gluten free cafe by health valley - black bean soup

eh.  it's ok.  3 stars.  Some weird background flavor that I wish wasn't there.  If it wasn't there I'd like it a lot more.

Progresso - Three Bean Chili with Beef & Crackers- edited

5 stars.  A normal soup that happens to be gluten free.  It's delicious!  I loved it!  Bought 3 more cans for when I'm recouping form surgery.  And high in fiber which is necessary since whole grains from wheat have been eliminated from my diet.

Crunchmaster Multi-grain Crisps - Original flavor - Very tasty.  Most rice chip/crisp things are nasty I'm discovering.  Way too strong of a ricey flavor.  But theses are more crunchy and nutty and GREAT!

EDITED.....no longer 5 stars.  I've had it three times and it's not my favorite anymore  3-4 stars.

5 Star Spaghetti! - Mrs Leepers Corn Spaghetti

Hallelujah!  5 stars!  This stuff tasted normal!  And although it broke itself into much smaller than long spaghetti sized pieces, it did not go mushy.  It was fabulous!  Only problem was when I went to dump it in the strainer.... I discovered it was lying there in huge clumps.  I started to cry.   SEriously did.  Cause I was so frustrated.  Everything else was ready to eat.  And when I put the pasta into the hot water I totally stirred it for 3-4 minutes to avoid clumpy sticking.  ARGH!

So I put it back into hot water and one at a time with two forks separated each strand.  And cooked it again for 3-4 minutes.  I seriously can't believe it worked.  What a pain in the butt.  But in good news, every single kid asked for seconds. YAHOO!'

Biaggis Italian Restaurant

5 big fat gold stars for their awesome gluten free meal options and amazing food.  Expensive.... but so so many choices, such educated staff, careful attention to the importance of my meal being gluten-free.  It was awesome!!!!

The Pure Pantry - Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

Dan and Summer made these for me on Sunday.  They were tasty.  3 out of 5 stars.  Yum!  Not much moisture and a texture sort of grainy again, but I enjoyed them a lot.  The texture thing of all these GF baked goods is a bummer.  I swear if I cooked these things too long they would turn to ashes....  Just disintegrate completely.

Amy's Enchilada and Pier 49

Amy's frozen Enchilada - black bean - Yum!  I'd say 4 out of 5 stars.  But that's pretty generous on the stars cause right now I"m feeling extremely limited when it comes to yummy gluten free foods.  Not fabulous, but I would totally get it again.  It was pretty tasty!

Amy's frozen Enchilada with black beans and rice - definitely good.

Pier 49 - Boooo.  You have gluten-free pizza.  But you don't deliver to me.  :(  I was so excited.  Dan's off to Moab for a big adventure race with Jared.  I thought tonight would be the perfect night to try their gluten-free pizza.  Well...not if I"m going ot have to drive to get it.  Disappointed.

Blue Chip GF Chocolate Cake

I forgot to post my review of the cake.  IT WAS FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!  VERY VERY YUMMY!  YAHOOO!!!

I cooked it in two round pans and then did a double decker cake with frosting in the middle.  It sorta....fell apart....

Nothing a little frosting can't fix...ok, a lot of frosting!!!

What I liked best was it wasn't dry.  It was super yummy!

Betty Crocker GF Brownies

Who knew Betty Crocker was jumping into the GF market?   At Walmart I found some Betty Crocker mixes.  Over the weekend we tried the brownies.  It was pretty good.  Weird texture like all baked GF goods.  More of a dark chocolate taste.  I would make them again.

The most disappointing thing?  My favorite thing about brownies is eating the edges.  They are a big more chewy or crunchy if you sorta stink at cooking and overbake them.  But these GF brownies?  Just the same texture all over.  Center, edges, all the same.  I guess that's good if you like the center of brownies.  But yet again, it's another food thing I will miss.  :(

Amy's Bowls - Brown Rice and Vegetables

This was a frozen rice bowl thing and it was gross!!!

Amy's Cheese Pizza - Rice Crust and Namaste Foods - Waffle/Pancake

Amy's Cheese Pizza - Rice Crust made with organic rice flour and tomatoes: Disgusting.  Gross.  Blah.

Namaste Foods - Waffle and Pancake Mix: Quite tasty.

When 1/2 the regular pizza and 1/2 the gluten-free pizza were gone I moved the gluten free pizza onto the same pan as the regular pizza to save space on the table.   Whoops.  Contaminated.  Sigh.  Nice one.

I told Dan I think it's stupid that crumbs supposedly matter.  I told him I needed to understand this concept better in order to buy into it.  He explained it as if the crumbs are like bacteria.  And it only takes a very small amount of a bacteria to cause  response in your body.  He said it's the same for me with gluten.  Trace amounts of gluten cause my body to react and start attacking things.

Ok.  Good explanation.  Need to buy my own personal containers of butter and jam and mayo and blah blah blah today.  Was discouraged last night about it all.  Nasty tasting pizza.  Yum.  Not.  Dan suggests I stop trying to find replacements for the normal stuff and just eat more regular naturally gluten-free stuff.  Good point, but I do want to find replacements for lots of things.  I just need to keep trying things and learn which brands are best, etc.

Blah.

Downstairs to go exercise on my own....not as fun.  Not as motivated.  

Blue Chip - GF Chocolate Cake and Eleanor's Bakery

As if I don't already dislike cooking....try this on for size.  And by the way, it's not gluten-free.  It's GF.  Get with the program, people.  :)  

So the kids and I decided to try this GF chocolate cake.  I'm reading on the top right that it makes 2 - 2 Layer Cakes per bag.  So two round pans today, two round pans another day.  Right?  Makes sense to me. Then I decided since two round pans equal one regular sized cake, maybe it would be fun to just combine into one bundt cake pan.  But then I realize....maybe it doesn't cook right with that much batter in one pan? Maybe that's why it says to cook it in two round cake pans?  So I decider to do two round cake pans.

I'm mixing in the ingredients and add 3 cups of cake mix as directed.  As I pouring it I'm thinking, there is no way there is 6 cups of cake mix in this bag??  But I mix in the 3 cups and I do have some left.  For fun I pour it out and measure it.  One full cup.  Not 3 cups.....as would be needed to repeat this process on another day.  Not 1/4 of a cup, which would just mean they included a little extra for using on the cake pan after you grease it.  I'm so confused.  I walk in to show it all to Dan to make sure I'm not missing something.  We both are confused.  Who wrote these stupid directions?  Who measured the cake mix at the packaging company?  What am I going to do with one full cup of expensive cake mix left over??  Weird, weird, weird.

So I put the cakes in to cook and see that it says to cook them for "up to 30 minutes".  What kind of time range is that?????  Up to 30 minutes?  Does that mean it's like 28-32 minutes but they decided to save space and just type 30 minutes?  Does that mean maybe it will be ready after 24 minutes, but the maximum would be 30 minutes. 

GOOD GRIEF!!!  And after all this it will probably taste weird again.  Sigh.  We shall see.  Ok, I just checked them at 24 minutes.  Toothpicks came out clean.  Tops look smooth and dry and fully cooked.  Then I wondered.... So I poked the toothpick back into the same hole and it came out gooey.   Okaaaay. So it has like a crispy crust....and soggy center.  So needs to cook longer.  Weird.  

Ok, done at about 29 minutes.  Cooling now.

What other GF news do I have?  After church I cut up slices of the Honey Oat GF bread I got from the Gluten-Free Bakery Eleanor's.  Oh...I forgot to post about  that.  Duh.  Would you believe there is a totally GF bakery about 20+ minutes from my house?  I went to check it out at 10am last Thursday.  Only to find out it was closed.  Huh?  I thought all bakeries opened at the crack of dawn.  UGH.  

So I went back later.  Brought home 1 loaf each of 

Honey Oat bread:  Pretty good

Cinnamon Roll bread:  pretty good

1 dozen GF cookies:  delicious!  Odd texture as usual, but very tasty!  

1 GF turkey sandwich - weird.  Instead of their bread they used like a cornmeal pancake.  Very bland and just not that good.  Only good thing was the honey mustard and turkey on it.

1 GF Lentil Soup:  delicious!

Total cost: $39

Anyway, I decided for lunch today we would all eat GF bread.  So that meant I only got out "my" butter so it would not be in danger of cross contamination from wheat floured bread.  But then at the end of the meal Austin asked if he could toast his bread, but got wheat flour bread and brought it over ot the table.  Which led to me freaking out when he almost put his knife into "my" butter.  Sigh.

Because of this kind of thing, Dan wants us to only have GF bread in the house.  I'm resistant to that.  I would like to keep so much of everything normal.  And just have me be the one who has to make some of those changes.  LIke in the future, everyone else eats wheat flour bread with their meal and I get my GF bread buttered with "my" butter before I bring it to the table and it will stay nice and wheat crumb free in the fridge.  Sigh.  I do see Dan's point.  If we just did the whole family on GF bread it would simplify mealtime.  But how often am I going to have to run 25 minutes away to the bakery to get it?  I guess I can freeze a loaf at a time.  That would help.  But come on...the GF bread is pretty good from Eleanor's, but kinda odd still.  More solid, less moisture, and more expensive.  It's way better than what Harmon's offered.  I am ok with eating it.  But I'd rather have the rest of the family eat regular bread.  WE'll see.  It will take some time to work these bugs out.

Oh, and by the way, I screwed up again.  I took the sacrament.  I knew this would be an issue, but had not talked with Dan about it yet to figure out what to do.  And forgot.  As soon as I at the piece of bread I whispered to Veronica, "Whoops."  

Not sure what to do about that.  Buy GF bread for the entire ward every week?  Not likely.  As for one tray that's just GF bread or a GF cracker for me?  Not likely.   A different suggestion Dan read makes me roll my eyes but actually seems like the best idea.  I put in a little zip lock bag a small bite of bread for me for the sacrament.  I give that to the Priests each Sunday.  They put my little ziplock bag....all protected from "dangerous" wheat bread crumbs on the tray with the other little wheat bread pieces.  It gets blessed.  We sit in the same place each Sunday and a nice deacon's job is to always make sure the right tray gets brought to me where I can take the ziplock bag, open it up, and eat my GF sacrament bread bite.

Sigh.  It will work out.  But I hate the special needs stuff.  I'll send the bishop an email and run it by him.  One other woman in the ward has Celiac.  I wonder what she does?

Pacific - Thai Sweet Potato Soup and Glutino GF Pretzels

Pacific Natural Foods - Thai Sweet Potato Soup - disgusting.  Too spicy.  Not good flavors, mostly broth

Glutino Gluten Free Pretzel Twists - fabulous!  Taste pretty much the same as normal!

Glutino GF Crackers, Schar GF Fusilli, and Schar GF White Rolls

Glutino Gluten Free Crackers - original flavor:  Pretty good.  Not bad.

Schar gluten-free, wheat free Fusilli:  Pretty good, kids didn't notice a difference.

Schar gluten-free, wheat free Clasic White Rolls: nasty.  Dry as a bone.  Bleeech.  And it's March 8th but the package says they don't expire til June 1st.....perhaps that's part of the problem, 'eh?  I think there is a gluten-free bakery in Sandy.  If I have time tomorrow I'm going to check it out.

Gluten-Free Here We Go

I decided since I'm going to have to eat Gluten-Free for the rest of my life I may as well start a food blog.  I want to keep track of which foods and products I try and whether I liked them or not.  With this separate blog I'll be able to do a better job categorizing foods so I can find them again when I need to remember "that great chocolate cake mix" of whatever.  So I"m going to transfer to here the different food reviews I've already done for my own little record of it all.  Here we go....

Harmons

After Summer's gymnastics class today we went to HArmon's to check out their gluten-free section.  I asked where it was.  "Oh, we don't have a section.  Everything is just mixed in on all the aisles."

UGH.  Seriously?  So with my two little ones in tow I started hunting.  After a couple aisles I finally figured out they had purple signs below a lot of the gluten-free items and that helped.  I found a few things.....

I'm too tired to even go into details on this all.  I'm grateful for gluten-free products.  I'm grateful for a big salary so we can afford these freaking expensive food products.  

I thought I did pretty good today.  Rice Krispies for breakfast.  Taco soup and "rice" crackers for lunch.  Then I started looking on the can for tomato soup....which I put in the Taco soup.... and found wheat flour.

I'm going to have a big learning curve with this.  I guess I should be grateful I don't suffer from the typical symptoms of Celiac.  So that while I am learning how to adjust my diet when I have slip ups like the stupid taco soup I at least won't be stuck in the bathroom with problems.

I'm tired.  Partly because of the mental exhaustion involved in knowing I have to change my diet to gluten-free and being sad about that.