When I started #BecauseGluten a few years ago, I was new to celiac and gluten-free life, and I hated it.
It's been more than two years, and you know what?
I still fucking hate it.
It's pretty awful. I'd love to be able to tell you I've found a great gluten-free garlic bread or that I don't miss it, but I haven't and I do. I miss gluten so much I'd probably cut off a leg in trade, if it meant I could eat it again. Even my own leg.
Unfortunately, celiac disease doesn't work that way.
Since it doesn't, here's the least you need to know: This is the final #BecauseGluten. I'm moving on, and my quasi-regular column will cease to exist after today.
This doesn't mean I don't want to hear your gluten-free suggestions. Y'all have been invaluable to me along this nightmarish adventure, and I don't want you to stop. (I'm leaving CL, but you can still email me.)
I'll leave you with a tip to check out local writer and baker Erin Porter's book. I'm going to be honest — I'm not sure if I'm 100 percent on board with everything Porter says about health and fungal infections in her book, Eat Pray Get Well, but I have to say... the food is amazing.
And so are the no-bake chocolate chip cookie dough protein bites.
I've missed cookie dough. I can eat a tube in the time it takes me to open a gluten-free beer (I'm not kidding), and I haven't had any in years.
Until this month, when Porter sent me her book with a sample of the cookie dough bites.
The book has a lot to digest — and, again, I'm not sure how I feel about some of what she suggests — but it works for her, so I'm not going to say it's wrong, because if you struggle with food issues and you can find something that works for you, what kind of asshole would I be to knock it? So, bearing this in mind, you might want to buy it, and read it at your leisure. However, jump to the recipes right away. They're pretty great.
But the best thing about the book so far?
Her cookie dough bites.
Now, they aren't exactly weight-loss food, but they're tasty AF and available through mail order and, more importantly, at Tampa International Airport.
If you're stuck with gluten-free living — or, if for some fucked up reason, you've actually chosen it — you probably miss cookie dough.
Luckily, well, mostly thanks to Eat Pray Get Well, I've found it for you again.
You're welcome.
Want to know everything going on with Tampa Bay's food and drink scene? Sign up for our Bites newsletter.
