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Rob

Crackers: Asian Gourmet Seaweed Rice Crackers

I've been consuming rice crackers for years and used to enjoy just one brand. Now there are dozens of gluten-free rice crackers available. I couldn't find a website for Asian Gourmet Seaweed Rice Crackers and they are imported from China. With all of the food related concerns coming out of Chinese imports I'm concerned, but I ate them without a problem.

The packaging clearly states Gluten Free as well as oven baked, low fat, and cholesterol free.

The crackers are light and crunchy, a little bit of salt with seaweed flakes sprinkled on. This is a departure from other rice crackers where the seaweed is actually baked into the cracker. My guess is this is an attempt to create economies of scale for manufacturing. Just change the coating versus the cracker manufacturing ingredients.

Not bad for celiac safe cheese and crackers.

Ingredients:
high grade rice, palm oil, seaweed powder, malto dextrin, salt
May contain traces of dairy, soy, sesame, nuts.

Trail Mix: Munchy Seeds Vanilla Pumpkin

So Rob's been doing some traveling lately and bringing me back a wide variety of celiac-safe treats. Though I can't guarantee if anyone will be able to locate these products- here's a review of them anyway.

First off he found Vanilla Pumpkins Munchy Seeds. These are a small pack (40g) of dry roasted pumpkin seeds coated with vanilla flavoured sugar. Not exactly the combination I would choose- but hey everything is a worth a try- especially if it's gluten free.

Essentially these sweet tasting seeds remind me of those candy almonds one is rewarded with after attending a wedding celebration. However you may or may not know what I'm referring to if you are like Rob and are afraid to eat them. He's never sure if they contain gluten or not. In any case the Vanilla Pumpkin seeds are sweet and laden with vanilla and have a sort of a crunch that waffles a bit on the stale/not stale side.

Yes they are gluten free but definitely peculiar. On the front of the package are bright images intended I believe- to conjure up vanilla dreams laden in muffins and strawberries and cream.
Hmm- but they do smell good.

Ingredients:
Pumpkin seeds, sugar, nature-identical vanilla flavour 2% (vanilla, maltodextrin, gum arabic).

Allergy Information:
MAY CONTAIN: Sesame seeds & nuts

"Although our seeds are roasted in a nut free environment they are packaged on equipment that also handles nuts. Packed in a protective atmosphere".

Nutritional Information:
Typical Values per 40g
Energy: 198Kcal/8245k
Protein: 12.1g
Carbohydrate: 10.2 g
of which: Sugars: 8.5g
Fat: 10.4g
of which: Saturates: 1.8g
Mono-unsaturates: 4.4g
Omega9: 4.2g
Polyunsaturates: 3.7g
Omega6: 3.7g
Cholesterol: 0 g
Fibre: 2.8g
Sodium: Trace
Iron: 3.1mg
Zinc: 3.1mg
Vitamin E: 0.9mg
Salt: 0.04 g

Bread: Lifestyle Healthcare Gluten-Free Bread Roll

On Friday I was able to try the Lifestyle Healthcare Gluten-Free bread roll on my British Airways return flight to the USA. Since a previous flight with a gluten-free meal where I was given a muffin made out of flour I always double check the ingredients.

This product's ingredients includes:
gluten-free wheat starch (contains less than 0.3g per 100g), maize starch, whey powder, sugar, palm oil, yeast, sugar beet, raisin juice, salt, thickener: guar gum, soya flour, emulsifier: soya lecithin, presevative: calcium propionate.

My celiac radar was on high alert considering the first ingredient, but I kept coming back to the manufacturer's name and their tag line of "The Gluten-Free Bakers." I decided in the interest of science I'd sacrifice myself and try this out.

The bread roll looked like someone took a normal loaf of bread and shrank it to a tenth of the normal size.

It tasted ok, a bit dry, but edible especially considering this was a meal on an airplane. The product is dense, adding butter helped.

Of course I'm a bit concerned about the wheat starch, but Celiac.com has an article about it. I had no adverse symptoms.

If you're flying on British Airways this is a nice addition to their gluten-free meal, but it won't become a daily staple of my diet.

Back from Europe

I was in Europe this past week (UK, Germany, and France) and I had a chance to pick up some gluten-free products. You'll see reviews in the coming days.

Enjoy

Switching Hosts

If you visited us yesterday you probably noticed a really dysfunctional website. Apologies in advance I switched hosting over to Google's custom domains. This will make it easier to provide some new features on the site.

Thanks

Rob

Noodle Meal: A Taste of Thai Red Curry Noodles

I found myself looking for something different for lunch today. As I rummaged through the cabinets I found quick meal ready to eat from A Taste of Thai. The packaging mentions 4 minutes for a ready to eat meal. It also prominently displays that it's gluten-free, no MSG, no trans fat, and no preservatives.

A perfect celiac meal.

Wow, this is simple. All you have to do is add water to a pre-marked level in the box and dump the separate packets into the water. You close it up and microwave for 3 minutes on high, then stir, close it back up, and microwave for another minute on high.

Once I removed it from the microwave I poured it into a bowl. Yes in theory you could eat right out of the carton (similar to a Chinese takeout carton), but I like to pretend I'm civilized.

After letting the noodles cool, I proceeded to eat both servings. They tasted great, sauce was creamy with strong coconut and red curry flavor. If you eat a cartoon alone you're in for 560 calories with 120 of them coming from fat.

A Taste of Thai Red Curry noodles is a great gluten-free product and something that celiacs should keep stocked in their pantry and/or their office.

Rob


Ingredients:
Sauce: Red curry paste (red chili, garlic, soybean oil, onion, salt, lemongrass,galangal, shallot, kaffir lime peel, cumin powder, coriander powder, dried shrimp), water, fish sauce(anchovies, salt, water), maltodextrin, soybean oil,palm sugar, sugar, kaffir lime peel,white pepper powder,xanthan gum,alpha-tocopherol (an antioxidant). Coconut Milk Powder: Coconut,maltodextrin, mono and diglyceride(an emulsifier), dipotassium phosphate(a stabilizer), silicon dioxide (toprevent caking). Herb Sachet: Sweet basil. Rice Noodles: Rice flour, water,modified tapioca starch. Allergens: Contains soybeans, fish,coconut, shellfish