Enter GFHP News and Updates. This post will be somewhat brief and will include a little bit of news along with a link if available so you can find out more.

GFHP News and Updates: August 2010

Happy 100th anniversary Blue Diamond Growers

Blue Diamond recently sent the NFCA information on their 100th anniversary along with some yummy almonds. To celebrate their centennial, they are introducing an extremely informative site that covers the history of Blue Diamond almonds over the past 100 years. AlmondHistory.com features archived photos, historical stories, almond processing and nutritional information, classic recipes and more.

A small portion of almonds contains high amounts of protein, fiber, monounsaturated fat, vitamin E, calcium and other important minerals, and phytochemicals that may help protect against many common diseases. In addition, thanks to Blue Diamond innovations, almond goodness is now available in a variety of products for those of us who have food restrictions. These products include Almond Breeze®, an almond-based beverage for the lactose-intolerant market, Nut-Thins®, a crispy cracker based on almond and rice for the gluten-free market, and Almond Butter.

Learn a bit more about the powerful almond and the inspiring success story of Blue Diamond by visiting AlmondHistory.com.

Clif introduces Gluten-Free Snack Bar: Clif C

Clif the makers of the well-known and very popular energy and snack bars, Clif Bars and Luna Bars, have released their first gluten-free Clif bar. Similar to all of Clif products, Clif C is made with all-natural, organic ingredients. The bar consists of a nut crust base, with a fruit spread topping. Clif C is currently available in four flavors, apple, blueberry, Raspberry, and cherry pomegranate. I have not tried these my self yet, but I am very curious about them and hope to post a review in the future.

Learn more about Clif C here.

Pro Cyclists Include Bakery On Main Gluten Free Granola in Their Recipe for Success

A July 16th news release from Bakery On Main announced that their Gluten Free Granolas in Nutty Cranberry Maple, Extreme Fruit & Nut and Apple Raisin Walnut, were selected for inclusion in the Garmin-Transitions US Cycling Team’s gluten free anti-inflammatory diet by the team chiropractor, Matthew Rabin. Though these delicious granola combinations were originally created to provide celiacs with a tasty, gluten free snack the founder Michael Smulders is happy to discover that non-celiacs will benefit from the nutritious ingredients and great taste. I am happy about this announcement as well. Gluten-free food that taste great and is good for you too is always good news!

Learn more about The Bakery on Main here.

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Not too long ago a shipment of samples from Surf Sweets arrived at the NFCA’s main office. The NFCA staff is always excited when samples come in and doubly so when it is gluten-free sweets. Thankfully, I managed to make it out of the office with several of the bags to review and to use as bribes — I mean ‘incentives’ for the kids.

It did not take the kids long to spot the bags of Surf Sweets samples. For the rest of the review I will refer to them as Q and F. Q is a fifteen-year-old girl and self-proclaimed sugar addict. “Ohhh sugar!” she proclaimed when first spotting them. I informed her that they were samples for a product review. She made a sad face at that news until I told her that if she was willing to help with the review, she could have some of the candy. She quickly recruited her brother. F, a 12-year-old self-proclaimed candy connoisseur.

Though Surf Sweets provides a wide variety of fruit flavored gummy snack choices, for the review we only sampled their Fruity Bears, Sour Berry Bears, Gummy Worms, and Jelly Beans. Surf Sweets uses organic evaporated cane juice and natural fruit flavoring so there is no corn syrup in any of their fruit snacks. In addition to being Gluten-Free they are also nut, dairy and casein free. These fruit snacks include many of the positive ingredients, and more importantly are missing some of the major negative ingredients that make them an appealing treat to adults. But how will sugar-hungry, candy-loving kids react to them?

Organic Fruity Bears:
Q, noted that they were a tad less chewy than common gummy bears but felt that was a positive difference. F gobbled up his portion without complaint, which is the same as saying they are delicious. Neither seemed bothered by the absence of artificial sweeteners. Both kids thought the Fruity Bears were pleasantly sweet and found the natural fruit flavor “tasty”. Both agreed they would be glad to receive them as a treat again.

Sour Berry Bears:
A favorite road trip game for us is the “Sour Off”. Each of us samples a sour candy and waits to see who makes the most extreme sour face first. We all smiled at the idea that we might find another candy to add to the sour list. All three of us tasted one of the Sour Berry Bears at the same time. Q felt they were more tangy than sour. To me they tasted very close to a tart berry so I agreed with her. F on the other hand happily referred to them as “Brain Sour”. For the record F lost that sour off.

Gummy Worms:
The first thing we all noticed was that they were extremely stretchy, which is expected of a good gummy worm. Q stated that the taste and texture were almost identical to other gummy worms she had tasted and enjoyed. These ended up being her favorite of the four. F found them to be extremely chewy, yet very tasty and worth the effort.

Jelly Beans:
The results of this taste test were a bit surprising. Though we all enjoy jelly beans, Q is by far a bigger fan of this type of candy. However, she is not as big a fan of tropical fruit flavors. So she was not as happy with these jelly beans. On the other hand, F and I found the fruity flavor of these extremely tasty. All agreed that the best word to describe them was “fruity”.

The final conclusion of the taste test of Surf Sweets was that all participants would be happy to eat them again. For the kids, they tasted good. For me they tasted good, and contained ingredients I approved of. Another Win-Win review for us here at GFHP.

To learn more these and all of the products offered by Surf Sweets.

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Since the first shipment from Food Should Taste Good I’ve been a big fan of their chips. All their favors use a great blend of corn, grains, and seeds merged with other high quality natural ingredients to make truly snacks worthy chips. So of course I was very happy to receive a package with bags of Cheddar and Blue Corn, the latest additions to the Food Should Taste Good product line.
I was very impressed with the Cheddar flavor. Being a big fan of cheese in general and cheddar especially, I’m very glad that Food Should Taste Good finally added this to their line up. The smooth cheddar flavor is not overwhelming, but definitely present. Another big plus to these chips, is that since the flavor is natural, real and baked in there is no grimy artificial cheese powder coating the delicious crunchy chip.
I’m equally pleased about the addition of a Blue Corn flavor. The same great blend of grains and seeds partnered wonderfully with organic blue corn. Just like all the varieties of Food Should Taste Goods Chip, the Blue Corn Flavor is crunchy, sturdy and lightly seasoned they are the perfect addition to your favorite salsa or dip.
In addition to the newest flavors, Food Should Taste Good, also sent me a sample of the newest way to enjoy their very popular Multigrain flavor, convenient To-Go Packs.  To-Go Packs include 6 individual 1 oz bags.
To learn more about these flavors as well as all the other delicious productsFood Should Taste Good offers visit www.foodshouldtastegood.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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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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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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One of the boxes of fruit-flavored snacks included in this prize pack is a Variety Pack that includes packets of Fruit Rollups (a classic favorite from my days as a kid), Fruit Gushers, and Fruit-By-The-Foot. The variety pack is an all-time favorite at our house as a dessert choice or a sweet treat during long road trips. Since the kids in our home are not required to eat a gluten-free diet it never occurred to me that these as well as all of Betty Crocker’s Fruit Flavored Snacks are gluten-free.

As much as I like to inform the celiac community of new GF products by new food manufacturers it is also a great pleasure to get the chance to help spread the word that there is a GF product available from a larger food manufacturer such as General Mills Betty Crocker Brand. It becomes a bigger treat when the product is targeted toward children. Betty Crocker Fruit Flavored Snacks are a food item that not only your gluten-free child will find in his lunch bag but is something his gluten eating peers will also have. To me that makes this product special.

Also included in this prize pack was a box of Betty Crocker Create-a-Bug Fruit Flavored Snacks. It was fun to watch the kids’ faces light up when I handed them items from the variety pack. However, it was a bigger joy to see them happy to try something new. Their father and I shared a good chuckle as the oldest (a 14 year old girl) told her younger brother (11 years old) who was ready to gobble down the whole pack, that first he has to play with them. When I asked them what they thought of the Create-a-Bug Fruit Flavored Snacks they both exclaimed “Yum, those are a winner!”

In addition to being gluten free all of the Betty Crocker Brand Fruit Flavored Snacks made with real fruit and are low in calories and fat. To learn more about these wonderfully yummy fruit flavored treats visit Betty Crocker’s official website.

To enter the GlutenFreeHotProducts.com “Simple Joys” prize pack contest:

Send your name, email address to alacy@celiaccentral.org , please include “Simple Joys” prize pack in the subject line. This contest will run from November 30th, 2009 till December 14th, 2009. I will announce the winner on GFHP and send them an email requesting their mailing address. Till then Good luck and happy GF snacking!

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Kendra chose the NFCA because in addition to the goal of securing diagnosis for one million people over the next five years, we are also working to double the size of the gluten-free marketplace. Both of these goals are achieved through raising awareness and helping the general public, medical community, and food industry see how many celiacs are out here and what they need.

Kendra is heading to Florida for the 2009 Ironman competition this Friday, October 30th. Before she leaves she will receive a send off at the NFCA’s San Francisco Gluten Free Cooking Spree. In addition to enjoying gluten-free hors d’oeuvres, desserts, beer and wine; getting a chance to meet outstanding members of the celiac and gluten-free community like Kendra; attendees will also have a chance to win a gift basket filled with some of Kendra’s favorite gluten-free products.

Kendra took some time out of her busy work and training schedule to review some of the products that will be in the gift basket and Gluten Free Specialty Market owned by Melanie Weir who is generously donating the gift basket.

Lara Bars (cashew cookie & lemon)
Lara Bars are a great snack bar to keep with you when you’re traveling, or out running errands when you’re not sure whether you’ll be able to find gluten free foods to eat. They’re made with very few ingredients and make you feel like you’re eating real food even though it came in a wrapper. The Cashew Cookie bar (made of just cashews and dates!) has a 1 to 4 ratio of protein to carbs, which is great for a post-workout recovery snack. I always eat a Cashew Cookie bar after a tough workout if I’m not going to be able to have a real meal for awhile. I even bring them with me to triathlons to eat as soon as I finish the race, since I usually can’t eat any of the post-race food. The Lemon Bar (dates, almonds, cashews, and lemon) is a little tart so it is different from most snack bars, and variety is always good. It really reminds me of the lemon bars my mom makes.

No Oatmeal Cookies
When I first went GF I thought I was mostly going to miss oatmeal cookies. In addition to having to avoid gluten, my doctor advised me to avoid oats. The No Oatmeal cookie is a good prepackaged treat when you’ve really earned a big cookie. They’re not exactly the same as oatmeal cookies, of course, but overall they leave me with the same happy feeling.

Bob’s Red Mill Creamy Rice Cereal
I love eating a hot breakfast every day, even in the summer. When I had to give up oatmeal, I wasn’t sure what to do. Creamy rice hot cereal is a perfect substitute. I cook it up with some protein powder and a banana and a little cinnamon and a splash of milk. It smells and tastes like banana bread. It’s warm and comforting and it’s a great source of iron too.

Eden’s Buckwheat
Buckwheat is so much fun to eat. Who’d have thought it wasn’t actually related to wheat? This gluten free grain is rounder and bigger than rice and it cooks quickly too. A good source of protein and fiber. I like this buckwheat better than toasted buckwheat (kasha) which has a stronger flavor. Eden’s buckwheat is mild and works well as a side dish with just about anything.

Justin’s Almond Butter Packets
Justin’s prepackaged individual servings of almond butter and peanut butter are great to bring on long bike rides (or car rides). It’s real food and a good source of protein and fat. You can eat it by squeezing it right out of the package into your mouth, or squeeze it onto some Corn Thins for an on-the-go sandwich.

Mary’s Gone Crackers Sticks and Twigs
Mary’s Gone Crackers are amazingly delicious – and not just in that “this are good, for being gluten free” way. I love the curry flavored ones, and so did everyone in my family who got to try them before the bag got devoured. Unless you’ve got serious willpower, you might want to make sure someone else is around to share the bag with you, or you may end up eating them all at once! The sticks and twigs shapes leave each bite with a slightly different texture/shape in your mouth which make them fun to eat too.

Corn Thins
Corn Thins are the new rice cake. Just 11 calories each! My non GF friends eat them too. Packed with fiber, they are the perfect complement to some nut butter, or just a great snack by themselves when you want something carb-y to eat. They work well as a low-cal chip substitute with salsa and guacamole too.

Lundberg Brown Rice Spaghetti
As an athlete, pasta is a nice meal when I’m worn out from a long workout, or just a long day at work. Lundberg’s brown rice spaghetti is a good source of protein and fiber. It cooks well and is perfect for anything you’d use old fashion spaghetti for. Throw some veggies on it, or just some tomato sauce. Very versatile.

Gluten Free Specialty Market
Melanie Weir’s GF shop in midtown Sacramento is the place to go for all your GF needs. She listens to customer suggestions, which is always a good trait of a small shop owner, but more importantly she answers customers’ questions about the gluten free diet or about celiac disease and makes the newbies feel normal again. The shop is full of fabulous GF items that you can’t find anywhere else. Cereals, whole grains, snack bars, cookies, pastas, salad dressings, frozen goods– you name it, it’s there. The shop has a good variety of each GF item too – you won’t find just one brand of a pie crust mix for example. Melanie will help you figure out which one you want. Depending on what you like, Melanie will direct you to what else she thinks you’ll like best. GF Specialty Market also supports two local GF kitchens by stocking their items (Azna Gluten Free and Davis Natural Food Works) which is especially handy for folks who aren’t able to get to either of those kitchens on a regular basis. The GF Specialty Market makes gluten free living so much easier and more manageable. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to walk into a shop and buy anything you want without worrying about whether gluten is hidden in the product. The shop also caters to other food allergies as well.

The next two items will not be included in the basket, but deserve a review and would help out the other two local GF kitchens that I mentioned above!

Azna Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls
Azna’s cinnamon rolls are amazingly delicious — both GF and vegan. They’re sold both as regular size rolls and as minis. I like to buy the box of minis and eat two at a time. I can’t believe each one only has 60 calories. I keep them frozen and microwave them for a few seconds and then magically they have that fresh out of the oven taste. The frosting is fabulous and perfectly complements the roll.

Natural Food Works Brownie
This is a wonderful brownie that doesn’t taste GF at all. It’s moist and so chocolaty. It’s the perfect texture — a little cakey and a little fudgey. Nobody will believe they’re gluten free.

Even if you cannot attend the event, you still can help raise awareness of Celiac Disease. Follow the links below to learn how you can help.

Learn more about Kendra.

Spread the word to help Kendra Nielsam raise awareness of celiac disease and support her in the November 7th Ironman Florida!

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The premise was intriguing: six sweet and tasty versions of the traditionally high fiber, high protein spread with less fat than standard hummus. Chick peas are still the primary ingredient followed by pure and simple flavorings with evaporated cane juice as a sweetener. No additives, no preservatives, no dairy and most relevant here… no gluten.

We were treated to the complete suite of all six flavors: Carmel Apple, Chocolate Mousse, Maple Walnut, Peanut Butter, Pumpkin Pie and Toasted Almond. For our testing we used a simple gluten-free rice cake so as not to skew the flavoring of the hummus. We were really impressed! It is hard to believe something so delicious is still so healthy.

We found all the flavors to be very smooth and easy to spread. The texture of the chick pea paste is present, but the excellent flavorings made me repeatedly forget that I was eating hummus. The Chocolate Mousse was noticeably thicker and fluffier. I found the Toasted Almond and Maple Walnut a bit too intensely flavored, but that was just my personal preference. I have been unable to pick a favorite otherwise. Peanut Butter seemed to be the variety I could rationally justify having for breakfast, but the Carmel Apple, Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Mousse are all really tasty without being overly sweetened. We are looking forward to trying a few of the other recommended food pairings now that we have run out of rice cakes: apple or celery with the Peanut Butter, grapes with the Chocolate Mousse, etc.

Crazy Camel Dessert Hummus can be purchased from their website in quantities of six and twelve – eight oz. tubs. It ships from New Hampshire in an insulated box and can be frozen for longer term storage. Single tubs are available at a number of locations around the New England region.

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