Melissa Jones

Same would be true for Vegas.

I spent a couple days in San Francisco last week and had a great time, as well as some great food. I couldn't find much written about gluten free food in San Francisco, though most of the nice restaurants have a chef on hand ans I think would do a good job of it. The only place I heard much about was Cafe Gratitude, a great little vegan raw place. I'm not a vegan or raw girl, but it is mostly gluten free (some question on the soy sauce, but I avoided that). It was a really great place, and other than not liking or eating sunflower seeds, the food was awesome. I've never had better guacamole (black dot for gatherers). I don't know what status Irish Moss would have (it's a seaweed that they use to thicken desserts) but the results were amazing...I tried a hazelnut chocolate pie that my husband had them bring me. Wow. It was really nice to be able to order drinks with almond milk and agave...that's a first for any restaurant experience for me.

As I researched other places to eat I was hoping to find an Ethiopian place that uses just teff in their injera bread. I couldn't find one that didn't have at least a little wheat in it. So I googled "dosa" and lo and behold there is a Southern Indian restaurant called Dosa in the Mission district. It's not just the namesake, it's their specialty, and their dosas are too awesome for words. San Francisco has a great climate for sourdough, and although I missed the Dosa filled with lamb that I can get in Sandy at Royal India, the food here was just amazing. I ate way too much, because every bite tasted so good. I tasted my friend's Uttapam, which was also good, a bit like a savory pancake. Now, dosas have lentils in them, a black dot for gatherers, but I couldn't resist as I don't get into a big city very often. I ordered one that had farmer's cheese and peas inside it (two diamond superfoods).

That wasn't the worst of my dietary sins, however...the gelato and ice cream in SF are equally amazing and they had some fun flavors I just couldn't pass up. I only had the kid's size, but whoah, no more for me!

Last night I paid penance by spending two hours making two lasagnas...rice noodle, soy cheese for the boys, and zucchini 'noodle' lasagna for me. They were good, and the leftovers will last a while for all of us. I dig the zucchini pretty well, this time I salted the slices and let them drain for a bit so that the lasagna wasn't so runny as the first attempt. I've also been eating more cranberry flax muffins for breakfast or snacks. They hit the spot and are diamond superfoods all the way. I love using vegetable glycerine to sweeten them, as it seems to make them turn out better.