Adventures in San Diego!

Every semester, or at least every year, my friends and I like to take a trip down to San Diego. One of the best parts about going to college is Southern California is without a doubt the location. My school is located in LA county, but we are really right on the edge of LA county and Orange county. LA is a less than an hour away (with traffic) and beaches like Huntington, Laguna and Newport are just a quick jog down the 5 freeway. Have I mentioned that Disneyland is 15 minutes away from campus too? San Diego is in my opinion one of the best spots SoCal has to offer. If you've never been, you will not really understand until you go. San Diego is just. so. nice!

We got up early and planned to leave at 8 am to make the about two hour drive down. After a quick stop at Starbuck's (my friends wanted breakfast) we were on the road. I enjoyed my breakfast (packed as usual) in the car while talking and enjoying the beautiful scenery of the ocean.

La Jolla coast

Our first stop was La Jolla, one of my most favorite places on the planet. As soon as we got there, there was 3-hour parking spot right in front of us - score! We saw the seals, laughed in the sea breeze, got a little wet from the waves, and walked on top of the La Jolla caves. We also took pictures at each stop -- thank you kind people that snapped them for us!! After seeing the ocean views we walked up to some shops. I normally don't like art galleries, but we walked into one that had nature photography and it was breathtaking! Soon it was time for lunch, so we decided to go to Downtown SD to try and find a spot to eat.

"Bird of Paradise" flower

After a lot of driving around trying to find our bearings and food, we finally just parked and went into the mall. I got a salad at a little place in the food court. I was not happy about the lunch options, but I chose the safest possible thing. It was a CHEAP salad :( It may look delicious, but looks are deceiving. The place only had a olive oil/canola blend, which I was not about to eat and so I had no fat on top of my salad. Yuck! I should have asked from some avocado!

Something DEFINITELY tasted funny here. I couldn't pin point the source!

With the mediocre lunch (for me) behind us, we decided to walk to the famous Ghiradelli Chocolate Factory and Ice cream parlor. My friends enjoyed the chocolate samples. We all wanted something ice creamy but the prices were HIGH. Too much for five college students to handle, so we left.

Boats and beautiful shining water!

Next we walked down to the water and saw the boats, tourists and many restaurants with a shopping area. People were walking around enjoying themselves, getting lunch, watching guys play with fire, or sitting for a caricature drawing. I liked it for the pretty pictures of the marina/boats and water :) I don't really like touristy places, so I was kind of ready to leave. Not to mention one performer doing an act with fire was trying to get me to look at his performance, but I was not buying into that. I'm not a tourist!

We found our way to the car much faster than we left it, and we didn't even have to pay for parking - yay validation option! For the next stop we zoomed over the bridge to Coronado. We walked the beach, took pictures and of course, walked through the Hotel del Coronado. This hotel is fancy, and very expensive to stay at. Luckily it's fairly open to the public, and it's nice to walk around. We saw a beautiful couple having their wedding reception. The bride was gorgeous and she gave me some inspiration for what I want my dress to look like some day. It was fun to talk to my friends about dresses, the boys in the group were just smiling and putting up with our girly chatter.

View from Mt. Helix

Our next stop was Mount Helix, the tallest place in San Diego. You can see 360 degrees around on top of the mountain. The view was breath taking. We arrived around 6 o'clock, so the sun was just starting to go down a bit, so the view was not too sunny, it was good picture lighting. It was a little hazy in one direction, which was bummer since we couldn't really see anything. We got to the top and found out that there was a wedding and we could not park and go to the summit. So we settled for stopping on the road up and getting our pictures.

Last stop? DINNER. I told everyone about Sammy's Woodfired Pizza last April when I went for the first  time, so when we planned our trip to SD I decided this is where we are going to dinner. The food is so delicious, made from scratch, has a great gluten and soy free menu and is a good value for the price and amount of food you receive. We found the restaurant, ordered, and then THE FOOD CAME!

Caesar salad w/ chicken - the dressing might be the best part!

Gluten free caprese pizza - that's basil on top!

I ordered the small caesar with half chicken (the full is HUGE) and also a gluten free caprese pizza with extra feta. The chunks of tomatoes didn't even bother me the next day! They were so juicy and tender. This is the third Sammy's location I have been too and I must say that the service here was THE BEST, but the pizza was NOT the best. The crust seemed different that other locations, REALLY thin and not as thick or doughy. I still love Sammy's though and will continue to go back.

And I convinced my friends to split THIS five ways, the Messy Sundae (naturally gluten free!) It was a mess of chocolate sauce, and so fun to eat! The ice cream inside was not my most favorite, but the whole experience was totally fun. Splitting an $8.50 dessert 5 ways? ONLY $1.70, now that's an acceptable price.

Messy Sundae!

With all the food I ordered I only ate half and then had a whole other meal the next day! Perfect! My friends really liked the restaurant, so I think they won't object to going back! Hurah!

Chocolate and friends and a relaxing drive home - what a great way to end a fun day.

Note - I am a little bit behind cataloging all my restaurant experiences - I need to do official reviews on the blog and also on Yelp. It's important that people discover where to find gluten and soy free REAL food when the are eating out. Soon (when I get the time) I will be doing a post talking about eating REAL FOOD while eating out and all the things I have learned in the process. Hopefully it can help others who are like-minded with their food options.

Also, I don't know if you can tell, but on nearly all my pictures from this trip the bottom right hand corner is SO BLURRY! I am so bummed because it's ruined some of my otherwise good shots :( I think my lens needs to be cleaned, but on other pictures the blur is not as present or is not there at all. Weird!

Beaches and Eats!

Hi everybody! I've been such a bad blogger, I'm sorry! I just completed my first full week of school, complete with labs, homework and gluten free birthday celebrations! To those of you who were wondering, YES it was my birthday, which I thought was obvious from my post, but apparently it wasn't! Now you know :)

Beach! The sun was out for a while before this photo.

In case you didn't already know, TODAY'S LABOR DAY! Which means... NO school! No classes! So therefore, my friends and I took full advantage and went off to the beach. It wasn't great weather, but it was super fun to be together. This particular beach had some KILLER stairs. It was definitely fun walking up and down; I welcomed the extra exercise. But unfortunately, no bathrooms? since it was a private beach, and it was in a completely residential area which made it a little bit difficult finding restrooms. And I even fed a seagull with my bear hands!!!! Apparently seagulls like Goldfish crackers! They have trouble eating them though if they are colored, so if seagull feeding is in your near future, make sure they are normal orange Goldfish, not the multicolored ones, haha!

After the beach, some warm dinner was in our future. We were actually craving Italian, and had been talking about it all day, (in contrast I've been craving Mexican food for days- weird) but we did not even end up going somewhere Italian! I had actually packed some dinner so I wouldn't have to buy anything or worry about finding a place that I could eat at with my allergies, which makes it easier for the crew, but everyone wanted to go to Pei Wei, which is branch of P.F. Chang's and if you are gluten free, you know P.F. Chang's is good. This is my first time having Chinese food in over 4 years! It was a very monumental moment. Sweet and sour chicken is one of my favorites! It was really nice to have some safe Chinese food and be eating the same thing as my friends, which doesn't happen often. I ordered extra broccoli and minimal rice. It was a lot of food and I ate the whole thing and I probably should have saved some for leftovers. It was definitely a good value for how much I paid. Next time I am going to follow my friend Natalie's advice and get the child size! As far as taste goes, I do wish the sauce had been less ginger-y, which is odd, because I love the taste of ginger.

Have I told you how much I love broccoli? :)

I totally owe you an update about my birthday and everything which happened that day. For now, let's suffice to say that it was one of the best birthday's I have EVER had! Usually people forget about my birthday so I don't typically celebrate it much, and this was a very nice change :) I am so blessed and thankful to have such wonderful friends!

Also, I have received some interesting proposal from a large company and I will be hosting a large GIVEAWAY soon! I'm so excited. My very first giveaway!! In the coming months I also hope to help them out with some product reviews. Double double excitement!

How was your labor day... relaxing? I hope so!
Have a good week!

Adventures in Quechee!

At the beginning of August Mom and I whisked ourselves off to Quechee, Vermont for two days of antiquing and a time of "getting away" from it all. It was such a fun trip and I've been meaning to blog about it for a while now; I've just been soo busy. Here are some photos from the trip. Pictures mean so much more than I can tell you. It was a short weekend of full of antiquing, finding cast iron pans, cheese, tourists, farmers markets, hiking, beautiful scenery, rest, good food, working farms, great weather, maple syrup, animals, exploring, lots of pictures and stop after stop of fun.

A hike ahead. Down the Gorge we go!

Views at the top.

Fungus on the way down...

A delicious and nourishing dinner at a new favorite restaurant.

Downtown Woodstock.

Leftover chicken with butter, one banana, raisins and coconut flakes for breakfast :)

Covered bridges.

So picturesque!

Maple syrup, cheese, animals.

Cowies!

Farmland scenery.

Georgeous Simon Pearce glassware.

Huge dam!

I hope you've enjoyed the pictures,

Adventures in North Conway!

This past Thursday Mom and I were able to sneak away after work and go to North Conway! We typically go every summer and there are lots of fun shops, outlets and country stores that we love to visit. Last year when we visited we were thrilled to go to Rafferty's for lunch, this time not so much. Listen to my story.

Our first stop was a store on the way to downtown where we love to look around and where I've found my most favorite earrings, ones I get compliments on all the time! Lat year I bought two pairs, one stud and one drop style, but unfortunately I lost one of my studs! I wanted to go back especially to try and "rebuy" so I could wear the earrings again. One earring out of a pair doesn't do me much good! When we got there as always there are lots of options and Mom and I took several several minutes to decide which ones we wanted to purchase. I wasn't quite sure which one matched my lonely earring, so I bought the pair I thought matched it and another one that I liked as well. I unpacked our goodies this morning and it doesn't match :( but they are still pretty and I will enjoy wearing them. Now NEXT summer I know which one to get!

After this stop we continued down to downtown North Conway. We visited our favorite country stores and walked across the street to a HUGE tent that had winter coats to see if they had any good ones for me, but they were all ski-style and not what I was looking for. Before we knew it we were getting hungry! We drove over to Rafferty's and got a table and expected to have as good an experience as last time. But soon it was obvious we weren't. Rafferty's pub has the largest gluten free menu in New England (I think) or at least New Hampshire. Last year when we asked about my soy allergy, it wasn't a problem, but this year it certainly was. The chef came out and started telling us what he could do. He basically said that soy is in everything. He even said that they don't use real butter? That the rotisserie chicken they serve is not made in house? That they sautee everything in fake soy based butter substitute? Wow. After hearing about all this fake food I quickly lost my desire to eat there and Mom and I left, disgusted! 

For starters, a green crunchy salad.

The oven!

That says it all!

Real meat!

My pizza!

Look at those delicious caramelized onions!

Luckily there are lots of gluten free restaurant options in North Conway so we went over to Flatbreads to check it out. We've heard they have gluten free pizza for a while, and they have a great perspective on food, so we've been meaning to try it but never have! Upon walking in we knew instantly it would be good. The atmosphere was so fun, our waitress very helpful, and it wasn't cold in the restaurant (which we always hate). To answer our soy questions, she brought out the label of the gluten free pizza crust which actually was quite nutritious, made with wholesome gluten free grains and yeast, NOT the typical white rice flour, potato starch. We were starving, since it was like 7:15 pm, by the time we left Rafferty's and waited for a table, etc, etc, so we ordered their basic salad right away. It had seaweed on top and it was delicious! The waitress totally understood about soy being in the salad dressings and she happily offered us olive oil and balsamic vinegar which we happily accepted! I am so glad we got a salad since the pizza was a long, unfortunately, wait. Their gluten free pizza is only available in a small size, but it's more than enough for one person. I got their Coevolution pizza with steak and red sauce, and Mom got the Community pizza with chicken. BOTH were delicious. My pizza was underdone and the steak still pink, but I was so hungry that we weren't about to send it back to cook it more. Mom's pizza had mushrooms (gasp) that she forgot to tell them to leave off, but they were surprisingly very good, and I (we) HATE mushrooms! Mom and I shared slices and both ate about half of the pizzas! I would go back to Flatbreads in heart beat. My new NH destination (which I never had before) for gluten free pizza! I am so happy that it was made with real food ingredients.

Insert my face here!

After it was getting late and the outlets were closing soon, but it was 8:30 and we wanted ice cream. Off to Ben and Jerry's we went! I got a Chocowlate Chip and Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl in a cup and Mom got the New York Super Fudge Chunk. It was DELICIOUS. 

It was such an incredibly relaxing day together with good company, shopping and real food. I love days like that.

Where I've Been.

Greetings!

Oh, how I have missed blogging. It's crazy that I haven't posted anything since March? Where did all the time go?

As most of you know I have been studying alot, and therefore blogging (and several other things) go on the back burner. But it's summer and I can now officially say I am back! My week of final examinations started on May 24th. I had 3 finals on Monday, and 2 on Tuesday and then I was finished. It was a different finals week this time around, as it didn't really feel as if it really was finals week. Odd way of describing it, I know! It was over so quick and before I knew it I was trying to pack up my room, get it in storage and come on a plane home. PHEW. These past two weeks have been a BIG adjustment for me!

Because it's summer, that means I can blog THAT much more, but I have a real job too! I am working at local bakery in town. In my application I told them that I have lots of personal experience with gluten free baking. In fact, I just completed my first "day" (I had to wake up at 4:30 to be there at 5:30) and they want me to do some gluten free and diabetic (sugar free) baking! As soon as I got to the back, however, it was apparent that there is NO way anything coming out of the kitchen could be gluten free, so I am going to be working and baking from home on some days, using my own pans, ovens and utensils in a gluten free environment so I know the goodies will be gluten free. It is going to be a big process to teach the staff some basic gluten free "ins and outs" but I feel like it is really going to work! :) I am really excited because this really helps my summer with flexibility. The hours that I log in at home can simply be put on my time card, and some ingredients he is just going to order me from the wholesaler.

For now, I am going to upload what happened while I was gone in pictures, because it's much more fun that way... ;)

The last time you officially "saw me" I was busy busy studying. Below is a picture of some yumminess I sampled on while writing a beast of an Abnormal Psychology paper. [Bad quality iPhone photo- sorry!] The above photo is obvious! I like to study study study. Bananas help my brain! And no, I did not eat all these at once ;)

And then, sometime in there between all that studying.. SPRING BREAK happened! My parents came out to visit me for over a week. We went to several fun places...

Since I am in the LA/OC area, we went to LA...

We visited the Grove and the LA Farmers Market. My mom and I had a delicious lunch of Brazillian food from Pampas Grill. It was our first time ever having Brazillian food, and it certainly will not be our last! We waited in line for what was probably a good half hour or longer. It was so worth it. Brazillian is my new favorite!! Notice the rotisserie beef, fresh greens, plantains, and hearts of palm and various spicy sauces. Above is my mom's plate, and below is mine. My dad (was typical) bought a gluten free pizza, scarfed it down and went and found the Apple store.

Yumm, sweet potatoes! Look at those berries and crispy, juicy apples!

And we went to Disneyland! No trip is complete without it :) We ate at the Storyteller's Cafe in California Adventure. After anguishing over all the options, I got a wonderful gluten free soy free chicken quesadilla prepared just for me by the chef. Disneyland is great for allergies, but you have to know where to go. My mom's chicken caesar salad came with gluten-free croutons, and my Dad got a gluten-free burger and fries. The salsa was SUCH a letdown though!

Then we travelled down to La Jolla, San Diego and stayed in a beach house for the week. It was really pretty. We took our beach cruisers [thank you to Rusty Spokes!!] for a ride in the morning for exercise and had fun shopping, relaxing, visiting the beach and trying some GF restaraunts that we didn't even know existed!!

One day Mom and I went shopping at the Las Americas Outlets in San Diego. For lunch we were adventurous and tried a small chain, family mexican restaurant called "Achiote" that looked promising (I had researched it before). The overall feel and decor reminded me of Outbacks! To be brief, the waiter was very helpful and the food was delicious too! She understood my gluten and soy allergies and helped us out in picking the right things off of the menu and made us feel very comfortable. Not the best mexican food in my life, but getting soy-free gluten-free mexican food is a rare find; soy is in everything. I was quite pleased! From the pictures you notice two types of homemade salsa, my carne asada meal with fresh tortillas and my mom's wonderful avocado, feta, chicken salad.

Another restaurant we visited (twice it was THAT good) was Sammy's Woodfired Pizza. I do a lot of restaurant research before I go anywhere; I love Yelp and Google and celiac.com. I had heard that Sammy's was a restaurant chain with a good reputation, reasonable prices, fresh food and great pizza. And they had a gluten free menu! My mom, dad and I just had to check it out. We did and it was so delicious. I was able to have a real gluten free and soy free pizza and even a CAESAR SALAD with dressing which usually never happens since usually all dressings have soy. The food was out of this world! My mom and I split a pizza (spinach, feta, onion, oh my!) and their smallest Caesar. Dad got his own whole pizza. These are pictures from our second visit.

We ate out at Sammy's, Achiote, a place called Lean and Green (no pictures!), and our probably one of our most favorite places to eat out, WHOLE FOODS MARKET! My mom and I always get boxes and load up on salad, veggies and fun dishes that you can not get anywhere else, eat half and save the rest for the next meal. My Dad really enjoys the "comfort food" bar. Each Whole Foods market is a little different, so it's fun to stop at each one! (We are addicted, and yes we do know :D) One reason we like Whole Foods is because it is safe. The chefs list all the ingredients for every dish or ingredient that is on the food bars. I can clearly see if it contains an allergen or not. The food is also mostly organic, sometimes local, but always fresh and delicious. No matter what food-mood you are in, Whole Foods has it.

The above shot is my food from Whole Foods San Diego.

The above photo is my food and below it is Mom's food, from Whole Foods Tustin, our first visit. Let me tell you now: GO there, but plan enough time to eat, because they have a CRAZY selection. Half the store is filled with their food bars!

Here are more Whole Foods Tustin shots...

They even have a WHOLE bar dedicated TO FETA CHEESE! I sampled every one (not made with cow's milk)!! It was really fun to have a little bite of each. I personally belief feta should be only goat or sheeps milk, mainly goat. I mean, why would you want a cow feta? Isn't the whole point of feta to be goat or sheeps milk cheese?

During vacation, while we did eat out some (which is fun because we as a family usually never eat out) but we ate a lot of our meals at the house. I got to cook a few simple, delicious meals. Some are totally great new creations that we will definitely be implementing into our normal family meal rotation!!

Roasted spaghetti squash!

Roast whole chicken with roasted red pepper vegetable soup (recipe coming soon) with roast spaghetti squash and lotsa yummy grass-fed butter. Below is spaghetti squash with gluten free pasta spirals, meat marinara sauce and sauteed brussels sprouts. Both the soup, marinara and chicken were probably some of the best I have ever tasted!

Before we knew it, the week was over and we had to leave La Jolla and go on with life! I went back to study study study and Mom and Dad flew home.

While we were apart for the final haul of the semester, interesting things were happening for both my family at home and for me at school...

My mom went to the farm and found the biggest egg I've ever seen (or eaten) in my life.

I went to Disneyland with friends, and ate at the Storyteller Cafe (again). Yay, chicken quesadilla! The best part was that I asked the chef if the guacamole could come without tomatoes, and he ended up specially making me no tomato guac! Delicious. I like tomatoes, but my body is sensitive to them so I try not to eat them as much as possible.

The cafe actually had some gluten free spaghetti!?! Wow.

One Wednesday night, me and some friends made the trek from campus to the Tustin Whole Foods, to get a foodie fix and of course, dinner at their fabulous food bars ;) my second visit! Yay for 5.99 per lb food instead of normally 7.99 per lb food! Notice the hUGe dollop (or two, or three... or four) of guac!

Then, on my way through the airport to board the flight home, the Sees Candy candy shop had THIS! I went in and talked to the girl working and apparently the owners have multiple allergies and so feature allergen free food. I picked up a box of Glutino crackers curious to see how much it would cost in an airport. The price was... 10 bucks, woah!

The access to gluten-free food is increasing. Things are looking up for us gluten freers :)

These past few weeks I've really enjoyed being home and have been adjusting to all the new things in life that I won't bother with here. I am happy and healthy and looking forward to keeping you healthy and happy this summer by sharing some yummy food ideas and recipes. I am also relishing the time to be able to continue to read all the real food information, health and nutrition books I can get my hands on. I have several books I was given for Christmas that I have yet to get to!

I hope you enjoyed this post. It's my longest to date!!