Saturday, July 31, 2010

Gluten-Free Indy

If you don't read the Indianapolis Star then you most likely missed the recent GF articles. I was donating blood yesterday at the Indiana Blood Center when to my surprise, they had the article sitting out for people to read. Go Indy Star and I kudos to all those involved.

The following is a link to one of the articles and it spotlights The Measuring Cup:
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20107300309

Monday, July 26, 2010

Sunstart "Free From" cookies



While we were at Jungle Jims we searched out GF products all over the store. Now I’ve heard that the incidence for CD is 1 in 100 people in Ireland; therefore we figured that the Irish section of the store would have GF products. Wouldn’t you know – we were right! Sunstart Quality Bakers had a collection of cookies available under their ‘Free From’ title. The list of cookies included:

Supreme Golden Crunch
Chocolate Chip Crunch
Ginger Golden Crunch
Chocolate-Wrapped Golden Crunch
Raspberry Golden Crunch

Tommie bought a box of the Chocolate Chip Crunch and a box of the Chocolate-Wrapped Golden Crunch. The results were wonderful!!!! These have to be the best GF boxed cookies I’ve had. I can’t decide which flavor I liked best; I would suggest trying them all if you’re a cookie fan.

Here’s the bad part – as of right now there are no distributors in Indiana. Argh!! Their website shows 7 distributors in Illinois and 7 in Ohio. So what do we do? Either go to Ohio, Illinois or ask Whole Foods and Georgetown Market to start distributing.

Check out their website: http://www.sunstartusa.com/index.htm

Research Update

Here is a link to an article that you might find intresting:

http://www.livescience.com/health/celiac-disease-gluten-peptides-100721.html

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

First Watch



While we were in Cincinnati we looked for places to eat breakfast and we came across First Watch. The website does have a printable gluten-free menu and I must say breakfast was tasty. I would say that they are a mix between IHOP and Le Peep. They have some more of the high scale offerings of Le Peep while having the IHOP atmosphere.

My only problem with First Watch is that the pricing was a little too high. Our breakfast cost $28 which is a little high for two college students on a budget.

So would I recommend it? Depends on what your budget is.

http://www.firstwatch.com/

Jungle Jims!!!!


I think it required to use exclamation marks behind the title of this wonderful place! When we were in Cincinnati, we decided to stop by this mammoth of a grocery store. We’ve been told for years that we should go here and we finally made the trip. One of my main reasons for going is the lack of Mediterranean food options here in the city. Of course Tommie was ready to do some GF shopping as well.


My first piece of advice is to pick up one of the maps when you first enter. When you read Jim’s website, he’ll give you crazy statistics like: 150,000 products, 1200 beer labels, 12000 wine labels, etc. You will definitely need a map to get through all he has to offer. My second piece of advice, take your time and plan for an entire day’s worth of fun. Of course – I am speaking to foodies, if you are not a foodie, then you may not enjoy this outing.




Tommie and I spent about 3 hours and that is because we had to get home, I’m sure we could have spent much more time. We loved how Jim decorated the different cultural sections; you’ll see pics of Robin Hood’s forest (noting the English section) and the Lucky Charms scene (noting the ‘American’ area). There are plenty other decorations: a tug-tug, a ship, an Elvis-style dog, etc. Did I mention the outside of the store? It looks like a theme park – note the elephant picture.


The GF selection was amazing; make sure you ‘go to’ Ireland as well because you’ll be surprised by the cookie selection. Of course I loved going to the Mediterranean, I purchased about 3 pounds of pitted kalamata olives that should keep me content for about a year or so. Speaking of olives – you have to check out the olive bar!!! It was heaven; I could live in the olive bar.

There were so many wonderful things about Jungle Jim’s and I couldn’t possibly list them all here – so make sure you check out their website: http://www.junglejims.com/

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Chex chicken



So, I don’t know about you, but when new GF items join the market, Tommie gets uber excited. This was the case when Chex cereal created a GF Corn Chex. Well, Tommie actually isn’t much of a cereal eater and I found myself with a conflict:

1. eat the cereal myself (which didn’t sound too pleasing, I’m pretty picky when it comes to cereal),

2. force it down my husband’s throat (which would not be nice),

3. throw it out (this would have broken my heart, I hate food going to waste),

4. or figure out a way to use it in a meal.

So, then what to make? Chicken!!! I crushed up the Chex, added some salt, pepper, and Cajun seasoning. I then coated the chicken in egg, and dipped it in the Chex mix. Then I just cooked it in some veggie oil.

The result…yummy, crispy chicken.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010


Brandie and I really enjoy Chebe. We’ve tried all of the types (except for the cinnamon rolls), and they’re all delicious. Over the years of using Chebe, we’ve actually decided that we like the Garlic-Onion Breadstick Mix most for pizza and the Pizza Crust Mix for breadsticks, especially when you put half a stick of string cheese in the middle of the breadstick. C'est magnifique! The Focaccia Mix makes a good pizza crust, too. And the Chebe Original Bread Mix is excellent no matter what kind of cheese you add. We recently made a batch, and the only cheese we had available was Parmesan. Again, c'est magnifique! We usually buy our Chebe at Georgetown Market, they seem to offer the best prices and most deals. However, you can find Chebe at many stores now.

http://www.chebe.com/

Aurelio's Pizza


Brandie and I were heading up to Chicago to see our niece in a 4th of July parade and celebrate her birthday. I did some research and found Aurelio’s offered gluten free pizza, and there was one on the way to Chicago. We were not impressed. The crust was overdone in some spots and underdone in others, and the sauce was mediocre at best. That combined with a 6”x6” pizza for almost $8 made it my least favorite pizza ever. I wouldn’t eat there again, especially with such great GF pizzas as Monical’s, Uno’s, or Gino’s (especially the latter two since they’re all around the Chicago area). Brandie ate non-GF friendly foods: breadstick, regular pizza – and she was very disappointed as well.
And according to great sites like Gluten-Free Registry (http://www.glutenfreeregistry.com/) and Urban Spoon (http://www.urbanspoon.com/), there are a growing number of restaurants offering gluten free pizza in and around Chicago. I hope to make more trips to Chicago to try them out…
Oh, and visit my sister and her family, too.

http://www.aureliospizza.com/