Kudos to KT’s

Recently, KT’s Restaurant in Vernon, BC began offering a Gluten-Free menu.  I first learned about this new offering in our local newspaper, The Morning Star.  I hadn’t heard much about KT’s as a restaurant and we didn’t have an opportunity to try it out until friends of ours told us to give it a try, and brought home a gluten-free menu for us to peruse.

We decided to give it a try.

The gluten-free menu is limited, but when you consider that not many (if any) other restaurants in our area even offer gluten-free options, the menu actually has quite a lot.

Most options are burgers that are on the regular menu, but prepared with a gluten-free hamburger bun.

They also have pasta options using gluten free pasta and their selection of various sauces.

There are also a couple of dessert options on the menu.

We have been back to KT’s about three times now.  Each time Levi has tried a new burger from the gluten-free menu.  Each time he has been completely satisfied.  He really likes the buns, which look very similar to the Kinnikinnick hamburger buns.  The first time we were there we asked our waitress who said the buns were baked locally, but I strongly doubt that is the case.  I could be wrong.

Last time we were at KT’s, Levi ordered a dessert.  There’s two dessert options.  A slice of apple cinnamon pie and a butter tart.  He chose the pie.  Sorry, that wasn’t so good.  Not sure who supplies the pie to the restaurant but the crust was soggy and flavorless.  I’ve made gluten-free pie crust before and it doesn’t have to be soggy.  I suspect because it was from the freezer the pie had condensation and was heated up and became soggy.  Either way, we’ll stick to home-made desserts after we get home from dinner rather than paying the $5 for a soggy piece of pie.

Overall though,  I have to say way to go to KT’s for recognizing the need for more gluten-free menu choices out there in the restaurant industry.  Levi has never had a reaction so far from eating there, although the potential for cross-contamination is recognized and mentioned.  They do try to keep things seperate but we all know that there’s still a chance of gluten mixing with gluten-free foods in restaurants.  So far, so good.

Give KT’s a try.  They have some great options on their regular menu, and gluten-free menu, at fairly reasonable prices.  And for all you gluten-lovers out there … Tuesday is Pasta Frenzy – choose from a variety of pastas with your choice of sauce for just $6.95 – what a great deal.  Regular price is around $10 or $11 I believe.  You can opt to get it baked for a couple dollars more.  Yum.

KT’s Family Restaurant
3127 30 Ave
Vernon, BC
(250) 545-3228

April 1, 2009. Tags: , , , , , , . food, Gluten-free, Restaurant Review. Leave a comment.

Enchiladas Verdes

I love salsa verde.  I love it hot, I love it cold.  I love tomatillos.  It’s amazing that up until now I’ve never taken the opportunity to actually work with tomatillos in recipes.  Well, that all changed.  I decided to make enchiladas verdes from a recipe I found online at AllRecipes.com.

Mine turned out different than the pictures from the website.  I think it’s because I chose to wrap mine in a baking dish, spoon the remaining salsa verde, add the remaining onions and cheese then broil to melt.  Then I sprinkled with cilantro.

Overall, the result was amazazing.  Except, the bottoms of the enchiladas did get a tad bit soggy.  So…I tried again a week or so later.  Same problem, even after crisping up the tortillas even longer.  I guess that’s why the recipe suggested making 3 per person right on their plates…  I still liked having them in a baking dish, and I don’t mind them being a bit soggy, they are kind of messy to begin with.

Here’s my Enchiladas Verdes:

slightly spicy, tangy from the tomatillos, and so tasty

slightly spicy, tangy from the tomatillos, and so tasty

April 1, 2009. Tags: , , , , , , . Cooking, food, Gluten-free, recipes. Leave a comment.

Airplane Food

Levi and I are taking a top-secret trip to visit some friends in Dominican Republic.  He knows about it, she does not.  I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she walks into her house and finds us in her living room.  Priceless!

Right now in the midst of packing and catching up on things at home so that we can leave on such short notice, I stop to think about airplane food.  It’s a 6 hour non-stop flight from Vancouver to Puerto Plata.  I hope they have food on the plane.  At the same time, I am hesitant about the food on the plane.

We are flying Air Transat.  I’ve flown with them once before, on our trip to Puerto Vallarta for our honeymoon over 8 years ago.  I got extremely ill on our way home, to the point of ending up in the emergency room in a Vancouver area hospital.  The doctor blamed the airplane food.

So I guess it would be easy to understand why I am a bit nervous about consuming the airplane food this time around.  I guess I could bring my own food.  Levi probably won’t be able to eat his meal anyways considering it will almost certainly be loaded with gluten.  He won’t be able to take his pills during the holiday or he will burn to a crisp.

I plan on reporting more about the food we eat in our journeys to Puerto Plata and back.  I will be taking lots of pictures too…so brace yourselves for that.

February 26, 2009. Tags: , , , , , , , . food, Gluten-free, Travel. Leave a comment.

“Gluten?…oh there’s no sugar in this”

Seriously.

I don’t expect everyone in the entire world to know and understand what gluten is.  But, being as it is one of the top food intolerances out there, you’d like to hope/think that not everybody is living under a rock.

Levi, my husband, has Celiac Disease.  He also has a secondary gluten-intolerance condition (a form of Celiac Disease) called Dermatitis Herpetiformis.  He has had these conditions his entire life.  As an adult he was properly diagnosed and after a while he made the decision to stick to a gluten-free diet seriously.

Gluten-free living is a challenge.  I won’t deny that.  But I have to be honest I have really embraced the idea of living a healthful, gluten-free life and keeping a gluten-free home.  I like to think – self-centeredly – that I make it easy for Levi to live gluten-free.  He may or may not agree with you. 🙂

You’ll notice that from time to time I will talk about gluten, gluten-free products, gluten-free recipes, eating out gluten-free, etc.  This is not a gluten-free blog.  There’s enough awesome ones out there that I don’t even need to bother.  But I will add my own perspective, and Levi’s too, where I feel like it.

The quote I used as the title of this blog post might sound outrageous but it actually happens more than you might think.

“Is there gluten in this frogurt (frozen yogurt)?”  “Ummm, well we do have a sugar-free one.”

“Is there gluten in this sauce?”  “It’s a savory sauce, not sweet at all.”

“Can you let me know if you have a gluten-free menu?”  “Oh are you diabetic?”

Literally.  Seriously.

At first I used to get so annoyed.  Like how could these people be so obtuse.  Now it just makes me laugh.  Just because I knew what gluten was before Levi was diagnosed doesn’t mean that the average population must, or that they even care about whether or not he has an intolerance to the stuff.

And just for everyone who thinks eating on a gluten-free diet is nasty and boring and tasteless…you’re so wrong.  Otherwise I wouldn’t be posting about gluten-free on the TastyFoodBlog, now would I?

January 22, 2009. Tags: , , , , , , . Gluten-free, Life. 4 comments.