Saturday Eats

I was going through my pictures and realized that I had somehow captured almost every single one of my Saturday eats, except my green smoothie, so thought I would share. I was out for most of the day on Saturday, though, and while I had packed a green smoothie (I invariably make more at breakfast than I want to have, so it becomes a later day meal or snack) and a snack of hummus and crackers, I found myself near a Whole Foods and starving. So here is my Saturday lunch:

I was curious if other gluten-free peeps eat from the Whole Foods salad bar.  I usually read all the ingredient labels (to avoid gluten, dairy, eggs and corn) and peer closely at everything for errant cheese bits or croutons.  Beyond that, I tell myself that cross-contamination is about the same as regular eating out.  So far this has worked out for me, but I tend to pick single-ingredient things for the most part, which tend to be clustered together away from the prepared salads with croutons and dressings and so forth.  As you can see, I picked plain red quinoa, black beans, edamame, diced red peppers and romaine lettuce, all from a section of the salad bar that had no gluten- or dairy-containing items.  The mango salsa and balsamic roasted tofu were also in that area. My lunch was delicious and hit the spot, and I saved my green smoothie for my afternoon snack.  Because I had packed ice cubes in the smoothie jar, it stayed nice and cool for several hours.

After several more errands, I came home and then husband and I went back out for dinner at Cafe Green – you already heard about the awesome gluten-free gnocchi:

I also had the vegan ceviche appetizer, which is delicious and super ingenious:

This is a mixture of hearts of palm, shiitake, tomatoes, and some other vegetables, dressed in lime juice, and has the same texture as ceviche. 

After dinner, I made some Faux After-Eights, which were quite delectable:

I will post the recipe this week to submit to the S.O.S. Kitchen Challenge. While the Faux After-Eights look a bit raggedy, they are terrific.

Before I say goodnight and face the week ahead, I was curious: If you have food intolerances, how closely do you watch for cross-contamination, and what are some cross-contamination pitfalls you wish you had known?