Review: Whole Foods Mississauga

Over the weekend we made a trip to Whole Foods in Mississauga Ontario.  Wow, what a journey that was! Really wish they would open up shop in Durham region.

I always have my eye open for new places to stock up on Gluten Free food so we went to check it out and see if there were any thing different  available there.

The staff at this location was really friendly and were awesome in helping me find GF food. Let me tell you what a scavenger hunt that was! I'm quite surprised that Whole Foods does not have a better way of displaying GF items. Even Metro does a better job then them, and I'm not fond of Metro's (location near me) GF layout. The food was everywhere. There was really no rhyme or reason to it.

Overall, the items at this location were pretty much on par with what I can get where I live. Nothing special other then the odd  crepe or lasagna. I know people say whole foods is overpriced but we only looked at Gluten Free items and well, they were pretty much on par with everywhere else. Yippee (note sarcasm).

Gluten Free Chicken & Potato Casserole - Review

How about a Gluten Free lunch all the way from Scotland. That's what I have here. 

This hearty dish is a Chicken & Potato Casserole. It is made by Tesco and is part of their Free From line. The price was IMPRESSIVE - £2.40 which works out to around $4.00 or so Canadian. Still, affordable by Gluten Free standards.

This product earned my favor right from the start. Just a few minutes in the microwave with the top sides of the package peeled open and we have a hearty meal!

Although it's called Chicken & Potato Casserole, it was more of a stew in my opinion. That could very well be due to our different way of wording things on this side of the pond.  It was fantastic! Not only did this come out of the microwave fiercely hot, but it did not have that signature microwaved texture.  Very rarely does anything come out of the microwave tasting like it was made fresh and this did. 

This dish reminded me of the stew that my grandmother used to make when I was a child. The chicken was moist and the potato had a nice bite to it. The only thing missing was dough balls. To remedy that, I grabbed a couple of Queijos and tossed in. Perfect!

The portion would probably be one bag to one person, unless your feeding this to kids. Then you could probably split it between two people.

I would definitely purchase this in the future...if I could. Unfortunately the lovely folks at Tesco do not ship to Canada and hubby wont be making a return trip to Scotland any time soon.  

This makes me want to fight for more Gluten Free variety in this country. We have enough cookies and snacks. I want to see healthy, ready to eat  and easy to prepare Gluten Free meals.  

That is a post for another day though.

Gluten Is My Kryptonite

We all know what it's like to be accidentally glutened. 

It sucks.

I've sort of become used to it as of late. That sucks even more! Although, I must say that I have reached a sort of Zen point with it. As soon as I get that first knife wielding stomach cramp, I know exactly what is in store for me. It's exhausting and unfortunate really. But at least I can sort of manage it.

Fortunately for me, I have only been glutened just a couple of times while away from home. That is a scary thing for me. At least when I am at home, I can follow the drill without hassle so to speak.

As long as my 3year old is occupied, I can run to the washroom and stay for a while if need be. This is usually when the Nintendo DS makes an extended appearance for him. 

I'm okay with this. It's part of my life. I can deal with it. What I'm not okay with is the potential complications that my body will face in the future. The more I get glutened, the more harm is done to me internally. The kind of harm that I can't see, but will one day be forced to deal with.

Gluten is my Kryptonite