Well I wasn't completely wrong.

     I thought I should update you guys on my meal at the conference. As I told you all in my last post, I checked the box to receive a gluten free meal. I didn't have too high of hopes for this going smoothly. I guess I don't have a great track record with things like this going smoothly, so that's what I based it on.
     I went to all of my morning sessions at my conference and before I knew it lunch time had arrived. The hotel had huge buffet lines set up chicken pot pie, loaded mashed potatoes, panini, tomato soup, pumpkin cheese cake, corn muffins and on and on. I found one of the staff members stationed near the buffet lines and explained my situation to him. I told him that I had checked gluten free on my registration and I was wondering if he could help me with the gluten free items at the buffet or tell me if I had a separate meal somewhere that I was supposed to have.
      Oh this poor guy, I felt bad for him because he didn't know the answer to my question. He had to then go ask one of his bosses. This lady said she wasn't aware of any special dietary needs for this conference and got on her walkie talkie to ask another person.  At this point I am loosing a little hope that I will have lunch.
      A couple minutes of time passed and a gentleman showed up. He was also unaware of any special dietary requests for my conference. However, he was very kind and said "NO PROBLEM, we will get you some food". He asked me to show him where I was sitting and said it would take a little time because they were going to have to cook something, but he would get me taken care of.
     I sat down at my table and watched my Mom eat her lunch. I quizzed her on how everything tasted. I'm sure she just loves when I do that! ha
     Pretty soon the gentleman came back carrying a covered silver tray and sat it in front of me. Boy oh boy that didn't draw any attention (insert sarcasm) ha. One lady sitting near me even said "how did you rate THAT kind of attention" haha So that of course led to a little discussion about food intolerance, you asked for it lady.
     Under my cute little silver tray was this:

I ended up with a cute heart shaped grilled chicken breast, roasted red potatoes, carrots, and sauteed spinach with peppers, garlic and tomatoes. They went SO above and beyond my expectations for lunch. It tasted amazing and they more than made up for it not being cooked and ready at lunch time.

      I guess the moral of the story is, don't be afraid to ask.

-Jessica

Nervous.....I checked the gluten free box.

     I'm headed to a conference this weekend. I'm a touch nervous about the food issue. There was an option when registering for "gluten free". I was of course super excited to see that. I did of course, check that box when I registered. Now I am nervous.
     I'm not so trusting when it comes to random people being in charge of my food. Am I being controlling? Ummm ya, that's me! Am I overthinking this? Oh ya probably. I checked this box a couple of months ago....but now that the conference is here I am worried.
     I will either be served something that is obviously NOT gluten free, or I will be served a fruit plate. Or at least this is how the story goes when I'm thinking about it. I like fruit, however fruit is hard to eat when others around you have yummy pasta and desserts and whatever else.
    I am packing some things to eat though. Just incase! I have a couple of Truebars, Larabars, peanutbutter, crackers and whatever else I can think of. I will probably pack more food than clothes! My food may need it's own suitcase!! ha Ok, I'm not going to pack THAT much.
     I'll let you guys know how it goes.....for now, wish me LUCK!

-Jessica

I got glutened

    Well I guess that's what I get for trying new things. I got glutened!! *huge sigh*

I had heard about this little pizza place that was now serving gluten free pizza. When I hear the words "gluten free pizza" my eyes light up and I get as excited as a kid on Christmas morning! So I finally had some time to go check out this new little gluten free find.

     I went yesterday for lunch. I waited until the lunch rush was over (went about 1:30). I figured that would help lessen my chances of a mixed up order and cross-contamination issues. I walked up to the counter to order. I asked the little checkout girl about their gluten free pizzas. They had a sign up saying they "now had gluten free crusts". I asked the girl if all of their toppings were gluten free, she looked at me like a deer caught in headlights (this really should have been my clue to run the other direction). She said that she didn't really know, so I kindly asked her to see if anyone DID know. She went to the kitchen and came back with some info. for me. She said that they weren't sure about their peperoni and meatballs so steer clear of those. Ok fair enough and I ordered my pizza (without either of the offending toppings they had warned me of).

      While I was waiting a Mom and her daughter came in, just as excited as I was. The little girl had celiac and was super excited to have some gluten free pizza! The Mom also did some quizzing of the lady taking the orders. She asked her about cross-contamination issues. The lady again had that deer caught in headlights look. I made a mental note that this place could use some staff training if they were going to be doing gluten free. The lady finally just took the Mom back to the kitchen so that she could look at the oven and how things worked. I did give her credit for that, if you can't answer the question then showing the Mom was a good idea. They decided to place their order and sat down to wait.

     I told the little girl and her Mom that I was excited too. We had a little conversation about celiac, and I went back to waiting for my pizza. Shortly my pizza came out, it smelled amazing, looked good. I could hardly wait to dig in! 

It looks really good right? Don't be fooled!

I ate a couple pieces of my pizza, shut the lid on the box and went on my merry way. About 20 minutes later I wasn't feeling so great. I won't bore you with the details of that, but I will say that I got glutened.

    I should have run screaming out of the little pizza place when I encountered the first staff member who hadn't been trained at all. I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Evidently the kitchen staff hasn't been any more well trained than the counter staff. *big sigh*

        So I spent the evening feeling yucky. I couldn't sleep last night at all. I think I maybe got 2 hours of sleep. I felt horrible. It was all over a dumb pizza. So now what? Monday morning I will be making a call to the cute little pizza place. I will be letting them know that I got sick from their pizza, but that I am calling so that they can fix it. I know that I am not the only person going to this establishment and coming out not feeling so great. I want to educate them on cross contamination and ways they could avoid it. I don't want them to STOP making gluten free pizza. I want them to educate their staff, research their toppings so they KNOW what is gluten free, and produce some pizza that doesn't make a person sick.

    I'll keep you posted on how that goes, but for now I'll be sleeping off this gluten coma. UGH!

-Jessica