Gluten Free Game Day

Game Day means something a little different around our house than it does for most folks.

Sure, we've been known to watch the Super Bowl. Who hasn't? And we might have an aunt who has an Alabama t-shirt she insists on wearing so she can scream "Roll Tide!" at the top of her lungs.

But game day in our house almost always means we're playing games -- roleplaying, board games, miniatures games -- maybe even a good old-fashioned computer or console game. A lot of couch cooperative games have been played here.

And when we were younger, that often meant grabbing pizza and more two liters of soda than I want to think about. At one particular game, when my husband was an undergrad at Southern Illinois University, we had a Thursday night ritual.

One of the local pizza places had a standard offer on Thursdays. If you called between 5 and 7 p.m., the time you called was the price of your large one topping pizza if you were willing to pick it up. I can't count how many times I stayed at work until 5:01 to make that call, then went directly to pick up our pizzas.

There were five of us in the game, so two large pizzas, one with pepperoni and one without for our fearless vegetarian game master. While I was at work, my then boyfriend now husband would run to Kroger to get lots of soda and pixie sticks.

The carb-fueled sugar high kept us going until midnight and still able to make it to class and work the next morning.

Now, the whole idea makes me a little nauseous.

But we do still have hours-long game sessions and while we usually include an actual meal during them because we are all employed adults at this point, we also still like our game day snacks.

So what to do to let our mouths enjoy the snacks and our scales not to rebel after every game day?

And, we had to address the other monster in the room.

I can't eat gluten.

My physician told me when I was in high school that I might have a gluten allergy. I had no idea what exactly that entailed but when he said it meant giving up subs and pizza, I said "No." Then I completely forgot about it until a few, no I won't say how many. years later.

In 2005, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I could barely walk through the grocery store without assistance and had little more than pins and needles for feeling in my right foot.

None of my medical treatments were doing anything to help.

Then my husband discovered that some anecdotal evidence suggested gluten might be a contributing factor to the disease. That's when I remembered what Dr. McCallon had said earlier. So we tried it.

It wasn't a scientific experiment or something others could necessarily replicate. But we eliminated gluten from out diet and a week later, for the first time in years, I felt it when I stepped on a rock with that right foot.

By last year, I was regularly walking several miles a day and my allergist was able to confirm that while I am not celiac, I am allergic to gluten.

So pizza and subs and the like are right out as game day snacks. Or are they?

One of our favorite game day snacks is still pizza, but it looks a little different these days.

We start with an Udi's gluten free pizza crust. Thin crust lovers will enjoy this. Chicago-style it isn't.

Then since my husband isn't fond of regular red pizza sauce, we changed it up. Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce, with a bit of dry ranch dressing mix added in is a great sauce.

We cover it in shredded chicken since we don't eat beef or pork and a mountain of cheddar cheese. It's not your traditional pizza, but it is delicious.

Subs are a little harder, thought Schar has some decent gluten free buns.

And lately, the other star of the show has been gluten free chicken tenders in the air fryer. We absolutely love our Ninja Foodi Grill and the air fryer is perfect for the lighter coating of gluten free chicken strips.

Chips and salsa are game day staples, as are apple slices for a lighter option.

And then we round the whole thing off with gluten free brownies. King Arthur's brand never fails to make the whole day spectacular.

So adult game days look at little different than they did back in Carbondale, but they are still a snack paradise, with just a little bit less of that sugar high.