About Friends

ALERT: From now on g/wedf is all I'm going to type for gluten/wheat egg and dairy free. If whatever I'm typing about isn't all of those things I'll spell it out.

Never, ever, underestimate the importance of unsolicited advice.  I know that I used to, but not any more!  And the chain of events I am about to describe will explain that better than I could in any other way.

So I was whining about weird special food on my facebook wall when one friend chimed in about soy cheese.  (You can read all about my soy cheese adventure in Finding Substitutes.)  Then a different friend said on her wall that she had made egg and dairy free cookies from a mix.  !!  From a mix?!  I asked her about it, she told me about this fabulous bakery, right here in Phoenix.  Yay!  A resource.

Before I could investigate the bakery, yet another friend who has food issues in her home and has offered to be a resource, was unexpectedly available to hang out.  We had a fabulous dinner at Q'Doba (Is Fast Food Still Food?) and then went next door to Whole Foods where we hung out with the weird special food.  I had asked about good pastas (my disastrous experience with rice lasagne noodles will never be a blog post <shudder), so she said quinoa would be the way to go.  Evidently this is not pronounced kwin-oh-a, like it looks, it is pronounced keenwa.

Anyway.  We stopped at the bulk bins and looked at the grain, we perused the pasta aisle and found some macaroni, we were completely distracted by the gwedf buckwheat pancake and brownie mix boxes (more on those once I actually try them).  We visited.... seaweed.  I just can't dive into the deep end, no matter how hard I try.  Seaweed, for crying out loud.  She laughed at me and said she likes weird food.  Until we got to the fake substitute cheese aisle, then I was the one laughing.

The next day I met a friend at the gym, went to lunch with her, and then kidnapped her and took her to the bakery!  I even managed not to tell her in advance where we were going.  This bakery is a fantastic find, I can't thank my bakery buddy enough for sharing her knowledge with me.  There are two locations in Phoenix - one on McDowell and one on Thomas, but only the one on Thomas has Monday hours.  Monday is my day off, voila! Gluten Free Creations Bakery

The cubicle at my office is bigger than the retail space of the bakery on Thomas.  But that's because they're very busy in the back - this place supplies restaurants around town with breads and desserts. Evidently the bakery on McDowell includes a small cafe area where they serve sandwiches and things. The staff was very friendly and helpful.  The man in the apron explained, "everything is gluten free.  When you look at this list, if it says egg free or dairy free, then it is also egg or dairy free."  Wow.  Cool.  The bakery sells mixes and cookbooks in addition to baked goods.  There were samples set out, one of which was gwedf and yummy.  I acquired a dozen berry bagels, a loaf of sliced white bread for sandwiches, and a box of wedding cookies. 

Then I went home and cooked the quinoa noodles.  Cool!  They start out looking like normal macaroni.  And like normal macaroni they swell when they cook.  Unlike normal macaroni, they don't really stop swelling.  They get bigger than regular macaroni.  But they taste about the same.  Yay!  I mixed the noodles with some ground turkey, tomatoes and green chile and packaged it up for meals for the week.  Yesterday I found that they survived being packed into a container with other ingredients, and they also stood up to being microwaved.  Hurrah!  A casserole solution!

Today I ate a berry bagel with Tofutti cream cheese for breakfast.  I also made a sandwich using the gwedf sandwich bread from the fabulous bakery my friend found.  YUM!  The bread is great.  It has a consistency similar to foccacia or ... Schlotskey's!  Oh!  I should check out Schlotskey's!

Schlotskey's Ingredient Page
Bummer.  Not a single thing I can eat there.

So you see, in reality my friends are driving this lifestyle change of mine.  They are making suggestions, they are holding my hand through the process, they are eating weird alternative foods with me, going shopping with me, asking me questions, and essentially cheering me on.  When trying to navigate the world of gwedf, never underestimate the usefulness of unsolicited advice, solicited advice, and fabulous friends.

Friends, I love you!  :-)