For the past week now, my wife and I have been experimenting with the gluten-free experience (no wheat); on top of the fact I’m already a vegan and she’s already a vegetarian, as has been the case for years now.
In theory, it was a very inconvenient time to much such a change in our diet, since we were on our first family road trip as a family of 4, to Atlanta from Nashville, in a 2016 Toyota Highlander to test out the 3rd row seat in particular.
However, we are not victims- we instead choose to be victors every day in life, so we held true to our current gluten-free principals the entire time; never once wavering in the face of inconvenience.
In our years of road tripping as a vegan/vegetarian family (our kids are vegetarians too), we have learned the importance of basing our destination and related activities in proximity to the nearest Whole Foods Market or any similar “plant-based friendly” grocery store.
It turns out that Atlanta has 3 or 4 Whole Foods Market. But because we were staying in downtown Atlanta, the nearest one to us was the Ponce de Leon location.
With only one exception, our family ate every meal there.
(I should note our kids are not participating in the gluten-free project; especially as our daughter is only 2 months-old. Again, both of our children are vegetarians, but not currently gluten-free as well.)
My wife and I found that sushi was a good staple for us, as it contained brown rice, seaweed, cucumbers, and avocado (which contains protein, good fat, and zero percentage of our daily cholesterol which is the case with all vegan food).
Here’s what we can eat: vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, beans, and wheat-free grains; like rice, oats, and corn).
Obviously, we ate from the hot bar a few times.
Plus, we enjoyed a couple simple meals consisting of a Core Meal bar and a Synergy Organic Kombucha drink with chia seeds.
We were very grateful for the Ponce de Leon Whole Foods, as they were just a few blocks away from our hotel in downtown Atlanta (where some of the stars of Fast and Furious 8 are staying- I know this because I accidently met one of the stars of the cast in the elevator on the way to the gym- I think it was Branislov R. Tatalovic).
So speaking of the exception, we finally got a chance to go to the much acclaimed Sunflower Café; which is gluten-free friendly and vegan friendly.
Our family loved this place so much, we ended up buying the restaurant’s cookbook, in an effort for my wife to broaden her skills from a vegan chef to a gluten-free vegan chef.
I know Atlanta is full of plenty of other gluten-free vegan restaurants, but we never made it past the Ponce de Leon location, as well as Sunflower Café.
That’s how good both places were.
Thanks for reading my blog post today on our family’s recent gluten-free road trip to Atlanta. I hope you found this helpful in making decisions for your own family.
