Namaste Foods: Say Cheez Pasta Meal

March 12, 2012 By 7 Comments

Macaroni and cheese is a no-brainer comfort food. It’s a quick, last minute meal that you never really get tired of having. As a kid the box macaroni and cheese was a meal we made ourselves for lunch at least once a week during summers. Homemade, “real” macaroni and cheese is a recipe that has always been one of my favorites.

I was pretty excited to find Namaste Foods’ allergy-friendly version of a boxed macaroni and cheese mixture. It’s nice to keep something like that in the pantry for nights when I’m too tired to make a whole dinner. I was pleased with the price of this meal, sometimes the gluten-free meals are pretty expensive. It was super easy to make. Just boil noodles and add sauce packet to heating oil and water… mix together.

Namaste pasta package

I was very impressed with the taste and texture of the rice pasta in the Say Cheez Meal. We both thought it was better than any other gluten-free pasta we have tried. The taste of the sauce was good, but really didn’t taste much like macaroni and cheese. I can’t really blame them for trying to make a cheese sauce without the use of any dairy ingredients. We both agreed that we’d like it better if we thought of it as a pasta dish rather than macaroni and cheese.

Namaste finished pasta

I’d definitely buy it again to keep for an easy meal… I just wont make it when I’m craving macaroni and cheese. Have you tried this pasta? What did you think about it?

Filed Under: Allergies, Food Reviews, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Enjoy Life Foods: Chewy Bars

January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I just love Enjoy Life Foods! As you can probably imagine, I was more than happy to sample their newly reformulated chewy bars. Enjoy Life Foods kindly sent me a box of each of their four tasty flavors of chewy bars. Before now I had only ever tried the very berry flavor, so I was eager to give the others a try.

Enjoy Life boxes

I wasn’t too surprised that I enjoyed each flavor since I enjoy all of their other products. I was a little surprised at how small of a portion they are… however, they are more filling than they look like they will be and did leave me feeling satisfied. I think the very berry is still my favorite, but it sure wouldn’t be too hard to talk me into having another one of the chocolate flavor.

Chewy bars

The thing about having food allergies is that there really isn’t such thing as convenience foods anymore. We never stop and pick up take-out on the way home like we used to, and most of my snacks consist of cutting up fruits and veggies. This isn’t so bad on days when I’m mostly at home, but it’s not so easy to manage when we’re on the go. Now I can have a quick and easy snack again. I stick one of these in my purse when I’m heading out to the store or pack one with my lunch when we’re going somewhere for the day. I could even see grabbing one for breakfast on a busy morning.

As always, I know I can trust this brand to be food allergy safe for me. All of their products are made in a dedicated gluten-free and nut-free facility and are always free from the eight most common allergens. If you haven’t tasted Enjoy Life Foods‘ chewy bars yet, give them a try! Let me know which one you like the best.

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Enjoy Life Foods: Seed and Fruit Mixes

November 21, 2011 By 2 Comments

Enjoy Life Foods has done it again! They’ve made another great product… that I will be hooked on. I just love how great their snacks taste and I love that they are all made safe for people with food allergies. I was so excited when Enjoy Life Foods sent me a package of both varieties of their no nuts, seed and fruit mixes to try.

Seed and fruit mixes

These mixes make a great snack whether you’re on the go or just need something to munch on after dinner while watching television. I’m actually not even allergic to nuts, but I will still buy these again for sure since it’s hard to find a mixture that doesn’t have something I’m allergic to in it. These have a great mixture of salty and sweet, crunchy and chewy yummy-ness.

Each variety had a great mix of flavors, but I have to say that the Mountain Mambo was my favorite. It has a mix of sunflower kernels, pumpkin seeds, raisins, apples, chocolate chips, and cranberries. I could seriously eat the whole bag in one sitting if I let myself.

The second flavor is called Beach Bash and was also very tasty. I was surprised at how different it tastes despite having mostly the same ingredients. This one was a mix of sunflower kernels, pineapple, pumpkin seeds, cranberries, and apricots. This one lasted long enough to try out another one of the recipes on Enjoy Life Foods’ recipe page… Beach Bash Brittle.

Recipe

I started by mixing sugar a water together and heating it in the microwave to dissolve the sugar. I made only half of a recipe since I only had half of the trail mix leftover.

Heating sugar

I continued heating the sugar until it was a dark amber color, like the recipe directed. Then I mixed in the trail mix.

Mixing trail mix

Working quickly, I poured the mixture onto a cookie sheet as soon as it had stopped bubbling.

Poured onto sheet

After allowing it to cool completely, I then broke it into bite size pieces and transfered to a serving dish.

Ready to eat

This came out great! Being that this was my first time making a candy-like treat, I was a little nervous that I might end up with my spoon hardening onto my measuring cup or something like that. But this was super easy to make, and such simple ingredients too. What a yummy, sweet snack!

Thanks to Enjoy Life Foods for yet another great, allergy-free snack that I can enjoy!

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