Acid Reflux and other digestive issues have finally forced me to give up chocolate for good, it seems…. Oh woe is me, what am I to eat when I get that sweet thing craving. Oddly enough white chocolate that is not contaminated by wheat is relatively difficult to find. Given that we just passed through Easter season, believe me I tried.
Another pet peeve of mine is Ben and Jerry’s, so many of their flavors have either cookie bits or chocolate in them that I’m left eating vanilla and pistachio, assuming that your can find either of these relatively blah flavors at your local store. B&J has built a business catering to people who want goobers of stuff in their ice cream.
Can you imagine my elation when I found an ice cream product just as good as B&J, but most of its flavors are marked GF. I’d seen Talenti Gelato at my local organic grocer haunts for some time. the only reason I did not try it sooner was the $6 a pint asking price, $2 more than B&J. A $4.49 sale on pints at Healthy Living got me started. True to Italian ice cream tradition, the texture is softer than B&J and easier to stick that spoon into. The first flavor I tried was their Sicilian Pistachio. It’s good. But by far my favorite is their Caribbean Coconut. Try it heaped with fresh raspberries and you’re in for a real special treat. Their strawberry is decent as well.
Glutino is really a mixed bag brand as far as replacement food go. A few things are good, a fair number are “meh”, and an equal number rare far inferior to other products out there. How they became the “General Mills” of GF replacement foods is beyond me except they may have gotten there before everybody else jumped on the GF bandwagon.
One of their products that is worth a try are their yogurt covered pretzels. Yes, they have chocolate covered ones too, but for the choco-deprived they are heaven if you are looking for a guilty sweet snack. Health food this is not.
Happy midnight snacks, GF folks.
Frontier Soups and My Favorite Boxed Soup Stock!
March 3, 2012
One of my best GF discoveries since returning Stateside have got to be Frontier Soup kits. Not all their kits are – but a fair number are (they contain the usual warning about not being made in a dedicated GF facility). The first I tried and by far my favorite is the Wisconsin Lakeshore Chicken and Wild Rice Soup. -Yum! All you will need to feed 4-6 is one soup kit, 2 boxes of chicken stock, 3 chicken breasts, a modest bag of peas and carrots, and a few tablespoon of olive oil, follow the directions and -voila, the yummiest chicken soup ever. There is a variation in the recipe on the back of the package that calls for white wine; I must confess I like it so much as is I’ve never tried it, but I’m sure its delicious. One warning, the wild rice takes forever to cook and tends to remain chewy. It won’t get mushy, so throw it in as soon as you add the broth. The kit also comes with GF corn noodle spirals. they hold up pretty well, but as with any Gf pasta add them last, as in 5-10 minutes before you plan on serving the soup.
My favorite boxed chicken stock to use with this recipe and anything else has got to be Kitchen Basics Unsalted Chicken Stock. It has a nice flavor, no MSG taste, and since its unsalted you can choose your own level of seasoning. I like to brown my diced chicken breast separately in a little olive oil and salt/pepper before adding to the soup.
I’ve been making the chicken and wild rice soup about once a week, so I was excited to find another Frontier Soup kit for French Onion Soup. The kit is GF. And if you add only GF items you should be safe, unlike at restaurants where said soup is usually served with a piece of bread floating in it. I also happen to be intolerant/allergic to beef and this soup is suggested to be made with beef stock, as is traditional. I’m happy to report it’s quite passable with aforementioned chicken stock. I even added a little GF beer to “beef it up” so to speak. You’ll need 1-2 onions and 1/2 cup apple cider to complete this soup, plus cheese and some GF bread or croutons as a topping. Toast your GF bread separately and put it on just before serving so it doesn’t get too soggy too fast. This might be a good use for those chewy, crusty Udi’s bagels, although I had mine with Schar Ciabatta Par-baked Rolls.
Peamut Butter Cookie Wars
February 10, 2012
One of the first specifically GF replacement products I tried were Pamela’s Peanut Butter Cookies that I bought in Seattle at Whole Foods. By then I hadn’t had anything closely resembling bread or cookies in about 3 months, as such replacement products by and large simply don’t exist in Japan. I was so desperate for sweet carbs aside from mochi that I didn’t realize quite how good they were, until I recently tried a competing pre-packaged GF cookie product by Tree of Life. Now, I can tell you with certainty that Pamela’s has the packaged GF cookie market won (at least as far as nationally available products go).
GF replacement products are usually expensive enough that when it comes to non-essentials, like sweet treats, I confine myself to sales and weekly specials. I had bought some Tree of Life shortbread cookies and found them okay, so when the peanut butter ones came on sale I figured they ought to be good, -wrong… Of the typical problems GF baked goods face, these have it all: dry, gritty sandy and so crumbly I think only half the cookies in the package were intact. Of course this could have been why they were on sale. While a certain amount of sandy texture is the nature of shortbread, it is totally unacceptable in peanut butter cookies, especially when such a good alternative exists.
Pamela’s PB cookies are moist and chewy and have none of the gritty sandy-ness that often plagues GF replacement foods. To Tree of Life, I can only say “Try, try again…”
GF Shopping In VT
January 19, 2012
I can’t tell you how much easier GF shopping is in America compared to Japan, where awareness of these things is next to non-existant. And they throw soy sauce in everything (instead of salt) which is all contaminated by wheat.
Lots of GF product can be found in regular grocery stores, and lots of products are now labeling themselves as GF, like Helmanns Mayo and Wishbone salad dressings. However, for some replacement items and other stuff its still best to visit one of the natural, health or organic grocery stores.
Whole Foods is awesome for a bigger chain. Alas, we do not have one in VT at this time. The nearest outlet being somewhere around Springfield, MA.
What Vermont does have are three local (somewhat smaller) alternative stores in the greater Burlington area where one can buy various assortments of GF products (or not). Here, I am going to briefly run through the pros and cons of each location and some general ideas about what you can or cannot find at these locations.
City Market Onion River Co-op
While they have a reasonable selection of GF product they are my least favorite option for GF shopping for several reasons. Location and parking: downtown Burlington, -got it… Maybe for someone living there or in Winooski it is more convenient, but for those of us driving in from the ‘burbs this is the most difficult store to access and I tend to only go there when I’m already in the ‘hood, so to speak. Also, while they stock many GF products there does not seem to be a dedicated section for GF. The products are all mixed in with their regular categories, including so-called “replacement foods”, or items that usually contain wheat. And bulk buying from bins, forget it. I have been warned by a friend about the cleanliness, or lack there of, of their bulk buying area. A family she knows got a weevil infestation from their bulk items. and worse for those of us who are GF, there is no section for GF items, and they store their scoops in bowls of wheat flour. I always have to hunt for someone to give me a freshly washed one when I go to buy their genmaicha tea, the only thing I will buy in bulk there.
Healthy Living
Probably the best option for someone looking to do their GF buying “all at once” and get a large quantity and wide variety of items in one place. Also seem to have the only GF beer options beside Bard’s and Redridge. Healthy Living currently carries St. Peter’s and Green’s GF beer, fellow beer snobs please note these are stocked in the regular beer section not the GF isle. The GF isle is currently located at the front of the store between the register and the produce section. My only criticism of their new location is the byzantine, maze-like way the store is organized to help you get lost. that, and the fact that the parking lot can get crazy-full at peak hours like lunch time.
Healthy Living is also one of my favorite places for GF dining, if you don’t mind eating in the middle of a supermarket. They usually have one GF muffin, dessert, and flatbread pizza option available, plus on other items they do a very good job of listing all ingredients, great for people like me with multiple food intolerances and allergies. They will also make deli sandwiches on GF bread. One caveat I should mention is that this is a “shared kitchen” where they do use and make wheat containing items. The dining atmosphere improves exponentially during the warmer months when they open up their outdoor patio to guests.
They do have a dedicated GF bulk buying area with GF pasta and granola, etc. In general their bulk area seems much more clean and has wider, less crowded isles than City Market, but I haven’t actually bought anything from there so this remains an idle observation.
In my next post, I will tell you all about a new and somewhat hidden gem for GF shopping out at the Lang Farm in Essex, Sweet Clover Market.
Katz GF apple pie
January 19, 2012
Yeah, my first GF product review…
Wheat and gluten-free replacement products are generally so expensive that I restrict myself from buying the fun stuff (i.e. junk food and sweets) unless they go on sale, well the local organic grocery store Sweet Clover seems to have overstocked on these prior to the holidays. Voila! Katz GF apple pie on sale for $4.99
They come in blueberry and apple. Not being a blueberry fan I got an apple one to try. Now my mom makes excellent homemade pie which this doesn’t stand a candle to, but seeing as she’s been trying and failing to get a GF crust to come out right for the past half-year. But this is a worthy alternative to wheat containing commercial pies.
I should warn you that its small. about 6″ diameter. And probably feeds 2-3 modest serving slices. It comes in the frozen section, but a minute in the microwave per slice warms it up nicely. Apples are firm and not soggy. Crust is flaky and chewy -hard to do GF, where everything tends to be gritty, sandy or crumbly.
Verdict: good replacement for commercial pie. Somewhat expensive for size.
GF in VT
January 18, 2012
I started doing gluten free while I was still living in Japan after doing battle with some digestive problems. At some point celiac disease was suggested as a possible diagnosis. unable to get a diagnosis from the Japanese medical system, i decided to go gluten-free to see if it helped. While it didn’t solve the problems I’d been seeing the medical community about, it did remedy the day-to-day pattern of constipation and diahrhea I’d lived with my entire adult life. At some point I’d mentioned this pattern to a medical professional and they said it was a normal fluctuation with a woman’s menstrual cycle. Now that I know I can go without this discomfort I’m never going back to eating wheat/rye/barley again!
I’m now back in VT and I can tell you, it’s far easier to go GF in the States than in Japan where there is relatively little awareness of allergies and none of things like celiac disease. Although I miss Japan terribly, I do not miss sending lists of grocery items via email and them waiting very impatiently for two weeks to get one very expensive flat-rate mail box from mom, only to then suffer great disappoint when the GF bread inside is moldy.
I should warn those reading this blog that I’ve subsequently tested negative for celiac. If anything I’m gluten-intolerant. As such I’m not in the “extremely sensitive” category. Things like “shared kitchens” don’t bother me. Still, I hope some of the information I provide is helpful in at least pointing people in the right direction.
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