Happy Birthday to Me.

I recently celebrated my birthday... and by "celebrated," I mean "ate a lot of really awesome food." In all of my birthday gluttony, I managed to avoid being glutened.... a happy birthday indeed.

It started the weekend before my birthday with gluten free birthday pie. My mom took my technique for GF pie crust to the next level. The word Ben used for it was "epic." I'm not sure I have ever heard about a pie being described as "epic," but that's an accurate descriptor for that rhubarb masterpiece. I'd show you a picture of it, but I forgot to take one.

Then, Ben took me out for my fancy b-day dinner at G. Michael's Bistro. We'd never been there before, but the menu looked amazing. They had a gluten free menu; it looked like a lot of their menu items were naturally gluten free. The server was knowledgeable, and I never once felt uneasy about the gluten status of the food. For that alone, I'd go back in a heartbeat. The food was all that I had hoped it would be. The hardest part was deciding what to have! We sat outside on the patio and had a lovely evening. We had the mussels and shrimp cocktail. Ben had a duo of fowl, which was a duo of delicious. I had the halibut with fiddle ferns, purple potatoes, and asparagus salad. The big surprise, I loved the fiddle head ferns! I kicked myself for not picking any while I was out hiking this spring.

I finished out birthday week by spending an evening in the kitchen with my birthday presents: a kitchen scale, a cookbook, and a doughnut pan. From the cookbook, The Gluten Free Girl and the Chef, I made the veal goulash. I made it with ground beef instead of veal, and canned tomatoes instead of fresh ones because the fresh ones are still out of season. The result was still delicious! 

I also made sugar and spice doughnuts. I used the kitchen scale to weigh out the flours (using the Gluten Free Girl's all purpose flour ratios). I used the recipe from Cooking for Isaiah (still one of my favorite cookbooks). Then, I had my first fresh gluten free doughnut. ever. YUM!

Check Out Those Buns!

Yes, those are gluten free hot dog buns... No, I did not make them. I paid a ridiculous amount for four buns  getting the Kinnikinnick Tapioca buns from the frozen foods section at Kroger.

Since I've been gluten free, I've had hot dogs in a bun one other time, and the buns got crumbly and soggy and were not very tasty. The other day was perfect hot dog weather, and I wanted to eat mine on a bun, with onions, relish, ketchup, and mustard, like a grown up (not cut up on a plate like a toddler; also, Mom's veg relish doesn't stay on the dog as well without the bun). So, I went to Kroger and got what they had... and they were good. 

I fixed the plate you see in the picture and was super excited about the prospect of hot dogs on buns. The buns felt a bit dense, but they were doing an excellent job of holding all of my toppings in place. They were soft, moist, and not crumbly or soggy. I was sure I'd found a winner. And in the category of taste, I had.

However, after I had eaten two hot dogs with buns, I felt full. REALLY full. Kind of like I'd eaten a brick. That's when I decided to check out the nutrition facts. Now, I'm always preaching about how GF foods (especially baked goods) are higher in fat and calories than the regular versions. But while basking in the glow of the prospect of buns, I didn't bother to read the nutrition facts. I was eating hot dogs for dinner, and I wasn't going to worry about things like calories... but I was still caught off guard when I did read the label. In one GF bun, there were 225 calories and 7.5 grams of fat! Regular buns have about 110 calories per bun and and 1.5 grams of fat. No wonder the GF ones were delicious!

Now, I don't expect a meal based on hot dogs to be an exceptionally healthy one, but wow; there has to be a better option. I hear Udi's has GF hot dog buns now, but I've not found them in the store, and I don't know how killer their nutrition facts are. And I suppose I could make my own buns sometime... but in the mean time, it looks like I'll got back to eating my hot dogs with a knife and fork (and a spoon for Mom's relish on the side!).

Featured post!

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A Gluten for Punishment on SparkPeople.com!