Gluten Free Travel Blog

I'd like to welcome our Guest Blogger, Amie Valpone, HHP, AADP Culinary Nutritionist and author of The Healthy Apple Blog. Amie is based in Manhattan and specializes in gluten free and dairy free culinary nutrition. As a Culinary Marketing Consultant, she offers many services to clients, including nutrition consultations, personalized healthy menu planing, personal food shopping services and supermarket tours, pantry makeovers, kitchen cooking parties, kids Birthday parties, and in home demonstrations. She joins us today to talk about something near and dear to our hearts...how to best navigate dining out while following a gluten-free diet -- without sacrificing taste! A gluten-free lifestyle doesn’t mean that you have to say good-bye to your social calendar. You can still enjoy care-free meals at your favorite restaurants. And eating gluten-free doesn’t mean depriving yourself from your favorite foods, either. Instead, think of it as a way to focus on healthy ‘clean’ eating with naturally gluten-free foods that are fresh and delicious. When you are planning a trip or dining out, be sure to keep yourself safe by planning ahead. • Make a list of the gluten-free foods you can enjoy as well as those foods that contain ‘hidden’ forms of gluten. This... Read more →

As you may remember, we reported on Glory Days Grill's launch of their extensive gluten-free menu last summer. We also had the opportunity to talk with Tony Cochones, Director of Food and Beverage for Glory Days, which has locations in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. They've had a great response to their gluten-free menu, which is not surprising, given the range of choices they offer. Whether you want to try their Buffalo Chicken Dip or their famous wings (gluten-free, cooked in a dedicated fryer, and with a range of gluten-free sauces to choose from) or their equally delicious ribs (also with a range of gluten-free sauce choices), you won't feel like you're "missing out" on the traditional American fare this family-oriented sports-themed restaurant offers. Our family has dined at Glory Days on many occasions and always had a great meal -- our personal favorites include the ribs, wings, and salmon. No matter what you're in the mood for, you're sure to find it here...Gluten free entree possibilities include steaks, 10-spice chicken, ribs, salmon, and shrimp. And there are plenty of burgers to choose from, too -- just without the bun, of course (they are supposedly working on finding or making... Read more →

GlutenFreeTravelSite, our sister website, today announced that the Washington, DC area, which includes its Maryland and Virginia suburbs, is this year's winner of our “World’s Most Celiac-Friendly Destination” contest. Now in its third year, this contest recognizes locations that offer a wide range of dining choices for people following gluten-free diets. New York was the winner the first year, and Florida was the winning destination last year, due in large part to how accommodating Disney World and the surrounding Orlando area are to gluten-free guests. Each year, the results are determined by tallying the number of user-submitted dining and travel reviews received throughout the year for each location on GlutenFreeTravelSite. The Washington DC metro area had a particularly impressive showing over the past year. GlutenFreeTravelSite benefits from a close relationship with the DC Celiacs support group, and many of its members have contributed to the site by providing personal, detailed feedback on DC-area restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores. Reviews of many independent restaurants as well as chain restaurants offering gluten-free menus give residents of and visitors to the D.C. area a wide a range of “safe” choices. “Many cities in the DC area, like Bethesda and McLean, offer numerous gluten-free... Read more →

Our family traveled to Pittsburgh this past weekend. After seeing a brief review of Gluuteny gluten-free bakery on our sister website, GlutenFreeTravelSite, we decided we would have to make a stop there on our way in to town. So glad we did! It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday, and the woman working in the store at the time (Elizabeth) apologized for the lighter selection of baked goods, given the time of day. But we were still very pleased with the range of choices: brownies, iced sugar cookies, mini chocolate vanilla marbled bundt cakes, vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, huge Whoopie pies, gingerbread men, huge chocolate chip cookies, mini cinnamon swirl coffee cakes, pound cakes, pumpkin loaves, and lemon loaves. YUM!! What delicious-looking treats. We seriously had to use discipline not to buy everything in the store. We finally settled on a few cupcakes, some muffins, the coffee cake, and a Whoopie pie. The great thing is that they sell the dry mixes for most of the items baked in the store, so we also bought a mix for the marbled bundt cake. (You can order these mixes, plus their cookies and croutons, to be shipped but not the other baked goods,... Read more →

Great news! We have just completed work on a mobile version of our website GlutenFreeTravelSite, which serves people with Celiac and others who follow gluten-free diets. Unlike many "apps" that cost money and need to be downloaded, the mobile version of GlutenFreeTravelSite is absolutely FREE to use and automatically accessible via any smart phone -- be it an iPhone, Blackberry, or Android-based phone. Visitors accessing our site "on the go" via a smart phone will now have a more user-friendly experience finding "gluten-free friendly" restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, and hotels/resorts wherever they are. Similar to the experience on GlutenFreeTravelSite, users will be able to search our database of gluten-free dining and travel reviews by entering a city/town or zip code. The search results appear on a a Google map, and clicking on any establishment on the list will enable users to link to the review. Other key features of the mobile version include GlutenFreeTravelSite's Gluten Free Restaurant Menus section which lists national and regional restaurant chains that offer gluten-free menus -- and provides direct links to those menus as well as the restaurants' locations. Users of the mobile version will also be able to visit the site's Blog, Facebook and... Read more →