Trip to Minnesota (Twin Cities area)

aklap · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 8607 Location: WI, USA

Have a good trip!

Are you bringing a cooler along? It's always nice to have one with chilled snacks and to keep things cold you might find along the way.

We'll be waiting for a full report Smile

_________________
Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

cardine45 · Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 141 Location: Kalamazoo, MI

cardine45 · Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 141 Location: Kalamazoo, MI

So far things have gone really well. I didn't prepare nearly as well as I should have for the actual trip, so I ended up eating a lot of Enjoy Life cookies and Rice Chex as I chickened out when it came to eating out by myself. I also stopped and got a Caramel Soy Latte at Starbucks because for some reason steamed soy fills me up real nice for a few hours.

I stayed with my friend Keri Saturday night and she really wanted to know how to cook for me and be successful in doing so, so about an hour and a half of my trip was spent discussing food. She ended up making a big salad (and even made me hard boiled eggs for it) with Kraft Rasberry Vinagraitte, and chicken sandwiches. I had really been craving a sandwich (I haven't had one since going GF which I think was early April), so I figured I would stop at Trader Joe's (which was conveniently about 10 minutes from her house and not out of my way) and pick up some sort of GF bread, and she would make the rest. It was funny to talk to her about everything because she was over analyzing every little thing she put in the food (which I was appreciative but found amusing). She knew I could have fresh chicken, but she was afraid to put anything on it, so I guess she had called her sister to see if she could just bake it in water, and her sister told her to use olive oil which should be fine because water could potentially ruin it. She called me back, asked if I could have olive oil, so I told her to read the ingredients. She laughed at herself as she read out loud, "100% Olive Oil." Anyhow, the salad and the chicken were great, but I wasn't impressed by the French Rolls from Trader Joe's. I thought they were really gritty, and I ended up eating half the sandwich with bread, and half without. I was also upset because I needed some sort of bun for the next day, and when I woke up Sunday morning, the rolls were already moldy. The sell-by date was 8-5-08, and it was only the 3rd. We finished the night off shopping for my nephew's first birthday present and then watched "Penelope" while doing our nails and attempting to finish off a 6 pack of Woodchuck Cider (we drank 2 between us, and then we crashed--apparently 10 hours of driving makes you pretty tired). Keri's consensus on my diet is that it's not as hard as she thought it was, but she would never want to have to do it herself.

Sunday was my nephews birthday, and my sister had been nice enough to basically plan the whole meal around me. She researched the internet on all the ingredients, and then called me to double check on everything. I almost feel bad because I think she would have served more than she did, but she didn't want to tempt me with something I couldn't have. I ate a banana on my way to her house to tide me over and keep my stomach empty enough to eat a lot to make her happy, and then absolutely filled my plate with the sloppy joes (made with ground beef and manwich), Bush's Baked Beans, and fruits and vegetables. I was bummed to not have some sort of bun to put the sloppy joe on, but I've gotten used to that sort of thing. (I think I confused my brother-in-laws side of the family because 3 of them in line after me asked what the buns were for because I hadn't gotten one. I got my food first so there was no chance of someone sprinkling crumbs into the pot of meat. I explained it was sloppy joes, I just can't eat buns. No need for details I thought.) I had my cookies with me to eat while everyone else had cake, so that wasn't too bad either.

After the party, I needed to bring my grandparents back to my aunt's house, and it was already pretty late, so we went to dinner at Chili's in Eagan. I had looked up the Northland Celiacs website at my sisters house, and that was the closest thing on the way, and a quick glance at the menu told me there was plenty I could choose from. Nothing sounded good to me when we got there except ribs, and I wasn't about to eat or order and entire rack of ribs. I wound up splitting one of their mix-and-match combo's with my step-mom. The meal comes with two entrees of your choice and two sides of your choice, so we asked the waitress if they could bring one of each on separate plates and make sure mine was gluten-free. The waitress said it was absolutely no problem, and the food was great. I got half a rack of ribs and their loaded mashed potatoes which was the perfect amount of food.

I'm very excited for today because I discovered Crumb Gourmet Deli on the Northland Celiac website. I'm calling there just as soon as they open to make sure they take steps to prevent cc, and then I'm meeting a friend from high school who works in Eden Prairie for lunch. I've decided if I ever move back to Minnesota, I'll be living in Eden Prairie or Edina, because they seem to have a large amount of GF restaurants in each. Eden Prairie is also only about a 10-15 minute drive from my fathers house where I am staying, so I have plenty of close options to go eat at this week for friends who still live around here.

I do wish I had stayed at my aunt's house in Eagan last night because Bittersweet is in Eagan, and I could have stopped there on my way to lunch rather than having to drive back out there. That's ok though, I'm going to be all over the place this week, and I'm sure it'll be convenient at some point to go out there.

Sorry this was so long, and wow, it only really covered 2 days, but I know I'll forget things if I wait until I get back to go over it all. I know I'll thank everyone again, and I've thanked everyone before, but I wanted to thank everyone again for all your help in suggestions on places to go. I think the Northland Celiac website has been the most helpful, but other little tips have been great too. This should definitely make future trips easier too.

cardine45 · Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 141 Location: Kalamazoo, MI

Time for another update.

I went to Crumb's Gourmet Deli in Eden Prairie on Monday for lunch, and had a roasted turkey sandwich on their gluten-free bread. The staff was great, and the sandwich was amazing. I walked in and said I needed a gluten-free sandwich, and they immediately called to a back station that there was another gluten-free sandwich needed, and the guy back there looked pleased as he was just finishing one up and didn't need to put everything away and take it out again. I was pleased to see that he changed his gloves before making mine even though everything he was handling was safe. The bread was sweet and moist, but not soggy.

Monday night, I went to Twin Cities Grill in the Mall of America and had their Garlic Chicken. It was an absolutely amazing meal, but I was somewhat on edge because I had heard they had an actual gluten-free menu, and they actually just had a sheet showing what was safe for different allergies. The waiter was also very helpful, but I could tell he wasn't incredibly educated on what GF means. I assume I got a bit of a stomach upset after dinner because of the dairy toppings I had on my baked potato, or it honestly could have just been nerves that I didn't feel 100% comfortable with the food I was getting.

Tuesday, I went to Chipotle and had a Chicken Bowl or something like that. (My sister is a nurse and familiar with celiac disease and she looked at their GF info on their website, and I know nothing about Mexican food, and she said what she was eating would be safe so I just ordered the same thing). It was really really good, but far too spicy for my taste. I was only able to finish half of it because my mouth was burning, and their chips are too salty to help with the burning because that just made my mouth really dry. I seemed to be fine after eating that even though I was slightly nervous watching the flour tortillas go by before they made my meal.

Tuesday night, I went with my old stand-by of Outback Steakhouse. This one was in Coon Rapids, and was about 5 miles from the house my cousin just bought. We used my GPS to get there, and she was amazed to see everything in that area that was so close. Apparently it was north of her house, and she always headed south to go shopping and such and didn't realize everything was there, so I was glad to help her out with that. I usually have ribs at Outback, but I decided to go with their Chicken on the Barbie with a baked potato. Once again, I didn't feel well after I ate, and I'm once again attributing it to the dairy toppings on the baked potato.

Today, I've decided no matter how bad I want it, I'm not going to chance trying anything with dairy. I don't like feeling sick while I'm on vacation, and unless I am getting glutened and I just think it's from dairy, I can easily avoid any issues. I've taken lactaid each time I've had any dairy, and it's obviously not working, so it's not worth it.

I do have some good news about my cousins best friend who "usually" eats gluten-free. My cousin said she is going to talk to her to find out if she has CD or is just gluten-intolerant because she often glutens herself if she's really craving something and then just deals with the repercussions. My cousin didn't realize the severity of what she is doing if she actually has CD, so she said she is going to talk to her. She said when her friend explained it to her, she assumed it was similar to lactose-intolerance, and it was just going to make her sick short-term, not actually cause long-term damage.

zip2play · Joined: 24 Jan 2006 Posts: 234

Sounds like a GREAT trip!

cardine45 · Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 141 Location: Kalamazoo, MI

Last post cause I'm home now.

I went to Atlas Grill in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday for lunch. It wasn't listed as having a gluten-free menu, but it was close to my friends work, and when I called, they sounded very confident in the GF knowledge. I had some sort of chicken dish that I can't remember the name of. They had a wild rice with it that they had to modify to make it gluten-free. It was definitely a higher end restaurant, which I'm sure is why they were great about it and actually knew what I was talking about.

I stopped at Bittersweet Bakery because I had some time to kill before dinner. Thankfully, there was someone in line ahead of me because I was dumbfounded at my choices, and at the fact that I could eat anything I was looking at. When the clerk asked me what I wanted, my response was, "One of these in Kalamazoo, MI." She laughed and said she took it I wasn't from around there. She was nice enough to tell me that they've just started shipping orders, and gave me all the info I needed for that. I wound up with 6 double chocolate chip cookies and a loaf of bread. I would have bought the entire store if I had the money and I didn't have the option of them shipping me stuff.

For dinner, I went to Biaggi's, which is an Italian restaurant with my friend Erica. She had recently been tested for CD, so she had done some research and was nice enough to find the restaurant for me. I had the Rigatoni Alla Toscana. It was pasta sautéed with Italian sausage, roasted peppers, onion and tomato sauce, topped with Montchevré goat cheese and basil. It was absolutely amazing, and it was huge too. I hadn't been taking home leftovers because I didn't think I would have time to eat them, but I couldn't let this go to waste.

On Thursday, I went to my Grandparents house for lunch. My Grandma was really worried about messing it up somehow and making me sick. She made baked potatoes, corn, and baked chicken (seasoned with salt and pepper). She even washed the butter dish and got out a new stick of butter. I make baked chicken a lot, but I get the boneless chicken breast, and she had actual drumsticks and wings and everything. I also LOVE the skin on chicken which I haven't had in quite a while except for one of my previous dishes at one of the restaurants I went to this week. I knew my step-mom was worried about cooking for me, and I still had leftovers from Biaggi's, so I had that for dinner on Thursday.

Friday, we went to a health food store in Chanhassen, MN called Lakewinds. I had called ahead and it sounded like they had plenty of pre-packaged salads in their deli so that I could grab something before we went to a movie. The Enjoy Life cookies were on sale for almost half of what they are in Michigan, so I had to stock up. Turned out every one of the salads that sounded good and was GF had nuts in it (I'm allergic to those too). I wound up getting egg salad and some GF english muffins that looked like buns, and made myself an egg salad sandwich. Definitely very good.

For dinner, we went to Wildfire in Eden Prairie, MN because they have GF buns, and I really wanted a burger. It's a fancy restaurant and it seemed silly to get a burger instead of a really good steak, but I wanted to feel "normal" for once and eat a burger at a restaurant. I got the Black Angus Burger. The bun actually looked more like an English Muffin than the actual English Muffin I had eaten earlier in the day. I also had a Redbridge beer, which I haven't gotten to try yet. They automatically replace the seasoned fries with their redskin potatoes, which I wished I would have gotten the recipe for considering they were the best mashed potatoes I've ever tasted. (I'm pretty sure they had cream in them because I asked if they had dairy, and I REALLY paid for it later because Lactaid still isn't working for me.) Yet one more amazing meal.

So that's my trip. I think I've included plenty (too many) details. Hopefully that will help anyone else planning on visiting the area or who has the options of any of the same restaurants.

zip2play · Joined: 24 Jan 2006 Posts: 234

cardine45 · Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 141 Location: Kalamazoo, MI