Product Review: Daiya Fire-roasted Vegetable Pizza

I've been gluten free since 2008 but last year, after having an allergic reaction, I was also forced to go dairy free.  It was a bit of an adjustment but overall it hasn't been anywhere close to as difficult as going gluten free, though I do miss a lot of convenience foods like cream of mushroom soup.

Unfortunately it also meant giving up cheese which really affected pizza. 

It now meant that I'd either have to order a gluten free pizza without cheese from my favourite pizza place or make one at home with frozen crust and faux cheese.  There are gluten free pizzas on the market and dairy free pizzas but it's rare to come across the two properties combined  in the same pizza and, assuming you found that, for the pizza to be edible.

Then in November Daiya (dairy free cheese company) posted on facebook that they would be selling pizzas! I tried not to get my hopes up as I looked at the advertising for the new product.  Surely it would contain gluten.

But. . .it didn't!

Daiya's new pizzas were GLUTEN FREE!   

Unfortunately for me it took a few months for them to reach stores in our area but we were able to get our hands on one tonight!

We chose fire roasted vegetable pizza.  They also had a cheese pizza in stock at the store. I put it in the oven and started to cringe as I watched it seem to curl up on all sides.  The last gluten free pizza I'd had in my oven that did that went rock hard and cracked into a bunch of pieces but this didn't! 

This pizza was really tasty, even with being vegetarian, and my only complaint is that it was too small.  I really could have eaten more of it! It was about the size of a small pizza. We plan to buy it again for my daughter and I for a pizza night, though next time we'll probably buy 2. :)

Product Review: Compliments Gluten-Free Cookie Mix

Cookies ready to go into the oven before baking.

Sobeys has come out with a line of store brand gluten free products under their Compliments brand: things such as brownies, cake mixes, quinoa muffins, cookie mix and a flour mix that are certified by the Canadian Celiac Association's certification program.  I haven't had the opportunity to try all of them but my daughter and I tried out the cookie mix this weekend. 

When I first looked at the box of "cookie mix" I thought to myself "what kind of cookie mix?" and honestly I didn't expect it to be a very good product.  I had low expectations because it was too generic.  However, I was surprised with the results.

The mix was fairly easy to make, I measured out the ingredients and my 4 year old poured them in and I stirred. I was concerned at that point because it didn't seem like the mix was coming together.  I felt like it needed more moisture.  The box does suggest using a mixer though and I mixed by hand because I was too lazy to get up on a chair to get my mixer down so that might have made a difference. :)

The box suggests that you can make the cookies as is with just eggs and margarine (or butter) or you can add various additional ingredients such as chocolate chips or raisins among other things to change the taste. We decided to add raisins. My husband eats gluten and both he and I agreed that they tasted like a regular, gluten containing, raisin cookie. 

(***The current packaging actually also suggests adding some gluten containing ingredients such as corn flakes, oatmeal and rice crisps so if you're making these cookies for someone who has Celiac disease or gluten intolerance and would like to add those you should look for gluten free corn flakes, and rice crisps and wheat free oats (or gluten free oats if you're in the United States) as the standard versions usually contain gluten. I have brought this to Sobey's attention.)

After baking, they came out as a soft cookie which is unusual for gluten free and I'm impressed that they've stayed soft on the counter in a ziploc bag all weekend.

This product doesn't contain dairy or nuts.  It made 23 cookies.  It was quick and easy to make and I think I will buy it again in the future. . .maybe next time I'll make chocolate chip cookies.

Cookies cooling out of the oven.

Review: El Peto Gluten Free Gingerbread Kit

Last year we planned to make gingerbread cookies from scratch but unfortunately my daughter and I ended up with the flu, and the gingerbread never got made.

This year I contemplated buying a mix but I decided gingerbread is, in general, a lot of work and with so much going on right now I was afraid to have a repeat of last year.  I also realized I can't find my cookie cutters anyway. :)

I've been aware of El Peto's kit for some time but I'd never seen the kit in person and didn't know where to get it.  El Peto posted on their facebook page that the gingerbread house kits were available at Bulk Barn so I sent my husband to find one.

He called stating that they were $16.99 each - ouch - but typical of gluten free food unfortunately.  After hemming and hawing for all of 30 seconds I decided that the experience of decorating a gingerbread house was worth the cost of the kit.

Here is a picture of the front, and back of the box.  You'll notice it's peanut free.

Here is a picture of the contents of the box:

Overall it was nice to have a pre-made option and I might buy it again for that fact.  The instructions on the package seemed to be a little off because it did take more than 1/4 cup of water to moisten the icing enough to get it all wet in order to mix it.  It was also hard to make my daughter wait 30 minutes after putting the icing into the piping bag before putting it onto the house, as per directions.  It wasn't a big deal but it is something to be aware of if you have little ones who are REALLY EXCITED. lol.

My main complaint about the icing is that it dried quickly and was difficult to use.  As someone who has decorated many birthday cakes, piping icing is not a foreign experience to me but I had a lot of difficulty trying to get this icing to go where it was supposed to and to stay there.  Eventually I grew frustrated and literally just squirted it at random all over the house.  That seemed to work a bit better. lol.

The pieces of the gingerbread house itself did not match up size wise.  It wasn't a big deal overall but one end was much larger than the other making it difficult to hold the house together in general.

Overall we had a great experience assembling the kit and the gingerbread itself is pretty tasty.

Review: Purest Hot Cocoa

We were in Kitchener, Ontario this past weekend and happened to come across some gluten free dairy free hot chocolate mix!  I was excited because this is the first I've seen a dairy free version and I can't have casein (the protein found in milk).

We were out and about today and it was cold!  Perfect hot chocolate weather! So when my daughter and I got in I decided to mix this up.

We followed the microwave directions and made it with Natur-a rice milk to keep it dairy free.

Yummy :) Just like I remember hot chocolate tasting.  Now all we have to do is find some mini marshmallows for next time. :)

Product Review: Conte's Pierogies

Mmm Pierogies!!

We've actually eaten Conte's Gluten Free Dairy Free potato onion Pierogies twice now.  The first time I found them too peppery for my taste but they still tasted a lot like the pierogies I remembered prior to being gluten free, just had a bit too much bite for my taste.

I thought something was missing.  In college when I made pierogies I would add bacon, sour cream, green peppers and onions.  We didn't have any gluten free dairy free sour cream in the house but we did have Daiya Cheddar Style Shreds and the rest of the previously mentioned ingredients. :)

This time around I added those ingredients.  MUCH better! :)

I would definitely eat these again. :) Looking forward to it. :)

Gluten Free Candy! Squishy Fishy Gummy Fish Review

My husband and I were out at Chapters last night when we came across this product.  Who would have thought to look for gluten free candy at Chapters right?  Well apparently keep your eyes out because we found. . .

Squishy Fishy (Cherry flavoured),  Nummy Bears (Cherry, Watermelon, Wildberry flavours) and Squirmy Wormy (Grape, Lemon, Tangerine flavours) Gummy candies!  

Ingredients for the Squishy Fishy ones - Tapioca Syrup, Cane Sugar, Corn Starch-Modified (Non-GMO), Dextrose (Non GMO Corn), Malic Acid, Natural Flavour, Sodium Citrate, Colored with Vegetable Extract (Radish), Sunflower Oil, Carnauba Wax.

All the packages say Certified Gluten free right on the front of the package and they were on sale - 30% off. . .which made them around $5 per package.  You can check to see if your store has stock or purchase online at - http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/gifts/search/?keywords=Sweet+Candy&pageSize=12

So far we have only tried the Squishy Fishy ones which remind me of the gummy candies you can find around Easter generally - a chewier gummy candy - but we're looking forward to trying the other ones soon!  We purchased all 3 but were saving 2 packages for Halloween.  We will have to come back and review those afterwards. :)

FYI: For those with allergies - The package says they are manufactured in a facility that also processes peanuts and tree nuts.

Product Review: Piller's Simply Free Deli Meats

 

Piller's Recently came out with a whole line of products called "Simply Free" which are Gluten free, and free of allergens!!

After a couple of years of eating another company's meat and really not being overly impressed, I was about ready to give up on lunch meat altogether when I heard about this line of products.

Piller's Simply free has a bunch of different gluten free, allergy free products available - you can take a look here: http://www.pillers.com/simplyfree/home.php?Language=Eng but personally I have only tried their sliced meats at this point.

I recently purchased 3 of their sliced meats (of the 5 flavours available) - Black Forest Ham, Roasted Turkey Breast and Shaved Roast Beef and so far I have to say I've been impressed.

They're great tasting and the packages seem like they are a decent size package, and the slices of meat themselves are also a good size, in comparison to other gluten free meat I've bought. The cost was also pretty comparable to other sliced meat products.

As it stands, I would recommend this product to my friends and family and am excited to try out the rest of the line as well! :)

Review: Enjoy Life Crunchy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

When it comes to taste, Enjoy Life Crunchy Double Chocolate Cookies most remind me of burnt Subway Double Chocolate Chip cookies.

Before you think "eww, that's gross burnt cookies" I'll stop you and say, as a former Sandwich Artist, I'd like to say "burnt" (not actually burnt but crunchy) Subway cookies are very tasty "burnt" and in fact are something I really really missed being gluten free.

Another benefit of this product is that it is gluten free (also includes wheat) and free of the top 8 allergens which include: dairy, peanut, tree nut, egg, soy, fish and shellfish!

These crunchy cookies are a huge improvement, in my opinion, from the soft chewy style of cookies Enjoy Life also has.  I feel like these are worth their cost and don't seem to go stale as fast as the soft ones.

I'm looking forward to trying their other varieties of these Crunchy cookies in the future!

Product Review: Nature's Path Organic Crunchy Vanilla Sunrise

Anyone else have parents or friends that see something gluten free in a grocery store and decide to buy it instantly without talking to you?

A friend of mine suggested I try this cereal because she had seen it at Costco and then lo-and-behold before I even had a chance to mention it to my mom, coincidentally she had seen it when she was out somewhere and thought I should try it.

Honestly I took 3 bites and couldn't eat any more.  It was far too sweet for me.

HOWEVER, my non-gluten free husband had two bowls, obviously liked it, and said it reminded him a bit of Corn Pops.  I'm guessing that compared to Corn Pops this is a much healthier alternative!

This cereal contains Whole Corn Meal, Evaporated Cane Juice, Brown Rice Flour, Yellow Corn Flour, Inulin, Quinoa Puffs, Flax Seeds, Natural Vanilla Flavour, Buckwheat Flour, Quinoa, Sea Salt, Amaranth, Molasses, Tocopherols (Natural Vitamin E).  It contains 110 calories per 3/4 cup serving.

So if you're looking for a "sugar cereal" or something with a bit sweeter taste than my personal preference of Rice Chex and Gluten Free Rice Krispies then I suggest you give Crunchy Vanilla Sunrise a try!

Review: Kinni-Kritters - Betcha Can't Eat Just One

I know, I'm stealing a slogan from Lays Potato Chips but they really were that good and I'm having a really hard time keeping my hand out of the box!  After all they're technically not mine. . .

This morning our daughter opened up her Easter basket.  Because we couldn't find a dairy free, gluten free and nut free Chocolate Easter Bunny in Canada (they do exist in the United states and they will ship here but the shipping is ridiculous - $22+ to ship a $10 bunny), I had ordered her some Kinni-Kritters Chocolate Animal Cookies online instead, from Kinnikinnick Foods in Edmonton, Alberta.

Luckily these cookies did not disappoint.  To me, these tasted like Chocolate Teddy Grahams!  Having not had Chocolate Teddy Grahams in years though, and having been gluten free since 2008, I asked my husband to have a taste since he is not gluten free.  He agreed and said that even as a non-gluten free knock off they were an impressive knock off.

Kinni-Kritters are also available in Graham Style and Animal Cracker style.  I haven't tried these kinds yet but based on the experience with the chocolate there's a good chance I will in the future!

If you would like to try these cookies check your local gluten free grocer or order online directly from Kinnikinnick at: http://consumer.kinnikinnick.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/products.home/productcategoryid/12

Enjoy!

Review: El Peto Brown Bread Mix

So I promised on facebook the other day that I would do a review for this bread machine mix that I bought.


It's called El Peto Brown Breadmaker Mix and it's SOOO EASY to make. :) I am all about keeping things as simple as possible with having Monkey running around the house while I try to get anything done. :)


Recently we had pretty much exclusively bought El Peto's Italian Breadmaker mix which was alright but, previous to going gluten free I had been a whole grain bread kind of girl and I was really missing this.  Don't get me wrong this is no Dempster's 12 grain bread.  Unfortunately I haven't found anything like that yet.


However, as bread goes, it's a lot more edible than the Italian bread was.  The flavour is slightly sweeter - maybe like a Rye bread? It's vaguely familiar tasting but it has been years since I've eaten "good" bread. lol. It makes the house smell wonderful while it cooks and I think the texture is good.  I keep it in the fridge and it still has a spongy texture compared to other gluten free breads I've bought, including El Peto's own frozen variety.


It's still not an Udi's bread BUT Monkey eats all her toast now and goes back for more!!


Here's what I like:
PRICE - The package makes 7 loaves of bread for $22.65 + shipping.  You have to add water and 1/4 of margarine oil or butter to it.

Nutrition - I think the bread is better for you than the standard gluten free white breads (I am not medically licensed so I could be wrong. :)) - Ingredients: corn starch, whole grain rice flour, guar gum, rice bran, quinoa seeds, low fat soya flour, organic cane sugar, salt (kosher), gluten free yeast, carob flour

It is Gluten Free, Wheat Free, Milk Free, Egg Free!! Which is great for those of us who have additional allergies!

Quick and Easy to make - throw ingredients into bread machine, turn on, walk away. :)

In my opinion, it tastes good!  I can actually eat my whole sandwich without gagging and chugging a tonne of water to deal with a dry piece of bread.

I have not tried eating the bread without toasting yet but it's hard to get out of that habit as a Celiac :) so I'm not sure how it would taste that way.

So, if you want to try this bread go to El Peto's website and order some here: http://www.elpeto.com/elpetoonline/index.php?route=product/product&path=35_48&product_id=247

Let me know what you think! :)

My Ham Sandwich (Buddig gluten free ham)

Pizza!

Here is last night's dinner.

Pizza!

Pizza is another one of those things that can go really wrong gluten free.  There are some crusts out there that honestly left me pretty disappointed so I was leery when trying El Peto's Gluten Free White Pizza Crust.

El Peto's crust is Gluten Free, Wheat Free, Milk Free, Egg Free, Soya Free and Sugar Free.  That's a whole lot of Free! :)  Great for those of us with multiple allergies on top of our gluten issues.  They do make 2 other pizza crust flavours as well - Basil, and Millet.  The Millet flavour is also Corn Free.  I haven't tried either of those flavours yet.

I wasn't honestly expecting much based on all of those "Free" requirements but I actually liked it!  I topped my pizza with Prego Original tomato sauce, mushrooms, chicken, green peppers and Daiya Mozzarella (a gluten free dairy free cheese product).  It took 20 minutes to cook in the oven from frozen which was also pretty convenient.

There were 2 personal sized pizzas in the box for $5.00 + shipping purchased directly from El Peto - http://www.elpeto.com/elpetoonline/index.php?route=product/product&path=35_40&product_id=155

The fact that there are 2 pizzas in the box would probably be helpful for those of you who don't fill up on one personal sized pizza (like my husband) but for Monkey and I, I ate one and she had the other.  I was stuffed. :)

Chicken Fingers - The Sequel

Premade Chicken Fingers are something that people without gluten intolerance or Celiac disease take for granted.  Go into a pub, restaurant, or a grocery store and you can probably pick up a pretty decent box of chicken fingers for what would probably be considered a reasonable price.

Not the case when you have Celiac disease.  Most gluten free premade chicken fingers are honestly pretty grose.  Enter S'Better Farms:

My daughter is celebrating her 2nd birthday tomorrow and requested "kicken" fingers.  She loves when I make them but I didn't think I had time so I decided to try one last ditch attempt at finding a box of chicken fingers that didn't taste disgusting and cost 2 arms and a leg. lol.

As taste and texture go, I was pretty impressed with S'Better Farms Chicken fingers.  They are also Kosher and Halal for those who that's important to.  Unfortunately, they are lacking in size for their price.  Here is a picture of some of the chicken fingers in the box.  (This is half of the box by the way.)  Not a whole lot of chicken for the comparable cost of a non-gluten free box of chicken fingers.  Unfortunately this is common with gluten free foods. :(

Boxed Chicken Fingers

If I had to buy premade chicken fingers S'Better Farms far surpasses the taste of any comparable gluten free product on the market and I would recommend them but unfortunately making my own is still cheaper and heartier than the gluten free products on the market. :)  Here is a picture of some of the gluten free chicken fingers I made tonight for the party tomorrow. :)

Homemade Chicken Fingers

I used my previous recipe, http://ontheedgeoftomorrow.blogspot.com/2011/07/chicken-fingers.html , but instead of using Rice Crisps I used 3/4 of a cup of Alterna Gluten Free Bread Crumbs pictured below and omitted the salt in the recipe (as the bread crumbs contain salt). :)  Hubby and I tried the chicken fingers tonight and we both agree they are yummy!  Hubby actually said they were the best gluten free chicken fingers he had ever tasted.  So try them yourself!  Let me know what you think! :)

Product Review: Road's End Penne and "Chreese"

I know this is a horrible picture of the box and here is another horrible picture of the product. lol.  If you notice there is a baby spoon in this bowl.  That's because it's a picture of my daughter's food rather than mine.

So before I say anything I'll give you this description of Road's End Penne and "Chreese" from the manufacturer's website.

"Delicious meal solution of organic brown rice pasta tubes with our special gluten-free cheddar Chreese® nondairy sauce mix."

Here's my take on that statement.  It wasn't delicious and it certainly didn't taste like cheese.

So what can I say about this product?  I have a 2 year old who will eat absolutely anything and she wouldn't eat this stuff.  She took a couple of bites and left the rest.

Honestly it tasted like I was eating a bowl of lentils.  If you like lentils then this product could be for you.  If not, then I wouldn't suggest it.  It doesn't even slightly taste like cheese in the tiniest bit and definitely wasn't what I expected out of a macaroni & cheese product.

I cooked the noodles for 15 minutes (5 minutes longer than the longest package direction advised) and their texture was good.  I did add oil to the water while cooking to keep them from sticking which the package didn't advise but I generally do this with gluten free pastas anyway.

Overall in summary, this is not a product I would buy again.  Not a good option for gluten free, dairy free mac and cheese.