I have been eating a gluten-free diet since January when I found out that I have celiac disease. I have found that gluten-free food is extremely hit-or-miss and also very expensive. I thought it would helpful to other gluten-free people if I would share the products that I would highly recommend and the products that I would highly recommend you to avoid.
If you are gluten-free and you live in or near Seattle, there is this Fred Meyer that you have to go to. It's in Lynnwood and the address is 4615 196th St SW Ste 175 Lynnwood, WA 98036. There is a fantastic selection of gluten-free products located on the left side of the store. I bought the pizza crusts in the above picture. The brand is Kinnikinnick. These are actually not expensive. There are four personal-sized pizza crusts in a box. They are frozen and you have to cook them in the oven. I actually wanted to put mostly cold toppings on my pizza, so I cooked just the crust and added the toppings after removing it from the oven. The crust is made of rice flour and it tastes just as good as a gluten pizza crust. I have only made one of these so far, but it was really delicious. I used Kraft brand Creamy Poppyseed dressing as sauce and bacon, avocado, tomato, and mozzarella as toppings.
I also bought some blueberry muffins by the same brand and they tasted just as good as muffins that have gluten. I had previously tried Udi's brand blueberry muffins and they were ridiculously dry and I was not impressed. Some people swear by the Udi's brand but I am not a fan. I have also purchased the Udi's brand of granola and it is some of the least flavorful granola I have ever tasted. It also doesn't agree with my stomach. I would definitely recommend the Kinnikinnick muffins. They are also located in the freezer case and you can just heat them up on a plate in the microwave for about a minute to thaw them before eating.
As far as granola, I'm still trying to find a really good kind. I bought some by the Enjoy Life brand at Fred Meyer. Their brand is really cool because they make sure not to have the 8 most common food ingredients in any of their food, which are wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts. egg, soy, fish, and shellfish. The granola I got is really delicious, but it will probably break your teeth if you eat it by itself. I have been letting it soak in soy milk to soften it up before I eat it.
As far as delivery pizza goes, if you live in the Seattle area, I highly recommend Garlic Jim's. Their pizza crust is thin but very tasty and they have lots of gluten-free options for pizza toppings. I always get the Hawaiian. The gluten-free pizzas are only available in two sizes and do cost more than an ordinary pizza, but they are also delicious, and in my opinion, completely worth it.
The other brand that I highly recommend is Gluten Free Cafe. Their canned soups are nothing special, but their frozen meals are delicious. I especially like the Lemon Basil Chicken and the Fettuccine Alfredo, which uses rice noodles and I actually prefer it to any other fettuccine alfredo.
Last but not least is ice cream. Sadly my three favorite flavors, Ben and Jerry's Dublin Mudslide, Ben and Jerry's Boston Cream Pie, and Ben and Jerry's Red Velvet Cake, all contain gluten. But I have already discovered my new favorite. It's called Safeway Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry and there's not gluten in it. It has strawberry ice cream with real strawberry pieces and fudge swirl and it's delicious.
I hope that someone will find these recommendations helpful. I think the worst part of accidentally wasting your money on disgusting or less-than-delicious food is that you (or at least I) feel bad just throwing it away, so I usually make myself eat it all so it's not a waste of money.
