Review: Blake’s Gluten-free Shepherd’s Pie

Ever since I found out about the gluten-free Fish & Chip bites from Blue Horizon Organic, I’ve been itching to try them and the Crab Cakes from the line as well. The company representative I spoke to said they were available at Whole Foods so I planned to pick some up during my last visit there. After being directed to three different team members at the store, we finally concluded that the products were not in the location where I was. At least if they were there, no one knew where to find them. We checked three different freezer sections and no Blue Horizon Organic products of any kind were anywhere to be found.

Luckily, after the time consuming and non productive search for Fish & Chip Bites, I did find something new I thought was worth trying at Whole Foods. The new item was a frozen prepared Shepherd’s Pie by Blake’s. It is labeled gluten-free on the front of the box. There are no artificial flavors or artificial colors in the Blake’s product line. The products are all natural and contain no preservatives. I was not familiar with this product line beforehand but so far, so good.

It was hard to spend well over $5 on one meal that came in such a small box and when the container inside was even smaller, it was a bit of a shock. The gluten eater in the house would not consider the small serving a meal but one package is considered one serving. It contains 240 calories and 14% of your RDA for fat. There area only 2 grams of fiber but 14 grams of protein. The website nutritional panel does not match what is on the package I bought, but I assume what the package says it correct. Maybe the item has be reformulated and the new information has not yet been added to the website. The calorie count, fat, fiber count – everything is different than what is shown online. You can cook the meal in a regular oven in about 40 minutes or in the microwave for four minutes. It took about 4 1/2 minutes in my microwave as some of the potatoes were still cold after four minutes.

The meal was very tasty and did taste like homemade Shepherd’s Pie. However, in the future I’d probably just make my own version of the dish since it’s fairly simple to do, not to mention much cheaper. The ingredients are seasoned ground beef (or turkey), corn and mashed potatoes. For six servings the cost is probably $8, as opposed to almost $6 for one serving with no leftovers. For people with larger budgets, this meal from Blake’s is worth trying – assuming they like  Shepherd’s Pie.

If Blake’s made a gluten-free version of one of their many Chicken Pot Pies, it would definitely be worth trying. At first glance I thought the Blake’s Chicken Pot Pie was gluten-free and I did a double take – only to find out I’d read the package wrong. It was a regular wheat based product. Blake’s uses meats raised without any antibiotics and therefore the beef in the Shepherd’s Pie was exceptionally good. I’d assume the chicken in the Chicken Pot Pie (for those who can indulge in it) would also be very tasty.

Most convenience foods are expensive and as with almost everything else, gluten-free versions are even more so. It’s exciting to find so many new foods that are labeled gluten-free these days but it’s kind of hard to spend so much money on food. Maybe one day there will be enough people eating gluten-free that the prices will skyrocket down as fast as the product offerings are skyrocketing up now. I seriously do not understand  how families with gluten-free kids make ends meet. The good news is that in the past four years, I’ve seen a fairly decent price drop in many gluten-free products. It can only get better from here.