Blog Posts - gluten free safari™

Would love to hear of your experiences eating gluten free in a foreign continent/country: Africa, Asia, South America, Greenland, Iceland, Europe, you name it!

2/23/2018

Image: Annie Spratt via Unsplash

People seem to be traveling more widely than ever: several in my community have recently returned from Africa, Antartica, Asia and Europe. If you eat gluten free and have an interesting dining experience from abroad, I would love to interview you -- or at least to post your comment -- about the gluten free food you experienced there.
Was it easy to eat gluten free? Did you find gluten free menus? Gluten free bread? Were restaurants accommodating? And, what of bed and breakfasts? Were you able to imbibe in anything for breakfast beyond coffee and fruit? What was your favorite gluten free meal?
If you would like to share, you may either comment at the bottom of this post ("comment" button is in a small font) or send me an email: gfsafari at protonmail dot com.
Thanks and happy traveling!

Meatloaf recipe (Saturday night, Olympics): Gluten free, dairy free, egg free

2/18/2018

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It was a wintry night outside, cozy inside, and time to use some ground meat from one of my favorite meat/seafood stores: it's local, it's small, it's friendly, and they make their own brätwurst! However -- and this is a big caveat -- it's very important to ensure that the ingredients are gluten free!
Oh! Please note that this post may include affiliate links or ads. If you click on them/view, I may receive a small commission.
Now, back to our example. I am standing at the meat counter, and I've just learned that the yummy looking brätwurst is homemade. But, as there was no ingredient list to check, the nice guy at the counter called the butcher on a Saturday to ask whether the homemade brätwurst was gluten free.
It wasn't!
So, this time I didn't purchase the brätwurst. Usually, I trust Hempler's brand sausage and bacon, as everything I've ever seen from Hempler's is gluten free and labelled as such.

What gluten free snacks do you nibble on at night?

2/12/2018

Photo by Rachael Gorjestani on Unsplash

What is your favorite gluten free "comfort food" at night?
Please note that this post may include affiliate links or ads. If you click on them/view, I may receive a small commission.
I looked around my supplementary "desk"/coffee table and observed:

-- a very small glass of red wine (I'm not really a drinker but every other week it seems there's a new study out extolling the benefits of wine -- and, of course, it's gluten free!);
-- 85% cocoa dark chocolate (this brand is Simple Truth Organic; it's made in Switzerland). It's actually labelled gluten free. The ingredients? Organic cocoa liquor; organic cocoa butter, organic cane sugar, organic vanilla pods. This is one of the few chocolate bars -- even among dark chocolate bars -- that doesn't contain dairy. My relationship with dairy ebbs and flows: long story short, I try to avoid milk and cream -- but, because cheese contains enzymes -- and because I'm not convinced that one can get all one's calcium from dark leafy greens and oranges -- I eat cheese.

On Thanksgiving, let's count our blessings: and here's a poem!

11/23/2017

How was your Thanksgiving? What were the standout dishes? For gluten free me, it was the garlic-y sour cream mashed potatoes at one dinner, and the filling (avoiding the crust) from a homemade blueberry pie at another friend's home! (If I'm lucky, my friend might be able to learn the secret ingredient from the pie maker, who bakes pies professionally.)

My friend Michael Magee is an excellent poet, and generously agreed to share a nourishment-oriented poem!

Real whipped cream: could it possibly contain gluten? Part 2

9/7/2017

Photo by Jennifer Pallian on Unsplash

In Part 1 of this post, I compared different brands and wondered whether mono and diglycerides in certain brands of heavy whipping cream -- which I speculated help the cream to become heavier more quickly -- might contain gluten. Sometimes, from what I know, mono and diglycerides can be made from wheat.
When researching this issue anew, I ran across this highly technical article by the F.D.A.
The article, essentially, doesn't make mono and diglycerides sound very appealing, and also says that they can be a factor in hardening of the arteries.
I also consulted the Gluten Intolerance Group website. A Quick Reference Guide on that site does not list mono and diglycerides as a verboten ingredient; however, I know that in the past mono and diglycerides were included in various lists of ingredients for gluten free folks to avoid.

The Season of Giving, Baking, and Indulging is Just Ahead: Some Great Gluten Free Cookbooks -- and Other Cookbooks Focused on Food That Tend to be Naturally or Predominantly Gluten Free

9/4/2017

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There's nothing better than thumbing through a lusciously produced new cookbook: the photographs beckon, making the simplest dish of quinoa, colorful veggies or plump fruit seem simply ethereal. The production value of recent cookbooks, the sheer elegance of photography today is enough to send one to the nearest gourmet store (or the Internet) seeking that coup de grâce ingredient: think lemongrass, cherimoya, black garlic, or saffron, for instance.
Even if one isn't usually much of a baker, if one turns a page and finds a photograph of a hearty gluten free scone covered with generous dollops of maple sugar icing, for instance, somehow one might find the time to bake those scones before work!

Super Simple -- Yet Flavorful -- Gluten Free Safari Weekday Night Five-Spice Indian Rub Chicken

9/3/2017

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This dish is easy - easy - easy. My boyfriend and I love Indian food -- yet, so often, there might be a blending of cashews or grinding of coriander seeds with mortar and pestle or other things required. All marvelously exotic -- except when you and your family just want to sit down and catch up after the kids have come in from practice. Or maybe, with the advent of Fall, those new network television shows tempt (see this link for a rundown of references to gluten free good (or those who eat gluten free) on cable, network television, and on film).
So, for this recipe, take out the chicken (breasts or thighs) and either cut into wide strips first; (or, alternatively, you can cut in after pieces have been seared on both sides and spread out facing down in pan) then rub in the spice mixture:

Do you know of Companies (Particularly in the Gluten Free Realm) Sending Food to Those Displaced by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma? We'd Love to Hear About Them!

8/30/2017

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September 12, 2017: Please note that this blog post has been updated to include information about the response for Hurricane Irma as well.

Yesterday Gluten Free Safari gave a shout out to a few companies who produce gluten free food, checking as to whether they were sending food to those affected by Hurricanes Irma and Harvey.
I have heard from one thus far -- KIND (some of you may be familiar with KIND bars; I was an early adopter).
Their media department shared the following about its response to Hurricane Harvey, just after Harvey occurred. (I have not yet checked back with KIND re Hurricane Irma.)

"KIND is coordinating directly with Feeding America to send a large shipment of product to a local shelters. Once it is safe to move around, our team in Texas will be looking into how they can provide assistance to first responders as well."

Yeah, KIND! Please let me know in the comments about any other producers sending food to Texas!

Introducing a Bit of an Incentive to Comment on Gluten Free Safari blog posts!

8/29/2017

Photo by Teresa Kluge on Unsplash

Hello! Many of my wonderful readers have been kind enough to write little notes to me on one of the many contact forms sprinkled throughout the site (if I haven't gotten back to you, I will soon!).
It's so nice, however, when your comments can be shared with everyone on a blog post, so that the answers or resources shared can be helpful to everyone!
And, I think I surmise correctly that most of us like to read what other people have written about a given post!

Gluten Free on T.V.: A Funny Mention by Milo Ventimiglia (star of "This is Us") on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

8/29/2017

Photo by Frank Okay on Unsplash

During the August 28, 2017 episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Jimmy Kimmel asked Milo about some upcoming plot points regarding "This is Us." Those plot elements involved the cause of an (impending?) death of a male character.
I liked "This is Us" when I watched a few episodes, but have kinda fallen off the wagon recently . . .
But, as you may know if you've read this blog, every time I hear "gluten" or "gluten free" mentioned in a film or on television or cable, I post about it! Because it's so nice to see awareness of gluten free issues in the mainstream media!
So, Milo was going over all the ways that the character didn't die, just to eliminate outliers, and he said, tongue-in-cheek, "Gluten didn't kill him!"
Milo was great in "Gilmore Girls;" and, I gotta say, I loved this line!

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