My Celiac Blog

For years our designs of gluten free food shopping sites have been frustrated by limitations on searching across multiple categories for gluten free food. A recent visit from my far away programmer son led to a very promising breakthrough. We'd like your help in testing and improving the results, if you have a minute. The search form below will open a new window with results from our sister site Gluten Free Search. Results will be displayed according to search terms you provide. The phrase "gluten free" is already embedded in this search, you need only to specify the type, brand or name of the item you wish to locate.

So please think of a brand of gluten free foods, a specific gluten free food item, a gluten free food ingredient, or a type of gluten free food. Type the term in the form below and see if the search results are useful for you, if you can spare a few seconds. Please feel free to leave a comment here if you wish to let us know what you think of this search utility.

Thanks for helping us to make the site as useful as possible, all suggestions are welcome.

Recently we noticed a new brand of gluten free pasta showing up in online searches, Sam Mills. One thing that sets this brand apart is very low price. We decided to take a chance and buy a 12 pack of Sam Mills Gluten Free Conchiliette from Amazon to see what it was like.

Sam Mills pasta is made from corn in Romania. Like most gluten free pasta it is dairy free and vegan. Their pasta is made in a gluten free facility and is packaged for the USA in 16oz bags. We've had Sam Mills pasta three times now and I'm ready to say that I do like it.

Unlike most gluten free pasta the Sam Mills seems especially resilient to overcooking. The package suggests 8 to 11 minutes cooking time but we have found it requires 15 minutes unless you want it so al dente as to be nearly crunchy. The shell shape naturally holds pasta sauce, the flavor is nice, and the price per serving is phenomenal. This pasta might be a very good choice for families with young children on a gluten free diet.

I'll give it 4 stars.

	Sam Mills Gluten Free Conchiliette, 16-Ounce Bags (Pack of 12) List Price: $22.68 Sale Price: $19.57 Average Rating:

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Have you ever noticed that once the two words "gluten free" go onto a package it suddenly costs a whole lot more? Many types of gluten free pasta noodles are made from rice, but why not sidestep the gluten free food industry by finding foods that inherently contain no gluten, without being labeled as such?

In Asian cuisine there is a type of noodle called rice stick. In our experience it is gluten free, but of course you must always read the ingredients. Having once lived in an area where there were many Asian people I was lucky enough to learn a bit about Asian cooking, and using rice stick instead of gluten free spaghetti is fast, easy and less expensive.

Usually rice stick is prepared by soaking the noodles in hot water. Boiling is definitely not indicated for most varieties of rice stick. While you are reading the ingredients be sure to check the instructions for preparing your rice stick.

We quite enjoy having rice stick at our house, it comes in varying widths, but the very thin variety used in making Pad Thai is most common. Below is a list of rice stick offerings from Amazon.

	Dynasty Mai-Fan Rice Stick, 6.75-Ounce Bags (Pack of 12) List Price: $25.20 Sale Price: $19.38 Average Rating:

	Ka-Me Rice Sticks, 8-Ounce Units (Pack of 12) List Price: $33.36 Sale Price: $25.66 Average Rating:

	Pad Thai Chantaboon rice stick noodles - 14 oz Sale Price: $3.69

	Royal Blossom - Chantaboon Rice Stick (1MM) 16 Oz. Sale Price: $3.49

	Thai Wide Rice Stick Noodle -14 oz pack Sale Price: $3.69

	Royal Blossom - Chantaboon Rice Stick (3MM) 16 Oz. Sale Price: $3.49 Average Rating:

	Roland Pad Thai Rice Stick Noodles, 14-Ounce Package (Pack of 30) Sale Price: $77.44

	Filchoice Rice Sticks Sauce, 1.4-Ounce Units (Pack of 24) List Price: $22.15 Sale Price: $22.15

	Sun Luck Maifun Rice Stick, 6.75-Ounce Units (Pack of 12) List Price: $46.08 Sale Price: $35.45

	China Sea Maifun Rice Stick, 6-Ounce Units (Pack of 12) List Price: $20.31 Sale Price: $20.31

We are in the business of creating websites, so we do. Many of our websites are designed to provide support for people affected by celiac disease, this includes our two latest additions.

   Gluten Free Finds
Gluten Free Finds is a gluten free food shopping site organized according to different types of gluten free food, like pasta, bread mix, etc. We think it is attractive and easy to use. In creating Gluten Free Finds we looked at which products in each category of gluten free food are most popular, and we have configured this site to show you the top selling gluten free items in each category first. We hope you will find it useful and pleasant to look at too.

    Gluten Free Brands
Gluten Free Brands has been designed to show you lists of gluten free food items sorted by brand name, it lists a number of well known and popular brands of gluten free food, then lets you see the most popular products for each brand. There are some similarities in the software used for these two new websites, each is based on the widely used Wordpress blogging platform, and each is heavily customized for gluten free food shopping.

Please feel free to comment here about either or both of these two new gluten free food shopping sites, we appreciate all feedback. We'll keep building new sites if you'll keep stopping by.

Thanks
Steve

Recently I discovered a gluten-free, vegan imitation mayonnaise product that comes in a handy squeeze bottle designed to be stored upside down like those cool Heinz ketchup squeeze bottles. This idea appealed to me because it involves inherent protection against cross contamination that might be caused by people using a knife to spread mayo on a slice of ordinary wheat-bearing danger bread.

I like the flavor and consistency quite a bit. It is very similar to Vegenaise, but perhaps slightly sweeter. We discovered Mayola for sale on Amazon. It is made in the UK and prominently labeled as gluten free. Below are some photos of the product and a tomato sandwich I made using Ener-G rice bread.

	granoVita Gluten and Dairy Free Original Mayola, 10.9 Ounce Bottles (Pack of 6) List Price: $23.94 Sale Price: $17.91

I quite like Mayola and will be buying more once this 6-pack runs out. I even use a little bit of it in a sauces for a stir fry sometimes. I'd give it 4 or 5 stars.

As I do from time to time, I've created another website designed to hopefully make life easier for people with celiac disease. This one is a gluten free food shopping site, but unlike all of the others I've made I rolled this one out by hand, line of code after line of code. It is called the gluten free celiac store.
I did use a free CSS template to get started, but it has been heavily modified to suit my purpose. The items shown ultimately are all sold by Amazon, but the link layout and the search engine are the results of my own labor. The intent of the design is to make it faster and easier for people to find gluten free food items. There are also a few pages that list books about celiac disease and gluten free cookbooks. Many of the pages expand the navigation area, and there is a live search tag cloud too.

I'd be delighted to get any feedback you might have to offer about what you do and do not like on this new site. It's at http://store.glutenfreeceliac.com/

Thanks,
Steve

A relatively new place to find gluten free and vegan food in Palm Springs, California is Palm Greens Cafe. Located in the southern part of the famous small city, in a small shopping center that also includes Palm Springs Cyclery, Palm Greens Cafe caters very clearly to those on a gluten free diet. The address is 611 South Palm Canyon Dr #6, Palm Springs CA 92264 and they have a website too.

The first time I set foot there I thought I must have died and gone to heaven, right on the chalk board listing breakfast items were "Gluten Free Vegan Buckwheat Pancakes", I mean WOW! and they are good too. On a more recent visit I took the time to chat with the owner during a slow time, I was ahead of the lunch crowd, and I learned that they use San-J Wheat Free Tamari Soy Sauce which we use at home because it is so nice. They are very well informed about gluten free food issues. Since I'm also vegan strictly as a matter of choice the fact that they are vegan friendly too moves this deli-style eatery directly into my circle of favorite places to eat.

They offer several varieties of gluten free and vegan pancakes, any of their wraps can be made with a rice wrapper instead of whole wheat, and I expect their breakfast bowls are inherently gluten free and vegan. I've had the Indo Wrap and the Buddha Wrap and loved them both. They are full of wholesome things like shredded carrots and dark greens. The buckwheat pancakes are absolutely fabulous and they are served with real maple syrup.

After placing your order at the counter you are given a playing card to put on your booth or table and kitchen staff soon bring your food. On a scale of 1 to 5 I do not hesitate to give five stars to Palm Greens Cafe. Here in Palm Springs we love it when people come to visit, why not plan your trip now? I've added some photos below.

Recently I noticed a new ready to heat item offered at Amazon, a new product from Tasty Bite. Tasty Bite offers ready made foods from India. I've often used their products in the past because I like curry and other types of Indian cooking. They have always indicated which of their items are vegetarian, vegan, and/or gluten free. Since this item is both vegan and gluten free it meets my requirements. Best of all it is delicious. This is not a very spicy product, in fact some might say it is not spicy at all. But the spinach and potatoes do come through (Aloo means potatoes and Palak means spinach). It immediately became my favorite Tasty Bite item.

Previous products from Tasty Bite came in a foil lined pouch that could not be put in a microwave oven, this new product is in a plastic pouch and it comes out just right after 60 seconds in our average-powered (1KW) microwave oven.

As with all other ready to heat meals of this genre, I always have mine over a half bowl of rice, and this product goes very well with rice. It gives me Happy Tummy and it tastes good too. I'd give it 4 stars, it could get one more if it was a little bit spicier.

Technorati Tags: Tasty Bite, Aloo Palak, Spinach and Potatoes, gluten free meal, gf, wheat free, gluten free diet, celiac disease

This week I've been visiting with family in the Worcester, MA area. Twenty years ago I lived in Worcester, but at that time I did not know I had celiac disease. On this trip back to Worcester I've enjoyed two fantastic places to eat, each with a gluten free menu.
At Evo, located behind a health food store, I found an enormous selection of GF food on offer and enjoyed fantastic vegan and gluten free pizza with soy cheese. It was a real joy for me to be able to eat a gf pizza in a restaurant. Learn more about Evo at their website, it's on Chandler St, very near Park Ave.

Only a few blocks North on Chandler street is a fascinating Asian Fusion restaurant named Nancy Chang's. They have been offering GF food on their menu for years, and the wait staff is very knowledgeable about gluten free diet issues, and they even bring GF soy sauce, the wonderful San-J product, to your table. You can check out their website too.

People in Worcester who are on a gluten free diet are lucky to have these two fabulous eateries.

Technorati Tags: gluten free dining, gf dining, celiac friendly restaurants, gf pizza, Worcester Massachusetts

I'm sure I'm not the only person with celiac disease who really misses having pizza. Years ago we would make our own from scratch, using ordinary wheat flour for the crust.

Once I was diagnosed with celiac disease pizza seemed to be almost completely off the menu. Once in a while one of us might feel adventurous and try making a pizza crust using whatever GF flours we had on hand, but the results were often very disappointing and occasionally the crusts were so hard it brought up images of broken teeth and dental surgery. Considering the time and effort required and the often poor results I had not had a GF pizza in years.

On a recent trip to a local health fraud store we found Ener-G brand pizza shells that were 10 inch diameter and 2 to a box. We decided to give those a try.

With my husband's delicious onion and garlic rich home made pizza sauce, olives, artichokes, mushrooms and some melted soy-based imitation cheese-like substitute food product we had a pair of truly delicious gluten free, vegan pizzas.

The Ener-G crust is very much like a typical thin crust pizza. It did not get particularly soggy, it maintained a good crunch that was typical of an ordinary pizza, and it was just like eating the long ago pizza of my youth.

I was so pleased with the results that I have ordered a pack of 5 cartons of 2 shells each from Amazon. With free shipping you could round off the cost of these shells to about $5.60 per 10" pizza shell, and since Ener-G gluten free food products have a typical shelf life of nearly 5,000 years (slight exaggeration) I'm not worried they will spoil before they are used. If you have celiac teenagers in your house they obviously will be used

Pizza is back on the menu at our house. I suggest you consider giving these a try. I give them 4.5 stars.

	Ener-G Foods Rice Pizza Shells, 10 inches, 12.7-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 5) List Price: $72.60 Sale Price: $55.85 Average Rating:

Technorati Tags: gf pizza, gluten free pizza, Ener-G pizza shells, product review