Hardee's Gluten Free Menu and Coupons

Nancy Lapid from About.com:Celiac Disease had a great post drawing the attention to the offerings at Hardees Fast Food Restaurant. Durham has four Hardees Restaurants. You can click here to review the Gluten Free information from Hardees and to download coupons. The coupons are good until November 30th and include a free side salad, Diet Coke, or Dasani Water with your Gluten Free order. You can get detailed allergy information which was updated as of 1/26/2009 by clicking here. The Hardees in Durham are located:


2721 Chapel Hill Rd
Durham,NC 27707
919-489-6958

1032 N Miami Rd
Durham,NC 27703
919-688-9508

3912 N Duke St
Durham,NC 27704
919-477-8830

4607 S Alston Ave
Durham,NC 27713
919-544-5362

Wendy's French Fries, Word of Caution

The summer 2009 issue of the GIG Quarterly Newsletter included an article on Wendy's french fries. According to this article and Wendy's company website "French Fries may be cooked in the same oil as boneless chicken wings, crispy chicken patty, crispy chicken nuggets and fish filets (where available) which contain a wheat allergen."
Not all Wendy's have dedicated fryers for french fries. The GIG article also recommends that if you do find a dedicated fryer to ask that the fries be taken with clean tongs directly from the fryer, to cut down on the chance of cross contamination. As always make sure you are looking at current information, the Wendy's allergen information was updated in June 2009 you can review it here.

PF Chang's China Bistro, Restaurant Review

One of my all time favorite gluten free restaurant options is PF Chang's. I recently enjoyed a nice dinner of "Singapoor Street Noodles" and "Egg Drop Soup" on their outside patio. When I asked the hostess for the gluten free menu, she informed me that the GF menu was now listed on back of the normal menu, so no need to ask for a separate menu any longer! It was also pointed out to me by our server that anything coming out of the kitchen would be on a plate that had the words "PF Chang's" on its brim, so that staff could easily identify the GF meals from the others. To check out the complete gluten free menu which was updated 7/09 click here. They also will bring you a dish of gluten free soy sauce upon request. I was excited to receive my PF Chang's warrior card in the mail today, that will give me 10% off all purchases through the end of the year; a good reason to go back again soon!

PF Chang's in Durham is located across from SouthPoint Mall
6801Fayetteville Rd
Durham, NC
(919) 294-3131

Angel Food Ministry-Gluten Free Box-Update

I first wrote about Angel Food Ministries Allergen Free Box of food back in June. Click here to review that entry. I have received an update from the folks at Angel Food Ministries to remind users that Monday, September 14th is the last day to place an order for delivery in the month of September. They also pointed out some coupons that are available if you order on-line "10FALLSP1" gives 10% off the Special box #1 of Angel Food. "SeptSig5" gives 5% off a signature box of Angel Food Products.
It appears they have updated their website with actual pictures of the food products you receive in your order. Click here to take a look! As a reminder the allergen free box is free of the main food allergens including gluten. To locate a host site for order and delivery follow this link.

Alivia's Durham Bistro, Restaurant Review

I love finding a restaurant with outside seating this time of year. I often drive by a place and wonder "do they have anything I can eat there?". Well I decided to try lunch at Alivia's Durham Bistro the other day. While they do not have a designated gluten free menu, they did have several things to select that would work in a gluten free diet. The lunch menu listed salads, pork tenderloin, tuna, salmon, shrimp, burgers, you can see the complete menu on their website for brunch, lunch, dinner and late night. Brunch looks like there might be some gluten free options. It is my personal opinion that you can tell much about a restaurant by your interaction with your server. My server was very helpful and not bothered to answer my many gluten ingredient questions! I did learn that everything is fried in the same fryer, so french fries were out. I also learned that the walnuts that were going to be on my salad were tossed into this same fryer, so due to cross contamination issues those were out! I usually always ask about the coating on walnuts, but that they used the fryer was news to me. My server also informed me that they use a pre-made stock for their soups, so that would probably exclude soups as a safe gluten free option. After a little detective work the menu was narrowed down for me and I enjoyed a yummy salad. I remembered to bring my own rice crackers from home so that was a nice addition to the salad. If you are driving around the BrightLeaf area and want to dine at a casual bistro, you may find some gluten free options that will work for you at Alivia's.

Aliva's is located at:
900 W Main St.
Durham, NC 27701
919-323-9172

Hours:
M-F 11-3 Lunch
S-S 10-3 Brunch
Sun-Thur 5:30-10:00 Dinner
Fri-Sat 5:30-11:00 Dinner
Late night until 2:00 am

Zeer Select-Gluten Free Resource

I wanted tell you about Zeer.com, according to their web page they are "a food information resource that makes it easy to find safe food. It helps people save time, stay safe, learn particular diets and live better lives." They have a very competent medical advisory board including two of the leading Dietitians in the field of Celiac Disease, Melinda Dennis and Tricia Thompson. The gluten-free service can be accessed with a Zeer Select Membership. Zeer Select provides the gluten-free status of over 30,000 food products found in grocery stores (500 new products added or updated each month). Each product page includes gluten-free status—labeled gluten-free, appears to be gluten free based on ingredients, may contain gluten, and contains gluten, as well as an ingredients list, any allergen advisory statement, and the Nutrition Facts label. To take a free tour of the site go to www.zeer.com and click on “learn more” in the center of the page. Then click on “take a tour.” A Zeer Select Membership is being offered for $4.95 per month and with 30 days for free.

Gluten Free Lunch Box-Class at Whole Foods

Just a reminder to register for my free workshop at Whole Foods entitled: The Gluten Free Lunch Box.It will be held from 6-7 pm on Thursday September 3rd at the Durham Whole Foods. The following information is a description of the class from the Durham Whole Foods Website:
Join us for a free workshop presented by Debbie Jongkind, RD, LDN who is a Gluten-free Health Coach for people with Celiac Disease and Gluten Intolerance. Debbie will guide you through the best ways to build a healthy and exciting lunch box for your youngster who is unable to enjoy gluten in his or her diet. And you'll take home a free goody bag of some of our favorite products as well! Space is limited, please sign up at the customer service desk or call 919.286.2290.

Gluten Free in College

It is official I have sent my gluten free child off to navigate meals on her own as a college student! I thought my readers might like to know some of the foods and appliances she took with her to help her maintain a healthy gluten free diet while on campus.
Appliances:
1. Quesadilla maker
2. Toaster
3. Large dorm refrigerator/freezer
4. Mini smoothie maker
5. Microwave

Foods:
1. Corn tortillas
2. Cheese
3. Large jar peanut butter
4. Yogurts
5. Fruit
6. Peanuts
7. Glutino Bagels (purchased at Whole Foods)
8. GlutenFreeda Burritos ( breakfast, chicken and cheese, vegetarian bean and cheese)
ordered from The Gluten Free Mall.
9. GlutenFreeda Instant Oatmeal (ordered from The Gluten Free Mall)
10. Bell and Evans Breaded Gluten-Free Chicken Nuggets (ordered from the Gluten Free Mall)
11. Bell and Evans Boneless Skinless Gluten-Free Grilled Chicken Breast (ordered from The Gluten Free Mall)
12. Glutino Frozen Cheese Pizza (purchased from Harris Teeter)
13. Pamelas Simplebites chocolate chips mini cookies (ordered from Amazon)
14. Quinoa Gluten Free Pasta(ordered from Amazon, also available at Harris Teeter, Kroger and Whole Foods)and gluten free pasta sauce
15. Lunberg Gluten-Free Risotto (ordered from Amazon, also available at some grocery stores)
16. Tomato Soup from Pacific Natural Foods(purchased from Kroger)
17. Gluten Free Pancake mix
18. Gluten Free Bars: Envirokidz Crispy Rice Bar (from Whole Foods) South Beach Living High Protein Cereal Bars Cinnamon Raisin (from Amazon)
19. Gluten Free Cereal
20. Gluten Free Bread and Buns-Dr Schar brand (ordered from The Gluten-Free Mall)

I also sent along a gluten free multi-vitamins and Advil!

Note: Amazon grocery is a great way to save some food dollars if you can use a large volume of a product or buy something that has a long shelf life. The Gluten-Free Mall carries many high quality products I had sampled and wanted to purchase but were unavailable locally. The Gluten Free Mall will ship frozen items as well as dry goods.

Gluten Free Lunch Box-Class at Whole Foods

Join me for a workshop entitled "The Gluten Free Lunch Box" at the Durham Whole Foods, note the information below from the Whole Foods Calendar:


Thursday, September 3
The Gluten-Free Lunch Box: Free Workshop

6:00 - 7:00 pm FREE

Join us for a free workshop presented by Debbie Jongkind, RD, LDN who is a Gluten-free Health Coach for people with Celiac Disease and Gluten Intolerance. Debbie will guide you through the best ways to build a healthy and exciting lunch box for your youngster who is unable to enjoy gluten in his or her diet. And you'll take home a free goody bag of some of our favorite products as well! Space is limited, please sign up at the customer service desk or call 919.286.2290.

Worlds Best Carrot Cake

My sister, who lives in Asheville, recently visited us here in Durham and brought us a delicious gluten free carrot cake. Although this bakery "Worlds Best Carrot Cake" is located just outside of Asheville in the little town of Woodfin,NC, I just had to post about the awesome quality of this gluten free goodie! This company does both whole sale and individual sale of their products and may be found at Whole Foods and Earth Fare locally. You may also order a cake for delivery, but note: there is a hefty delivery charge. Their business is based on a single family recipe handed down through the generations and modified for their gluten free version. While the bakery produces both regular carrot cakes and gluten free cakes, in a phone conversation with the owner she assured me of their good manufacturing and cleaning processes. The bakery offers both a regular gluten free carrot cake that serves 12-16 for $35.00 and a chocolate gluten free carrot cake that serves 12-16 for $38.00. The cake freezes well, so you can savor this treat for several months!

The Cakery is located at
175 Weaverville Hwy
Suite V
Asheville, NC 28804
828-658-2738