Gluten Free Week Review!

Greetings Earthlings!

I know its probably not the biggest news of your weekend but guess what! I completed my gluten free week! I admit it was not perfect and or without failure but overall it was a great learning experience for me that has actually moved me in the direction of change! I started my gluten free week on April 22 at midnight and by 1 pm on Tuesday I had already poisoned myself with gluten…twice. Your probably wondering how I got off to such a shaky start. Well honestly its no ones fault but my own for assuming the food I was eating was gluten free. On Monday night we decided to have Chipotle for dinner and because of a past discussion I had about corn tortillas I thought that Chipotle’s were corn and I ordered a burrito. I was wrong, they are definitely flour tortillas and I should have ordered a burrito bowl like my girlfriend Hannah, who decided to do the gluten free week with me! ( I did not make that mistake twice!)

My second error came at dinner on Tuesday night. I went to my parents house after the gym and my Mom had made beef stew one of my favorite dishes! I looked at the stew and it seemed okay as there were only vegetables, broth, and beef in it. I started eating and telling my family about the gluten free week challenge and how I had made a mistake at Chipotle. All of a sudden my Mom looks up and says, “Wait you can’t have flour? Well then you just poisoned yourself again because I use a little flour to braise the beef before I throw it in the stew!” Yikes!! Not a great start for me!

Mom’s Beef Stew – Looks good but the beef was braised in flour!

So I didn’t get off to the greatest start as you can see but I definitely rebounded from there. On Wednesday I cooked dinner and made a delicious Quinoa and Black Bean Salad with grilled steak. It was really simple and I had a few of the ingredients at home already. You can see what that looked like below!

Quinoa and black bean salad with grilled steak.

 I went out to eat  a few times during my gluten free week. Instead of just picking any old restaurant and hoping that they would have a gluten free menu or option, I decided to use Find Me Gluten Free. It was a HUGE help. Not only did it tell me which places had gluten free options but also which ones had dedicated gluten free menus, and reviews; which were helpful in picking out my dish. On Thursday night I met a friend for dinner and we went to Plan B in West Hartford because I saw that they had an entire gluten free menu on Find Me Gluten Free. Another thing I did that shows I was learning was ask for gluten free soy sauce when Hannah and I went out for sushi on Saturday night!

Overall, I realized eating gluten free can be pricey. Hannah and I bought a frozen pizza that was Amy’s brand and it was tiny but cost about $6.00 you add that with the $10 for the 4 pack of New Planet gluten free beer and another $5 for the gluten free chips we used for our Cedars Hummus appetizer and it can get expensive grocery shop. I realized its much better to buy raw ingredients and just make dishes yourself so you have leftovers. It’s obviously healthier that way too but, sometimes you just crave a pizza or a burger you know what I mean?

Anyway, overall the gluten free challenge was a great experience for me. Both myself and Hannah decided that we are going to continue to try and eat gluten free during the week and then if we are craving pizza or a burger we will have it on the weekends. We both felt great with plenty of energy and much lighter. I think its worth eliminating as many gluten food items as I can because, like as I said there was a noticeable difference in the way I felt.

For Better Living,

-Bill

Chocoloco Coconut Cups!!

I am pretty much in love with anything that is chocolate. When trying to avoid sugar, this has become my Achilles’ heel. Last week I went to teach the lovely kids I work with at The Sustainable Farm School, and they had homemade chocolate waiting for me : ) They had made them in their cooking class and saved some for me. How could I say no? I was kind of torn with eating one, but then they informed me that it was only four ingredients! They used coconut oil, cacao powder, honey and a dash of sea salt.  I can sum it up in one word for you….YUM. Last night I finally attempted these myself and it was totally worth it.

I played around with the simple recipe a little bit and mixed it up by adding a layer of peanut butter in a couple, and for the others I added bits of our Coconut Cashew Truebar! This one tastes like macaroon. I am a little obsessed. I might need to make some more …tonight.

Here is the recipe I used.

• 2/3 cup cacao powder
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1-2 dashes of sea salt
• Peanut butter or Coconut Cashew bar optional!

Make sure the coconut oil is melted. Stir in honey and cacao until it thickens up. Throw in a couple dashes of salt. Pour the mixture into muffin cups (I thought this was easiest, but you could pour into full baking pan as well) Put into the freezer for 10 minutes! Voila! If adding the peanut butter or bits of coconut cashew, put in about half as much chocolate. Then you freeze for 7 minutes and then add middle layer, pour more chocolate on top and put back in the freezer for another 7-10 minutes.

Have you ever attempted to make your own chocolate or peanut butter cups? Share your recipe with us!

Peace, Love & Granola,

Whitney

QA for a day!

Hi everyone!

I have been working here at Bakery On Main for almost two years (Will be two years August 1st!) and I have always been fascinated by our hard working production and quality assurance teams. Its amazing the hours they put in and have great attention to detail to ensure the granola that you purchase is 100% awesome. I asked our Quality Assurance Manager, Jennifer, if I could be “QA for a day” and shadow her and Maria, (Quality Assurance Team Member) to see what their daily routine is like.

I spent a good four hours with Maria and did not stop moving!  She showed me as much as she could in that time and of course it still wasn’t enough to grasp the whole job. A little bit of what we covered were oven checks (for temperature), gluten testing on every batch, moisture testing (raw ingredients) oatmeal shake tests (make sure quantities are even), checking the metal detectors, scales, date coder, and that every bag/bar/pouch is sealed! (even typing all of that makes me tired!) It was a lot of fun to do the testing and all of the math after to make sure everything is on point.

A lot of these tests are done hourly, or every two hours so once you are done with one round and recording all of the data and testing for gluten, you are back to the start! Good thing Maria is a ball of energy because you definitely need high energy and strong attention to detail.

My whole experience in QA rocked! It was so fun to be part of  an essential part of everyday procedures. So if I am not at my desk you can probably find me in the QA office

Ingredient Moisture Testing

QA plus Whitney!

If you have any questions about our quality assurance, feel free to ask below!

Peace, Love & Granola,

Whitney

Celebrating in May!

May is a great month with so much to celebrate! First we get to celebrate Celiac Awareness and how much more information is out there, with much credit to awesome bloggers like the Celiac and the Beast, Gluten Dude, Gluten Free Girl and the Chef, Jules GF and many more!! We also get to celebrate mothers everywhere!

We thought it would be great to have a new recipe to share with all of you so Amie of The Healthy Apple so graciously came up with this excellent salad that you can use for a starter or as the main dish!

Apple Granola Asparagus Salad

Here is the recipe for the

Apple Granola Asparagus Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 lb. fresh asparagus, ends trimmed, cut on a diagonal in 1 inch pieces
• 4 tsp. balsamic vinegar
• 3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 6 cups mixed leafy greens
• 1 large carrot, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup dried cherries
• 3/4 cup Bakery on Main Apple Raisin Walnut Granola
• 2 large apples, diced
• 1/2 tsp. fresh lemon zest

Directions

1. Cook asparagus in a large pot of boiling salted water until crisp, approximately 5 minutes.  Drain and rinse with cold water; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together balsamic vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, cilantro, sea salt and pepper. Add mixed greens and cooked asparagus; gently toss to combine, then add remaining ingredients and toss to coat.
3. Transfer salad to four serving dishes. Serve immediately.

You can read more of Amie’s amazing gluten free recipes here.

Hope you enjoy this recipe! Please share with us any photos of your gluten free recipe creations on our facebook page!

Also stay tuned to our facebook page for weekly giveaways !

Peace, Love and Granola,

Whitney

The Bobcat Blast and Color Me Rad!

This weekend Whit and I took Truebar to two local events here in Connecticut, the Bobcat Blast a boys lacrosse tournament in South Windsor, CT and the Color Me Rad 5K!  This is just a little recap of the festivities. Be sure to check out more photos on our Facebook page!

The Bobcat Blast is a annual lacrosse tournament for Youth Boys from 3rd to 8th grade. It has grown steadily every year and this year totaled over 3,500 players and families! I knew it would be an excellent opportunity to hand out Truebars to some hungry young athletes! Lauren one of our newest Brand Ambassadors (and also my younger sister) helped me set up our tent at 7:00 am in time for the first games at 8 am.

Lauren and myself at the Bobcat Blast!

It was a beautiful day for lacrosse as the sun was shining and temperature was in the 70′s all day. Overall we got great feedback on everyone who tried Truebar and had many coming back for more! It was especially great because we were able to meet so many local people from CT and MA who had never had the opportunity to try Truebar before!

Definitely looking forward to future events like this to meet more people from around CT!

-Bill

Color Me Rad 5k is an awesome event that involves getting covered in color from head to toe! My friend Whitney (Two Whitneys!) and I got there around 7 AM to start setting up and there was already music blaring and people ready to run! We got our tent up fast and started handing out Truebars. We were lucky enough to be by the main stage so everyone was stopping by for a pre-race snack!  The pre-race party was exciting with two Zumba instructors leading a couple of dances along with wheelbarrow contests, free t-shirts, and the most important…more color packets!

After the first wave of runners returned they all gathered by the main stage (us!) and did a final color throw. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the day! It was just a cloud of color! (see picture below!) After watching two of them, Whitney and I finally joined for one and it was, well RAD!

After passing out more than 2,500 Truebars, the race was over and we were ready to pack up! We did run in to the question (pun intended) where you can get Truebar in CT! Make sure you check that out here – Store Locator

Have you ever done a Color Me Rad 5k? Or another themed 5k? After seeing these crazy pics would you sign up?

-Whitney

Gluten Free Grubspots Gazzette – Eatin’ Gluten Free in Miami!

Hola!

I apologize this post is delayed as my trip was actually two weeks ago but, this is honestly the first time I have had free to actually sit down and blog! Soon as I returned from Miami, my focus was immediately on the Boston Marathon Expo which Sara and I attended from last Thursday – Sunday. We had a great time at the Expo and the events in Boston are so unfortunate as it really is a spectacular event with so many wonderful people!

So on my trip to Miami I figured being that South Beach is a common tourist spot, it would be nice to try and find a decent gluten free meal there. However, after walking all of Ocean Drive and asking for gluten free menus; I quickly realized this was going to be easier said than done.

In fact, one hostess who I asked about a gluten free menu said ” Oh yes!” (Which got me very hopeful.)  ”We have lots of gluten free food. Um let me see.” (We start looking at the menu together at this point.) She continues, “Well yeah all you can’t have is the pizza… oh and the sandwiches and most of these appetizers… and we would have to take the croutons off our salads.” Then I added “And the pasta clearly unless you have a wheat free option.” Which just a drew a confused look on her as she said “Uhh, yeah no I don’t think so. So I would stick to anything in this section.” She pointed to the seafood section which, obviously contained a few baked options so I just said “Okay well yeah so like less than a quarter of your menu? Good. Perfect. Okay, well… I think I am going to keep looking for a bit but I may be back!”

It’s funny because I asked another hostess if she had a gluten free menu and her response was “Well yeah, but what do you mean?” and when I said “Well, then you probably just don’t have it, its no problem!” with a smile she got very angry. She was all offened that I assumed she had no idea what gluten free meant. She started mumbling “Why do people do that? That’s so rude and offensive I have been in the food business for 10 years, I know what gluten free means. I was just wondering because we have certain dishes that don’t contain gluten.”

I felt a little bad because I actually was not trying to be rude and I didn’t want her to think I thought she was stupid. But I did tell her that I was trying to find a gluten free menu and that her response to my question did not really make sense and normally when people do not have a gluten free menu they ask “What do you mean?” She then just got angry and said. “Well I have worked her for 10 years and I can tell you for sure that none of the restaurants on this strip will have a set gluten free menu.” And, she was right. I could not find a single spot that had a designated gluten free menu. So, I did what anyone with a gluten intolerance would do and ordered off the general menu with caution.

The place I stopped at was called Primetime, its at the foot of the Waldorf Towers and like all the South Beach Ocean drive eateries, it has a fantastic outdoor seating area along the sidewalk. The service was fantastic and my server was very helpful about making sure everything I ordered was gluten free. I love blackened fish sot the blackened mahi mahi was a no brainer for me. I was unsure about the yellow rice so I had the server ask and he came back with a no. So instead he kindly offered me a house or ceaser salad. I ordered the house with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, with a glass of Cabernet from Chile that he recommended. The food was fantastic and although it was disappointing to see that there was no restaurant with a set gluten free menu, I still recommend having lunch or dinner on South Beach as the people watching and atmosphere is like non other!

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For better living,

-Bill

GF Weekend in Texas!

Hi Y’all!

While wrapping up my gluten free week (video on facebook) I was in San Antonio, Texas for the Healthy at H-E-B Family Expo! The show was packed with locals trying new items from their favorite brands and taking advantage of free health screenings. The H-E-B Slim Down Showdown Grand Finale announced  Brittany Ward of San Antonio the grand prize winner of $10,000!  You can read more about her journey here.

Here a few pictures from the weekend!

Julie and I at the booth before the show. (Calm before the storm)

Wonderful breakfast at The Guenther House ! Not too many gf options, but the food I had was delicious and they were more than happy to cater to gf needs!

Upstairs parlor of The Guenther House!

After the show I got to attend the Valero Texas Open! What a fun day!

What do you find hard about traveling gluten free? Do you have a go-to restaurant or meal?

Peace, Love & Granola,

Whitney