gluten free familyA mum's blog about gluten-free living in Australia

Yes the yummy Christmas season is here again and we at GFF love the festive ambience — but the relentless parade of parties does make it a tricky time of year for the gluten-free.

I’m hoping this year will be a little different, though, because I will be hosting the festive dinner in my home for for the first time in years. That means I get to banish all things gluten from the Christmas menu.

This does not mean, however, that I will be skimping on the good bits. No indeed, we are doing the whole festive, cold-climate affair — right down to the steamed Christmas pudding and fake snowflakes on the windows. Even Santa will be munching on gluten free shortbread once he heaves his way through the catflap. Read the rest of this entry »

Coles pops up frequently on this blog as a strong player in the gluten free market — so I was disappointed when it recently went missing in action on another food issue that is close to my heart.

In the gluten free market, we applaud Coles for resisting the path taken by other retailers who push their own self-branded merchandise — potentially stifling innovative new products — in a bid to corner the market. As a result, its shelves, in our view, contain the best selection of products. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been working my way through some of Coles new freezer range of gluten free products. A while back I reported on the new Bellyhoo pies which come in fruit varieties as well as beef with veg or beef burgundy. And more recently I have had a couple of tries of the Tutto Pasta meat lasagne (I haven’t tried their vegetarian lasagne or cannelloni yet).

Now it turned out that a few of our readers were not as enthusaistic about the Bellyhoo pie range as I was. Some said the filling was a little sparse and dry for their taste. So I recently gave them another go (this time the beef burgundy instead of beef and veg) and I still rather liked them.

Even more important is that my little boy likes them – I think it’s because the pastry is quite tender and tasty. Read the rest of this entry »

From the Coles freezer - one is gluten free and one is not!

I am always on the hunt for something new to add variety and colour to our family table – so I was delighted to see some of those new products we found at the recent Gluten Free Food expo in my local Coles freezer section. Read the rest of this entry »

Some of my pastry pantry creations

It has been a bit of a bumpy ride for Pastry Pantry since I wrote with such glee a few years ago about finding gluten free pastry in my local supermarket.

Several months ago it suddenly vanished from the shelves in Coles, and when it failed to show up again a month or two later, I decided to get in touch, first with the wholesaler (unsuccessfully), and then with the company direct.

I was told there were some supply issues but we would see it back in store soon. Then a little later I got an update saying perhaps we would not see it back in Coles after all. Read the rest of this entry »

Most people don’t need to know their glucose syrup from their yeast extract—but we gluten avoiders tend to be a fairly fluent bunch when it comes to deciphering food labels.

Now a new iPhone app that can scan food labels could make gluten free grocery shopping expeditions easier. Read the rest of this entry »

Aldi's 'Has no' bread mix

Listen up fans of Aldi’s gluten free range – and I know there are plenty of you out there -  the discount supermarket will soon be filling its shelves with over a dozen products.

Although Aldi does not stock gluten free products as part of its regular product line – it does bring some out from time to time as Special Buys under the ‘Has no’ label. These stay on the shelves until stock runs out. Read the rest of this entry »

We did not shirk all of our blogging duties over the Christmas break. We remained vigilant in our search for hot new GF products with the potential to fill our hearts and our pantries. Here are a few recent sightings: Read the rest of this entry »

Woolies goes gluten free snag mad

It’s been busy time in the gluten free game for the mainstream retailers, especially in their meat and bread departments.

Woolies has gone gluten free snag mad and massively ramped up its home brand gluten free range. Most of the brand name sausages it carries are now also gluten free. It’s almost harder to get sausages with gluten in them these days.

Lilydale also recently announced a new line of gluten free chicken sausages that are also free range. They will go on sale in Coles nationwide, except for WA.

Speaking of Coles, it has started stocking some new gluten free breads and cakes in its bakery section. Read the rest of this entry »

Sainsbury's Free From range

I’ve just returned from a trip that sent me out of my culinary comfort zone and into unchartered territory: the gluten free food aisles of UK supermarkets.

I am happy to say we not only survived, but even thrived on this foreign soil.

I can also gladly report that all the important food categories were catered for:  pasta, bread and jam tarts.

According to those in the know, Sainsbury offers the widest gluten free range which it has self branded as “Free From” and from there we procured some very nice pasta spirals that were exceptionally soft and palatable.

They also have a bread under the same label which I was very happy with indeed. It was a plain white bread loaf that is split in two and spread over two vacuum packs. Not only was it tasty as toast but a bit of gentle persuasion in the microwave rendered it suitable for sandwiches too which was an unexpected delight and added to our lunchtime repertoire substantially. It also was dairy free, which we appreciated very much. Read the rest of this entry »