"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche"

I will say it again, it’s a great time to be Gluten Free Casein Free Egg Free. I’ve been overwhelmed by all the new awesome products we have been trying lately. I hope these companies are hearing all the great feed back because it encourages them to get back to the recipe board and come up with new ideas and more things for me to try!

Amy’s Kitchen was nice enough to send me food for the family to taste after I mentioned them in my blog about Daiya cheese. So on Saturday we took their new Gluten Free- Non Dairy Chocolate Cake (also egg free) with us to a party. We shared it with our friend Paige. Her and Austin devoured it!!! Quite a few PITAs taste tested a bite also. Everyone gave it rave reviews. To date the only Gluten Free Casein Free Egg Free cake I have had that was better then this is the ones the Lundy family makes and so far those are not on the market and you have to be a family friend to be privileged enough to have one made for you. !!! Another PITA pointed out that if you put 3 of these cakes together and frosted that it would be a regular cake pan size cake and could easily be decorated by the creative type. As I type this up Austin is finishing off the cake! Yum!!!! I can tell you from now on Austin will not be having to have GFCFEF brownies for his birthday cake!!! I’m betting Paige’s mom will not be paying $200 for GFCFEF cake and having to drive to LA to get it! Very very exciting stuff here in the Primer world!!!

This cake is very moist, a bit on the crumbly side, but that might have been my fault. The directions clearly state to thaw for 2.5 hours in the refrigerator, ours left the freezer and sat in the trunk of the car in the heat for 4 hours before we got to the party, oops!!! No matter how it is thawed I can promise you anyone who likes chocolate cake will enjoy this product! You can serve this and never bother to mention its GFCFEF, because no one will be asking until they see your GFCF family member eating it!!!

"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", or as we say in English "Let them eat cake!"

If you try these new products I hope you take the time to come back and tell me what you think of them!!!

Until next time, PITAup and make the world a better place for someone with Autism!!!

WOW!!! Gluten Free Casein Free has never been this good!!!

Wow! I'm speechless, well almost!

Come on this is me we are talking about;-)

Tonight’s dinner was absolutely Devine! In the Primer house we eat very little junk like foods at home and today we hit the motherlode as we indulged in Amy's Rice Macaroni with Non Diary Cheese, NuLife Foods Chicken nuggets and Chocolate Chip cookies.

Let's start with the Amy's Rice Macaroni with Non Diary Cheese (Daiya Cheese) Let's point out that many frozen foods once cooked look nothing like the picture on the box! That is not the case for this product. I followed conventional oven cooking instructions, since I prefer a good baked Mac & Cheese. After cooking and stirring it looked beautiful! I have to say it tasted even better, in my humble opinion! My two little taste testers agreed and practically licked their plates clean. I swear to you any restaurant out there could serve this and no one would ever know the difference! The funny thing is Emily who is 10 was hesitant to try it since she had already saw Austin eating it, so she was clued in that it was GFCF (and may I add soy and egg free). When I asked if she knew it was GFCF she looked at me a sarcastically said "um yeah I've been in this family awhile and Austin could eat it duh!!" (Wonder where she gets that smart arse attitude, lol). She did though eat every last bite! The only downside I see to this product is the calories and fat. The box is considered it one entree and it is 520 calories, 22g total fat (34% of your daily value if on a 2000 calorie diet), 5g saturated fat, and 740 mg of sodium (31% of your daily value). As a wife of a heart attack survivor (at 39) this is definitely a food that should be eaten in moderation. My suggestion is to halve it and serve as a side dish with a lean meat and lots of veggies, and a salad!

Next up is the NuLife foods chicken nuggets, these are GFCFSFEF. If you are looking to replace McDonald nuggets these are not the nuggets you are looking for, for that matter you are never going to find those! McDonald's food is not food! At the San Diego DAN conference in 2008 one of the doctor's hit the nail on the head and said there is no such thing as junk food, there is junk and there is food and McDonald's is just that JUNK! The number one reason these won't replace McD's is they are breaded, not battered. I tasted these at the PITA mom's night in Orange County in June and can tell I understand why Ron from NuLife Foods describes these as their most popular product! They are very kid friendly. Austin had snuck 4 of them before I even served dinner! Let's just say that is a good sign he loved them! Emily also gave them rave reviews. They are 250 calories for a serving of 4. I will say both Austin age 8.5 and Emily age 10 each ate 8, but I know my friend’s boys, age 9 and 6 normally eat 4 nuggets at dinner.

Last but certainly not least are NuLife Food's chocolate chip cookies. These are GFCFSF unfortunately not egg free. So all reviews for this product will be from the non GF members of the family, Ed, Emily and I all give them 3 thumbs up! I might have also moaned when I ate my first one, but I really like fresh baked cookies and rarely have them. My sister Tanya also tasted one; her comment not knowing I had not made these from scratch was that I used a little too much butter substitute. I am unsure if this is accurate as I was afraid to over cook them. The directions said how long to cook, but my experience with cooking cookies is Toll House and you cook until the edges are golden or 1 2 3 gluten free where they taste like toll house but if cooked until the edges are golden crumble once cooled. So I went on the cautious side and under cooked! Ed said they were as good as any gluten filled cookie on the market so this is also getting really high praises from the Primer Family! I would buy these and use them regularly if Austin was not egg free and could eat them.

Until next time PITAup and make the world a better place for someone with Autism!

*Please note any links that are in green and underlined twice are being linked by the blog, and are not being linked by me and do not represent anything I am promoting.*

New favorite gluten free casein free foods

We have two new favorite foods to review!!!

The first item up for review is the new Daiya cheese, its package boasts “deliciously dairy free”. It is dairy, lactose, casein, whey, nuts, gluten, soy and egg free. It is also free of artificial ingredients, preservatives, hormones, antibiotics and is GMO free. It comes in Cheddar style and Mozzarella style. I paid $4.99 for an 8 ounce bag.

After having Austin on the GFCF diet for 6 years I can tell you CF cheese is generally nasty. It has no redeeming qualities to it and generally turns to oil when melted. Honestly at our house we gave up cheese when we started the diet. It was just something that could not be duplicated!!!

Daiya cheese is changing that perception in a big way!!! Not only does it taste good it melts. I made Austin a grilled cheese sandwich the other day and when I tore it apart it spread like real cheese! All I have to say is WOW!!! If you haven’t tried it you need to. In Southern California Daiya cheese can be found at Whole Foods and Mother’s. I am hoping Henry’s hurries and gets the message of how great this cheese is or I will be making those bi-monthly trips to Mother’s again. Won’t be a bad thing for me since I have a Mother's addiction, but the husband may complain since we live in Carlsbad, CA and the closest one is in Laguna Hill, lol.

The Daiya website also has a macaroni and cheese recipe that looks great. The also have other products they have paired up with and it is definitely worth checking out that list as well since NuLife Foods, Amy’s and other well known GFCF companies are in the list. I’m definitely looking forward to my sample pack of foods NuLife Foods is sending since I noticed that Daiya cheese is on their pizza. Very exciting indeed!! Also if you did not hear you can order the trial pack right now for only $10 with special discount code. For the same shipping cost you can add one more item to your cart. My favorite still is the chicken burger, but I hear the nuggets are an overall favorite!!!

The second item up for review is the gluten free pizza at BJ’s Brewhouse, cost $8.99 without toppings. If you order it without cheese it is also casein free. Per Tamara Bersbach, BJ's Restaurants, Inc. Risk Management Coordinator, “The pizza crust does not have dairy nor does the sauce. The only dairy comes from the cheese. Also all of our ingredients for the Gluten Free Pizza's are in a separate area to avoid any cross contamination with other food items.” Per the menu all toppings are gluten free except the meatballs. The pizza is also egg free! I did not inquire about topping being casein free. I went with the safe choice of grilled chicken as Austin won’t eat veggies on a pizza and I know that the majority of pepperonis have milk in them.

So this Pizza is pretty much a typical thin pizza, it is 10 inches and could easily feed 2 or more children. Emily tasted and liked it and Austin ate half of it, so the Primer’s are giving it 2 thumbs up. I did take Daiya cheese and threw some on top of it when it came out. Now if only we could get BJ’s Brewhouse Restaurants to pick up Daiya Cheese for their pizzas and the world of GFCFEF would be a little better place.

One of the things I really like about BJ’s Brewhouse is they have an allergen menu, so if you are going there just ask for one or I have a .pdf of their Allergen brochure that lists 10 common allergens: egg, fish, milk, msg, peanuts, shellfish, soy, sulfites, tree nuts, and wheat. If anyone wants it feel free to e-mail me at pita_up@yahoo.com and I will send that right out to you!

I do have to say if you are deciding to try BJ’s Brewhouse Restaurants’ I am not recommending the Carlsbad, CA store for anything more then take out. We really love the store in Laguna Hills; they have fabulous service, even with parties of 10 or more. The Carlsbad store we have been to at least a dozen times since it opened in October and the food is great, but the service is seriously lacking!!! I think the only time we have been to the Carlsbad BJ’s and received good service is when one of my husband’s former students served us.

Until next time, PITAup and let us know your thoughts on our 2 new favorite products!!!

*Please note any links that are in green and underlined twice are being linked by the blog, and are not being linked by me and do not represent anything I am promoting.*