How to live an awesome gluten free life

I will now share my expertise on how to live an awesome gluten-free life.

I propose the following guidelines:

As depicted, it is usually
overcast.

#1 Pick your location wisely

From my experience, larger metropolitan areas tend to see more people, and as a result, are more aware of accomodating unusual requests, especially of a dietarty nature.  I do not live in a thriving metropolis, I live in a wilting metropolis (Rochester), but I am fortunate that this city is extremely knowledgable on gluten free food and the celiac lifestyle.

If your bread needs this, you're
making it wrong.

In addition to your city of location, being happy in the physical setting of your home environment is also important.  For example, I once lived in a college apartment with a roommate who decided to briefly date one of my best friends halfway into the lease.  When they broke up, I became highly suspect (and not just because she wen't through my phone and saw I texted him to "dump his ho," ...oh wait, yes, that was why she hated me).  I spent the duration of the lease finding open boxes of vital wheat gluten in the living room.  Needless to say, I moved out early one day while she was at work.  It is important to live with people who understand that gluten causes a bad autoimmune reaction when it gets into your body.

#2 Find fabulous food

To reiterate my love of food, I have
included a picture of my freezer.

A gluten-free diet does not equal a boring diet! If it does, you're doing it wrong.  I spice my diet up with restaurant food and frozen meals all the time, mainly because I'm lazy and busy.  One of my on-the-go favorites right now is ordering sandwiches from Panera without the bread.  They neatly assemble the sandwich content onto a plate and hand that to me, and I whip out my Udi's white sandwich bread and assemble my sandwich.  I also enjoy pre-cooked food and salt, so a staple of my diet is TV dinners.  My favorite right now is Pasta Primavera from Gluten Free Cafe.


#3 Work a baller job

Gluten-free food doesn't come cheap.  With this appetite, working is a necessity.  I've still got a couple months to graduation, so I'm still a full-time student, thus a part-time worker.  Maximizing work benefits becomes crucial to an awesome life.  Ideally, employment should is on par with your career goals, pay well for the work, and be for a company you like.  Employment example: I work for Barnes & Noble college as a brand ambassador, so I execute marketing tactics on my campus for the brand. 

Paper bag clothes and .49 cent
meals offset the expenses of my
education (not that I eat Ramen)

I love the work, like today I had a meeting with the store manager at RIT (I don't work for the store, I work for the brand) and learned that if course instructors don't submit the textbook titles they're using next quarter, students who go to sell the books back get like $15 for the book.  If it's a book that a professor told the book store they're gonna use, students will get 3-4 times more money. It makes me frustrated that some teachers take their time! They're trying to help take the risk out of that by offering textbook rentals though, because you just pay less to begin with instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for favorable economics at the end of the quarter.  I know my Health Awareness book was $80 less for rental.  I kind of laugh when I remember the bookstore at MCC, waiting in line to buy your textbooks usually took an hour.  You weren't allowed to bring your backpack into the store, either, ahahah, they handed out quarters and you had to put it in a locker! WOW in retrospect, that is so bootleg. Glad I transferred!

So, remember: Location, food, and work = an awesome life by Maddy's standards. Now, I'm going to go eat some nuggs.

Warm Soup and Cold Weather

Mrs. Beast

Welcome to December! Nasty business that snow storm--holy cow.  I picked up the used car I just purchased today (a freaking beast, which is why I named it Mrs. Beast), and after fumbling around in it like an idiot*, I quickly adjusted and decided it was actually a nice car to ride in despite the snow.  Plus, it has ABS.  How did I make it this far in Rochester without anti-lock breaks! High-5 to whoever invented those things! So anyways, since I've been all over the place trying to straighten things out with this car, I've been on the run a lot and not planning ahead my lunches like a good Celiac should.  But I didn't fret, instead I've been grabbing lunch at Lori's Natural Foods all week.  Located in Henrietta, NY, they have premade foods that make really good lunches for all those with finicky vegan-so-the-plant-died-of-loneliness, gluten-free, dairy free, free range this, etc.  I mean, the building has sunflowers painted on the side of it.  Anyways. Lots of options for natural foodies, and I love how 99% of all their premade foods are gluten free.  So I had soup for lunch on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  They didn't have a whole lot in the pre-made food department other than soup that I was interested in (read: sesame tofu? naw thanks) for meals, but desserts? Ahhh hook them up to my face! Pumpkin moon-pie? Gluten free? Mmmmmmm!!!! Two cake-like cookies sandwiching cream cheese frosting or something, I love it. The types of soup I had were:

• vegetable noodle (very good, I liked the quinoa noodles which was odd bc quinoa freaks me out)
• Leek and butternut squash (also very good.  I added a lot of salt, but salt is my favorite food)
• Corn and roasted pepper bisque (needed the most salt. I think this could have used some garlic)

All in all, as a celiac, I couldn't have asked for better options on the go.  The only thing I wish they had was a place to sit and eat in the store with WIFI or something.  But I like to be antisocial when I eat my lunch and I go to a tech school, so I would make that suggestion.

What are the hidden gem gluten free food havens in your city? I love that Rochester, NY has tons of  Celiac options.  I think between Wegmans and general natural food awareness here, we're one of the best Celiac-friendly cities.

In other deliciousness, I was watching the TODAY show this morning, and Martha Stewart was on making some "glitter balls," basically sugar cookie dough in balls, rolled in "glitter" made by mixing sugar and powdered food coloring.  You then lightly smoosh the cookies so they're kind of flat, then bake--and once they're baked, make a frosting sandwich. Doesn't that just make your mouth water?! Have I mentioned I love glitter?!?! That's gotta be real easy to make GF. I just need a good sugar cookie recipe.

 

*When I say fumbling around like an idiot, I got in the car to drive away and couldn't see over the wheel.  This sedan is twice as big as my previous lil 2-door, so I felt like I was driving a bus.  I stopped to get gas and couldn't figure out what side the gas door was on, so I tried turning around and couldn't maneuver the car in the snow!! At this point I was in the middle of the road trying to figure out how to work the "PRNDDL" (pronounced "prindle", read: transmission) ready to put my fist through the windsheild when my dad had to came over and was like do you need help? lol. Thank you, dad! The good news is, once I moved the steering wheel down, I could see.