A while back we wrote about microwave-baking as a convenient way to make cake for one (gluten-free or otherwise). Today, I wanted to talk about a different way to make cake for one: with a recipe designed for a small batch.

A new book published by Ontario home economists, titled The Gluten-free Baking Book: 250 Small-batch Recipes for Everything from Brownies to Cheesecake, promises just that. Although I haven’t reviewed the book to be able to speak to the quality of the recipes, I thought the premise alone was worth a write-up.

Some people don’t have a microwave or prefer to minimize their use of one. And even the most microwave-loving person out there occasionally craves a baked good that needs more traditional treatment.
Click to continue reading »

Counting the Pounds?

Celiac disease is a little different in the United Kingdom.

For starters, it’s called coeliac disease. Fun!

For seconds, if you’ve got a diagnosis you can also get access to reduced-priced gluten-free staple items like bread, pizza bases, and flour mixes. Your general practitioner can write you a prescription for a fixed number of gluten-free food “units” based on your gender and age, which can be filled at the pharmacy.

Double fun! If you want to read more, check out Coeliac UK’s site; there are a handful of PDFs to the right, including one that lists all the different brands and items available on prescription.

Problem is, the county of Oxfordshire (home to Oxford University) wants to ban gluten-free foods from prescriptions.
Click to continue reading »

One of the most surefire ways to cheer up when the skies are gray and cloudy is to go home and find a package of chocolate bars waiting for you on your stoop. Ah, the glamorous life of a blogger.

Technically I suppose that isn’t true. The cheering-up really happens after you’ve brought the bars inside and opened one. After all, one of the “perils” of having random food to try is that sometimes, it doesn’t taste very good.

Ah, the glamorous, perilous, life of a blogger.

Happily, the Angell Crisp bars that I tore into the other week were deee-licious. To borrow the company’s description, they were “a classic combination of smooth, creamy milk chocolate and crispy rice. Every bit a candy bar, but gluten-free, and made from the same organic and Fair Trade Certified® ingredients as the rest.”
Click to continue reading »

I get awfully tired of packing my lunch for work. Or sorting out the gluten-free dining options near my office and wondering how gluten-free they really are.

Enter Kettle Cuisine and its gluten-free soups, found in my grocer’s natural freezer section. This is a working person’s dream. Each box contains a 10 oz single serving in a microwavable bowl. This makes them even more convenient than a can of soup.

So far I’ve tried the Roasted Vegetable Soup and Chicken Soup with Rice Noodles. The vegetable soup was surprisingly filling and the chicken soup, while not like mom’s, was very good.

Kettle Cuisine makes ten gluten-free soups in all including Three Bean Chili, Organic Mushroom and Potato, Southwestern Chicken and Corn Chowder, Thai Curry Chicken Soup, and New England Clam Chowder, among others.

The company has been certified as a gluten-free manufacturer by the Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO) and the soups are cooked in its USDA-inspected kitchen in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

Through January 31 you can submit photos of places you’ve taken Kettle Cuisine via its Facebook page and have a chance to win a free trip to Boston.

Did you know McDonald’s has a gluten-free bun in Spain, Sweden, Finland and Norway?

Talk about feeling left out over here in America. Sheesh.

Although I first learned about this when a friend forwarded me this blurb on gluten-free fast food from CNN’s Fortune blog, the gluten-free bun is apparently not a particularly new introduction.

Still, I thought some of you intrepid gluten-free travelers might want the info should you find yourself in Europe. And if I wasn’t aware, at least one or two of you were in the bunless dark too.

A greater search around the Internet brought up some reviews, which I’ll share below the jump. When I enlisted a friend to check McDonald’s Norwegian website, I got a second shock: Burger King offers gluten-free buns too, at least in Scandinavia!

So how do these buns taste? Well, according to the reviews online, they’re not half-bad — especially if you’re craving some fast food while abroad.
Click to continue reading »

No one wants to be Mr. Bump!

Thanks to Celiac.com for posting a review of a November study out of Sweden on health-related quality of life, which makes an interesting companion to the study on celiac and depression I wrote about last week.

This study is titled, “Delay to celiac disease diagnosis and its implications for health-related quality of life,” and it examined pretty much exactly what you’d expect. Slightly more than 1,000 members of the Swedish Society for Coeliacs completed a survey and their results were translated to quality-adjusted life year (QALY) scores. These scores were then compared to ones from a survey of the general population.
Click to continue reading »

Many women (and men) report feeling great after they finally learn they have celiac disease and begin adhering to a gluten-free diet. It normally takes years, still, for a diagnosis — so it makes sense that after so long feeling awful, people would be pretty happy.

However, many people on a gluten-free diet feel stressed when they realize just how often gluten lurks in the world around them. Anyone who’s been on the diet long enough, I guarantee, has had at least one day where they throw their hands up in the air and sigh at the hassle of it all.

A new study published in Chronic Illness sheds a little extra light on the subject of mental health and celiac disease in women, and the results are notable.
Click to continue reading »

Chick-fil-A has a generally good reputation amongst the gluten-free community, and with their latest announcement I expect their reputation will only improve.

According to the press release on their website, Chick-fil-A is adding two new, healthy options for their Kids’ Meal: grilled chicken nuggets and Buddy Fruits^® Pure Blended Fruit To Go. Combined with one of the beverage choices (skim milk, apple juice, lemonade or water), it’s about as healthy of a fast food meal as you’re likely to find anywhere.

Now, before I type up the rest of the press release, let’s jump over quickly to the disclaimer on Chick-fil-A’s gluten free info online:

…Some ingredients such as spices and natural flavors may be proprietary; therefore, we may not have the source listed for those items. We recommend you review this list with your physician before consuming any of the products listed below, or any other item on our menu. Although the ingredients in these menu items are gluten-free, we do not have gluten free prep areas and procedures for assembly of these menu items.

Click to continue reading »

As of last week, gluten-free labeling in the UK underwent a big shift.

The laws were decided a few years ago, and are set to coincide with the international Codex Alimentarius standards. What’s notable now is that the grace period is over: all food sold in the UK (England, Norhern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) is now officially bound to these standards. So, if you’re traveling through the UK or eating foods that were made/packaged there, this is news you’ll want to be aware of.

To me, the most exciting part of the regulations is that they apply not just to pre-packaged food, but also to restaurants, caterers, etc. And what are the regulations?

As always, read on:
Click to continue reading »

When I found out that Jovial Foods would be sending me a box of samples, I was pretty psyched.

I first learned about the company through a contest they ran, with maybe the best grand prize ever: a week in a villa outside Lucca, Italy, learning about pasta from Jovial’s artisans and taking cooking classes with the Gluten Free Girl and her husband, the Chef (note: the winners have been announced, but there are spaces open for other people to join the adventure).

Jovial Foods is one of those companies that hits all the right marks: their gluten-free products are

• certified gluten-free by the Gluten Intolerance Group
• made in Italy on traditional bronze dies
• packaged sustainably

Plus, I’d heard the pasta cooked up phenomenally. When I opened the package, there were gluten-free cookies in it along with the pasta.

My cup, it runneth over.
Click to continue reading »