Ha ha….do you like my fancy rhyme?  That isn’t why I am writing this post.  I saw an article on Glutenfreeville that linked over to an iVillage article on some gluten-free foods that they (Sloane Miller aka Allergic Girl) found the tastiest. 

Here are the 12 products that Miller/iVillage has listed as “The Tastiest Gluten-Free Foods”

1.  Kinnikinnick KinniToo’s

2.  Udi’s Gluten-free White Sandwich Bread

3.  La Veneziane Corn Pasta

4.  Angie’s Kettle Corn

5.  Boar’s Head Deli Meat

6.  Cherrybrook Kitchen’s Fudge Brownie Mix

7.  Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free Medium Cornmeal

8.  Enjoy Life’s boom CHOCO boom Crispy Rice Bar

9.  Gluten-free Bisquick

10.  Erewhon Cocoa Crispy Brown Rice

11. Nielsen-Massey Flavorings – Pure Vanilla Extract

12.  Betty Crocker’s Gluten-free Brownie Mix

I have sampled many of the above products, but not all of them.  I have not tried the La Veneziane Corn Pasta, Cherrybrook Kitchen’s Brownie Mix or Nielson-Massey Flavorings. While I agree with a lot of the food listed, I do have some of my own opinions.  Bet you wouldn’t have guessed that, huh?

• Our Sandwich Cookie Choice is the KinniToo’s, but our Chocolate Chip Cookie is Udi’s– they taste homemade!
• We love Udi’s Gluten-Free White Sandwich Bread, but Rudi’s is also good, as is Canyon Bakehouse.
• Angie’s Popcorn is the bomb! 
• Boar’s Head Deli Meat is one of our favorites.  If I had to choose a 2nd here, it would be Applegate Farms.
• I don’t think I have had a bad product from Bob’s Red Mill.  Their Gluten-Free Medium Cornmeal is great for frying okra!  YUM!
• Enjoy Life makes a wonderful variety of gluten-free chocolate and if you are missing Nestle Crunch Bars, the Crispy Rice Bar will do wonders for your cravings.   
• Even our non-gluten-free members of the family enjoy Gluten-Free Bisquick.  These girls are some tough critics.  Great product that can easily be found in mainstream stores.  If you don’t care for the GF Bisquick, Better Batter Pancake Mix is excellent. 
• While we do like the Erewhon Cocoa Crispy Brown Rice, we prefer Envirokidz Leapin’ Lemurs – small fascination with chocolate & peanut butter going on here. 
• Brownies – Betty Crocker does make a great mix that is easy to find and reasonably priced.  However, our favorite GF Brownie Mix is made by 1,2,3 Gluten-Free.  Even my non-gluten-free, super-texture-sensitive sister, Kelly, loved these! 

Care to share your thoughts on this list or share yours?  I am always interested in seeing what others like and learning about new products.  Just for fun I thought I would share a post I wrote back in August 2008 about my gluten-free favorites.  Fun to see how times have changed! 

First and foremost, I am sorry for disappearing towards the end of last week again.  It seems like I take one step forward & 2 steps back with this darn sinus infection.  Another doctor’s visit and a medication change, I believe that I may be on the right path. I hesitate to say that I am getting better because each time I have said that, I end up getting worse the next day.  Needless to say, I have all of my fingers crossed. 

Over the past few days I have been laying low and catching up on my DVR.  Aaron and I watch Parenthood together (it is “our” show – meaning we don’t watch without each other) and were several episodes behind, so spent some time catching up.  We finally watched the episode with the birthday party for Max where Kristina is running around preparing for the party.  During this time she mentions, more than once, gluten-free food and cupcakes.  A mom calls to make sure the food is gluten-free.  Then, later you see another regular character, Sarah, eating one of the cupcakes & saying that something doesn’t taste right.  Once Kristina mentions that they are gluten-free, she changes her tune and says they taste great, but has an odd look on her face.  Those aren’t the exact lines, but you get the picture. 

**Image courtesy of NBC.com/Parenthood

I couldn’t help but feel a little funny about that scene.  Maybe I took offense because I am always trying to convince skeptics that gluten-free food really can taste good.  I don’t know.  Don’t get me wrong, I love that more & more Prime Time TV shows are putting in bits & pieces of gluten-free products and/or storylines.  I just hate to see any more skepticism added to an already highly-criticized way of life.  I love that when I say “gluten-free” it is rare that someone looks at me like I have 2 heads; though they may not know what exactly the diet entails, they have heard of it, which is more than I can say for when I first started the diet in 2006.  Just call me an optimist, but I always try to put a positive spin on things.  Jon and I, along with many others, don’t follow this diet because it is the “in” thing to do, we follow it because we can’t eat gluten for one reason or another. 

What do you think?  Are you of the mind that any press is good press?  Or, does stuff like this get your knickers in a bunch? 

I also read on Vanessa’s blog today that ABC’s Brothers & Sisters had a gluten-free moment as well! 

Check this out!

Be the Face of Celiac Awareness!

Submit Your Photo to NFCA’s Celiac Mosaic

Whether you have celiac disease, are gluten intolerant or know someone who is, help us spread awareness by participating in NFCA’s mosaic.

In May, NFCA’s Facebook page will feature a collage of photos submitted by the celiac and gluten-free community. The mosaic will put a face on gluten-free needs and bring supporters together in solidarity. We will encourage those who submit photos to tag themselves in the mosaic to show their pride and draw attention to the cause.

We’re starting to collect photos now so the collage will be big and beautiful by May 1^st. To join the effort, email your picture to photos@celiaccentral.org today. Please send your photo as a jpeg attachment. We encourage you to share the word with support group members and the rest of the gluten-free community!

Are you going to submit your photo?  Do it today!  I am off to submit mine right now!

Working from home allows me access to my kitchen all day long.  This can be good and this can be bad.  It is good because I have a variety of options at my fingertips.  It is bad because I have a variety of options at my fingertips.  LOL!  Boredom can lead to mindless snacking, so I have become disciplined in eating only when my body is truly hungry, not bored or thirsty. 

Lunches can sometimes be a challenge if we don’t have food leftover from the dinner the night before.  If I start grazing on fruit when I am making the kids lunches, it is too easy for me to skip lunch all together, so even though fruit is healthy, I try to limit my grazing unless I am sitting down with a bowl of fruit or a snack. 

One of my current favorites for lunch is a salad, sandwich & simple side of sweet potato fries.  Alexia makes sweet potato fries that are super simple to prepare.  Just preheat the oven and toss the fries in on a baking sheet, turn half way through the baking time and then you have fresh fries!

See how good that lunch looks?  I prepared a turkey sandwich with havarti, spinach & mustard and served along side fresh cantaloupe and Alexia sweet potato fries.  I used Udi’s gluten-free bread to make the sandwich and gently toasted it in the toaster oven before assembling my sandwich.

Alexia makes many products, but they are not all gluten-free.  Their gluten-free products include all of the potato items with the exception of the “Alexia Potato Bites”.  For more FAQ, click here. 

Click here to get a $1 off coupon for Alexia foods. 

In addition to my sandwich, fries & fruit, I always have a side salad.  I make a large spinach salad with grape tomatoes topped with a drizzle of French dressing.  I can’t seem to get enough fresh spinach lately.  What do you have for lunch?  Do you make lunch to take with you to work?  Do you eat lunch out?  At home?

***As part of theFoodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received the Alexia Sweet Potato Fries free of charge.  The opinions stated in this blog are mine and have not been influenced by anyone or anything.

And the Italian version that Jon had:

I love the cornmeal dusting on the bottom of the crust, it really adds a wonderful texture to the crust.  These crusts also don’t seem to be as sweet as the round crusts were, making them nice to use with savory toppings.  The cost seems steep at $8 – $9/box, but there are 4 personal size crusts per box, which when you break it down isn’t all that bad.  Less than $2.25/crust.  The serving size is noted on the box as being 1/2 of a personal pizza.  I ate the whole thing + a large salad.  Calorie wise, there are 248 calories per serving, so 500 for the entire crust + toppings.

Are you wondering why the new crusts are square?  Here is the explanation I found on Kinnikinnick’s blog:

“Over the last year I have received dozens (hundreds?) of emails similar the the one that arrived this morning:

“My local health food store keeps telling me that they can’t get your pizza crust […] What is the problem?”

Many of you are probably aware of the Donut Saga, which was our struggle to keep up with demand for donuts, our search for equipment and a formulation that would work with the equipment and the response we received to the new donut. Essentially, Kinnikinnick Pizza Crust has suffered from the same supply/demand problem. We simply couldn’t make them fast enough. Each crust was formed by hand and baked in small batches. We’ve known this was an issue for about 18 months and began the process of looking for new equipment which could produce our crusts in a more automated fashion. However, like the donuts, there simply isn’t any pizza crust equipment available that would work with our gluten free pizza dough. About 12 months ago, our product development team sat down with our facilities staff and I said,

“OK, let’s build our own pizza line…
“From scratch.”

All things considered, they took it pretty well.
One of the things that quickly became apparent was that it would be virtually impossible to automate a round pizza crust with our dough. Most traditional wheat based equipment uses a system which picks up the excess dough created when cutting a round shape. Our doughs are simply too soft for us to automate this. We knew our only option was to get “square”. We had some concerns about consumer acceptance but we found that a web search for “square pizza” returned almost 60,000 matches. Square pizza is quite common.”

Kinnikinnick’s pizza crusts can be found in over 5,000 stores!  Click here to find the location closest to you.  There are also 61 restaurants that use Kinnikinnick’s products.  Click here to locate those restaurants.  As always, Kinnikinnick offers a flat rate of $10 to ship their products.  Online orders are the perfect chance to stock up.

Are you ready for March?  I know I am.  February was filled with way too much cold, snow, ice and illness.  It is time to move on.  When I got up today I felt so much better than I have over the past 3 weeks.  The sun was peeking out from behind the clouds and low & behold, it was not below zero outside!  It felt like I had been hibernating and finally woke up at the end of winter.  I won’t be fooled, though, this is Ohio and we are still due for some more nasty weather.  Maybe Mother Nature will give us a break if we behave.

Hockey is over.  Jon’s team made it to States – not bad for the first year that the high school has had a JV team.  All of the boys played a great season!  Sadly they did not win states – they were 1 – 1 – 1.  Now it is time for recreational hockey, summer hockey & pre-season hockey.

Needless to say, our schedule should be calming down a bit in the evenings now.  I should be careful what I say, huh?

Menu

Sunday – Chipotle – (see below how I got a BOGO coupon)

Monday – Spaghetti with marinutta sauce, roasted asparagus & salad

Tuesday – Mexican Pizzas, black beans, corn & salad

Wednesday – Breakfast for dinner

Thursday –BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, sugar snap peas and salad

Friday – Pizza and salad

Saturday – Filet mignon, baked potato & salad

BOGO deal for Chiptole:  I watched a 90 second video about a new show that begins on March 6, 2011.  Click here to see what it is all about!

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Have you heard the news?  Hope you are sitting down…..Kellogg’s will be debuting a gluten-free version of Rice Krispies last this spring!  Click here to read more about it!

Some more great news this week on the new gluten-free product front – Kim & Scott’s will be debuting a Gluten-Free Soft Pretzel!  Click here for the scoop!

I look forward to catching up (for real) this week!  LOL!  Hope you all have a great week!

Kim

This head cold/sinus disaster feels like the movie “Groundhog Day”.  Each day I wake up hoping things will be different, and they are not.  I finally cried “Uncle” and went to The Little Clinic.  I was diagnosed with a raging sinus infection and sent on my way with some antibiotics.  3 days later, I think I am finally beginning to see a difference.  I haven’t been this sick since I had H1N1 back in October 2009 and thought I just had a head cold.  I have no energy and unfortunately my blog and house are suffering. 

While I was surfing the net today I came across an article that really caught my eye – Asthma Linked to Celiac Disease.  Wow.  Jon was diagnosed with Asthma at 18 months old and Celiac Disease at 10 years old. 

Those diagnosed with asthma were also more likely to eventually develop celiac disease, the authors report in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Anyone else have both?  Were you diagnosed with Asthma or Celiac Disease first?

For now I will leave you with some links to some articles I wrote this week for Celiac-Disease.com.  Sorry to be MIA all week.  I hope to get back to normal blogging & posting next week. 

Red Robin Continues to Offer Reliable Gluten-Free Options

Justin’s Nut Butters – Heaven on Earth

Product Review: Wild Alice Bars

Product Review: Grandma Lulu’s Sand Dollar Cookies <—-Best cookies I have EVER tested (gluten-free or not gluten-free)

Product Review: Nana’s Cookie Bars

Hope you are all having a great week! 

This week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.  I will always do what I can to get the word out about eating disorders and how dangerous they can be.  After suffering from anorexia as a teen, I want to do what I can to help others that may be in the same position.   

Did you know?
"Most fashion models are thinner than 98% of American women (Smolak, 1996)."

That alone is enough to make any young girl (or guy) want to be thinner.  It is a very, very slippery slope.  Instead of trying to be someone else, celebrate you. You are beautiful just the way you are.   I am a huge supporter of Operation Beautiful for this very reason.   Caitlyn has a few stories up today in recognition of NEDA week, one of them is mine.  Be sure to check it out here. 

If you know anyone that may be suffering from an eating disorder, please don’t brush it under the rug.  If you aren’t sure what to do or how to approach the person, please seek help in doing so.  There are so many resources out there. 

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I think I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with this darn head cold.  Good Lord!  It has been 2 weeks!  The snot just keeps on coming.  Who knew that one person could produce so much mucous?!  Enough about that, let’s move along to the week ahead.  Jon and his JV hockey team won the Division Championship and are headed to states!  This is huge for this team, as it is the first year our HS has had a JV team!  I hope they have a successful weekend!

Monday – Sunshine burger stuffed baked potatotes, asparagus & salad

Tuesday – Taco night – black beans, Mexican corn & salad

Wednesday – Grilled chicken, brown rice, green beans & salad

Thursday –BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, Alexia sweet potato fries, steamed broccoli & salad

Friday – Pizzas on Kinnikinnick crusts – make your own & salad

Saturday –Breakfast for dinner

Baked Goods

I’ll be lucky to get the laundry done!  LOL!  I hope to make some cookies and/or muffins of some sort.  Not sure what yet. 

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Weekly Recap

Recipe: Havarti Tuna Melt

Recipe: Lemon Mousse Treat

Marshall’s stocks some GF foods.

Recall: Garden of Eatin’ chips

Giuseppe’s Ritrovo offers gluten-free options

Review: Nana’s Cookies Bars

Review: Crunchy & Yummy Dried Fruit

Update on Udi’s Gluten-Free at Kroger.

Review: Applegate Farms Chicken Nuggets

Jon is a huge fan of all thing lemon, so when I found a box of lemon Jell-O when I was organizing the pantry the other day, I promised him I would make it.  As I was glancing on the side of the box to see how much water to use, I found a recipe for Lemon Mousse that looked really simple.  It only called for the Jell-O, boiling water & Cool Whip.  As it just happened, I had found a frozen container of Cool Whip in the freezer the week before.  I think it was from Christmas – ooops!  Since it hadn’t been opened yet, I knew that it was still good.

1 pkg. Lemon Jell-O

1 16 oz. container of Cool Whip, thawed & divided

3 cups boiling water

Directions

1.  Empty Jell-O into a large bowl.  Reserve 1 cup of the Cool Whip & refrigerate.

2.  Add boiling water to Jell-O and stir for 2 minutes (powder should be dissolved).

3.  Add remaining Cool Whip and whisk until combined. 

4.  Pour into individual containers/bowls that have been sprayed with cooking spray.

5.  Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. 

6.  Top with remaining Cool Whip & serve.

Doesn’t that look refreshing? 

Hope that you all have a great weekend!  I have 10 miles on the schedule for tomorrow – never thought that I would say this, but I am glad it is “only” 10 miles.  LOL!  Funny what marathon training does to your perspective. 

During my weekly Sunday grocery shopping trip this week, the Kraft* Deli Slices cheese were on sale.  I normally pick up cheddar, muenster or provolone, but decided to stray from the ordinary & picked up the havarti slices this time.  I was excited to see what fun combos I could come up with using the havarti this week and began with some inspiration from a recipe on the package itself. 

I was trying to come up with the best way to describe havarti cheese to you all in case you were not familiar with it and decided that Cheese.com did a much better job than I was doing:

Havarti is a traditional, creamery and semi-soft. It is a simple, washed-rind cheese with irregular holes throughout. There is an enriched version, with added cream which is softer and feels more luxurious in the mouth. There is also a version with caraway seeds. Havarti is named after the farm in Denmark where Hanne Nielsen first made it.

The recipe on the back of the package called for some ingredients that I did not have on hand, so I improvised & came up with my own version that turned out awesome, if I do say so myself. 

Havarti Tuna Melt

1 can (5 oz. tuna, drained)

2 Tbsp. Hellman’s Canola Mayo

1 Tbsp. dried blueberries (The original recipe called for cranberries and since I was out, blueberries it was!)

1/4 tsp. dill weed

2 slices Kraft Havarti Cheese

2 Food for Life GF English Muffin or Trader Joe’s GF French Roll

Directions

1.  Combine first 4 ingredients.

2.  Split and lightly toast muffin/roll

3.  Evenly distribute tuna mixture amongst the 4 halves and top with cheese.

4.  Place halves under broiler until cheese is melted & bubbly.

5.  Enjoy!

This will serve 2 – 4 people. (2 for a meal, 4 if pairing with soup or a large salad)

I loved the addition of dill in the tuna salad and the blueberries were the prefect, tiny bursts of sweet!  While I normally love cheddar on my tuna melts, topped with Red Hot or Sriracha, the havarti cheese was creamy & paired well with the dill and dried blueberries.  I am thinking of making another batch as I sit here and write this post.  It was that good!  I should probably add this recipe to my “weird combinations” list, right? 

*As far as Kraft goes, they are one of the companies that will clearly label any gluten on the label, so choosing their products over another brand is a no brainer for me.  Read more gluten-free information from Kraft here.  I love to support companies that make my life easier.