Gluten free in America

It's  been the best and worst of times living gluten free in America!  There have been some fantastic meals and some best forgotten!

Don't get me wrong, there is a gluten free section in Walmart and lots of things are well labelled, if they are gluten free, but the focus is on cakes and cookies that look like delicious brownies or Oreos, but the reality is that they are so sweet they make your teeth sizzle!  There are health food shops where it is possible to get gluten free stuff, but, at a price.  so here's my experience...

Surprisingly although the menu choice at Pizza Hut was a single gluten free option, their Udi's gluten free pepperoni pizza was fantastic.  A good job I like pepperoni!  https://order.pizzahut.com/glutenfree

TGI Friday has been my worst experience.  Their gluten free options are very limited - I ended up with a chicken salad which they ruined for me by putting blue cheese on it (not paying attention again, I'm sure!) and there were NO puddings at all!  Everyone else around us was piling up their plates (including John who had a lovely meal) and I was sitting there with a grumpy face on!


Olive Garden was not a lot better - I majored on salad with a nice piece of salmon, but again NO puddings, except from the kids menu - the ice cream sundae was eventually declared gluten free - I had 2!



Best breakfast (it's become a weekly tradition!) to be had at Perkins on the corner of 192 and Poinciana - fantastic breakfast and they give you loads of fruit instead of toast.  http://www.perkinsrestaurants.com/index.php

Surprisingly, the meal at Medieval Times was pretty gluten free friendly.  I think Holly got the bum deal as a veggie.  Whilst we were ripping our way through chunks of roast chicken, she was on the rice and beans!  They did offer me a vile cherry ice cream for dessert but I managed to palm that off on John!

The island Grill on Flagler beach were great at adapting their menu AND they had a gluten free hot chocolate cake + cream on the menu - yep!  we'll have one of those each, thank you.  It was delicious!

My favourite experience?  Papas New York Diner on Gulf to Bay Blvd, Clearwater.  We thought we were running out of options for a meal and getting there required a spectacular U-eee or two  (I mean U turns but John and I can't agree how to spell what we say!). 

They produced the best gluten free 'almond horn' (whatever one of those is) I have ever tasted!  it was a horseshoe shaped almond confection dipped in chocolate!  I was so overwhelmed I didn't take a picture of it.  The one in the picture is Sarah's raspberry version.

I just had to include the picture of Sarah with a neon sign coming out of her head!

Of course our experiences aren't over yet, but at the moment we are trying to eat up what's in the fridge and freezer... items that we clearly thought were essential requirements and now are not so sure about.  Nathaniel will be pleased to know that we are nearly at the end of the Heinz Baked Beans!