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Top 5 Gluten-Free Pastas

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 6 Comments

There are so many new products rolling out to the the gluten-free market these days that I can’t keep up with them all. However, I do my best to try new items that are available in our area and those I’ve heard are great that I have to order online. The first consideration for me regarding gluten-free replacement type items has more to do with taste than anything else. The price and convenience factors are secondary considerations. My motto is the same as what I read once on a blog (and I can’t give proper credit here because I don’t remember where I saw it), I’d rather go hungry than eat horrible tasting gluten-free food.

For me, pasta is something I’ve always loved. Like many American kids, I grew up on the mac-n-cheese made from the famous blue box. My tastes grew more sophisticated when I went out into the world and had to buy my own food. For years we scoured the Atlanta dining scene for the hottest new restaurants. Capo’s in the Highlands was a favorite, as was Capo’s ex-wifes place, Lindy’s, in the Peachtree Battle area. We’d drive across town to Scalini’s in Marietta just for the garlic rolls and the fare at Ember’s Grill was hard to beat in Sandy Springs.

The biggest challenge I personally faced when dining out gluten-free was not being able to order pasta. Now we can have pasta at several places around town and hopefully, a smart chef or two will start offering the amazing fresh option from RP’s Pasta when it hits this region via restaurant distributors later this year. Thankfully, we can have amazing pasta at home any time  we want it. My top pasta list has changed a bit since posting this article, as I’ve tasted some new products since then.

The first pasta listed below is without question the best gluten-free pasta I’ve had to date. It is also better than many fresh gluten pastas we’ve had. The rest of pastas listed are not in any particular order.

All of the above brands, and most other gluten-free pastas I’m aware of are MSG free. Some of them contain corn, soy, quinoa, rice and potatoes or a combination of those things. The only one that is made from one grain is Le Venzianne and it’s made from corn grown in a certain part of Italy near Venice. If you’ve tried corn pasta made here or in Canada and didn’t like it, you might give Le Venzianne a try. It is nothing like any of the other corn pastas we’ve tried. In fact, it’s hard to believe that two pastas made with the same basic ingredients could be so vastly different.

As far as I know, Tinkyada pasta (made from rice and rice bran) is the number one selling brand of gluten-free pasta in North America. It was the first gluten-free pasta we tried and we were not impressed. That product line fills the need for many allergen-free consumers since it’s free of corn, soy, dairy, wheat and gluten.  For budget friendly gluten-free pasta, the options from Heartland Pasta are worth checking out. Several online website sell the pasta listed above including, but not limited to, Amazon.com.

Gluten-Free Groceries With Amazon Subscribe & Save

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 1 Comment

Gluten-free grocery shopping used to be a very traumatic experience when I first started on the gluten-free diet 4 years ago. While there are times that I wish that I had known sooner that gluten & I didn’t get along, I am somewhat relieved that I didn’t have to experience gluten-free grocery shopping 10+ years ago. From those I have read about or spoken to about shopping for gluten-free groceries “back then”, it sounds like a lot of stress and frustration. Sure there were always fresh fruits, veggies, meats, eggs, some grains & milk that are naturally gluten-free, but shop for any specialty items and the complication factor went way up.

Not only are gluten-free specialty items on the shelves of mainstream grocery stores these days, but they are also available on many different websites. Amazon is just one of the many websites that sell a multitude of gluten-free groceries but with a twist. Amazon offers a unique “Subscribe & Save” program to help you save money on the products that you use the most. As I was going through my email this morning, I came across one from Amazon that showcased just some of the gluten-free items that are part of the “Subscribe & Save” program. I clicked through and found Amazon’s complete list of gluten-free groceries that are eligible for the program and found that there are 864 items!!

There are several benefits to using the “Subscribe & Save” program. The price is 15% cheaper, even if the item is already on sale! The shipping is free. You choose the frequency at which you receive your shipments and you can change this at any time. For example, I received an email yesterday letting me know that on September 21, 2010, my next shipment of Pamela’s Baking Mix was due to ship out. There was a link in the email for me to go edit that if I wanted to. Since I still have 4 packages, I opted to “skip this shipment” and now my next shipment is due to go out on November 21, 2010. A few days before that shipment I will get that same email again asking me if I am ready or not. You can change the frequency at any time. I have this product set up to ship every 3 months but I may need to change that. I receive a lot of products to sample and review, so I haven’t been going through my mix like I used to. Perhaps every 6 months is a better schedule for me. You can also ask for the shipment to occur sooner than scheduled if you are close to running out. At that time, you are also given the option of staying on schedule for your next shipment or changing it.

I have been using this program now for over 2 years and have really only found one negative to it – sometimes Amazon has a product in their “gluten-free” list that is not gluten-free. Take the same care when ordering from Amazon that you would like when shopping anywhere and read the labels. I choose products that I know my family uses regularly and that I can verify are gluten-free.

Have you shopped using Amazon’s “Subscribe & Save” program? If so, which items are you purchasing?

Review: Gluten-Free Bisquick

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 50 Comments

Some of our readers might have been excited by the news in this post about the introduction of gluten-free Bisquick. I know I was as excited as anyone and I never even used regular Bisquick when I ate gluten. Finally, the new Betty Crocker mix arrived in my area. When I read the ingredients on the box of the much anticipated gluten-free Bisquick, I was somewhat disappointed. The first ingredient is rice flour and the second one is sugar. Generally speaking, something with a lot of rice flour doesn’t appeal that much to me. At least, it doesn’t when it comes to baking mixes. I decided that I’d just make biscuits with the new Bisquick because I could not imagine that pancakes made with it could compete with my three favorite pancake mixes.

The pancake mixes from Gluten-Free Naturals, Pamela’s Products and King Arthur Flour all make excellent pancakes. Even though all of those mixes contain rice flour, there are enough of other types of flours to counteract the negatives of rice flour. There is nothing wrong with rice flour, of course. I just personally tend to like things that are lighter on it than other flours. The Gluten-free Naturals mix contains soy flour which I think mimics gluten flour very well. Pamela’s mixes are heavy on almond flour. The King Arthur mix must contain enough tapioca starch and potato starch to keep the pancakes from tasting grainy or bland.

Even though I’d originally planned to wait and make biscuits with the new Bisquick, I decided that making pancakes with it was the most important test I could do with the new mix. The 16 oz. box sells for $4.19 at Publix in the Atlanta area. There are only about 2 ¾ cups of flour in the small pouch inside the box so it’s a fairly pricey mix. With two strikes against it (ingredients and price) I tried to be hopeful about how pancakes made with the gluten-free Bisquick would taste.

I mixed up the batter very quickly. You add an egg, some milk and some canola (or vegetable) oil to the flour and that’s it. The batter seemed thin but I wanted to follow the instructions to a ‘t’ so I did. The amount of batter the recipe on the box yields is supposed to make 10 pancakes. Apparently, I poured too much batter out for mine (it called for ¼ cup each), since I only got 7 pancakes out of it. As they cooked, bubbles formed just like with other pancakes. The pancakes turned golden brown and were easy to flip. They seemed a bit heavy on the spatula as I moved the cooked pancakes to our plates. I hoped I was imagining that part of the experiment.

Unfortunately, the pancakes were very heavy in terms of texture – unlike all the gluten-free pancakes we make with the brands noted above. They had a bit of a grainy taste as well. However, the worst part was the fact that they had a “skin “on them. My husband actually came up with that term. He said “I don’t remember the pancakes we usually eat having a thick skin like these do”. No, he wouldn’t because none of them have any type of  “skin”. I might be able to overlook that weird aspect of the pancakes if they tasted good. They were much too dense for pancakes and tasted rather bland. I was so disappointed in the taste and texture of the pancakes that I didn’t finish eating mine.

With any new product, there are usually some pros and cons. I listed what I thought those were regarding pancakes made with the long awaited gluten-free Bisquick from Betty Crocker (a General Mills company).

Bisquick Gluten-Free – the good and the bad (my personal opinion).

  • Pros: sold in mainstream grocery stores; easy to mix; manufactured in gluten-free facility; made by a respected mainstream (Big 5) food company.
  • Cons: grainy texture; thick “skin”; too heavy; not enough pancakes per batch of batter (only makes 10 if pancakes are quite small).

Ever since General Mills jumped on the gluten-free gravy train, I’ve tried to support their efforts in any way I could. I would like to do the same with this new mix. Even though I personally won’t be making pancakes with the gluten-free Bisquick again, I think everyone should absolutely buy the mix and decide for themselves if it’s for them or not. What one person likes has nothing to do with what others might like. It would be best for everyone to make their own mind up about this new mix. General Mills definitely deserves that much from our community.

Review: Gluten-Free Ice Cream Cones

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

Until I was diagnosed with celiac disease, I had no reason to purchase gluten-free ice cream cones – ever. If I felt like an ice cream cone, I went to the Buster’s around the corner and ordered frozen yogurt in a cone. After I went on the gluten-free diet, all of a sudden I had a great desire to find the best gluten-free ice cream cones available – if such a thing existed. In the past four years, I’ve tried around eight different gluten-free ice cream cones and more than half of them tasted like styrofoam to me. However, three of the items we’ve tried are not only good enough to buy again – you could even serve them to gluten eaters if need be. Yes – these are some pretty great ice cream cones indeed!

Last spring, I tried the waffle cones made by Barkat. They were pricey to say the least, and there is no free shipping from that online store. But oh – the cones were so worth the money! It was the first time I’d had a really great ice cream cone in over three years. As great as they were, the expense of ordering them online was not something I could repeat so I set out to find a decent ice cream cone that I could buy locally.

Finally, last summer, I found the Let’s Do Organics gluten-free cake cones at the store I shop at. Even though I don’t love cake cones in general, the $2.49 price tag was too good to pass up. I’m not sure if the cones I had were stale or what the problem was. The expiration date was over a year after I purchased them so I doubt that was the problem. However, they tasted as stale as they could be to me. I actually could not get over how bad the cones were. There went $2.49 down the drain. I found someone who wanted to try them so I gave the rest of the package to them. They thought they were fine.

Interestingly, I read a rave review of the waffle cones from Let’s Do gluten-free Sugar Cones (made by Let’s Do Organics) online. Let’s Do Organics is a line in the Edward & Sons company. To my surprise and delight, the sugar cones are absolutely delicious. The ingredients are pretty simple and include: potato starch, demerara sugar, tapioca starch, expeller-pressed palm oil, potato fiber, soy lecithin, cocoa powder, salt and xanthan gum. One cone has 50 calories and 1% of your RDA for fat. There are instructions on the box regarding “freshening up” the cones, should the cones lose their crispiness. The cones are made in Israel and are also Kosher.

Last but certainly not least are the Goldbaum’s gluten-free cake cones. Those are sold at Earthfare and so far I’ve not seen them in my area. That doesn’t mean they aren’t sold here, of course. The cones are the best cake cones I’ve ever had. Not the best gluten-free cake cones – the best cake cones, period. After all, I never liked gluten cake cones in the first place. The perfect light taste and crispy texture was a delightful surprise. The ingredients in the Goldbaum’s cones are quite similar to the Edward & Sons sugar cones. They are also made in Israel and also Kosher.

I wonder if one company is making all these great tasting cones and offering them for private label service. Whatever the case is, my gluten-free ice cream cone search is finally over. I invested about $9 in two boxes of cones (offering 24 cones total) this summer and now I have more than enough of them last through the summer. Luckily, my husband isn’t a cone fan so I don’t have to share them. He likes to eat a lot of ice cream at once and no cones are big enough for him. All the gluten-free cones I’ve tried are quite small, regardless of the brand, but Goldbaum’s has a waffle bowl and a jumbo waffle cone. Yes – my search for wonderful gluten-free ice creams cones if definitely over!

*If gluten-free ice creams sandwiches are something you miss, be sure and check out Kim’s post about those cool treats here!

Review: Gluten-Free and Dairy Free Creamer

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

Several weeks ago, I was contacted about reviewing a new non-dairy creamer. When my sample box arrived, I didn’t have a coffee maker because I’d thrown the old one out and not yet replaced it. I’m more of a hot tea drinker at home. We finally picked a new coffee maker over the fourth of July weekend so I was able to try the new soy based, gluten and dairy free creamer. I’ve got to say that it tastes pretty much like other powder creamers that contain dairy. I was impressed that it didn’t have a strange flavor or behave differently than dairy based dry creamers. It dissolved well and quickly, just like “normal” powder creamers do.

SoyGo is all natural, vegan and contains both fiber and protein. It’s diabetic friendly and has the pre-biotic inulin in it.  Each SoyGo box has 25 packets/servings in it and each has 10 calories. The fiber count is an impressive 2% of the RDA. That’s a lot of fiber for something that small, I think.  The convenient packets are easy to pack to use with your coffee at work. a day of shopping or for trips.

Excerpt from SoyGo website:

SavingOpusOne presents… SoyGo! For soy lovers and the health-minded on-the-go! It’s hard being on the road or simply out and about when you want that cup of coffee or tea and a soy creamer isn’t available. This is no longer the case. Our travel-size creamer is not only delicious and creamy, it’s also vegan, non-gmo, all-natural, lactose-free, gluten-free, and diabetic-friendly. Made with the finest, organically grown soy powder available, we’re sure that you’ll love it as much as we do. It also contains both protein and fiber in every serving. Just grab a packet and hit the road!

The way this product came to be is quite interesting. The manufacturer has a goal to help reduce animal suffering at factory farms.  We never thought much about where our food was coming from until I was diagnosed with celiac. Once we started reading labels and found out how many chemicals were in everyday foods, we were simply shocked. Eventually, we learned more about how a lot of meat products are produced and that led to us changing some of our meat purchases as well.

SoyGo creamer ingredients:

Soy Powder – All natural and 100% Organic and Non-Gmo* vegan, Sugar – Non-GMO*, 100% vegan (including manufacturing), Color Added – 100% Vegan, all natural whitener, Xanthan gum – All natural, vegan, Non GMO*,Inulin – All natural, vegan, Non-GMO*, Natural flavors(French Vanilla) – Organic, Non-GMO*, All natural, vegan, Natural Flavors (Non-dairy cream flavor), Vegan, All natural, non-GMO*, Dipotassium Phosphate – All natural, vegan, Lecithin – Vegan, all natural, Salt – 100% vegan

Some retail outlets have started carrying SoyGo, but if your store doesn’t have it yet, you can order it online. The 25 packet box is currently $5.99 plus $2 shipping (U.S.).

*Special thanks to SoyGo for my sample box of creamers!