Gluten Free at Applebee's

I've had a love hate relationship with Applebee's for quite some time now. I actually haven't been to an Applebee's in years, because I've had so many crazy experiences of bad service or poor food that I just stopped going. We were back in Joliet for the NASCAR race, and after our horrible experience at Aurelio's, we had to find a new place to go for dinner. There is an Applebee's near the mall, so we decided to give it a try.

They don't have gluten free menu per-say but they do have a book listing out the allergens so you can pick what items from the menu can be made gluten free. They have the same allergen listing for several other allergies including, shellfish, peanuts, soy, egg and dairy.

I found the item listing a bit confusing because it could have been a lot clearer. But I talked to the waitress, and since she was semi confused we error-ed on the safe side of what the allergen listing was trying to say.

I thought the Margarita Queso Chicken & Shrimp sounded different and interesting. What got me was that it said the dishes were gluten free, when not served with the sides... Now Both the black bean corn salsa and mexi rice are listed as safe.... Our sever was just as confused, and decided to change the dish up to make sure it was safe. She was really nice and trying to make sure everything went well. We went with plain rice, and opted to skip both sides. their chips are fried on site so if you have your own chips you can get salsa or queso to go with the chips as a side dish.

I can only give them 3 dragonflies because they don't actually have a safe menu listing. plus the allergen listing is rather confusing.

New GF Meal Options!

I can't lie, I love quick and easy meals. They get me thru the day at work. If I had my own kitchen I'm sure I'd cook more, or at least I tell myself that. So I get super stoked when I find new gluten free meal offerings in the frozen section. While getting lunch items recently at my local grocery store I found some new product offerings. The first being Michael Angelo's Risotto dishes. OK the microwave at work is horrible at heating. Every meal takes way longer to make so the 3 minutes the box says turns in to 8 or 9 minutes... The meal was done, but the rice was still tough. Plus I'm not a lemon sauce fan. But it was OK. they had 3 other options, I'll have to give them a try, but it was filling. 

The second being a new brand by Lucerne foods The angle of the aisle I couldn't get the whole shelf in view, but there was pasta and macaroni and cheese meals at the bottom of the shot. The prices were about right on for gluten free, maybe a little cheaper if you have your Fresh Values card with you when shopping. I would say their shortbread cookies don't actually taste like shortbread cookies. They were good, crumbly and thin, but not like a shortbread.

Mac and cheese, yes please - I was excited to see the Mac and Cheese option, so I got a box to try out. On a scale of rating mac and cheese, it's not as good as Annie's mac and cheese. But it's not bad the cheese was tasty and the noodles were soft. It could have passed for not being gluten free. I went back 4 days later to buy another box, and sadly they were out. Next time! It's not bad to keep in the cupboard for last minute side dish or a quick whip up meal. 

Schar's Chibata roll and mac and cheese dinner!

Part of me felt these products don't really exist, expect for the fact that I actually purchased some. There is no website for them. They are not listed on the Eating right website... They just exist with no extra information.

Mity Nice Grill Gluten Free menu

Mity Nice Grill is a great sit down place to go to when you at Water Tower Place in the city. There is a play house on the 1st floor of Water Tower and they will do their best to get you in and out so you don't miss your show. It's tucked away in the back of the Food Life which is a nice open area food court which also offers gluten free options. Just ask the hostess when you arrive they give you a great print out of what is available!

Their menu does change seasonally both the regular and the gluten free. They make their own gluten free buns so all burgers and sandwiches come on a gluten free bun.the best part are the pop-overs they bring out to the table before the meal. Their "bread basket" is gluten free! They are the most amazing cheesy bread you'll ever have. My brothers girlfriend loves them, which is a great compliment since she can't live without bread.

Their bread is tasty it's not dry, it actually feels like they steam it prior to serving it. I got a turkey sandwich and a side of broccoli. I had a hard time finishing my meal, probably because I filled up on the pop-overs! We had gotten an order of their guacamole and veggies as an appetizer. My main issue was that the veggies were chopped up real tiny. So it made it hard to eat. I think bigger slices would have been much better.

The food here is amazing, both gluten free and regular. The service is horrible. Unless you have show tickets your meal is very long and drawn out. I do recommend reservations for getting a table around dinner time. Also pushing to the front of the entrance and blocking the door way in order to be seated is required. I'm not rude but this is the only way to get seated without being passed over for anyone else who pushes in.

If you politely stand at the hostess stand, you will be passed over for people pushing into the entrance. I find this odd, since Mity Nice is a part of Lettuce Entertain you Restaurant group and their restaurants are pretty stand up. the excuse they gave to the couple who got passed up in front of us, was "they have show tickets". Which isn't fair to the people who walked up and were waiting, especially since the next table was about to open up... Show tickets or not, they were there first, and skipped. We were there, but not pushing in the doorway. People without reservations pushed in front of us despite standing there for 10 minutes, they got seated first, because they were 2 feet in the doorway, impatient and pushing. We did not have show tickets and our meal was 2 hours long!!! By the time our server rediscovered our table to ask if we wanted dessert, we had our coats on and were ready to leave. I give them 4 dragonflies for the food. If I did different breakouts they would get 2 dragonflies for their service.

Four Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Four ingredient peanut butter cookies in my house are called peanut butter crack cookies. Great name, huh? They got that name when I made them and right away they were All Gone! So I will warn you, just double this recipe it will be for the best!

Tuesday I was running errands with my brother and mentioned I got a new cookie mix I want to try so I'm going to bake cookies Wednesday. His response was "Are you going to make peanut butter crack?" I'm thinking, No... I said I was going to... OK, whatever, these are Super easy. I'll do these, it's been a while since I baked, so next week we'll try for the new mix I bought. 

The nice part is you don't have to find a replacement flour, these are also called flour-less peanut butter cookies. I've thought about swapping out the vanilla extract for almond extract, but I figure why ruin a good thing, we know these rock just as they are.

Ingredients :

1 cup Peanut Butter (or almond butter)
1 cup Sugar
1 Large egg
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla

I like using chunky peanut butter so you get some extra crunch to the cookies. I also use a little over a cup to make the cookies less crumbly, and a little less than 1 cup of sugar, so it cuts the sweetness just a tad.

Mix the 4 ingredients together in a large bowl. and voila you have a sweet tasty PB mix. 

Make the dough into teaspoon size balls and place them on a cookie sheet. Slightly flatten them with a fork in a criss-cross patten on the top, but don't flatten them completely.

Bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes and let them cool for about 5 minutes before you remove them from the tray. This is the outcome - Fabulousness~

Glutino's Cinnamon Bagel Chips

YUM! That’s the best way to sum up. Glutino’s Bagel Chips. They come in 3 flavors, plain, garlic Parmesan and Cinnamon Sugar. I LOVE the cinnamon Sugar ones. I’m not even entirely true… Though I do love things made with cinnamon, this could be why. Rudi’s cinnamon raisin bread, Glutino cinnamon apple toaster pastries, I use to love the cinnamon bagels from Panera.. Ok so there is a theme. 

Taste wise they are very similar to full size bagel chips you can buy in the deli section of the grocery store. But in true gluten free style, they are mini. Take your hand, form a circle with your index finger and thumb, that’s about the average size of a bagel chip in the box. They are crispy, so watch out if you have sensitive teeth; the first bite is a douse.

Taste wise, I felt the garlic parmesan ones were lacking in overall flavor, I was really hoping for more of a punch of taste and flavor.  I haven’t tried the plain ones, but I’m thinking those would rock with some cream cheese on them, and maybe help soften them up a bit! The cinnamon sugar ones have the most flavor, some of them are almost entirely doused in sugar.

The back of the box gives a serving size of 7 chips. HA! I don’t think I’ve even sat down and eaten just 7 chips. I’m not sure I could refrain myself to just 7 chips at a time. I think of Pringles, “Once you pop, you just can’t stop” that’s how the bagel chips are for me. On the back they also have a couple dip recipes that go with the flavor, so the cinnamon sugar ones have 2 sweet dip suggestions. I keep the dip recipes for my collection of dips to make for potluck parties and the holidays! Any of the recipes would go great with glutino pretzels as well! 

My favorite way to eat them, for breakfast with my coffee, which is probably why I now want to dunk them in cream cheese to eat them like a regular bagel!

Lindy's Landing Gluten Free in Wauconda

I talked my boyfriend in to checking out The Worlds LargestCorn Maze, up at Richardson Farms, in Spring Grove, IL. I had been there several years back, I think 2007 was the last time I was there, they have so much to do up there, and you can do the corn maze at night! In his witty ways the best comment of the night was "this is fun, thank goodness it's a corn maze and not a wheat maze!"

I talked him into Friday night we’ll drive up there, and check it out, but we’ll want to eat before we go. I decided to check out Find me Gluten Free to see if there was anything up Rand Rd, North of Deer Park worth checking out, or else we’d just eat at Deer Park. (Biaggi’s, Chili’s, Chipotle, Red Robin, we’d have a few choices there.)

I found Lindy’s Landing and read the reviews. The first said they did have a gluten free bun, but it was horrible, don’t try it… the 2^nd said they had a new bun, and it was good, try it. What ultimately sold me was the description of their award winning hamburger, the Ham-Dogger. It’s a burger stuffed with all the Chicago hotdog toppings, and topped with hot dog bacon and cheddar cheese. Plus it was available on a gluten free bun!?!! My mind was set; it was time to get adventurous.

Their menu is super cute, it’s a little newspaper with all the items that are gluten free marked with a symbol next to them stating no wheat, as well as all the vegetarian options were marked. They had a great listing of fresh fish and steak dishes, as well as burgers and sandwiches that could be prepared on a gluten free bun. Their gluten free bun has poppy seeds on top. There were some good looking options on the menu, but I had to stick with the Ham-dogger. My curiosity was peaked so I had to bite. My boyfriend got a burger as well, he went with a non-gf bun so we could make sure mine showed up on a different looking bun. (We try and come up with as many tricks or safe guards as we can when ordering out to try and make sure I my meal comes out correct.) Burgers come with a variety of options on the side, Fries, Fruit, pasta salad, Cole slaw, or cottage cheese. I love options, for sides, cottage cheese it was for me!
 

It was really tasty, and the bun held together Very Well while eating it, it didn’t crumble into a huge mess on my plate, the table, my lap… well you know gluten free buns are not the easiest thing in the world to eat. I notice I tend to pick up the burger, and not put it down out of fear it will crumble all over the place and I’ll be frustrated with my meal. The Ham-dogger itself was tasty, it had all the hot dog topping, and hotdog taste I expected. My only suggestion to them would be to use a sharper cheddar cheese, the hamburger had so much taste itself the cheese was lost in it, and didn’t stand out.

I give them 3 dragonflies, though they have a shared kitchen space, they point it out. Their staff is gluten free aware, and they had a lot of options (pending you like fish) on the menu. But I do worry if it gets super busy how well they handle the gluten free due to the small space.

Da Luciano's

Da Luciano's is another family owned restaurant in River Grove, a suburb of Chicago. Started by the Libreri family from Caccamo, Sicily in 2003, Da Luciano's is a gluten free staple in Chicago, as well as a local hot spot for Italian food. They had found out in 2002 that four of the seven children in the family had celiac disease. In an effort to make sure their children had good tasting Italian food they set out to find a good recipe for bread and pasta. When their restaurant opened the following year they had a gluten free menu as well.

In Chicagoland it seems anyone who has been gluten intolerant for a while knows about Da Luciano's, you can't sit down and talk about dinning out without mentioning them. Like other places I've dined, you'll notice that the gluten free meals are plated differently then regular meals. The gluten free plates are large round plates while the rest of the meals are on a oval shaped plate. Great to help identify the meals for servers, and make the diners more confident as well.

I had been gluten free for about 5 months when I finally got introduced to Da Luciano's, and my first gluten free love began (well maybe it was two of my gluten free loves began). I was there on a date, with my now boyfriend. I was so excited to see all the options, but he was just as excited to find a place with so many great options.

Over the next couple months I found reasons to have my family, and other friends choose to go there for dinner. None of them turn down a reason to go to Da Luciano's for dinner. They had just opened up their little patio out back, it's super cute, and a little romantic.

Manicati

Recently we had a dinner party of 18 dine there for my birthday. Our group had 2 gluten free diners, one being a friend of mine who is newly gluten free. She was highly impressed with the meal, she was so excited that the food tasted so similar to what she already ate, and was so good. One of my other friends who is Italian said the regular meal was to her "family" standard, and that the only difference with the gluten free pasta was that it was prepared more Al Dente than hers, but she couldn't taste a difference. Her husband thought the gluten free menu was a "special extension" of the normal menu, he was impressed with the selection for gluten free.

Chicken Parmesan

The chicken Parmesan was a meal for 3 days for me! (The GF calamari and Mozzarella wedges as the appetizers probably didn't help) They even have Tiramisu and canoli's gluten free! You can't go wrong with a trip there.  

Tiramisu

They get my highest rating, they rank as about as safe as you can get when dinning out. They are super diligent with their foods and take it seriously in making sure your meal is prepared and served correctly.