Market Basket GF Mixes #2

I can't believe we are going to have a baby by the end of the week! It seems very surreal. Things continue to go well and we are still hopeful of having a natural birth (aside from being induced). As promised, I wanted to let you know my thoughts about the last two Market Basket brand gluten free baking mixes (to see my review on the other three, click here).

First up - blondies! This was one of the mixes I had purchased for myself prior to being sent all five mixes to try and blog about. My mom helped out again by taking the cookie mix home and coming back the next day with yummy blondies. She followed the recipe on the box, which she said was beyond easy. She added chocolate chips to the top of them. The results? YUM! A cake like blondie with great texture and yummy, sweet tooth satisfying flavor. Definitely work $3.59!

Next...the waffle and coffee cake mix. Waffles are a little too involved for my world of bed rest right now, so we opted for the coffee cake. I was unable to use the suggested blueberries because of the continued fructose malabsorption that I'm experiencing...but I enjoyed the coffee cake non-the-less. It was surprisingly springy! I thought that it would be crumbly, but not at all. The topping, which is made using the same base mix, was crunchy and sweet, just as it should be. Another easy winner!

I'd say Market Basket has done a fine job of bringing 5 exceptionally easy and delicious gluten free mixes to the market, making them rather affordable. I'm hoping this sparks other grocery chains to do the same.

I believe this will be my last post for quite some time as motherhood is calling! Have a wonderful summer and I'll be back in touch soon.

Update & YAY for Market Basket!

Hi everyone. Long time, no blogging. Let me catch you up. First, my long absences were due to being sick as a dog for the first 4 1/2 months of my pregnancy. Then, it was more because I started consulting away from my home office 4 days per week, which plum wore me out. A couple of weeks ago, I experienced a significant amount of bleeding. After 3 days in a hospital in Boston with a level 1 NICU (in case baby girl decided to come early), they could not determine the cause of the bleeding. I've been on bed rest ever since. Let's just say I've had some time to think about the blog again...though it won't last for long - we are going to be induced early in order to decrease the changes of any further complications.

In the meantime, if you live in MA or NH, I hope you've heard the news! Our local supermarket chain, Market Basket, has introduced gluten and dairy free mixes that are their own brand! "Generic" brand mixes, if you will, which carry a "generic" brand price tag - only $3.59 a pop! But are they any good?

My husband first discovered them by perusing their weekly ad flier. We immediately picked up both the yellow cake mix (which, in my opinion, is very hard to get right) and the cookie/bar mix (I was also curious to see if they are produced in a dedicated facility, which they are!). Soon after, I mixed up the yellow cake mix into cupcakes and topped them with chocolate frosting. The texture was very nice - not grainy at all. They had a good flavor, too. My non-GF husband agreed! Oh, and they couldn't be easier to make. I apologize for not have a picture of them, but I just wasn't thinking at the time.

Then I got a call asking if I would make up each mix, taste test them, and report my honest thoughts to you all via this blog. Sure thing! So, one of each of the 5 mixes showed up at my door. I lost site of my charge for a short while during the baby scare, but then suddenly I've had lots of help around here since I am not supposed to move around much.

First up, my mom made the quick bread mix. There are 3 yummy sounding recipe options on back - pumpkin, zucchini-carrot, and banana. We went for the banana. OH MAN! Yum-ville! Moist, tasty, sweet but not too sweet and a perfect texture. My non-GF mom and non-GF friend, Emily, both agreed. We put some in the freezer for my GF sister to try and she was in heaven, too. Lots of thumbs way up!

Next came the corn bread mix, which we made up into corn muffins. Easy again and so delicious! I got a tummy ache from eating too many at once. This mix isn't sweetened, so if you want a sweeter bread/muffin, you can add what you'd like. I used honey. There is a recipe for dredging chicken in the mix, which I totally intend to try. Oh, and the mix made as many muffins as it said it would, which I find is pretty unusual.

My plan is to do one more post before baby girl arrives - we are being induced late next week. Stay tuned for reports and pictures on the cookie/bar mix and the waffle/coffee cake mix! I fully believe that now that one mainstream supermarket chain has taken this leap, many more will, too!

April 1st Edition of the Gluten Free Lifestyle Blog Carnival

Welcome to the April 1, 2010 edition of the gluten free lifestyle blog carnival. There are some great posts to check out, including some related to Easter and Passover!

Product Reviews

Stephen presents Sneak Peek: Mac & Cheeza posted at Gluten Freeways, saying, "A new mac & cheese place with great gluten free options in Downtown LA!"

Recipes

Linda Simon presents Great Gluten Free Spaghetti and Marvelous Meatballs Kitchen Therapy posted at Kitchen Therapy, saying, "Tender, moist meatballs that are half meat, half minced mushrooms. Photos of two kinds of gluten-free pasta."

Kate Chan presents Gluten Free Chocolate Chip & Tahini Cookies posted at Gluten Free Gobsmacked, saying, "The tastiest chocolate chip cookie you'll ever have! (And a versatile recipe too!)"

Tamara Duker presents Best. Flourless. Desserts. Ever. posted at What I'm Eating Now, saying, "Just in time for Passover and Easter, here are my picks for the best flourless desserts...ever!"

Joi Abraham presents BBQ Chicken and Waffle Sandwich posted at Just Saying No!!!, saying, "Waffles make the best bread substitute!"

Aubree Cherie presents Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe posted at Living Free.

Amy Green @ Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free presents Apple & Carrot Gluten Free Breakfast Cake: VitaMixed posted at Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free, saying, "A delicious, slightly sweet cake made with my beloved VitaMix. Read the comments section for suggestions on how to make this with a food processor."

Linda@NHE presents Gluten Free Lemon Pasta Recipe posted at Natural Health Ezine, saying, "A few weeks ago, we went to my sister’s house for dinner. She learned about a year or two ago that she has a sensitivity to gluten, so she’s been living the gluten-free diet for the past few months. She’s found some really great recipes including this Lemon and Asparagus Pasta which is not only gluten free, but healthy too!"

Heather presents Chocolate Eggs in a Cookie Basket posted at Celiac Family.

Tips

Heather presents Gluten-Free Easter Candy List posted at Celiac Family, saying, "A great resource for GF Easter goodies!"

C. Myers presents Are You Wheat and Gluten Intolerant? Mind Mart posted at Mind Mart, saying, "Information about wheat and gluten allergy, sensitivity, and Celiac Disease."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of the gluten free lifestyle blog carnivalm, which will be hosted by http://www.simplysugarandglutenfree.com/, using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. If you are interested in hosting in the future, let me know!

Happy April! Spring is here!

Share

Technorati tags: the gluten free lifestyle blog carnival, blog carnival.

Update & March 1st edition of the GF Blog Carnival

Hi all. I continue to be remiss in my posting, which I just need to accept as fact for now. I'm working out of the office 4 days per week and my energy level just isn't what it used to be.

A few things to update you on - we are having a girl! We found out last week at the ultrasound. Also, we started hypnobirthing classes. If you haven't heard about this alternative birthing method, check it out. I can't say enough about how wonderful it is so far. I'm very encouraged the research and look forward to a calm, serene delivery!

Don't forget to visit Ging Recommends today for the March 1st edition of the GF Blog Carnival. I peeked at it and saw lots of interesting recipes, tips, and reviews.

Until next time...take care!

Update & The Feb 1st Edition of the GF Lifestyle Blog Carnival

Greetings and salutations! Things are going much better on this end, I'm happy to report. Aside from some mild stomach discomfort now and again, removing fructose from my diet has continued to make a huge difference in my ability to function. I'm cooking again - old favorites only. For some reason, experimenting does not appeal to me what-so-ever. Baking is also something I haven't done at all, but I've been thinking about it, so I'm sure I'll want to do it soon.

I have started to switch over to some maternity pants. So much more comfortable! On a tip from a friend at prenatal yoga, I checked out ebay for some deals - they have LOTS of new maternity clothes at great prices. Oh! We have our next ultrasound on February 9th, which is the first opportunity we'll have to find out if it's a boy or a girl! Can't wait!

Looking for some great gluten free recipes, tips, advice, product reviews, and much more? Don't forget to check out the February 1st edition of the Gluten Free Lifestyle Blog Carnival. This month's host is Shirley over at Gluten Free Easily. Stop by and check it out! Want to be a blog carnival host? Just email me at thefoodallergycoach[at]yahoo[dot]com.

Fructose Malabsorption

After the traditional nausea symptoms of the first trimester of pregnancy began to diminish, I experienced a different kind of stomach upset. Instead of feeling awful prior to eating, I started to feel sick AFTER eating. This lasted for weeks and weeks. Other than discovering that my digestive system is not tolerating lactose, I had been at a loss for what to look at as the culprit next.

Much of what I read about pregnancy and digestion simply normalize feeling like crap. While I'm sure that changes are to be expected, not looking into the effects of diet just didn't sit right with me. So, I did some research. First, I looked into symptoms of producing a low amount of HCL. I had read about this in The Yeast Connection & Women's Health a while ago. Upon revisiting the info, I put it in the "maybe" category - nothing stood out that made me think "THIS IS IT!" ...at least not right now anyway.

The next issue I looked into was fructose malabsorbtion. The inability to properly digest the sugar in fruit is actually quite common, especially among folks with celiac disease. Dr. Tracy discussed this topic at our Going Gluten Free Workshop back in the Fall. I didn't find a ton of correlation between fructose malabsorption and pregnancy, but I could not ignore the symptom list. I tracked my eating habits for a couple of days and noticed that an increase in unpleasant symptoms occurred shortly after consuming fruit. So, I stopped fruit. After about 2 meals, I noticed that I no longer felt horrendous immediately following eating. It's been 4 days, and my symptoms have decreased by about 85%. My energy level has been creeping up as well - I cooked for the first time in months and vacuumed! It's such a feeling of relief! ...though I do hope not being able to eat fruit is only temporary!

For more information about fructose malabsorption, visit the food intolerant consumer website. It provides a helpful overview in an easy-to-read format.

photo courtesy of freefoto.com.

Coming Clean

It has been way too long, I know. Some of you may have even given up on me. I wouldn't blame you one bit...

In one of my last posts, I mentioned that we had some family stuff going on and that I started working on a project that takes me out of the office 3 days per week. That has only been part of the story...the rest is that I'M PREGNANT! Our due date is July 4th (fun, huh?). We are incredibly excited, but it's taken a lot out of me - some days, I haven't been able to get off the couch. Whoever called it morning sickness was lying I've decided. The nausea has been incredible and it usually lasts all day long. I have found that sea sickness bands help stop the gagging so that I can actually get food down. I can't remember the last time I was hungry.

I haven't cooked anything since early November and have only done the grocery shopping a couple of times. (My poor husband!). I have lost all interest in food. As you can imagine, this makes many parts of my work difficult - blogging, meal planning... Oye. I was able to do about a month of the rotation diet before the symptoms set in. It's been impossible ever since due to a million food aversions that I'm coming across and my inability to do any food prep. I spoke with the Queen of Rotation herself, Nicolette Dumke, and she advised that I just rotate grains. Easy enough, because I don't want any grains anyway. It's fascinating me, actually.

I find that the nausea increases rapidly if I wait too long to eat, but when I do eat, I don't feel well afterwards. They say that your digestive track goes through a multitude of changes. I know that I cannot digest lactose at all, and there have got to be other things...but it feels like it's everything - just like it did before I figured out that I have celiac disease (I became afraid to eat for fear of feeling sick and lost 20+ pounds overnight). It's back to a food diary and symptom tracking for me!

There have been some signs that I will start to come around to my old self - after losing 8 pounds, I haven't lost any weight this week, which means I must be eating more. I also don't need to nap as much as I had been. I can't wait to get back into the swing of things - blogging and publishing away! Thanks for hanging in there with me! I'll be in touch soon!