Christmas at Costa

I first saw these wraps when I was away in Norwich, which was the weekend Christmas had launched in Costa, how exciting! However I only just got around to trying one on Friday, but it was well worth the wait!

If anyone knows me, they know Christmas sandwiches are my favourite part about christmas. Left over turkey, bacon, brie, cranberries. You name it, I love it in a wrap, sandwich or toastie. 

So when I found out there was a gluten free Christmas option, I could have cried with excitement. This is really not an exaggeration, as I love all aspects of Christmas! I believe I paid around £3.50 for this wrap, which is a pretty standard price for any food at a coffee shop, making this very good value for a gluten free product.

At 360 calories this makes a nice light lunch considering it tastes like it should really be a naughty treat. 

This wrap contained turkey, bacon, cranberry sauce, mayo and lettuce. I have found that this is very similar to their regular wrap (see review here) as chicken and turkey are both white meats, but as they are my favourites I really enjoyed this. However there is a twist of having the pop of extra flavour with the sweet cranberry sauce and salty bacon, giving the wrap a much needed Christmassy twist!

My only negative thought to this product was that only one half of my wrap had bacon in it! Obviously this review is based just on the one I've eaten so far, so I may find that the others I eat are evenly filled with bacon. I hope so!

Nevertheless Costa's recent gluten free efforts have not gone unnoticed,  I among many others really do appreciate the fact that there are now bread based products in coffee shops for the gluten free market.

We can now all do a gluten free dance for joy together for being more included with the festive season's snacks!

Now all I need to do is find some gluten free twiglets...

Hannah x

Amy's Kitchen - Gluten Free Chinese Noodles & Veggie's

It's getting much closer to Christmas! Which means fair season is starting, which also means rushing around more so quick meals are needed! So, my freezer is stocked up with a lot of Amy's Kitchen meals. I will always turn to these ready meals as they are the most natural gluten free ready meals I believe you will find in the supermarkets.

From frozen, Amy's Kitchen meals take around 40 minutes in the oven or about 6 minutes in the microwave depending on which meal. As I've said before most of the meals I have tried in the oven taste so much better but they are still incredibly tasty from the microwave.

Granted this meal does not look the most appetising in my picture but I think this has fast become my new favourite ready meal. This meal retails for £3.49 at tesco.com and  contains 490 calories, which for those calorie counters I think is a good balance for dinner.

There is a great mix of vegetables in this meal and this is one of the reasons as to why I love Amy's kitchen meals so much, they actually feel healthy, substantial and filling. I think it would be hard to find many other ready meals in general that contain the same amount of veg, particularly for the price.

The flavour that really stands out to me is the nutty sauce, which to me tastes like peanut butter, but I do believe it is actually cashew and sesame seeds. Either way I love anything that tastes nutty and this is a very unique sauce to find in a gluten free meal, it's not the typical safe cheesy or tomato sauce, and I really appreciate that as sometimes eating similar meals can get very tedious.

The noodles are very soft in texture and so are the vegetables as they have essentially been steamed in the microwave. This brings the flavours out nicely and all elements of the dish compliment each other perfectly.

Availability of this product is the only drawback, I have yet to see these in store, and I live in an area where all the major supermarkets have very large shops. I buy these on tesco.com, which is my go to when I cannot find gluten free food that I have yet to discover in store, so bare this in mind and I would recommend trying online to find some of these specialist foods, particularly Tesco if you have a tesco.com depot near as they do have an amazing range of products.

All I need now is to find some gluten free spring rolls and prawn tempura!

Hannah x

B-Free - Multigrain Wraps

I love wraps and when I had the B-Free wraps as part of a fajita kit I knew I would want these again, they are unlike any other gluten free wrap I have had before as firstly they are not rectangle, but they are also much thiner, more like a genuine wrap. 

Everyone knows my love for the Warburtons wraps, as they are delicious, but you cannot fool yourself into thinking they are identical to a mainstream wrap, nor can you with the B-free for that matter but with the mix of both you could, obviously you cannot eat them together but with a little compromising you get the best of both worlds. For that fluffier softer taste you tend to get from a wrap, I opt for Warburtons, and when I want a thiner texture (or lower calorie) I go for a B-Free wrap, so together I get everything I would want. 

This wraps has a flour mix which contains buckwheat, teff, corn, maize and by the looks of it some potato so this mean it should be relatively high fibre because of the wide range of gains and ingredients. These wraps are gluten, wheat, dairy, egg and nut free so I imagine almost everyone can safely eat them, which is a big plus when potentially catering to a variety of diets. At only 99 calories a wrap it is a very low calorie alternative to many bread products, it instantly halves the calories of a two slice of bread sandwich! 

The texture of these wraps is very very thin and are much less flexible than a typical wrap but they are very pleasant to eat, to soften these I make up the wrap for work the day before and pop it in the fridge, this lets the mayo I use soften them and make them just like a mainstream version. Heating these wraps also softens them, but I will warn you in advance, only warm what you know you are going to use as they go hard when they have cooled.

At the free from show the B-Free stand cooked these to make chips, although I've never tried doing this myself I could have tried to crisp up those one I let go hard, so they are a very versatile product. 

As you can imagine there isn't too much flavour to these wraps, which makes them perfect for filling with whatever you like, they leave no odd aftertaste and are overall a good bread plain bread product to use for lunches or dinners. 

I love these wraps and how you can use them in different ways as well as for different meals, from lunchtime wraps, dinner fajitas and tortilla chips these wraps will work for you.  Lets face it, anything that lets me buy more guacamole is a hit for me!

I would love to know what you like to eat with wraps!

Hannah x 

Caffe Nero - Coconut & Raspberry Slice

After saying I do not get to Caffe Nero nearly enough, I have found myself in there again! That's twice in seven days!

Whilst picking up one of my favourite drinks in Caffe Nero, I saw this slice by the till. I just had to give it a go. I thought that this was a very interesting product as it is quite different to the cakes that you would normally find as the gluten free alternatives in coffee shops.

This slice has around 250-300 calories (I looked but forgot to note it down) and retails for £1.65, which is on a par with their regular slices, so no extra charge for gluten free!

This is the most interesting thing I have eaten in a long time and I left was questioning how something like this could possibly be gluten free. This slice had a base very similar to short bread which was layered with a raspberry jam, then topped with coconut which I believe was slightly toasted. This slice was very crumbly but this was down to the coconut and not the actual biscuit base.

The combined textures of the softer biscuit base, the thick sticky jam and the dry crumbly coconut made this slice stand out from the crowd. It is very unique and I wish more places would offer something similar.

There is a very sophisticated taste to this product as the coconut gives the ordinary raspberry flavour a lift. Coconut is not found in many free from products as a flavouring so this also adds to the uniqueness of this product. The raspberry is very sweet and is toned down by the coconut. The biscuit base has no strong taste meaning no element is overpowered by another.

On reflection of all the other coffee shop cakes that I've tried, I think this must be my favourite!

Hannah x

Cafe Nero - Gluten Free Ham Salad Roll

Whilst away this weekend I have seen gluten free sandwiches and wraps in tons of coffee shops. Costa and Starbucks have new christmas wraps and Nero are not missing out!

As Nero is much less accessible to me unless I go into town, I picked one up to have for my lunch.

The roll was £3.50 to take away which I didn't think was a bad price considering it is a Genius roll and that coffee shops tend to charge a little bit more for food. Overall this roll really really impressed me as it was packed with ham, mayo and salad, there was a good mix of lettuce, tomato and cucumber.

We know how much I love genius bread and the rolls are no different, this I believe was the seeded roll, which I have not tried before, I tend to buy brown or white as I find seeded isn't often in stock, so it makes a nice change to try something I can't always get hold of.

I brought this the day before so the best before was the previous day by the time I ate it (living on the edge here!). This roll was prefect for me as it was very reminiscent of a roll I would make myself. Like many gluten free wraps I feel they are very conscious to make them an everyday type of filling, this way it will make it more universal and liked by most but also it means they are never heavy in calories, so if you are caught without lunch you don't feel you have to splurge on something high calorie.

The flavours were great, and worked really well together as it is a classic combination, the roll was very light but filling and I felt that it was the perfect amount for lunch.

My only complaint with this product is that the tomato made a section of the roll very soggy and by the nature of gluten free bread this turns the bread sticky, I tend to describe the texture as if you powdered rice and cooked it, this is what it would resemble. However this is something that I think will only occur if you ate it next day, like myself.

I genuinely cannot contain my excitement for all the gluten free sandwich choices coming out in the coffee shops and I'm extra excited to try all the Christmas ones as it's my favourite time of year!

Hannah x

Norwich - My Gluten Free Weekend

Every October/November James and I travel somewhere in the UK and spend the whole weekend shopping, eating and finding local tourist attractions. This weekend away was no different!

We spent most of our time in the shops and watching some fireworks in the centre of Norwich. Did you know they have a mustard shop?

When we checked in on Friday we were told about a firework display that can be seen in the centre of the city so we decided to see what was near to eat. James fancied having a pizza and we found that Pizza Hut have a gluten free base so nipped in there.

I started with the unlimited salad and then went for a margarita pizza, I think that the base of the pizza hut pizza has the best texture and taste of all the ones I have tried so far.

After the fireworks we popped into M&S to get some crisps, chocolate and drinks to have with the  film we were watching.

Saturday we had a cooked buffet at the hotel for breakfast which had all the aspects you'd expect from a breakfast.

This amazing cake was from No. 33, which is a little cafe I saw on other's youtube videos, mainly Tanya Burr's. This is the gluten free raspberry and chocolate cake which I could not believe was gluten free, it was incredible!

Dinner for Saturday we hit GBK who have the larger gluten free menu I have ever seen! I had a classic beef burger, the taste and texture of burger was fantastic. I had a 'Homeslaw' on the side side, which had a vinaigrette instead of mayo.

Eating out gluten free has got much easier and it was good to see so many gluten free menus!

Hannah x

Udis - Blueberry Breakfast Bar

For a brand that I hadn't seen much of until the Free From Show that I attended, I have recently seen Udis explode into all my local shops, perhaps I wasn't really looking before!

So, when I found these breakfast bars, I thought I would give these a try as you don't really see much of this type of product in the free from market. The box contains 5 reasonably sized bars, just watch out as the packaging is much larger than the product so it is slightly misleading, however the bar sizes are more than adequate. A box will cost you £3 in Tesco, meaning that these bars are 60p each which is not bad value for this type of free from product. The other great thing about these bars is that they actually have printed packets! So they won't end up in a shared cupboard with me being unsure whether they're my gluten free bars or my families regular ones.

These bars are around 150 calories each and the box claims that they are high in fibre. I actually eat these as a snack either mid morning or during the afternoon depending on how I feel. These bars are quite filling and keep me tied over until my next meal. I only allow myself to have one 'naughty' (not fruit or veg) snack a day during the week unless I'm really craving a sweet treat. These seem to do the trick and it's much better nutritionally than tucking into a chocolate bar!

The flavour of this bar is most interesting and 'grown up' in taste as the blueberry jam is very tart, however, the baked biscuit is quite sweet in comparison. The contrast causes the most pleasant and complex flavour, this makes the bar feel like a treat which would cost you much more calorie wise than it actually does.

The bar itself is very soft and almost bouncy in texture, very much like how the mainstream equivalent are. The jam's texture is very thick and more like the consistency of a paste rather than a jelly, this works well with the bar as otherwise it may seem a bit slimy when compared to the soft texture of the biscuit.

These blueberry breakfast bars also go great with a cup of coffee and are perfect for work after the mad rush first thing in the morning!

Hannah x

Warburtons Sweet Chilli Cracker Thins

Before realising I had to live by a gluten free diet, one of my go to lunches was Ryvita thins with vegetable batons, houmous, cheese and lettuce. Unfortunately those thins are now out of the question but whilst browsing in sainsbury's the other week I stumbled across these thins by Warburtons.

I have a very love hate relationship with Warburtons gluten free range, when things are good they are great but when its bad it's terrible, which is unfortunate but I never let that put me off trying something new from them. For a brand which are not 100% focused on gluten free living I feel many of their products are impressive.

This product is most definitely one of the hits of the range. The texture of the these thins have a great snap to them and considering how thin and long these are they are quite durable as none of them were broken which really surprised me as the mainstream alternative always had cracked ones in the box.

These have a great flavour, the sweet chilli is not too overpowering and the slight heat builds over time which I enjoy as I do not like a very spicy flavour to my food and this way I know when it will get too overpowering for me.

These are great with houmous as the warm of the chilli combined with the creamy texture and cool flavour of the houmous makes a pleasant experience. But then again I think I could eat houmous with anything!!

This box has made it's way into my work desk draw so I can nibble on them as and when I fancy a snack style lunch and at 25 calories each they won't break the dieting bank. I have seen on the box that there is also a blue cheese flavour so I am now on a hunt for those!

Hannah x