Gluten-Free Stuff

Well, it seems that more and more people are going gluten-free these days. It's a bummer to find out you can't eat that little protein found in wheat, barley and rye, but the good news is that there are so many good products out there now. I remember baking Christmas cookies the first year I was diagnosed and bringing them to Christmas Eve at my Grandmother's house. No one ate them. They were totally gross! Thankfully, that is not the case today.

A friend of a friend was asking for some good product info, so I'm just going to list products I know to be good.

Chebe Bread--is totally yummy, although not totally nutritious. It's a cheesy bread roll, crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. We only eat about half of it in a sitting, so we have taken to freezing the uncooked dough and it freezes well. It also makes good pizza crust, calzones, breadsticks, and if you roll it out very thin--cheddar crackers. We order it by the case. www.chebe.com

Bob's Red Mill--they make a few good bread mixes. We regularly make, slice and freeze the Homemade Wonderful GF Bread and the Hearty Whole Grain GF bread. We have also tried the cornbread mix, which is also good. I would not recommend the pancake mix or the all purpose baking mix. They taste bitter to me. The Chocolate chip cookie mix is another one I would not recommend. The dough is difficult to work with and I think the cookies are just too sweet. www.bobsredmill.com. The brownie mix is fantastic. Several people on unrestricted diets have told me they are the best brownies they have had. You can find a lot of these in the natural foods section of the regular grocery store, and the commissary is carrying them now, which is so great!

Pamela's--I buy the Pamela's GF Pancake and Baking mix in the largest bag available. It makes yummy pancakes, waffles and cakes (Pamela's also has mixes specifically for cakes, which are good as well). There are tons of recipes on their website (www.Pamelasproducts.com). You can make just about anything with this mix and everything I have made has turned out beautifully...it's great to have on hand.

Betty Crocker--I love that mainstream companies are going gluten-free also! For sweets, the Betty Crocker mixes are pretty good.

Pasta--Tinkyada is very good and so is Bionaturae. I would not recommend DeBoles.