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Review: Trader Joe’s Gluten-Free Crispy Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 8 Comments

I headed to Trader Joe’s the other day to pick up some necessities and found that they now had gluten-free crispy crunchy chocolate chip cookies. One of my favorite places in the store to check out is the end cap which has a variety of new product offerings on it. Of course, I picked up a pack, even though I had many cookies already at home.

The cookies are $3.99 for a 7 oz. the package which has roughly 14 cookies in it.  Each serving (2 cookies) contains 140 calories, 7g fat and 1g protein. The ingredient list is as follows:

Semi-sweet chocolate chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, milk fat, soy lecithin vanilla, natural flavor), rice flour, butter (cream), brown sugar, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, baking soda, salt, xanthan gum, and water.

IMG_0232These were probably some of the most unique packaged gluten-free cookies that I have tasted.  They were super crispy and had a wonderful butter flavor.  If these had been on a plate and not in a package, I would not have been able to tell that they were not homemade.  Each cookie had a decent amount of chocolate chips in it, which is not always the case.  The front of the bag says “buttery and rich chocolate chip cookies that melt in your mouth” and I have to say that I completely agree!

These cookies join a long list of gluten-free foods available at Trader Joe’s.  Our location just recently started carrying some of the Udi’s Gluten-Free product line.  It is nice to pick up my bread, bagels and buns at the same place that I get a lot of my other groceries.  I have also noticed the pricing on the Udi’s products seems to be a little lower at Trader Joe’s than some of the other stores in the area that carry their products.  Trader Joe’s maintains an extensive list of their gluten-free products.  The list is updated frequently can can be found online or in store locations.

Have you had a chance to try the new cookies from Trader Joe’s yet?  If so, what did you think?

Review: Trader Joe’s Gluten-Free Corn Pasta

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 5 Comments

Much to my delight, Trader Joe’s has been selling gluten-free brown rice pasta for the past few years. On a recent trip to Trader Joe’s, I found that they have now added corn pasta to their repertoire.  The new gluten-free corn pasta comes in spirals and spaghetti shapes (or at least that is what I found in my local store).

The pasta comes in a 1 pound package with 8 servings.  This package only served 4 of us, but maybe our servings were larger than the package intended them to be.  The first thing I noticed when cooking this pasta was that it didn’t seem to stick together while cooking like the brown rice pasta does.  The package said to cook for 8 minutes or until the pasta reaches desired consistency.  It was perfect at 8 minutes.

While my pasta was cooking, I sauteed some veggies in some olive oil & red wine to mix in with my marinara sauce.

Once my veggies were done, I drained the pasta.  I plated the pasta and then topped with marinara, garbanzo beans & then the veggies.IMG_0290

Everyone in my house likes different sauces on their pasta.  I always have a base marinara & Alfredo and then we can doctor them up as we like.  My favorite is 1/2 cup marinara heated with 1TBSP almond butter and tossed with 1/4 cup garbanzo beans.

This pasta held up well to each different version of sauce (plain marinara to heavy like, shown above).  Aaron even reheated the pasta in a frying pan with his sauce and veggies.  The pasta didn’t become mushy or gummy at all, which can be common with brown rice pasta.  The flavor was subtle and took on the flavor of the sauce that it was topped or tossed with.

I would absolutely buy this pasta again, especially if I was planning on making enough for leftovers.  It reheats well and stands up to heavier sauces.

Have you tried Trader Joe’s corn pastas?  What did you think?

Review: Gluten-Free Rice Krispies

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

When I heard about the new Kellogg’s cereal coming out, I could not wait to try it!  I’m really not sure why since I didn’t eat cereal regularly when I ate gluten, but it probably has something to do with the fact that I never understood why most mainstream cereals, including those without wheat in them, contain barley malt.

For the last couple of months, people have reported finding the gluten-free version of Rice Krispies (yes, there are two versions now) at various stores in other states.  Finally, after checking the cereal aisle once again at Publix last weekend, I found the gluten-free Rice Krispies!  And to top off the exciting find, Kellogg’s cereals were on the 2-for-1 Publix special so I got the box for 50% off!

My husband immediately mentioned that I better plan on eating all the cereal by myself (he knows I don’t really care much for cereal unless making a snack mix with it since he didn’t care for Rice Krispies with or without gluten in them.  I explained that I’d figure out a way to eat the whole box myself.

Monday morning arrived and I decided to open the new cereal and give it a try.  I poured some milk over the cereal and sure enough, that familiar snack, crackle and pop sound was music to my ears!  Remember how much fun that was to hear when you were a kid?  Well, this big kid still thinks it’s fun as can be!

So, how does the new cereal taste?  In all fairness, I have to admit that I probably have not had gluten Rice Krispies in well over 20 years.  But if memory serves me well, this cereal tastes just like I remember the traditional version tasting.  It simply tastes like Rice Krispies, period.

The gluten-free version of Rice Krispies is made with brown rice so it offers a bit more in terms of nutrition than the white rice (gluten containing) version.  There are also very few ingredients which kind of surprised me, but in a good way.  There is no high fructose corn syrup in the cereal either, which is a more common ingredient in mainstream cereals that the average consumer is aware of.

It is great to see Kellogg’s getting into the gluten-free marketplace and hopefully, more mainstream companies will finally figure out that the gluten-free diet is not a fad that is on its way out.  In fact, it’s just getting started here in the good old U.S.A.  Who knows?  Maybe the company will introduce gluten-free versions of Cheese-It crackers and even Pop Tarts eventually!

*Be sure to check out our own Kim Bouldin’s review of gluten-free Rice Krispie treats here! There are many recipes for Rice Krispie treats on Food.com, but remember to use gluten-free cereal to make them and all gluten-free ingredients as well.  

Review: Enjoy Life Foods Crunchy Cookies

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

Not long ago, I reviewed the delicious newly improved soft cookies from Enjoy Life Foods. The company makes an excellent line of gluten-free products that are also free of many other main allergens.  To be honest, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that anything baked can be good if it’s gluten-, dairy-, soy- and nut-free – much less delicious.

When I was asked if I would like to review the new Crunchy Cookies from Enjoy Life Foods, I had to think about it for a minute.  First off, I’m not the biggest cookie lover in the world and secondly, I really don’t care much for crunchy cookies with or without gluten in them.  Even so, I was still in search of more cookies that would stand up for dunking in my afternoon tea so I decided to give the new offerings from Enjoy Life a try.

The trouble with many gluten-free cookies in terms of dunking them into a hot liquid is that they often contain a lot of tapioca and potato flour (or starch).  That means the cookies immediately disintegrate when put into hot liquids.  I’ve ruined more than a few cups of tea learning this.

When my goodie box from Enjoy Life Foods arrived, I immediately read the ingredients on the boxes of cookies.  There was no tapioca or potato flour (or starch) in any of the four flavors.  So far, so good.  It’s taken a while to get to all the flavors of cookies even though the cookie monster in the house (who can eat gluten) ate most of the cookies in each box.

First up for review was the classic Chocolate Chip flavor. The cookies were very good, but once I’d tasted them all, they ranked fourth overall for me. I don’t like crunchy cookies except with tea and I don’t care for chocolate chip cookies with tea so I was expecting that to be the case.   My husband particularly liked this flavor, however. The Double Chocolate Chip cookies were really good with a delicious chocolate flavor.

The Vanilla Honey Grahams were delicious and as expected, the perfect texture to use with hot tea!  No falling apart or becoming mushy at all.  They performed like a crunchy gluten cookie does in that respect.  These might work in place of Nilla Wafers for banana pudding, but I don’t like that dessert so I’ll never use them for that.  They don’t taste like Nilla Wafers but should hold up well in the pudding, unlike many gluten-free cookies that I know others have tried to use unsuccessfully in that Southern treat.

Last up, but far from least, was the Sugar Crisps.  That particular flavor tasted just like a gluten-sugar cookie and it was amazing with my afternoon tea!  I don’t even like sugar cookies in general – even during the holidays – so I’m not sure why this cookie turned out to be my absolute favorite in the bunch.  In any case, that is the flavor I’ll buy to enjoy with my tea.  For cookies to eat without dunking,  I’ll continue to enjoy the soft-baked cookies from the line.  Gluten-free Snickerdoodles anyone?!

Here is some information about the allergens Enjoy Life Foods products are free of:

Click here to find out where you can find Enjoy Life Products near you.

Gluten-Free Finds in Canada

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 3 Comments

While on vacation in Montreal in May, I found a boxed sans gluten mac-n-cheese and decided to buy it.  I brought it home and eventually got around to making it.  Of all the boxed gluten-free mac-n-cheese products I’ve tried, this is by far the best.  However, I’ve had a hard time trying to figure out what company makes it for Irresistables – the brand it’s sold under.

In the Quebec province in Canada, ingredients on packaged foods are in both French and English.  I read the ingredients on the box, but nothing else.  It wasn’t until after we returned home that I noticed the ‘Made in the USA’ notation on the box.  If a company here makes it, then it stands to reason that the same company is selling it here under a different brand name.  If it’s a brand I’ve tried before, then the product has been greatly improved upon since I tried it.

It appears from this website that the Irresistables line offers both gluten and sans gluten products.  Obviously, I have no idea how any of the other sans gluten products in the line taste.  I did not think the pasta without cheese sauce on it was very impressive, but with the cheese sauce it might even fool a gluten eater.  The mac-n-cheese was surprisingly good, though not out-of-this-world delicious.  If I could buy the same product here, I probably would.

Since we were staying two short blocks from a neighborhood grocery store, we visited it several times during our stay.  It was clear that the staff members at the store were not very familiar with sans gluten products or where I could find them in the store.  It was kind of like being at a mainstream grocery store at home actually.  As you’d expect, the health food stores in Montreal were the best places to find a great selection of sans gluten and allergen free foods.

Because I could not find any online store in the U.S. that offers the Irresistables line (likely because it’s sold under a different brand here), I thought to check Amazon.ca.  It was surprising to me that the site doesn’t even have a food department, when the U.S. site has almost 8000 gluten-free products listed presently.  Be sure to read the ingredients before ordering a new found gluten-free product on the site.  I’ve almost ordered candy, crackers and a couple of other things by mistake because they were listed as gluten-free even though the products all contained wheat.  All-natural and organic items have a way of slipping into the gluten-free list – most likely by mistake.

If any of our readers know if the sans gluten Irresistables Macaroni & Cheese in the U.S., please let us know in the comments below.  Also, let us know if you know what company in the U.S. makes the product for the Irresistables label.