Pizza again

So I went to Sammy's Woodfired Grill in Palm Desert yesterday and was so disapointed in their Vegan gluten free pizza! Yuck could not finish it. I guess I remember it being better in San Diego. They use Daiya. The crust was gross. It looked bad visually so I did not bother taking a picture. I prefer BJs crust over this one. Rene's in Tucson is still my fave to date. Anyone out there have any recommendations please let me know! Someone mentioned Z pizza recently. I will have to check it out :)

Gleek!

Part of being a Vegan is being as healthy as possible. I am a total gumaholic and probably look like a cow chewing cud most of the time but anyway after looking at the ingredients in almost every major brand of gum out I was shocked! All of them contain aspartame and/or sucralose with artificial colors as well. All of these ingredients have been shown to cause cancer in lab tests. So I did some research and found a gum called Glee Gum. The ingredients do contain beeswax (read note below) but all of their products are made non GMO and gluten free. I ordered two boxes of the sugar free gum in bulk for around 24 bucks with shipping. They taste great and keep my gumaholism under control. Unfortunately I had to order online since I could not find a local store that carry Glee.

****I don't feel bad about consuming honey or beeswax bc in my opinion God made bees to work for a living and it is in their nature to do so. So my logic is that bees keep on working regardless of whether we eat their honey or beeswax. I have never seen a bee just chillin. I cannot say the same for cows, pigs or chickens who love lounging and not being kept cooped up or hooked up to machines that suck on their udders all day without being able to move til they are pus filled. Yeah enjoy your milk sickos!

Tucson trip

So I just spent the weekend in Tucson with the hubby as he interviewed for his upcoming transition from resident to attending PM and R physician. I loved it in Tucson. I think we would fit in so well. I have never seen so many healthy restaurants and health food stores! My first night there we went to Thunder Canyon brewery and I ordered New Grist Sorghum and Rice GF beer. It was light but refreshing and tasty. Then I ordered there homemade Sangria which was yummy. Saturday night we had dinner at the Arizona Inn which was so accommodating to my gf and vegan lifestyle. ( I use the word lifestyle because I am so sick of people calling it a restriction.) It is a choice that I am happy with and don't feel like I am being deprived of anything! Anyway I had a wonderful portabello mushroom and polenta dish. OMG it was amazing. Then we hit the bar scene on 4th ave. There were so many places with outdoor patios, live music, and so many people having a good time. It is a college town but we fit in well, plenty of older people hanging out too. Sunday I really wanted to make it to Rene's Organic Oven for a pizza. We were running late but thank goodness we made it in time. OMG!!!! I freaking loved the vegan gluten free pizza! The crust was thick and not too mushy or crispy. The cheese was Follow Your Heart Mozarella and for toppings I ordered basil, cashews, pineapple, and zuchinni. I almost finished the whole 10 in pizza in one sitting. The best part of the experience was that Rene actually comes and takes your order and serves you!!! She was so sweet and I told her how much I loved her food and want to come back asap! Enjoy the food porn pics :)

Handbag dilemma

So I am sad to say that I have bought numerous handbags lately that are made from vinyl or whatever cheap materials they use, they are beautiful but fall apart so quickly. I have been fighting the temptation to buy a designer bag (Coach or D&B), but I do not want leather bc I do not believe in skinning animals for handbags! Anyway so I looked online and found this amazing website. http://www.mattandnat.com/

Here is a pic of a bag I like. I am so gonna get one. I just hope it holds up like leather.

Taco tuesday

So I am super excited about my trip to Tucson AZ this weekend! They have two pizza joints that have Vegan gluten free pizzas. One serves it with Daiya cheese which I think is delish! The other uses a cheese by Follow Your Heart which I never had until tonight. So tonight I made cheese tacos using the cheddar flavor by Follow your Heart and a home made salsa. I used Food for life sprouted corn tortillas (non-GMO). Clark's carries cheese and tortillas :) To drink? Orange flavored Zevia (stevia sweetened soda). Yum!

Salsa recipe: Red cabbage, 2 chiles de-seeded from my garden, grape tomatoes halved, one avacado chopped, fresh garlic, oregano, red onion, juice from one lemon, choppped radishes, ground sea salt and pepper to taste.

I toasted sliced cheese on top of tortilla at 350 degrees in toaster oven for around 10 minutes.
My verdict is: I like both FYH is slightly less greasy and "cheese like" than Daiya more like tofu. FYH is soy based btw. I will be having two pizzas in AZ this weekend!

Sugar high

I am thrilled to announce that the huge serving of Jelly Bellys I ate tonight are almost vegan! I am not one of those vegans who won't touch honey...or the beeswax in yummy buttered popcorn flavored jelly beans. Ok so its late and I am still on sugar high. I really have to stop eating so much sugar this late....

My new blog

So here I am starting this blog. I have been wanting to do this for a while. I want to share my experiences with anyone interested on being a gluten free Vegan. I started this journey March of 2010 when after 6 years of dealing with GI issues (chronic constipation, bleeding with BMs and really bad gas and stomach pain) I decided to experiment with going gluten free. I was already a vegetarian since 2004 when I found out my dad who was 41 had full blown colorectal cancer. I was still doing some dairy and eggs up until July of 2010. I felt immediate relief after I gave up the gluten and felt even better when I gave up the eggs and dairy. I no longer have migraines, low back pain or sciatica, acne, gas/bloating, acid reflux, bleeding with BMs. I have more energy than I have ever had in my life. I am pretty active. I do Vinyasa yoga at least 5 days a week, ride my bike everyday to work (only 1.1 miles one way impressive huh), jog occasionally, try p90x when my girlfriend motivates me and does it with me, try to do pilates for core strength 1-2x per week. I saw a wholistic nutritionist last year who checked me out using muscle energy to see what foods I had a hard time digesting. She pretty much told me to stay away from most grains except Quinoa, rice and Buckwheat. That explains a lot. Since me and gluten are not friends. The point of this blog is to share my ups and downs with my new lifestyle. I hope it's entertaining at least. Trust me being a GF Vegan after being raised a pickled pig foot eating (among plenty of other interesting animal parts) Mexican from the hood of San Bernaghetto is not easy.... LOL Enjoy everyone. Namaste