Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice with Mixed Berries

As many of you know, getting breakfast into my child before school is difficult. Really really difficult. He just does not like to eat before 10am and since school starts at 7:45 that is a problem. I found the best way to get him to eat breakfast is to rotate the different foods that I offer him. This is one of his favorite cereals in our rotation.

Erewhon makes several gluten free cereals. Their cereals are also healthier than most and sweetened with things other than high fructose corn syrup. This cereal is sweetened with brown rice syrup and honey. The dried fruits in it (blueberries, raspberries and strawberries) are REAL fruit! And most importantly, it TASTES GREAT!

For more information on Erewhon cereals, visit their webpage. A list of their gluten free cereals can be found here.

If you can't find Erewhon cereals in your local store, glutenfree.com carries them here.

Enjoy Life Crunchy Rice and Crunchy Flax Cereals

I am a huge fan of Enjoy Life Foods. It is so comforting to be able to see their logo and know that I don’t have to read the ingredients – I know when I see their products without a doubt that there is no hidden gluten or dairy – it just isn’t there. People who don’t deal with food allergies or intolerances have no idea how freeing that is. The one time you don’t read the label may be the one time that the formula was changed and a food previously safe is no more.

So I was quite excited when Enjoy Life contacted me a week or so ago and asked me if I would be willing to try their new cereals. All they asked in return was that I personally try the products and to give my unbiased opinion so that is what you are getting here.

I received the two free boxes of cereal yesterday. One box of Crunchy Flax and one box of Crunchy Rice.

As usual, my son Andy was super excited to be getting something new to try. I thought these cereals might be a little too grown up for him but he wanted to try them. We opened both boxes and sampled a little right out of the box.

Andy immediately asked for a bowl of the Crunchy Rice with vanilla almond milk. I just gave him a small bowl of it since I didn’t want to waste any and I thought he might be expecting it to be lighter – more like a crispy rice cereal instead of so crunchy. He finished it and had a second bowl right away!

I know my boy though and I knew the true test would come this morning. He often times eats something new really well the first time he has it but then decides he doesn’t like it after all. And it is almost impossible to get breakfast down him before school! So, this morning I asked him what he wanted for breakfast and without hesitation he asked for the *new* crunchy rice stuff. He finished the entire bowl and went to school with a full tummy – let me tell you that doesn’t happen very often. I hope this continues! I don’t care how expensive it is if he will eat breakfast every day.

I ate the Crunchy Flax sprinkled over my soy yogurt and it was really really good. I was surprised. Regular readers of my blog know that I am not just into things being gluten and dairy free but also very into health and nutrition. Flax is such a good food for you – but not one that I consume regularly because I simply don’t like the taste. I have tried to like it but it has to be hidden in foods for me to enjoy it. This was great – the crunchy flax bits were just the right size for yogurt – I sometimes have granola (Enjoy Life brand of course) over my yogurt and I find the granola pieces a little too large and a little too soft. The Crunchy Flax was perfect. I’m not sure if the rest of my family will eat the Crunchy Flax but I most certainly will.

Enjoy Life sent me a press release with the products and now that I have shared my personal opinion with you, I’ll share some of what they have to say about their new products.

It appears that these cereals are new to Enjoy Life but they are not new cereals. Perky’s Nutty Flax and Perky’s Nutty Rice have been around for 25 years. They are now transitioning under the Enjoy Life brand, becoming Enjoy Life Crunchy Flax and Enjoy Life Crunchy Rice. Personally I think crunchy is a better name since there is no nuts in either of the cereals.

Both products are made in a dedicated nut-free and certified gluten-free facility ensuring the quality, integrity and purity of the products. All Enjoy Life products are certified gluten-free by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO) and are allergy-friendly. All Enjoy Life products are free of the eight most common allergens (NO: wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish or shellfish).

Crunchy Flax is 100% natural, sweetened with fruit juice and honey, and has 50g of whole grain, 425 mg of Omega-3’s and 6g of fiber per serving. WOW! Tasty and nutritious!

Crunchy Rice is 100% natural, sweetened with fruit juice and honey and is low fat and low sodium.

I haven’t had the opportunity yet to check my local stores for these cereals, but I do see that glutenfree.com does have them.

If you want to ask your local stores to carry these – or any Enjoy Life product, Enjoy Life does have a letter on their website that all you have to do is print, sign and give to your local grocer – just as easy as that.

If you are a coupon shopper like me, Enjoy Life also has a printable coupon on their website for 55 cents off any product.

Try these new products yourself and then post a comment and let me know what you think of them.

Enjoy Life Granola

Enjoy Life has reformulated their granola and is it ever yummy!

If you are not familiar with Enjoy Life Foods, you should be.

All of their products are free of the 8 most common allergens (wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish or shellfish).

All are certified gluten free.

All are made in a dedicated nut and gluten free bakery - so no chance of cross contamination!

No artificial anything in any of their products.

And they taste great.
The granola comes in 3 flavors - Cranapple Crunch, Very Berry Crunch, and Cinnamon Crunch.

Cranapple Crunch

Very Berry Crunch

Cinnamon Crunch

We did a taste test at our house. All 3 of us tasted all 3 flavors. While all of us enjoyed all 3 flavors, I found it interesting that each of us picked a different one as their favorite. Andy loves the Cranapple Crunch, Dan prefers the Very Berry Crunch and my favorite is the Cinnamon Crunch.

All three flavors are very crunchy and they remain crunchy in milk (non dairy milk of course in our household) with nice plump chewy raisins or craisins. They are also good just by the handful. Fill a baggie and take them with you as a snack. My favorite way to eat them is sprinkled on yogurt (soy) - it really adds a nice crunch. I might try using them in baking as well. I can picture them as a nice crunchy muffin.....

If you are interested in trying them, they do have a printable coupon on their website for 55 cents off any of their products.

Barbara's Brown Rice Crisps

A substitute for Rice Krispies. They are very tasty.

A couple of new finds this weekend

I went shopping at Fresh and Natural in Shoreview on Saturday and found a couple of new products that are pretty decent.
Finally a GFCF cheerio substitute that tastes decent. I don't know about the other flavors - we only bought this one, but it sure beats the PerkyO's and the other brand we tried.

And Andy begged for Pizza, so we tried this and it wasn't bad - expensive, but not bad. $4.49 for this small pizza. Madwoman Foods is a local company here and all of there products are GF, but not all are CF. I was suspicious of the wheylow they use as a sweetener and investigated it and it turns out it is CF. Here is a link to their website - they do sell over the internet. http://www.madwomanfoods.com/ I don't know that I would buy these all the time, but when the other kids are having pizza..... Did I mention it is a very small pizza? I didn't measure it, but it couldn't have been more than 5 inches across.

Way to go General Mills

General Mills has been quietly reformulating many of their cereals. I just read the ingredients on each of these carefully and they all appear to now be gluten free. Now, most of them I would not personally buy because of the artificial colors and high fructose corn syrup - but for those of you who are just GF or GFCF, they should be fine. The Dora the Explorer I may buy for Andy. It is good to have some choices that are mainstream.

Since some of these reformulations are new - be sure and read the labels in the store before buying - some may still list malt flavoring and that is not GF.

And note that some of these (the lucky charms) have oats in them. Like some celiacs, we eat oats.

I bought the Dora the Explorer cereal today - it is a big hit - crunchy little stars that taste like cinnamon.

Erewhon Crunchy Corn & Amarath Cereal

I never noticed this cereal before. Andy saw it in the store today and wanted it. Not bad.

Erewhon Rice Twice Cereal

This cereal is a little different from the usual Rice Krispie type that I buy. It has both rice puffs and the crispies in it - Andy thinks it looks like you have worms in your Rice Krispies (and that is appealing to him!).

Gerber Rice Cereal

For those of you with smaller kids and kiddos with texture issues.

Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice Cereal

Note that it says Gluten Free on top. They also make one that just says Wheat Free - I bought the wrong one by accident once - the Wheat Free is not Gluten Free - it has barley in it like Rice Krispies and most commercial cereals do.

PerkyO's

A GFCF Cheerio Alternative. If your child is new to the diet and they remember what Cheerio's taste like, they may not accept these - but Andy cannot remember and he loves these - the frosted and apple cinnamon are his favorites.

EnviroKidz Gorilla Munch Cereal

Andy's daycare is peanut free so he cannot have Panda Puffs there - Gorilla Munch is similar but not peanut butter flavored. Andy eats it either mixed with Panda Puffs or only when Panda Puffs are not available.

EnviroKidz Panda Puffs Cereal

Andy's absolute favorite cereal. They are peanut butter flavored. Andy likes to eat them dry as a snack as well as with milk for breakfast.

Enjoy Life Very Berry Crunch Granola

Enjoy Life makes a whole line of allergen free foods - all of their foods that have the green allergen free logo on the front are GFCF.