Rice Noodle Bowl – Thai Kitchen Spring Onion Rice Noodle Bowl

Diana and I have been enjoying many of Thai Kitchen's products for a while due to their convenience. They offer many products that really only require water and a microwave. In this review I'll cover their spring onion rice noodle bowl. They have a great website where you can buy all of their products online and read the most comprehensive allergy page I have ever come across.

The spring onion RNB ingredients are relatively lengthy which is why I've linked out here to the nutritional detail. Each bowl is two servings, I normally will eat an entire one which is about 240 calories with 20 of those coming from fat.

Directions: partially open the bowl by peeling back the top and remove the seasoning packets and the oil packet. Open all the packets and empty them into the bowl and either add water and microwave for 2 to 3 minutes or add boiling water. Let sit for 3 minutes and then enjoy. One thing to be mindful of is when you carry the bowl out of the microwave watch your balance it's easy to spill some hot liquid on your hands.

Ease of preparation: Super easy, can't get any easier. You are talking less than 5 minutes before you're eating - three of which are just watching the microwave.

Level of Realism: High, while there isn't really a comparative offering for non-celiacs (I'm thinking Ramen noodles) this is a tasty bowl of rice noodles. This is the perfect item to stock up on and keep a few in your office when you need some food fast.

Taste: Diana is always stealing forkfulls from my bowl.

Muffins – Namaste Foods Muffins

Diana and I found Namaste Foods products when we were visiting Callicoon, NY. The local grocery store Peck's had a small section of health goods and they had Namaste pizza crust and muffin mix.

The ingredients: sweet rice flour, brown rice flour, evaporated cane juice, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, rice milk powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, xanthan gum, and vanilla.

The packaging includes nutritional facts which are helpful in watching the calories, unfortunately they don’t provide the data on their website. Each muffin is about 140 calories of which 45 are from fat, not bad.

Directions: Heat an oven to 400F and lightly grease a muffin pan. Combine 2 eggs, ¼ cup oil, and 1 cup of water add in the muffin mix and blend. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the tops turn a golden brown. They suggest for added fun to try dried fruit, chocolate chips, etc.

Ease of preparation: It took my wife about 3 minutes to mix up the muffins and get them into the oven. She used a whisk and actually made 18 small ones, we were concerned about overloaded the muffin tray. She added a half cup of chocolate chips, since I’m a big chocolate fan.

Level of Realism: High, the entire family tried the muffins this morning at breakfast and everyone enjoyed them thoroughly. While they weren’t exactly like a muffin you’d get in the store they did have a great texture and the chocolate chips always make them more palatable.

Taste: Everyone thought they were great.

This may become our new standard muffin mix.

Brownies – Pamela’s Irresistible Chocolate Brownie Mix

Diana and I recently attended the 10th anniversary of the Celiac Research Center at University of Maryland. It was a great evening to see how far Celiac awareness and research has come. There was a silent auction and we won a few baskets of different Celiac mixes. Now we just need to cook them all and pass the reviews onto you.

Pamela’s Brownie mix is made up of Molasses and Honey; Brown Rice Flour; Natural Process Cocoa Powder; White Rice Flour; Organic Chocolate Chunks (Organic Natural Evaporated Cane Sugar, Organic Cocoa Paste, Organic Cocoa Butter, Non-GMO Soy Lecithin/ emulsifier, Organic Vanilla. Chunks may contain traces of milk protein due to manufacturing equipment.); Tapioca Starch; Sweet Rice Flour; Potato Starch; Natural Flavor (contains corn derivative); Sea Salt; Xanthan Gum; Baking Soda. To make the brownies with oil you’ll need a bag of mix, 1 large egg, ½ cup oil, and ¼ cup water. We took their advice and added a ½ cup of walnuts and ½ cup of chocolate chips (to make it extra rich). Direct from Pamela’s site.

The packaging includes nutritional facts which are helpful in watching the calories; I’ve included the information for your convenience. Click here to see them.

The mix versatile because it allows you to make chocolate cake, chocolate cookies, mocha brownies, ultra rich brownies, oil-free brownies, and egg-free brownies.

Enough with the details let’s get into the preparation and whether they actually taste good.

Directions: Put all ingredients into a bowl. With a spoon, mix enough to incorporate. For the fudgiest brownies, do not over mix. Pour into a greased 8" square pan. Bake at 350° for 18 to 20 minutes. Do not overbake. A toothpick inserted into the brownies should come out with crumbs. Direct from Pamela’s packing

Ease of preparation: It took my wife about 8 minutes to mix up the brownies and get them into the oven. She raved about the ease of preparation.

Level of Realism: Extremely high – my wife who is not Celiac said they matched normal brownies. Everyone in the family tried them and they all loved them. This is one of those perfect substitute products that doesn’t punish the non-Celiacs in the household.

Taste: We both felt they tasted great, rich chocolate and a nice mouth feel. Not a typical grainy rice flour feeling.

We’ll be buying them again.

Where have we been?

Yes, I'm disappointed that we've been lacking in reviews.

We've had a lot on our plate.

We moved from Baltimore to New York and Rob has a new job at AOL.

On with the reviews.