MORE Rudi's Gluten Free Bread

Well, here's the deal!

We got a free loaf of Rudi's Gluten Free Multigrain Sandwhich Bread to try (Thank you Rudi's!)

and gave it a test run today.

here is the nitty gritty

Me - I love it, especially as toast (maybe they should get a bloggy Toast award?) with butter and peanut butter. Couldn't get enough!!!! It was a bit drier as a sandwich bread BUT I only had PBJ on it and I think if I made a turkey, mayo, lettuce, tomato, avocado sammy - I may like it a lot. It is fairly moist and has good body and flavor not like some of the OTHER GF breads I've tried that taste and feel a bit like (AHEM) cardboard.

Hubby (He's the GF one in the family) Tastes good but won't eat more because it has Xantham Gum (purportedly from Corn)AND corn meal in it. He is sensitive to corn. DANG (yeah, right, it leave more for me to eat as toast!) But agreed the taste was certainly good so if you have no corn issues then it's a great bread!!!!

7 year old - not too fond of it. But come on, she's a kid and they all would rather have white (cough, choke, EWWWW) bread.

16 year old - didn't really like either but then again, she doesn't like anything unless it's BAD for her. I bet her assessment would change if she HAD to eat GF.

12 year old didn't try it because he was either asleep or too busy playing basketball and why bother using anything but regular bread if you don't have too! "Where's the pizza?" was his response. OK. So 2 out of 5 isnt horrible. And really what do the kids' opinions matter anyway when they don't have to eat GF. I don't and I love the bread but I am an adult with discerning taste! The kids did like the other fun stuff Rudi's sent (again, Thanks Rudi's) I am thinking of trying their Cinnamon Raisin Bread too. Why not?

Rudi's Gluten Free Bakery

Not too long ago I was contacted by Rudi's Gluten Free Bakery and asked to try their bread since I wrote a (MOSTLY) Gluten Free Recipe Blog. I told them "NO PROBLEM" and told them of our family situation. Today, the UPS guy dropped off a box for us!

We opened it to find this....
Which was filled with this! My kids are already fighting over the little sandwich keeper (it's pretty cute, I admit!) WE will be trying the bread today for out PB&Js that we take with us to the kids' basketball games. My kids aren't the Gluten Free ones, it's hubby who said he probably won't try the bread because it's made with Xanthan Gum which he purports is made using corn which he is also allergice/sensitive to. Too Bad! But we figure, you don't have to be gluten free to enjoy gluten free bread and we are all willing to give the bread a try to see if we like it.
They also generously sent us coupons, a magnet and some Rudi's sticky notes. Those always come in handy! Thanks Rudi's for picking us to try your bread!

Stay Tuned for part 2 .....after the sandwichs!

BTW, for those of you who are gluten free and want to check out Rudi's products....here are some links

www.rudisbakery.com

http://www.rudisglutenfreebakery.com

www.facebook.com/rudisglutenfreebakery

Rudi's is also taking part in a project called spread the bread. It is in conjunction with NFCA's Continuing Medical Education program, a free online certified training tool that educates PCPs about Celiac disease. To support Rudi's Project you can go to Rudi's website and FB pages, download $1 coupons and donate $1 to NFCA. This project is ongoing through February.

Celiac is not a fun disease to deal with and helping physicians to understand, diagnose and manage the disease is a great thing!!!!

PS - I am not getting paid for this. Yes, we got the box, Yes, we are willing to try Rudi's bread and give our honest opinion but there is no money being exchanged here!

We are in search of a gluten free bread that tastes good, is affordable, and that hubby can eat so he, too, can eat PB&Js again!

Gluten Free/Tomato Free Pizza

Once again experimenting with some things so my WHOLE family can go back to

eating things we can enjoy. Yes, sometimes we have to be creative but when it turns out good.

Here is a pizza recipe that I think is GOOD! Got kudos from hubby and I and I don't have to eat GF or Tomato free!

Dough -

1 C yogurt (goat yogurt works too) plain

1 C melted Butter

3 1/2 C Flour (I used Pamela's Gluten Free Baking Mix but you can use any GF baking mix you want or substitute your own mix here, if you are NOT GF then substitute any good whole wheat flour you'd like)

2 tsp salt.

mix this up and let it sit - it says to let it sit overnight but I've made it when it's only sat for 2 or 3 hours. It is fine. spread it out in a cookie sheet as evenly as possible and then bake on 350* for about 1/2 hour or so.

Topping - now, of course you can top this with whatever you want (I promise) but here's what I do since hubby also cannot really eat cooked tomatoes!

saute garlic in EVOO (2 cloves should do it) and spread this over the already cooked crust, then top with: crumbled Feta (goat milk feta works too!), calamata olives, red onions, capers and artichoke hearts and marinated roasted bell peppers. bake again for about 10 minutes. IF you like meat on your pizza try: chicken marinated in EVOO, lemon juice and oregano and maybe a pinch of pepper flakes. OR

not too spicy breakfast sausage. It's all good.

New Year's Eve Dinner

New Year's dinner was a cooperative effort. We decided to for go traditional fare (Posole, Tamales etc) due to the food allergies and go for something really healthy. So we did a Lentil salad (from Sandy Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions - if you don't have it, I highly recommend it!!!!) It is cooked lentils with cilantro, shredded carrots and green onions topped with a basic dressing of EVOO, Dijon Mustard and white wine vinegar. It was good.
Secondly, There was a Kale salad. We were introduced to this by my cousin on Thanksgiving and with a little recipe tweeking - made it our own. It is a bunch of Kale (can't wait to grow this in the garden this spring) de-ribbed and finely chopped, Toasted seeds (pepitas, sunflowers and sesame) and chopped red bell pepper with a dressing of 2TBSP each: lemon juice, Wheat Free Tamari, and Olive oil. You massage this dressing into the Kale really well and toss with the other ingredients and it's yummy ! The original recipe for the dressing calls for Bragg's liquid aminos but hubby doesn't like them (I DO!) so I just use the wheat free Tamari. We also had the soup I posted a while back that is sweet potatoe with the cranberry sauce stirred in - I'm not going to repeat the recipe.
And lastly my kids (well, really my 16 yo) made this cheesy fries!
She peeled and cut up about 8 potatoes, tossed them in EVOO, salt and pepper and then baked them on 400* for about 40 min. Then added the cheese and stuck them back into the oven. They were yummy but I think they taste a bit better with some Herdez brand Salsa Verde - Hubby doesn't eat cooked tomatoes so some salsa's are OUT but this one is GREAT! I'd really like to say that the kids loved all this healthy food but the truth is, they ate the fries and some good old fashioned salad and left the soup, and two salads to dad and I. OH WELL, you can't win them all.