I have been putting off going into the GF (gluten free) food posts. Mainly due to GF food being such a large topic - blech. I have a new concept which should make this easier. Every now and then I am going to post my grocery list. You get to have an up close intimate look at what my family eats now. This should be a great way to dive into what GF foods are out there and where they can be found easily.
Easy Finds. HyVee (or Safeway)1. Cinnamon Chex Cereal. Chex is one of the few mainstream brands that caters to the GF crowd. The GF variations include rice, honey nut, chocolate and cinnamon. Careful to look close, not all Chex are GF and none of the mixes are. The GF variations proudly state in large green letters on the front of the cereal box “Gluten Free”.
2. Yoplait Yogurt Vanilla. Yoplait is another great mainstream brand that caters for the GF crowd. The individual yogurts state “gluten free” next to their ingredient information. Not all the Yoplait Yogurts are GF, but many of the standard flavors are. Their “parfait” line is not. I haven’t checked their thicker yogurts or their “duets”.
I love these yogurts for me as they up my calcium levels easily as a fast breakfast. I tend to not drink milk much. I personally do not bother with fat-free, but those are awesome as well. I like the individually packed yogurt as apposed to the bulk buy because I can count calories easier.
3. Yoplait Go-Gurts. A yogurt aimed at kids. These are great to pop in the freezer. My kids love them that way. Also, these are super easy on play dates and for lunches. Some moms don’t like the amount of sugar – so there are draw backs to convenience. Anyway, this is our super easy cheat. Also states on the box near ingredient label “gluten free”.
4. Chicken (fresh w/nothing added). Often chicken is enhanced with chicken broth – you need to call in about that – never assume. Right now from Sam’s Club we get the Tysons boneless skinless chicken breasts with no flavoring added. I like that we can get this in bulk and cut down cost.
5. Van’s Wheat-Free Waffles (Frozen Product). Not all mainstream stores will sell these, but many do sell this are a similar brand. Read the labels carefully. I do not personally love this brand. The taste and texture are not great. In fact I do not usual buy these. It is more a matter of convenience and a necessity to have variety early in the morning for the kids.
6. Potatoes. I love the fingerlings – Costco and Sam’s Club sell them. Super fast and easy to cook as apposed to large baked potatoes. Obviously raw potatoes are gluten free.
7. Salmon. I love fish. I love the health factor. You get your fatty acids/Omega 3 and 6s. Very awesome.
Harder Finds. The next part of my list can be found at many general stores, but often needs a specialty store.
1. Udi’s. I LOVE THIS BRAND. If you need GF this is an important brand to know. At least as important to my other favorite
Pamelas. Udi’s makes sandwich bread. It is the main reason I have not managed to come up with a decent bread recipe to share with you all and I am thrilled about that! I mean, the bread isn’t perfect; however, it is doable and easily better than anything else out there right now. Most general stores sell Udi’s sandwich bread now. It is hard to find in the store usually. This bread is sold frozen since GF breads go bad faster than regular bread. So check all freezers. In Lafayette they have it in the bakery section in their special cake freezer.
2. Udi’s GF Bagels. You need to go to a specialty store for this product or order online. These are the best GF bagels you can find in specialty arena that are mildly mainstream. Still leaves something to be desired – but it isn’t overly rice-y.
3. Udi’s pizza crust. This product can be found at many mainstream stores, but not all. Again it’s frozen.
Glutino is a brand that also does a more substantial pizza crust I like a quite a bit; however, I have not found this pizza crust in South Dakota yet.
4. Kinnikinnick. This is another amazing brand. We got their
Cinnamon Sugar Donuts today. We found them at our local HyVee which is revising its specialty foods area. I am super excited to see them again. They also have GF Vanilla and GF Chocolate.
5. Annie’s HomeGrown Gluten Free Bunny Cookies Cocoa and Vanilla – Annie’s also makes a boxes Mac n Cheese for GF diet (I don’t use this much, but when I do I add grated cheddar cheese and butter to thicken it). The cookies are similar to animal crackers/cookies.
6. Organic Quinoa Pasta by Ancient Harvest. Best pasta out there. I have found that it is tricky and just annoying to cook GF pasta. We have WAY less spaghetti than we used to and no Mac n Cheese. The trick I have learned with this particular pasta is to have the water boiling first, to go for ten minutes as apposed to the lower end of the time frame of 6-9 minutes printed on the box and to add a teaspoon or less of butter to the noodles for the last 2 minutes of cooking them. Also, use a much larger pan than for regular pasta and do not stop stirring. Over cooking, under cooking and noodles sticking together are real issues. The pasta does not necessarily cook evenly either. If you get it right though, man this is a great tasting noodle. I have tried to cook their elbow noodles, but I have less luck with that. You will find that fewer problems occur with rice pasta – but we get sick of the rice taste after a while.
Anyway, that was my grocery list for today. Maybe I have finally gone about shedding some light on the GF diet at our house.
We tried out a new gluten free brand, 1-2-3 Gluten Free Inc. This company is dedicated allergen-free & gluten free. Their facilities are certified by the Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO), as well as, free of are peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, dairy, soy and casein. They also are Kosher!
We tried their Bundt Pound Cake Mix. My family loved it. It actually is as simple as one, two, three. We poured in the batter, added the ingredients, placed it in the oven. Voilà! Probably the easiest bundt cake I will ever make. To avoid one problem we had - make sure your bundt cake dish is the right size, mine was too big. The cook time was slightly longer than the packaging indicated - we went for an extra 15 minutes.
