet Freedom Bakery is on 14^th and South Street in Philadelphia. All their products are gluten free, vegan, dairy free, egg free, soy free, corn free, peanut free, refined-sugar free, and kosher. The only sweeteners they use are natural and unrefined of sugars that are gentler to the body. I do not know how they make the items taste so good, but they do!  There are many goodies to choose from. Some of the tasty delights they offer are cupcakes, cakes, bread, brownies, bars, tomato pies, muffins and donuts. When I went to the bakery I got the fruit oat crumble, magic bar and a raspberry filled cupcake. I loved apple pies before I went gluten free, so my favorite was the fruit oat crumble. It tasted just like a crumb apple pie would taste. Even though they  are a little pricey, I would recommend this bakery because there was a large selection of good tasting desserts.

Another baked good I tried was a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting from Sweet Megan. My boyfriend got it to from his teammates mom, she actually owns Sweet Megan. All of their products are gluten free, wheat free, diary free, soy free and there are no artificial colorings. This was probably one of the best cupcakes I have had from a gluten free bakery. I could not even tell that this was a gluten free cupcake and my boyfriend that does eat gluten free said it was good too. This is not a store, but you can order online at www.glutenfreesweetmegan.com. Sweet Megans' specializes in cupcakes, cake pops and cakes.  Everything they sell looks awesome and tastes great! Please continue to follow my gluten free path.

Gluten Free Birthday Dinner

All I want for my birthday is a "hassle free" gluten free dinner. I celebrated my 22nd birthday on Saturday, February 23rd and my birthday wish was go out to dinner and not worry about the menu or what to order. I looked up gluten free restaurants in Philly and since my parents were paying, I found a higher end restaurant called Davios Italian Steak House. Davios is out of the price range for an average college student, unless you don't want to pay your rent for the month. Valet parking is eighteen dollars, so I suggest taking the subway or taking the chance of finding a parking spot.

Davios wasn't like a typical restaurant that offered some gluten free food; they actually had a separate gluten free menu, which offered many gluten free options. I ordered the pasta bolognese. The pasta was cooked to perfection and the bolognese sauce was tasty!  My mom ordered roasted chicken breast with the bone over mashed potatoes and asparagus, delicious!!  For dessert I ordered crème brûlée with chambord raspberries, the plate was decorated with "Happy Birthday Taylor," nice touch. I had never tasted creme brulee, it was creamy and I loved the crunchy sugar crust. We thought the meal was over and we were paying the check when the wait staff brought us chocolate, chocolate chip, craisin cookies and biscotti. To my surprise the cookies were gluten free and great tasting!  I would give this restaurant eight out of ten because of how expensive it was, for a high-end establishment, the food quality was very good, not great.  The service was excellent; our waiters were attentive and informative, 10 out of 10.  I don't know if I would return to Davios unless I was celebrating a special event or if someone else was treating. I cannot wait to try more gluten free restaurants.  If anyone that follows me knows of any good gluten free friendly restaurants that you think I should try please comment and tell me. 

Before I went to Davios, I went to Wegmans to glance through their gluten free aisle. For everyone that does not know what Wegmans is, it is a huge grocery food store that has everything and even a fresh hot food buffet where you can purchase and sit down and eat. The one thing I miss after going gluten free is graham crackers.  I found a gluten free product in Wegmans called Grammy crisps that are made with cinnamon and sugar. They are manufactured by Cruchmaster and are not only gluten free but have 21g of whole grain and 0 grams of saturated fat, are peanut free and are oven baked. The other nutritious crunchmaster crisps are cheezy crisps, multi-grain original and multi-grain with sea salt. My boyfriend, who does not eat gluten free, loved them and he never likes any of my gluten free food. Try them, they are a delicious snack food or dip them into ice cream for dessert. Continue to follow my gluten free path

You only live once, so eat dessert first. Since I'm a person that loves baked goods more than a regular meal, I am going to give you my secret ingredient for gluten free baking. My mother and I have tried many different recipes to make a good gluten free cookie because those are our favorite. When trying to make cookies from scratch, the recipe called for ingredients like rice flour or tapioca flour.  The cookies would come out flat and taste like paper with chocolate chips.  We resorted to going to a gluten free bakery and buying them, tasted good, but too expensive. We had to find a different way to make a good cookie, cupcake or brownie.  About 3 years ago Betty Crocker came out with gluten free cake, brownie and cookie mix that you just had to add eggs, water, oil or butter, like regular mixes from a box. I have to say they are really good. But we wanted to find a better way  we could make cookies from scratch like we did when I was a child. New gluten free products were coming out everyday. One day my mom and her sister were in Williams-Sonoma just browsing and they discovered a gluten free section. They had several pre-mixed baked goods, but my mom found a bag of flour that was called Cup 4 Cup. The slogan is Gluten Free, But You’d Never Know it. All you have to do is substitute the flour in your recipe with Cup4 Cup. It's so easy, but the only down side is that  a 3 pound bag costs $20. My mom and I think it's so worth it because we like making everything from scratch and knowing  exactly what is goes into the food we bake.  Actually my mom just baked me a batch of gluten free cookies. I was thrilled! My school has some gluten free cookies, but not homemade.   If you just want a quick and easy way to make some baked goods, Betty Crocker is sold in most grocery store's gluten free section. If you want to make baked goods from scratch then Cup 4 Cup can be found in Whole Foods, Williams-Sonoma, Wegmans, Dean and Deluca to name a few. If you want to find out more about Cup 4 Cup the website is www.cup4cup.com. Remember, if you're gluten free, follow me!

The Best Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 cups of Cup 4 Cup flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of gluten free vanilla
2 sticks of butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup of light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 bag of chocolate chips

Preheat oven 350

Cream softened butter with sugar then add brown sugar, add eggs, baking soda and vanilla. Add flour, then chocolate chips.

Drop by measuring tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets

Bake for 9-10 minutes, place on cooling rack

Eat and Enjoy!!

Follow my Gluten Free path......

My name is Taylor Wootton and I am a student athlete that goes to school and plays basketball at Drexel University i n Philadelphia, PA. I grew up in a normal household with a mom, a dad and a brother. The only difficulty my family had to deal with was "what are we going to eat" or "where are we going to eat." This was the case because my mom had celiac disease. Celiac disease is when your body does not digest the protein in gluten. Foods that contain gluten are breads, cookies, cake, soy sauce and many more foods containing wheat, barley or rye. When you have the disease and continue to eat foods that have gluten in it, the symptoms could be, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, chronic diarrhea, constipation, just to name a few. Some of the risks could be intestinal cancer, thyroid cancer or type 1 diabetes. My mother was diagnosed about 20 years ago. At first she cheated a lot because the gluten free foods that were available tasted horrible. All she wanted was good tasting gluten free foods, pizza, bread, pasta, cookies. She wasn't asking for much, but she felt all alone,  the diagnosis of Celiac Sprue (as it was called 20 years ago)was new to world. There weren't many companies that made gluten free foods, let alone good tasting gluten free foods. I wanted to taste some of the gluten free foods she ate, Yuck; probably the worst tasting food I had ever tasted and really expensive. I hated when my mom cheated, she would get sick,  but I understood because I could never eat the food she had to eat. As I got older my mom and I always tried to find good tasting gluten free products and gluten free restaurants. I would always try the gluten free foods because if someone that didn't have Celiac thought the food tasted good, it must of been amazing for her. This past summer I was in and out of  many doctors’ offices because I had stomach problems. The doctor ruled out that I had celiac disease but since my mother has the disease I could have gluten intolerance. This meant I could not have foods with gluten because it hurt my stomach. At the start of this school year I went on a gluten free diet and started to feel like myself again. I try not to cheat but it's extremely difficult to do because I travel so much with my basketball schedule.  I'm starting to learn to ask, "what's in this dish" and "how is this prepared".  I sound like my mom. Since the summer my mom and I were talking about a blog named "gluten free follow me".  We want to share with everyone where to find the best gluten free products and which restaurants offer the best gluten free foods. Today so many people have this disease or are gluten intolerant or gluten sensitive.  In my blog I will post about different gluten free products and gluten free restaurants.  I hope you can follow me on my gluten free path.