Eating Rice for 2 Weeks

I just finished going on an elimination diet prescribed by my naturopath to see if any foods cause my hives. Through this process of only being able to eat rice and a few other things, I have such a great appreciation for others who have food intolerances and can't eat certain foods. Luckily, for me, the naturopath said that the elimination diet didn't seem to change my hives at all, so I can go back to eating a greater variety of foods. But I'd like to record some of the delicious allergen-free foods I discovered in the past two weeks, in case anyone else has to go through this diet process in the future.

First I'll mention the stores where I found a good assortment of allergen-free foods:

• Trader Joe's (They even have brown rice tortillas!)
• Fred Meyers! (They have a great natural foods section & various bulk foods)
• Top Foods (special natural foods section with bulk foods too)
• Safeway (They also have an aisle of natural foods)
• Fresh Vitamins in Totem Lake, Kirkland by Trader Joe's (Small store but they had a variety of different butters--like apple butter and teas, among other things.)
• Manna Mills in Mountlake Terrace on 66th Ave. (a little pricey, but good bulk foods section and variety of breads)
• Sno-Isle Co-op in downtown Everett (the best selection of gluten-free foods I've seen! I even found a power bar I could eat that was free of all allergens and a good recipe for rice crispy treats!)
• Central Market (Lots of variety in the Asian foods section as well and I found a breakfast cookie that was gluten free!)
• Costco! (I totally wasn't expecting to find many gluten-free foods but I found delicious Almond Crunch treats and apple chips there!)
• Star Fruit Market, just off of Highway 99 and 200th (great selection of rice noodles)
• Super Supplements (I noticed they have some nut treats and bars there.)

I also think PCC and Whole Foods would have lots of choices but I didn't make it to either of those stores because I live in Kenmore.

Here are some of the foods I found that were tasty:

• Bare Fruit Bake-Dried Apples & Pears (100% Organic) (from Costco & the Co-op)
• Puffins Honey Rice cereal (I couldn't find it at TJ's but surprisingly enough, I found it at Freddy's and Safeway.)
• Roasted Flax Seeds (Trader Joe's)
• Sesame Crunch candies(Manna Mills)
• Mrs. May's Almond Crunch (Costco)
• Trader Joe's brown rice tortillas (a little hard but once heated up, they're pretty good)
• Rice Dream-Vanilla (fake dairy-free and soy-free ice-cream) (I actually found this at QFC in their natural foods section and it's pretty good with cut up pears and honey on top.)
• Toasted apple slices (Trader Joe's)
• All natural almond butter from a nut-grinding machine (Fred Meyer)
• Apple butter (from Fresh Vitamins in Kirkland--made with organic apples, honey and cinnamon)
• Chai Tea Latte with Rice Milk (any Tully's or at the Purple Cow near Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle)
• Essn Sparkling Apple Juice (Safeway)
• Plain brown rice crackers without soy (Top Foods or Safeway)
• Brown Rice bread (I found it to be the cheapest at Trader Joe's. Kind of heavy bread but it really fills you up and it's great toasted with almond butter!)
• Brown Rice Cakes (Trader Joe's or Top Foods, also good with almond butter!)
• Bumble Bar Organic Energy bar (w/sesame seeds, brown rice syrup, flax seeds, cane juice, hazelnuts, vanilla, cinnamon & sea salt--gluten free and vegan) (Sno-Isle Co-op)
• Nana's No Gluten Ginger Cookie (made with rice flour, pear, apple & grape juice, rice starch, canola oil, tapioca flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda & powder, natural flavoring, xanthan gum and salt) (Central Market)

I didn't have a lot of luck eating out but I did on Day 13 (of a 14 day elimination diet) find a great Thai restaurant on Lake City Way with a meal choice I could actually eat! The restaurant is called Thai One On and the dish is called Garlic Chicken. It was only $6.95 for lunch and I requested the dish without soy, so I could actually eat it! It was delicious and there was enough to have later as leftovers! The dish has chicken cooked in garlic and black peppercorns with carrots and broccoli and comes with rice.

I was also able to eat a taco salad (without the taco) at Chipotle Restaurant, which came with shredded beef (or another meat of your choice), lettuce and black beans. It would have been much yummier with fresh salsa but part of my elimination diet was no tomatoes...I almost died, but it's over now, thank goodness! :)

Some homemade favorites of mine in the dessert category were:

• Homemade Garbanzo Bean Cupcakes (I got the recipe from a Cook's World cooking class in Seattle this spring and they are definitely a delicious alternative to regular cupcakes.)
• Rice Crispy balls (kind of like rice crispy treats but made with almond butter, organic puffed rice, honey, cinnamon and vanilla)

I will add any other foods I found during this 2 week venture into gluten-free and allergen-free land. I hope this information is helpful to future elimination dieters!