Gluten-Free, Week 1

Well, it's been about a week and a half since we made the switch, and it's going pretty well. Bella was the main concern, as she is already so picky and her scope of acceptable foods is always narrowing. She has proved to still be a bit of a challenge, as foods she liked last week may now be considered revolting. Lunch is an especial challenge since she can't eat her standard peanut butter and honey sandwich. 

Here are some of the GF things in our pantry right now, some of which we have tried and some we have not. It should go without saying that most of these things are prohibitively expensive, but necessary- especially when you are trying to appease a 5-year old.

The verdict on some of these foods.

The Good:

Gluten-Free Bisquick is great! We had pancakes for dinner one night and I thought they were genuinely good, not just a decent stand-in for actual pancakes. Yum.

Gluten-Free Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookies- surprisingly good. The 'batter' was weird, so I was uncertain. It's very crumbly, and I had to ball the dough, packing it a bit to put it on the cookie sheet. Once baked, they were pretty good. I froze them, to help with portion control and was later (that night) reminded that I like frozen cookies almost more than fresh. Frozen you couldn't even tell a difference, but I guess a stick of butter for 2 dozen cookies doesn't hurt.

Trader Joes Brownie Mix: Pretty good, but very fudgy. Everything GF tends to be a bit dense, but that's okay in a brownie.

Mi-Del Chocolate Chip Cookies were pretty good in a Chips A Hoy! sort of way.

Glutino crackers were okay. They're kind of like saltines, and at least they're plain. I'm hoping Bella will eat them with peanut butter.

Rice pastas are pretty good. I mean, it's used in asian cuisine all the time. A bit sticky, but still good.

Udi's bagels look awesome, like regular bagels, but we haven't tried them yet.

I've wanted to try quinoa ('keen-wah') for a long time, but also found it prohibitively expensive. Going GF is the push I needed to try it. We made this old favorite recipe of mine, swapping the couscous we usually use for quinoa, 1:1. It was awesome! The only change we had to make was to let it sit for about 1 minutes to let all the water absorb.

The Bad:

Food For Life brown rice bread is awful. Disgusting. Wretched. Dreadful. Before we bought it I asked Timm what his mom ate, and if she liked it. His response was "Well, no one likes it." It is obvious why. Bella however, happily ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich on it and asked for more. So I hid my revolt.

Rice Crackers we got in the asian food section are g-r-o-s-s, gross. They just taste like salt.

So-So:

I made Miracle Bread using Bob's Red Mill all purpose baking mix and some xanthum gum, and while it was a far cry better than the brick of rice bread we bought at Trader Joe's, I'm still on the fence. The texture is off-putting.  It's just so dense and spongy. Timm however, told me it was the best GF bread he'd ever tasted and wants me to make it a staple. And at around $3.50 or so to make, is much better than the $6 we paid for that other monstrosity.

Well Molly, it looks like you're going to get me shopping at Trader Joe's regularly for once! I've always shied away because I assumed it was too expensive, and Molly was always trying to push me through the door. Not only do they carry hard to find GF products, but their prices on specialty products is better than typical grocery store products.

If you have any product recommendations or GF recipes to share, pass it along!