Me - Gluten Free???

I love gluten. I like bagels and real pizza crust and a nice hearty slice of bread never hurt anybody either.

Or did it?

Recently, I have been experiencing some less-than-glamorous digestive issues. I won't get into detail for your sake . According to my symptoms, one of the first protocols suggested was to cut out gluten to eliminate the possibility of something like Celiac disease. I eliminated gluten for TWO whole weeks! How did I survive? If you ever need to follow a similar protocol or if you already know you can't consume gluten, here are some tips I used to not only survive, but still enjoy food!

• Instead of focusing on what you can't eat, think of all you can eat! Try out something new!

• Find gluten-free substitutions for things you ate before!

• Pay attention to labels - gluten may be sneaking in places you never thought! 

Bread Replacement - Canyon Bakehouse Cinnamon Raisin bread turned out to pretty dang tasty! I recommend it and I've heard their other breads are good as well!

Bagel Replacement - I also tried the Canyon Bakehouse everything bagel and it was good as well! Don't get me wrong, I still would prefer a gluten bagel, but these were not half bad! 

Pizza 

Cauliflour Foods Pizza!

Cauliflour Foods is a brand of pizza crusts made from cauliflower and a few other simple ingredients. It was definitely not your typical pizza crust but tasted really good in it's own right. 

Real Good Pizzas are low-carb pizzas with crusts made from (gasp) chicken! I don't think they're bad but my parents are not big fans. 

Snack Replacements 

Use code: Healthy_Happy_and_Free on squareorganics.com

I opted for snack bars like The Hope Bar (seriously, these are delicious!), Square bars (the crisp ones make for great mid-day snacks and I love the chocolate coated ones as part of dessert!), Quest Bars, etc. 

 Enlightened Cinnamon crisps made a wonderful yogurt mix in! (Use code: HEALTHYHAPPY20 for a discount on https://eatenlightened.refersion.com/c/d068df ). I like to pack the savory ones with my lunch for a snack!

Biena Roasted Chickpeas are one of my favorite snacks as well. They are munchy, crunchy and come in so many flavors! I love the chocolate coated ones!

Popcorn - I already had a love affair with popcorn - Thank goodness it's naturally gluten free! Check out my favorite popcorn picks here: Top Three Popcorn Picks. 

Puffed Quinoa - Puffed what? That's right, quinoa or Keenwah. I Heart Keenwah makes puffed quinoa snacks in fun flavors like chocolate peanut butter, aged cheddar and more. They are so yummy! I previously had only had the chocolate coated ones, but I recently tried the aged cheddar flavor and they were so good! It was almost like a healthy cheeto! Check them out here: iheartkeenwah.com. By the way, the chocolate coated ones are also super yummy! 

Be sure to check your labels if eliminating gluten is crucial to your well-being. I had to avoid certain snacks, ice creams, etc. but all in all, the experience wasn't bad. It opened my eyes to trying new things.

Have you ever eliminated gluten? Did you try anything new?

P.S. Check out Hope Bars here: https://hope-bars.com/. I've only tried Peanut Butter Chocolate but it was fantastic!