Wednesday, February 23, 2011

5-15-10 Celiac Conference Gems&Phlegms(From my blog with over 30,000 hits at celiac.com)

(For the first 4 years and 109 entries of my blog, go to this link Brendygirl's Blog Gluten Free Product and Food Reviews)
In the elevator to our hotel room (the cdf conference in L.A.), a woman commented on the Udi bread she spied sticking out from my bag on the bellman's luggage cart.  This was my marine's first clue that "people like ME" were swarming the hotel.
 My beau and I learned SO much from the speakers (Dr. Peter Green, Dr. Sheila Crowe, Dietician, Shelley Case, and Cook Extraordinaire Frank Baldassare)!
My Marine had a more pressing need to step up his know-how pertaining to Gluten Freedom since.. *drumroll*:
The Marine Corps is sending him to Command & Staff School for a year and so I'm going to rent my CA house out, sell my convertible, put my teaching job (I've been there 13 yrs) on hold, adopt a carefree attitude, a warm scarf, and a metro card...and shack up with him on the East Coast for a year!


Funny enough, the hardest part has been thinking about glutenous tenants contaminating my virgin, high-end fridge and stove!
Back to the conference:
After dining on gluten-free Bisquick Pancakes (perfect texture, yummy, can't wait for them to hit stores this fall),and savory Jones Dairy Farms All Natural Sausage Links(thumbs way up!)we alternated between raiding the chillbump-inducing superfluous vendor sample hallways and watching the presentations.  I preferred last year's lunch with pasta and chocolate souffle, this year was chicken (snore), but the Betty Crocker cupcakes were tasty. It's always such a special occasion to eat out without needing to tame & train a server-just relax and enjoy with lots of "special" people, who are "against the grain", like me!  I was pleased to see lots of nutritionists at a seminar learning about gluten-free!

Now for the GOODS on the GRUB:
GEMS:  Foods/Products I liked and recommend:

Udi Bread (Awesome & loaf can be thawed!)
Rudi's Bread (similar to Udi's)
Glutino Chocolate covered pretzels- 2 die 4!
Asian Chicken Helper (Hamburger Helper)- pretty tasty.  A good replacement for the "normal" kind



Gluten Free Bisquick Pancakes- Yum with a capital Y--it came with 9 other gluten-free recipe cards to use bisquick Update:  I have since tried the chicken n dumplings recipe and chicken fingers, both of which are easy enough (few ingredients) for my bf to cook himself, and are FABULOUS faves now!

Kettle Cuisine Soups- I like them, but I'm too thrifty to purchase them
Soy Delicious (fake ice cream): It's rich and flavorful- cookie dough is a nice gluten-free flavor!
Zojirushi Breadmaker- the bread was good
Simply Gluten Free desserts- oatmeal cookies were delicious and only a tad overchewy
PureFit Nutrition bars- fair as nutr.bars go, but too pricey, I'll stick with Lara (half the price)-although you may recall that Lara bars were an acquired taste for me...now I have fave flavors:  apple pie, pecan pie, peanut butter and jelly, and peanut butter cookie or something like that
Bard's Tale Beer- great
French Meadow Bakery Brownies- Vey Good, texture&taste.  I prefer Rudi's Raisin bread to theirs
Smooze Mango and Coconut Fruit Ice- tasty, but I use cheapie popsicles


Green's Beer- Great
The Pure Pantry Baked Goods- Delicious
Sof-ella cake mix- Good, I get it cheap at FreshNEasy
Boar's Head deli meats and cheeses and condiments are tasty and ALL gluten free
Annie's Bunny Crackers Cocoa & Vanilla- yum, but very sugary tasting, not very savory
Schar breadsticks and Wafer cookies- crunchy and tasty
Boulangerie Brownies and Baked Goods- Excellent- My favorite find at the conference!!!





Phlegms:  Things I did NOT like 
Simply Boulder Culinary Sauces- not creamy enough and too tart
Earth Cafe Desserts- taste like mush
Mary's Gone Crackers- taste like birdseed, CrunchMaster are better
Nature's Agave sweeteners- yuck.  Better to go with real sugar
various pastas- I prefer to stick with Mrs. Leepers and Tinkyada and De Boles

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