My Celiac Blog

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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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.

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

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

I was hankering for a delicious gluten free and vegan snack about a week ago when I looked at the Amazon Daily Deals page and saw Prana Organic BarCashew Almond on a sale that reduced their cost to about a dollar each. Since I'm a cheapskate with virtually no income these days (I paid $40 taxes last year) I thought I might give these a try.

They are absolutely delicious, wonderful, a delight in every way. The bars are made primarily of date paste in much the same way as Larabars (which are also OK) but the percentage of delicious tasty nuts in these bars is much higher than in Larabars. Perhaps this accounts for the fact that they do cost a little bit more.

After eating one of these for my mid-afternoon snack it was not at all unpleasant to wait until 6:30PM for dinner. And when you do eat one of these truly delicious bars you really do get the sensation that you just ate something nice.

They are clearly gluten free and vegan, but if you are allergic to tree nuts run away!

	Prana Organic BarCashew Almond, 1.7-Ounce Bars (Pack of 24) List Price: $54.96 Sale Price: $42.09 Average Rating:

I'll certainly be buying more of thes in the future. I give them 5 stars.