Undi's Plain Bagel

I do miss a good bagel.
Before Coffee shops were all the rage in Seattle, I remember an outing when I was about 8 or 10 down to the SPOT bagel bakery. I think thu are still downtown..
The bagels were make fresh, and loaded with good stuff. The blueberry I remember had at least 20 blueberries in it. toasted lightly and lathered in cream cheese...
Yes I do miss a good bagel.

I have a recipe for them I got about 8 years ago. I tried it when I first acquired the recipe, and it made fairly good ones. But it was alot of work, and very messy. The boiling watter, the stack of dirty pans... not it was something I did not think I would eat again.

This week I tried the Undi's Plain Bagel.
They were good.
Soft, almost springy.
An excellent bread by any standard.
But not quite the Bagle I remember. Not quite the dense chewiness i would associate with the work Bagel.
Coming form Denver Co, perhaps that is their bagel standard, I guess I need a good New York style bagel...

Romios Pizza & Pasta

We got an add in our mail. Gluten free ALL over it. (Twice the price.)

I got a sandwich. It was 18inches long at least. Cost over $17. About a Doller an inch!

Bread was good. Not wonderfull. Not worth the price.
Not going back.

Udi's Blueberry muffins

No photo, I ate them.

Very good, moist, and malleable.
Yes malleable.
Anyone else ever take a muffin, and squeeze all the air out until it was a soft buttery fist full of goodness...no?...Just me then...
Well I would do that all the time.
I think It was because baked good always gave me gas and in my child mind I thought that squeezing the air out would prevent my from having gas later...Funny what logic children have...
ANYways
The muffins were good.
From baking experience I can tell they used either fresh or frozen blueberries. I know this form the whole they berries left when they shriveled up after baking. It makes the Muffins very cavernous, more like swish cheese. I like to use Dried blueberries myself, that reduces this problem. It's disappointing to bite into a muffin and find a big pocket of air...

Lable Rant and Kinnikinnick Rave

Does anyone not know that Gluten free IS wheat free!?
Or that If it's Dairy free then there should be no lactose?
I'm just curious, cause I understood eight years ago that maybe there were people out there with a wheat allergy that might not know what gluten was, but I think with the availability of the Internet and other mas media that we should all know that, the Gluten free people and the Wheat free people could have some communication.
Gluten includes wheat and the Dairy includes Lactose...
I know Just because it says "wheat free" does not mean that it is gluten free.
It is one of those All rectangles are squares but not all squares are rectangles logic problems...

Koodoes to Kinnikinnick! They have new packaging that is getting the point across.
They have a Little "Dairy Free" button shaped label and it has "lactose free" and "casein free" in smaller print right there, grouping the three.
And here is the Nut one:

Wow...Look at that. I'm so happy.

Simple, straight forward, and probably cheaper to print.  

 

Kinnikinnick Montanas Chocolate Chip Cookies

Kinnikinnick Montanas Chocolate Chip Cookies.
The packaging is better now then this image, the container look like REAL cookies, that you could find anywhere.
The taste and texture were good.
It's been ten years, but they tasted as good as the packaged chocolate chips I remember.
The ones little elves who live in treas make....Or sailors{Ahoy}

Yah, don't miss those blue bags of cookies when you have these babies!
Gluten free, dairy free, nut free!

Kinnikinnick you have done it again!

"I'm just a little black rain cloud"-Pooh

As of late I have become concerned more about my overall health.
But I'm just not sure what "healthy" for me means.

Before I was diagnosed with Celiac/Coeliac disease my pants size was 9. Not that small for an 18 year old, but I'm from Viking stock. At 128 lbs you could count my ribs thru my t-shirt. When I stood, my hip bones were the largest protrusion from my front. I was all bones. Looking back at photos you can see that I was not well. Doctors said words like "malnourished" and "deterioration" Adults thought I was anorexic, or bulimic, or both.
Yet according to the BMI, I was well witin healthy ranges.....That is CRAP.
According to the BMI I'm now Obese...That is CRAP.
Graduated High school: size 11
Graduate Jr College: Size 9
Graduate University: size 22
Wedding day: size14
Currently:size18
SO what does that mean? What IS healthy?
I don't really care what the scales say.
I'm not all that concerned with the number on the clothing.
What I am concerned about was summarized nicely by Wikipedia:
After the implementation of a gluten-free diet there can be many persisting deficiencies, which can be “due to slow or incomplete healing of the small intestine, failure to eat foods rich in needed nutrients, eating too much fiber with meals, thus binding nutrients, Helicobacter Pylori infection, small bowel bacterial overgrowth, giardia, or other infections and parasites”[39].
 Many gluten-free made products are not fortified, enriched, or have all the nutrients that the natural sources contain, thus these products are especially low in folate, iron, and fiber[citation needed]. Also, due to the fact that gluten-free products are not always available, many Gluten-Sensitive Enteropathy (GSE) patients do not consume the recommended amount of grain servings per day.
The standard gluten-free diet does not meet the recommended intake for fiber, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folate, iron, or calcium[citation needed]. People who change their standard gluten-free diet to implement gluten-free oats at breakfast, high fiber brown rice bread at lunch, and quinoa as a side at dinner have been found to have significant increases in protein (20.6g versus 11g), iron (18.4 mg versus 1.4 mg), calcium (182 mg verses 0 mg), and fiber (12.7g verses 5g). The B vitamin group did not have significant increases, but were still found to have improved values of thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and folate. These dietary changes can greatly reduce a GSE patient’s risk for anemia (especially Iron Deficiency Anemia) and low blood calcium levels or poor bone health. Not only is it important to avoid gluten, but also to find more nutrient-dense, gluten-free food sources to prevent patients from other diseases due to deficiencies.
So I might not be any healthier GF then I was not GF?
A decade ago when I first scoured the Internet for Coeliac disease I found a European Medical Journal summery. It plainly stated that most patents who were diagnosed over the age of 18, and done enough damage overall, that the positive life expectancy was 50 years old. Loss of mobility by 40. Most likely cause of death being heart failure, followed by complications of autoimmune deficiencys.
That hit me at 19 years old hard.
Perhaps that has all been proven wrong?
I have not found the article since, though I have tried.
So maybe that doctor was a quack, disbarred, and discredited.
But on days like today, when I'm sick for "no reason" and my body acts like that of the baby boomers I know, I can't help but remember that article, and wonder If I've only got 10 good years left...

Oh Dairy Queen your crown has fallen

The Dairy Queen Blizzard is 25 years old.
I loved them as a Kid, but when I was 15 the DQ in our town shut down under some vary shoddy circumstances and so I have not been to one since.
Well, I was driving past one, and It was 92 degrees outside so I got myself a LARGE Midnight truffle, cause the kid behind the Counter said that it only had chocolate ice cream, truffle pieces and cocoa fudge. When I asked if their was wheat in it, he said no, and since he was about to make me one I trusted him.
Well let me tell you, there was something NOT GF in that Blizzard!

According to the Brochure, the Truffle pieces, the choco chunks, and the cocoa fudge are all wheat free.
Just wheat free. And they can't seam to tell me any more.
So one, or maybe all of them, are not GF!
Well DQ, I guess I won't be back for another decade or so...

French Meadow Bakery GF Fudge brownie bites

I have said it before but I will say it again, brownies are the easiest thing to do GF.
ESPECIALLY Fudge ones.
That is the definition of a flowerless tort! Chocolate, butter, sugar. Been around for ages. Cant go wrong.
And Yet Soooooo many do.

French Meadow Bakery GF Fudge brownie bites, while so happy to find GF at my local Safeway, not really happy with what I found IN the box.

If you like the Corners of the brownies, the crunchier end pieces, you might like these.

I however I am s gooey, fudgy, middle piece, person. So this was not what I wanted.

Box should not have said "fudge" nothing "fudge" about them.

85 calories, 18g EACH.

Spiru-Tein "meal"

I'm at work at 7:30 am now. Not really hungry when I get up, so I was thinking it would be good to have some kind of Protean drink in the morning, once I got to work. But I'm not so good when Dairy on an empty tummy.
About 5 years ago Slimfast had a Soy based line that I would get but they don't have it anymore, so I went looking for something new.
Spiru-tein Has several flavors that are GF, not all are so check your labels.
I picked up a few of the individual packages and I glad I DID!

1. Chocolate. Imagine that you’ve got chocolate milk residue in you class, from last night, and you pour water in to that and drink it. Through a led pipe. That was the chocolate. I managed to choke down about 3/4th of it. The rest “went bad” sitting out on my desk all day.


2. Pina Colada. I had half of a SoBe drink, in the fringe from the day before(because a whole bottle is 2 servings), also coconut flavor. I figured that since the pouch says to add the powder to milk or juice, that this was just as good, and only a 100 extra calories. SO I poured the powder in, and shook it up and set it in the freezer for 10 minutes to get REALLY cold. ‘Cause when my mom did weightloss shakes that is how she did it. The cold and thickness of the concoxion was NOT an improvement. It was so thick it was gloppy. And this one has chunks in it. Bits of pineapple and coconut. Good in a milkshake, bad it something you want to chug and get over with. So the bits slowed me down and make me taste it more. Not fond of the metallic taste. And makes my teeth feel funny; Like I had eaten spinach…
 
3. Only decent flavor was the Blueberry. I mixed it with Vanilla soy milk and also got it good and cold. I added more milk then it called for to avoid that gloppy ness, and then I tossed in a hand full of frozen blueberries. It was not that bad. I shook it up so good that all the berries were broken up enough that I did not have to chew, or strain them thru my teeth. It still had that metallic aftertaste, and the funny residue it left on my teeth, but overall the best flavor I tried.

Bread Brake down

I have three {YES THREE} loafs of Gluten Free bread. Thanks to Whole foods.
Undi's "White sandwich bread"
Schar "clasis white bread"
Ener-G foods "White rice loaf"
...Now Normally I know better then to get an Ener-G loaf, but Hubby did the shopping one day and that is what came home with him...
So we did a Bread Brake down.
Comparing slice by slice:
BEST right out of the bag: Undi's
BEST for meat and cheese sandwich: Undi's
BEST for Toast with Jam: Schar
BEST for French toast: Schar
BEST for Grilled cheese: Schar
Best at traveling: Undi's

Schar is at it's best, in my opinion, when microwaved for just a few seconds, and therefore best when warm.
Not a good cold, so not as good with cold foods.







Undi's was good right out of the Bag, but more porous, and therefore not as good with runnier things like Jam, Hunney, syrup...)

I think Both breads get a  out of 10

Flax 4 Life Flax muffins, chunky chocolate chip

Flax 4 Life Flax muffins, chunky chocolate chip. Certified GF by GIG

Actually fairly good. Moist, not too dense, and good flavor, for flax that is. I tore them apart and dug right in. Not crumbly at all.
Chocolate chunks were chocolaty, good. Not that carob yek.

I will probably get them again, or one of the other interesting flavors.

I have them as my breakfast 4 days in a row now.

10 grams of fiber per muffin. I think I have been commenting about Fiber a lot lately, but I hear that fiber helps you feel full longer. So I try.

I work in an office of 8 women. All but the pregnant one and I are on a diet.

Glutino Gluten free “candy bar”

Glutino; Gluten free “candy bar”

Not what I thought it would be. It’s more of a cookie bar…
Think Kit Cat bar.
Three rather unexciting wafers, alternation layers of chocolate cream, covered in a firm Dark chocolate shell.
Realy, it's just a wider, flater, indvigually wraped version of the Gultino Chocolate Wafers

.9 oz. 140 calories. So not a health bar.

Undi's Cinnamon Rolls are ROLLED!!!

THEY DID IT!!! Undi's Gluten free foods made a Cinnamon roll. Not Just a Cinnamon bread "roll" but a sweet bread ROLLED UP with Cinnamon goodness!

Word can not express.

Everything I have been looking for!

SO happy.

Web said "Not available for on-line purchase. Limited Availability"  I found them at local Whole foods.

Call you local GF suppliers and ask them to get this!!!

Whole foods

So, we just moved. And I use to go to this little hole in the wall local specialty grocery to get my GF stuff.
Yeah to Fredmeyers and Albertsons for caring a few feet of it, but the stuff I need is usually not there.
So We have moved. And I was concerned about my GF supplier.
Well, while in Utah I got GOOD GF bread at a place called Wild Oats.
Whole foods bought out that chain.
So I happen to live near a Whole Foods now, so I went to look.

Last time I was in a whole foods was like 5 years ago. There GF stuff was just mixed in with everything else, so I had to read label after label after label.

So I went to whole foods, direct to bakery to check freezer there for GF. Nothing. Searched entire bakery, ONE GF loaf. Flax seed bread, hard as rock.
Checked entire freezer section, found GF waffles, and GF frozen dinners but no bread.
I thought "seriously?!? Kroger has more then this!??"
So I went to check out, but the line was long, so I though well, mine as well ask the girl at customer service. Maybe I missed it.
"excuse me I have a question? Do you carry Gluten free bread"
"Yes, in the gluten free freezer."
"Where is that"
"In the Gluten free department"
"...Wha...?"
I'll show you"   And she lead me past produce to the far northern corner of the store, to GF HEAVEN!
I had not gone anywhere near produce, cause I was not looking for fruit. But she explained that the GF section was almost it's own store. It had it own external dore, cash register, and sitting area were I am told events take place.
 They has products I had never seen.
I giggles like a giddy school girl as I circles the Freezers, six dores worth of GF foods.
And I was practically crying by the time I finished walking down all 8 gluten free isles.
I got only one bag full this week.
Our new apartment has a small fridge, and not much cupboard space, so I'm going to go more European, and shop more often and get less stuff.

Larabar

Larabar GF, DF, SF Vegan Kosher. I tried the Chocolate coconut chew.


PRO: Full serving of fruit, and 1/5th daily fiber (something we GF often lack) And the entire ingredient list could be found in my pantry. (Dates, nuts, coco, coconuts. All real basic foods)

Con: 220 Cal. That’s almost 4 cal per gram. That is some DENCE food.

Taste: Meh.

Very dry, crumbly.

I needed a glass of milk. Badly. You would not want to be on a cliff eating this with an empty canteen.