Leon's Restaurant - Gluten Free Lunch/Dinner Spot

Another super gluten free friendly lunch/dinner spot in central London is Leon. It has absolutely delicious foods and a lot of the items are gluten free, even some delicious desserts!

Leon is a mix of Mediterranean and Indian food. It has dishes ranging from the gluten free Leon Gobi to the grilled chicken with aioli sauce. They are also well balanced meals. With dishes like the gobi and grilled chicken you are also given brown rice with a side of fresh cole slaw. Yummy!

Leon also offers a few gluten free desserts that are just amazing and taste like normal desserts! The Better Brownie, Lemon Ginger Crunch and Deep Chocolate Tart and even a piece of Pecan pie!

The menu online has GF written next to it if it gluten free. My favorite bit is that even the menu at the actual restaurant has all the symbols next to each item to let you know if its gluten free, vegetarian, hearth healthy, etc. So when you are ordering you don't have to rack your brain thinking did the website say the hummous was gluten free?

The staff members I've asked questions to are very clued up on what has gluten and what doesn't and if they aren't sure of the answer they pull out a book and check. I have never felt sick from eating a Leon meal. I highly recommend it. There aren't that many locations in London, but wherever you are it's worth the trek!

Fire & Stone - Gluten Free Restaurant Review

Like I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, going out to eat can be such a chore at times. I try to avoid it, but sometimes can’t and don’t really want too. I miss eating out, anywhere, everywhere. For example, a few nights ago my husband’s high school friends got together for dinner. I really enjoy their company so I didn’t want to miss out. We went to Fire & Stone, a London pizza restaurant.

I called ahead of time and asked if they did gluten free pizzas and of course the answer was no. However, there was a BUT. They said if I brought in my own pizza base they could make me a pizza.

So I did just that. I gave them my base when I gave the order and my pizza came when the rest of the groups came. When it first arrived it was not cooked thoroughly. So I told them to take it back and cook it again for another 10 minutes. It came back and it was cooked. It was ok. The base went very hard, probably because it was cooked in a pizza oven. It was nearly impossible to
cut. I concluded that I prefer making my own pizza at home.

The manager came over earlier and told me they have cleaned the oven, but they cannot guarantee that there would be no contamination.

I felt a bit bloated after and in the morning I felt a bit sick. I should have had a salad, but of course I opted for taking a chance for a pizza. I think for my sanity, I just wanted to be a bit normal and just enjoy a pizza like everyone else! But I know I should have made the smarter decision. Ah well, no more Fire & Stone for me.

Crussh -- A Gluten Free Lunch Spot

On cold wintery days I just love having soups for lunch with a few gluten free crackers. A lot of the soups I used to have always had some sort of pasta or rice so I had to let that go.

Since I work in the heart of London, I try to find places I can eat out from time to time. Most days I pack my lunch because 1) I try my best to avoid contamination, which can happen in restaurants 2) buying lunch everyday gets real expensive!

One hidden gem I found scattered around London is Crussh. They specialize in fresh juices, soups, salads and even small gluten free cakes and snacks. A lot of their ingredients are organic and fresh, which make all there products taste even better.

I absolutely love there soups. So many of there options are also gluten free. On any given day they have at least two gluten free soups. For those of you that also suffer from lactose intolerance, they have many lactose free options too.

My favorite soups so far are: Butternut, red aduki and ginkgo soup, Mexican red lentil, lime and pepper, Squash and coconut laksa and these are just to name a few!

Give Crussh a try and let me know your favorites!

Study Reveals Problem of Gluten Sensitivity

Check out this video. Some people that don't have coeliac disease claim that feel a lot better not eating gluten products due to gluten sensitivity.

Wagamama - Gluten Friendly Restaurant

Wagamama's Teriyaki Chicken Donburi

This past weekend I met up with my cousin and he’s like lets go to lunch. I was like no, no its ok… because its always such a hassle finding somewhere for lunch. I’m like we can go to McDonalds and I can get french fries, but he wasn’t so keen on that. :-)

He suggested Wagamama. I said sure! I’ve heard they have gluten free menu, so I said why not try it out. We told the waiter and he came by with a binder and there was a sheet that stated the dishes that were/could be gluten free with substitutes to sauces, noodles etc.

I ordered the teriyaki chicken donburi -- grilled juicy chicken glazed with orange teriyaki sauce, sticky white rice, with thin sliced carrots, pea shoots, spring onions and sesame seeds and a side of spicy kimchee. They didn’t put any sauce on my dish because they said it contained soy sauce so they brought over gluten free soy sauce in a bowl. I had asked for them to warm it up and mix it together, but they said they can’t do that. That was pretty annoying. Overall, the dish was nice and there were quite a few other options. I would definitely recommend for a coeliac to visit Wagamama… luckily it’s a global chain! 

London Pancake Day -- Gluten Free Recipe

I love pancakes! By far one of my most favorite breakfast foods. Since I was at work, I was not able to celebrate pancake day, but I plan to make it up this weekend!

A lot of the gluten free pancake recipes I find are quite complicated. So many different types of flour, xanthan gum, this and that. Seeing all the ingredients puts me off. Because I usually don't have all the ingredients since I am fairly newly diagnosed. I like plain and simple sort of recipes. And believe it or not, one of my easiest gluten free recipes is pancakes! My recipes isn't based on exact measurements, but I work around how much I plan to eat/make.
--Few heap tablespoons of gluten free white flour.
--1 egg
--1 tablespoon sugar
-- Mix it all together
--Then add milk to make it a medium consistency.
--Grease the pan, pour in some pancake mix and move the pan to the size you want it. And there you have it!

** A bit of a sidenote. These don't come to be big fluffy pancakes. They come out quite thin. I've learned that most British people prefer thin pancakes over thick. And I have got used to the thin.

Let me know how the recipe works out for you!

Gluten Free Baking -- Macarons

Every Friday at work is Cake Club day. Those that have signed up, have a specific week they bring in some sort yummy baked goods. Boy do I love cakes, muffins, cookies, brownies and all the sweet stuff you could imagine. But you guessed it -- I’m not in Cake Club. No cakes are really ever gluten free. Unless you make it with gluten free flour.

This past Friday, it was my friend’s turn to bring in something. So she brought in raspberry cupcakes, which looked amazing! She always hears me moan and groan about things I can’t eat so made me homemade macrons. Macrons are made with almond flour, so its gluten free! It was so sweet of her to make that extra batch, because macrons aren’t the simplest things to make.

Here is a recipe similar to my friends. Also, a book she recommends is "I Heart Macarons." I haven’t tried making them yet, but plan to do so very soon. They just taste like a normal desert! Because they are made with almond flour. Nothing really changes in the recipe for coeliacs. YAY for that! Even the fillings are usually gluten free. The above photo is chocolate. Another flavor I had was coffee macarons with a vanilla filling. 

T.G.I. Friday's - Gluten Friendly Restaurant

What can I say... I've always loved T.G.I. Friday's and always will! Though it may not be the healthiest, man is it delicious. I had the sizzling chicken and cheese and did not feel sick after. They have a variety of salads, steaks, burgers (without the bun), etc. 

 

Sadly, a lot of my favorite dishes I can't have. But luckily they do have a gluten free/lactose free menu. Not many choices, but still its better than nothing. This is one of the very few restaurants in the U.K. that actually have its own gluten free menu. I think they have one because it is a big U.S. chain and a lot of U.S. chains are good at having gluten free menus. Here are some U.S. restaurants that have gluten free menus.

 

P.F. Changs (Click on gluten free) 

Bertucci's Italian Restaurant

Chilli's Bar & Grill 

Boston Pizza Gluten Free Menu

Any one know of any other good chains?

Coeliac Disease Symptoms Come In All Forms, Shapes & Sizes

When I read this article written by the well-known British journalist Esther Ranzen -- I was just wowed. Esther’s daughter, Emily, suffered in her early years with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) a disorder that leads to extreme chronic fatigue and weakness. They went through a lot with her – she was bed ridden and basically disabled. Emily had lost any sort of hope that she would be able to do things normally again. With Emily’s will power and determination to get better she learned to talk and walk all over again.

As Emily grew up she decided to go on a diet that involved no carbohydrates, no wheat, basically nothing that is fine. She had always had this rash on her arm and after being on this diet it disappeared. Emily was tested for everything in the book, but not coeliac disease. To make a long story short, Emily did have coeliac disease.

It just shows, coeliac symptoms come in all forms! This was the first I had heard of coeliac disease causing a rash. Sometimes when I feel really down on missing out on some of my favorite foods, I think to myself… “Man, I feel a lot better – food is staying in my stomach, I don’t feel so tired, I don’t look so drained even after 10 hours of sleep the night before. I guess that’s some positives” Everyone’s body is different, so I guess symptoms come in all forms.

Definitely, take a read of this article. It’s great. At Last, I Have Discovered the Secret of Emily’s Lost 14 Years. 

Barcelona - A Gluten Free Friendly City

Beautiful Barcelona!

Sometimes when I'm at home and in my own environment I kind of forget I have coeliac. That's because I'm in my own element. I have my foods around me, I can cook on my own will or even go shopping if I need too.

So going on trips and holidays isn’t that easy for me, especially since I’m not that fond of any meat besides chicken. And when I go on holiday, boy do I feel the wrath of coeliac -- especially in countries where most workers at restaurants don't speak English. Even though I print out coeliac travel cards, most don't understand what it actually is. I try not to get frustrated, but it’s hard.

I recently went on a business trip to Barcelona.  On a whole, people at restaurants there are more aware of coeliac disease than other foreign countries I’ve been to. I gave my coeliac card to restaurants staff and most seemed to know.

Chicken a slice of cheese and side salad

Here’s a recap of my meals out in Barcelona, Spain.

One night we went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Barcelona. They actually had a list called "Platos No Gluten" (plates without gluten). Needless to say, there isn’t much on the list, so I ended up having a piece of chicken, with cheese on it and a side salad. Surprisingly the honey mustard and blue cheese dressing were gluten free. So I said just chuck it on the side! But at least they know what coeliac is and what they were dealing with. The meal was good, but it was really annoying that nothing but a piece of meat was gluten free.

Roasted Vegetable Paella

The best restaurant I went to is La Fonda Del Port Olimpic. They were so fantastic and aware of it!. They even had pasta dishes, and at the bottom of the menu said "We have pasta for celiacs." Which made it helpful. I had the traditional roasted vegetable paella. It was delicious! And I did not feel sick the next day. They ensured me they only used oil and spices in making the paella. Later that week, I went back to the restaurant with colleagues from work, as I was I craving pasta. I ate it and was ok. 

I’d rate Barcelona as a fairly gluten friendly city. A lot of their chips and snacks also have "Sin Gluten" written on it. Meaning no gluten! So they are aware! Which makes it a lot easier.