Finally Friday? Is anyone else excited to hear about some great gluten and allergen free foods this week? If you haven’t been here before, Gluten Free Friday is a weekly blog series featuring a round up of five gluten free and allergen friendly foods. Although the gluten and allergen free market is rapidly expanding, it still feels like there are a lot of “flops.” Because there’s nothing else we hate more than spending a lot of money on a gluten free product only to be sadly disappointed, we try new foods so you don’t have to. Although we have received samples of the foods below for review purposes, we share our honest opinions and are committed to finding the best of the best of gluten free foods. Let’s get started!
1. Erewhon Cereal is Organic, GMO free, and made with whole grains. It’s made in a peanut free facility. With six gluten-free cereal options to choose from, you can find something for cereal lovers and breakfast skippers alike. My mom, who eats cold cereal regularly, gave Erewhon a big thumbs up. I’m not a cereal lover, but I was excited to see some unflavored cereals for baking, cooking, and sweet treats. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a marshmallow rice cereal treat, but trust me: that’s about to change.
Contains: Vanilla Gluten-Free Granola may contain tree nuts and soy. Other gluten free flavors are made in a dairy, tree nut, and peanut free facility.
Good for: cooking, baking, coatings/toppings, breakfast.
2. Bella Sun Luci is best known for their sun-dried tomatoes, which is what we sampled. Tomatoes contain lycopene, an antioxidant. One ounce of sun dried tomatoes contains 12 times more lycopene than a raw tomato. If health benefits aren’t enough for you, then you should know that these tomatoes taste great too: try them on pizza, in pasta, with chicken, or in a salad. I made a pizza with some of the sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil with herbs and it was devoured in minutes. Bella Sun Luci sun-dried tomato products are gluten free and kosher.
Contains: no listed major allergens
Good for: recipes, toppings
3. Hannah Max Cookie Chips are thin, crispy cookie bites. Available in both gluten free and gluten containing varieties, we obviously received the gluten free varieties. Although I’m not normally a fan of crispy cookies, my tastebuds made an exception for these. Even my gluten-eating family members liked these! We used the lemon sugar cookies in place of vanilla wafers in a banana pudding recipe and it was perfect. My least favorite flavor was the cinnamon sugar flavor, which is probably because I don’t like cinnamon.
Contains: Milks, Eggs, and Soy
Good for: snacking, lunchboxes, using in recipes.
4. Cucina & Amore makes healthy Italian delicacies. We received artichoke and roasted pepper flavored ready-to-eat quinoa meals along with several sauces to try out. There are four flavors of quinoa meals available, all of which are both gluten free and kosher. The ones we received weren’t pretty, but they tasted good, even to someone who doesn’t love quinoa. Three of the quinoa meal flavors are vegan, and the basil pesto flavor is vegetarian. Cucina & Amore offers a variety of gluten free sauces along with gluten free gnocchi as well.
Contains: varies by product
Good for: quinoa meals are good for work lunches, travel, quick meals. Sauces are good for cooking, recipes.
5. The Zen of Slow Cooking offers slow cooker spice mixes to take your slow cooking game to the next level. Choose from flavors like Southwest Fiesta or Coq a Vin to make your family and friends think you spent all day in the kitchen when really you just tossed it into a slow cooker and went on your way! We received the Southwest Fiesta blend, which includes a tasty recipe for tortilla soup on the back as a suggested serving idea.
Contains: No noted top 8 allergens
Good for: cooking
You can see the previous Gluten Free Fridays posts here:
Gluten Free Fridays 1
Gluten Free Fridays 2
Gluten Free Fridays 3
Gluten Free Fridays 4
Gluten Free Fridays 5
Gluten Free Fridays 6
And don’t forget to check out our selection of Gluten Free recipes.
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Ooo cookie chips sounds fun! Also honey rice twice sounds fun too I love the names on this.
Great list, especially the quinoa meal. I eat basically everything on this list. Thanks for sharing.
I love Quinoa! I would love to try that Quinoa Meal, I bet there are wonderful recipes I can make with them!
Everything sounds super amazing! I love the ready-made meals as well, those are perfect for busy nights!
Everything looks delicious! The ony thing I’m familiar with is the sundried tomato.
I love those slow cooker spice mixes. My slow cooker is my best friend in the kitchen and anything to make meats more flavorful is a winner for me!
I’m all for the zen of slow cooking. 😉 It really does make dinner taste like you slaved all day.
So many amazing brands. I’m new to a few of them but they all looked so good.
I need to try those cookie chips like yesterday! SInce having to go gluten free, I have really missed a good cookie
Yum so many great options. I really had no idea there were so many out there, and its wonderful that you are helping to educate!
I haven’t seen the slow cooker stuff before from them. i will have to try this out!
We would love for you to join our slow cooking journey! Please join us at http://www.thezenofslowcooking.com! Warmly- Meg & Jane
This is such a great post. It’s always nice to learn something knew. I think I’ll be checking out those cookies because they looked pretty good.
This is a fabulous series! I have a friend whose daughter was recently diagnosed with Celiac, and she’s been struggling with what to cook. Passing this along to her, since I know it will be so helpful!
So many gluten free options . I am so going to try the quinoameal. love quinoa and its health benefits.
I really love that you share so many awesome options for people trying to go gluten free. It is hard to find good tasting food that is gluten free sometimes and your Friday posts help!
These look like a whole new world to me, as I have never heard of most of these products. Erewhon looks like it is a fine product. And I cannot believe the cookie chip one! I will definitely have to give a few of these a try, thanks!
This is all so helpful! I know a few people that are gluten free and finding good snack options is difficult.
These all sound like a great gluten free foods I will have to share with my son who is gluten free. The Erewhon cereals I know he will love and the Hannah Max Cookie Chips. Thanks for sharing the gluten free Fridays.
Those sun dried tomatoes and gf cookies are right up my alley. Thanks for sharing your gluten free finds!
love the spice blends for the slow cooker, makes it easy to add flavor without worrying what has gluten in it and what doesn’t… great to know there’s a lot out there for the gluten sensitive people : )
Eloise-We hope you will try one of our spice blends! We created them to give the home cook a little Zen in the kitchen and we also provide employment for adults with disabilities through our partnership with Planet Access Company here in our home state of Illinois. Thank you for your interest! Warmly-Meg & Jane
I didn’t know Hannah Max made gluten-free cookies! I have never seen them in my area. We’d try them, their regular ones are great.
These all look like delicious foods! I love that they are gluten free! How awesome!
I’ve never heard of these gluten free foods before! Greart roundup!!
Loving all of these suggestions! My son is gluten free, so I am always looking for new products for him!
I should introduce a Gluten free day at my home. It is a manageable way to start
Bella Sun Luci is by far my favorite brand of Sun Dried Tomatoes. So much flavor and so versatile.
Thanks for this! My migraines have kicked in with the change to spring and I really need to commit to going gluten free again. These tips are so helpful.
Those Hannah Max Cookie Chips look so yummy! I’m usually not a huge fan of gluten free foods (although oddly enough I like gluten free pizza) but I’ll definitely have to check some of these foods out.
What? Ready to eat Quinoa meals!! I need to try these out. They look really good and I’m always looking for a fast and easy gluten free lunch idea.
I’m completely in for the sundried tomatoes – for real they look really good. I sometimes do gluten free – it’s frustrating and fun at the same time.
If your in a pinch and really can’t find the time to make some gluten free cookies, breakfast which is really simple with oatmeal I guess I would stop at the store and purchase some snacks.
Every time I see sun-dried tomatoes in a recipe, I usually pull them out. I don’t know why, but they always seem rather “chewy” and not appealing in my mouth, lol!
Thanks for this info. My niece is gluten free and loves when I share info like this with her!
I just love sun dried tomatoes. I always have them in my pantry. The quinoa meals look tasty too.
Quinoameal sounds very interesting! I’d love to give it a try. I know Quinoa is a super food.