The Essential Gluten Free Grocery Guide Contest

Back on August 31, I wrote a review of The Essential Gluten Free Grocery Guide, and said I would draw a name to win the book on September 15. Well, I just plain forgot to do the drawing. Shame on me! 

Today, I wrote the names of the three commenters on that post on little scraps of paper, folded the papers into tiny little wads, then drew one of them out of bag.   And, ta da! Walt of  From Out Of Left Field was the name I drew out.  So, Walt, send me an email at fabgrandma @ gmail dot com, with your mailing address, so I can send this book to you. I hope it helps your family find good stuff to eat in the grocery stores! I am so sorry it took me a month longer to draw the winner.

Mi-Del Gluten Free Ginger Snaps

 

These gluten free ginger snaps by Mi-Del have been one of my favorite cookies since I started eating gluten free two and a half years ago. They are hard like regular ginger snaps, and have just the right amount of sweetness, too. I like them plain, or with some cream cheese or peanut butter on them. 

Yesterday, I had a pot-luck dinner to attend, and I wanted to make a home made pumpkin pie to take to it. As I was trying to figure out what to do for the crust, I remembered that I had a bag of Mi-Del Gluten Free Ginger Snaps in the cupboard. So, I made a crumb crust using them. Everyone, even the wheat eaters at the party, raved about the pie. As a matter of fact, they ate it all  up. See:

 

 

I used this recipe to make my crust, but because gluten free flours don't absorb butter like wheat flour does, next time I would use half as much butter to make the crust.

Mi-Del Gluten Free Ginger Snaps come in an 8 oz. bag. The ingredients from the side of the bag:

Gluten free flour (corn flour, soy flour, potato flour, rice flour, corn starch, potato starch, xanthan gum); organic dehydrated cane juice; canola oil; unsulphered molasses; ginger; soy lecithin (used as an emulsifier); eggs; baking soda; sea salt; natural flavor.  

There is also an allergy warning on the bag: Produced in a facility that also processes or handles wheat, milk, peanuts, and tree nuts. Mi-Del gluten free products are routinely tested using the ELISA method to ensure gluten free status as determined by the World Health Organization.

Mi-Del also makes Cinnamon Snaps, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Pecan Cookies, Arrowroot Cookies, Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, and Royal Vanilla Sandwich Cookies.

Pamela's Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix

 

The front of the bag says "Fast, Easy, Delicious", and I found that to be true.  To make these cookies, just add 1 stick of butter or margarine, 1 egg, and 1 tablespoon of water. Beat the butter or margarine, then add the egg, water and contents of the bag. Mix one minute. Drop by tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet, and bake @ 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. 

When you take them out of the oven, let them cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove to a paper towel lined plate. 

 

The cookies have big chunks of chocolate in them, and cook up just right with a little crunch, a little chewiness. They taste AWESOME!  Some of the best gluten free chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. 

Suggestions on the side of the bag are for Peanut Butter Chunk Cookies--add 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1/4 cup water, mix as above, and bake.  They also suggest making crumbs out of the Chocolate Chunk Cookies to use as a crust for a chocolate cream pie or a cheesecake. Mmmm, sounds very good to me!

 

Ingredients: Organic chocolate chunks (organic natural evaporated cane sugar, organic chocolate liquor, organic cocoa butter, non-GMO soy lecithin/emulsifier, organic vanilla.  Chunks may contain traces of milk protein due to manufacturing equipment.); Organic natural cane sugar, brown rice flour, brown sugar, white rice flour, tapioca starch, sweet rice flour, grainless and aluminum-free baking powder (sodium bicarbonate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, potato starch), sea salt, organic cocoa power (processed with alkali), gluten-free natural flavor (contains corn derivative), xanthan gum, baking soda. 

Fabgrandpa, who does not have to eat gluten free, LOVED these cookies. I will be buying more--I'm gonna make a pie crust next time!.

KinniKritters Animal Cookies by Kinnikinnick

 

I have had this box of cookies in my cabinet for quite some time, but today I was given a bunch of ripe bananas and decided to make a banana pudding.  I love a home made banana pudding and when I was still a gluten eater, I loved the vanilla wafers in my pudding. These crackers taste a lot like vanilla wafers. They are a little hard, and are not brown at all, but they worked great in the banana pudding. Even my husband and our next door neighbor loved their flavor.

 

 

The cookies are shaped like animals, so they would be great for kids who have to eat a gluten free diet. I ate a couple out of the box. I liked them enough to buy them again.  They come in an 8 ounce box.  Ingredients:

 

Sugar, pea starch, potato starch, non hydrogenated shortening (palm fruit and/or canola) white rice flour, tapioca starch, water, glucose, pea protein, sodium carboxy methycellulose, vanilla, salt pea fibre, guar gum, inulin, ammonium bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate, soy lecithin

The box states: Gluten Fee, Wheat Free, Dairy/Casein Free, Egg Free, and Trans Fat Free. 

kinnikinnick Kinni-Kwik Bread & Bun Mix

 

Today I decided to try making bread again, this time with kinnikinnick Kinni-Kwick Bread & Bun Mix.  Because I live at a high altitude, and am still learning to bake at over 8,000 feet, I did a google search for instructions on baking gluten free at high altitude. The instructions I found advised me to:

1. Increase baking temperature by 25 degrees.

2. Subtract 5-8 minutes of baking time.

3. Add 1 tablespoon of flour for every 1,000 feet over 3,500 feet.

4. Decrease liquid by 1 tablespoon for every 1,000 feet over 3,000 feet.

Now that I had my adjustments, I started my baking experiment.  On the back of the package of Kinni-Kwik Bread & Bun Mix, the instructions say:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Blend 3 parts of mix with 2 parts of cold water, milk, or non-dairy alternative. Mix the batter for a full 2-3 minutes with elextric beater. Scoop into greased muffin pans or small bread pans. Place pans in pre-heated oven immediately and bake 20-30 minutes for buns and 40-50 minutes for breads.  

The full bag contains 5 1/2 cups of mix, and says to use 3 3/4 cups of liquid for the entire bag. So, here is what I added:

The full bag of mix

1 egg

enough liquid with the egg to make 3 1/2 cups liquid

4 tablespoons of sweet sorghum flour

I mixed it for 3 minutes, then scooped the batter into two disposable loaf pans.  I placed the pans on a cookied sheet and placed them into my oven, which I had preheated to 400 degrees F. Then I set the timer for 40 minutes. 

When the time went off, OMG! It was like a lava flow! It was like the blob! It was like this stuff just kept on growing! It overflowed onto the cookie sheet, and then some. It was in the bottom of my oven, burning to black cinders there. 

 

I had to use a knife to cut the two pans apart. There was about a third of the product wasted by it climbing out of my pans.  The good news is, that I was able to salvage it, and will be using it to make some dressing for chicken and dressing next week. It just wasn't in the slicable loaf format that I was looking for. 

 

 All this aside, I don't think it was the fault of the product itself--it has to be the high altitude causing the humongous rising of the dough, producing the siamese twin loaves of bread, and the lava flow onto the cookie sheet. 

 

 

After I was able to get the loaves apart, and cut the overflow off the sides of the pans, the loaves came out great! 

 

 

 

The end product is a sliceable loaf of bread, that tastes pretty darn good. I will use this mix again, but if I am still at high altitude I will use three pans instead of two. 

The Essential Gluten Free Grocery Guide 2nd Edition

Emily Sachs from Triumph Dining sent me a copy of The Essential Gluten Free Grocery Guide, 2nd Edition. This book is a very good starting place for someone new to the gluten free diet. It is a straight-forward list of things you can buy in regular grocery stores that are gluten free. 

 

Here is what Emily wrote in the letter she sent me along with the book:

"...The goal of this guide is not top replace thoughtful label reading, but to provide shoppers (particularly the overwhelmed, newly diagnosed) a starting poing to find the right products.  By helping people safely and efficiently allocate their label-reading time, we hope they can focus more on friends, famiy, and all the other things that make life special..."

The guide is set in sections that correspond to the different grocery aisles, and include Dairy & Eggs; Beverages; Baking; Canned & Packaged Goods;  Packaged Sides, Meals, & Meal Helpers; Condiments, Sauces, & Dressings; Cereal & Bread; Snacks & Convenience Foods; Baby Food & Formula; Frozen Foods; and Meats. 

 

 

 

The products are listed in alphabetical order by brand.  It is very easy to find the products you are looking for by name. If you don't know what brand is gluten free, just look up the item you want to find, such as Soup, then look at that page to see what your choices are. Easy peasy!

If you would like to win this book, leave me a comment or send me an email at fabgrandma @ gmail dot com, by September 15. I will choose a random name to win. Be sure I have your email address so I can contact you if you win.

The Winner IS...

Back on August 9th, I wrote my review of Nature's Path Organic cereals, and offered a coupon for a prize to one lucky commenter. I said I would choose the winner by August 16th, but that date came and went, and I plain forgot about it. 

So, tonight  I got out my pen and paper, and wrote numbers from 1 through 4 on little pieces of paper, folded them up tightly, shook them up in a bowl, and picked one out.  The number I drew was 2, and Gaelyn was the second commenter. So, congratulations, Gaelyn, you are the winner of the coupon good for one free Nature's Path Organic product!  I will be sending to you soon!