Without Wheat

Apparently this has been available for some time, but I recently found out about the Guelph Student Cookbook, created by the University of Guelph’s Central Student Association.

The cookbook supports the CSA foodbank, which is operated by and for students at the university. From the introduction,

The goal of this cookbook is to provide food bank users with the knowledge and skills needed to make healthy choices and prepare nutritious food with limited food choices and budget…

All of the recipes in the book are simple, nutritious, and budget-friendly. As an added benefit, some recipes are identified as vegan, gluten-free, and party-sized.  Read more...

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One of the things I miss is the convenience of frozen meals. I know they’re typically not the best nutritionally, and they often cost a lot, but on days when you just don’t feel like cooking they’re better than fast food. But they’re filled with additives that contain gluten.

While gluten-free frozen meals do exist, you can’t just run into any supermarket and pick one up. They’re usually found at specialty shops, like Portions in Guelph.  Read more...

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On a trip to Vermont this past winter, I came across Bountiful Pantry soups at several shops. Several of their soups are labeled gluten-free. I love corn chowder and decided to try it.

All of Bountiful Pantry soups are packaged, dried ingredients, and preparation is merely adding liquid like stock, milk or water. Ingredients are listed on the back, and they all contain foods you can actually recognize – corn, potatoes, onions, etc. The clear packaging shows off all the ingredients as well.

But despite the gluten-free label, the ingredients I could read and understand, something in the soup made my stomach unhappy.  Read more...

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I normally eat brown rice pasta, but decided to try a new brand of corn pasta I saw on the shelves at my grocery store – San Zenone’s 100% organic corn pasta from Prairie Harvest.

Corn pasta tends to be a bit more expensive than brown rice pasta, but it tastes less “nutty” than rice pasta and doesn’t get gummy when you cook it. I actually found San Zenone tasted much like what I remember wheat pasta tasting like, so this might be a good one to try if you’re new to gluten-free pasta. I had it with some tomatoes, olives and oil, and found I didn’t need a thick sauce to help camouflage the taste.  Read more...

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Yup, that’s right, Wendy’s has now joined the ranks of fast food restaurants publishing gluten information on their websites. As of February 2011, they published a list of regular menu items that contain no wheat, barley, oats or rye.

You can see the complete list in this PDF: Canadian Menu Items without Gluten.

Some surprises in the list:

• hamburger patty
• Frostys

How many of us are afraid that burger patties are gonna be full of filler? *raises hand* So that’s kind of awesome. Also, Frosty’s? I’m always a little skeptical of ice cream too, so this is freaking good news! You can bet I’ll be partaking in some Frosty-goodness this summer.  Read more...

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I’ve always loved tortilla chips, but since going gluten-free they’ve become my go-to snack. But plain ol’ tortillas can get a little boring sometimes, so I decided to give these chips by Boulder Canyon Natural Foods a try.

I had no idea what an adzuki bean was – turns out it’s common in China and Japan – so I wasn’t sure how these would taste. I wouldn’t say the chip has a particularly strong or identifiable flavour, but it was subtley different than a corn chip. The red chilies give it a very mild heat.  Read more...

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I recently discovered that Irresistibles, one of the private brands sold in Metro and Food Basics stores, has a gluten-free, boxed macaroni and cheese – yes, a gluten-free “kraft dinner”.

Obviously, with being totally in love with all things mac & cheese, I had to try it out.

Sadly, it didn’t live up to my memories of actual Kraft Dinner. The white rice pasta had a strong flavour, and the powdered cheese sauce had barely any flavour at all. I was left eating a bowl of rice pasta that was orange.  Read more...

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I’m just gonna put this out there: I hate rice crackers. I mean, ick. They’re almost flavourless, except what flavour they do have is salty and bland and weird. So I when I first went gluten-free I tried a few brands and then promptly decided to eat corn chips for the rest of my life.

Well, last week at the grocery store, I came across Mary’s Organic Crackers. And I have to admit, they weren’t bad. I bought the Original flavour, but my store also carried Herb. They are organic, Kosher, Vegan, dairy-free, wheat-free, gluten-free and manufactured in a nut-free facility. Whew!  Read more...

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I love macaroni and cheese. I love pasta, I love cheese, you put the two together and I’m in heaven.

I’d always made mac & cheese the traditional way, starting with a roux, adding milk, then cheese, then baking it. But once I stopped eating gluten, I had to modify that basic recipe. Which meant playing with flours. Which I don’t like to do.

I tried cornstarch, and it just didn’t work. I tried brown rice flour, which worked but tasted too nutty. I tried 17 million combinations of brown rice flour and various starches. They all tasted too nutty. It was about time to find a new flour, when I came across this recipe.  Read more...

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