Product Review - Garbo Toast Bread

Garbo attended (and gave out samples) at a support group meeting last fall. I was amazed at how good their bread was even untoasted. On occasion, "Livin' Gluten Free" a local sandwich shop has their Sun Bread but I was excited to find that my neighborhood Kings Super Market is carrying their Toast Bread and Sport Bread.

The Toast Bread is great. It browns up nicely in the toaster and the taste reminds me of the homemade loaves of yeast bread my grandmother used to bake at Easter. I do however see why they call it 'Toast' bread. It unfortunately does not have the durability to be sandwich bread.

I don't really eat enough toast to justify the extra trip to Kings (it's local, but not a store I usually shop in). I'll just toast a slice of sandwich bread instead. It won't be as good as Garbo's but it will do.

If you can't find Garbo's Toast Bread locally, you can purchase it online here: Garbo Toast Bread.

Product Review - Organic Bistro Frozen Meals

A little while ago I noticed a link for Organic Bistro appearing in the Adsense ads on this site. Since Adsense doesn't allow me to click on my own ads, I typed Organic Bistro into google and checked out their website. Everything about these meals sounded great: gluten free, dairy free, all natural, etc, until I got to the part about where they were on sale and realized they weren't available here in NJ! Since I don't like to order food online (I prefer to support the local stores that carry GF/DF) I figured I would just have to wait until they were available here in New Jersey. Well, thanks to Whole Foods, I didn't have to wait long!

On my last shopping trip to Whole Foods, I noticed two varieties of Organic Bistro meals in their freezer case and bought both. The price is pretty reasonable especially when compared to other gluten free frozen meals on the market. I ate the Ginger Chicken (see photo at right) over the weekend and the Chicken Citron (see photo below on left) last night. The Ginger Chicken had green beans, carrots, snap peas, edamame and brown rice while the Chicken Citron had spinach, edamame, sun dried tomatoes, carrots and quinoa.

The meals are organic and contain multiple vegetables and whole grains. Best of all, their entire line is both dairy and gluten free! I think the meals will take some getting used to as my palette adjusts from what it remembers of frozen meals packed with salt, refined sugar, white rice, unpronounceable additives, and/or refined flours. I am certainly a fan of the convenience as well as the nutrition packed into each meal.

I've been trying to eat more fruits and vegetables but when grabbing something quick (read: microwaved in a couple of minutes) that can be hard to do. I think these meals will be a nice addition to the nights I don't have time to cook.

Update: I ran to Whole Foods tonight and they now have what appears to be the entire line! Since I have such a small freezer I'll have to try these one or two at a time. Up next are the Jamaican Shrimp Cakes.

Product review - Kinnikinnick Donuts!

I attended a training class in NYC the second week in December. The computer school that hosted the class provided a large breakfast spread for their students. When I say large, I mean ridiculously large! There were muffins, and scones, and bagels, and toast, and cereal, and danishes, and most distressing of all - glazed donuts! I had planned ahead (not actually expecting there to be food and having to leave home insanely early) and had brought along a breakfast bar (thanks Enviro-kids!) Add to that a banana (they had large, multi-tiered basket of fruit as well) and I had a pretty decent breakfast . . . . but I just couldn't stop thinking about those donuts!

To my knowledge there is only one company that sells a GF/DF donut - Kinnikinnick. I purchase most of my GF products at a large Whole Foods near my home. I do also on occasion stop in some smaller health food stores especially if I'm traveling outside my immediate area or even just driving somewhere I know there is a store. I finally found a store selling Kinnikinnick Vanilla Glazed Donuts!

If you've never had these, I highly recommend them. If the last time you purchased them they came in a plastic bag, I highly recommend you try them again. The first time I had a Kinnikinnick Donut they were sold frozen together in a plastic bag. The donuts weren't a uniform size or shape and were about as dense as clay. I used to eat half a donut at a time as they were too heavy to finish an entire donut in one sitting.

Since then however they've made some vast improvements. The donuts now come in a box of six. Inside the box they are arranged in a tray that keeps them from freezing together. Each donut is now a uniformed size and shape (not jumbo sized like at Dunkin Donuts but a good size overall). They are also a nice texture and consistency and are as light as a GF product really can be.

So, anyhow, it was nice to finally get a glazed donut even if it was a month later! Of course, in writing this post, I spent some time poking around the Kinnikinnick website and now I'm yearning for some of their other flavors - Cinnamon Sugar, Maple Glazed, Chocolate Glazed and Chocolate Coated!

Nomato products - tomato free pasta sauce, salsa, barbecue sauce and ketchup

Since I've essentially been away for two and a half weeks now, the contents of my refrigerator are getting kind of scarce. On the upside, searching through it last night for a jar of roasted red peppers led me to discover that I still had an open jar of Nomato sauce that I had picked up in upstate New York earlier in the year. Unfortunately, the roasted red peppers had seen better days and were discarded but I did boil up some pasta instead. For those that don't know, I really can't eat too many tomatoes. Ketchup for some reason doesn't bother me in the least but as far as pasta sauce goes, more than a couple tablespoons or so and I'll be sick.

Nomato is a small company in PA that produces four tomato free products: Pasta sauce, ketchup, barbecue sauce and salsa. They sell online at http://www.nomato.com or at a small list of regional stores: http://www.nomato.com/stores.htm

I've only ever tried the pasta sauce and it wasn't bad. They seem to use a blend of carrots and beets and the sauce itself is the right color. The pasta does get a slight purplish tinge to it however. It wasn't as good as Mom's tomato sauce and to be honest since I can tolerate small amounts of her sauce, I won't be switching to Nomato's product. I did however, want to share the existence of this company with anyone else who may be avoiding Tomatoes completely. Since their distribution is so small, I doubt I'll be trying their other products, although if you do, please note it in the comments below.

And as a side note, their product line is dairy and gluten free as well.

Update (3/6/08) - this is now also available online from the Gluten-Free Mall here.

Ener-G Hot Dog Buns - new shape

Last week I bought a package of Ener-G Tapioca Hot Dog Buns. I've had these before but I wouldn't have called them a hot dog bun in the past. Previously, they were more of a small hero (hoggie/grinder/sub) roll. I didn't mind, I would just put two hot dogs on them (or use them to make a meatball parm hero or a roast beef sub for lunch). Now however, they are more cylindrical in shape and much more like a hot dog bun (they still taste exactly the same). Check out the photo I took and you can see what I mean. Not sure which shape you'll get if you order them online somewhere but if you know of a local store that sells them you may want to stop in and check them out.

While I'll miss the old small hero rolls, I certainly like the idea of being able to take a couple of these to a bar-b-cue and have hot dogs on a bun just like everyone else!