Mambo Sprouts has sent us some samples from Glutino, Crunchmasters, Gluten Free Pantry, and Barbara’s to review.  Now on to Part 2.

Mambo Sprouts Review Part 2: Crunchmaster

Original Multi-Seed Crackers

Crunchmaster is a brand of oven baked brown rice crackers packed with a great blend of seeds. Their mulit-seed crackers are made from all natural ingredients like brown rice, sesame, quinoa, amaranth and flax seeds. The result is a nutrition filled, naturally gluten-free snack. But how does it taste? Far from bland is the answer. Though they are low in sodium, they have a pleasant salty flavor that compliments the grain and seed blend. A touch of soy sauce is also added. They are enjoyably crunchy and the fact that they are backed instead of fried keeps them from being oily. I only received samples for the Original flavor Crunchmaster Multi-Seed Crackers, after tasting what a great job they did with a basic cracker, I’m am eager to try there Roasted Garlic, Rosemary & Olive Oil and Sweet Onion varieties.
To learn more about Crunchmaster Multi-Seed Crackers visit www.crunchmaster.com

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A while ago I received samples of a muffin mix and a pancake mix from Purely Elizabeth. With most of the NFCA staff off to Chicago for the NRA I finally had enough time to try these out. A certified holistic nutrition counselor, Elizabeth Stein, created Purely Elizabeth in 2009. While receiving her training she began to understand the negative impact the ingredients like sugar, wheat and dairy that are in so many of our favorite treats can have on a persons health. She created her line of mixes to recreate homemade baked goods using healthy ingredients that were beneficial for the body. Purely Elizabeth’s Ultimate Cacao Muffin Mix and Perfect Pancake mix are great examples of her effort to improve foods that are normally guilty pleasures.
The star ingredient in Purely Elizabeth’s Ultimate Cacao Muffin Mix is raw cacao, an ingredient known to be high in antioxidant. The raw cacao adds the chocolaty flavor to the highly nutritious flour mix made of millet flour, almond flour, flax seed, hemp seed and chia seeds. Suggested additional ingredients you will need to make a batch of Purely Elizabeth Ultimate Cacao Muffins includes applesauce, olive oil, agave syrup, almond milk and Vanilla. Using the suggested ingredients helps keep truer to the mixes purpose of being a pure and healthy way to enjoy muffins. But you can also use your preferred sweetener, substitute non-dairy milk to make it dairy-free, or for a more traditional muffin use an egg instead of applesauce. The flexibility of this mix provides a simple and convenient way to gather high quality dry ingredients to make muffins that have the nutrition needed in so many celiac diets.
Purely Elizabeth’s Perfect Pancake mix is a great way to add whole grains to your diet while indulging in this classic but traditionally non-healthy breakfast choice. The mix consists of a blend of 5 whole grain flours paired with 3 super-food seeds. The result is a fluffy yet very filling breakfast packed with protein and fiber.
To learn more about these and all of Purely Elizabeth’s Products visit www.purelyelizabeth.com.

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For this month long celiac awareness campaign Mambo Sprouts has also teamed up with some great gluten-free companies.  Some of those companies have provided them with enough samples of their products to share with some of the amazing GF bloggers for reviews. As the product review blog for the NFCA, Mambo Sprouts has been kind enough to send Gluten Free Hot Products samples from Glutino, Crunchmasters, Gluten Free Pantry, and Barbara’s. I will share my impressions on these samples in a 4 part series, Mambo Sprouts Review Part 1-4.

So, with out much more delay onto the first review.

Mambo Sprouts Review Part 1: Glutino

I received two products from the huge and always growing Glutino Product line, a bag of Chocolate Covered Pretzels and a box of Strawberry Breakfast Bar.

Glutino Chocolate Covered Pretzels are simply amazing. To find a delicious gluten-free pretzel is impressive by itself. Cover that yummy pretzel with premium milk chocolate and you get an extraordinary gluten-free snack. These gluten-free snacks are crunchy and sweet with just a hint of salt. The pretzel itself is firm and crunchy with a great texture. Each little pretzel is coated in a thick layer of smooth, just sweet enough, milk chocolate. The result is a deliciously perfect gluten-free snack that will fulfill a variety of cravings.

Glutino Gluten-Free Breakfast Bars come in a variety of flavors. I sampled the Strawberry flavored ones. Each bar has a soft pastry-like outside with a moist strawberry jelly center. The outer layer is moist and thick with only a slightly grainy texture. In addition to being gluten-free they are also egg, casein, and milk free. More importantly for someone on a gluten-free diet they also have the benefit of a good amount of dietary fiber.

To learn more about these as well as any of the other great gluten-free products made by Glutino visit www.glutino.com. Be sure to stop back by to check out Mambo Sprouts Reviews Part 2-4.

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The Chicken Soup with Rice Noodles tasted wholesome, with large chunks of vegetables and chicken and thick rice noodles. The Organic Carrot and Coriander Soup had a great texture and a taste that was greatly complimented with the added herbs and spices. The Three Bean Chili was extremely hearty with just a touch of heat added for flavor.

Each box of Kettle Cuisine Frozen Soups contains a 10 oz single serving, microwavable bowl. This makes them even more convenient than a can of soup. However, removing the can opener and pot from the equation is not the only thing that places Kettle Cuisines Frozen Soups above many can soups. The manufactures of these soups work hard to make these soups taste close as possible to homemade. This is achieved by hand preparing all the high quality, fresh, organic that go into each meal and cooking them in small batches. The result of all this is hard work is a yummy meal that is ready in just a few minutes but taste like it took hours.

In addition to all ten varieties of Kettle Cuisine Frozen Soup are gluten-free, some are also low fat, dairy free, and/or vegetarian. You can find these great all natural soups in select grocer’s freezers and online at the www.glutenfreemall.com. To learn more about Kettle Cuisine visit them online at www.kettlecuisine.com.

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Elevate Me! Energy Bars come in seven different flavors. All of the flavors contain a base of why protein isolate, date, and organic raisins. Then a variety of additional ingredients are added to make up the different flavors. The All-Fruit Original contains almonds, apples, cranberries, papaya, and mango. This was the one we thought tasted to strongly of dates. The Blueberry Cranberry Gojiberry Boost!, and Matcha Green Tea with Cranberries were my favorites because they were filled with complimentary tangy berry flavors. My significant other appreciated the addition of coca to Chocolate Acai Berry Brownie, Espresso Cocoa Crunch, and Cocoa Coconut Cluster. These tasted more like treats than a healthy protein bar. We both thought the addition of banana flavor in the Banana Nut Bread worked really with the date and raisin base.

No matter which flavor we ate the results were the same. We ended up satisfied and re-energized. The compact bar makes them a great meal on the go. In the case of my other test subject they made and easy quick snack to have when you are running out of energy are hungry and have lots of time till you can stop and have a full meal. The fact that Elevate Me! Bars are gluten free makes them a great option for training or competing celiac athletes (For more on celiac athletes visit NFCA’s Athletes for Awareness blog). However, the fact that they are also delicious makes them a yummy healthy snack for everyone.

To learn more about Elevate Me! Bars visit www.prosnack.com. Till next time, happy and healthy gluten-free snacking!

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I tested each flavor of Cormier’s Kitchen cooking sauces by adding them to  fresh cut stir-fry vegetables then served them on noodles. These sauces come in five flavors. Cracked Black Pepper, is a spicy sauce that has a mild amount of heat from its fresh cracked black pepper blend. Orange Burst is a sweet tangy orange flavored sauce paired with a hint of ginger to spice it up. Double Garlic has a blast of sweet roasted garlic flavor achieved by a balanced combination of a double dose of garlic along with a nice blend of herbs and sugar. Garlic and Ginger is very similar to the double garlic but has been spiced up with ginger root. Garlic and Jalapeño is spicy with out catching your tongue on fire. Instead of a fast blast of fire on your tongue, this sauce’s flavor lingers with a long lasting and pleasant level of heat.

All the sauces in this line are rich and filled with flavor. The blends added enhance but do not overpower the soy sauce. This makes them an exciting substitute for many other cooking sauces and an excellent addition to your gluten free kitchen.

To learn more about Cormier’s Kitchen Cooking Sauces visit cormierskitchen.com.

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The yummy dessert that is the result of Three Senses Gourmet hard work, skill and creativity, is good enough to find on any elegant café or restaurant’s menu. However, Three Senses Gourmet founder, Amy Phillips, realized gourmet easy-to-make “heat and serve” items were missing from the grocery store. This is lucky for the celiac and gluten-free community, because this delicious dish is now available in a growing number of grocery stores.  The Chocolate Soufflé, Caramel Chocolate Soufflé, and the Chocolate Chip Brioche Bread Pudding frozen desserts are just the beginning. The company plans to add more desserts and other gourmet cuisine to their line designed to help with convenient, gourmet entertaining. But don’t take my word for it, Three Senses Gourmet’s Chocolate Soufflé is a must try. Visit www.3sensesgourmet.com to learn more about all of Three Senses Gourmet’s products and learn where you can get one of your own.

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The Winner of the GFHP Betty Crocker “Simple Joys” Contest is:  Leslie Hart!

Congratulations Leslie Hart, I’ll be contacting you soon.

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They were kind enough to send us samples of all six stage 1 organic baby food flavors and two of their organic fruit smoothie flavors. I am happy to say they have delivered on their promise of healthy yet delicious food. I even took a taste of each of the baby food flavors and was pleasantly surprised by their texture and taste.
All six flavors of Ella’s Kitchen Organic stage 1 baby food come in small unique pouches with twist of plastic caps that can screw back on for storage. These simple little pouches are extremely easy to travel with. To serve, simply twist of the cap and squeeze the contents on to a spoon. Each pouch is nicely designed to appeal to children and the ones who love them as are the witty descriptions printed on them.

As handy and cute as the packages are the food inside them are even more impressive. All the fruits and vegetables inside are high quality and 100% organic. Nothing extra is added not even water in resulting in a food that is free of additives, preservatives and fillers. Since organic fruit and veggies are the only ingredients this product is naturally gluten and dairy free.

Ella’s Kitchen Organic Fruit Smoothies are just as pure. They are not made with any sweeteners or sugars added so the flavor is that of a freshly blended all fruit smoothie.
These pouches are just as cute and come in four great flavors.

Currently, Ella’s is available exclusively at Babies R Us/Kids R Us and on-line through www.babiesrus.com and www.toysrus.com . In 2010 They will be available on www.diapers.com as well. Only the stage one baby food and the fruit smoothies are available in the US. However, they are scheduled to reach grocery store shelves in 2010 and hopefully they will bring their whole line of baby foods, drinks, and snacks with them.

For full product details and information on availability please visit Ella’s Kitchen Online.

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