well, its Memorial Day Weekend here in the United States; what are some of your plans?
(you know, this always seems to boil down to a few pertinent things, one, mainly being FOOD )
will you be barbecuing, traveling and then barbecuing, having people travel to you, and then barbecuing? and, so importantly: what will you be barbecuing?
dont be shy; weāre all about food on FUD! so share share share! (and then after the weekend you can report back on how you bolused, how much you bolused, and if it was a success for you)
So the U is pronouced like āooā? Right? Right?
We celebrated Victoria Day last weekend. Queen Victoria has been dead since 1901, but that is no reason why we canāt have a barbeque.
So last Sunday I fired up the BBQ and got a lamb leg and made lamb souvlaki. A family favourite along with a greek salad and asperagus (roasted dry in the oven with feta sprinkled on top and then when it comes out sprinked with some balsamic and olive oil) and probably some rice with saffron in it.
Then on Monday it was burgers with all the stuff on top including lettuce from the garden which is nice and tenderā¦ One gluten free bun for the little celiac. I have been banned from using Lea&Perrins in the burgers (it has malt = gluten in it so no good) so I am using 50/50 dijon mustard and frenchās mustard in the ground meat along with spring onions, corn meal (used to use bread crumbs but they have been bannded), egg, S&P.
Last night I went to Jazz in the Garden with a friend. The Smithsonian sculpture garden has a jazz series every Friday of the summer. Thereās free live jazz music, and you can buy some sangria and food. I brought a blanket and laid it out in the shade. We chatted until the sun went down, drinking sangria and picking at a yummy sandwich while listening to some soothing music. There were lots of people there, but everyone was really chill. So much fun!! The sugar levels were great last night too
I went hiking today, and things were a little more complicated. I was betting on my sugar dropping low during the hike so I was doing some snacking, but instead I think the muscle effort drove them up and the snacking didnāt help. The hike alternated between an incline and decline for about 6 miles, but I didnāt really know that was what was going to happen. I think itād have worked out better if Iād done more research in advance. I got my levels back in range, but it took awhile because they werenāt quite high enough for me to use Afrezza to bring them down. I was a little worried about taking Afrezza too because it can really drop me, and I wasnāt sure how that would work out with exercise. Itās an argument for using an IM injection instead because i couldāve just taken 1 unit that way.
Anyway, by the time the hike was over, my levels were normal again. We stopped at a vineyard on the way home and tried out their tasting menu. Some of the wines were quite yummy!
Today we had to drop off our rental car, and it just so happened an almost entirely gluten free restaurant was on the way home - British fare, so I ate beer-battered onion rings (so good), bangers on a bun, and chips. I lost all sense of self control and ate almost all the chips. I just finished the 5 hr battle (halfhearted on my part) to get my BG back in range, but it was worth it for a whatās becoming once a year treat. Tomorrow we hopefully will all be staying home, recovering from our family vacation, with hubby grilling and me cooking sides and making cookies with my daughter, then itās back to normal life Tuesday. Already looking forward to the anniversary trip we have coming up in a few weeks - more vacation and good food!
Finished a weekend intensive yoga workshop, potluck cookout with friends tomorrow. Preparing a Thai-style marinated flank steak as our dish, gonna eat cake and ice cream for dessert!
Went on a small hike around a local nature park on Saturday with my hubby, met up with friends later that night at a popular food / beer / entertainment campus outside of Portland for the evening. Great time, BGās handled pretty well (still figuring out some things with the 670G and automode, so was overall happy with the results).
Brunch on Sunday with more friendsā¦ and then an outside demo project that consisted of Sawz-alling a built-in hot tub out of a deck. Made a heck of a mess. Still lots of work to do plus a transfer-station run. Made the mistake of not setting a higher temp-basal during that work in the heatā¦and then ate pizza for dinnerā¦
Needless to say ended up with the worst low Iāve had in months. Saw that BG was dropping fast so started feeding it but had a hard time keeping it over a 45 for a good half-hour. Rebounded a few hours later, auto-mode got it back in line overnight.
Today we are doing more demo work and I need to go in to the cidery for a few hours. Being that it is Memorial Day I will make a stop at our local memorial park in town, after that a BBQ with friendsā¦ I am making corn bread salad and canāt wait!
It is, and even better are dedicated gluten free restaurants. While traveling, we stopped at a GF Mediterranean restaurant in Raleigh, NC (Fresh Levant Bistro). It was amazing - my husband said if he didnāt know the pita bread was gf, he wouldnāt be able to tell. I highly recommend looking at findmeglutenfree.com (or downloading the app) to look for local dedicated gf restaurants anywhere you travel. At the very least, you can read user reviews of any place listed to see if theyāre good about preventing cross contamination.
We had kabobs too. Started out with guacamole, then grilled shrimp. Lovely time was had by all!! This weekend was a scorcher in the Chicago area, but I loved it!
Thanks for the tips. The restaurants around here say they are āgluten-friendlyā but then they go and put in a disclaimer like this
āOur Gluten-friendly menu is available to assist our guests with their dietary needs and concerns. Although we do our best, [Restaurant Name] are not gluten-free and take no responsibility should cross-contamination occur.ā
So how exactly does that help me? I see that you are limiting your liability, but are you actually trying to be helpful?
I despise the term āgluten-friendly.ā There is nothing friendly about gluten to those of us with CD.
I have noticed that statement at just about every restaurant - itās the blanket CYA statement to keep someone from suing if they should have a reaction, however likely or unlikely depending on how the restaurant operates. It does make it very tricky to figure out if a restaurant really can make you a safe meal or if theyāre mainly catering to the fad dieters. Thatās where that website and things like blogs or FB celiac groups come in handy, getting personal experiences from others with CD to help point you in the right direction. Even with that, though, Iām becoming more and more wary of eating anywhere that isnāt 100% gf or just has gluten bread options (and Iāve been glutened at one of those, even, so againā¦the 100% gf places are gold).
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FOOD.
I just finished the 5 hr battle (halfhearted on my part) to get my BG back in range, but it was worth it for a whatās becoming once a year treat. Tomorrow we hopefully will all be staying home, recovering from our family vacation, with hubby grilling and me cooking sides and making cookies with my daughter, then itās back to normal life Tuesday. Already looking forward to the anniversary trip we have coming up in a few weeks - more vacation and good food!
I see that you are limiting your liability, but are you actually trying to be helpful?