Brownie Mix: Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Brownie Mix

Ahh the joys of Thanksgiving! This year Rob and I were especially grateful for good family and friends and the most unbelievable brownies that were perfect for all our celiac and non-celiac guests alike.

Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free brownie mix is labeled as "rich, chocolaty and easy to prepare with a deep and intense dark chocolate flavor". They couldn't be more right. The brownies cooked to perfection with not a lot of effort. I made ours with Ghirardelli white chocolate pieces and walnuts.

The brownies require a 350 degree oven, a 13 x 9" pan, 1 1/2 sticks of melted butter, 1 egg, a teaspoon of vanilla and 3/4 cup warm oven. The ingredients are combined using an electric mixer. Cooking time is 20- 25 minutes.

Bob's Gluten Free Brownie Mix contains the following:
Turbinado sugar, Ghirardelli Cocoa, Potato starch, white sorghum flour, tapioca flour, whole corn flour, sea salt, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch and monocalcium phosphate) and xanthan gum.

Level of realism: The rich fudge interior could easily compete with the best of gluten brownies any day. They were still unbelievably moist and fresh the next day. Unfortunately Rob made sure there were no more brownies in sight after that- though I do believe they would have stayed delicious.

Nutrition Facts:
Serving size: 1 brownie
Servings per container: 16
Calories as prepared: 180
Calories from fat: 70
Total fat: 7g
Sat. fat: 2.5 g
Polyunsaturated fat: 1.5 g
Monounsaturated fat: 3 g
Cholesterol: 15 mg
Sodium: 240 mg
Carbohydrates: 27 g
Dietary fiber: 2 g
Sugars: 17 g
Protein: 2 g

In summary Rob was incredibly thankful to be able to savour such a rich, delicious dessert that the non-celiacs appreciated as well!

Happy Holidays!

Sausage - Corn bread stuffing: Everybody Eats

One of the second joys of Thanksgiving for the celiac crowd came from Brooklyn's own, Everybody Eats. Everybody Eats has a tremendous menu of gluten-free products that are all prepared on site. Rob had called in a last minute order, and man were we thrilled to receive the bounty the day before Thanksgiving!

The sausage - corn bread stuffing was a true surprise for Rob who had never had the real deal. The stuffing came packaged in its own tray ready to be heated. We popped it in the oven for 30 minutes? and voila it was ready.

Everybody Eats cornbread stuffing was an absolute delight. It was perfectly seasoned, had a great texture and I actually preferred it to regular bread stuffing. The stuffing was also surprising light.

Thank you Everybody Eats! Rob finally felt a part of the Thanksgiving extravaganza, and all our guests commented on its savory flavor.

The best Celiac Thanksgiving ever, a gluten free fiesta

I'm about an hour away from heading over to my wife's relatives. All of them are candid and we'll get some great feedback on the celiac disease friendly products!

This should be one of the best Celiac Thanksgivings I've ever had because of:

1. Diana, my beautiful wife made gluten-free white chocolate walnut brownies this morning. It has 1 1/2 sticks of butter in them so they have to be good. (review will be forthcoming)

2. Bruce at Everybody Eats hooked me up with some of their amazing products. It was a bit of a fiasco because they were slammed with orders, but Bruce gave me a call and said they were sending out whatever they could from my order list. Today I'll be enjoying their cornbread stuffing and a few ficelle dinner rolls. (reviews will be forthcoming) I'll be enjoying some of their pumpkin ravioli later this weekend. If you haven't tried their products, check out some of the reviews on this site. One word, Amazing.

Happy Thanksgiving

Rob and Diana

Macaroni and Cheese: Glutino 3 Cheese Macaroni & Cheese

Again I find myself purusing the isles of Wegmans, every week I see another new Glutino product available.

I'm a big fan of macaroni and cheese and when I saw Glutino and remembered the fond memmories of their pretzels I had to buy.

The product comes in frozen with one serving per box. Preperation is easy, microwave for 4 minutes, stir, and microwave another minute then serve.

The experience:
After the first microwave go-around, as I stirred the macaroni and cheese I noticed it was very oily and the cheese seemed chunky.

After a few minutes to cool down I was able to take my first bite. The macaroni seemed a bit tough and wasn't smooth. The cheese tasted ok, but wasn't too impressive. Amy's seems a much tastier choice.

Nutrition:
430 calories / 180 from fat / 0.5 g of trans fat (not good)
The rice pasta is made from brown rice which makes it a bit healthier. The cheeses are monterey jack, cheddar, and parmesan.

Cookies: Glutano Custard Cream Biscuits

Eh Voila! Here is a review of Glutano brand Custard Cream Biscuits. These are gluten-free sandwich cookies with vanilla cream filling.

The cookies contain: Vanilla cream (unhardened vegetable oil, sugar, sweet whey powder, whole milk powder, lactose, emulsifier (soya lecithin), natural flavour, maize starch, sugar, maize flour, unhardened vegetable oil (palm oil), lupin flour, fructose, sea salt, thickener guar gum, raising agent (ammonium hydrogen carbonate).

Nutrition Facts:
Serving size: 2 biscuits
Calories: 180
Fat Cal: 80
Total fat: 9 g
Sat. fat: 4g
Cholest.: 5 mg
Sodium: 110 mg
Total carb: 23 g
Fiber: 0 g
Sugars: 9 g
Protein: 1 g

My first thought on these custard creams is that they seem so European -(which of course they are). After tasting, they seem like a cookie intended to be eaten occasionally, and not in large quantity. They certainly could not be consumed like say, a handful of oreos with a glass of milk- though that's probably a good thing. Appearance-wise, the custard creams are much lighter than they appear on the face of the package. After sinking my teeth in, I was met with a rather unexpected rush of sugar.

I instantly thought cavities!

Seriously the custard cream is a thick slab of pure sucrose-flavored vanilla. Once into the cream, I realized I had a second cookie to get through to finish the biscuit. The cookie wafers themselves also seemed to be denser and heavier than necessary. Perhaps if the wafers were lighter in taste- or even half as sweet, the cream wouldn't seem so overwhelming. But then again, maybe it's me. I'll check to see what Rob thinks. He's the one who's craving the sweets!

Update: Rob tried them and they were too sweet for his taste, but then again we both try to eat healthy.

A week of frozen dinners

I'm in Dulles, VA for the week on work and I've stocked up on various frozen gluten-free meals.

Stay tuned.

Pretzels: Glutino Gluten-Free Pretzels

Second on the Thanksgiving feast of products Rob brought for us to test were
Glutino brand gluten-free pretzels.

All I can start with is WOW! I will never eat another gluten pretzel again!

Glutino sure makes a mean and tasty little pretzel that is packed with flavor and crunch. On my first bite, I right away noticed how light the pretzel is. The snacks contain the perfect amount of saltiness, and have a buttery, nutty note to them that is close to bliss. We pretty much devoured the 14 oz. bag in 2 days- (that's a short time for us who don't normally snack). As tasty as they are, I'll have to keep myself away from them as they do contain a fair amount of sodium (540 mg per 32 pretzels), and a few non-natural sounding ingredients I wouldn't normally eat.


Ingredients:
Corn starch, potato starch, palm oil, soy flour, sugar, sea salt, carboxymethylcellulose, sodium bicarbonate, sodium pyrophosphate, soy lecithin, yeast extract, sodium hydroxide.

Nutrition Facts:
Serving size: 32 pretzels
Servings per container: 10
Calories: 190
Calories from fat: 70
Total fat: 8g
Sat. fat: 3.5g
Trans fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 540 mg
Total Carb: 28g
Dietary fiber: 0g
Sugars: less than 1g
Protein: 1g

Level of Realism: Better than gluten pretzels!

Glutino gluten-free pretzels are a satisfying and tasty snack with huge crunch appeal. I highly recommend them- just be sure to re-hydrate with plenty of h20 to flush out the sodium!

Breakfast Bars: Glutino Gluten-Free Breakfast Bars Apple and Blueberry

Next on the Thanksgiving list of goods that Rob and I taste-tested were
Glutino brand Gluten-free Breakfast Bars in apple as well as blueberry.

So Rob happily rips open an apple breakfast far and hands me half. Hmmm I thought
as I took my first bites, I wondered how I might describe them.

As much as I loved the pretzels is pretty much how I loathed the breakfast bar. Now, I should make it perfectly clear that I don't normally like breakfast bars. They tend to be terribly dense, chock full of sugary sweetness, and end up sitting in your stomach like a can of lead paint. So I was not terribly surprised to find Glutino breakfast bars followed suit. There was nothing particularly repulsive about them, they were just too heavy and too sweet for me. Granted the bar might be the perfect energy pick-me up for a hike up Mt. Everest, but otherwise, I think I'll steer clear.

Rob on the other hand enjoyed both flavors and enjoyed them during his week in Dulles, Baltimore, and College Park.

Cookies: Glutano Chocolate Cream Filled Wafers

This weekend Rob brought a veritable feast of gluten-free products to try. He must be in a Thanksgiving-kind of mood.

First off on the list were Glutano Chocolate Cream Filled Wafers

The wafers physically resemble your typical stacked cookie. In between 3 layers of a crisp waffle wafer is a tasty chocolate filling. My first reaction was that there was a bit of an after-taste, though as Rob and I ate our way through the package, the chocolaty treats began to grow on my tastebuds. They are less sweet than the wheat version- which I think is a bonus. My mother and sister-in law were also part of the focus group and they agreed the cookies were light, well textured and just like the gluten version. I tend to be a big fan of Glutano products in general- so I wasn't really surprised by my reaction.

Ingredients and Info
A 4.4 oz. package contains 69% chocolate cream (unhardened vegetable fat (grape & palm), sugar, cocoa powder, 5% extremely defatted soy flour, soya lecithin, maize flour, potato starch, salt, thickener, raising agent, ascorbic acid.

Serving Size: 3 wafers
Servings per container: 4.6
Calories: 150
Calories from fat: 80

Total fat: 10g
Sat. fat: 6 g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 25 mg

Level of realism: high

Glutano Chocolate Cream Filled Wafers are delicious by themselves, or could be an attractive accompaniment to ice-cream. Few would even suspect they were gluten-free!

Back from vacation

Diana and I are finally caught up after visiting Italy.

We had a great time visiting Rome, Venice and Cinque Terre. I was nervous about my Celiac diet in Italy considering all of the pasta and the lack of any Italian between the two of us.

I located a great travel card that provides a translation. All I had to do was hand this over and I was set. They actually were more helpful then waitstaff in the US.

Regarding the reviews, I just picked up a half dozen products at Wegmans so more reviews are on their way.