Allergy Foodie - thrive with top 8 food allergies! » Product Review

My go-to brands for Allergy Friendly Foods…

Anu Rao — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:35:36 +0000

My little one had to keep away from all the top 8 food allergens and a few more till age 4 – wheat, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shell fish, soy, dairy, peas, sesame, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds and garbanzo beans. The only place he lucked out was – he was not allergic to the gluten part of the wheat protein so he could try oats and barley. So, in the first instant it seemed like there was literally nothing he could eat but I did find quite a few items that he could have. My son has outgrown a few allergies like wheat so remembering the brands free of all the top 8 food allergens was a trip down memory lane. I have not mentioned any of the Indian brands I use because I use it exclusively for Indian cooking and neither have I mentioned local New Jersey brands that I see and pick up once in a while in my local health food store but the supply is not consistent. Given my background in Food and Nutrition – my focus has been on nutrition and variety. Here are some of the go-to brands in our Allergy Friendly household (I will keep updating as I remember more or find new brands). Here are my top go-to AF (Allergy Friendly) picks as of now…

Dari-Free (http://vancesfoods.com ): This is at the top of my list because this is where it belongs. Tasty and versatile substitute for milk. It is available in powder form – in sachets and boxes which, makes it very easy to take it with us wherever we go without worrying about spoilage and spillage. Apart from using instead of milk I have seen that it also lends itself very well to cooking – desserts, entrees and more.
AllerEnergy (http://www.allerenergy.com ): The Company has a range of Allergy Friendly energy bars, pretzels and marshmallows. The energy bars are excellent. Hard to believe but I travelled through Africa with a 2 year old with this bar as as my main backup His favorite is obviously the chocolate chip energy bar!
Andean Dream (http://www.andeandream.com ): Their range of cookies and pasta has made it so easy for my little one. His favorites are cocoa-orange and chocolate chip. I love the way individual cookies are packaged. Makes it easy to carry around.
Cravings Place (http://www.thecravingsplace.com ): If I could give a thankful hug to the brains behind the flour mixtures of this brand, I so would! Their range of cookie and cake mixes is delicious especially ‘Ooey Gooey Chocolatey Chewy Brownie Mix’. Decadent is the only word for it and even his friends with no allergies love it. Has graced my little one’s 3rd and 4th birthday
Newman’s Own Organics (http://www.newmansownorganics.com ): Their wheat-free, dairy-free Fig Newmans and Newman O’s (like Oreos) taste like the real thing. Today my son is not allergic to wheat but he still will refuses to have any other kind of Fig Newman. This company gives back so much to society that it feels right to love their products!
Galaxy Nutritional Foods (http://www.galaxyfoods.com ): Their Rice Vegan Cheese Slices and Blocks are amongst my little’s one’s favs!
Enjoy Life (www.EnjoyLifeFoods.com): Ofcourse – enough good cannot be said about their products. Till today my little one relishes their snickerdoodle, double chocolate brownie and chocolates. They used to sell bread that tasted really good but had to discontinue that line I even called them up to see if they would ever revive that line but alas!
Vegan Rella: Despite their supply being very sketchy, my son cannot have enough of this rice cheese. They probably recognize my voice by now based on the number of times I have called to ask about supplies
Tinkyada Rice Pasta (http://www.tinkyada.com ): Even my extended family has started using this range of rice pastas because they are so much softer than the whole wheat pasta and many would even say – tastier.
Ian’s (http://www.iansnaturalfoods.com ): This company is my favorite allergy friendly company for making an attempt to make foods for children with allergies fun. My son loves their entire range of chicken nuggets (though the coating used to be very hard till recently), fish sticks, Kids Meal (my little one’s favorite) and Alphatots.
Orgran (http://www.orgran.com ): Love, love, love their range of rice, amaranth, corn, millet and quinoa pastas apart from their other products.
Pacific Foods (http://www.pacificfoods.com ): Until I found Dari-Free, my son loved Pacific Oat Milk. I still use it on occasion and their Hemp Milk works well in desserts because of its creamier texture.
Turtle Mountain (http://www.turtlemountain.com ): I do think I am a little in love with this company. The smile on my son’s face when he eats their icecreams – priceless!!! The coconut milk beverage, creamer, icecream tubs and bars and yogurt are all excellent.
Living Harvest (http://livingharvest.com ): I discovered this just recently but am already impressed. Sold under the brand name Tempt – their range of icecreams and Hemp beverage are quite tasty.
Nature’s Path (http://www.naturespath.com ): My son just loves their gluten-free waffles and their rice bars.
Cherrybrook Kitchen (http://cherrybrookkitchen.com ): Their sugar cookie and brownie mixes have been special favorites.
Chebe (www.chebe.com ): I have used their gluten-free pizza mix with egg substitute and it has worked reasonably well.
Bob’s Red Mill (http://www.bobsredmill.com ): Have used many of their flours for making my own flour mixes (oat flour, barley flour, brown rice flour, flaxseed meal) and never had a complaint.
Ener-G (http://www.ener-g.com ): This has been my go-to brand for egg replacer, tapioca flour, potato starch and potato flour. Have used their bread on occasionally especially for bread pudding!
Glutino (http://www.glutino.com ): Only for pretzel sticks!
Barkat : My absolute one-stop shops for years when it comes to sugar wafer and ice-cream cones.
Let’s Do… (http://edwardandsons.com ): Yet another go-to brand for ice-cream cones. Yes – my little one loves cones more than ice-cream itself
Ancient Harevest Quinoa: A staple in the household since we discovered the Incan gold a few years back
Arrowhead Mills (www.Arrowheadmills.com): Has been my go-to brand for Amaranth, Millet and Brown Rice for making my own flour mixes and more.
Earth Balance (http://www.earthbalancenatural.com): No substitute for this every single day for dairy-free butter and whenever I bake for dairy-free sticks!
Daiya Vegan Cheese (http://www.daiyafoods.com ): Since I came to know about my little one’s life has taken on new meaning. He loves his quesadillas and pizzas so much more
Neocate (www.Neocate.com): How can I not mention ‘the’ company that served almost 100 % of my son’s nutritinal needs till he was 18 months of age!

It was an absolute joy writing this post as I recalled the many trips to food stores and exeriments at home

Flaxmilk – whoa!!!

Anu Rao — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:11:41 +0000

Living with food allergies is no cake-walk but these days whenever I walk down the aisle of any health food-store, I feel like a kid in a candy store The Allergy Friendly market is bursting with new products every other day that it just gets me so excited. My latest find – ‘Flaxmilk’!

Photo Courtesy: www.flaxusa.com

Flaxmilk is a product of FlaxUSA – a company that brings a whole range of flax based products. You can shop online for many of their other products but unfortunately not Flaxmilk as of now The taste and flavor is truly excellent and many reviews I have read put it ahead of coconut milk beverage, rice milk, oat milk and hemp milk though individual preferences may vary. However, the price and nutritional value make it worth a try as an alternative for those with a dairy allergy. A serving has just 50/60 calories but is packed with healthy Omega-3s and Calcium - a boon for those deprived of cow’s milk!

Additional Information:

Flavors: Original and Vanilla
Availability: WalMart (yes – a fancy product like this!!!)
Email: sales@flaxusa.com
Phone: 1-866-Flax-USA / (1-866-352-9872)
Address: 1661 7th Street NE, Goodrich, North Dakota 58444
Website: http://flaxusa.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/flaxusa

Flaxseed has taken the food indutry by storm because of its superior nutrotional content – the most obvious being Omega 3 essential fatty acids, fiber and protein and to a lesser extent calcium and iron. I throw a dash of flaxseed in almost everything without it altering the tast, flavor or consistency of the dish.

A word of caution – with the increasing usage of flaxseed by the American food industry there has also been an alarming increase in the number of people being diagnosed with flax seed allergy (Please go through my older blog posts for more information on flaxseed allergy.). So a as a precation as with any other new food – those with multiple food allergies must:

Talk to the allergist before trying any flax-based product.
Consume a small quantity to begin with and incrase it over a period of time if you experience no adverse reaction.

If you are not allergic to flaxseed – it is an excellent source of nutrition and creamy Flaxmilk is yet another alternative for you

Earth Balance: Allergy Friendly vegan spreads and butter!

Anu Rao — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:23:56 +0000

With holidays right around the corner, a good butter substitute is the urgent need of the hour! AF (Allergy Friendly) does not mean that our sugar cookies, cakes and breads should taste gross

So, here is a little secret from my kitchen to yours…psst – ‘Earth Balance’ range of products!

For over a year now I have been using Earth Balance soy-free spread. It is so yummy that the entire family has switched over from dairy-based spreads. This is great but cannot be used for cooking, sauteeing and baking. Of course, Earth Balance has a solution for that too. Little wonder – I love this company The world’s first 100% Vegan butter sticks (shortening) are just awesome – http://www.earthbalancenatural.com/#/products/shortening/. Aesthetics is a huge part of product appeal for me! It is a pleasure to see individually wrapped vegan butter sticks – easy to measure out and store. Dont expect it to taste and feel like butter but it definitely cooks without lending any objectionable flavor to the dish.

And now, their latest additions to the world of vegan butter and spreads…Organic Coconut Spread and Vegan Mayo!

The coconut spread is naturally, dairy-free and soy-free. However, if you are not a huge fan of coconut flavor, you may not like this a whole lot. But, I would still recommend a try. After all – it was one of the products that won the 2011 VegNews awards

However, the Vegan Mayo is an awesome product in terms of taste, texture and flavor. In fact, it is hard to tell the difference and so worth a try.

Earth Balance products are available in major grocery stores like Wegman’s, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and health food stores. To find a location nearest you:

Website: http://www.earthbalancenatural.com/
Contact Info: 201.421.3970 / help@EarthBalanceNatural.com

Happy Holiday Cooking

I am in ‘love’…with Tempt Hemp Ice Cream :-)

Anu Rao — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 03:07:29 +0000

It is a good time for those with multiple food allergies in the quest for dairy alternatives. There are more substitutes available than ever before – Rice Milk, Oat Milk, and more recently Hemp Milk. Personally, I find Hemp Milk by far the most nutritious because it has a much higher fat and protein content than the either Oat or Rice milk. That is a definite plus when giving it as a dairy alternative to children – especially the balanced quantities of fatty and amino acids. Living Harvest - a company with its roots in Canada and presently headquartered in Portland, Oregon (surprise, surprise ) is the force behind Tempt Hemp Milk and other Hemp Milk products. Hemp Milk is definitely a very creamy dairy substitute and works quite well in cooking too. I have used it to make rice pudding, soups, pasta sauce etc. but as a drink my little one din’t quite like it. However, if you like the taste and are not allergic to Hemp seed - Hemp Milk is definitely one of the most nutritious dairy alternative drinks to try. Living Harvest has a great short write-up about Hemp which is definitely worth a read and titled ‘Why hemp?‘

Courtesy: Picture taken from Living Harvest, Tempt website.

That being said…I was ecstatic when on one my regular jaunts to Whole Foods Food Market, I spotted Tempt Hemp Chocolate Fudge Ice cream. Maybe, just maybe my little one would enjoy hemp milk in ice cream! And, yes – Tempt hit the bull’s eye with my son. He just loved the creamy chocolate fudge ice cream – yumm for him and yayy for me! Now, I can wait to try all the Tempt Hemp ice cream flavors presently out there…Vanilla, Mint Chip, Coffee Biscotti (this one is for the coffee-lover in me!), Coconut lime (mmm – sounds perfect on a cool summer evening!)! The good news is not over yet – yes, Tempt has ice cream bars too. Vanilla with bluberry pomegranate swirls (that sounds chef fancy), Chocolate Fudge (mmm – decadent), Coffee with cream swirls (someone in Tempt knows what I like!! ) and Vanilla with Fudge swirls! How cool is that?!?

Courtesy: Picture taken from the website of Living Harvest

Dont overthink this decision – grab a tub of tempt hemp milk ice cream the next time you are in a health food store and you are not going to regret it one bit. Given the nutrional power punch the little hemp seed packs, I am definitely going to try their protein powder too for my next berry protein shake after a vigorous workout

Allergy Friendly “Daiya Vegan Cheese”

Anu Rao — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 15:39:44 +0000

Where does an ardent foodie like me hang out for fun?! No points for guessing that one of my favorite haunts is any kind of food market – American, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, European (yes – on a trip to Switzerland, it was not the glaciers but a local organic food market that was my first stop – go figure!). All in the quest of yet another elusive food item that will make the mouth burst with flavors and the tummy do a little jig even if a person has food allergies! The allergy friendly food market has been making great strides in the recent past so it is a fun-packed adventure…

On one such jaunt through the natural food section of Wegmans, I came across packets of what seemed like allergy-friendly shredded cheese in no less than 3 flavors – pepperjack, mozzarella and cheddar. The packaging claimed that it was ’delciously dairy free’ and ‘melts and stretches’ apart from being free of soy, nuts and gluten. Hmm – really?!? One of my pet peeves against vegan cheese is the gooey, unsightly mess that results once heated. So, this sounded too good to be true. Intrigued, I checked the ingredients and it was mainly made from tapioca and/or arrowroot and pea protein. Though the appearance seemed dry and lack-lustre compared to reglular cheese, I picked up a packet of Cheddar style daiya cheese. I also checked their website once home…yes, be thorough with your research when you pick up a new allergy-friendly food product. Being adventurous is important but being careful is even more so when dealing with food allergies! Loved the simple aesthetics of the website and the promise of wholesome and tasty vegan cheese…’revolutionary new dairy-free vegan product that shreds, melts, stretches and tastes delicious’

I must say the cheddar style shreds lived up to its promise – the grilled cheese sandwich was quite a success with dad and son! Encouraged – I made a bold foray into the world of mac n cheese. The real taste test was when his friends who eat regular cheese tried it and gave it a double thumbs up Yayy for the mom who made it but the real yayy goes to the ingredients used! Since then I have tried pepperjack style in mexican dishes especially quesadillas and the mozzarella style shreds on pasta and pizza and in pasta sauce, grilled sandwiches and lasagna.

Courtesy: All the pictures are taken from Daiya Foods website

Daiya has got it right – the cheese definitely gets a double thumbs up from me too. It makes me want to experiment and come up with new dishes which I will share in future blog posts – dips, appetizers, sauces and more!

The icing on the cake is seeing the pride and joy on my son’s face when he is able to take a bite of a grilled cheese or a cheese pizza just like his friends

To get further details about availability, recipe ideas and more visit their vibrant and user friendly website – http://www.daiyafoods.com/

Follow them on FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/daiyavegancheese

DariFree: a dairy-free milk alternative!

Anu Rao — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:57:50 +0000

Yes – I am still around and working furiously on getting fun and unique input for AllergyFoodie Am presently on a 2 month culinary journey in India. The objective – ferret out forgotten old family recipes from the deep recesses of my aunts’ memories! As we talk by the kitchen fire – long-forgotten memories of granny (whom I fondly called avva) surface, the flavors of some of the wholesome, simple and allergy-friendly dishes she used to make waft through and tantalize our mind’s nasal passages. The salient feature of avva’s dishes was how they had remained unchanged through generations - handed down from mom to daughter over the kitchen hearth. Unfortunately, many of these gems have gotten buried under the onslaught of modern quick cooking methods and new cuisines. So, very soon you will see a series resulting from this food adventure but for now I have to share information about an exciting new product that I chanced upon…DariFree

Courtesy: Pictures taken from Vance Foods website

Now folks – dont ask me why I did not know about this elixir before…blame it on depending on Internet search engines more than live social interaction Recently, I met an amazing lady – the power house behind ‘Pure Gluten Free Gourmet Solutions’, Aradhana Chauhan. As we talked about various allergy friendly foods, she mentioned ‘Dari-Free’ - a non-dairy milk alternative; free of most common allergens including soy, dairy, nuts, eggs, seeds, corn and more. It is a product manufactured by Vance’s Foods, Salt lake City, Utah.

Courtesy: Pictures taken from Vance Foods website

I added a huge pinch of salt to her words as she sang praises of this great tasting, calcium enriched drink. After all – 6 years of allergy-friendly living and I had never come across one non-dairy alternative that was nutritious and tasted good. Neocate and Elecare are nutritious but uber expensive and tastes gross. Of course there is no alternative to it in early infancy. However, as Arjun grew up – I discovered less expensive, tastier alternatives like Oat milk, Coconut milk, Hemp milk and Rice milk. All these alternatives had these problems:
1) Available only in liquid forms so was impossible to carry when traveling.
2) Available mainly in health food stores.
3) Nutrition and calorie content on the lower side.
4) Did not lend itself easily to being used as a replacement wherever dairy is used without altering texture and flavor considerably.

I tentatively ordered a few DariFree original and DariFree chocolate sample packets from their website – DariFree. Here was one time I was happy to eat my words (does not happen often!!) – my son absolutely loved the taste and I loved it too. It is available in powder form so easy to carry wherever you go – I am using it right now as I travel across India 5000 miles from home Such a pleasure not to compromise on my son’s morning mug of hot chocolate – yayy! The best part is I can use it in pretty much all the dishes I would ideally use dairy like desserts, entrees, drinks and more. As always – to get the most out of allergy-friendly cooking…let your imagination run wild!

I have found out the hard way – human beings with real experiences know far more than inanimate search engines. Google et al are great tools but cannot replace learning from another inquisitive person who has already treaded the path. So, if you have food allergies or are a caretaker to someone with allergies, remember the golden rule…Constantly network - the true blue way to get useful information!

Most importantly, try DariFree if you are not allergic to any of the ingredients . I am sure that this is one decision you are not going to regret

Yayy – Vegan Rella is back!!!

Anu Rao — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:16:10 +0000

After months of being unavailable Vegan Rella is back on store shelves. I had asked my local health food store, ‘Fountain of Vitality’ to save me a couple of blocks the moment it came in. Awesome of them to do it because they had managed to get only a small supply and that had flown off the shelves by the time I got there. If Vegan Rella is the only kind of cheese you or someone known to you can have, make the trip to the store immediately. The joy on my son’s face as he bit into the cheese – priceless

Vegan Rella is manufactured by Panos Brands. Their customer servicer personnel are quite helpful and can be reached at:

Phone #: 1-201-843-8900 Email address: info@panosbrands.com / customer.service@panosbrands.com

Where is Vegan Rella cheese?

Anu Rao — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:09:07 +0000

For all those consumers who are wondering what happened to Vegan Rella Cheese – I called up the company to enquire about the non-availability of Vegan Rella. The customer service representative I talked to said that due to supply problems of one of the ingredients, there has been no production of vegan rella for the past 2 months. This problem should be set right in the next 2 weeks and consumers should start seeing vegan rella cheese in store shelves starting January 2010.

I heaved a sigh of relief since this is the only brand of allergy friendly cheese whcih actually melts and tastes reasonably good!

Enjoy Life Allergy Friendly Chocolate!

Anu Rao — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:50:16 +0000

Whoever said ‘Save Earth. It is the only planet with chocolate’ got it right. When my son was diagnosed with being allergic to all the top 8 food allergens and more, my second thought (first was ‘why me?’) was, ‘my son can never eat chocolate .’ Then the good folks at Enjoy Life foods came up with chocolate made from rice milk and it is definitely their best product yet. My son and even his friends who have no allergies love it!

***This picture has been taken from Enjoy Life’s website.

Review: The rice milk chocolate is so good that I would go so far to say – it is one of the best allergy friendly products out there because it is pretty close to the real thing. It is available in 3 varieties: Milk, Dark Chocolate and Crispy Rice. The Dark Chocolate and Crispy Rice are especially good. It is smooth, rich and leaves no weird after-taste. Of course, it should come as no surprise that like all allergy friendly foods – it is relatively expensive! A small 1.4 oz bar costs over $2.00. Even if you buy it in bulk – it is not much cheaper. However, the joy of seeing my son relish a piece of chocolate is priceless!

Ingredients: For an up-to-date ingredient listing of this product, visit the company’s website at www.enjoylifefoods.com.

1. Crispy Rice: Evaporated Cane Juice; Non-Dairy Cocoa Butter; Natural Chocolate Liquor (Non-Alcoholic); Rice Crisps (Rice Flour, Rice Bran, Raisin Juice, Honey, Salt); Rice Milk Powder (Rice Syrup Powder, Rice Starch, Rice Flour, Salt, Carrageenan); Salt.
2. Dark Chocolate: Evaporated Cane Juice; Natural Chocolate Liquor (Non-Alcoholic); Non-Dairy Cocoa Butter.
3. Rice Milk Bar: Evaporated Cane Juice; Non-Dairy Cocoa Butter; Natural Chocolate Liquor (Non-Alcoholic); Rice Milk Powder (Rice Syrup Powder, Rice Starch, Rice Flour, Salt, Carrageenan); Salt.

Availability:

Through www.Amazon.com: Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Bar, Dairy Free, 1.4-Ounce (Pack of 24)
All major health food stores and many grocery stores in the US and Canada. Go to http://www.enjoylifefoods.com/where_to_buy/index.php to find stores near you which carry Enjoy Life products.
Through online stores like www.glutenfreemall.com

Nature’s Path Buckwheat Waffles

Anu Rao — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:06:18 +0000

Ask anyone with food allergies and you will realize that they spend an awful lot of time in the kitchen because it is near impossible getting allergy friendly, tasty stuff straight off the shelf. Nature’s Path Buckwheat Wildberry waffles delivers on that count! What bliss to be able to get up in the morning and have breakfast ready in under 3 minutes Buckwheat sounds an awful lot like ‘wheat’ but as Wikipedia puts it…buckwheat ‘is called a pseudocereal to emphasize that it is not related to wheat’.

Review: These toaster waffles are made using a mix of rice flour, buckwheat flour, potato flour, corn flour and tapioca starch – the result is quite delicious! Couple it with with syrup, margarine, fruit and whatever else you fancy and they taste even better. However, they have a slightly dry and crumbly texture which very young children may find it hard to enjoy. Nutritionally – they are not bad because they are wheat and trans fat free and contain a reasonable amount of protein and dietary fiber.

Availability: I have found them in Trader Joe’s (www.traderjoes.com), Whole Foods (www.wholefoodsmarket.com) and Fountain of Vitality (www.fountainofvitality.net ) and through online stores like www.wellnessgrocer.com and www.goodapples.org

Ingredients: Water, organic brown rice flour, organic potato starch, organic corn flour, organic soybean oil, organic tapioca starch, organic evaporated cane juice, organic buckwheat flour, organic potato flour, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate), natural flavor, non GMO soy lecithin, organic blueberries, sea salt, sodium citrate, sodium alginate, citric acid, organic elderberry juice extract.

Visit the company’s website for information on any changes in ingredient listing: www.naturespath.com

***Always read the ingredient listing before buying any product even if it is something you have bought before!