Good news & bad news.

Savvy celiacs already know that gravy is almost always a huge blinking red flag item for us. One glorious exception was the poultry gravy at Boston Market. Key word: was. Today I spotted a sign proclaiming that it's been reformulated and now contains wheat and soy. Boo, hiss!

It is commendable, however, that they mentioned the allergy info right on the marquee. You get used to relying on certain brands or products, but the reality is you must keep checking ingredients in case anything changes. Thanks to Boston Market for keeping the food-sensitive community (or, more likely, our attorneys) in mind, although obviously it would be even nicer if we could have our gravy and eat it too!

New items at Trader Joe's!

Hello, my gluten-free friends and allies! For the last month I have been incredibly busy packing and moving into my fantastic new home and getting ready for a crazy new chapter in my life, but I'm finally getting settled. One perk of my new location is that Trader Joe's is now only 10-15 minutes away, whereas I used to drive about half an hour each way to get my TJ's GF goodies. (One of the fun realities of celiac life: it is virtually impossible to find everything you need in one place. I shop at three different food stores, at least, to find the products I want/need.) Trader Joe's has been rolling out a number of new items lately, several of which are relevant to this blog's interests.

Item #1: Peanut flour. I haven't tried this personally. I'm not really sure how one would use peanut flour, but the product card recommends using it for baking cakes and cookies. I think it could also make an interesting coating for baked chicken or fish.

Item #2: Snickerdoodles! These are free of the 7 biggest allergens (wheat, soy, egg, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish - whew, that's a relief. I hate shellfish in my cookies!) so they're vegan as well as celiac friendly. Made with sorghum flour and date paste, the texture is very soft and chewy, a rarity in GF cookiedom. They're more like a cinnamon-y fig newton than the buttery sugar cookie you might recall from pre-celiac life, so I'm not sure snickerdoodle is the most apt name. The cookies are quite small with a serving size of 2 cookies at 130 calories and 4.5g fat; each box contains only 12 cookies.

Gluten-free gossip.

According to ecorazzi.com, there will be gluten-free menu options at Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky's epic wedding this weekend. Apparently Ms. Clinton is allergic to gluten and the wedding cake will be GF and vegan. I wish them all the non-gluteny best!

Why, Trader Joe? Why?

While stopping in to grab a quick bite from Trader Joe's today, I was informed that their fantastic Middle Eastern Lentil and Brown Rice Salad has been DISCONTINUED! Noooooooooo! Apparently it wasn't a big seller and they wanted to make room for new products. It's hard enough to find a GF ready-to-eat meal, so I'm dismayed that they've narrowed the field. (I do also like their Curried Chicken Salad, but still.)

In theory, this dish, consisting simply of lentils, rice, onions, olive oil, and sea salt, would be easy to recreate. It's mujaddara, recipes for which abound online. I have tried several times, though, and haven't been able to make my own version that tastes as good and has the same texture as Trader Joe's - not to mention the convenience factor. Lentils hate my guts, however, despite what my mouth thinks, so being forced to go cold turkey is probably a blessing in disguise.

In case you couldn't tell, today is one of the (few) days where I feel really frustrated about my food restrictions and the fact that so often I still don't feel good, despite being carefully gluten-free. In general I'm surprisingly positive and zen about it but every so often, especially when I'm stressed out, low blood-sugary, and cranky to begin with, self-pity does set in. On one hand, I'm really glad that I can never again succumb to the grossness of fast food, but on the other hand, it's such a pain when you just want to grab a sandwich, or a cup of soup and a slice of fresh bread at Panera, or a quick spaghetti dinner. Yet on the third and largest hand, I'm grateful and lucky that celiac disease is what it is -- an inconvenience, not a tragedy. It could be a whole lot worse.

New GF bakery on the Main Line.

My helpful elves have informed me that a new GF bakery is opening soon (well, TODAY according to their website) in lovely Wynnewood, PA! The bakery is located right at the train station, accessible by the R5 line or the 105 bus. A dedicated GF facility, Main Line Bakery will offer cupcakes, cakes, bread, and other tempting baked goods. Check out their Facebook page for more information. Can't wait to try them out! It's an exciting time to be gluten-free, that's for sure - new products, bakeries, and shops just keep popping up all over the place.

In more personal news, you may have noticed I haven't been posting much recently. There are some pretty huge things going on in my life (all good, but still!) that have been consuming my time and energy - and will continue to do so. I hope that I will have time to keep this blog active, but please bear with me as posts and updates will be even more sporadic.

GF in the news.

If you're in the Philadelphia viewing area and aren't busy this Friday night, tune into WHYY/tv12 for the show Friday Arts. This week's Art of Food segment focuses on The Greenwood Kitchen, a local GF bakery. The show airs at 8:30pm on July 2 but will be repeated several times; check the WHYY website for more schedule info.