Tag: gluten-free bread

This past weekend I went to the Natural Products Expo in Anaheim and I was in gluten-free heaven. Udi’s Gluten-Free Foods hired a group of bloggers to talk about their personal experiences and try their new hamburger and hotdog buns.

I was thrilled to be one of them. I really do love Udi’s products. Finding good gluten-free bread is a challenge. When I used to make gluten-free baked goods at the Mar Vista Farmers’ Market I would stick to making cakes, sweet breads, and muffins. Sandwich bread was way too hard. It would come out dense, dry, and heavy.

Customers would ask me who makes good bread and frankly, the only one I liked was Udi’s. It’s light and tasty like bread with gluten. The same goes for the new hamburger and hotdog buns. Udi’s hired the Nom Nom truck for the Expo and they made their pork and tofu gluten-free and served it on Udi’s buns. The sandwiches were excellent. Also excellent, Udi’s was collecting donations for Celiac Camp at Camp Arroyo, a gluten-free camp for kids.

The group of bloggers and writers, which included Rockin Mama, Domestic Divas Blog, Family Fresh Cooking, Glutenfree18, and CeliacHandbook were also treated to a talk by Karen Fine of Mom Cooks Gluten-Free. She had great tips about how to get kids to eat healthy lunches, definitely one of my challenges. They included making lunches fun, trying something new every day, and my personal favorite was about sugar. If you want your kids to eat less sugar, she said, let them eat it and then ask them how they feel afterward. Eventually they’ll realize that they don’t feel great after eating too much. I’m curious to try it out on my kids, but afraid they’ll say, “I feel great!!”

After hearing speakers and eating Nom Nom the group walked through the Expo hall. Amazing. I went last year, but as a food business. It was nice just to try everything and talk to people. The Udi’s booth had chef Robert Landolphi making shredded bbq pork sandwiches on Udi’s bread. He was cute and I liked him because he, like me, started cooking gluten-free after his spouse was diagnosed with Celiac Disease.

The bloggers, Udi’s, & Kettle

Matt from main root

Then, the lovely ladies from Udi’s introduced us to some of their favorite gluten-free friends, Kettle Cuisine and maine root handcrafted soda. They were delightful.

At the end of day, we went our separate ways. I checked out a few food companies I’m interested in like Sharkies Organic Fruit Chews. My kids always want to eat the Sport Beans that I munch on before I go running so I wanted to see if Sharkies are a good alternative.

One of the women Sharkey’s booth saw me wearing the Udi’s t-shirt and started telling me her story. She had searched for years for a good gluten-free bread and didn’t find one until she tried Udi’s. She actually said, “Thank God for Udi’s.” I think that says it all.

Disclosure: I was paid by Udi’s to attend the Expo and to write a post. I was also given some Udi’s products and Landolphi’s cookbook. But I truly do love Udi’s products and I often recommend them to people living gluten-free.