Olive Grove Restaurant Victoria, BC Canada

Another great find thanks to www.celiacscene.com.  This restaurant has a very knowledgeable staff.  It has the atmosphere of a fancy restaurant, but it really wasn't very expensive.  Go on a Monday or Tuesday for their special "Pasta Night" where you can chose from a large variety of pasta for under $10.  Yes, they have GF rice noodles and can prepare most meals GF.

When we were seated, I informed my waiter I had Celiac.  He brought out bread for my family and I was pleasantly surprised that they brought out a small dish of hummus with GF crackers for me.  What a nice touch!  The waiter was very knowledgeable and a woman also came over to tell me which pizza toppings were GF.  Yes....they had GF pizza!

The first night we went, I ordered the Olive Grove Pasta (see menu below)  It was delicious & it was so nice to have a restaurant that I felt it was safe to eat & that my family could get the gluten foods they love.  My husband and youngest son got pasta also (pasta night!) and my 17 year old got a pizza.  Everyone gave their food a thumbs up.

We went back the next night and I ordered the house specialty.  Georges Lamb Kleftiko Style.  I have actually never tried lamb before, but the waiter made it sound delicious.  I also ordered a Greek salad. It was a very nice meal.  The meat just fell off the bone.

Overall it was an awesome experience.  The only drawback is when I ordered an appletini made with potato vodka.  The waiter assured me they had Russian vodka and surely it was potato.  I warned him most vodkas are made with grain.  He brought me a delicious looking martini, but came back a minute later (luckily before I tried it) and swiftly removed it from the table.   He had checked the label, which I greatly appreciate, and saw that it was made with grain.  He & another waiter checked all of the vodka bottles and all were grain.  He went out of his way to offer me selections of other grain free liquors & they even have a GF beer, but I passed.  Hopefully from this experience, they will now stock potato vodka.

Overall, the staff was very welcoming, the atmosphere was wonderful & the food was delicious.  I would highly recommend this restaurant.  Photos are: The menu, my appetizer, my pasta and my lamb dinner. 

http://olivegrove.ca/

Udi's frozen Gluten Free Uncured Pepperoni Pizza review

I have only tried 2 gluten free pizza crusts in the last 8 months, and both left me underwhelmed.

I saw this frozen Udi's pepperoni pizza on sale at Safeway, so I figured I would get one and save it for a rainy day. 

Last night was a rainy day (literally, I live in Oregon), so I thought I would give it a try. 

It is a small pizza and, well, it looked like a frozen pizza. I cooked it exactly as directed. 400°, directly on the rack, 6" from the bottom, for 12 minutes. This is what came out. 

Not too shabby. I picked up a piece to snap this photo to show the thickness and the pizza was limp, however the instructions say to let it sit for 5 minutes and it firmed up. 

Let me remind you, this is a frozen pizza. I did not have the expectation that it would be some amazing, life altering meal, but you know what? It was pretty darn good. 

My husband and I have an inside joke. Once we were starving and all we had to eat was a package of very stale Ritz crackers. When we ate them, it was the best damn Ritz cracker we had ever had. So, the joke it, it can be a crappy meal, but if you are deprived, it will be the best thing in the world. 

So I was unsure, was the pizza really good, or was this the best damn Ritz cracker situation? I had my gluten loving husband take a bite & he agreed, for a frozen pizza, it was pretty good!

I cook almost every night and try to limit my processed food, but I will be buying this pizza again for another rainy day. 

Easy freezer pizza muffins

These are not GF, but easily adaptable at a higher expense. Bob's Red Mill has GF biscuit mix, or you can make your own.

I have Celiac Disease, so I do wear a mask when working with wheat flour. 

I made a massive batch for my two sons. They are teenagers, so I am giving them 2 muffins per meal. If you have younger kids, you could easily get away with 1 muffin per meal.

Preheat oven to 375 º

Ingredients:

12 cups Bisquick

6 cups milk 

6 eggs

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese 

14 oz pepperoni diced small

1/3 cup dried Italian seasoning 

1/8 cup granulated garlic 

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness.

This yielded 62 muffins. The cost per muffin was about $ .33 each, including muffin papers, cups, lids & pizza sauce. Not too shabby.

Add ingredients to a huge mixing bowl. I just used a whisk to blend. The dough will be sticky.  I used muffin papers to make production faster (no waiting for muffins to cool to fill the tin up again)

My kitchen assistant used a 1/3 cup measuring cup to fill the cups. They will rise. 

I wanted the boys to have pizza sauce to go with these.  I bought 1 oz plastic cups with lids. I used 1 tbsp of canned pizza sauce for each cup. If you have extra cups, they work well for Jell-O shots! ;-)

Muffins galore!

Seal in zip bags with sauce & freeze! That was pretty dang easy.  I can't eat them, but my 13 year old gobbled 2 up & said they were amazing.

Tomorrow we are doing corndog muffins!