It is kinda weird. When I was a kid, I could never get enough candy, chocolate, and sugary foods. Now I know I must be getting older. I actually ate something today that was sweet enough to make me grab my bag of GF pretzels and chow down.
Today (yesterday if you believe the day ends at midnight and not when you fall asleep) I went over to Gluten Free Gloriously, another GF bakery that is near my home. This one is much closer, located in Stirling Township. They offer a wide variety of products including breads, cakes, pies, cookies, and other packaged goods that you can find in stores, but for cheaper prices at this establishment. They offer GF foods in varieties that may or may not contain dairy or soy, but their main task is simply to be gluten free and delicious. I talked to the owner, Kathie, in great lengths the first time I went there. She is a lovely woman and a talented baker. Unlike myself, she is only gluten intolerant and doesn't possess the Celiac gene. I don't know if I possess it either, but it easier if I just live completely gluten free. To go back now and try to incorporate some gluten back into my diet will be more frustrating.
The one thing she doesn't make at her bakery is regular sandwich bread. She has two types of wraps, Italian bread, even hot dog and hamburger rolls during grilling season, but no sandwich bread. She explained it to me quite simply, "Udi's makes a great bread. They have a wonderful recipe and it would cost me triple the cost of their bread to make my own."
Anyways...so I went up there today to pick up a couple of things. I had been there before and bought many things the first time around. The first time I shopped there, I bought a package of their cheddar wraps, some Italian bread, plain bagels (not theirs, but one they carry for sale...review coming soon), a chocolate dessert that I believe was called Chocolate Decadence, and a pepperoni pizza.
Their wraps are absolutely a staple item for me to keep on-hand. I used to make my wraps instead of sandwiches and when I could no longer have anything with wheat in it, I felt lost. Taco nights sucked even worse. If I have a choice between a soft taco shell and a hard one, I always went for the soft shells. Her wraps have made me so happy. They come in two varieties, plain and cheddar. I have only tried the cheddar so far. They are kept frozen and defrost quickly just in the open air. The one thing you need to get used to is folding them. They are square-shaped. You would think it wouldn't be an issue, but I seem to be unable to grasp how to fold them because they aren't circular.
I tried the Italian bread at her shop the first time I was there and I loved it, but I haven't even cut into the loaf I bought. I am saving it for tomorrow for my family's gathering. I hate when there is sauce that beckons to be sopped up in a piece of bread and I don't have any with me to eat. The little I tried from that sample tasted just like the gluten variety. Next time I buy some I will be making garlic bread with it.
The pizza was good and tasty, but I have grown fond of the crust that Schar makes as well as a new one I recently tried. I will do a pizza comparison this week for these two crusts as I have been craving pizza again. It is a thin crust pizza with a nice, pleasant tasting sauce. I prefer French bread and thicker crusts, so her pizza wasn't my style, but it is great in a pinch when you don't have the time to make one fresh,
The chocolate dessert I had, sadly, wasn't what I expected, but when I talked to her today, I found out why. It wasn't so much a cake but more of a smooth pudding like consistency and it had a strange taste that I couldn't identify. Found out it was coffee. I love coffee, so maybe in this recipe it just didn't work for me.
Today I picked up some more wraps to have on-hand and the young lady working the counter (wish I knew her name, she is very helpful and knowledgeable) recommended that I try one of their small Lemon Meringue pies. Yet another thing I really miss since the GF change...pie. So I took the pie home, placed it in the fridge, and had dinner. When I tasted it, my mind tried to find my inner child. The child inside of me that loves sweets and prefers coffee made Beastie Boys-style (listen to the song "Intergalactic" and you will know what I mean) was cowering in the corner, unable to handle the sweetness of this pie.
Don't get me wrong. It was delicious! The meringue was light and airy, the filling was just tart enough and the crust was firm, yet delicate, but it was very, very sweet. I got about three bites into it, put it back in the fridge to finish another time, and then went to the pantry and started noshing on some salty snacks to balance out my tastes buds. I will finish it as it tasted great, but it was just so sweet. Maybe it was because I wasn't really hungry, but I couldn't wait to taste it. I suspect it may be too sweet for my blood, but I know that there are plenty of people out there that will love it.
Overall, I love that this place exists! It is closer to my home and the prices are comparable to most other locations, and the added bonus that they also carry for sale other products for a little bit cheaper than stores sell them for. I highly recommend everyone that lives in the area go there.
Taco leftovers for me on Monday...and my second attempt to tell my inner child who is boss and convince him that the pie isn't THAT sweet!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
A bit confused
I mentioned yesterday my screw up where I ended up having some gluten in my homemade SpaghettiOs and having eaten some of it. The last time I had an accident like this was with some grated Parmesan cheese that I put on some GF lasagna. Found out that day that "anti-caking agent" listed as an ingredient without specific contents is code in the industry for "we use a flour mixture to prevent our cheese from sticking in the container and to act as a sneaky filler" and that caused me to suffer for two days in pain and to put a big hit into my family's water bill that month.
This time nothing bad. In terms of the quantity of gluten that I ingested by mistake this time, this was easily 5 times more than the time with the cheese, yet I am fine.
Not trying to jinx myself here, but I am a bit confused by this outcome. If it is going to happen, PLEASE let it kick in BEFORE Sunday. I want to spend a happy day with my family and friends. I don't want to spend it in agony in the bathroom all day.
So to all my friends out there that are reading my blog (I hope there is someone out there), please give blessings and send some energies to kick start the inevitable tomorrow. It will truly be appreciated.
This time nothing bad. In terms of the quantity of gluten that I ingested by mistake this time, this was easily 5 times more than the time with the cheese, yet I am fine.
Not trying to jinx myself here, but I am a bit confused by this outcome. If it is going to happen, PLEASE let it kick in BEFORE Sunday. I want to spend a happy day with my family and friends. I don't want to spend it in agony in the bathroom all day.
So to all my friends out there that are reading my blog (I hope there is someone out there), please give blessings and send some energies to kick start the inevitable tomorrow. It will truly be appreciated.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
I mentioned struggles once...
For lunch today, I decided to be cute and make something fresh for my wife and I for lunch. Lately, whenever she has just wanted something quick to eat, she would grab herself a can of SpaghettiOs and dig in. I miss eating them! I use to enjoy them both when I was younger and as an adult but since they all contain wheat for the pasta, they no longer can be my quick treat. I used to eat them right out of the can. I preferred Chef Boyardee to Franco-American (now owned by Campbells), but now I can't have any of them. There is one I ad seen that comes in a pouch for kids that is gluten-free, but for $3, I will pass on it. They didn't even have any discounted at the closing stores for me to try for the blog.
So anyways, I started to search online, looking for a homemade SpaghettiOs recipe. I found two that seemed to each look like they would be awesome, but they had their differences. One called for tomato sauce and the other tomato soup. Another difference was that one called for freshly shredded sharp cheddar yet the other just said to use Velveeta. Here are the two recipes with links to where they can be found. Please note that neither of these recipes is gluten free, but they can easily be tweaked to make them safe.
Recipe #1 from the blog "Oven Love"
6 cups canned tomato sauce
3-4 cups water
2-3 teaspoons garlic powder (depending on how garlicky you like it)
1 lb bag anelletti (ring shaped pasta- you could use any small pasta- alphabet or stars would be fun!)
1-1 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (fresh shredded is best!)
1/4-1/2 cup milk
2 tbs butter
salt, to taste
1. Combine tomato sauce, water and garlic powder in a large pot. Bring to a boil.
2. When the tomato mixture is boiling, add the pasta to the pot. Cook, stirring frequently (the pasta is tiny, so it's easy to stick to the bottom) for about 20 minutes, or until the pasta is soft.
3. Stir in cheese until melted. Add milk, butter and salt to taste. Taste it, check it out, see how you like the flavors. Then enjoy it!
Recipe #2 from a forum on www.recipesecrets.net
Homemade SpaghettiOs
3 cans tomato soup
1 can water
1 can milk
1 lb. small pasta rings, alphabets, or stars
6 oz. shredded velveeta cheese
salt
Cook and drain pasta according to package. Mix all ingredients together, heat through until cheese is melted.
Serves 6
I didn't have a lot of time to make #1 and I accidentally bought the soup for #2 when I had intended on making #1, so I blended the two recipes together and used gluten free pasta. Here is what mine looked like:
3 cans tomato soup
1 can water
1 can 1% milk
1 lb Schar's GF Anellini
6 oz. shredded Mexican Cheese mix (it contained cheddar, all I had on-hand)
about 1-2 tsp. of Garlic Powder
about 1-2 tsp. of Paprika (ingredients on SpaghettiOs have paprika in them)
For cooking this, I followed the #2 recipe's directions.
My modified version of these two recipes did not produce homemade SpaghettiOs. I had my wife taste it as she had just had a can of Spaghetti-O's about two days ago, so she was the best person to give me an honest answer. She told me it tasted nothing like them....but it tasted exactly like Chef Boyardee. I will still call this a success, even if the way I made it came out to taste like the competition.
Concerning the aforementioned struggles, I made one fatal flaw in making this recipe today. Neither one of these recipes was GF to start, but I figured that replacing the pasta would have changed it into something I could have eaten. Boy was I wrong and I will be feeling it later. If only I had just followed Recipe #1 a bit more and used tomato sauce, I wouldn't have ingested a good amount of gluten. I really hate that so many canned soups companies use wheat flour to thicken their soups.
Yet another lesson in learning to read the labels and to not assume that it is GF until you verify it.
So anyways, I started to search online, looking for a homemade SpaghettiOs recipe. I found two that seemed to each look like they would be awesome, but they had their differences. One called for tomato sauce and the other tomato soup. Another difference was that one called for freshly shredded sharp cheddar yet the other just said to use Velveeta. Here are the two recipes with links to where they can be found. Please note that neither of these recipes is gluten free, but they can easily be tweaked to make them safe.
Recipe #1 from the blog "Oven Love"
6 cups canned tomato sauce
3-4 cups water
2-3 teaspoons garlic powder (depending on how garlicky you like it)
1 lb bag anelletti (ring shaped pasta- you could use any small pasta- alphabet or stars would be fun!)
1-1 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (fresh shredded is best!)
1/4-1/2 cup milk
2 tbs butter
salt, to taste
1. Combine tomato sauce, water and garlic powder in a large pot. Bring to a boil.
2. When the tomato mixture is boiling, add the pasta to the pot. Cook, stirring frequently (the pasta is tiny, so it's easy to stick to the bottom) for about 20 minutes, or until the pasta is soft.
3. Stir in cheese until melted. Add milk, butter and salt to taste. Taste it, check it out, see how you like the flavors. Then enjoy it!
Recipe #2 from a forum on www.recipesecrets.net
Homemade SpaghettiOs
3 cans tomato soup
1 can water
1 can milk
1 lb. small pasta rings, alphabets, or stars
6 oz. shredded velveeta cheese
salt
Cook and drain pasta according to package. Mix all ingredients together, heat through until cheese is melted.
Serves 6
I didn't have a lot of time to make #1 and I accidentally bought the soup for #2 when I had intended on making #1, so I blended the two recipes together and used gluten free pasta. Here is what mine looked like:
3 cans tomato soup
1 can water
1 can 1% milk
1 lb Schar's GF Anellini
6 oz. shredded Mexican Cheese mix (it contained cheddar, all I had on-hand)
about 1-2 tsp. of Garlic Powder
about 1-2 tsp. of Paprika (ingredients on SpaghettiOs have paprika in them)
For cooking this, I followed the #2 recipe's directions.
My modified version of these two recipes did not produce homemade SpaghettiOs. I had my wife taste it as she had just had a can of Spaghetti-O's about two days ago, so she was the best person to give me an honest answer. She told me it tasted nothing like them....but it tasted exactly like Chef Boyardee. I will still call this a success, even if the way I made it came out to taste like the competition.
Concerning the aforementioned struggles, I made one fatal flaw in making this recipe today. Neither one of these recipes was GF to start, but I figured that replacing the pasta would have changed it into something I could have eaten. Boy was I wrong and I will be feeling it later. If only I had just followed Recipe #1 a bit more and used tomato sauce, I wouldn't have ingested a good amount of gluten. I really hate that so many canned soups companies use wheat flour to thicken their soups.
Yet another lesson in learning to read the labels and to not assume that it is GF until you verify it.
Monday, April 18, 2011
So much to talk about
I didn't expect it to be so long between posts and I have so much to talk about.
First, in case anyone else starts to follow my blog besides my devoted wife, the lists at the bottom are tiny because I am only listing things after I post my take on them. I have been to lots of different restaurants and tried so many different GF foods that the lists should be pretty large, but I don't want to just list things without having critiqued them first and posting my findings here.
So last week was very active for me. My body is balancing out more and more everyday. Still get an upset stomach from time to time, but nothing like it used to be. My bigger problem is trying to find a healthy balance so that I can start to lose some weight as well. My gut screams second trimester and it is starting to get on my nerves. Even old friends of mine are surprised by it as I used to be the skinny kid. I know that exercise will help but you need both to be truly successful. Whenever I get more followers, I hope that some of you have tips to help me out.
Friday I went to Olive Garden to eat with my wife and a couple of friends. They have been dying to go there but have never pushed for it since GF and Italian usually don't mix, but we found out that night that they had a GF menu. We get there and I see that the menu doesn't have a lot of options. In fact, the word option doesn't even apply in my opinion. You can look at the menu HERE and see for yourself what I am talking about. They offer two salads without croutons, five main entrées, and even a kid's entrée. There are no dessert options save for coffee items. There are also no appetizers, though some of their soup offerings are safe.
What really bothers me is that there is only one dish with pasta offered. When you think Italian, I, like most people, think about pasta. The dish they have that contains pasta is GF, but you can't modify it. They don't make it on the premises. It comes packaged frozen with the sauce already on it. They just boil it in the bag and serve it. There is no option to have the GF Penne pasta that is listed in the dish served with another type of sauce. The other meal offerings are just meat and vegetables, something that can be easily found anywhere.
I was as disappointed by what they had to offer. In the early days, I got very depressed and upset when I found out that I couldn't eat certain things. The menu at Olive Garden brought up all those feelings again. For some of you, their menu may be just fine, but I doubt highly that I will be returning anytime soon. I may even send their corporate offices a message saying how dissatisfied I was with what they had to offer. I little effort goes a long way.
Now later that night I got to try out Schar's Chocolate Hazelnut Bars. These are something I wouldn't have normally bought due to their regular prices (3 bars for about $5), but once again the closing of some supermarkets nearby opened the door for some amazing deals. Here is my review of them:
Prep Time - It's a wrapper. Cut it, tear it, rend it asunder with your teeth. Shouldn't take you too long to get to it.
Look - It looks like any other chocolate covered wafer bar you may have seen before.
Texture - It is not as dense as most GF products. It is actually very light and airy. The chocolate is the real deal and the rice wafer layers are crisp. Very pleasant to eat and chew.
Taste - It tastes great! The chocolate isn't overpowering, the hazelnut is balanced perfectly and the wafers have a nice simple flavor to them. Very impressive. If they weren't so damned expensive, this would be a nice alternative to picking up a Snickers bar or whatever your favorite candy bar is and much healthier.
Smell - They smell as wonderful as they taste, though all you will smell until you break it in half is the chocolate coating, but it is a good aroma all around.
IF you get a chance to find them, I highly recommend picking up a package. They make a great snack if you need one in a pinch. If they were less expensive, I would keep my shelves stocked with them all the time.
I will be back later today with a review of a new shop that opened up in my town. I've been there a couple of times already, but I didn't get a chance to sample any of their food yet.
First, in case anyone else starts to follow my blog besides my devoted wife, the lists at the bottom are tiny because I am only listing things after I post my take on them. I have been to lots of different restaurants and tried so many different GF foods that the lists should be pretty large, but I don't want to just list things without having critiqued them first and posting my findings here.
So last week was very active for me. My body is balancing out more and more everyday. Still get an upset stomach from time to time, but nothing like it used to be. My bigger problem is trying to find a healthy balance so that I can start to lose some weight as well. My gut screams second trimester and it is starting to get on my nerves. Even old friends of mine are surprised by it as I used to be the skinny kid. I know that exercise will help but you need both to be truly successful. Whenever I get more followers, I hope that some of you have tips to help me out.
Friday I went to Olive Garden to eat with my wife and a couple of friends. They have been dying to go there but have never pushed for it since GF and Italian usually don't mix, but we found out that night that they had a GF menu. We get there and I see that the menu doesn't have a lot of options. In fact, the word option doesn't even apply in my opinion. You can look at the menu HERE and see for yourself what I am talking about. They offer two salads without croutons, five main entrées, and even a kid's entrée. There are no dessert options save for coffee items. There are also no appetizers, though some of their soup offerings are safe.
What really bothers me is that there is only one dish with pasta offered. When you think Italian, I, like most people, think about pasta. The dish they have that contains pasta is GF, but you can't modify it. They don't make it on the premises. It comes packaged frozen with the sauce already on it. They just boil it in the bag and serve it. There is no option to have the GF Penne pasta that is listed in the dish served with another type of sauce. The other meal offerings are just meat and vegetables, something that can be easily found anywhere.
I was as disappointed by what they had to offer. In the early days, I got very depressed and upset when I found out that I couldn't eat certain things. The menu at Olive Garden brought up all those feelings again. For some of you, their menu may be just fine, but I doubt highly that I will be returning anytime soon. I may even send their corporate offices a message saying how dissatisfied I was with what they had to offer. I little effort goes a long way.
Now later that night I got to try out Schar's Chocolate Hazelnut Bars. These are something I wouldn't have normally bought due to their regular prices (3 bars for about $5), but once again the closing of some supermarkets nearby opened the door for some amazing deals. Here is my review of them:
Prep Time - It's a wrapper. Cut it, tear it, rend it asunder with your teeth. Shouldn't take you too long to get to it.
Look - It looks like any other chocolate covered wafer bar you may have seen before.
Texture - It is not as dense as most GF products. It is actually very light and airy. The chocolate is the real deal and the rice wafer layers are crisp. Very pleasant to eat and chew.
Taste - It tastes great! The chocolate isn't overpowering, the hazelnut is balanced perfectly and the wafers have a nice simple flavor to them. Very impressive. If they weren't so damned expensive, this would be a nice alternative to picking up a Snickers bar or whatever your favorite candy bar is and much healthier.
Smell - They smell as wonderful as they taste, though all you will smell until you break it in half is the chocolate coating, but it is a good aroma all around.
IF you get a chance to find them, I highly recommend picking up a package. They make a great snack if you need one in a pinch. If they were less expensive, I would keep my shelves stocked with them all the time.
I will be back later today with a review of a new shop that opened up in my town. I've been there a couple of times already, but I didn't get a chance to sample any of their food yet.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Applebee's & Bankruptcy
Don't be too confused by the title of this entry. It isn't quite what you think.
My wife and I decided to go and see if we could get anymore great grocery deals at our local Pathmark and A&P stores. In case you didn't hear (or aren't from the NJ/NY/PA Tri-State area) A&P bought out Pathmark and decided that their first order of business was to close about 30 locations. Three of them around me have fallen prey to this action.
The store in South Plainfield, the one closest to our house, has been a gold mine of inexpensive gluten free foods, hence why I have so many GF food products to review. I think in the first two days that we went there we purchased about $300 in food that should have cost us over $600 if the store was still open normally. We are planning on going back tomorrow to see what we can get before it is closed for good. I am well stocked until at least July with various GF foods. Some that I have never had and others that I love and wanted to keep a surplus on-hand.
Last night, we went to two other locations that are also closing. All three stores are finished on Saturday, 4/16, so this is a rare opportunity that I simply couldn't pass up. The other places didn't have a lot to offer at all, though one had a rather unique meat option in the Meat Department.
I wonder if stuffed squirrel toys are gluten free?
Anyways, after a failed Round 2 of shopping, we decided to go to Applebee's for dinner. They actually have a very well thought out an extensive GF menu, though it has the disclaimer warning you that there could be cross-contamination from other items being cooked in the kitchen. So if you truly have Celiac Disease and any interaction of cross-contamination will affect you, then Applebee's may not be the place for you.
That being said, they had about 4 appetizers that were safe, multiple entrees and even a dessert. There were two things that did suck though. The first one was their appetizer "Potato Twisters". They make it sound like they are thin, twisted slices of potato, served with a spicy creamy white salsa and pico de gallo. What we got was nothing like the description. If they had instead told me that they were freshly made potato chips that were halfway to burnt and came with a white creamy salsa that was supposed to be spicy (far from it) and were haphazardly coated with an unusual seasoning, then I would have saved myself the money and made it at home. They charged us $7 for something that I could have made at home for a fraction of the cost.
The other thing that sucked even more than the misleading appetizer is that none of the options from their GF menu for appetizers can be used for the 2/$20 offer. They won't let you substitute one appetizer for another, so if you eat GF and you are with a friend, you have to either go without an appetizer and let your dining partner eat what he wants or forget the deal and pay more to order what you want. It wouldn't have been that hard for them to give us the appetizer we wanted in place of the choices that I couldn't eat, but they won't allow any substitutions for any reason. Not good at all.
The meal was good, but I have never been a fan of Applebee's. Eating there was simply convenient and I was hungry. The steak they made for me was overcooked yet quite tasty. They did offer to take it back and cook me another, but I was hungry ad I didn't want to wait any longer. At least our server didn't say to me those words that pissed me off so bloody much. She was very well educated and knew exactly what to do.
If you liked them before you went GF, they are a great place to eat and worth it provided you can tolerate the chance of your steak touching a pan or utensil that also touched the breaded chicken and you want to spend more money because of their lack of accommodation, just not my favorite place to go. I just can't recommend them for the reasons stated above.
Again, at least they didn't say those three evil little words.
My wife and I decided to go and see if we could get anymore great grocery deals at our local Pathmark and A&P stores. In case you didn't hear (or aren't from the NJ/NY/PA Tri-State area) A&P bought out Pathmark and decided that their first order of business was to close about 30 locations. Three of them around me have fallen prey to this action.
The store in South Plainfield, the one closest to our house, has been a gold mine of inexpensive gluten free foods, hence why I have so many GF food products to review. I think in the first two days that we went there we purchased about $300 in food that should have cost us over $600 if the store was still open normally. We are planning on going back tomorrow to see what we can get before it is closed for good. I am well stocked until at least July with various GF foods. Some that I have never had and others that I love and wanted to keep a surplus on-hand.
Last night, we went to two other locations that are also closing. All three stores are finished on Saturday, 4/16, so this is a rare opportunity that I simply couldn't pass up. The other places didn't have a lot to offer at all, though one had a rather unique meat option in the Meat Department.
I wonder if stuffed squirrel toys are gluten free?
Anyways, after a failed Round 2 of shopping, we decided to go to Applebee's for dinner. They actually have a very well thought out an extensive GF menu, though it has the disclaimer warning you that there could be cross-contamination from other items being cooked in the kitchen. So if you truly have Celiac Disease and any interaction of cross-contamination will affect you, then Applebee's may not be the place for you.
That being said, they had about 4 appetizers that were safe, multiple entrees and even a dessert. There were two things that did suck though. The first one was their appetizer "Potato Twisters". They make it sound like they are thin, twisted slices of potato, served with a spicy creamy white salsa and pico de gallo. What we got was nothing like the description. If they had instead told me that they were freshly made potato chips that were halfway to burnt and came with a white creamy salsa that was supposed to be spicy (far from it) and were haphazardly coated with an unusual seasoning, then I would have saved myself the money and made it at home. They charged us $7 for something that I could have made at home for a fraction of the cost.
The other thing that sucked even more than the misleading appetizer is that none of the options from their GF menu for appetizers can be used for the 2/$20 offer. They won't let you substitute one appetizer for another, so if you eat GF and you are with a friend, you have to either go without an appetizer and let your dining partner eat what he wants or forget the deal and pay more to order what you want. It wouldn't have been that hard for them to give us the appetizer we wanted in place of the choices that I couldn't eat, but they won't allow any substitutions for any reason. Not good at all.
The meal was good, but I have never been a fan of Applebee's. Eating there was simply convenient and I was hungry. The steak they made for me was overcooked yet quite tasty. They did offer to take it back and cook me another, but I was hungry ad I didn't want to wait any longer. At least our server didn't say to me those words that pissed me off so bloody much. She was very well educated and knew exactly what to do.
If you liked them before you went GF, they are a great place to eat and worth it provided you can tolerate the chance of your steak touching a pan or utensil that also touched the breaded chicken and you want to spend more money because of their lack of accommodation, just not my favorite place to go. I just can't recommend them for the reasons stated above.
Again, at least they didn't say those three evil little words.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
3 Pack Day - Person, Place and Thing
Today I wanted to go through three things at once. There is a person that means a lot to me when it comes to my realization that going GF would benefit me and improve my life, a website that has some awesome items for people that like to cook, and another food product to review.
First, let me talk about this wonderful person. Her name is Dawn Hunt. My wife and I met her about 2 years ago at the 2009 Central NJ Pagan Pride Day. This particular day was also nicknamed by me, "Pagan Pride Slip N' Slide" as we had gotten some torrential rains that day. Dawn, when we met her, had a tent at the festival selling infused and blessed oils for cooking as well as mixes in onion and garlic flavors for making dips and spreads. She was there with her husband Justin. We all hit it off rather quickly and we eventually got to talking about allergies that she had. I wish we had talked to her more that day but the event ended early on account of a most violent thunderstorm that moved into the area. We helped them pack up so they could return home.
We saw them again at the NYC PPD and talked some more. There we met some more new and truly wonderful friends.
Now just this last year we were once again at the NYC PPD, knowing full well that Dawn and Justin would be there again. We started to talk to her about some problems I was having and she had suggested to us that maybe cutting gluten out of my diet would help me. No one had ever suggested that to me before, so I figured that it couldn't hurt. Worst case scenario, it would do nothing and I would just go back to eating how I originally was.
And now here I am, just over 6 months gluten free, and I have never felt better in my entire life! I thought that I wouldn't like the foods that are GF and, at first, I didn't at all. That was just because of the ones I chose to taste first. Now I can't even imagine eating the way I did in the past.
Thank you Dawn!
Now the place will be simple. It is the website for Dawn's business, Cucina Aurora, that offers some wonderful products. She has some wonderful infused cooking oils, dip mixes and so much more. You should all definitely check her site out.
Finally let me discuss the thing, as in, the food product. There are so many products that this one company makes, I may have to designate an entire week just to them.
I just tried today Schar's Anellini, so it gets to be the food product that I review today. It is a tiny pasta perfect for homemade soups or even homemade Spaghetti-O's that is "O" shaped. I have eaten a couple of different brands of GF pasta, so I figured I should give this one a try as well.
Prep Time - Takes about 4 minutes to cook, whether you are boiling it in water for something you are making or for soup. If you are making soup with it, it says to put it in the soup directly and cook it there. I am not an experienced cook, so I honestly don't know if this is what you would do when making soup with any type of pasta.
Look - Looks just like pasta. A little bit more yellow than traditional types, but it looks like dried pasta.
Texture - It feels like uncooked pasta. When cooked, it is about the same as traditional pasta that you would use to make soup for children like Ronzoni's Pastina. This is impressive as I have had some GF pastas that are very soft and others that feel like you barely cooked it at all, even though it was in the pot boiling for 20 minutes.
Taste - I didn't get to taste it without the chicken broth getting in the way of its flavor, but from what I could tell it didn't taste any different from traditional pastas used in soup. There was no off taste at all. If this was served to someone without telling them it was GF, they most likely would never figure it out for themselves.
Smell - Now taste and smell do go hand in hand, but they are also separate. The pasta did give the broth a slightly different smell after the soup sat in the pot for a while, about 30 minutes, but it didn't affect the taste of the broth or the pasta itself. I have noticed that some GF products do have a different scent coming from them that can make it easily distinguishable from traditional products, but this scent usually doesn't interfere with the taste.
Overall, I am really impressed by this pasta. I have some other packages of their products to try, including a few more pasta types, so they will be tried out soon enough. Big thumbs up for this one!
First, let me talk about this wonderful person. Her name is Dawn Hunt. My wife and I met her about 2 years ago at the 2009 Central NJ Pagan Pride Day. This particular day was also nicknamed by me, "Pagan Pride Slip N' Slide" as we had gotten some torrential rains that day. Dawn, when we met her, had a tent at the festival selling infused and blessed oils for cooking as well as mixes in onion and garlic flavors for making dips and spreads. She was there with her husband Justin. We all hit it off rather quickly and we eventually got to talking about allergies that she had. I wish we had talked to her more that day but the event ended early on account of a most violent thunderstorm that moved into the area. We helped them pack up so they could return home.
We saw them again at the NYC PPD and talked some more. There we met some more new and truly wonderful friends.
Now just this last year we were once again at the NYC PPD, knowing full well that Dawn and Justin would be there again. We started to talk to her about some problems I was having and she had suggested to us that maybe cutting gluten out of my diet would help me. No one had ever suggested that to me before, so I figured that it couldn't hurt. Worst case scenario, it would do nothing and I would just go back to eating how I originally was.
And now here I am, just over 6 months gluten free, and I have never felt better in my entire life! I thought that I wouldn't like the foods that are GF and, at first, I didn't at all. That was just because of the ones I chose to taste first. Now I can't even imagine eating the way I did in the past.
Thank you Dawn!
Now the place will be simple. It is the website for Dawn's business, Cucina Aurora, that offers some wonderful products. She has some wonderful infused cooking oils, dip mixes and so much more. You should all definitely check her site out.
************************************
I just tried today Schar's Anellini, so it gets to be the food product that I review today. It is a tiny pasta perfect for homemade soups or even homemade Spaghetti-O's that is "O" shaped. I have eaten a couple of different brands of GF pasta, so I figured I should give this one a try as well.
Prep Time - Takes about 4 minutes to cook, whether you are boiling it in water for something you are making or for soup. If you are making soup with it, it says to put it in the soup directly and cook it there. I am not an experienced cook, so I honestly don't know if this is what you would do when making soup with any type of pasta.
Look - Looks just like pasta. A little bit more yellow than traditional types, but it looks like dried pasta.
Texture - It feels like uncooked pasta. When cooked, it is about the same as traditional pasta that you would use to make soup for children like Ronzoni's Pastina. This is impressive as I have had some GF pastas that are very soft and others that feel like you barely cooked it at all, even though it was in the pot boiling for 20 minutes.
Taste - I didn't get to taste it without the chicken broth getting in the way of its flavor, but from what I could tell it didn't taste any different from traditional pastas used in soup. There was no off taste at all. If this was served to someone without telling them it was GF, they most likely would never figure it out for themselves.
Smell - Now taste and smell do go hand in hand, but they are also separate. The pasta did give the broth a slightly different smell after the soup sat in the pot for a while, about 30 minutes, but it didn't affect the taste of the broth or the pasta itself. I have noticed that some GF products do have a different scent coming from them that can make it easily distinguishable from traditional products, but this scent usually doesn't interfere with the taste.
Overall, I am really impressed by this pasta. I have some other packages of their products to try, including a few more pasta types, so they will be tried out soon enough. Big thumbs up for this one!
Friday, April 8, 2011
Product Review - Glutino Apple Breakfast Bars
For future reference, I will grade every item I test on what it looks like, the texture when you eat them, how they taste as compared to traditional wheat items, and what they smell like. You may think that some of these parameters are rather unusual, but two examples. I had a chocolate breakfast bar (don't remember who made it, but I will buy it again since I liked them , so just wait and see) that seriously looked like a condensed deep brown colored turd, but it tasted delicious. Then there were some graham crackers I had that smelled somewhat like the traditional ones but tasted nothing like a graham cracker should. I will also review how to make something if it has any type of preparation time.
So let's get this started with what I had for breakfast today. I needed a quick handheld item as I was heading out the door and didn't have time to make myself anything, so I grabbed a Glutino Breakfast bar. They come in several flavors, but for now I will be reviewing the Apple flavor. A box of five 1.4 once bars sells for about $6, depending on where you go. Shoprite, Stop and Shop and Wegman's are good places to find these.
Prep Time - Takes about as long as it would take you to peel open the wrapper, so 3-5 seconds. Add 5 seconds if it is a new box. Yes I can be sarcastic and comical at times. Saves me from creating a very dull blog.
Look - They look just like the Kellogg's brand breakfast bars but they are a bit thicker and sturdier. You take a Kellogg's bar and hold it by the one end and it will sag and eventually break. Glutino's holds up a lot better, so it is a good bar for eating while driving or giving to your child.
Texture - I've had plenty of baked goods that are gluten free. Many of them fall apart once you bite into them and have a powdery texture to them. They literally fall apart in your mouth. These bars are different. They are moist, though still dense. There is a good amount of filling in them unlike other regular brands like Kellogg's. Just be sure to take small bites. I almost choked on it because of how dense it is when eating one today while trying to merge onto Route 78. Wasn't fun. If you eat it at home, have on hand a glass of your favorite breakfast beverage.
Taste - The apple filling was very flavorful with some cinnamon, I believe, thrown in for added effect. The outer part of the bar was also rather tasty, more so than a lot of other GF products I have tried in the past. Almost tasted like graham crackers, but I don't think it was. I will have to read the box and see.
Smell - They actually smell exactly like they taste, which is sometimes a surprise to me with GF foods.
Overall, I would buy these again. They're a great alternative to sitting down for breakfast when you are in a hurry to get somewhere and they make a great snack for kids as well. Score one point for Glutino.
So let's get this started with what I had for breakfast today. I needed a quick handheld item as I was heading out the door and didn't have time to make myself anything, so I grabbed a Glutino Breakfast bar. They come in several flavors, but for now I will be reviewing the Apple flavor. A box of five 1.4 once bars sells for about $6, depending on where you go. Shoprite, Stop and Shop and Wegman's are good places to find these.
Prep Time - Takes about as long as it would take you to peel open the wrapper, so 3-5 seconds. Add 5 seconds if it is a new box. Yes I can be sarcastic and comical at times. Saves me from creating a very dull blog.
Look - They look just like the Kellogg's brand breakfast bars but they are a bit thicker and sturdier. You take a Kellogg's bar and hold it by the one end and it will sag and eventually break. Glutino's holds up a lot better, so it is a good bar for eating while driving or giving to your child.
Texture - I've had plenty of baked goods that are gluten free. Many of them fall apart once you bite into them and have a powdery texture to them. They literally fall apart in your mouth. These bars are different. They are moist, though still dense. There is a good amount of filling in them unlike other regular brands like Kellogg's. Just be sure to take small bites. I almost choked on it because of how dense it is when eating one today while trying to merge onto Route 78. Wasn't fun. If you eat it at home, have on hand a glass of your favorite breakfast beverage.
Taste - The apple filling was very flavorful with some cinnamon, I believe, thrown in for added effect. The outer part of the bar was also rather tasty, more so than a lot of other GF products I have tried in the past. Almost tasted like graham crackers, but I don't think it was. I will have to read the box and see.
Smell - They actually smell exactly like they taste, which is sometimes a surprise to me with GF foods.
Overall, I would buy these again. They're a great alternative to sitting down for breakfast when you are in a hurry to get somewhere and they make a great snack for kids as well. Score one point for Glutino.
So how this all began
This is the one post that may seem a bit like too much information, but it has been a long journey and it needs to be explained.
As a kid, I constantly had upset stomachs, and by stomach, I mean I had constipation or diarrhea (stomach is a nicer way to say it, though not an accurate description, so that is what I shall use from this point on) and they always interfered with my daily activities. It was very painful to the point that sometimes I was curled up on the floor of my hallway in pain. My house had only one bathroom, so this made matters so much worse. Doctors never had a good answer for what I going through, simply saying it was something I ate. The most common diagnosis I got back then (the early 80's) was that I was eating the wrong things.
These problems continued throughout high school with still no decent diagnosis. At one point they started to say that I may be lactose intolerant. It did seem that whenever I ate anything that had whole milk in it I would get an upset stomach, so my family stopped buying whole milk and went down to 2%. Nothing changed.
Now after high school, things were still the same, but now it was starting to interfere with work. I was working for Acme Markets. I had to call out of work because of this still unknown issue. I lost hours while at work because of it as well. Then, in 1994, I was dating someone that got me to cut my milk down to skim and to be more careful of what I ate when I was eating out. I had given up on going to the doctors to find out what the problem was as they had no answers, even after 20 years. Little did I know that it was going to get worse, well, the doctors and their guessing games were going to get worse. The condition was the same.
Flash forward to 1998 and a slight psychotic break (not really, but I had just come home from work and the TV was off when the following happened) resulted in my joining the US Air Force. Got through my medical evaluations just fine. They didn't even seem to concerned with my long history of gastrointestinal problems. At my duty station, I finally decided to go to the doctor and see what was wrong with me once and for all. I figured that the military doctors would know what was wrong with me and, since it was all free care, this was a rare opportunity for me to get every possible test done and get the right diagnosis once and for all.
Nope, wrong again. The idiot Captain told me I was lactose intolerant even though I had told her that I couldn't eat Breyer's Ice Cream at one point as it would upset my stomach but the very next day it didn't bother me at all.. She said that it can be temperamental for some people and the condition could fluctuate. News to me as I knew some people now that were lactose intolerant and it NEVER fluctuated.
So I was back to where I had been my entire life...getting diagnosed wrong, though this time I had a doctor making things up as she went on. I actually went for a second opinion, after all, it was free. I finally got a new diagnosis, and though it wasn't the right one, it was a lot closer to what I was dealing with. A new doctor had joined the team at the Pope Clinic and unlike the other doctors, he constantly read about new discoveries. He told me I suffered with IBS Type-A, one of the hardest types to manage. There were three types: D, C, and A. Considering what I substitute stomach for, you can figure out for yourself what D and C stand for and how to counteract them. Type A was both of them combined with no rhyme or reason as to what triggered them. So now I "know" what is wrong with me and it has a real name.
After I got out of the service, the problem continued to get worse and it was starting to change other things, like my mood and it was affecting my jobs even more. It caused delays at one job and my most recent job actually wrote me up for "abusing their leniency when it came to using the restroom". This was getting out of hand and very depressing. Then my wife and I met someone at the Central NJ Pagan Pride Day.
Her name was Dawn Hunt and she was allergic to gluten, among other things. I had heard of gluten but had no idea that some people needed to eat gluten free for their health. Maryann began to do research into what an allergy to gluten caused. At this point, the pain that I felt in my stomach has changed. It had gotten worse and more unique than ever before. Now instead of it being all over constant pain, it became a sharp pain in my lower left front side of my stomach. I was also starting to have issue with Low Testosterone. There were treatments for Low-T but none of them seemed safe to me. Dawn had suggested to me going gluten free just last year. There were tests I could have gotten done to check this out, but at this point, I was started to look into things myself.
I stopped eating gluten for the most part last September. I learned over time that the few exceptions I had made for myself were, in the end, stopping things from changing in me completely. It took me quite some time to cut it all out. It was hard at first but now it seems second nature to eat this way. Most of my problems have gone away. They all, I believe would be gone if it wasn't for the fact that I love sushi, especially any with tempura shrimp. I plan on learning to make sushi so I am make sure it is always GF food.
When people ask me what is wrong, I tell them I have Celiac Disease. Technically I am lying to them as I was never diagnosed by a doctor and now I can't as I have no gluten in my system to make the test function properly, but the alternative is to eat gluten again to take the test and deal with all the pain all over again.
I meant to post this yesterday for all to see, but we got caught up with shopping at a Pathmark going out of business. Why do I mention this? Because now I have lots of GF foods to taste and see if they are any good. All of their GF foods were 50-80% off. I plan on going back tomorrow to get some more.
Today I will post reviews of a couple foods and finally start filling those lists below.
As a kid, I constantly had upset stomachs, and by stomach, I mean I had constipation or diarrhea (stomach is a nicer way to say it, though not an accurate description, so that is what I shall use from this point on) and they always interfered with my daily activities. It was very painful to the point that sometimes I was curled up on the floor of my hallway in pain. My house had only one bathroom, so this made matters so much worse. Doctors never had a good answer for what I going through, simply saying it was something I ate. The most common diagnosis I got back then (the early 80's) was that I was eating the wrong things.
These problems continued throughout high school with still no decent diagnosis. At one point they started to say that I may be lactose intolerant. It did seem that whenever I ate anything that had whole milk in it I would get an upset stomach, so my family stopped buying whole milk and went down to 2%. Nothing changed.
Now after high school, things were still the same, but now it was starting to interfere with work. I was working for Acme Markets. I had to call out of work because of this still unknown issue. I lost hours while at work because of it as well. Then, in 1994, I was dating someone that got me to cut my milk down to skim and to be more careful of what I ate when I was eating out. I had given up on going to the doctors to find out what the problem was as they had no answers, even after 20 years. Little did I know that it was going to get worse, well, the doctors and their guessing games were going to get worse. The condition was the same.
Flash forward to 1998 and a slight psychotic break (not really, but I had just come home from work and the TV was off when the following happened) resulted in my joining the US Air Force. Got through my medical evaluations just fine. They didn't even seem to concerned with my long history of gastrointestinal problems. At my duty station, I finally decided to go to the doctor and see what was wrong with me once and for all. I figured that the military doctors would know what was wrong with me and, since it was all free care, this was a rare opportunity for me to get every possible test done and get the right diagnosis once and for all.
Nope, wrong again. The idiot Captain told me I was lactose intolerant even though I had told her that I couldn't eat Breyer's Ice Cream at one point as it would upset my stomach but the very next day it didn't bother me at all.. She said that it can be temperamental for some people and the condition could fluctuate. News to me as I knew some people now that were lactose intolerant and it NEVER fluctuated.
So I was back to where I had been my entire life...getting diagnosed wrong, though this time I had a doctor making things up as she went on. I actually went for a second opinion, after all, it was free. I finally got a new diagnosis, and though it wasn't the right one, it was a lot closer to what I was dealing with. A new doctor had joined the team at the Pope Clinic and unlike the other doctors, he constantly read about new discoveries. He told me I suffered with IBS Type-A, one of the hardest types to manage. There were three types: D, C, and A. Considering what I substitute stomach for, you can figure out for yourself what D and C stand for and how to counteract them. Type A was both of them combined with no rhyme or reason as to what triggered them. So now I "know" what is wrong with me and it has a real name.
After I got out of the service, the problem continued to get worse and it was starting to change other things, like my mood and it was affecting my jobs even more. It caused delays at one job and my most recent job actually wrote me up for "abusing their leniency when it came to using the restroom". This was getting out of hand and very depressing. Then my wife and I met someone at the Central NJ Pagan Pride Day.
Her name was Dawn Hunt and she was allergic to gluten, among other things. I had heard of gluten but had no idea that some people needed to eat gluten free for their health. Maryann began to do research into what an allergy to gluten caused. At this point, the pain that I felt in my stomach has changed. It had gotten worse and more unique than ever before. Now instead of it being all over constant pain, it became a sharp pain in my lower left front side of my stomach. I was also starting to have issue with Low Testosterone. There were treatments for Low-T but none of them seemed safe to me. Dawn had suggested to me going gluten free just last year. There were tests I could have gotten done to check this out, but at this point, I was started to look into things myself.
I stopped eating gluten for the most part last September. I learned over time that the few exceptions I had made for myself were, in the end, stopping things from changing in me completely. It took me quite some time to cut it all out. It was hard at first but now it seems second nature to eat this way. Most of my problems have gone away. They all, I believe would be gone if it wasn't for the fact that I love sushi, especially any with tempura shrimp. I plan on learning to make sushi so I am make sure it is always GF food.
When people ask me what is wrong, I tell them I have Celiac Disease. Technically I am lying to them as I was never diagnosed by a doctor and now I can't as I have no gluten in my system to make the test function properly, but the alternative is to eat gluten again to take the test and deal with all the pain all over again.
I meant to post this yesterday for all to see, but we got caught up with shopping at a Pathmark going out of business. Why do I mention this? Because now I have lots of GF foods to taste and see if they are any good. All of their GF foods were 50-80% off. I plan on going back tomorrow to get some more.
Today I will post reviews of a couple foods and finally start filling those lists below.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Welcome!!!
So months ago I said to Maryann, my loving and very supportive wife, "I should start a blog and write about my journeys and stumbles with my change to being gluten free." I think I said this to her back in December after only having been GF for three months. This is going to be a chronology of my life since I chose to eat and live gluten free. I am still getting a hang of running my own blog, so be patient.
In this blog, I will talk about places my wife and I go to eat, foods I like and don't like, and my daily struggles with this change to my daily existence. In regards to food, I will give you an honest review of those items from my unique point of view. I'm not looking for a substitute that I can tolerate. The more it tastes like, smells like, and feels like the food it replaces, the better it is for me and the more I will enjoy eating it. I will also recommend recipes that I found to cook and sites I have found in my travels that have great products and recipes.
I hope you enjoy what I write and will follow me on this strange journey. Maybe it will even help you if you have also decided to live gluten free.
Some of you might be wondering about the title of this blog. I chose the title that I did for this blog as those three little words have become my most hated words to hear together when we go out to eat. It really isn't all that hard to create a gluten free menu that shows what you already have that is GF or to even have a couple of items that are GF, but instead many servers will tell me when I ask for a GF menu, "We have Salad".
Gods I hate those words! You will see how I have dealt with it in the blog as well and I will tell you what restaurants I choose to eat at as they have made strides to be more aware of those that have to eat gluten free.
First big post coming tomorrow!
In this blog, I will talk about places my wife and I go to eat, foods I like and don't like, and my daily struggles with this change to my daily existence. In regards to food, I will give you an honest review of those items from my unique point of view. I'm not looking for a substitute that I can tolerate. The more it tastes like, smells like, and feels like the food it replaces, the better it is for me and the more I will enjoy eating it. I will also recommend recipes that I found to cook and sites I have found in my travels that have great products and recipes.
I hope you enjoy what I write and will follow me on this strange journey. Maybe it will even help you if you have also decided to live gluten free.
Some of you might be wondering about the title of this blog. I chose the title that I did for this blog as those three little words have become my most hated words to hear together when we go out to eat. It really isn't all that hard to create a gluten free menu that shows what you already have that is GF or to even have a couple of items that are GF, but instead many servers will tell me when I ask for a GF menu, "We have Salad".
Gods I hate those words! You will see how I have dealt with it in the blog as well and I will tell you what restaurants I choose to eat at as they have made strides to be more aware of those that have to eat gluten free.
First big post coming tomorrow!
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