Be Free For Me Blog

When I first saw these crackers my first thought was, “What the heck is a tellicherry?”

Well, my friends, according to spicehouse.com tellicherries, which come from the Malabar Coast of India, are whole extra-large black peppercorns that are left on the vine longer so they develop a deep, rich flavor. They are also considered the finest pepper in the world.

These tellicherrries (I just love that word!) are most definitely what gives the R.W. Garcia 5 Seed Crackers, there flavorful punch.

Made of organic corn, and certified not to contain any GMO’s (Genetically Modified Organisms) or trans-fats these spicy little crunchy gluten-free crackers will surprise your taste-buds and tackle your senses. Whoever said gluten-free eating was bland, has not tried these crackers yet.

And at 140 calories per serving, I can eat them for a crunchy side with a salad or by the handful for a snack.

Give them a try, and give your taste buds a peppery and flavorful treat!

I love being cheesy. I love my life to be as cheesy as I can get it. The more cheesy my life is – all the better for me.

And although I secretly liked The New Kids on the Block and The Brady Bunch, I don’t mean cheesy in a sappy 1980’s boy band or a sugary-sweet sitcom type-of-way. But what I do mean is cheesy as in a gooey and warm Baked Gluten-Free Macaroni & Cheese, or cheese generously sprinkled on my nachos type-of-way.

And my favorite way to get the most cheesiness in my life… Cabot Creamery.

Cabot Cheddar Cheese is all natural, crafted and aged by the farm-family owners of 90-year-old Cabot Creamery Cooperative without any additives or preservatives. It’s lactose free, gluten free, calcium-rich and delicious, the winner of national and international competitions as “the world’s best cheddar.”

In my book, Cabot is the “Big Cheese” of the world!

Cabot Cheddar Cheese comes in the traditional Sharp, Mild and Extra Sharp varieties (as well as their signature Private Stock Cheddar) and so many yummy flavors like Habanero, Chipotle, Sun-Dried Tomato & Basil, Horseradish, Chili-Lime and Tuscan. The flavored cheeses are just screaming to be used in your favorite recipes, and are a great springboard to create your own signature dishes, or use in the tried-and-true recipes featured on Cabot’s website. (Make sure you check out the gluten-free recipes on the Cabot website including the Chicken & Sweet Potato Pie or the Cauliflower Macaroni & Cheese (Fun Note: They even have recipes for your pets on the website… Hey, pooches, including Sadie the Incredible Boxer, love cheese too!)

I never met a Cabot Cheese I didn’t love, but my favorite Cabot Cheese is the 50% Reduced Fat Jalapeno Cheddar. It has all the full-fat flavor, but made with 1.5% milk. I also love that Cabot is a cooperative and owned by 1200 dairy farmers and their families in New England and New York – purchasing Cabot is a great way to support local farms! To find out more about how to support local farms check out this informative website KeepLocalFarms.org. It is such a great cause, so be sure to check it out.

I am excited to announce that Cabot is this week’s sponsor of BeFreeForMe’s WIN-It-Wednesday. Being naturally gluten-free and lactose-free make it the perfect cheese for many of BeFreeForMe members – plus the flavors and varieties are fantastic for snacking or cooking.

Cabot Cheese is offering THREE (Yes… 3!) Lucky BeFreeForMe members a 2-pound Gift Box packed with an assortment of Cabot Cheddar Cheeses shipped direct to your home.What a great gift!

How can you win?
Easy!

Reply to this blog and let us know the flavor of Cabot Cheese that sounds the tastiest to you. Also, feel free to share your favorite cheesiest thing, whether it related to food (Me? Gluten-Free Baked Macaroni & Cheese) or non-food (Me? My beloved classic Partridge Family Fan Club booklet… yes, I still have it!)

All entries must be received by Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 12:00 Midnight EST.
Good Luck, Cheesiness Rules… and as always,
Be Free!

This week’s Friday Favorite goes to a product that is SO tasty, yet SO free of the things that many of us can’t eat!

SO Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt is just what the name says… yogurt made out of Coconut Milk. Besides being delicious and certified gluten-free it is also dairy, lactose, soy, cholesterol & Trans fat free. Plus, as an added bonus it is vegan and contains pre- and probiotics – perfect for digestive health.

I tried So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt in the vanilla flavor and just loved it. It was creamy, dreamy, and just a perfect substitute for regular yogurt in the morning. But don’t let me mislead… this yogurt could also easily become one of my go-to mid-afternoon snacks or decadent desserts. It also comes in Blueberry and Passionate Mango flavors too.  I can’t wait to try those next.

The SO Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt is this week’s BeFreeForMe Friday Favorite for being so wonderfully tasty, creamy and dee-licious without all the allergens! Cheers!

It’s that time of year again when routines are back in place, alarms are going off every morning, and breakfasts are a must to start each day off on the right foot.

But sometimes finding tasty breakfast ideas that are gluten, dairy and casein free can be a struggle. But with Bakery on Main Granola you can not only find several varieties of granola (and granola bars!) that are not only good tasting, but good for you too.

Made with whole grain gluten-free oats, Bakery On Main’s  granola is free of cholesterol, trans fat, refined sugars, gluten, dairy & casein. It is a crunchy, sweet and flavor-packed granola that is great for breakfast, a mix-in with yogurt, or even eating by the handful.

Bakery On Main also makes granola bars that are great for mid-morning or afternoon snacks. Convenient and crunchy these bars are perfect for lunch boxes, backpacks or brief cases.

My favorite Bakery on Main product is the Fiber Power Granola. I love that this granola has 9 grams of fiber and is still low in fat. It is perfect stirred up in my favorite fat-free Greek yogurt or eaten by the handful for a breakfast or snack on the run. It comes in two flavors Triple Berry and Cinnamon Raisin.

In the past, Bakery on Main invited BeFreeForMe members to sign-up for their monthly savings newsletter to get the most updated coupons & specials, as well as a FREE downloadable $1.50 OFF Coupon. If you haven’t done so yet, make sure you sign up to get this coupon soon… availability may be limited!

And lucky us… Bakery on Main has once again graciously offered to sponsor this weeks WIN-It-Wednesday on BeFreeForMe.com!

Three (yes 3!) LUCKY BeFreeForMe members will receive a Bakery on Main Gift Set. This gift set consists of a tote bag made from 100% recycled materials, filled with 1.5 ounce gluten free granola snack packs in the Apple Raisin Walnut, Nutty Cranberry Maple and Extreme Fruit & Nut flavors; 2 ounce Fiber Power gluten free granola snack packs in both the Triple Berry and Cinnamon Raisin flavors; and 1.2 ounce gluten free granola bars in the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Cranberry Maple Nut and Extreme Trail Mix. What a prize this is! Perfect for back to school because it includes bars and snack packs which can be a great on-the-go breakfast, easy to pack in a lunchbox, or great for an after school snack.

How can you win?
Easy!

Reply to this blog and tell us how you start your day off on a positive note. (Me? I take Sadie the Boxer for a long walk in the mornings… a perfect way to get some exercise in, clear my head for the day, and spend time with my perfect pooch!)

All entries must be received by Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 12:00 Midnight EST.

Good Luck, Keep positive… and as always,

Be Free!

The La Cantina, a family owned Italian restaurant located in Framingham, Massachusetts, was one of my favorite restaurants to visit before going gluten-free several years ago.

The folks over at La Cantina believe in “true Italian cooking” which shines through in all of their menu items. Dishes that include fresh vegetables and meats; antipastos topped with homemade salad dressing; and their signature pasta dishes that feature the best ingredients tossed with hearty and hefty portions of pasta.

Unfortunately after my celiac diagnosis, I nicknamed “La Cantina” to “La Can’t Eat It”.

But last Saturday, as I was doing a drive by (would this be considered stalking my favorite restaurants of the past?) I saw a huge “Gluten-Free Menu Available” on their front sign.

A celiac dream come true.

I happily ran walked in, grabbed a seat, and asked the waitress for the gluten-free menu. She immediately advised me that they had just switched brands of gluten-free pasta and the new one “really, really, really tastes like the regular pasta – but isn’t”.

If there was a bubble that popped over my head that mimicked what I was thinking it would have read, “Yeah right… I’m just happy to be sitting here. Quit teasing me, Miss Real Pasta.”

But when the dish arrived, the penne “looked” like real penne. It wasn’t sticky, it wasn’t pale, it wasn’t one big glob of pasta. But remembering the comment Miss Real Pasta made I decided to give it a try it. So I took just one tiny bite – and instantly I knew that this was not gluten-free pasta.

Thoughts of a piece of penne pasta making me sick for days ran rampant through my noodle.

So I called Miss Real Pasta over and asked her to double-check with the chef to make sure that I was served the gluten-free pasta. She did – and informed me it was indeed gluten-free. (Note: I even asked her if she checked with the chef that actually put the pasta in the water to cook, since I was still skeptical.)

Feeling a little bit leery about being able to really enjoy the meal (I’m sure many of you know the way I was feeling here), I called Miss Real Pasta back over yet again and asked her if she could tell me the brand of pasta “since it tasted so good, I want to see if I could find it for myself at the supermarket.”

As I was asking her this another bubble could have been floating over my head with the words, “I am positive that you people have confused organic or all-natural pasta with gluten-free pasta. This is a trick question and will confirm my suspicion of you serving me glutenized pasta”.

But… lo-and-behold I was wrong. I discovered that this “miracle-that-tastes-like-the-real-thing” pasta was Heartland Gluten-Free Pasta. A new gluten-free pasta that has been toted as “matching the color, texture and flavor of traditional pasta – an industry first.” After doing some research, and finding an article about this new pasta, I found out that Heartland Gluten-Free Pasta comes in spaghetti, penne and fusilli shapes and owes its real pasta taste to a unique yellow corn/white rice blend.

This pasta is unbelievable. SO good! When I was eating it I had NO inkling that this pasta was gluten-free.

Oh… and I almost forgot… besides finding Heartland Gluten-Free Pasta (which is also dairy-free too) at La Cantina Restaurant in Framingham, Massachusetts, you can also find it at Wal-Marts.

Heartland Gluten-Free Pasta is this week’s BeFreeForMe Friday Favorite for making gluten-free pasta that, spoken like Miss Real Pasta, “really, really, really tastes like the regular pasta – but isn’t”. Honestly and truthfully…. no need to triple check.

I love Kame Rice Crackers since they’re so very versatile.

They seem to work with everything… from sweet to savory. I even have my non-gluten free friends hooked on these crackers.

I love them as a part of a quick mini-meal-on-the-go or a quick snack. Spread them with peanut butter, dip them in hummus, slather them with fresh preserves or use them as a scoop for fresh salsa. Breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks – Kame Rice Crackers fits the bill.

I also like the way these crackers note right on the package that they are gluten-free. I have been fooled many times into almost buying other brands of rice crackers thinking that they have to be gluten-free… after all they are Rice Crackers? Right? Wrong! Examine some of these other brand’s labels a bit closer, and you’ll see that often time one of the ingredients is WHEAT! Ughh!

Kame Rice Crackers comes in many flavors including Original, Sesame, Seaweed and my new favorite… Wasabi!

Not being fooled, duped or tricked into eating gluten; having a gluten-free cracker I can count and a crispy, great taste are all the wonderful reasons why Kame Rice Crackers are this weeks Friday Favorite!

One of my favorite memories as a little girl was visiting my “Mom” (Grandmother) & Grandpa Green in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The summer days were hot, steamy and sticky and the highlight of the day was “Pony Boy”, the ice cream man that came by in his cart, pulled by a pony, providing Popsicles to all of us anxious and enthusiastic kids that were patiently waiting, quarter in hand, for his musical entrance on mid-summer night evenings.

The grand entrance of Pony Boy could never be compared today to the opening of my side-by-side freezer after dinner. But when I reach in for an Edy’s Fruit Bar, it sure does come close.

Let’s face it. Simple “frozen delicacies on a wooden stick” bring back fun summer memories. So simple, yet so emotionally powerful.

And Edy’s Fruit Bars are basically, in a frozen memory nutshell, the Popsicle for the big-girl.

Gluten-free, nut-free and only 80 calories per bar, my favorite is the new Pineapple Fruit Bar. Juicy, packed with tiny bits of pineapple and just enough of an after-dinner dessert to satisfy, but not make me feel guilty, Edy’s Pineapple Fruit Bars are my go-to summer favorite.

A fantastic mid-summer dessert, only 80 calories, and the ability to bring back some of the best memories of my life are the reasons why this week’s Friday Favorite goes to Edy’s Fruit Bars… even if they aren’t delivered by Pony-Boy.

I love it when I find those little jewels that I can’t live without at Whole Foods. And just last week sittin’ all pretty on the deli cheese case shelves I found Ciolo Spreads.

I purchased a package of the Jalapeno Pimento Cheese Spread with the excitement of spreading it on my gluten-free bread topped high with smoked turkey and fresh veggies from the garden.

But once I opened the package, I realized that this spread is just not for spreading. This dip is also great for dipping, smothering, coating, finishing, sandwiching and smearing on anything & everything that that is edible.

Along with the Pimento Cheese Varieties, they also offer Tapenades (with flavors such as Mediterranean, Lemon Artichoke and Kalamata), Pesto (these all sound so good… Sundried Tomato, Artichoke, and even a Jalapeno Pecan Pesto!), and cream cheeses (including sweet varieties such as Pumpkin, Cranberry Nut, Pomegranate and Apricot Pecan; as well as savory cream cheese flavors like Martini Olive, Garlic Basil Blast, and Artichoke Parmesan).

These items are all gluten-free.

For more info check out the Ciolo Foods website, and join me as a Fan of theirs on Facebook!

Once again, Lindsey from BeFreeForMe offices whipped up an unbelievable dish that is full of vegetables and flavor, and is free of most major allergens.

This dish is prepared with A Taste of Thai Straight Cut Rice Noodles. These noodles are authentic Thai style and inspired noodles, which are so quick and easy to prepare.

Lindsey’s recipe, Warm Asian Noodle Salad, was a hit with my friends that I hosted tonight for a birthday dinner. The dish is packed with veggies and requires no boiling to cook the noodles. Absolutely perfect on a hot summer night.

The Taste of Thai Rice Noodles are a perfect way to prepare many Asian, Thai or vegetarian dishes. A must have for any gluten free pantry.

All these reasons are why this week’s BeFreeForMe Friday Favorite goes to A taste of Thai Rice Noodles!

Yes that’s right… you read the heading correctly! Gluteen-Free Burritos!

I tried these a while back at a trade show and was mesmerized at the thought of actually eating a burrito once again. In fact, I circled my way back to the GlutenFreeda Booth a number of times to get more samples of these burritos, since they are THAT good!

These burritos come in 4 glutenfree-licious varieties: Vegetable Bean and Cheese; Breakfast Beef; Non-Dairy Vegetarian and Chicken & Cheese.

The best part about these burritos is that they are perfect for a quick little meal. My favorite, the Chicken & Cheese, has only 227 calories and 9 grams of protein. Plus, they are made with all natural and organic ingredients; and manufactured in a dedicated gluten-free facility. And did I mention that they can be microwaved right in their own wrapper, and are ready in mere minutes?

All of these reasons, and mucho more, are why GlutenFreeda’s Gluten-free Burritos are this week’s BeFreeForMe’s Friday Favorite!