Went – Ate – Loved: February 2019

Went

February means half term now the kiddos have started school. We managed to book some Avios redemption flights to Lanzarote when they were first released last year and we’ve been looking forward to a sunshine break ever since.

If you play the British Airways air miles redemption game, you’ll know getting 4 x Club Europe seats on air miles at half term to Lanzarote is no mean feat….So it’s no surprise we snagged these at midnight on the day they were released, after we’d been to see Carmen at the Royal Opera House (I would not be up otherwise at midnight!).

Ate

Aaaaaaall the gluten free food in Lanzarote. I’ve had great experiences of eating safely gluten free in mainland Spain and I was pleased to see it was equally easy in Lanzarote.

From the first meal at the hotel, where the waiter confirmed he’d notify the kitchen to put the order through as a coeliac (no questions on whether it was a lifestyle choice or just how allergic are you?), I knew I’d be eating well. It was interesting that in the restaurants in our hotel. One part of their management of allergens included wait staff selecting ‘coeliac’ when taking orders using the electronic order devices which then automatically routed through with the order to the kitchen.

This four cheese pizza wasn’t the best gluten free pizza I’ve ever eaten and you can clearly see it’s a pre-prepared base. However, it was prepared in a safe manner (the base was made-off site and arrived packaged) and this pizza even arrived at the table under a silver dome to further prevent cross contamination.

At the hotel’s teppanyaki grill restaurant, they had plenty of bottles of gluten free soy sauce. As I’d discussed with them in advance if they could safely cater for me there gluten free, they had it ready and we were the first customers to eat so the teppanyaki grill plate was sparkling clean.

Other great gluten free meals I’ve enjoyed in February have been this from Ebby’s Kitchen who are located near my office (love her food!):

This Rice bowl from D/F Mexico – who are from the same group as Wahaca’s founders. Annoyingly the nachos/corn chips are not safe for coeliacs here but the food is tasty nonetheless.

Super light and fresh at Pho:

The latest special at Honest Burgers in collaboration with Cheese Truck. Because DEEP. FRIED. (GF) BREAD-CRUMBED. MOZZARELLA.

Loved

Our trip to Lanzarote was not our usual holiday at all. Even before we had kids we didn’t go to resort style hotels (notable exceptions being our trips to Hawaii and Fiji!) and this means we’ve also actively avoided hotels with kids clubs.

So I think it was a real surprise just how much we all enjoyed this trip. I got to spend 2 hours ALONE in the spa and just for that, it was worth every moment.

I can see the attraction of this kind of holiday (over our usual holiday choice of villa with own pool and/or road-tripping) and I’d like to do this type of holiday again. However, I think 5 days in the February half term is probably perfectly long enough for me to soak up some winter sunshine, zen out in the spa and recharge the batteries a little.

Next month I really need to…..

• Start some sort of regular exercise – any recommendations for good online fitness apps/plans?
• Publish blog posts on a wonderful 100% gluten free London resto and coeliac safe fish and chips by the sea
• Book accommodation for our Easter trip to Puglia – have you been? Anywhere we should not miss? Any great gluten free recommendations for that region of Italy? Please do comment below if so…