Gluten Free Food at Sports Arenas across the U.S.

From one of our members – THANKS!

I just read this info and thought I would pass it on….at least some people are getting the idea!

Hey sports fans!

Next time you’re in Baltimore watching the Ravens play at M&T Bank Stadium, you can enjoy some salty snacks and gluten-free beer! According to the Baltimore Sun, Anheuser-Busch’s gluten-free beer, Redbridge, is sold for $7 on the first floor concourse from a concession stand near section 130. The stand also sells gluten-free pretzels.

But that’s not the only place that people with celiac disease can enjoy food with their sports. The Coors Field in Denver, home of the Colorado Rockies, has an entirely gluten-free concession stand behind Section 147 on the left field that sells hot dogs, burgers, chicken sandwiches, cookies, pretzels, chips, brownies, beer, and soda.

Go watch the Washington Nationals play and enjoy munching on enormous gluten-free pretzels by Noah’s Pretzels. The pretzels are also available at Baltimore Oriole’s games.

The Arizona Diamondbacks play at Chase Field, where you can now find gluten-free beer and snacks. The gluten-free beer is available wherever liquor is sold (sections 109, 114, 122, 129, 136, 311, 324), and you can also munch on Larabar and gummy bears.

Lincoln Financial Field, during home games of the Philadelphia Eagles, will sell gluten-free hot dogs and buns at “The Philly Stand” at Section 117. By September 20, gluten-free snacks will join the menu. Redbridge beer will be served at The Liberty Bell Taproom at Section 118. Score! (Thanks to Gluten Free Philly for the tip!)

At US Cellular field (formerly Comiskey Park), home of the Chicago White Sox, you can go to the Southside Grill for gluten-free beer, granola bars, and candy.

At Citizens’ Bank Park, home of the Phillies, you can chow down on gf snacks, hot dogs, and buns from the South Philly Market stand behind Section 128. You can guzzle Redbridge beer from any the concession stands near 139, 204, 323, and at the Brewerytown stand on Ashburn Alley. Also in Ashburn Alley, enjoy food from Bull’s BBQ, specifically all meat products, barbecue sauce, cole slaw, and beans.

Thanks to CeliacsTips for the excellent info.

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Back to the Blog

We are back online! 

Sorry about the delay – I have been unable to make changes to the site because of a programing error that only moments ago was fixed.

Yeah! There are lots of new things to tell you all about!  Stay tuned during the coming days while I get all of the new info onto our site; brand new food products, new places to eat with gluten free menus, medical news, and upcoming meeting dates.

May Meeting of the Birmingham Celiac Disease Support Group

 

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 May Meeting of the Birmingham Celiac Disease Support Group

Hosted by: Ted’s Garage and the BCDSG Date and time: Sunday, May 03, 2009 at 1:30 PM Location: Ted’s Garage View this event on Windows Live

Food and drink

Budget Dining Deal in Birmingham – a great lunch out for less than $5 :

 

Visit the Whole Foods freezer section and pick from a selection of about a dozen different gluten free frozen entrees.  I usually pick up one of the Indian or Thai dishes.

The meals cost right around $4, and a big bottle of water is $.53.  Heat it up in the microwave located at the dining area, take a seat and enjoy!  Quick, inexpensive, and tasty!  Also a good multi-tasking opportunity – you can pick up groceries at the same time!

 

 

 

 

Update on the March 19 article below:

I will be sending a letter from our group thanking General Mills for their efforts to make more of their products gluten free.  I’m sure that sales will reflect how grateful we all are for the new products that are coming – but an ‘official’ recognition is definitely in order. 

 

Check it out —  New gluten free cereals to be officially launched on June 1, 2009:

Corn Chex, Honey Nut Chex, Chocolate Chex, Strawberry Chex, Cinnamon Chex
 

 This is going to make breakfast and snacks a whole lot easier — especially for those of you with younger children on gluten free diets! 

More gluten free food coming soon!

Hello Friends!

I hope that all of you are weathering the economy well – I know that it is a challenge to deal with the extra cost of gluten free grocery items when things are good, and so it is really an effort now.  The good news is – that as the market sees increases in the number of gluten free products, the cost is becoming more competitive. And there are more new products all of the time.  You might be excited to know that General Mills, who came on board with CSA and made our Rice Chex gluten free (gf), has recently made Corn Chex also gf!  And they also own Betty Crocker, and have developed gf cake and cookie mixes.  I have contacted the company for info on where you can get those products, and will post it as soon as I get it.

Be healthy!

Rebecca

 

Update:

Here’s the news from Betty Crocker —

"We are coming out with a Gluten Free Yellow cake mix, Gluten Free Devil’s Food cake mix, Gluten Free Brownie mix and a Gluten Free Chocolate Chip cookie mix. Our new Gluten Free Dessert products will be shipped nationally on June 1, 2009."

 

 

Angel Food Ministries Offers Allergen Free Food

In addition to their regular items, some GF foods are now available from Angel Food Ministries.  This can help with food costs for some that are searching for items to feed their families in these difficult days.
http://www.angelfoodministries.com/menu_0903en.asp 

 

Thanks to our GF Baker Linda Harris for the info!

 

Thanks to Dr. Shallcross!

Our thanks to Dr. Shallcross for his great presentation at the February meeting! 

We had a large turn-out, and were able to get a lot of your questions answered by the doctor. 

Thanks to all of you who made it to the meeting (over 30 people), and to Organic Harvest for hosting!  The room was a little tight in the temporary store – not quite the room we have in the other side of the building, but as soon as the restoration after the fire damage is complete – we’ll have another meeting there.  It is always nice to be able to combine our gluten free food shopping with the meeting!

Gluten-a-holics Anonymous

 

 Hi, my name is Rebecca, and I’m a celiac.

 

I’m afraid that I might still have a compulsion – a problem with…. gluten.

I dream about things that I know are bad for me, like sandwiches and ravioli.  I haven’t had them for years, but

last night, I thought I fell off of the wagon:

 

I went to bed, drifting off quickly with the help of a sleep aid.  

What I remember next is that I am standing in the kitchen, the smell of the ‘real’ lemon-poppy seed muffins that I have freshly baked for my family perfuming the air. I  swooned, and couldn’t think about anything except how good they must be. 

I pick one up, and take a big, warm bite ….mmmmm, heavenly…….I close my eyes, savoring the taste.  And then, reality hits —– OH NO! What have I done?!  I spit muffin into the sink, trying desperately to wipe every morsel from my mouth with a dry dish towel – hopefully before the gluten that I have most definitely ingested can make it’s way to destroy my gut! 

 Fuzzies from the towel stick to my tongue.

 

I wake in a state of panic, trying to make sense of the place and time – and hoping that I have not actually been into the muffins that I really did make for my family last evening.

I did after all, take a sleeping pill, and have heard that some have side effects that involve ‘sleep-eating’.  I didn’t take one known to have those side effects – but the dream was so real, that I question for just a minute if it might have actually happened. And my mouth was so dry… 

 

This is not my first time.  I have had these tortuous dreams many times since going gluten free a few years ago. 

 

Once, I spent the entire night wandering through kosher bakeries with old Jewish women who were trying to steer me to just the right loaf of challah bread.  Really – all night, and I never decided on one loaf before the alarm clock chimed.

 

Another fitful night found me back in San Francisco, sopping up ciopino with fresh sourdough, condensation dripping down the glass of a cold micro-brew sitting in front of me.  I don’t remember, but I probably woke with tears in my eyes that morning.

 

I know that I am not the only celiac living in this nighttime fantasy world, where gluten is good again – and I am bad.  At our last gluten free dinner meeting, several members long without gluten were telling me about their dreams of ‘normal food’.  The conversation was started while we told a ‘newbie’ that she would soon stop craving regular bread and other unsafe things. Yeah, right. We might have blown our credibility while we recounted, eyes glazed over and mouths watering, vivid stories of our dreamtime escapades with forbidden foods.  

 

And if that didn’t scare her straight to Krispy-Kreme, the conversation then turned to “last suppers”.

Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean.  When the warden comes knocking for your last order, what are you going to ask for?  

 

Me?  A Big-Chic fried chicken sandwich with a basket of fried okra, and a cold Corona, with a wedge of lime of course. Simple, but definitely Heaven on a buttered bun – the only way to go.

 

Got anything that you would like to share with the group? Glutenous dreams or last meal requests?  It’s okay, you can share – you are among friends here!

 

 

Replies:

Rebecca,

Gluten Free Essentials has a great Lemon Poppy Seed Cake & Muffin Mix. We also have a great All Purpose Mix that you can exchange cup-for-cup in YOUR recipe. Andyou could still enjoy your lemon poppy muffins.

 

Also, here is some information for your group:

 

Gluten Free Essentials

P.O. Box 362, Clyde KS 66938              Phone: 785-446-3639

Website: www.gfessentials.com    Email: glutenfreeessentials@yahoo.com

*    *     *     *     *     *      *

We are aware of how expensive gluten free foods can be, and with the economy today, we thought we would like to offer the celiac community a special to try to help.

For a group order of $150, we can offer 25% off retail prices, and $20 shipping. (Orders over $150, we will prorate the shipping, giving you a good discount on that shipping as well.)

We refer you to our website:  www.gfessentials.com        These prices will be good for all of the website products except for the 25# buckets. (They are already at our lowest prices.  Shipping on buckets are $18 each.)

 

Please feel free to contact us. Our contact information is on this email.

 

Sincerely,

Maryclara Joyce

Johnita Crawford

Gluten Free Essentials

Thank you Maryclara — Your gluten free lemon poppy seed muffins could make my dreams come true! 🙂    R

 

 

 

Getting ‘glutened’

Okay, friends —  I know that most days I am obnoxiously optimistic about this gluten free diet – I tout how relatively ‘easy’ it is to eat out – to talk just a little bit to your restaurant server, and give them enough information about ‘gluten’ to help them make you a safe and tasty meal.  But occasionally there are the days that I want to just give up in the middle of the ‘gluten is in wheat, rye, barley… and in anything made with those grains….’ informational spiel, and go running home to the safety of my gf food stash. 

 

Recently I had one of those days — 

The family and I were running errands, and I asked if they wanted to pop into a local place that I had not eaten at previously, but had seen their menu.  It’s Mediterranean cuisine – easily adapted to a gluten free diet – and always yummy.  The two twenty-something counter attendants seem very eager to help, there is no language barrier, and both seem intellegent.  They listen to the spiel, nodding with understanding … and then eagerly go on to make several recommendations for meal choices and adaptations.  Wow — this is great!  My mouth was watering with anticipation of the dishes they were describing — until reality set in —  Just when I’m sure this girl is my new favorite counter chef, she says  "….. and then you can have it all on a pita, they don’t have any wheat in them, they are white – not wheat."  

 

 ????……Uh, Wait just a minute…….I’m confused. It was all going so well.

 I ask her – "Are they made out of some other flour then, not wheat?".  Yes, she replies – "they are made out of white bread – there is no wheat in them". And she says that with cocked head and an impatient little "Duh – isn’t that what I just said?" – tone to her voice. Vinegar was another questionable ingredient, her reply:  "there is no bread in the vinegar".  (At this moment, my son and husband make brief eye contact with me before scurrying to the other side of the restaurant – fearing perhaps that my head was going to explode or that I might jump the counter and hurt the girl with a pack of pitas.)

 

 ****heavy sigh****

 

Obviously there is a problem.  My beauty pagent beautiful counter girl, definitely a high school grad, and more than likely on her way to a college degree as well, is another one of those people who doesn’t know the ingredients in bread, much less what gluten is — a person totally out of touch with what their food is made from.  The person who, when you ask where chickens come from, thinks first, ‘a package at Publix’. 

Sadly, this in not the first or even the tenth time that this has happened. 

 

So for this particular meal, instead of choosing any of the menu items that seem to be easily adapted, I choose what

now seems to be the safest choice – "and PLEASE LEAVE OFF THE PITA".  I eat the delivered meal with mixed feelings – happy tastebuds, because it is indeed delicious – but with a knot in my stomach from the fear of having been ‘glutened’ by these charming but blissfully food-ignorant people.  Luckily, the night passed without intestinal incedent, only anxiety.

 

How can  people be out of touch with where their food comes from or what it is made from?  It is hard for me to understand anyone except maybe kids from the deep inner cities who have never been to the country, or indiginous peoples in far off lands where the education of sustainable agriculture is just being brought to them — along with water from their first communtity well. But not here in Birmingham in 2009. 

 

 

So, what to do about it?  Short of taking over the educational system, we’ll educate them one at a time with our restaurant awareness program, that’s what.  I’ll send any restaurants gf information to help educate them on our diet, and maybe even get them to get certified as a gluten-aware restaurant.

 

What I need from you is the name and address of the place that you either: 1) had a dining out problem similar to mine,  or 2) you just want to eat there again – without the worry of ‘getting glutened’.   Just email me the name and address of the restaurant to our birminghamceliac@hotmail.com address and I’ll get the information out to them.

 

Good luck out there!