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Review: Gluten-Free Chips and Salsa

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 2 Comments

It’s pretty easy to find salsa and tortilla chips that are made without gluten-free ingredients. However, if you’re looking for either item with the words gluten-free on the label, you might pay a hefty price for them. Most tortilla chips are made from corn and are gluten-free, but many popular brands are not labeled as such. Some brands are made without gluten ingredients, though due to the manufacturing process, many companies won’t state the item is gluten-free. Many mainstream brands of salsas are gluten-free, but again, they are not all labeled that way.

Enter Drew’s Salsa and Green Mountain Gringo Tortilla Chips. While shopping at my local health food store recently, I found both items and noticed that both were labeled gluten-free. I’ve been using some of the gluten-free dressings from Drew’s for years, but they would not say their salsas were gluten-free when I inquired quite a while back. The Double Fire Roasted Salsa from Drew’s is not only gluten-free and delicious, it’s made with 100% organic ingredients.

Green Mountain Gringo chips are certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (a GIG program) and the bag bears the GFCO symbol. The chips have a wonderful rectangle shape, making them the perfect chip for salsas and dips. The taste of the chips is pretty much like most any really good corn chip. They have a great texture that offers a perfect crunch. I’m a salt addict and there is plenty of salt on these chips for me. People that don’t like salty chips would probably not enjoy these. Until I looked the website up, I had no idea the company also makes several salsas – and all of them are gluten-free as well.

From the Green Mountain Gringo website:

ALL OF OUR PRODUCTS ARE: All Natural, No Preservatives or artificial colors or flavors. gluten-free, Cholesterol Free, No GMO’s (Genetically modified produce).

The salsa from Drew’s contains organic tomatoes, peppers, onions, spices, cider vinegar, water, garlic, herbs, sea salt and black pepper. It’s all real food and all the flavors meld perfectly to offer the finest tasting salsa I’ve had from a jar. Because I don’t like any chunks of anything in my salsa, I actually use a small food processor to puree the whole jar so it’s just the way I like it when I have a hankering for chips and salsa. Most people would not consider the Drew’s salsa I bought to be “chunky”, but unless it’s pulverized, it’s chunky to me.

It’s not that difficult to make home made salsa and it would be rare to find a recipe for it that calls for gluten ingredients. If you need to make a lot of salsa for a party, it would be more cost effective to make it from scratch than to buy several jars of it. In our case, it’s very cost effective to buy ready made salsa because we don’t go through it that fast. It’s great to be able to find more and more gluten-free labeled items that don’t cost a fortune these days. Here’s to hoping this wonderful trend continues!

Review: Gluten-Free Taco Rice Skillet Meal

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

The amount of gluten-free products offered by Mixes from the Heartland is simply mind boggling. The company factory in Texas produces mixes that cover pretty much every category you can think of. From soup and dessert sauce mixes to pasta meal mixes, desserts and breads – Mixes from the Heartland has you covered. Previously, I’d only made desserts from the line. I reviewed the Impossible Coconut Pie here.

Finally, I made a dinner using on of the mixes and now I’m sorry I waited so long before getting around to it. The gluten-free Taco Rice Skillet Meal is super easy to make. You just brown ground beef (or turkey) and pour the mix and some water into the pan and mix it all up. That is my kind of cooking. Open a few things and put them in the pan and stir occasionally – perfect.

After tasting the delicious meal, I realized that in addition to using ground beef or turkey, chicken chunks might also work in the meal. The overall taste is quite delicious, thought it’s just this side of being too spicy for me. I’m a bit of a light weight when it comes to spicy foods. To balance that out, I served mine over a bed of romaine lettuce and cooled it down a bit with a dollop of sour cream. It was simply perfect that way! My husband loved the meal too, but he didn’t have his as a salad since he likes spicy food.

There is rice in the meal, but it’s precooked so the entire cooking process takes about 25 minutes from start to finish (after the meat is browned). Quick, easy and delicious are the things I look for when it comes to making a basic week night dinner and this mix totally fits that bill. In fact, the Taco Rice Skillet Meal was so good that it felt a little like a special occasion meal. When something tastes so good that people think it took you much longer than it actually did to make, that’s a very good thing indeed!

The ingredients in the mix are very “clean” and include  instant rice, tomato powder, chili powder, black pepper, dehydrated onions, carrots, parsley, celery, tomato, red and green bell peppers, celery powder, garlic powder. There are no fake ingredients in the product line.  All of the Mixes from the Heartland products are free of eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, oats, barley, rye and wheat and none of those allergens are used in the factory. Some products are also dairy-free, but Mixes from the Heartland is extremely careful regarding how they handle any and all allergens.

There is no bean flour used in any of the products so the quick breads and brownies taste like they’re supposed to. Meaning they don’t taste like beans. The product line carries the Celiac Sprue Association seal and test at 5 ppm (or less) for gluten. The standard is presently 20 ppm so Mixes from the Heartland is ahead of the game when it comes to gluten-free safety.

Now that I’ve sampled one of the dinner mixes from the Mixes from the Heartland line, I can’t wait to try one of the many other meal mixes available. Mixes from the Heartland mixes has a great deal on shipping – offering a flat $10 free on orders under $100 and FREE shipping on orders over $100. They also have a wonderful gluten-free Buying Club – sort of like a Costco for gluten-free food. Let us know if you’ve tried any products from the company and if so, how you enjoyed them.

Marshall’s Gluten-Free Finds

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

Most people probably don’t go shopping for food at Marshall’s discount store, but time and again I’ve found some interesting gluten-free labeled foods at that store. On my last visit there, I found some great tea that I’d found there in the past. It’s the Tea of Life brand and both types of teas I’ve purchased at Marshall’s are labeled gluten-free. The tins are really nice and reusable. Both the Earl Grey and English Breakfast teas from Tea of Life are wonderful.

There are always some imported pasta sauces at Marshall’s that are labeled gluten-free, but none of them have ever been what I consider a great value. Therefore, I have not purchased any and I don’t recall the brand names. Gluten-free pasta sauces are a dime a dozen anyway so I don’t feel the need to pay for imported brands of that type of item.

A new gluten-free find during my last visit to Marshall’s were Baked Lentil Chips from The Mediterranean Snack Food Company. Right on the front of the bag it says the chips are gluten-free and on the back on the package, it states “vegan and celiac friendly”. The chips are all natural and fairly healthy for a snack food. There is 12% of the RDA of fiber in them and 4 grams of protein in each serving.

I decided to buy the sea salt and cracked pepper lentil chips, even though I need another gluten-free snack like I need a hole in the head. The 4.5 oz. bag was $2.99 which isn’t a great value in my opinion. However, I like the fact that the chips are labeled gluten-free so I decided to try them. The chips were pretty good with a very nice texture, but there was some subtle flavor in them that I didn’t care for. The chips work really well for dips because they are so thick. I’m going to try the Cucumber Dill version if I find it. Please note that not all products in this line are gluten-free.

Here is some interesting information about the company from the Mediterranean Snack Foods website:

  • We are committed to providing the best natural snack products for our customers who we consider part of our family.
  • Our products are grown naturally, free from any additives, chemicals and genetic modification.
  • We are long term partners with our customers and retailers, and value our relationship with them.
  • We are committed to supporting the local communities we serve and the longevity of all our partners, employees and suppliers that work with us.

It’s common for people to start limiting themselves in many ways after they’re told to follow the gluten-free diet for health reasons. It pays off to think outside the gluten-free box whenever you get the chance. Instead of thinking about things you can’t do or foods you can’t eat, it’s much more fun to focus on the great foods you can have and modify your activities to fit your new life. When it comes to shopping for foods, consider all the possibilities around you. There is no need to limit yourself to shopping at expensive health food stores only or even to just grocery stores. I’ve found terrific soups, gluten-free licorice and much more at stores that most people don’t think of for food shopping. It really can be fun to be gluten-free!

Gluten-Free Labeled Meal from Smart Ones

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

Every now and then I go gluten-free sleuthing at the grocery store. That means I randomly pick up products and start reading the ingredients to see if they might be gluten-free. I’ve found several things that were gluten-free, but not labeled as such when doing this. I’ve also found items that were labeled gluten-free, which is extra exciting for me. It’s likely that I might be flagged as one strange shopper at Publix. Most people don’t pick up thirty items, read the labels and walk out of the grocery store with only two things, after all.

Last week, I went grocery shopping with my husband and that’s not the best time to go gluten-free sleuthing. He’s a “get whatever is on the list and get out” kind of shopper. I’m whatever the opposite of that is. As I wandered rather aimlessly down the frozen food case aisle, the bright red Smart Ones boxes caught my eye. When I pulled the Santa Fe Style Rice & Beans out of the freezer, I noticed that the words “Weight Watchers” were listed above the product name. The ingredients were on one end of the box and the font was extremely tiny, but I thought I saw the words “GLUTEN-FREE” on the lower right side below the ingredient list. I assumed my eyes were playing tricks on me as I didn’t have my cheater glasses on so I pulled them out and sure enough, the product donned those magical two words – gluten-free.

Into the cart, my new gluten-free find went, even though the ingredient list was longer than any product I’ve seen in a while. The meal is 6 Weight Watchers points and has 310 calories. There is 16% of the RDA of fiber in it, but it contains 660mg of sodium. Yikes! Overall, I would not put this meal in the category of healthy products. However, in a pinch, it’s always good to know what convenience foods are readily available on the shelves of mainstream grocery stores. And as one who knows that gluten-free replacement foods often contain too much fat, sugar, and calories, having a low-cal meal with that much fiber (that cooks in the microwave) might come in handy every once in a while.

So, how was the actual taste of the Santa Fe Style Rice & Beans meal? I’m happy to report that it was surprisingly good. In fact, if it were not for the number of hard-to-pronounce ingredients in it, I’d probably keep it on hand in the freezer. It was a very flavorful meal and was quite filling, though it could have been spicier. We went through Santa Fe once and enjoyed some of the best Mexican food of our lives. This meal pales in comparison to the food in the city from which it gets its name, but it was tasty nonetheless.

When I contacted Heinz, who owns the Smart One’s line, they sent me a list of all of their gluten-free products. To my surprise, there were six other gluten-free meals in Smart One’s lineup listed. In addition to the meal I bought, the following meals are also gluten-free:

  • Smart Ones Broccoli & Cheddar Potatoes
  • Smart Ones Lemon Herb Chicken Piccata
  • Smart Ones Fiesta Chicken
  • Smart Ones Chicken Santa Fe
  • Smart Ones Cranberry Turkey Medallions
  • Smart Ones Honey Dijon Chicken

Review: Healthy Choice Frozen Dinners

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 4 Comments

Quite a while back, I tried a Cafe Steamers meal from Healthy Choice. It is not labeled gluten-free, but a call to the company confirmed the product is made with gluten-free ingredients. The meal was very good, though a bit on the pricey side. Recently, I checked the label of some other Healthy Choice frozen dinners which sell here for $1.99. To my surprise and delight, I actually found one that didn’t contain gluten ingredients. There was no disclaimer about the product being processed on lines that process wheat either so I decided to give it a try.

Since Healthy Choice products are not tested for the presence of gluten, Con-Agra (manufacturer of Healthy Choice) will not state anything they make is gluten-free. They will only state whether or not gluten ingredients are used in them. Even though I think Con-Agra is woefully behind the other large food companies in the U.S. in terms of the gluten-free market, I also think they take allergens seriously. Like any large company, their legal departments work overtime worrying about the many ways the company can be sued. Due to that issue, companies tend to be overly careful when it comes to labeling foods that contain ingredients that are top allergens. Seriously, is the disclaimer “may contain nuts” really necessary on a jar of peanuts?

The Spicy Caribbean Chicken is the only meal I could find that didn’t contain any gluten ingredients on the label. The meal has 310 calories, 30 grams of whole grains and 15 grams of protein. For a relatively small meal, it packs a pretty impressive nutritional punch. The meal took longer than stated on the package to get completely hot – about 25% longer, in fact. Immediately, I noticed that there is not a lot of rice in the container. The picture on the box indicates that there is more rice than is actually in the package. The taste of everything was very good, though the tanginess factor was a little overwhelming. More rice mixed in would have calmed that down a bit, but adding my own rice would take away the value of buying a fairly healthy meal for only $1.99. I’d rather have them  at least double the amount of rice and charge $2.49 instead.

The black beans, corn, pineapple and sauce really worked well together and I enjoyed the overall flavor much more than I expected to. Spicy Caribbean Chicken is a ‘select entree’ within the Healthy Choice line. Since Weight Watchers exchanges are listed on the website, and don’t indicate a milk exchange and the only allergen statement is about soy, the meal appears to be dairy-free. Below is the rest of the nutritional information for the meal I tried.

Amount/Serving %DV*
Total Fat (2 g) 3%
Saturated Fat (.5 g) 3%
Trans Fat (0 g)
Cholesterol (20 mg) 7%
Sodium (290 mg) 12%
Vitamin A (10%)
Calcium (6%)

*Please note – there are some mistakes on the Con-Agra website regarding allergens on individual products. I noticed that a Cafe Steamer lists only shellfish as an allergen, even though the item is made with pasta. Either the company switched to gluten-free pasta for this item or they goofed on the website. As always, read the entire ingredient list on products before deciding to purchase them.