Paradise in Volterra, Toscana

One of many picnic lunches on the gorgeous grounds

We spoiled ourselves a bit on this trip.  As Ry said we were only going for two weeks so that meant we could spend more money!  Well, not exactly.  But after such a hectic year working on a big project, I needed the first leg of our trip to be very relaxing.  So we thought the hills and olive groves of Toscana would do the trick.  We found the lovely Agriturismo Podere San Lorenzo by a top recommendation by none other than our go to Lonely Planet.  We rented a car specifically so that we could get to this gorgeous hideout.

There were so many wonderful aspects of the Agriturismo: peacefulness, beautiful views and secluded.  But one of the biggest draws was the food.  We had a kitchen in our apartment and it was so nice being able to cook breakfast and lunch and then bring it outside to eat on the gorgeous grounds.  There is nothing more enjoyable than a lazy afternoon lounging under a big umbrella in a field of olive trees laughing over pecorino, Milanese salumi and a bottle of local wine.  Our first night there we cooked pasta with olive oil, tomatoes, onion and zucchini with a side of caprese salad and ate it outside on the terrace.  It’s so nice being able to always eat outside.  Fresh air complements food so well.  We even got a sample ¼ L of the Agriturismo’s homemade olive oil from the olive trees on their property that we used for the rest of our trip.

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Authentic Italian Gluten Free Pizza at Voglia di Pizza in Rome, Italy

Just look at that gluten free pizza - white pizza with pomodorino, buffala and basil at Voglia di Pizza

When I first visited Roma in 2010, I really wasn’t a fan.  It’s too touristy for my liking and I cannot stand all restaurants advertising ‘tourist menus’ in 10 languages around every famous site.

I’ll be honest I never thought that I would say that I now enjoy spending an afternoon or evening in Roma.  But now that’s the case.  We’re like old regulars with our favourite gelato shop and pizzeria.   We no longer have the need to see all the big sites, but the Coliseum at night is a must.  Whenever we fly to Europe, we try to always fly in or out of FCO for two reasons, (1) it’s a cheap jump off destination and (2) to get authentic pizza and gelato.  Last year was my first time trying Voglia di Pizza and I’ve been dreaming about the gluten free pizza ever since.  I did a lot of research last year for recommended gluten free pizza and there were several good reviews for Voglia di Pizza.  It was incredible pizza (I actually ordered two that visit).  I tell ya, good authentic Italian pizza is hard to find in North America, let alone a gluten free version.  That’s why I always look forward to Voglia di Pizza.

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A Deck and a BBQ

The selling feature of the new place Ryan and I are renting is the huge rooftop deck!  It’s incredible.  We both missed outdoor space so much at our old place and we craved to be able to eat and hangout outside again.   A balcony was on our must have list to move, we just never imagined this big of a deck.  Now we’re always out there.  I love weekends where we eat all three meals out on our deck.  We’ve also hosted a few dinner parties out there – all BBQs of course!  It’s so enjoyable and I love being able to eat great food and drink sangria while socializing with friends and family.  That’s what life is all about right!

We got a fantastic new BBQ and boy do we try to use every excuse possible to grill every night!!  After a few weeks we started realizing that we needed some new meat options, our rotation was too small.  Now we are open to exploring new meats, cuts and recipes and we’ve found some delicious new things to cook.

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Camping Gluten Free

Beautiful views in Bruce Peninsula

Growing up my family never camped, but several of my best friends’ families did, which meant throughout high school I’d tag along with their families or when we were able to drive, our group of girls would go camping together.  Those trips were always the best and I fondly think back on those memories and all of the amazing food we ate hunched over at our picnic table, lazy morning sudokus and the rainy nights drinking and playing Monopoly.

About four years ago, I thought it would be fun if Ryan and I got into camping.  Since neither of us came from camping families, we were shocked at how expensive it was to start fresh and buy our own gear.  But it turned out it was worth it, we love camping and good gear can last a long time!

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Neighbourhood Review: Port Credit

Beautiful Port Credit

Have I mentioned how much I love living in Port Credit?  It has a beautiful location is right on Lake Ontario, a large park, community feel, farmers market, plenty of bars and restaurants, plus the GO station here with only a 25 minute train into downtown Toronto.  Everything is here.  Ever since I’ve gone gluten free, I’ve discovered just how lucky I am to live here. It is gluten free paradise, with many gluten free options available.

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Flying Emirates – Gluten Free

Emirates bar

On my way to and from India, I flew with Emirates with layovers in Dubai.  This was my first experience flying Emirates.  I was excited to fly with them as I was going to be flying business class on the double decker Airbus —–.  What a treat!

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Gluten Free in India Part VII: A Look Back on My Experience

Waiting barefoot to enter the Lotus Temple

Looking back at my stay in Gurgaon, I am proud of myself when it comes to the variety of new foods that I tried.  I remember five years ago when I went to school in Singapore I would hardly touch curry – look at me now!  I am so appreciative of Negi Chef and his staff for keeping me safe and never once getting me gluten’d.  I’m glad I asked him countless times to surprise me with my meals so that I branched out and tried so many new delicious dishes and I am proud that I avoided the Western food on the menu.  Sure some people might say that I wasn’t adventurous since I barely ate outside of the hotel.  But given the situation I was in as a solo female working during the night in India and that due to safety reasons I couldn’t leave the hotel unless if I was accompanied by colleagues, I’d say I did well.  I’m just glad I got to try so many new amazing foods!

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Gluten Free in India Part VI: A Home Cooked Meal

A lovely home cooked meal

One of my favourite experiences of my trip was the evening I spent at a colleague’s family home eating a meal with his lovely wife, beautiful spunky kid and gorgeous German Shepard.  I am so grateful for this evening.  His daughter is five years old and only speaks Bengali and Hindi, with a few words of English so it was really cute watching her try to speak with me!  We bonded over ice cream and Angry Birds, two of her few English words.

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Gluten Free in India Part V: Indian Dessert

Moong dal halwa - it tastes better than it looks!

At MoMo, the hotel’s main restaurant, there was a huge dessert buffet full of a rotating assortment of delicious and beautiful looking Western and European desserts.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t eat any of them but I did walk past them each day.  So thankfully I still managed to have a dessert every few days to satisfy my sweet tooth, including two traditional gluten free Indian desserts.

As one of the desserts I was served as part of a surprise meal Negi Chef prepared, I was given Moong dal halwa.  Now when I ate it, I wasn’t sure what it was but Negi Chef explained it to me the following day.  Moong dal halwa is a grain that is finely ground down with clarified butter and sugar.  It was served with crushed pistachios.  Visually, it didn’t look like much but it tasted really good.  You can only imagine with that much ghee and sugar that it was sweet and not very healthy – but such a yummy treat!

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