review - Matthew's Puzzle - Autism Recovery, Gluten Free, Green Living Mom Blog

King Arthur Gluten Free Pancake Mix Review

November 8, 2010 By Maryann

Nov 8, 2010
I’m kind of obsessed with finding the best gluten free casein free pancake mix out there. So when I found King Arthur Gluten Free Pancake Mix at my local grocery store I HAD to buy it. I checked the ingredients and it didn’t contain any milk products so I figured I could give it a shot. We had it for a few weeks when this past weekend the boys started clambering for some homemade pancakes. I decided to give it a whirl. You have the option of making the full box or half, I wasn’t in the mood to have to measure the flour blend so I opted to make the full batch. You have to add eggs, “butter” or oil – I chose to use melted Earth Balance, and “milk” – I used West Soy Rice Milk. I also added a little GFCF Vanilla Extract because I love vanilla pancakes. Once you mix everything up you are supposed to let it stand for 10 minutes, so I pre-heated the stainless steel frying pans with coconut oil during that time.

I used my pancake pen I got from my review of Bisquick’s Gluten Free Mix, and made some really lovely pancakes. I think the King Arthur Gluten Free Pancake Mix makes up really tasty, light pancakes that the whole family loved (even my gluten eating husband). I couldn’t use all the batter up in one sitting so I stored some of it in the refrigerator and ended up using it this morning. It turned out perfect, so I would assume you could make the batter the night before and store it in the fridge for use the next morning. This would be great when you want to give your kids a nice hot, fresh breakfast on school mornings but don’t have time to let the mix stand for 10 minutes (or even mix it if you are really pressed for time in the mornings). I actually just filled up my pancake pen and kept that in the fridge at the ready.

I went to the King Arthur Flour website and was really surprised, and happy, to learn that in addition to the pancake mix they have also carry cake mix, muffin mix, pizza crust mix, bread mix, brownie mix, and a multi-purpose flour blend. There is also a link to their Gluten Free recipes and you can purchase other gluten free products right from their site. The website even offers tips and FAQs about gluten free baking. I’m pretty impressed that a well know wheat flour company has so many Gluten Free products and is so well versed on gluten free baking.

Lastly, I really like the fact that their product doesn’t appear to contain anything with aluminum leavening agents. I do say “appears”, because I’m not a chemist so I don’t know for sure. But overall I give their pancake mix a big thumbs up. If I could know for sure that they don’t use GMO’s I would have absolutely no questions about King Arthur Flour. Still, I will probably buy it again.

Chex Review and Giveaway

August 2, 2010 By Maryann

Aug 2, 2010
I’m pretty lucky, I live in an area that has a lot of alternative food shopping options. We have health food stores, specialty stores and even Gluten free isles in our grocery stores. But not everyone that is on a GF or GFCF diet lives in areas where they can easily and readily purchase special food items, so they need to know what to look for in their regular supermarkets. One fabulous product to be aware of is Chex cereal from General Mills. The cool thing about Chex (and it is something I didn’t realize) is most of their Chex cereals are GF! (says on the front of the box if they are Gluten Free) And almost all are CF too (Cinnamon Chex may contain milk). That can make shopping so much easier.

Most people think of cereal as just that, cereal; something to eat in a bowl full of milk (of choice of course). But if you are a fan of TV’s The Next Food Network Star (which just did a segment on using cereal in a recipe) or your mom ever used cereal to coat and bake chicken, then you know it can be used for a lot more. I do favor GFCF cereals as coatings for chicken, especially nuggets, but they are also good in desserts. And that is the route I choose to explore when trying out some GF Rice Chex. Chex was nice enough to provide me (through MyBlogSpark, and free of charge) with a really cool prize pack, which they are offering to one Matthew’s Puzzle reader – entry to follow below. It contained one Chex Party Mix bowl with lid, VIP coupon for one box of Chex cereal, a GF recipe card, measuring spoons and a measuring cup. I quickly checked out the recipe cards since I’m such a huge recipe hound. I immediately zeroed in on the Mexican Chocolate Brownies recipe. I had just about all the ingredients in house and it was easily adapted to be CF by substituting Earth Balance natural buttery spread for the butter or margarine in the recipe. I also substituted the Rice Chex for the Cinnamon Chex to make sure that it was fulling CF since Cinnamon Chex says it may contain milk. To make up for the lost cinnamon flavor I just added some to the Rice Chex and to the brownie batter. They turned out delicious and they really were extremely simple to make; something any mom, but especially a mom of special needs kids, love!

Lastly I wanted to point out, since I just found out about this myself, Chex has a lot of GF recipes on their website here and General Mills also offers another website called Live Gluten Freely which is currently featuring Gluten Free Bisquick among some 25o GF products! Who knew? Well, now both you and I know. Check them out for GF recipes, which I know some will easily convert to CF with a little adaptation.

Now, to winning your own Gluten Free Chex Prize Pack simply leave me a comment with one of the following:

What is your favorite thing to do with Chex cereal and which one would you use.

To get additional enteries simply do one or all of the following and leave me a comment for each you do.

Subscribe to Matthew’s Puzzle – use the box on the righthand side of screen.
Follow me on Twitter
Tweet this contest and leave link
Blog about this contest and leave link
Leave a comment on the Chex Facebook page

Tommee Tippee Review

July 15, 2010 By Maryann

Tommee Tippee seems to be everywhere lately. One of my online girlfriends was talking about them, and then my hubby and I went to Babies R Us and, while looking for something else, found a big display of them. (They are available nationally at Toys R Us, Babies R Us and BabiesRUs.com.) And lastly there was a review option on Mom Bloggers Club to do a Tommee Tippee review. I signed up, and low and behold, they picked me to do a review. They sent me the Explora easi-mat, Explora 2 weaning bowls & lid with weaning spoon, and Explora truly spill-proof water bottle. Free!

Matthew and Nico are totally in love with the set. They can’t keep their hands off them, even when I tell them everything is for Lorenzo. But you know how little boys are, they have to HAVE everything, especially if it belongs to someone else!

Now, I’m not a huge fan of plastic feeders, but Tommee Tippee is BPA free, and they do tell you to discard when the product starts to show signs of wear and tear, which I think is very good advice. I do like the easi-mat very much. The weaning bowl really adheres to it, making it very easy to use one-handed. But the best part is the fact that the release mechanism is simple and works beautifully and effortlessly! I could see any mom or dad using this product with no difficulty. And they would be great for traveling with baby since they are compact, come with a lid and the spoon snaps right in. I do like the overall design. (Wish it came in some stainless steel – hint, hint, hint.)

Now through July 23 if you buy any Explora item (cups and toddler feeding), get the second 50% off at BabiesRUs.com (http://bit.ly/cDYhv8) That seems like a pretty good offer to me. I know I can always use a little help here or there and if you are going to be buying it anyway, might as well save a little at the same time.

Check Tommee Tippee out on their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/tommeetippeenorthamerica

Follow Tommee Tippee on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/tommeetippee_na

PlanetBox Review

June 11, 2010 By Maryann

June 11, 2010
The school year is coming to an end, it may even be over for some of you, but if you are anything like me you are already looking forward to the next school year. I mean that I have already ordered Matthew’s school supplies through a PTA fundraiser and we have had several meetings to make sure Matthew is ready to transition from Pre-school to Kindergarten. And with that I have been thinking about him going from half day to full day. I will need to pack him a lunch. With his special diet (GFCF) he will not be able to purchase lunch and he will still need a snack.

I decided to start looking around the internet for stainless steel bento style lunch boxes. I was having a really hard time finding anything that fit the bill. Most bento style lunch boxes are made of plastic and although they claim to be BPA free and food safe I just don’t believe in plastics. I try very hard to avoid them at all costs.

So some how I came across PlanetBo x. These are eco-friendly, stainless steel, bento style lunch boxes for kids. They even come with cool retro style magnets so your child can decorate their PlanetBox as they like.

I contacted PlanetBox and told them a little about myself, Matthew, and Matthew’s Puzzle and asked if they would be interested in having me do a review. They sent me a free PlanetBox lunch box, a carrying case (Green) and the Rocket magnets. Matthew was so excited to receive the lunch box that he wanted to start taking it to school right away!

I’m completely in love with this lunch box. It is very easy for Matthew to open, both the carrying case and the lunch box itself. They are made from stainless steel which will not leech horrible chemicals into his foods! They are dishwasher safe – how wonderful for those us moms, and it is 100% recyclable. Matthew’s school has trash free Tuesdays (I think it’s Tuesdays), but Matthew will be almost completely trash free every day. The carrying case even has a place for his Kleen Kanteen drink container. I’ll only have to pack him a cloth napkin to really stay trash free. Their magnets are even certified to free of toxic material.

But with all of that said I think the best part is that Matthew really likes the lunch box. When you are already different it is important to like the things that you bring to school and to be confident in who you are. He really likes it and is proud to use it.