Oh My, OMango!

My sister always has her ear out for gluten free offerings and new products to share with me.  Valerie's latest find is her best one yet - OMango restaurant in Aurora.  Valerie billed this new restaurant to me as "like Chipotle - but Indian" and I was instantly sold on taking the Metra out to Aurora to meet her for lunch.

Their menu is packed with Indian staples like tandoori, wraps, and curries.  At the bottom of the menu is an allergen statement - a sign that I am in a restaurant that will take care of me.  Many of their menu items are also marked signifying vegan options; no vegans or dairy free folks will go hungry here!  A helpful manager guided us through the menu - pointing out the dairy and gluten free options for me (a large portion of the menu) and some recommendations for my sister who is just starting to eat Indian food.

Valerie's lunch on top; My gluten free lunch on bottom

The food arrived at our table quickly after we ordered and Valerie and I enjoyed a full lunch.  The portions were generous and the food tasted superb.  The plain (no filing) dosas are made with lentils and rice, are naturally gluten free, and HUGE.  My once huge dosa slowly shrank as I tried my different curry offerings and rice.  Valerie devoured her samosas while I used my gf dosa to scoop up my curries, including the tasty saag (a spinach puree).  OMango is the place to go for a delicious Indian meal - whether you are gluten free or not!  My OMango lunch was even better than the Indian food I previously have eaten on Devon Avenue - who knew that best Indian food in Chicago was outside the city limits?

For OMango menu, check out their website.  Whether you are familiar with Indian food or are trying something new, you are sure to enjoy OMango's offerings!  I'm excited to return to OMango with Valerie again and try even more of their menu.  Until I can travel to India, OMango in Aurora is the next best thing!

I Scream, You Scream

I feel like such a kid again.

A few weeks ago while visiting my mom, we headed to the grocery store and she told me to choose an ice cream to keep in the freezer at her house. I eyed the wide selection of dairy free desserts, apparently for too long, because it prompted my mom to tell me to get whatever I wanted. I saw chocolate brownie "ice cream", smiled, and looked at the ingredients. Dairy free does not mean wheat free. Ultimately, I settled (more like got excited over another fun flavor combination) for a chocolate peanut butter swirl option. The ice cream never even made it to the freezer when we got home as I helped myself to an over generous serving.

The July meeting for the Chicago chapter of the Gluten Intolerance Group in the South Loop was a dairy free ice cream social...complete with ice cream cones! We had two gluten free cone options (which were on sale at Whole Foods - still kicking myself for not buying them) - cake or sugar - or plastic bowls. There were four different varieties offered, but when I heard chocolate chip cookie dough, my emotions were a cross between a swear-word string of excitement and giggling with my eyes wide open. I have never been so excited to eat a particular food before. I had my coconut milk ice cream with its certified gluten free chocolate chip cookie dough in a sugar cone and felt like I was transported to summers in my childhood. Truly, this was a little bit of heaven on earth and I normally hold back from exclaiming praise like this. But this ice cream is GOOD. You must try it - whether or not you are gluten and/or dairy free. The ice cream is so creamy and the cookie dough has just the perfect texture. (Don't worry - I got seconds.)

So imagine my childlike excitement during an otherwise very adult, routine shopping trip

to the local Dominick's to buy groceries for dinner lead me past their dairy free ice cream (for two reasons: I watch sale prices on their gluten and dairy free products and it was almost 100 degrees and a stroll through the freezer section felt good) and their ice cream was on sale (win!) and they had the So Delicious chocolate chip cookie dough! The regular price was $5.59, down to their new low price of $4.99 but only $3.59 with your Dominick's Card! (Through July 26, price found at the Dominick's on Foster and Sheridan in Chicago. Hurry, because I'm probably going to stock up on their ice cream before the sale ends.)

I went home, scooped myself a big bowl of unmatched perfection, and sat on my porch with my feet up, cooling off in the most delicious way possible.

What more can I say? Life is great!

So Delicious's Purely Decadent's coconut milk cookie dough non-dairy frozen dessert contains coconuts and soy. It is a vegan product.

A trio of healthy eating

These past four weeks have certainly flown by! I thought I would be struggling to come up with food options while on a budget and gluten free doing this 28 Day Healthy Eating Challenge, but I have been eating a bigger variety of food than ever before! Since I found myself in the kitchen more than at the computer, I'm afraid I'm going to cheat and just do a "I wish I could go into detail" post for three of the great things I have been eating. There are a few more straggling posts coming and I think shake up what I present on the blog. Rather than having so many meat based dishes, I am going to share my joy in making more vegetable and fruit dishes.

This mushroom strogonaff is from Engine 2. The recipe is really easy and when served with brown rice, a very filling lunch! I never really ate mushrooms before this diet and I'm happy to report that I like them!

I found a recipe for gf vegan bread and used Pamela's Flour Mix for the first time. The bread turned out to be amazing - I ate it all within 24 hours of baking it. The Brown Rice and Lentil Burger recipe came from Engine 2. I used about a tablespoon of flour to help bind the ingredients together. With not the greatest luck. A friend pointed out that flour was probably called for because of its glue (gluten) qualities. Overall, very tasty and the broken burgers would go great over pasta or on top of a salad.

This is perhaps one of my prettiest pictures. Don't these tacos look beautiful? They are guac tacos. That's right - guacamole in a warmed corn tortilla. I disregarded the serving size and ended up with over 3 cups of guac one weekend so I plopped the mix on a tortilla and called it a taco. Turns out that too much of a good thing is just that - too much. Next time I make guac for just myself, I'm going to remember to cut the recipe into quarters since there's no way I could eat that much!

Avocado Summer Salad

Going plant strong meant eating many more salads. I didn't eat salad until last August when I went on a cruise with my family and needed to start eating fish and salad almost out of necessity because I knew if I was ever hungry, it would be my fault. The springboard for this salad was a picture I saw on a foodie website as well as on TV. I jazzed it up a bit and was so excited to finally eat it by the time I managed to buy all the fresh ingredients. This was great to make on those hot summer days when you want to properly cook, but at the same time, want a fast meal that gets you out of the kitchen and on to another adventure. From entering the kitchen to fist bite, this is easily a 30 minute or less meal - much less if the quinoa is already cooked or canned or frozen corn is used.

And can I just ask who the hell am I that I got excited to eat a salad?!?

Avocado Summer Salad

Serves 2-3 meal sized portions

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked quinoa

1/2 T sugar

Lemon juice

3 ears of corn, husked

2 tomatoes, washed and diced

1 handful cherry tomatoes, washed

1 head of butter lettuce, washed and torn into pieces

2 avocados

Directions

Prepare 1 cup quinoa according to package directions.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water with sugar and a splash of lemon juice (mom's special recipe) with to boil. Add the corn. Cook until corn is tender. When corn is cool enough to handle, cut kernels off.

In a large bowl, toss together lettuce, corn, quinoa, tomatoes. Immediately before serving, add diced avocados on top.

(Note: This was so good, I didn't even bother adding a dressing.)

I've never had butter lettuce before, let alone be a savvy enough lettuce consumer to truly appreciate the range of varieties available and their unique flavorings, but the butter lettuce was really, really good. The whole salad, in fact, was delicious! My 28-day plant strong (no animal product) diet ends this week. I see more salads like this in my future. This one had quinoa as a source of protein. I think when I make it again, I will cook the quinoa with chicken stock and add about 1/2 cup of cooked chicken to the recipe for the extra protein/calorie punch without sacrificing all the healthy nutrients this salad already has going for it.

Corner Bakery

While out shopping with a friend over the weekend, he asked where we were going to have lunch. I planned for everything else - what stores we were driving to and where the sales were, but I didn't really plan for lunch. I had an extra big breakfast and threw some larabars in my purse to tide me over if I started getting hungry. But there were were in the north suburbs in the shopping districts dotted with restaurants and I had to find some place to eat on the fly. I looked in the window of the first suggestion - a burger joint. We passed. Next up was Corner Bakery. The teenage cashier greeted us. I didn't even bother looking at the menu. I told her that I was gluten free and vegan - what would she recommend. I got the confused look from her and asked if she knew what gluten free meant. The light bulb clicked and she said that I couldn't have wheat. We're going on the right path now! I fleshed out the rest of the definition (no wheat, barely, rye or oats or anything that came in contact with those). And then she recommended the soup. I asked if she was sure that there was no gluten in there (some broths contain gluten) so she checked the allergen binder. Someone walking by pointed out that there was milk in there. Yikes! So we figuratively took a few steps back. There were pictures of salads and we figured out that I could have a salad without bread or sauce (soy sauce often contains wheat). The Asian Endamame Salad was a great choice. When ringing me up, she asked what size - apparently the larger portion was served over wontons. Delicious, but deadly (or at least, illness-inducing for me). I went with the side salad and heard her carefully repeat no bread, no sauce and the order was passed along the line with those instructions. When my food arrived, it was identified as with no bread, no sauce. This may seem like a little much, but this is now my typical dialogue with food service employees when dining out. I'm grateful for allergen charts and binders of nutritional information available so employees can quickly identify safe options for diners with food allergies. Corner Bakery, which has many locations in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, did a great job with their online material. Their allergen information is on the last few pages of their document. It is also dated from 2008. They are one of the first restaurants I've seen with check marks in a separate column for vegan items! Awesome!

The salad itself was loaded with vegetables - halved cherry tomatoes, julienned carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, endamame, green onions - and herbs like cilantro and basil all over a bed of lettuce. A very colorful and delicious dish that hit the spot!

Eggplant and tofu curry

As part of my twist on the 28 Day Healthy Eating Challenge, I'm trying hard to eat a rainbow of foods and broaden my horizons. I stocked up on tofu and was searching my favorite recipe site (Food Network) and discovered this recipe! Eggplant and tofu curry! It met my gluten and dairy free requirements without any substitutions (yay coconut milk!) so I was good to go. To meet the oil free requirements, I sprayed a little bit of Pam in my wok while cooking with no negative results. This was a really basic curry I served over a bed of quinoa. I liked the variety of veggies - eggplant (which I really only had before on a tofu kabob during Battle Tofu), onion, garlic, and loads of spinach. I always pass on adding jalapeño peppers. My stomach is very gringa - I'm not ready for spicy foods. I'm not totally sold on eggplant yet. I think my chunks were too big and probably not cooked long enough. I'll have to give eggplant another try with a different cooking style before officially moving it to the "meh" list.

The recipe is a super basic introduction into making curry. Now that I know the formula to follow, it will be easy to create loads of other curries in the future. And THAT'S what cooking is all about - learning the basics so you can create an endless variety of meals on the fly!

Chicago French Market

My friend Luis chose the location of our latest foodie adventure: Chicago French Market. The name made me a bit nervous - I was scared all we would see would be croissants and cream. But Luis knows better and my quick assumption couldn't be further from the truth! The market is a hidden gem in the heart of Chicago filled with over thirty local vendors and every type of food imaginable, whether you want to eat there or take fresh foods home to cook yourself! It is located off of Ogilvie train station, the Metra station I use whenever going home to visit my family, but I have never noticed it before.

We circled the market a few times before making our selections - he got a sandwich and I got lasagna. Delicious, dairy-free, gluten-free, raw, vegan lasagna from RAW. I have been craving

lasagna since I went dairy free two years ago (the cravings have obviously gotten stronger) so I was excited to see it offered. The woman who worked at RAW told me that everything was dairy free (yay vegans!) and almost everything was gluten-free (gluten-filled items include muffins, sandwiches, and pizza). She offered

me a glass of water while ringing me up and I thought of how

good some of those specialty, carbonated beverages other vendors offered looked, but made the responsible, healthy choice and went with water. The lasagna was really good and full of flavor from the zucchini, spinach, and loads of fresh herbs. I've been on a vegetable kick lately so was happy to have so many delicious vegetables in my take-out container. Luis and I sat at a table underneath the umbrella, chatted, and enjoyed our time in such an inspiring place surrounded by great food!

Here's why I really loved the Chicago French Market:

• Options!!! There is so much to eat (and loads of wheat-filled products if you are so inclined) and there is literally something for everyone! As I told Luis as he was trying to make up his mind: we can always go back and try food from another vendor. If we planned our evening better, we could have probably had food from half a dozen different places or so and created a whole array of foods!
• Accessibility!!! It is part of a major Metra station. (Current downside - there were some reroutes when arriving from the east due to construction.)
• Price!!! Maybe working in Chicago has corrupted my thinking ($12 + tax for dinner for one person), but there's not many places to find specialty items at every day city-level pricing. Some of the fresh produce was much cheaper than I would pay at Dominick's or Jewel.
• Knowledgeable foodies!!! Guided by suggestions from one vendor from Pastoral, I tried some hard goat's cheese and sheep's cheese (I believe I'm really just cow's milk intolerant. More on the cheese in a different entry.) There were some gluten free desserts (meringue cookies) and dairy-free sorbet.
• Inspiration!!! After spending almost two hours there, Luis and I really wanted to go and cook. Maybe next time we will plan our day better and I will have a clean kitchen ready to transport our fresh food finds into delicious meals.

I judge the success of eating out based on if I am excited to go into the kitchen to create my own equally amazing dishes. The market was a total success. I even took a copy of the pasta place's menu for more inspiration for my own pasta dishes! (With my versions being gluten and dairy free, of course.)