Trav's Gone Gluten Free!

Product Review: King Arthur's Gluten Free Pancake Mix

2011-08-09T06:07:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago Mindy and I spent the night at our friends, Joy and Jason's house. When we arrived, Jason began to show off all the gluten free goodies he purchased in preparation for our visit (what a good friend!!). Over the years I have tested out a variety of gluten free pancake mixes. Some of my favorites have been Bob's Red Mill, Pamela's, and Trader Joe's GF pancake mixes. However, Jason had picked up a box of King Arthur's Gluten Free Pancake Mix, and when I took my first bite on the morning after our sleep-over, I fell in love!

King Arthur's GF Pancake mix, by far, makes the moistest, fluffiest, most delicious GF pancakes I've had thus far. Both Joy and Jason, neither of whom have Celiac Disease, thought they were excellent and couldn't tell that they were gluten free. I decided to top mine with blueberry and peach preserves, and add a side of bacon. It was pure breakfasty heaven!

Jason purchased the mix at his local natural food store, but I'm sure you can find this mix at Whole Foods, Wegmans, or if you'd like, check out their website and order directly. You'll love these!

Click Here: King Arthur's Gluten Free Pancake Mix

Gluten Free Rice Krispies Treats!

2011-06-21T17:25:00.000-07:00

Every single time I used to stroll down the cereal isle in the grocery store, I'd shake my head at the boxes of Rice Krispies, thinking to myself, why don't they just take out the malt flavoring so that they'd be gluten free! Well, it's finally happened. Rice Krispies are officially GLUTEN FREE! Thank you Kellogg's! This news would be less than exciting for non-celiac folk, but for those of us who lost the ability to enjoy these gooey squares of goodness when we were forced to go gluten free, this is big news:)

Now if you've never made Rice Krispies Treats before, they have to be one of the easiest desserts to make. You can get as creative with this recipe as you want. For example, you could add some chocolate chips or dried cranberries before forming the squares. Whatever you think would go good with marshmallows and crisped rice you should try.

Ingredients

6 cups Kellogg's Rice Krispies Gluten Free cereal
1 10oz package of regular marshmallows, or 4 cups miniature marshmallows
3 tablespoons margarine or butter

Directions

Melt the margarine/butter in a large pan over low heat.
Add the marshmallows and stir until everything's totally melted.
Remove from heat.
Add your Rice Krispies and stir it all up till completely coated.
Using a buttered spatula or a sheet of waxed paper, press the gooey mixture evenly into a 13x9x2-inch pan coated with cooking spray.
Cut into squares when cooled.
Enjoy!

Remember to look for my Gluten Free Desserts! app for the iPhone, iPad, and on the Droid Store!

My Review on Become.com

2011-04-26T05:03:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I completed an on-line interview for Become.com. The following is a transcript of that interview, which can also be found by clicking this link: Pocket Change/Become.com.

Why did you start Trav’s Gone Gluten-Free?

I started “Trav’s Gone Gluten Free!” a few months after I found out that eating gluten was the culprit behind my long list of ailments. At the peak of my illness, I had wasted away from 210 pounds to 145 pounds. I was constantly dizzy, lethargic, and suffered with debilitating migraines on a bi-weekly basis. It sucked, and it was scary! In fact, when my mom saw me at my worst, she ran out of the house and started crying. Once I started eating gluten free my health quickly improved. It was at that time that I decided to create a gluten free blog to help others in my situation. When my blog began, there wasn’t much information out there for people suffering with celiac disease, or gluten sensitivities. There were a few books, but they were expensive, as was most of the available gluten free foods on the market. I wanted to hook people up with easy and inexpensive gluten free meals and desserts. I also wanted to make sure that when they visited my blog there would also be links to a ton of resources to make living gluten free easier. So that’s what I did, and I’m still at it:)

What’s your favorite thing about blogging?

Just knowing that what I’m doing is helping people is really what I love most about blogging. I remember how scary it was trying to figure out how to live gluten free. The more recipes and information I can post on my blog, the easier it is for others to get used to the lifestyle change. I often receive emails from my readers thanking me for the blog and telling me how much it has helped them. That’s my favorite thing about blogging.

- My second favorite thing about blogging is that I have a permanent, and easily accessible database of all the awesome gluten free recipes I’ve discovered and/or created from scratch. It’s my own digital gluten free cookbook, and it never stops growing:)

Do you have a favorite gluten-free food? Why is it your favorite?

I’d have to say my favorite gluten free food is the pure, corn tortilla. I know it’s boring, but I use it for everything. I make soft egg and cheese breakfast tacos, use if for a wide range of sandwich melts, cut it up and fry it for fresh nachos, and make enchiladas out of it. It’s very versatile, and always inexpensive, two important factors when trying to live gluten free. Besides corn tortilla, I’d have to say all kinds of fruit and vegetables, since they’re all naturally gluten free.

As far as mainstream gluten free products, I’m really into all of Betty Crocker’s gluten free baked goods (i.e., Brownies, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Cake). It’s so nice being able to drop into the local supermarket and grab a box of gluten free brownie mix off the shelf. It makes you feel normal again.

What’s your next project going to be?

I’ve actually just finished a big project! I created and published a gluten free recipe app for Droids and iPhones. It was a ton of work, but totally worth it. I love being able to pull up my recipes on my phone while shopping for ingredients for gluten free meals. It’s called “Gluten Free Desserts!” and can be found on iTunes, The Droid Store, and on Amazon.

The next project I plan to work on will be called “Resurrected Recipes.” I am the founder of an on-line bookstore called Helping Hands Books (www.helpinghandsbookstores.com) that helps support local youth development agencies. Sometimes we get donations of antique books, and from those donations I’ve collected a number of hand-written recipe books from the 1800s that are loaded with great dessert and dinner recipes. My project will be to “resurrect” them from the past and make them gluten free.

What’s the best advice ever given to you (with regard to gluten-free, celiac, blogging, or anything else)?

To be honest, I’ve never received any advice regarding celiac, gluten-free eating or blogging. I know that must sound strange, but it’s true:) Most people don’t know much about it, and the one’s that know a little, always ask me for advice.

Any recommendations for people who want to start their own blog or start eating gluten-free?

My recommendation for people starting to eat gluten free would be to keep it simple. Start by really exploring the basics, like using corn-tortillas for as many things as possible, or rice and beans, eggs, fruit, vegetables, etc. Something I know a lot of people do when they first find out they can’t eat gluten, is they go out and blow a ton of money on gluten free baked goods and specialty products. Gluten free can be done much less expensively and much more healthy if you get down to the basics of cooking. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, living gluten free forces you to learn to cook. No more instant or prepackaged meals; everything has to be made from scratch. Less convenient yes, but in the long run, it’s much better for your health and your bank account.

Who is your gluten-free icon?

My favorite gluten free blogger is Carol Kicinski of “Simply Gluten Free.” Not only is Carol a stunningly pretty woman, she’s a fabulous cook and takes amazingly beautiful food photography, Her blog was the first gluten free blog I came across. It was while reading her blog that I thought of the idea to begin my own.

What do you love most about blogging?

Like I said earlier, my favorite thing about blogging, personally, is that my blog helps others. However, I also love the fact that blogging allows us all to create a vivid, colorful, detailed record of our lives and our experiences. It connects people who would have never met otherwise, and it doesn’t cost a penny to do it!

What equipment do you use?

I use whatever cooking equipment is on hand, and I type my blogs up on my aging MacBook:)

How often do you work?

I work on my blog about once a week. Sometimes one every two weeks when things get busy.

The Trav's Gone Gluten Free Recipe App!

2011-04-13T19:10:00.000-07:00

It was a lot of hard work, but it's finally done! Yes, that's right, I've designed my very own gluten free recipe app for smart-phones! Right now it's available on the Android Market and on iTunes, but it will soon be available from Amazon.com for Droids. I'll make an announcement when it does:)

I labeled it Gluten Free Desserts!, but it's more than that. Each tab features 25 different recipes that are linked to my blog. Each time I upload a new recipe it becomes added to the app menu. What I love about it, since I use it all the time now, is that it makes shopping for ingredients super easy. Instead of writing everything down before I go shopping, I just cruise recipes on my iPhone until I find something I want, and then buy what's in the ingredient list.

Another reason I like it is that I can take all my recipes wherever I go. So if I'm at a friend's house, or away from home visiting a family member, I have easy access to loads of easy GF recipes in the palm of my hand. If you know anyone with Celiac Disease, or anyone who simply wants to learn how to cook gluten free, tell them about Gluten Free Desserts! It's not free, but it's cheap (.99).

On iTunes, just type in "Gluten Free Desserts" in the app store and you should find it easily.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW GLUTEN FREE DESSERTS! ON THE DROID STORE

Gluten Free Product Review: Rudi's Gluten Free Bread

2011-01-29T18:47:00.000-08:00

Gluten free bread has come a long way since I first found out that I have celiac disease. I remember my first experience with gluten free bread was with the small brick loaves of brown rice bread stocked at the local Trader Joe's. And when I say small brick loaves, I mean just that... small, as in each slice was about half the size of regular bread, and brick, as in if you threw a loaf of that bread at someone, it could seriously hurt them! The slices were so small I'd have to turn off the toaster so I could use a fork to fetch them out.

These days the slices are getting larger, the bread is getting softer, and you barely have to toast the bread anymore to soften it. I recently tried out Rudi's Multigrain Gluten Free Bread and I was impressed. Not only was it soft right out of the bag, but it was tasty and the slices were big enough feel like the good ol' days when I could walk into a grocery store and just pick out the best loaf on sale. I tore through that loaf in no time, with PB & J's, toasted egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches, and toasted ham and swiss. Back when getting a good loaf of bread was as easy as walking to the corner store, I would have never imagined eating the end pieces, but I have no problem doing that now, especially when the GF bread is that good; no slice is taken for granted:)

Gluten Free Sweets at Blair Candy

2010-09-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but ever since developing Celiac Disease, I eat a lot less candy. Not that I don't love candy... I have a ruthless sweet-tooth... It's just that I never know if the candy I want has had hidden gluten in it. And constantly reading all that tiny print, mostly names of unknown artificial ingredients, can become tedious. As a result, there has been much less candy in my diet.

However, just recently I was turned on to Blair Candy Co. Blair Candy has taken the guess-work out of finding name-brand candy that doesn't contain gluten, and has created a separate order page just for people with gluten issues. Just click on this link: Blair Candy Co. Gluten Free Page.

The candy is conveniently broken down into the subcategories: gluten free candy bars; gluten free gummy candy; gluten free gum; gluten free lollipops; gluten free novelty candy; and gluten free seasonal candy. I ordered some of my all-time favorites: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Runts, Jelly Belly jelly beans, and some Orbit White gum. The package arrived in just a few days, and I've been enjoying it (in moderation of course) ever since:) Jelly Belly beans are awesome!!!

For you fellow GF sweet-tooths out there, Blair Candy Company has made things so much easier. Check their site out!

Gluten Free Toasted Ham and Swiss

2010-07-31T12:22:00.000-07:00

Not so long ago my good friend Melanie surprised me with an amazing loaf of herbed gluten free bread. It was soft and moist, and unlike most GF breads on the market, it didn't even need to be heated to be edible. However, I couldn't help myself from rushing home to make a grilled ham and swiss cheese sandwich. It was AWESOME!! It was total gourmet! I was in heaven.

The bread was from a mix by Gluten Free Pantry "French Bread" To the box ingredients she added 5 tblsps dried Italian herbs. The loaf was baked in her, new and increasingly well-used bread machine. I'm not fibbing when I tell you the grilled sandwiches I made from the bread made me forget how much I missed my once easy-access to fresh loaves of bread. Thanks Melanie!!

If you have gluten sensitivity issues, do yourself a favor and buy a good bread maker, some top shelf bread mixes, and get a bakin' There's no excuse any more to deny ourselves the joys of fresh bread and grilled cheese sandwiches!

Gluten Free Pancakes and Pure Maple Syrup

2010-04-28T06:34:00.000-07:00

Well folks, it just doesn't get any better than this! Gluten free pancakes (Trader Joe's Brand) and maple syrup harvested by my Aunt Vicki and Uncle Paul from trees on their own land, boiled down in their own sugar shack, and bottled for my tasting pleasure. Awesome!

Trader Joe's has the least expensive GF Pancake Mix (around $3), but Pamela's and Bob's Red Mill also offer great GF Pancake Mixes. Although I've heard that "Caramel Color" is made from corn in the USA, I don't trust anything unless it specifically states No Gluten, No Wheat, No Barely, etc. Every single non-maple syrup on the market contains Caramel Coloring; for that reason, I'll only use pure maple syrup despite the steep cost.

My boss just found out he has to eat GF. Since switching up his diet, he's already feeling better. Knowing him, and knowing that he's a beer lover, I don't think it's hit him yet how much of what he used to enjoy will be eliminated from his list of options. I went through some serious "beer mourning" when I realized that I'd never again be able to sip on a tall, cold pint of Guinness Extra Stout. It still makes me sad thinking about it now. Granted, Green's makes some pretty amazing GF beers, but I be fibbing if I said they were as good as the average gluten filled micro-brew on the market.

Gluten free living is all about getting back to the basics and appreciating simple foods more than one has ever had to. It means savoring every last bite of well-made GF baked goods, slowing down the pace when enjoying a bottle of GF beer, and appreciating the simple pleasure of hot, steamy GF pancakes with Pure Maple Syrup drizzled on top.

Gluten Free Product Review: Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats

2010-03-23T07:54:00.000-07:00

I've been a big fan of Bob's Red Mill products since I found out I have Celiac Disease. They were one of the first companies that offered a wide variety of products I could eat. Now that GF has gone somewhat mainstream, there are GF food products galore! Some are good, a lot are pretty bad, but Bob's products have always been great and they continue to release new GF products for us all to enjoy. Recently I acquired a bag of their new "Wheat Free, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Whole Grain Steel Cut Oats". The bag states: "Dear Customer... Our premium gluten free oats start as pedigreed non-GMO seed planed in oats-only fields. At harvest, Elisa testing verifies their purity. Our dedicated gluten free facility and additional Elisa testing ensure their integrity."

Before trying this, I've never had Steel Cut Oats. I've always been a huge fan of oatmeal and preferred the slow cooked Quaker Oats that are available in most supermarkets. The problem is that Quaker Oats do not guarantee freedom from cross-contamination. For the longest time I didn't even go near oats for fear of getting sick. Oats naturally do not contain the gluten proteins that make those with Celiac so sick, but often fields of oats are planted near wheat fields so the two crops end up mixing a bit resulting in cross-contamination of most oat-products.

I've got to tell you, after my first bite of these steel cut oats, I was in love! I find the texture awesome and with a little brown sugar and maple syrup, it's the perfect breakfast food. I highly suggest you try these out for yourself. That is, of course, if you're a big fan of oatmeal like I am:)

Betty Crocker's Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies!

2009-08-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

I am so pumped about Betty Crocker's New Gluten Free line of products! They're even showing up at my local Acme, which rarely carries anything GF. I decided to start the taste-testing with their chocolate chip cookies. After adding all the ingredients and mixing it up, it did seem a little too crumbly. However, the directions on the box said it would look that way. After about 10 minutes of baking the smell permeated our home. I just LOVE the smell of cookies in the oven. It makes me want to snuggle up on the couch and watch cartoons.

After letting them cool for about a minute, we all began to chow down. They were awesome! The cookies did get hard pretty fast, but nothing a cold glass of milk couldn't remedy. They were also relatively cheap, only $4.99, which is pretty good compared to a lot of other gluten free mixes. Next, I'm going to try out the brownies. I can't wait!

GF Product Review: Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust

2008-11-16T19:18:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I've enjoyed a good slice of pizza. A couple weeks back, Philadelphia hosted the National Celiac Foundation's "Gluten-Free Cooking Spree" at the Wachovia Center. I went with my friend Katie and volunteered half a day to set up for the event. Unfortunately I couldn't attend the event due a night class for graduate school. I was completely bummed, since I knew it was going to be a FEAST of amazing gluten free food! However, I was given a GF goody bag as thanks for putting my back to work. In that bag was a package of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust mix. It sat in my cupboard for a while before I ended up trying it out. But when I did, it was awesome!

Honestly, it was the best pizza I've had in three years (since being diagnosed with Celiac Disease)! In my haste to devour, I accidentally missed the step of baking the crust for a while before adding the toppings. With all the sauce and toppings already laid out on the dough, I popped the pies in the oven for the time needed to pre-bake the crust, plus the cooking time for the prepared pizza. Even though I messed up the directions slightly, it still came out perfect! I topped my pizzas with a generous amount of pizza sauce, crushed oregano, pepperoni, and shredded "Italian Mix" cheese. I used "Hormel Thick Slice Pepperoni" since it stated it was Gluten-Free on the package. One package of Bob's Red Mill Pizza Crust Mix makes two nice size pies. You are going to love this pizza crust! Two big thumbs up:)

Did you know that Rice Chex has gone GF?

2008-06-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how many of you know this, but Rice Chex is now safe for us to eat. I view this as a pretty big deal! As far as I know, this is the first "big name" cereal product that has altered it's ingredients with Celiac sufferers in mind. There are quite a few other cereals, like Corn Pops, Rice Crispies and the like, that would only have to change one ingredient "malt flavor" in order for it to be gluten free. Hopefully other brands will soon follow suit. Here is the General Mills website for gluten free recipes using Rice Chex. How cool is that!? Now I suggest that if you want to help speed up the process of gaining more gluten free cereal options, write General Mills and tell them how much you appreciate it that they've thought of, us and how great it would be if they gave us more cereals to buy... wink wink. Here's the link to (customer relations). It cost about $3.99 per 12.8 oz. box.

My next blog will be a recipe for Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I'm going to make them tonight to treat my friends David and Cheryl Vermilya, who have drove down from Syracuse, NY to visit for a few days. They are two of my greatest friends, and they run a great youth center called the Town Shop. Check out the center's site. I spend most of my teenage years hangin' with friends there and getting involved in a variety of great activities. The center is good stuff and the Vermilyas are great people.