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: , , , , , , ,

Allergy Free Holiday Recipes: Perfect Pumpkin Pie

November 14, 2011 By 6 Comments

Nothing says holiday quite like homemade pumpkin pie. I decided that I really needed to learn to make pumpkin pie the way my Mom makes it. She mostly follows the recipe on the pumpkin can… with a small, but very important exception. The result is THE best pie!

Pie ingredients

Start by making your pie crust. We used a Namaste mix and recipe so that it would be allergy-safe for me. I was pleased with the result for the most part. I liked the taste and texture, but it was a lot of work to make because it was difficult to form into the pie plate.

Making pie crustPouring crustForming crustFinished crust

Once the crust is ready, you’re ready to start on the filling. Here’s where the big secret to the perfect pie comes in. When you get to the eggs, we only added the yokes for now, and set the whites aside to add later.

Separating eggsEgg yokesAdding milk

Once you’ve finished following the rest of the recipe, it’s time to deal with the egg whites. We chilled a bowl for a minute or so in the freezer. Mom says it helps the whites to whip up better.

Chill bowl

Whip the egg whites with an electric mixer until they stiffen a little. Don’t over do it… you don’t want them to be hard to work with. You still want them to be light and fluffy, but stiff enough to hold their shape a little.

Whip egg whites

Then add the egg whites to the rest of the filling mixture. Slowly and carefully fold in the whites. The object is to keep all of the tiny air bubbles you mixed into the whites. If you stir too quickly you will undo the extra work you did. The result should be a pie that is extra light and fluffy.

Carefully fold egg whitesReady to bake

Bake the pie according to directions and allow to cool completely before serving.

Finished pie

We served ours with homemade cinnamon whipped cream and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Dessert

Delicious! Give this method a try… I know you’ll love it. Enjoy!

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

Namaste Foods: Chocolate Cake and Frosting

August 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Before last night, the last time I had cake was in October. I remember because I had just finished my month of food challenge testing after my allergy testing revealed several food allergies. Someone had brought some leftover cake into work and I took a piece. I took all of about five minutes for me to feel terrible. I remember that I was so upset that I wasn’t going to be able to go back to my normal diet again. It just wasn’t worth it to feel so bad for so long just for a couple mouthfuls of yummy-ness.

I’ve had my eye on the Namaste chocolate cake and chocolate fudge frosting for quite a while now. I had seen it on their website, but never in any stores and I couldn’t bring myself to pay more for shipping than the cost of the product. Then last week it was on the shelf at my Nutrition S’Mart!

Namaste mixes

I was more than pleased with the cake mix. It tasted very chocolate-y and came out very moist. I even cut out one of the three eggs the recipe on the package suggested (since too much egg bothers my stomach) and it still turned out fluffy enough. The cake was great!

The frosting… not so much. I’m sad to say there is now a Namaste product that I am not head over heels about. It was very difficult to make. It just would not mix! I found myself beating it with my electric mixer forever and it kept getting stuck as a big clump in the beaters. By the end I had added way more water than the package called for to make it come out at all, I almost gave up on it. Since I’ve loved every other Namaste product I’ve bought, I didn’t think to check any reviews on it. After having problems with it I went online and found that I was not the only one. I didn’t really care for the taste too much either… can you believe I didn’t even lick the beaters clean?! It was really hard to spread it on the cake too because it was drying out faster than I could use it. Such a shame since this is the ONLY frosting I’ve seen that is corn free.

Leftover frosting

My cake still did turn out great though. I added some Enjoy Life chocolate chips to disguise my bad frosting job. Luckily, it didn’t scare anyone away from trying it.

Finished cake

Oh… the cake was great! The frosting tasted much better on the cake than it did plain. My chocolate-loving family even approved. I like to get others’ opinions because sometimes I think I can’t have as honest of a review anymore now that I really don’t have many options to compare it with. They agreed that it was as yummy as I thought it was. I can’t wait to finish off the rest of the cake!

Cake!

In the end, I guess I would still buy it again when I really “need” cake again. However, the Namaste brownies are just as good and a LOT easier to make.

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