Product Review: Glow Gluten Free Cookies

Ingredients by Cookie

Chocolate Chip
Garbanzo & Fava Bean Flour, Brown Sugar, Semi-Sweet Chocolate (Sugar, Chocolate Liquor, Cocoa Butter, Dextrose, Soy Lecithin, Vanilla), Organic Palm Oil, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Eggs, Xanthan Gum, Pure Vanilla Extract, Sea Salt, Baking Soda. Contains Eggs, Soy Lecithin.

Double-Chocolate Chip
Garbanzo & Fava Bean Flour, Brown Sugar, Organic Palm Oil, Semi-Sweet Chocolate (Sugar, Chocolate Liquor, Cocoa Butter, Dextrose, Soy Lecithin, Vanilla), Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Eggs, Natural Cocoa, Organic Coconut Flour, Coffee, Baking Soda, Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum, Pure Vanilla and Chocolate Extract. Contains Eggs, Soy Lecithim, Tree Nuts.

Gingersnap
Garbanzo & Fava Bean Flour, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Palm Oil, Molasses, Eggs, Ground Ginger, Cinnamon, Cloves, Xanthan Gum, Sea Salt, Baking Soda, Pure Vanilla Extract, Natural Coffee Extract. Contains Eggs.

Snickerdoodle
Garbanzo & Fava Bean Flour, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Palm Oil, Eggs, Cinnamon, Xanthan Gum, Pure Vanilla Extract, Sea Salt, Baking Soda, Cream of Tartar. Contains Eggs.

Overall Rating - 4.5/5 Stars
These cookies are perfect for dunking - like a gluten free version of Chips Ahoy (yum!)

Taste
Becky: A blast from the past for a moment, please - my mother places before me a saucer holding three gingery snaps and a delicate teacup filled with piping hot lemon curd, homemade from lemons she's squeezed herself. My five-year-old fingers tenderly dip a cookie into the pudding, and together they form the perfect mouthful - the resounding "bite" of ginger, the zing of lemon, and the over-riding sweetness of both. Yes, Glow Gluten Free Gingersnaps are this delicious, and I admit I purchased a box of lemon meringue pie filling in an attempt to recreate my childhood passion. And it was heaven! The Double Chocolate Cookies didn't disappoint (make-your-own ice cream sandwiches, anyone?), and the Snickerdoodles were great, too. The cookies are made with garbanzo bean flavor, and while one really can't tell, if you are really looking for it the taste is there. But honestly, it's not a biggy for these - all three flavors are good, and certainly better than many of the gf cookies out there right now.

Kelsey: The chocolate chip is just what I remember from childhood school lunches; the gingersnaps are gingery (although they could maybe use some more snap...); the double chocolate is chocolatey without being too sweet and the Snickerdoodle - while admittedly, not my favorite - was cinnamon, spice and everything nice. For being made with both garbanzo and fava flour - notorious for their notable aftertaste - these cookies are totally delicious and the only way you could tell is if you're reading the nutrition info.

Texture
Becky: These are not soft-baked cookies. They're crisp yet tender, and not at all hard as rocks as some gf cookies are. The crumb is delicate, but the cookies hold up well to dunking - in both milk AND hot lemon pudding. The Double Chocolate cookies have little chocolate chunks in them that melt away and coat the tongue - a nice textural addition for certain! Overall the texture for all three flavors was exactly like non-gf cookies, and honestly, I think no one would know the difference if these showed up on a dessert buffet or after school snack table!

Kelsey: Crunchy without being teeth-shattering, like a grown-up version of my favorite childhood snacks. The gingersnaps are the most texture-flavor appropriate, but aside from the Snickerdoodles - a flavor which should only be served soft-baked - the texture is perfect.

Storage
Becky: The seven cookies come in an adorable Chinese food container, with colorful labels and a cheerful logo. Storage is easy if more than one flavor is in your pantry or cupboard because they stack easily. Inside is a sheer plastic wrapper that keeps them extra fresh. I feel I must make a guilty admission here - I opened the three containers when they arrived and had a cookie from each (with a huge glass of milk), and then hastily wrapped them in their inner wrappers and tossed them into the freezer until review time. I certainly had my doubts about the freshness of the cookies, but guess what? After thawing on the counter overnight, the remaining cookies were fresh as could be, unbelievably tasty as I'd remembered, and impressively unspoiled in every way. Who can argue with that?!

Kelsey: The most darling packaging ever! The cookies are wrapped in cellophane and boxed up in an adorable Chinese food-style container. The bright colors, cute logo and - here's the best part - AD LIBS on the back! That's right, delicious cookies AND fun in every box. What's not to love?

Availability
Becky: Widely available in the U.S and Puerto Rico, although not all of the "50 nifty" yet. I suspect this is rapidly changing, but until they're available in your local area, you can find Glow Gluten Free cookies at www.glutenfree.com as well. I was pleased to find 5 retailers local to me - a miracle in my very rural area, so keep your eyes peeled for these in your town, too. And until then, I'll just sit here with my milk and cookies and glow(t)...

Kelsey: Surprisingly, there is only one retailer identified by their store locator in Washington State. That being said - at least it's available in person! Always available online, these cookies are (so I hope) spreading like wildfire to nearby markets and grocers.

Cost
Becky: Not a budget-breaker at about $5.50 per box. There are seven very large cookies in each container, and one cookie is pretty filling, so they're certainly worth the money. That's about seventy cents per cookie, and given the cost of the high quality ingredients, I'd say this is a decent buy. Don't forget to add in shipping costs if you're ordering from the website!

Kelsey: Not a bad price point at $5.50/box, but for only 7 3-inch cookies - delicious, satisfying cookies - they're still a little steep. Worth it for these delectable dunkers, but maybe as more of a special cookie than an everyday lunch box sort of thing.

Recipe of the week: Beets with Mixed Greens

This week's recipe features fresh beets - still available at farmer's markets across the nation at the tail end of their season. Because they are root vegetables, it is pretty important that they are organic -- they are definitely on the Dirty Dozen list. To add a little bit of interest, feel free to use golden beets instead of, or in addition to, standard beets - they are much less messy, guaranteed not to stain your tablecloth and hands and hardly taste any different. Now the recipe calls for boiling the beets, but I'm a big fan of roasting - so if you have some extra time, I would recommend trimming off the greens (set aside to use later!)

Beets with Mixed Greens
Ingredients
2 beets (preferably organic)
1 carrot, peeled and sliced thin
1/4 cup English cucumber, peeled and sliced thin
2 Tablespoons thinly sliced red onion
6 cups mixed greens
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon pure maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon stone ground mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 oz thinly sliced aged Gouda cheese

Directions
Cut the stem and leaves off the beets and quarter. Place beets in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Remove beets from water and let cool. When cool enough to handle, slice.

Meanwhile, place carrots, cucumbers, red onion and mixed greens in a large salad bowl. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, maple syrup, and stone ground mustard. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Add cooled, sliced beets to salad and drizzle half the dressing over the top and toss. Leaves should be just nicely coated with dressing, not drenched. Add more dressing if need be.

Divide salad among 6 salad plates and top with aged Gouda slices. Serve immediately.

Photo by Ralph Daily

Product Review - Eena Kadeena Mock-Zah Ball Mix

Produced by Eena Kadeena, LLC.
2095 NW Aloclek Dr.
Suite 1114
Hillsboro, OR 97124

Tel. (503) 705-3007
info@eenakadeena.com
Twitter @eenakadeena // on Facebook

Ingredients
Organic quinoa flakes, organic potato flakes, dehydrated onion, salt, organic dehydrated garlic, guar gum, vegetable mono diglycerides, black pepper.

Overall Rating - 5/5 Stars
With Passover coming up, keep these in mind! They are sure to be crowd pleasers and make for a gluten-friendly holiday for everyone. Not traditional, but allergy friendly - I'm down.

Taste
Becky: Delicious. Period. Okay, not really, because I'm not known to be a woman of few words, and leaving my review at "delicious" just wouldn't cut it where Mock-Zah Balls are concerned! I do believe that this will be the first time my review will be an unqualified, no-questions-left-to-ask "Five Stars." I'm not Jewish, and matzah balls have never been in my culinary repertoire, so this was a whole new world for me. My only experience with matzah balls was when I was very young, and I just don't remember anything spectacular about them. That all changed when I made them from this mix. These are truly wonderful - tasty on their own (yes, I ate two right out of the pot), and even more so after dropping into my homemade chicken soup. I will add these to my grocery list from now on because they are... I'm repeating myself... DELICIOUS!

Kelsey: I was actually rendered speechless by these little pockets of perfection. Really and truly! I was incredibly skeptical after the "dump everything in a bowl and combine" instructions, and when the balls floated to the surface of the boiling water only a minute after I first submerged them, I feared for the worst: "25 more minutes? Are they nuts?" But as with every product review, I always follow the instructions to the letter - and were my (non)efforts rewarded! This mix came together so easily, the most difficult part was waiting while the mix chilled in the refrigerator and boiled merrily on the stovetop! They were perfect - better than the "real deal", if you ask me. Perfectly seasoned (not too salty, just enough garlic and spices to taste like they have been simmering in Bubbe's chicken soup all day!), they soak up just enough broth to taste like whatever soup you're serving them in without becoming flavorless themselves - so perfect!

Texture
Becky: It's hard to be critical when something is as tasty as these are! The texture is NORMAL. Yep - totally, utterly, dumpling-y NORMAL! Perfectly chewy and full of the broth flavor of my soup on the outside, tender and flavorful on their own inside. There's nothing more to say here except "perfection".

Kelsey: I swear, better than their gluten-filled counterparts! Not in the least bit dry or mealy, the quinoa and potato flakes combined into the dynamic duo of deliciousness! They weren't gummy or soggy or chewy or crumbly or anything less than unbelievable! Now, I didn't finish all of mine in a single batch, so I took one of the dozen or so that wound up in a tupperware container in the refrigerator and ate it. Cold. Standing right in front of the fridge, door open. It was amazing. They were still moist, 36 hours later in a container that, admittedly, does not seal very well (I'm a broke post-grad, ok?!) and they were still perfect. How do you top that?!

Storage
Becky: This is the most gorgeous, space-saving packaging I've ever seen. There's little waste here - the box is small - about the size of a box of tea - , and I actually held a nagging doubt that there was enough mix in the box to be worth it. There is, and the box is so pretty I might just want to store it on the counter! Inside is a clear plastic liner that I really like - easy to see exactly what I'm getting in that pretty box, and such thin plastic that there's little waste inside the box, too.

Kelsey: Cutest. Packaging. Ever. "Mock-Zah Balls" and "'Chai' our pancakes" - stylish design, conveniently sized box, trendy colors and punny titles - love it!

Cost
Becky: On the Eena Kadeen website this mix sells for $7.95 - not out of the realm of realistic for such a high-quality gluten free product, and I will certainly be purchasing these to have on hand. Also, from what I can glean about the making of gluten-rich matzah balls, the simplicity of making these in comparison makes the cost well worthwhile. I hope the price doesn't go any higher, though - that might put them into the category of "special events food," instead of the category they belong in for me: "staple".

Kelsey: AMEN.

Availability
The Mock-Zah Ball mix, along with a range of other gluten free mixes, is available on the Eena Kadeena website for now. Those living in California, Washington state, and Oregon will find the mixes in a small handful of stores as well. I still give this a five star rating because the web ordering through the company is so safe and easy, and also given the number of people who own computers on which to do their ordering!

Menu Monday: Quick Weeknight Meal

Happy Valentine's Day from Glutenfreeda!! For ideas for tonight's special meal, be sure to read last week's post! This week we are featuring a quick and easy weeknight menu, ready to please the whole family - picky eaters included!

On the menu...
Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops with Shallots & Mushrooms (pictured, above)
Champ (Mashed Potatoes with Green Onions)
Blanched Green Beans
Chocolate Cups (pictured, right)

Product Review: Better Batter Brownie Mix

In addition to bringing you a brand-spanking-new product review this week, I would also like to introduce you to our new format! Instead of our traditional style - i.e. one person reviewing a given product each month to be published in the magazine and shared with our readers - we have decided on an innovative new approach: two reviewers taste-testing a different product each week! You all know me, Kelsey, as your blog mistress and product-reviewer, but now you will also have the chance to hear from Rebecca Collins as we share a new review each week!

A little bit more about me...
I'm a 20-something college grad, living gluten free for almost 8 years (wow, has it really been that long?!) who has always had a passion for food & cooking and a recent interest in food photography. I have been with Glutenfreeda, unofficially, for a few years now and officially your e-mistress (blogger, Facebook-er & Twitter-er) for six months - I am passionate about our company (of course!) and the world of gluten free living in general. I live in the Seattle area, a great hotspot for gluten free activity (many of you may know Shauna aka gluten free girl, another Seattleite) which has, in no small way, impacted my world view.


A little bit more about Rebecca (Becky) Collins...
I'm a gluten-free mom to a gluten-free teenager, who lives in rural
upstate New York. I come from a family of foodies - there are even a
few professional chefs tossed into the mix - but none are gluten free.
While they watch in fascination, I've been exploring the gluten free
world with growing enthusiasm, and my passion for good food (in every
sense of what "good" means) has been a steep learning curve, with a
growing number of successes in the kitchen. I'm helped greatly by
some great new product lines, and a huge wonderful network of gluten
free friends, and I love being able to share what I've learned so I
might be able to bring good food to some more gluten free tables!



The Review
Taste
As always, Better Batter comes through with an authentic-tasting product! Rich and chocolatey, but not too much of either - no strange aftertastes (you know what I'm talking about...), nothing but pure brownie deliciousness! I even took a half-pan down to my coworkers and while everyone agreed they weren't "quite like normal", they were gone within the hour with rave reviews! KG

It was virtually impossible to tell the difference between
wheat-based brownie mixes, and Better Batter’s. The infamous “gluten free
aftertaste” was nonexistent. A gluten-eating family member ate the
majority of the pan before he asked, “Uh, is this gluten free?” when
he realized I was eating them, too! These are even comparable to a
scratch recipe batch of brownies from an old cookbook I used before
going gluten free – truly delicious! BC

Texture
So, I followed the directions for cake-like brownies (one more egg, basically) and they came out just as I had hoped. Brilliant direction-reader that I am, I ended up using a too-big baking pan and they came out a little thin, but perfectly cooked, moist and delicious! My only, albeit quite minor, complaint is that they stuck to the bottom of the pan despite ample greasing and I felt like a good percentage of chocolate-goodness was stuck to my pan and spatula rather than my fingers! KG

I followed directions for the chewy brownies, rather than
the cake-like ones. I used two eggs, and baked following the
directions on the box to the tiniest detail. They cooked up
perfectly, with soft-but-crispy edges, and a deliciously moist and
chewy center. There was no grit typical of some gf mixes, and the
texture matched the taste – perfection. BC

Storage
Shelf-stable as always, the box is a little on the large size (though not inappropriately so), but storage is no different than any other cake or brownie mix. KG

This mix is in a box similar in size to a typical brownie mix
– easy storage, even if purchased by the case, which I plan to do next
time, since they’re so yummy, and since gluttony reigns when these
brownies come out of the oven. BC

Availability
Better Batter is available in some specialty and grocery
stores nationwide, and through the Better Batter website. While store
availability is still growing, the best place to be sure to purchase
the mix is through the website (check the website for stores in your
local area). Because of its popularity and deliciousness, however, it
is sometimes out of stock! BC

Menu Mondays: Valentine's Day Dinner

Enjoy the most romantic evening of the year at home with this year's Valentine's Day menu, featuring a few favorite, romantic recipes for a flawless evening.

On the Menu...
Green Apples with Crème Fraiche & Smoked Trout
Mixed Greens with Gorgonzola Herb Dressing
Filet Mignon with Sauteed Mushrooms & Port Sauce (pictured above)
Roasted Potatoes with Rosemary
Asparagus & Leeks
Chocolate Crème Brulee with Caramelized Bananas (pictured, right)

Product Review: Mixes from the Heartland Hawai'ian Bread

I’ll be honest, when I received this mix as a hostess gift, I was more than a little skeptical. I am not a fan of tropical flavors or sweet pastries and somehow, knowing that this mix was from Harry and David did little to bolster my confidence -- but I was so wrong. We baked up the mix within a day or so (to be able to provide honest feedback to the gift-giver, of course) and were pleasantly surprised. The mix comes together in minutes and is one of the least labor intensive bread recipes I have ever encountered. Even better, the bread only improves after sitting (wrapped) overnight, giving the flavors some time to get to know each other a little better -- if it even lasts that long! I would absolutely find it and make it again!

Easily dairy free, the recipe itself is super easy - simply substitute EarthBalance for real butter!

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In large bowl, cream 1 cup softened butter and 4 eggs. Add dry mix. Blend well. Grease 1-2 lb loaf pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. DO NOT UNDERBAKE. ** May add 1/4 cup milk, if dough seems too dry.

Ingredients
Brown and white rice flour (organic), cornstarch (NON GMO), tapioca starch, xanthan gum, sugar, non aluminum baking powder, coconut, freeze dried papaya and pineapple, vanilla powder (cornstarch-NON GMO and vanilla beans)

Taste
With just the right amount of sweetness and fruit, this bread must be cornbread’s delicious distant cousin.

Texture
A little bit on the crumbly side, the texture compares well to cornbread - moist without being mushy, and not so dry as to crumble into bits with every bite.

Storage
The ready-to-use packets are just the right size to have on hand for brunch or a sweet snack!

Availability
In select Harry and David locations and available online.

Overall Score (4.0)
A delicious for breakfast, brunch or any time, the bread is ready in minutes and thoroughly enjoyed by foodies, gluten-free or otherwise!

Recipe of the Week: Grilled Chicken Wings

What says "Superbowl Party" like pizza, beer and chicken wings? Unfortunately, for those of us who are gluten-ly challenged (aka intolerant or have Celiac Disease), all of these down and dirty party favorite are a big "no-no" - but have no fear, our Super Bowl Promotion is here! Featuring the best in pizza, beer and snacks, this promotion helps direct you to the best available.

Grilled Chicken Wings
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup gluten free ketchup
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons gluten free brown sugar
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons dijon mustard
2 teaspoons gf chili paste
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon gluten free hot sauce
14 chicken wings, washed

Directions
Heat a saucepan over medium-high heat. When hot, add oil. When oil is hot, add onion and cook until soft. Add garlic and stir and cook for 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium and add catsup, vinegar, brown sugar, lemon juice, salt, dijon, chili paste, chili powder and hot sauce. Stir to blend and bring to a boil.

Remove from heat and let cool.

Add chicken wings to a large bowl and cover with sauce.

Prepare a grill.

Grill wings for about 20 minutes or until juices run clear when pierced.