Product Review from Food Review 101

A while back, we reviewed The Pure Pantry company and their line of gluten-free baking mixes that you actually couldn’t even tell were gluten-free in the first place, which is why we decided to take a look at the other products in their line of gluten-free goodies. “Elizabeth Kaplan, founder and CEO of The Pure Pantry, is a trained teacher and chef. Her appreciation and passion for fine organic foods began at a young age…when Elizabeth was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2002, she was disappointed in the lack of healthy, good tasting, gluten-free products on the market”, which is why she decided to create her own line of gluten-free products that would not only satisfy her, but the masses as well. For this review, we’ll be looking at The Pure Pantry’s line of gluten-free baking mixes–Buckwheat Flax Pancake and Baking Mix, Old Fashioned Pancake and Baking Mix, Whole Grain Dark Chocolate Cake Mix, and their Organic All-Purpose Baking Mix–that we weren’t able to touch on in our first review of The Pure Pantry. For more information on The Pure Pantry, be sure to head to their very informative and aesthetically pleasing web-site. Also, don’t forget to check out the Food Review 101 Facebook page.

If you’ve read our previous reviews of The Pure Pantry, then you know that they have some pretty high standards to live up to, which is why we were really excited to write up our second review on their line of gluten-free baking mixes. The first mix we tried out was the Buckwheat Flax Pancake and Baking Mix, and we actually used the recipe on the back of the package to help guide us to making some really great pancakes. After we combined our mix, egg, milk, and some cooking oil, we headed for the hot stove to make up some gluten-free pancakes. Our pancakes actually turned out quite fluffy and very tasty, and if anyone would be hard-pressed to actually pick these gluten-free pancakes out of a pancake line-up. The best thing about these mixes though, is that you can actually use it for other recipes as well. The package offers up other recipes for waffles, crepes, and muffins, but if those aren’t enough for you, then head to the Pure Pantry web-site for additional ideas. Next, we tried using the Whole Grain Dark Chocolate Cake Mix, but instead of making a daunting chocolate cake, we used the cupcake recipe instead. After we combined our cake mix, eggs, milk, vegetable oil, and hot water, we stuck it in the oven for 350F for 18 minutes. What came out of the oven was a very chocolaty and moist cupcake that would surely please anyone looking to get their chocolate fix. The texture was really great, oddly enough, but the cool thing about these cupcakes is that they’re made from a bunch of really cool flours– quinoa, brown rice, sorghum, and potato starch–that are a lot more beneficial than the standard flour found in other baking mixes. After we tried the first two mixes out, we headed for their Organic All Purpose Baking Mix, and followed their directions for making a gluten-free banana bread. After mixing and baking our bread, we were pleasantly surprised with the flavor and texture of this gluten-free bread. The flavor of this bread was nothing but pure banana, while the texture was soft and chewy like the banana bread we used to eat growing up. Lastly, we tried out the Organic Old Fashioned Pancake & Baking Mix, and this mix differed just a bit from the buckwheat and flax mix that we talked about first. This mix gave us a much more traditional pancake that a lot of people are more accustomed to, simply because it looked and tasted like a regular pancake that’s packed with gluten. For anyone searching to lower the amount of gluten in their diet, or anyone looking for a healthier pancake mix that will save them time in the morning, we highly recommend you give The Pure Pantry a try. Overall (4 out of 5).   Read More …

The Pure Pantry offers mixes that are not only delicious, but good for you, serving as proof that gluten-free, dairy-free, casein-free, soy-free, and even sugar-free don’t equal taste-free—quite the contrary!

The Pure Pantry offers a variety of mixes for gluten-free cookies, cakes, and pancakes, and even an all-purpose mix for creating other baked goods such as biscuits, muffins, and breads. The mixes are also versatile. We added tons of nuts to the Old Fashioned Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, and we loved them. They were not only delicious, but so healthy tasting.

Other mixes include Wholegrain Chocolate Chip Coconut Organic Cookie Mix, Buckwheat Flax Pancake and Baking Mix, Organic Sugar Cookie Mix, and the decadent Wholegrain Dark Chocolate Cake Mix, oh so chocolately and full of good-for-you nutrients including protein, antioxidants, and protein from ingredients such as quinoa. The Organic All-Purpose Baking Mix is vegan and free of gluten, sugar, dairy, and casein and remarkable for its versatility. It’s even kosher!

Elizabeth Kaplan, Founder of The Pure Pantry, was diagnosed with celiac disease several years ago. Discontent with the poor nutritional value of gluten-free products, Elizabeth put her skills as a trained chef to work to develop great-tasting as well as healthy gluten-free substitutes. The Pure Pantry’s website, http://www.thepurepantry.com, features recipes, an online store, and resources for the gluten-free community. I highly recommend checking out their mixes for your gluten-free baking.

Tina Turbin

www.GlutenFreeHelp.info

These Berry Tarlets are made with a sugar cookie crust and creamy filling, topped with our favorite berries.  A delicious summer dessert that everyone will enjoy.

Sugar Cookie Crust:
1 package Organic Sugar Cookie Mix from The Pure Pantry
1/2 cup butter or butter alternative, such as Earth Balance, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup organic, non-hydrogenated shortening, such as Spectrum
1 egg
1 teaspoon cold water (or more if needed)

Filling:
1 8 ounce package cream cheese or substitute such as Tofutti Cream Cheese
1/2 cup raw agave nectar, preferably Nature’s Agave Raw variety
1 egg or egg substitute, such as 1 teaspoon Ener-G foods Egg Replacer mixed with 2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 pints fresh raspberries, blackberries, or blueberries

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Prepare pastry crust by placing sugar cookie mix, butter and shortening in large mixing bowl.  Blend with pastry blender or fork until mixture is in pea sized bits.  Add egg and water and blend with pastry blender until dough comes together.   Using your hands,  pat dough into a flat disk.  Cover with waxed paper and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

In large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer until soft.  Add agave nectar, egg (or egg substitute) and vanilla and beat on low until combined.

Remove pastry dough from refrigerator.  Prepare a work surface by placing a large sheet of parchment paper or waxed paper down and lightly dust it with rice flour or corn starch.  Dust rolling pin with rice flour or cornstarch as well.  Roll out dough  to 1/4 inch thickness.

Place individual tartlet pans upside down on top of dough and push down.  Create 12 tartlets cuts outs.  If you have just a few little tartlet pans, you can prepare a few at a time.   With a metal spatula, lift cut out dough up and place in tartlet pan.  Press dough down firmly and evenly throughout pan with your fingers.

Poke holes in each pastry with a fork so surface has tiny holes throughout.

Place pans on cookie sheet.  Bake for 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool 5-7 minutes.  Meanwhile wash berries and drain in colander.

Fill tarlets with 1/4 cup cream cheese filling.  Return to oven on middle rack and back for 12 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool completely.   Place berries on top of tartlet and dust with powdered sugar.

Farmers’ Markets Offer Families with Food Allergies a Bounty of Options
by Elizabeth Kaplan

For kids with allergies, shopping with mom or dad at a traditional grocery store can be very disheartening.  The majority of prepared and processed foods available have gluten, soy, dairy, nuts or eggs in them making it difficult to shop.  Not only do children feel left out, their parents often feel frustrated too.  Weaning your children from processed and prepared foods is one of the 10 Steps to “Going Gluten-Free” and a great way to kick the habit is to concentrate on a diet centered on whole foods by shopping at farmers’ markets.

At a farmers’ market you are presented with nature’s seasonal bounty.  There are no flashy cereal boxes or sugary snacks tempting your children, no scary chemical ingredients lacing the foods, and there are limited offerings which makes choosing something easier.  You are tempted by the smells and tastes of fresh, local produce and artesian foods.  Shopping and eating are just part of the fun. With a little preparation, you can turn any trip to the farmers’ market into an educational experience for your children while exposing them to a world of whole food choices that are free from all the bad stuff.

Here are some ideas for making your trip to farmers’ market an exciting adventure for kids, and give you time to enjoy the surroundings yourself.

Farmers’ Market Kid’s Activities:

1. Develop a list of questions for farmers: Young children often do not understand that some fruits grow on trees, some on vines, and others on bushes. The other day my three year old said, “We should plant a peach bush.”  Obviously he’s never seen a peach tree.  Talk to your kids about where and how different fruits and vegetables grow.  Play a question and answer game as you walk through the market to help them identify how fruits and vegetables grow.

2. Create a menu: As you are strolling around the farmers’ market, pick up a variety of ingredients to make a special family meal.  Have your children look at all the possibilities and come up with ideas.  See our family’s Farm to Table Sunday Supper Menu. (hyperlink)

3.  Give your kids some money to spend:  Our kids love to spend money, so we give them each $5 to choose what they’d like to purchase for their snacks and lunches.  While enhancing their math skills, they are also gaining confidence in decision making and social interaction.  Make sure your child is able to ask if an item is “gluten-free” or free from any other allergies he/she has.

4.  Find and purchase an unusual fruit or veggie: Have your kids help you find some produce that you would not normally eat. Buy it, take it home, and have the kids help cook it for dinner. This is a great way to get your family to try a variety of different foods.

5. Get artistic: Place all your beautiful produce in a basket.  When you get home give your children paper, colored pencils, watercolors or other art supplies and have them draw a still life of your farmers’ market basket.

6. Engage your children in cooking: You’ve planned the menu, purchased the food, now have your children help make the meal.  Children as young as three can help by washing produce, stirring, measuring, fetching items from the pantry, and setting the table. Older kids (10 and up) can chop produce, stir the pot, and help clean up by cleaning the counter and doing the dishes.
Shopping together at the Farmer’s Market is an opportunity to reconnect both with the food you eat, and the people who grow it. The more you can engage your kids in selecting, buying, preparing and cooking real, sustainable, non-processed, allergen-free foods, the better equipped they’ll be to make wise food choices in the future. The fact that you’ll be teaching your children to cook is just icing on the organic gluten-free carrot cake!

Take the fast food free pledge with your family, check out this site developed by a 12 year old~http://www.fastfoodfree.org/

Snack Basket –  A Cornucopia of Gluten-free Choices

By Elizabeth Kaplan

“There is nothing to eat in this house,” says my twelve year old son,  just returning from a full day at school.

“Gee, I just spent $300 at the store, “ I reply, baffled that the starving child cannot find anything.

Take two, enter three year old son, “I’m hungry!” he says.  He opens the pantry door and starts pulling items off the shelf searching for something to snack on.   “I want this!” he says, holding up a bag of marshmallows left over from our camping trip. Why didn’t I dispose of those at the campsite?

Take three, fifteen year old daughter walks in the kitchen.  “Mom, can you make me a snack?”

“Not now honey, please help yourself to something,” I say as I am finishing up an email.

“There’s nothing to eat in this house,” she says as she gazes into the refrigerator.

This is a common scene in kitchens of families with growing children, especially when food allergies limit the choices they can have.  What I figured out was my children needed to find snacks in an organized place, otherwise they just did not know what to eat.   So along came the concept of the snack basket at home.  It sits on our counter.  Since I work, I restock it in the morning so that when the kids get home from school, it’s their go to place for something to tide them over until I muster up the energy to cook dinner.

What goes in the gluten-free, allergy-free snack basket?

Fresh Fruits: I always keep fresh, washed organic apples, banana, and oranges or whatever is seasonal as the main choice. Blueberries, cherries, strawberries and grapes  I’ll put in a small bowl within the basket.

Dried fruit and nuts: trail mix, (if your kids are nut free, there are some nut free trail mixes, try Enjoy Life’s) almonds and pistachios in the shell, dried apricots, dried apples and dried cranberries.   Purchase or make your own if you have a dehydrator.

Handy packaged snacks:  I usually do not purchase smaller packaged items for both earth’s sake and economics.  However, I have found that our 3 year old is under the impression that if it comes in a little box or fancy wrapper, it must be something special.  They are also so easy to have on hand for a grab and go snack.  So, I break down and purchase organic raisins in little packages and gluten-free bars, occasionally.  I also place organic fruit leathers in the basket.    Our three year old adores the fruit and veggie purees in squeezable bags.   The great thing about these is that your child is getting  two servings of fruit and/or veggies in one snack.  If your child isn’t keen on veggies, the blends of fruits and veggies have more of a fruit than a veggie taste and are also high in fiber.   The gluten-free bars that we enjoy are Luna’s gf varieties, Lara Bars and Zing bars. Since we have soy, peanut, dairy and gluten allergies in the house, it is difficult to find bars that don’t have at least one of these ingredients!

Oatmeal Cookies: loaded with fiber and low in sugar, Wholegrain Oatmeal Spice Cookies are great to keep on hand.  The children and I prepare them in mini format and freeze them.  One mini cookie (1/3 the size of a regular cookie) has only 20 calories,  less than .5  grams of fat, and 1 gram of sugar.  The kids know that they need to have one piece of fruit or a portion of nuts/trail mix before they can help themselves to one or two cookies.  (At least that is my belief, naïve as it may be.)  Another great recipe using the Oatmeal Spice Cookie Mix as a base is Cherry-Almond Oat Bars.  These bars boast healthy ingredients and are easy to prepare.  Children can easily make them on their own and ask parents for help to place them in the oven.  Recipe below.

Chex Mix:  For an after school treat or a party snack, I make Agave-Almond  Chex Mix, recipe below.  There are many varieties of Chex mix to create and kids have fun participating in the process.  I place some of it in a bowl in the snack basket and store the rest in an air-tight container.

Gluten-free Pretzels:  Glutino makes tasty gf pretzels in a variety of sizes and shapes.  They disappear very quickly at our house so I sometimes mix them into a Chex Mix to extend their life.

Creating a handy, organized space for snacks will help your children make healthy snack choices, ease the burden on parents of constantly being the short order cook, and help you to engage your children in preparing their own food.  Here are a couple of recipe ideas for snacks that you and your children can make together in large quantities and freeze, if desired.

Snack basket recipes:

Wholegrain Oatmeal Spice Cookies from The Pure Pantry

Gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, dairy-free/vegan optional

All you need is:

1 package The Pure Pantry Wholegrain Oatmeal Spice Cookie Mix

¾ cup butter or coconut oil,

2 eggs (or egg replacer)

1 teaspoon vanilla.

Add raisins if you like.

Directions are on the package.

Simple and satisfying.

Cherry-Almond-Oat Bars

 Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Soy-free, Vegan optional

Ingredients:

1 package gluten-free Oatmeal Spice cookie mix from The Pure Pantry

½ cup orange juice

½ cup raw agave nectar

1 large egg beaten (or equivalent egg replacer)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil or coconut oil

1 cup chopped raw almonds

¼ cup ground flax meal or ground almond meal

½ cup dried cherries (can substitute dried cranberries, blueberries or raisins)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.  Spray an 8 inch square baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Place Oatmeal Spice cookie mix in large mixing bowl.  Make a well in the center and add the orange juice, agave nectar, egg, oil and whisk until just combined.  Stir in almonds and dried cherries (or other option).
3. Spread the batter evenly in the pan to the edges.  Bake until lightly browned, about 25 minutes.  Cool in the pan.  Invert onto a cutting board.  Using a sharp knife, cut into 12 bars.  Wrap individually in foil or plastic wrap.  Bars can be stored in airtight container for up to a week and can be frozen for up to three months.

Agave -Almond Chex Mix

Image courtesy of General Mills Chex Recipes

Gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free, egg-free

Ingredients:

6 cups gluten-free Rice Chex or Honey Nut Chex

1 cup dried banana chips

1 cup whole raw almonds

¼ cup butter or coconut oil

1 tablespoon coconut sugar or brown sugar

¼ cup raw agave nectar

1  teaspoons ground ginger (optional)

1 cup flaked coconut (unsweetened)

½ cup dried cranberries, pineapple, or papaya

Instructions:

1. In a large skillet melt butter or coconut oil with brown sugar and agave over medium heat, stir in ground ginger until mixture comes to a boil.
2. Place cereal, banana chips, and almonds in skillet and stir until evenly coated for about 3 minutes.
3. Stir in coconut and dried fruit and continue stirring over medium heat for 3 minutes until cereal begins to brown.
4. Spread on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper to cool.   Store in covered container.