Review: Kinnikinnick New Personal Pizza Crusts

mexpizu

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.

Here We Go….

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

Cold & Sinus Groundhog Day

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! 

Weekly Menu Plan, National Eating Disorders Awareness Week & More

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

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Recipe: Lemon Mousse Treat

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.

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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.

lemonmousse

Doesn’t that look refreshing? 

lm1

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. 

Recipe: Havarti Tuna Melt

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. 

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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. 

Kudos to Redbook

I want to stop my day for a moment and send out kudos to Redbook today.  I was reading the newest issue (March 2011) while on my 6 mile run this morning.  I was on the treadmill, so passing that time with something to keep my mind off of how far I have gone or have left to go is key.  I came across an article on page 84 called “Bloated Much?” and thought to myself that I wonder if they will mention gluten in this article.

I began reading the article.  Twenty percent of Americans experience gas, bloating, and other stomach woes on a regular basis.  The following statement got me thinking:

Women are more likely to suffer from tummy trouble, and rates of many digestive issues that more commonly target women – such as Celiac Disease and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) – are on the rise”. 

I am not sure that I have ever heard that women have more cases of Celiac Disease than men before.  While it may be true, it may also be that women are more likely to visit the doctor than men are. 

The article covers 4 possible causes of bloat and how to assess those causes.  The #1 culprit listed is “What you eat and drink”.  Whenever I hear of someone suffering from a stomach issue of any sort, of course the first thing that pops into my head is food.  If the person is not suffering from an illness, I always suggest keeping a food diary for at least 2 weeks.  There are so many foods that can cause bloating.  This sections lists many, including gluten.  It goes on to say one of my all time favorite things I have read in a magazine:

That said, if you suspect a gluten sensitivity, don’t try to nix wheat, rye and barley on your own.  See a gastroenterologist for a blood test for Celiac Disease – it’s a genetic disorder that can result in severe nutritional deficiencies if it’s not handled with a proper diet.”

I about fell off the treadmill!  Seriously.  It was quite a sight.  Even with all the increased awareness out there, there are times when I see Celiac Disease or gluten sensitivities mentioned in articles with incorrect information right along with it.  Kudos to Redbook for getting the facts straight. 

The remaining reasons for bloating are #2 “Hormones” #3 “Pills you pop” and #4 “Your crazy life”.  Even if you have Celiac Disease and follow a gluten-free diet, you may still experience bloating that has nothing to do with gluten, so examining these other reasons may be worth your time.  As always, when in doubt, see your doctor.  Better to waste your time & co-pay to find out it is nothing than to ignore something that could be serious. 

Happy Valentine’s Day & Menu Planning

Hope that you are all having a fabulous, gluten-free Valentine’s Day!  Aaron and I went out last night for our special dinner and I think that I may have gotten glutened!  ACK!  It has been a long time since this has happened and I don’t miss it one bit!  Sad smile  We often eat at the restaurant we went to last night, so I don’t know exactly what went wrong.  I think not knowing what made me sick is worse than being able to pinpoint it.  I did have something different, so I would love to assume that it was the new entrée so that I can just stay clear of that next time.  I am finally starting to feel a little bit better- 18+ hours later. 

Do you have any special plans today?  I will be enjoying some Dark Chocolate Truffle Hearts from Trader Joe’s later this evening.  Baked Ziti would be a great idea for Valentine’s dinner –

Here is our menu plan for the week:

Monday- Applegate Farms Chicken Nuggets, baked beans, broccoli & salad

Tuesday – Mexican Pizzas, black beans, corn & salad

Wednesday – Baked Ziti, roasted green beans & salad

Thursday – Grilled Cheese on Rudi’s Bread & Amy’s Tomato Soup & salad

Friday – Mellow Mushroom pizza & salad

Saturday – Dinner with my Mom & Joe

 

Baked Goods

Cookies from Glutenfreeda

Brownies

Taco Time Offering Gluten-Free Menu Items

While this exciting news does not directly affect me, it may affect some of my readers, so I felt compelled to share this information.  I am all about spreading the word when I hear of a restaurant catering to the needs of the gluten-free community.  The more awareness that we have out there, the better for us all. 

When I was weeding through my inbox yesterday, I came across this email that I am going to share below.  After reading through it, I was wishing that we had Taco Time here in Ohio!  It really looks like this company has done their homework to not only offer gluten-free food items, but healthy items, too. 

TACO TIME NORTHWEST ANNOUNCES HEALTHY FIT-HITS MENU

Local Quick Service Restaurant is First to Offer Gluten-Free Menu Items in the Puget Sound

RENTON, Wash. – (February 7, 2011) Today, Taco Time Northwest, a northwest-based family-owned Mexican quick service restaurant featuring fresh ingredients, launches its new Fit-Hits menu. The new menu provides customers with low calorie entrée options to make great choices for good health and is the first Puget Sound-area quick service restaurant to feature gluten-free items on its menu.

Each Fit-Hits menu item is distinguished by simple icons and includes information about calories, fat and sodium content. The Fit-Hits menu features eight items with 400 calories or less and four gluten-free items including white chicken chili, a Baja taco, a Southwest chop salad and a light chicken taco salad.

“At Taco Time Northwest, we’re proud to use the freshest ingredients in all of our menu items,” said Robby Tonkin, president of Taco Time Northwest. “By identifying the healthiest options, we’re giving our customers the tools they need to make informed purchases to satisfy their tastes and meet their dietary goals.”

To kick-off the Fit-Hits menu, Taco Time Northwest introduces Taco Time Health Coach Deborah Enos, who specializes in bringing nutrition information to busy people. A certified nutritionist, accomplished author and motivational speaker, Enos serves on the board of the American Heart Association and has been featured inSelf Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens and Good Housekeeping. Enos will be available through the Taco Time Northwest Facebook and Twitter pages to answer customer questions and provide nutrition tips that can be easily applied to daily life.

In addition to the Fit-Hits menu, Taco Time Northwest‘s website offers a Build A Meal tool that allows customers to view nutrition information for each item on the Taco Time menu and to calculate the complete nutritional information for the entire meal.

Fit-Hits menu items range in price from $1.59 to $5.59. For more information about the Fit-Hits menu, visitwww.TacoTimeNW.com or call (425) 226-6656.

About Taco Time Northwest

Taco Time Northwest is a family-run business headquartered in Renton, Wash. Originally founded by Frank Tonkin Sr. in 1962, the Tonkin family has been instrumental in the management of the company since the beginning. With 72 restaurants in the Puget Sound region, Taco Time Northwest offers the ultimate quick service experience featuring tacos, burritos and specialty side items prepared fresh daily and made to order. In addition to a full menu of Mexican entrees and side dishes, Taco Time provides healthy dining options on its Fit-Hits menu, designed to help customers make great choices for good health. For more information about Taco Time Northwest, visit www.TacoTimeNW.com. Follow Taco Time Northwest on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TacoTimeNW and on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/TacoTimeNW.

Do you have a Taco Time close by?  Have you tried any of their gluten-free menu items?  I would love to hear feedback on this, as I have never heard of Taco Time until I received this email.  Oh, and can someone send me a Baja TacoWinking smile

Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Do you have leftovers sitting in your fridge?  Consider combining them and stuffing them inside a large baked potato for a quick meal.  We frequently have leftover veggies and chicken or taco meat, so last week I decided to take those and make a new creation.

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Spicy Taco Stuffed Baked Potato

  1. leftover taco meat (ground turkey + taco seasoning – Old El Paso Original is GF)
  2. baked potato
  3. roasted okra
  4. cheddar cheese
  5. avocado
  6. tomato
  7. Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce

1.  Bake potato.  I do this step in the microwave & then finish off in the oven if I am not ready for the potato yet.  Simply wash the potato, prick with a fork and place in the microwave.  Microwave for 1-2 minutes, then flip & repeat.  Stick a knife or fork in to test doneness.  The knife or fork will easily slide in if the potato is done.

2.  Heat remaining leftovers and then place on top of/inside potato.  Top with cheese and the microwave for 30 – 60 seconds. 

3.  Top with remaining cold ingredients & enjoy.

Get creative & make whatever combos sound good to you.  This is a great meal for these chilly nights we have had lately and all of the ingredients are naturally gluten-free!!  If you don’t have enough leftovers for the whole family, get a nice variety of toppings out – steam some broccoli, open a can of gluten-free chili or black beans. 

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I didn’t quite get around to my menu plan this week.  While I wasn’t really watching the Super Bowl, we did have company over and I thought that being engrossed in my computer would not have been the most social way to go about the evening.  Smile  The rest of the week will look something like this:

Tuesday – Spaghetti with salad

Wednesday – Stuffed Shells, steamed broccoli & salad

Thursday – Burgers, baked steak fries, asparagus & salad

Friday –Shrimp Scampi, pasta, sugar snap peas & salad

Saturday – Pizza and salad

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I need to get busy with my Valentine’s Day stuff…..I would love to make some heart shaped cookies this week!  In the meantime, make sure to check out my Valentine’s Day reminder list and Karina’s Gluten-free Chocolate Recipes for Love

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