Gluten Free Rocks

Ice Cream Truck Part 2

2011-06-13T08:45:00.000-04:00

I just found out that there are more things on the ice cream truck that can be gluten free. There are Scribblers and Rainbow Pops. They're really good. And now I don't have to be jealous when I see a humongous line in front of the ice cream truck. I just don't like it when my mom says the line is too long. I feel like the popsicles are gluten-free for no reason. I wonder where else we could get them and if there is another place we could get them.

Next I would like to tell the ice cream man as there is actually such thing as gluten free popsicles and gluten free ice cream cones. Maybe that would work. Maybe they could also start selling Haagen Daz bars.

I wish everything in the world were gluten free. That would be totally freaking awesome.

I remember what the ice cream on the ice cream truck tasted like. It was yummy. But at other stores you can get ice cream that tastes just as good. You can get the ice cream at Fine Fare. Or Whole Foods. Speaking of Whole Foods they make the best cupcakes ever, besides Tu-lu's and my mom.

My Thumb Sucks

2011-06-08T17:38:00.002-04:00

The orthodontist suggested this gross liquid for my mouth. Why can't it have gluten in it? Even thought it's true that I really don't want this jail in my mouth that would keep me from eating popcorn and gum (can you imagine no popcorn or gum?), I just wish that I magic wand to make all of it go away.

When my orthodontist suggested it to me, I crossed my fingers that it wasn't gluten free. I usually do that when I want something to come true. But it never really works. I need a new something to do when I want something to come true. Have any ideas?

This is only my first day on the liquid, and it tastes really bitter. It reminds me of nail polish. Sour, and it spreads in your mouth. It's 5:43 pm and I still can't get it off. I'm going to try to get it off the way you get nail polish off. I really hope that works.

letter from Tu-lu's

2011-03-06T22:57:00.002-05:00

Awhile ago I sent a letter to tu-lu's tell them how good their bakery is. Tu-lu's is my favorite gluten-free bakery I've ever been to. One of my good friends had given a card to me and we went there. That's how we found out about it.

It's a small bakery with trees, cupcakes, pink dots and an owl sticker on the wall. When I walk in, it makes me feel like I'm in a bright forest but there are all these treats around me. When I sent the letter I didn't get a response for a long time. Then, I went to the bakery again and we figured out that they did write me back but it got sent back in the mail.

That's how we met Tully. She opened tu-lu's because she has celiac disease too. I also sent her stickers and she sent me a tu-lu's bakery card. I"m going to bring it next time I go there. Their foods taste just like regular treats with wheat and things in them. But they're gluten-free. Even treats that I don't really like, like oatmeal raison cookies, I still like at tu-lu's. Last time we went we got four mint chocolate chip cupcakes. They're delicious! And I think they're my favorite ones yet. Would you like to try it yourself? If you do, tell them Gluten Free Rocks sent you!

celiac levels down!

2011-02-18T18:52:00.000-05:00

Hi! guess what. my celiac levels went down! first they were at 37. now they are at 16!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! only 6 away until having normal celiac levels! but it took a long time to figure it out. first I had a blooId test. then some dumb people sent it to the wrong lab so I needed a nother blood test! after that the people said my celiac levels went up which made my mom upset because she thought that she was doing a bad job of keeping me safe. then we had to ANOTHER blood test to make sure I did not have anemia. my mommy thought there was enough blood tests going on so she decided they would do a finger prick. my doctor was so excited he decided he would do it himself. after the finger prick they decided my levels wen down. the whole family was happy. and that is the story of how they figured the levels went down to 16.Some times i wish there was a robot that could scan me and automaticaly know what would be happening in my body.

Trick or treat

2010-11-09T16:46:00.000-05:00

Yeah it's Halloween! You're so excited to go trick or treating. But when you get home you find out that most of your candy has gluten.

But what me and my mom do, is look through the candies and see if it's gluten free or not. There are different apps on your iPhone that you can download and you can look it up. If it's not gluten free you can give it to a friend because that would make your friend happy. Then if you were giving out candy on Halloween too, or your parents were, then if you have left-overs, you can get have that type of gluten free candy instead. That way you'll still get lots of candy BUT the only difference is it'll all be gluten free.

After Halloween night, you'll probably feel very tempted to eat all the candy in your basket because it's right there in front of you. What I do to keep myself away from the candy is that I pretend the candy has gluten in it. Because I do not want to eat candy with gluten in it. I do not want to hurt my body.

One time I was at a friend's house and they had lots of non-gluten free candy. They brought up one of their pieces of candy to me and said a statement of how good the candy was. That made me feel upset, angry, disappointed and sad all at the same time. But what I would do is take a deep breath and tell them that it is really yummy, but you don't have to mention that it's not gluten-free but that might make them feel a little embarrassed. Then they'll probably talk about something else.

Mama Mondays: Can someone explain THIS?

2010-09-13T10:39:00.000-04:00

Quick post:

Last night we had some friends over for dinner and with the pork and hominy stew (so good! gluten free!) I decided to whip up some homemade cornbread. I used the recipe on the back of Bob's Red Mill gluten-free Cornmeal and this is what happened:

Thoughts on why I produced a sponge with some corn meal on top? The Prince pronounced it delicious as well as my thoughtful (THOUGHTFUL) friends. I however understand that it's unacceptable and vile. And can't tell you how frustrated I still am with all this gluten-free baking. Sigh.....

Interview With My Best Friend

2010-08-31T13:39:00.006-04:00

Today I am with my best friend and she is going to answer some questions about what she thinks about celiac. I'm going to call her BFF. She's in my class, and 8-years-old but she is shorter than me. We met each other when we were both 2-years-old. Her favorite color is green, and her favorite food is soup, not any specific soup.

Me: Are you awesome?
BFF: Yes.

Me: What did you feel like when I heard I had celiac?
BFF: All your food is going to be different when I come to your house except for fruit. But one of the things that wouldn't change is we are still best friends.

Me: Now that you've had some, does the gluten-free food taste different?
BFF: I don't really think it tastes different but your muffins do. But I don't really taste the difference because your mom is a good cook.

Me: Do you feel like I'm different in any way?
BFF: Not really, except for the fact that you have celiac. The food at lunch at school is still the mac and cheese, and you used to have that anyway. And you just changed it a little bit so you can have rice pasta.

Me: Do you still have as much fun as before I had celiac?
BFF: Yes. Nothing will change. except that you have a disease.

BFF: How does it feel to have that disease?
Me: It's easy to ignore. But when I'm thinking about it I kind of feel upset. And like not like all of my other friends.

BF: Huh?
Me: That I'm not like all of my other friends.

BF: Well, that's not just true because you're still my best best friend.
Me: But I still have celiac.

Me: Okay, I'm done.
BF: Bye people of the world who like this blog!

More Gluten-free please

2010-08-26T18:22:00.004-04:00

After camp or on a walk if you get hungry why can't there be more gluten-free places? Or at least be signs that say it is or it's not?

For example there's a place in Little Italy, an ice cream place, that we walk by every day after camp on Grand Street. It's not gluten-free, or we don't know because nobody knows when we ask them. It makes me feel like they aren't careful. We used to go there everyday after camp and it made the long walks seem a lot faster. Now that we can't get the ice cream, it's like a long and lonely walk home. Except my mama is a very good buddy.

But closer to our house/apartment is another ice cream place called il laboratorio del gelato and a lot of their ice cream is gluten-free. We know because my mama called them and asked. Thanks to that we still get a nice cold treat after the long walk, just not during it.

Mama Mondays - Vitamins

2010-08-23T09:50:00.000-04:00

The Kid had her 6 months celiac serology test two weeks ago. We're not down to zero on the antibodies, but we're heading in the right direction by A LOT.

However, the growth spurt plus some results on her vitamin levels led docs to put her on calcium and iron. Oh what fun it is to find vitamin supplements gluten-free!

But we did. Not everyone has a Whole Foods in their neighborhood, but at ours I picked up their 365 Everyday Value Calcium D Kids Gummy Pectin Swirl (Say that 3 times fast) which is gluten free and dairy free. And at the CVS I found Enfamil Fer-In-Sol. While usually given to infants, both her docs recommended it since she's low on iron but not anemic. (Are we having fun yet?)

As for The Kid and how she likes these new morning "treats?" The iron brings on great dramatic gagging. We follow with the gummy calcium -- she gets 2 -- a candy chaser which seems to cut the "super sweet then okay, but then terrible aftertaste like the worst you've ever had." Awesome.

Gluten Free Across the Country

2010-08-20T17:29:00.008-04:00

If you want to go on a trip, it might be hard to find some places that will be gluten-free.
We went across the country this summer and found some really nice places and some that were not that nice to us.
But we want to tell you about the ones we liked the best:

1. Skyland.
We stayed there for only one night. But we ate at the big restaurant and they had gluten-free grits! We also had eggs and bacon and ice cream and much more. And nothing was cooked or fried on the same grill as things with gluten. I also liked that it was so quiet and pretty. Everywhere you looked there was tons of nature. There's also a pony ride.

2. Fayetteville, West Virginia
There's a restaurant called Pies & Pints in Fayetteville, West Virginia and it has gluten free handmade pizza. There is a mini-playground outside and lots of tables and chairs too. You might want to eat inside if it rains but otherwise if it's nice weather it's also a nice place to eat dinner. The pizza was very good. I liked it a lot.

3. Birmingham, Alabama
In Birmingham, Alabama there is a restaurant called Mellow Mushroom that also has gluten-free pizza. Their's was about as good as the one at Pies & Pints except they didn't have an outside place to play. It did have a funny name and also a TV that had a soccer game that was going on, on it....not that I was interested in soccer.

4. New Orleans
The hotel Le Pavillon was one of the best hotels I've ever stayed at. They were very nice and very friendly. There's a ghost story there and they say they have proof of it. They said they took a picture of a ghost out by the clock in the morning. I love that hotel. Not only that they had ghost stories and ghosts living there, but it was also very clean and fancy. We met a friend there named Grace who was a very nice lady and she set out a gluten-free breakfast for the last day we stayed there and she made me my first Shirley Temple.

5. Harry's Roadhouse, Santa Fe
They were really nice and knew a lot about celiac. And they made my dinner in special pots and when I got a root beer float for dessert they let me pour in the root beer by myself. I also got this big piece of paper to color, and I'm not even done with it now. And that was weeks ago.

6. Big Ring Bakery, Flagstaff
We met them and they were at the Farmer's Market and they had a big dog. And they had gluten-free bread and gluten-free chocolate. I thought they were very nice to us. And their things were extremely good.

7. Las Vegas
It was huge. So many lights everywhere and we stayed in this casino/hotel and we got this thing when you put it in your bathtub and it starts smelling very nice and turning the color that it was. It's called a bath bomb. Then when you go and come out from the bath you smell very nice. We stayed in a room bigger than our apartment. I didn't know where to sleep. There is a fancy restaurant and the ceiling was painted blue with clouds and there were fake street lamps and a huge clock in the center of it. The food there was delicious. There was gluten-free spaghetti! With tomato sauce! And I loved it! And there was a lady singing with all these people around her like she was famous. Was she famous? I'm not sure. The restaurant was called Enoteca. It was crazy but it was cool.

8. In-N-Out Burger and Dairy Queen
Dairy Queen was a nice place to stop and get ice cream on a hot day. It's gluten-free and they would also let you bring in your own gluten-free cone. We stopped at a lot of those. At In-N-Out Burger you didn't even have to get out of the car to get some french fries with ketchup or a vanilla or chocolate milk shake. And that was all gluten-free. Because they don't fry their french fries with anything else. And french fries are originally gluten-free.

9. Hansen's Cake
Hansen's Cake has gluten-free cakes. Everytime we go to my grandma and grandpa's house in Los Angeles, if there's any birthday we get a cake from Hansen's Cake. The gluten-free cakes taste like regular cakes -- except they're gluten-free. And I remember eating the regular cakes and they're as good as the regular ones. They're better than the cakes I sometimes get in New York!

There are lots of gluten-free places across the country. And all of this is not all of them. Maybe you'll go on a road trip and drive across the country one day and find even more places that are gluten-free. Thank you.

Mama Mondays -uh, Tuesday

2010-06-01T19:11:00.000-04:00

We forgot yesterday -- had too much Memorial Day relaxing...

But wanted to link in the gluten-free cones The Kid mentioned in her post today:

Let's Do Gluten Free Ice Cream Cones which we get at Whole Foods but they also have on Amazon.com

And also, we wanted to thank The K5 for their super nice mention this week!

Happy week!

Ice Cream Truck

2010-06-01T06:50:00.000-04:00

Ice-cream is yummy. ESPECIALLY from the truck. When it's hot out after school ice cream from the ice cream truck would be a nice treat. Too bad you can't have the cone. And I don't know what's in the ice cream. The good thing is that the Firecracker Popsicle is gluten-free. But you have to have one of your parents check to make sure. Because they can change the recipe if they want to.

You might get a little upset when you see other kids having ice cream on a cone. But that doesn't mean there aren't gluten free cones. They don't have them at the ice cream truck. But you can get them at Whole Foods. They taste just like regular cones.

How I found out I had celiac

2010-05-27T18:49:00.000-04:00

My grandpa had cancer. I was six years old. I was writing all sorts of letters to him and suddenly my stomach started hurting. We thought I was going to puke so we rushed to the bathroom. I stayed leaning over the toilet for a long time. Then finally my parents thought I should get some sleep. So I went to bed. But the stomach aches kept happening day after day and finally we went to a doctor. He made me keep taking this pill called Prevacid. And Tums. That helped for a little bit. But not for long.

I felt nauseous. I felt all sorts of things. Angry. Upset. And I could not ignore how much it hurt. So I didn't have a very fun time playing in my room.

Then we went to see my regular doctor. He wanted to stick a needle in me, and the needle would take out the blood. And then some people would look at it and see what I had. And then they did it. And then they did it again after a little while.

We visited a new doctor and she said to take a little more blood. That made me feel annoyed, upset and a little scared. It hurt. It didn't take long though. After it happened they gave me a band aid with a smiley face on it. It took a little while for it to stop being sore. But eventually it did.

Then I had an operation. It was not fun. I went to a playroom, (the only fun thing about the whole operation thing). Then I got taken to a room, and got on to a bed with wheels under it. I got changed into a nightgown (which was WAY too big on me) and mommy rode with me when they took the bed with me and my mama on it to the room where I would have my operation.

I stopped at the bathroom. Then they made me breathe into this yucky air that would make me fall asleep. And when you counted to three, poof I was asleep. They stuck a tube in my mouth and my two wiggly front teeth came out, even though they weren't really ready. The tube went into my tummy but still I was asleep, so what I felt was nothing.

And when I woke up I had a big hole in my mouth when I smiled because my bottom teeth had come out too. I looked at my chest and there were these square things on it with pictures of animals on it. I couldn't talk very well. I never really talked without any front or bottom teeth. I was talking horribly. There was also a needle in the back of my hand and it hurt. I kept asking when it will we take it out? When will we take it out? The answer was, ALWAYS, soon. The good part is, I had some animal crackers and watched a movie.

They scraped off a tiny little thin piece of my tummy when I was asleep with a knife and sent it to a laboratory where it would get tested. I didn't feel it because I was asleep. Or else the whole thing would terribly hurt.

And that's how they figured out I had celiac. We basically emptied out the whole house. Now I can't have some of my favorite foods but that doesn't mean I can't have any yummy foods. And some people make gluten free pasta, one of my favorite foods. That made me feel a little happier. But still, no Cheddar Bunnies, and other crackers.

The most important thing is that I'm not hurting my body and I still get to eat yummy things!

Mama Mondays

2010-05-24T08:00:00.001-04:00

I love to bake. And the Kid and I have been baking together for a long time -- even though she's 7. So when we heard she had celiac, my first worry was how would we bake again?

Luckily, we're not the first to think about this! There are so many wonderful recipes, blogs, and cookbooks out there aimed at the gluten-free baker. While I am starting to learn how to use xantham gum, tapioca starch, quinoa flour and other strange items I had never heard of before, I am not too proud to dive into a pre-made mix to ensure the Kid's craving for a muffin or brownie can be fed.

So for my first post on Gluten Free Rocks, I thought I would name a couple of my favorite cookbooks, blogs and mixes that we've tried in our short four months...I am working on some recipes of my own, but let's just say I don't think they're quite ready to be shared. (we've had some fun disasters!)

But these are great and I recommend heartily:

King Arthur Gluten-Free Mixes (we LOVE the brownies...amazing!)

Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix (the best gluten-free pancake mix we've found so far)

Tartelette (Gorgeous to read, her story inspiring, her recipes are amazing!)

Cannelle et Vanille (also gorgeous, and some dairy-free recipes too...!)

Gluten-Free Baking Classics (Banana Nut Muffins are EXCELLENT...we upped the cinnamon...)

the Gluten-Free Almond Flour cookbook (recommended by our friends at Chew On This...almond flour is the best thing I've found and we love the recipe in here for chicken fingers)

A short list, I know. But all have been helpful for this mama to help her celiac kid feel that being gluten-free rocks!

Birthdays!

2010-05-22T09:17:00.006-04:00

Usually when people have birthdays they either have cake or cupcakes. Those usually are not gluten-free. If you want to go a birthday party then why don't you start bringing your own cupcakes? And if they have something like pizza too, bring your own lunch or dinner.

Whole Foods makes good gluten free cupcakes, chocolate and vanilla. So you can go to Whole Foods and get some cupcakes there.

It might be a little hard at first. I felt embarrassed when I went to my first birthday party that I got invited to when I had celiac. Because everybody else was having the other food but I had to have a different kind. But then I got used to it and I felt comfortable bringing my own food.

When people have birthdays at school I have a cupcake carrier from Amazon. My mama squishes the cupcakes into the carrier, and usually I bring one for the teacher too. It's like nothing changed except I have a different cupcake than them. And I feel like nothing changed too.

It's getting really fun to bring my own things because sometimes I even get to bring brownies! The best part is, the brownies are homemade. You might learn how to make them on the recipes page which my mama says she will put up on Monday. We call it Mama Mondays. It's when my mama gets to write on my blog and add something.

Hello Everyone

2010-05-20T20:05:00.000-04:00

Hello, I am gluten-free girl living in New York City, and I'm 7-years-old.
I made this blog because I want you to know how fun Celiac can be sometimes. If you are a kid then keep reading. And if you're a grown-up and you have a kid there might be some helpful info that you might want to learn about. But only if you have Celiac.

Just like me.

For example, you might want to go to a very good bakery called Tu-lu's. They make cupcakes, muffins, cookies and all sorts of very yummy treats. There's also a bakery called Baby Cakes. They're also very good at making gluten-free things. And as you go along you will find some other good things that you might be interested in.

Why don't you go ahead and start reading more about Celiac and gluten-free things. On my blog, there might be some recipes, reviews, and how hard it was at first when I got Celiac, and how long it took for them to figure it out and the process. You might find some connections with the blog and yourself.

When you're done, come by soon and we'll have some more for you to read about Celiac and kids like me.