Episode Transcript
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Carrie Saunders (00:00):
Quick reminder
before we get started on this
episode this podcast is based onmy personal experiences and
isn't medical advice.
Sometimes the best gluten-freefinds are the ones we stumble
across and instantly fall inlove with, and today I'm sharing
a few of my absolute favoritegluten-free products.
Right now, these are thestaples, snacks and lifesavers I
(00:21):
keep coming back to, whetherit's for convenience, flavor or
just because they make agluten-free life so much easier.
Let's dive in.
Welcome to the Gluten-FreeEngineer Podcast.
I'm your host, k Saunders.
In 2011, I was diagnosed withceliac disease, a moment that
changed everything, but I wasdetermined not to let it hold me
(00:41):
back.
With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer
the gluten-free lifestyle,breaking down recipes, safety
tips, travel hacks andeverything in between to rebuild
a life I love.
Whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance or simply
choose to live gluten-free, thispodcast is for you.
Join me each week as wesimplify the gluten-free
(01:02):
lifestyle, make it fun and provethat you don't have to miss out
on anything.
So first, let's start off withbaking products.
I love to bake as you probablyhave already guessed by now if
you're a regular listener and Iabsolutely just love to bake.
I love to bake for others and,as of this recording, I am going
to be preparing a graduationparty for my middle child from
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college, so I'll be baking thisweekend, I'm sure, two different
types of cakes or cupcakes andother things as well, and my
most favorite gluten-free flourblend is Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1.
The King Arthur 1 to 1 is alsogreat as well.
I just tend to gravitatetowards the Bob's Red Mill
1-to-1 because I can get it inbulk on Amazon.
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I can also find a lot largerbags in our grocery store and it
works really well.
I've actually never had it failon me and not produce a result
that I absolutely love.
So getting a great 1-to-1 blendthat is local to you is very
important, and this one is agood one because it's an all
around good blend.
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It's great in cakes, it's greatin cookies, it's great to make
pasta, it's also good to makebread with this one.
So find one that you reallylike.
That works for many things.
Now, if we are making pasta, Ido slightly prefer the Aero
Mills brand a little bit more.
It creates a little bit more ofthat bite, that responsive bite
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to it when you're makinghomemade egg noodles.
But they honestly, the Bob'sRamon one-to-one is what we
usually use because that's whatwe usually have in our pantry.
Now, as far as cake or browniemix, I am typically a from
scratch person, so this is one Idon't really have a whole lot
of in my pantry because Iliterally would just whip
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something up from scratch justabout the same amount of time as
it would from a box.
But I do know that the Katzbrand is really great, as well
as the King Arthur gluten-freebox pre-made mixes are also
really great.
So if you're in a pinch andyou're not quite like me where
you don't like to make thingsfrom scratch completely
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understandable, we all aredifferent in that realm, but the
those box mixes are really,really great.
And I always love to have asmall bag of xanthan gum on hand
, because many times, whenever Iam baking certain things from
scratch, I will purposely add atad bit more xanthan gum to my
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one to one blend when I knowthat it's going to need a little
bit more help in stickingtogether.
So I always love to do that aswell.
Now, another staple that I lovetoo in kind of the baking realm
but we're going to be sliding alittle bit more into the pizza
realm is Bob's Red Mill.
Pizza crust in a bag that'sgluten-free is absolutely
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wonderful.
I have a from scratch recipefor pizza crust, but this other
one, the Bob's Red Mill one, isactually really great for making
pizza monkey bread, which we'lladd to our recipe list on our
website, the glutenfreeengineer.
com.
But this pizza monkey bread isso delicious and great at making
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pizza monkey bread and pizzasin a pinch.
You can just whip them up.
You can pre-bake them too andhave them ready in your freezer.
So that is a really great quickgo-to for making pizzas.
Now, when it comes to breads orwraps, one of the things that I
love is I love Canyon HouseBakehouse bread, and we will be
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putting links to all of these inour show notes.
But the Canyon Bread, I find,is a good general bread.
It's great for toast especially.
It's also good for sandwiches.
It's firm but not too dry.
It is a little bit more on thedry side.
If you like something reallysoft, I would recommend the
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brand bread.
That one's really soft.
We got away from that bread fora while because it had soy in
it.
We have soy issues in ourfamily, but they actually
listened, I think, to customersand removed the soy, but we
haven't tried it since they didthat.
But that bread was one of ourfavorites till we realized we
couldn't have a soy in our house.
It's super soft.
It's like what you wouldtypically think of as white
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bread.
Now, as far as wraps goes, theSiete brand I absolutely love.
I love it for wraps, I love itfor chips, I love it for so many
things Crackers I think it'sgot pretzels, they just have.
Everything of theirs that I'vetried is absolutely divine.
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I absolutely love it.
And that brand is additionally,grain free.
So the Siete brand is grainfree and gluten free.
It has I believe it's a topnine.
Allergens are not in that, sothat's a great product if you
have multiple food issues, likewe do in our family.
So the Siete brand, Iabsolutely love it.
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Oh, and they have great corntortillas too.
They have great like burritos,as you can tell.
It's one of our favorites.
They also have taco mix for it,which we have ended up being
using lately.
I used to make my taco mix fromscratch, but theirs is so good
that we tend to just use thatone as well.
So we absolutely love the Sietebrand for many of those
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traditional carb type ofproducts that you might want
Another one.
So if you're, we're talkingfrozen pizza, okay.
So let me tell you the Againstthe Grain brand I hope you can
find it where you are that oneis so good.
It is also grain-free.
It is obviously not dairy-freebecause they use cheese inside
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the pizza crust, which is whatmakes it taste so good.
So if you a dairy issues, thenunfortunately that one would not
be a good brand for you.
The Bob's Red Mill or the myFrom Scratch recipe would be
better, because that doesn'thave any dairy in the crust.
But the against the grain pizzais so divine and delicious and
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we all we do is add a little bitmore cheese and pepperoni,
because that's just who we arewe like extra cheese and
pepperoni, but otherwise thereis no doctoring needed on that
frozen pizza and it comes outgreat every single time.
Now, as far as bagels go, welove the Canyon Bread Bagels.
They have a plain bagel andeverything bagel, and I also
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like the Carbonaut brand whichis, I think, basically zero net
carbs.
So if you're trying to watchyour carbs but you want
something like a bagel, thenthat is a great one to do too.
I recommend it like toasting itwith some butter, because it
can.
The texture can be a little bitodd on that one, but as long as
you treat it right, it tastesactually really good.
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Now, if we go into the pantry,staples like pasta.
So my current favorite brand isthe Jovial brand for pasta.
They have both brown rice pastaand a cassava flour pasta.
I personally don't do well withcorn, so this is why we're
gravitating towards the Jovialbrand currently and it is really
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really good.
You won't notice that it'sgluten-free.
I don't think every time I cookit for my friends they have no
idea it's gluten-free.
Now, as far as some otheroptions for gluten-free pasta,
the Banza brand is also reallygood.
That is made from chickpeaflour, so that one's really
great if you want extra proteinin your pasta and we absolutely
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love using that one to make macand cheese from scratch.
And then, if you are okay withcorn, then the Ronzoni and the
Brulella gluten-free pastas.
It's a blend of I believe it'scorn, rice and quinoa, that one.
It tastes and the texture isgreat.
I will occasionally eat alittle bit of that one but, like
I said, I have trouble withcorn, so I try not to eat that
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one too much, but that one is agreat go-to pasta and it's
usually, in our stores, theleast expensive of those three,
so it's a really great option tohave in our pantry.
Now, as far as staples goes, forsoy sauce we love to use we
used to use Tamari soy sauce,which is a little soy sauce.
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It doesn't have any wheat in itlike traditional soy sauce.
But we are actually currentlyusing the Bragg's coconut aminos
because we have three people offive of us who cannot tolerate
soy as well.
So we love the Bragg's coconutaminos.
Just note that it's sweeterthan soy sauce because it's like
coconut aminos, and so you'llwant to back off on any
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sweeteners that might be in yourdish whenever you're using it
as an alternative.
And then, as far as box mac andcheese, we kind of touched on
making it from scratch, but boxmac and cheese we absolutely
love the Annie's brand box macand cheese, and we absolutely
also love the bands of brand,which is the chickpea pasta box
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mac and cheese.
Both of those are really reallygreat.
And as far as freezer meals go,there are several of them that
we really like, but honestlyit's kind of a pick and choose
between a few different brands.
So Saffron Road is one of thosethat has some gluten-free ones
that are really good, and that'sone of the ones we tend to lean
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towards.
Also, real Good Foods is also areally great freezer brand, but
the only problem with that oneis it tends to be pretty high in
salt, so I would recommendusing that one at your
discretion as far as that goes.
So when we're looking atfreezer meals, do you make sure
especially gluten-free ones, doyou make sure that the other
sub-ingredients like how muchsalt it has is reasonable.
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Now, when we go to snacks andtreats, so I love to use the
Annie's gluten-free chocolatechip chewy granola bars.
Those are really great as ago-to snack, as something I can
have in my purse or a bag.
That is an emergency.
You know I need to eatsomething type of snack and I
also.
Just it's just a really greatlittle snack too.
So the Annie's brand makes achewy gluten-free granola bar.
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That is one of our favorites.
Everybody in the familyabsolutely loves those.
And then we also tend to lookfor some of the beef jerky
brands.
Some of them are actuallygluten-free.
Now this is where you do needto be very careful to make sure
that they are gluten-freebecause many times, beef jerky
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uses traditional soy sauce,which has wheat in it.
So even though you would thinkbeef jerky might not might not
have any gluten in it, becauseit's literally dried beef it's
the seasonings they put on it.
So when you're looking for asnack that is beef jerky type,
make sure you are doublechecking that is certified
gluten free of your celiac orthat there's no gluten
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ingredients if you're glutenintolerant or avoiding gluten on
your own.
Now, another treat that Iabsolutely love is the Enjoy
Life brand.
So if you love to have granolabars and things like that, they
make really great granola bars.
They also make the bestchocolate chips I've ever tasted
, and they're the top eightallergen free as well.
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So they're dairy free, they'resoy free, they're nut free,
they're dairy-free, they'resoy-free, they're nut-free,
they're gluten-free.
So they are a great option whenyou have a mixed set of food
issues in your family.
So the Enjoy Life brand is oneof our other main staples that
we absolutely love, andeverything we've had from them
is top-notch, high quality, andPamela's has some soups that are
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gluten-free as well.
So just be looking through thesoup aisle if you're looking for
some easy, ready-to-make soups,because there are several
varieties out there that do makesome really good gluten-free
soups.
So, while I talk a lot about, onthe episode, making things from
scratch because really that'sideal, because then we can
control what ingredients aregoing into our foods sometimes
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these convenience items are justnecessary, either because of
time, because of mental energy,or we're, you know, in a hurry,
like I said, as far as time goes, and we just need a break from
cooking and from makingeverything from scratch, since
we cannot go out to eat nearlyas much as, or as easily as,
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traditional people who don'thave food issues.
So, while I still encourage youto make sure that you're, you
know, cooking from scratch asmuch as you can, just because
it's a lot healthier for you andyou're controlling everything,
these are some great options asfar as if you do need something
quick, if you do need somethingpre-made.
These are some of the brandsthat I highly recommend, and I'm
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sure I'm forgetting a few asI'm talking on this episode, so
I will do a follow-up one ifsome more come to mind.
So I would love to hear fromyou, though.
Do you have a favorite brandthat you absolutely love?
You can always click on thebutton on your podcast player or
on our show notes website totext me and let me know what are
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your favorite gluten-freeproducts and brands and why do
you love them, and I can featurethat on a future episode.
And I would be really excitedto try some other things as well
and see if I can find them inmy area.
So be sure to give us a littletext there and let us know what
is your favorite gluten-freeproducts too.
And you can also drop those inour free Facebook group.
(14:44):
Just go to facebookcom.
Forward slash groups.
Forward slash the gluten-freeengineer.
You can also find that link onour show notes, the
glutenfreeengineercom website.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the Gluten-Free
Engineer.
If you found value in thisstory, please share it with
someone who might needencouragement on their own
(15:05):
gluten-free journey.
For more tips, recipes,resources and even links to my
YouTube channel, head on over totheglutenfreeengineercom.
It's your one-stop hub to makegluten-free living simple, fun
and full of flavor.
And don't forget to subscribeso you never miss out on an
episode, and we will see younext week.
(15:26):
The Gluten-Free Engineerpodcast is for informational and
entertainment purposes only.
I share my personal experiencesand stories about living with
celiac disease and navigating agluten-free lifestyle.
This podcast does not providemedical advice.
Always consult with a qualifiedhealthcare professional for
medical questions, concerns oradvice specific to your health.