Saturday, May 22, 2010

Phoenix Gluten Free Expo


Wow, what an amazing event I was lucky enough to attend. The Celiac Disease Foundation's Greater Phoenix Chapter held the most wonderful gluten free event in Phoenix. As you can see, it was quite well-attended. Great crowd, great food.

The photo here is just a small portion of the great products offered at the event. There were children, families and people wandering for hours in a friendly, educational environment. I took my friend, her son was recently diagnosed with Celiac, and she had a great time finding out about the options out there for her.

I had a great time just trying all the wonderful food offered. There was soup, cheesecake, crackers, nutbars, pizza and more. A few of the vendors are listed below, and the rest I've saved for my Taste Test Tuesdays. I'll take a few of the items and test them out each Tuesday until I run out-then I'll find more!

Today, just for the record, I tried the lemon cheesecake from Innocent Indulgence and thought I went to heaven. The crust was moist and crunchy with a tart, light and fluffy, lemon cheesecake filling. A little goes a long way, but I could have eaten much, much more. Lucky for me the test bites were two-biters.


I also tried Heavenly Organics honey chocolate mint patties-do die for! I love when something has very few ingredients and these have just three: raw Himalayan honey, unsweetened chocolate, peppermint oil. That's it! Sweet little bites of minty, chocolaty goodness. I wish I had a handful so I could have just one for each night with a cup of tea. I'll definitely be getting more of these.


And finally, something I haven't had in a very long time-shortbread. We all know, in the GF world, that shortbread is one of the hardest things to replicate from the world of wheat. It just doesn't happen for most-it's dry, gritty, powdery, too sweet, not sweet enough, too pasty, etc. You know what I mean...so why am I telling you this? I found one that was sublime-broke apart like a real shortbread should, tasted buttery, salty, sweet and begged for a cup of tea in your other hand. These little pillows of heaven are made by Simply Shari's (formerly Gluten Free & Fabulous). As far as I know, they may be in Sprouts but can be found online. The company also has a frozen pizza but I couldn't taste it since he was testing out the pepperoni variety. Veggie girl here had to wait.

I'll have more reviews as time goes on, including a new GF beer (new to me, anyway.)

The ladies at Basha's had crackers and info for everyone, and a smile! Thanks Ladies!


Honest Tea was handing out samples and they were cold, delicious and gluten free. We tried the mango and 1/2 tea/1/2 lemonade varieties. Yum!

Enjoy!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you taste the absolutely, marvelous almond flax bread at Gluten Free Creation's booth? If not, I'll send you some.

comma girl said...

If you mean the bread in the small bags, yes I did. Thanks for the offer, I love their GF bread and especially the pizza crusts.

TracyC said...

Sounds like a wonderful time!!! I am starting to do the research for going GF...you know i will be talking your ear off!
Tracy

comma girl said...

That's what I'm here for-happy to help!

Post a Comment