Gluten Free Protein Ball

A few weeks ago when I was home visiting Scotland I received some samples of Bounce Balls to try. I’ve tried so many energy and protein snacks in bar form so I was excited to try a ball shaped snack for a change! Bounce Balls do five different kinds of balls and each one has it’s own special ingredients. I tried the Peanut Protein ball, Almond Protein ball and Spirulina Ginseng ball. The peanut and almond balls are high in protein (and around 220 calories) so these are ones I would eat before or after a long run to give me some tasty energy. The nutty flavours are strong in these snacks which I really enjoyed.  The ginseng ball is very different. For some reason I thought it would be my least flavourite of the three but I really enjoyed it. It has an interesting taste and feels much lighter than the other two I tried. It’s marketed as an defense boost as the ingredients it contains are rich in antioxidants and vitamins. I’d eat all three again but particularly the ginseng one.

The other two balls they do are Cashew and Pecan and Fudge Walnut. I haven’t had the chance to try these yet but they sound pretty awesome.

Double Chocolate

Enjoy Life cookies

Recently Enjoy Life sent me a few boxes of their new Crunchy Cookies to try. These cookies come in four different flavours. Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate,  Vanilla Honey Graham and Sugar Crisp. They are certified gluten free and made in a dedicated nut and gluten free bakery. On top of this they are free of the eight most common allergens. Almost everyone can eat these cookies. Yay!

The Texture

Cookie fans, in my opinion, can be placed  in two distinct groups, those who prefer their cookies crunchy and those who prefer their cookies soft and bendy. John tends to be on the soft cookie team whereas I am on the crunchy side. As these are definitely in the crunchy category, I was more excited to taste them than John. However, after munching our way through a box we were both big fans of these crunchy gluten free cookies.

Many gluten free cookies fall apart as you eat them which is why I don’t often choose a cookie as a snack. I feel as though you lose half the cookie when it crumbles. These ones don’t crumble.

The Flavour

As we were already a big fan of Enjoy Life Chocolate Chunks, the Chocolate Chip cookies were probably our favourite, followed by the double chocolate as a close second. You would never know these cookies were as free of as many things as they are. This is definitely a good thing. I really enjoyed these cookies and would love to see them introduce a peanut butter cookie in the future.

Chocolate granola...yum!

Recently I received a bag of double chocolate crunch granola and a big bag of semi-sweet chocolate mega chunks from Enjoy Life.

The chocolate chunks are the kind of thing we probably should have incorporated into gluten free baking but instead my husband and I couldn’t resist munching on these straight from the bag. John in particular was a big fan of these and would often dip a few of the chunks in peanut butter to nibble as an evening snack. Yum! Next time I’ll include them in some gluten free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies or muffins. I’m sure they would be a delicious addition!

I really enjoyed the chocolate granola both as a sprinkling on my breakfast cereal and again just as something to nibble straight from the bag. This granola isn’t the type of thing I would choose to eat by itself in a large amount for breakfast but it’s great as a chocolate topping to plainer cereals. I also think it would be very tasty sprinkled on natural yoghurt or ice cream.

Delicious lentil chips!

These baked lentil chips from Mediterranean Snack Foods are awesome!! They are made from lentils, adzuki and garbanzo beans and they are some of the most delicious chips I’ve ever had…the red pepper ones in particular. I had never come across them before so I was very excited when a few bags came in the mail for me to try. The red pepper and parmesan garlic flavours are my favourites. It’s really difficult to stop eating them once the bag is opened. These are the kind of chips that would work well dipped in guacamole, hummus or salsa but personally I like eating them straight from the bag as I don’t lose any of their delicious flavour that way. In saying that, yesterday I did chop up some very tasty vine tomatoes and used them to top the parmesan and garlic chips.

They have six flavours of lentil chips and three flavours of lentil crackers. All of these are made from naturally gluten free ingredients in a gluten free plant so celiacs don’t need to worry about cross contamination issues. Some of their other products are made in a facility which also processes wheat but I’m sticking with the lentil chips and crackers which are crispy and super tasty and safe for celiacs. Yay for gluten free deliciousness!

Tasty tomato snack

The Simply Bar

I recently received a box of bars from The Simply Bar. Another bar which is gluten free certified! Yay! They have seven different flavours and I am happy to report that these protein bars (each bar contains 16g protein) do not taste like they contain a lot of protein. This is definitely a good thing in my opinion. Many protein bars are heavy, these ones are very light. They are basically interestingly flavoured gluten free rice krispie treats. I like these a lot more than most protein bars (mostly because they are made with cereal!) and was happy to discover they don’t contain lots of confusing ingredients that I’ve never heard of. I think they would be even tastier if they were dipped in chocolate but it’s probably a good thing they aren’t as they would have double the calories! The way they are they are a light snack at 140-160 calories per bar.

The Peanut Butter Chocolate, Cocoa Raspberry and Lemon Coconut are my favourites. None of the bars are very strongly flavoured but these three are the most flavoursome and they are very tasty. I enjoy anything containing peanut butter, cocoa and raspberry go very well together and the lemon coconut has a great zingy taste to it. Simple yet tasty, another option for gluten free travellers on the go.

Always label checking..

We all know that being celiac isn’t easy but honestly, most days I’m fine. I’m not excited about the limitations being gluten free places on my eating life but in general I know what I can and what I can’t eat and if I’m not sure about something I know what to do to find out. In saying that, every now and again I find myself having a ‘being celiac really sucks’ day and it’s not very nice at all. Everything will be going fine and then suddenly something happens which makes me realise all over again how limited I am when it comes to what I can eat. I’m pretty sure you get this too.For example, a couple of weeks ago I was working in John’s office and I fancied nibbling on something sweet. They always have a tonne of snacks in the kitchen area so I decided to go see what I could find. With at least ten different things, surely I’d be able to find one that’s safe…sadly I was wrong.

This whole bunch of stuff was there and yet none of it was safe for me!

- 5.5 pounds of Vines red licorice. Contains wheat flour

- Crackers. A pretty obvious no

- Peanut Butter filled pretzels. I think this speaks for itself

- Yoghurt covered raisins from Trader Joe’s. The packaging said ‘No Gluten Ingredients’ so I got excited until I noticed the ‘Made on equipment shared with wheat’

- Granola Bars. Made with regular oats so a big nope right there

- Mixed Nuts. ‘Processed on equipment that packages products that may contain wheat.’

- Jelly Belly Beans. I’ve seen bags of these labelled as gf but on this huge container it said ‘packaged on equipment that also packages products which contain wheat’

- Hershey’s kisses and peanut butter cups. The safe list I was given by Hershey’s does not include these products so I wasn’t going to risk it.

I couldn’t eat any of these things.

In my experience the world of office snacking tends to be a very gluten filled one and as celiacs it is of course always best to come prepared for the inevitable. This isn’t to say that it doesn’t still break our hearts to discover yet another snack which is are unsafe and to have to always rely on whatever bar we brought from home this morning, just in case.

Two years of being gluten free and numerous situations like this means that I’m never surprised when there is nothing safe for me and it means that I always come prepared with my favourite gluten free snack. It doesn’t however mean that I’m never phased by it. Most of the time I can push it aside with a laugh and a comment about it being ‘evil gluten’ but sometimes it really gets me down. I know there are lots and lots of gluten free products out there but on a ‘being celiac really sucks’ day I just can’t see that. Sometimes I wish I could buy whatever I’d like in the supermarket; sometimes I’d love to be able to walk into a restaurant and order anything I please; sometimes I just want to take a handful of something without reading the label first. On my wedding day I will get my wish. Everything will be gluten free and I will be free to eat whatever I please. I can’t wait for that!

Chocolate Peanut Butter..yum!

Lots of Zing!

Zing sent me a box of their nutrition bars to try..6 different, amazing sounding flavours…Chocolate Peanut Butter, Almond Blueberry, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, Cranberry Orange, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Coconut Chocolate….sounds great right?

All of the bars contain certified gluten free oats. I had not yet tested myself on oats prior to receiving these samples but the fantastic sounding flavours were so tempting that I figured I’d give oats a try. After munching my way through all six flavours (not all in one sitting just in case that’s how I made it sound) I felt great so it looks like oats (when they are certified gf) are back on my safe list

Zing bars are definitely one of the best tasting protein type bars around. The strong flavours come through as you nibble your way through..especially in the case of the peanut butter ones! With 200 calories per bar for me they are the perfect snack for after a long run or for just carrying with you in your purse in case you get peckish.

My favourites are the Chocolate Peanut Butter and Coconut Chocolate as they are covered in chocolate which in my opinion makes them tastier than the others. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip is pretty yummy too..I’m a big fan of peanut butter as you can probably tell.

Zing Bars gave me a coupon code which will give you 15% off products in their online store. When you get to the checkout just enter the code “gfadventures” and click apply to get the discount.

Zing Bars only gave me samples of their product and nothing more. My opinions on this product (like anything I review on this site) come only from my taste buds.

Lots of tasty cookies

Dark Chocolate Orange Goodness

The White Chocolate Macadamia is really flavoursome. The sweet taste of white chocolate jumps right out at you from the first bite and lingers on your tongue. It has the perfect sweetness to it without being overly sweet. This was my favourite cookie of the bunch and difficult to share. Yummmmy!

The Dark Chocolate Orange tastes more like a chocolate brownie than a cookie to me but this isn’t a bad thing. It tastes great but it comes apart a little more like I would expect from a brownie. Again, the flavour of this cookie is very strong. The yummy orange taste comes through the chocolate in every bite. Dark chocolate snacks wouldn’t usually be my first choice but I still enjoyed it. I would love to try a milk or white chocolate version of this one. With the orange flavours this would perhaps be my perfect cookie!

The Dotty (Triple chocolate cookie covered in dotty choc drops) and the Triple Chocolate Fudge tasted pretty similar to me which is why I’m putting my thoughts of them together. Both had a strong and delicious flavour of cocoa but without being over sweet so I could enjoy every bite. The dots are a fun addition and I’m all about fun, colourful things on my food so I liked the Dotty’s. I also really liked the pieces of white and milk chocolate in the fudge cookie. John thought the Triple Chocolate Fudge cookie was really tasty (despite it being all crushed after sitting in my bag for a 12 hour flight!)

The Sticky Date and Ginger cookie was awesome. It was probably my second favourite after the white chocolate macadamia. The taste of ginger is really strong and whilst I don’t always love the taste of ginger, it really works in this cookie to make it extra delicious. The consistency of this cookie was really good too. My favourite cookies have a bit of a bend to them rather than a crumble when you pull them apart and this was exactly like that. My non gluten free dad also really enjoyed this one.

My opinion of these cookies was dictated by my gluten free travelling taste buds. I received these samples but nothing further from Byron Bay Cookies. Byron Bay Cookies are available in Australia, Japan, Europe and the US.

Where sweet perfection is made!

Garrapiñadas

Walking around Buenos Aires you will see many vendors making and selling something called Garrapiñada. It smells great and it only costs 2 pesos but what is it and is it gluten free? I must have walked past literally a hundred of these guys over the last month that I’ve been living in the city but I was never sure exactly what it was and had never got around to asking.

Luckily last Sunday after a fun trip to San Telmo’s fantastic Sunday market, I decided to ask one vendor exactly what this Garrapiñada consists of.

Good news! It is simply peanuts covered in melted sugar….served warm! Nothing else has been added and there is no chance of contamination as you can watch them prepare it so it’s 100% gluten free. Oh and did I mention that it’s also amazing and so addictive! The perfect snack for exploring the city and I can’t wait to have more now that I know it’s gluten free!

Good dietetica in microcentral

Small dietetica in Palermo

For any coeliac living in or travelling to Buenos Aires you are going to want to know about dieteticas. Dieteticas, which are health food stores, can be found all over the city and almost always sell gluten free foods, suitable for coeliacs. They come in various sizes and some are better for gluten free food than others but each dietetica has at least a few gluten free products and many of them have lots.

The majority of these places stock rice cakes, dried fruit and nuts,  gluten free bars and sweet, chocolate snacks. The better ones also sell cookies, crackers, pasta, bread and even fresh goods like empanadas, pizza, sandwiches and cakes. Many of them have signs up saying ‘apto para celiacos’(suitable for coeliacs) or ‘alimentos para celiacos’ (foods for coeliacs) so be sure to look out for these signs and the plenty of gluten free symbols which are found on everything they stock which is free of gluten. Dieteticas are great for picking up something gluten free no matter which part of Buenos Aires you find yourself in.

'Food for Coeliacs'