Delightfully Gluten Free

New on the cereal scene is Strawberry Crisp from Erewhon.  Like the other gluten-free cereals from Erewhon, it is only lightly sweetened.

We have always liked the cereals from Erewhon.  Braden’s favorite cereal when he was little was Rice Twice, and he still enjoys it today.  My favorite was the Crispy Brown Rice with Mixed Berries.

Until this came…

Strawberry Crisp has pushed its way to the top.

It has just enough sweetness to be tasty, but it does not taste  (and is not) sugary.  The strawberries are just that – freeze dried strawberries, and there are a bunch in there.  The thick, crispy corn flakes appear to have bubbles in them sometimes, but that is the brown rice crisped up in the flakes.  They remind me of some gluten cereal that gets highly advertised for its flakes (which I don’t pay attention to so I can’t tell you the name).

I really wanted to take a picture of the flakes for you, but my camera has decided to stop working.  Completely.  So, you will just have to look at the picture on the box. 

Braden says this cereal is “excellent” and it “tastes like strawberries even when you don’t get a strawberry.”  The freeze dried strawberries leave a bit of strawberry powder on the flakes.  It’s good stuff.

I had to hide the box from Carter and Andy, since I’m pretty sure Andy threw away my notes from the original taste-test, and I had to make sure there was some for me to taste again.    I know we didn’t eat that much cereal…

So, look for Erewhon’s new Strawberry Crisp cereal to satisfy your tastes for slightly-sweet crunchy goodness loaded with strawberries.

Earth Balance has just come out with a gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free spread.  This is excellent news for those of you with multiple allergies.  I have not seen any other dairy-free spreads that are also soy-free (but I don’t generally go out looking for them).

According to the package (and the website), you can use it to spread, saute, fry, bake, and cook.  We put it to the test.

Toast.  I like toast.  But I don’t like putting anything on my toast that causes it to break.  The Earth Balance spread nicely across my toast, without any problems.  It tasted pretty good, too.

Taste, hmmm.  A buttery spread is a bit different to taste test than a cookie or cereal, because you don’t generally eat the stuff plain.

But that’s where Andy comes into the picture.

He will eat it plain.

It’s a little disturbing, actually.

However, for this, it worked out rather nicely.  Andy ate a bite of the Earth Balance soy-free buttery spread. “Well, it’s not real butter.  Nothing’s as good as real butter.”  (He sounds like an ad for the dairy council, doesn’t he?)  However, he said it had a good buttery flavor, and was something he would definitely use.  To him, it tasted more buttery than the lite olive oil version of Smart Balance (the only thing we had other than real butter in which to compare).

Alright – it tastes good and I can spread it on toast.  But can I do anything else with it?

The answer is “yes!”

I used it to fry eggs and hashbrowns the other morning, and it worked superbly.  And for baking???

Yesterday, I made brownies (if you are dairy-free, soy-free, you could use some Enjoy Life chocolate chips and make my brownie recipe).  Any excuse to make brownies, right?  It was easy enough to put the right amount of Earth Balance into the pot when using my digital kitchen scale.

At first, I was quite stunned at how poorly the spread was melting.

Then I realized I had turned on the wrong burner.  Oops.

In fact, the Earth Balance melted a little faster than butter does.  How fast?  I don’t know – timing the melting of butter is not one of my favorite hobbies. 

Well, the brownies were scrumptious, the flavor and texture just as awesome as usual.  If Andy hadn’t had fasting work for the fire department this morning, I doubt there would have been enough brownies to take to lunch with Judith today (who really enjoyed them, too).

We think the Earth Balance Soy-Free Buttery Spread is a solid product.  It tastes good and does what it says it will do.  It’s also pretty good for you – it’s all-natural, has zero grams of trans fats, and is a good source of Omega 3s.  Hooray for another great product that is aware of the food allergic and intolerant communities!

On a side note, if you haven’t left a comment for the Cookbook Giveaway, then you’d better hurry.  The contest ends at 6:00 p.m. Central on Friday, May 29th.

Carter and I just tried the Ian’s Soy Cheesy French Bread Pizza.

It comes in a package with 2 individually wrapped pizzas, enough for 2 small children or one adult.  It contains no gluten or wheat, no casein or milk, no eggs, no nuts, and no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives.

It took about 18 minutes to prepare in the toaster oven (the preferred method, though you can use the microwave).

The outside of the bread gets very crisp, with a nice golden-brown color and pretty good flavor.  The majority of the inside of the bread has a nice texture.  The area just under the tomato sauce is quite moist and dense (though it did sit in my cooler bag, on ice, for quite awhile last night – not the same as being in the freezer).  It’s hardly noticeable, unless you are looking for it.

The sauce has a strong tomato flavor, with a good hint of spices.  The soy cheese?  Well, it’s soy cheese.  It doesn’t melt, and it doesn’t have a lot of flavor.  Like most frozen pizzas (even the gluten kind), it doesn’t have enough cheese on the top (but you know I love cheese).  I added a slice of provolone to the second half of our pizzas and threw them back in the toaster oven for a few minutes.  Much better (but, of course, no longer dairy-free).

Overall, I think it’s a pretty good product.  Unfortunately, Whole Foods sells it for $5.99, a hefty price for such a small meal.  If, however, you eat it as a treat or in lieu of eating out (or if you’re rolling in dough), then it may figure in to your budget.

New to the gluten-free lineup is Applegate Farms Gluten-Free Chicken Nuggets.  Applegate Farms is big on Organic and Natural.  Their products contain only natural ingredients, and their chicken is antibiotic-free and strictly grain-fed.  The gf chicken nuggets are also dairy/casein-free.

Applegate Farms wants to make sure that their gluten-free chicken nuggets are, in fact, gluten-free.  They are tested for gluten at both the ingredient level and in the final product.

The children and I had these for dinner the other night, with tator tots and green beans.  It was nice and easy to prepare, which is extremely important when Andy is at the fire station.  Corice sat in her high chair and ate her Rice Chex while I got these in the oven.

After a few minutes, we could smell them in the oven, and they smelled really good.  We could hardly wait to sit down and eat them.

Braden said they are “really good” (he said that quite a few times, actually), and they are “easy to eat, because the chicken’s mashed.”   These would be especially good for small children.  Corice loved the few bites I gave her (and she has no teeth).

I found them to be nicely spiced, with an excellent flavor.  The breading stayed on the chicken, and was thin and not tough (unlike some other gf chicken nuggets I’ve had in the past).  Everybody kept asking for more.  We will definitely have these again.

Use the Applegate Farms website to view nutrition information and locate a store near you, and if that store doesn’t yet carry the gluten-free chicken nuggets, then ask for them!  If you’d prefer, you can even order online.  Make your own happy meal tonight. 

Update 5/28/09:  Applegate Farms GF Chicken Nuggets can now be found in Fort Worth at the Sunflower Shoppe.