Trader Joe’s Gorditas

Brandie and I love shopping at Trader Joe’s and seeing all the new GF goodies that they have to offer. I found these and thought I’d give them the old college try. They were pretty good. A little bland to eat by themselves, but with some salsa, cheese, and/or taco meat, they would make an excellent meal.

http://www.traderjoes.com/

Gluten Free Bisquick

The last time I had biscuits and gravy was kinda disappointing. I had just been diagnosed with Celiac, and Brandie tried to make some GF biscuits and sausage gravy. She did well with the gravy, but the biscuits left a lot to be desired. I saw a lot of buzz about the GF Bisquick on the Gluten Free Indy news group, and we just had to try it. Good job, GF Indy folks! We tried biscuits and gravy again (twice now, actually), and it was like the stuff I’d eaten BEFORE going GF. My hat’s off to Betty Crocker and her GF Bisquick. If I weren’t already married, Betty, I’d propose to you in a heartbeat.

http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/bisquick/default.aspx

Kinnikinnick GF product spotlight

Personal Pizza Crusts
These crusts were very delicious and just the right size for a single serving. Brandie was afraid that I’d eat 2 pizzas at a time (I have a large appetite sometimes), but the only time I felt hungry after eating one of these pizzas, a small salad was enough to finish off the meal. Kinnikinnick is a great company for GF products. I can’t think of anything of theirs that I’ve tried and didn’t like.
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S’moreables
My in-laws were hosting a Labor Day party, and my sister-in-law was going to bring all the makings for S’mores. I didn’t want to miss out on the fun, so I stopped by G’town Market and picked these up. Let me say that it was one of the best purchases I’ve made. These crackers are delicious and taste like I remember graham crackers tasting. They made excellent S’mores, and the leftover crackers went very well with some fudgy chocolate frosting. Mmmm mmmm!

http://www.kinnikinnick.com/

Namaste Spice Cake Mix

Brandie and I found this cake mix on sale, and we decided to try it. When we got it home to make it, Brandie noticed that there were instructions for a gingerbread variation. Man, am I glad that Brandie talked me into that. It was delicious. We made a basic glaze to drizzle on top, and my only complaint was that we didn’t put enough glaze on. The cake itself remained moist and delicious even almost a week after baking them. We’ve tried Namaste in the past and haven’t been too impressed, especially since it is a little pricey – however, this cake mix has motivated us to give Namaste another try.
http://www.namastefoods.com/

Emsa Original Traditional Beef Goulash

Brandie and I love to shop at Saraga International Market near Lafayette Square. We like to walk up and down the aisles and see all the great international foods. While we were in the frozen section, I noticed this goulash, and the Hungarian in me had to try it. I’m glad that I did. I prepared it and poured it over some brown rice. I didn’t want to stop eating it even after I’d finished the last bite. If I hadn’t been at a friend’s house while eating it, I probably would’ve licked the bowl clean. Hopefully, we can make it to Saraga again and pick up some more of this delicious meal.
I looked for Emsa’s website, but no luck. As a matter of fact, the only site I found was Eurofoodmart.com and it only listed the Emsa’s products you could buy from their site.

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

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

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/