Uno's Chicago Grill and Where Have I Been?!?

OK, starting out, I promised that I would give my review of Uno's Chicago Grill. As I mentioned before, they have gluten free options a-plenty! The really nice thing is that not only can you find these options on their website, but they also have a nutritional info kiosk in their lobbies as well as having printed gluten free menus. The only disappointment I found with all of these resources is that they did not match each other. The printed menu did not match the kiosk, and the kiosk dis not match the website info. Needless to say, I was worried about weather my meal was truly GF or not.

I ordered the Mahi Mahi with the Mango Salsa along with steamed broccoli and mango nut rice. I have to say that everything was so good! I did suffer a little disappointment when I saw my husband's Chicago-style pizza, but he said he didn't like it a whole lot, so it made me feel better! LOL :) Maybe he just said it to be nice to me, but the look on his face sure didn't lie. They forgot the sauce on his pizza (how does anyone forget the sauce on a Chicago-style pizza??), and even when he did get the sauce, he just didn't like the flavors. Maybe the cook was just off that day. Anyhow, my fish was cooked perfectly, and the rice and veggies were delicious. The meal was light enough that I decided to try one of their GF dessert options. I went for the Strawberry Shake. After eating, I was feeling pretty good, so I was fairly certain that my food was GF, but once I drank the shake, I felt horrible! First of all, it tasted like fake strawberry. It tasted like the nasty strawberry flavoring from some candy that I would have loved when I was 8, but not now. I was not happy with it at all. I stood up and just felt sick to my stomach. I don't know what was in that thing, but it was not good.

I guess my conclusion with Uno's is that the food is pretty good, and expensive. But, I can make it all at home for much less cost and with a whole lot more flavor. And my strawberry shakes will have real strawberries in them, and I won't feel sick afterwards.

Results: Eat at Uno's at your own risk.

Nextly, you are probably wondering where I have been. Aside from at Uno's. Or maybe you haven't wondered. Either way, I'll tell you :) As most of you know, Celiac Disease can cause infertility in certain individuals. Apparently I am one of those individuals. Mark and I have been married for 3 1/2 years, and we wold just love to have little mini-me's running around. Unfortunately, my body cannot support a child right now, so we have decided to try alternate avenues. So I would like to announce that we are adopting (yessss!), and that is what we have been up to. We have been working on this since May, but just recently got super busy with it all. Neither of us have had much time to make a creative meal at home, let alone throw something from a can onto the stove. Most of our meals have come from a cereal box or from our neighborhood Chipotle. So I hope that none of you are offended that I have not been around to visit your blogs lately, and that my blog has been void of anything new. I hope to have some more time to blog soon, but we will see how everything goes :)

Oh, and if you happen to know anyone who is looking for an awesome couple to adopt their child to, please think of us!!! :)

Uno's Gluten Free Options

As I was perusing the different articles on Health.com, I found an article entitled "America’s Healthiest Restaurants: Our List of the Best Casual Dining Spots". This website is a great resource for those who like to keep up on nutritional info, so I enjoy checking it out every so often.

Anyhow, I was reading the list of healthiest restaurants, and found this little blurb on Uno's Chicago Grill: "Another reason Uno’s is at the top of our list: You know what you’re eating. In the lobbies of most of the restaurant’s locations, there are Nutrition Information Centers that detail ingredients, fat and sodium contents, and calories and fiber of every item, in addition to gluten-free options."

How awesome is that!! I love that some restaurants are making this information more readily available, and a big high five to Uno's for providing Nutrition Centers in their lobbies for everyone to look through! Mark and I have decided to go scope our local Uno's out this weekend, so stay tuned for the review :) Yesssss!

Foodbuzz Publisher Community Launches

LAUNCH OF GLOBAL FOODBUZZ BLOGGER COMMUNITY LEVERAGES REAL-PEOPLE, REAL-TIME POWER OF FOOD PUBLISHING

San Francisco – October 13, 2008: Foodbuzz, Inc., officially inaugurates its food blogger community with more than 1,000 blog partners, a global food blogging event and an online platform that captures the real-people, real-time power of food publishing in every corner of the world. At launch, the Foodbuzz community ranks as one of the top-10 Internet destinations for food and dining (Quantcast), with bloggers based in 45 countries and 863 cities serving up daily food content.

“Food bloggers are at the forefront of reality publishing and the dramatic growth of new media has redefined how food enthusiasts access tasty content,” said Doug Collister, Executive Vice President of Foodbuzz, Inc. “Food bloggers are the new breed of local food experts and at any minute of the day, Foodbuzz is there to help capture the immediacy of their hands-on experiences, be it a memorable restaurant meal, a trip to the farmers market, or a special home-cooked meal.”

Foodbuzz is the only online community with content created exclusively by food bloggers and rated by foodies. The site offers more than 20,000 pieces of new food and dining content weekly, including recipes, photos, blog posts, videos and restaurant reviews. Members decide the “tastiness” of each piece of content by voting and “buzz” the most popular posts to the top of the daily menu of submissions. Foodbuzz currently logs over 13 million monthly page views and over three million monthly unique visitors.

“Our goal is to be the number-one online source of quality food and dining content by promoting the talent, enthusiasm and knowledge of food bloggers around the globe,” said Ben Dehan, founder and CEO of Foodbuzz, Inc.

The Foodbuzz blogger community is growing at a rate of 40 percent per month driven by strong growth in existing partner blogs and the addition of over 100 new blogs per month. “The Foodbuzz.com Web site is like the stock of a great soup. The Web site provides the base or backbone for bloggers to interact as a community, contribute content, and have that content buzzed by their peers,” said Mr. Dehan.

Global Blogging Event

Demonstrating the talent and scope of the Foodbuzz community, 24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs offered online food enthusiasts an international, virtual street festival of food and diversity. The new feature showcased blog posts from 24 Foodbuzz partner bloggers chronicling events occurring around the globe during a 24 hour period and included:

· Mid-Autumn Festival Banquest (New York, NY)
· The "Found on Foodbuzz" 24-Item Tasting Menu (San Francisco, CA)
· Aussie BBQ Bonanza – Celebrating Diversity (Sydney, Australia)
· The Four Corners of Carolina BBQ Road Trip (Charleston, SC)
· Criminal Tastes – An Illegal Supper (Crested Butte, CO)
· From Matambre to Empanadas: An Argentine Dinner (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
· A Sweet Trompe l’oeil (Seattle, WA)

“24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs” captures the quality and unique local perspective of our food bloggers and shared it with the world,” said Ryan Stern, Director of the Foodbuzz Publisher Community. “It illustrates exactly what the future of food publishing is all about – real food, experienced by real people, shared real-time.”
About Foodbuzz, Inc.

Based in San Francisco, Foodbuzz, Inc., launched its beta Web site, foodbuzz.com, in 2007. In less than a year, Fooduzz.com and its community of over 1,000 exclusive partner food blogs have grown into an extended online property that reaches more than three million users.