As long as I remember, my grandma has been on a gluten free diet due to celiac disease and my image of the diet was as dry as most of the early 90's gluten free probably were. So no surprise that when I got sentenced to a life long gluten free diet a pearl of panic infused sweat might have ran down my forehead. I love cakes, cookies and all kinds of bakery and I was sure that I would be doomed to a tasteless and dry ricecake infused life where a good chocolate cake or pancakes would just be a distant memory.

Oh how wrong I were.

When I moved to the Netherlands almost half a decade ago even finding lactose free milk from the local market turned out to be a challenge. I wouldn't have dared to even dream about gluten free products back then but now, perhaps thanks to the trendiness of the gluten free lifestyle the variety of products online and in the local supermarkets is amazing. There's even supermarkets devoted to just gluten free products on both sides of the border. Perhaps the food industry has finally realized that even you got celiac disease you still got tastebuds? Who knows.

Thanks to the amazing variety of products having a celiac disease isn't really that obvious to people who visits us. We eat bread, cook mac n' cheese, I spoil myself with pancakes almost every week and there's a can of flour standing on the table. Only the sharp eyed notice there's something odd going on. Even my insanely picky spouse eats gluten free bakings and food without even half a wrinkle on his nose.

So hereby I welcome you under the Gluten Free Life-tag where you will be able to read some ramblings about living with celiac disease and about the products, good and bad, I've come across. I always love testing new food, within the limit of my wide range of allergies.

I am already a very allergic person and when I got the diagnose with gluten no longer being an option in my diet I decided I wouldn't give up anything from my diet. Just replace it with a gluten free option even it meant making it myself (I hate cooking). Even cooking isn't really my cup of tea, I have always been a passioned baker so the diagnose also meant giving up all the delicious baking -- or so I thought. Now a year into my diagnosis I am still a passioned baker, just a little more experimental. Baking gluten free requires a lot of experimenting, imagination and long nerves.

Today I'm gonna introduce you to a few products I have recently discovered. The judges, me and Mr. Odd Bird are gonna taste and rate these products. He is a big fan of wheat, sugar and all the tasty stuff and also very picky, so if he gives a thumb up, the product can fool any other wheat-lover.

The products I'm gonna talk about today are two different kinda cookies and some oatflakes from Semper and two kinds of oat flakes from Provena.


I got the porridges from this webshop and the cookies from Albert Heijn.

Semper Cookie O's-Cocoa


 Sempers version of the famous Oreo cookies. The most trendiest and versatile cooking in baking right now. My social media feed is full of all kinds of Oreo-recepies. Such a shame I can't eat them. So when I spotted these in the Albert Heijn shelf I couldn't resist giving them a try. Finding good gluten free Oreo lookalikes that are easily obtainable have turned out to be a little bit of a challenge. So I gotta say these were a very welcome sight in the shop just next to my house.

I'm not a big Oreo person as such, but I love them in baking. The point of Oreos is their structure, so it's important that the gluten free version has a similar consistancy. As that's usually how gluten free products differ from their wheat ifused cousins is the consistancy I opened the package with little expectations.

I didn't have to get dissapointed. These are an extremely good copy of Oreo's. A bit more crumbly but that's usually the deal with gluten free products in general. If you wanna separate the filling and the cookie it requires a little bit of skill and a sharp knife but other than that these are just like the real deal.

What about the taste then? It's great. A little more stronger cocoa taste than the real Oreos but I like it. They have an actual taste and don't taste like colored carboard. I ate them all at one go, that's enough said. The only minus is that these aren't lactose free, but you can't get everything, can you?

Both of us give a thumb up for these and keep an eye on incoming Oreo-bakery posts...


Semper Waffer Bites


Finding good choco waffle cookies have been hard, since I was addicted to a Finnish brand call Fasupala when I was younger. Those were pure perfection and insanely hard to beat. Sempers version of the waffle bites are insanely chocolatey. The main taste is dark chocolate. These are definitely for those who enjoy dark choco over milk one. I am more of a milk choco person, so these aren't really for me purely because I hate dark chocolate.

But I got really nothing bad to say about these, they're nice and solid, not crumbly at all and nothing in this product says "oh this is gluten free". They look like any chocoalte waffle cookie and if I'd put these out on a birthday party there would be none left to snack for the after party. They're good. The only problem with these as witht he previous ones are, that they're not lactose free.

Thumb up from both of us, this is more for the friends of strong chocolaty taste. If you like that, try these, seriously. A quality product.


Semper Oats

 
I had never tasted these before I got a pack with my sisters survival package which she sent me from Finland. These blew my socks off. The taste, the texture and the cooking time. All pure perfection. I have been struggling for long trying to find that perfect oat brand. Me and the dutch, we don't always agree on what good porridge looks and tastes like. So no surprise I was overjoyed when I noticed that a shop online sells these in Netherlands.

The texture is lovely and silky, they boil relatively fast (I make my porridge old school on the stove in a small kettle) and the taste is fresh. Sometimes oats can taste a bit...dusty?

So needless to say, this is pure thumbs and toes up from me. Mr. has no opinion. He doesn't eat porridge. It's for pussies.



Provena Instant + Jumbo Oats


If porridge can get any better from Semper, its Provena. Their jumbo oats and instant oats are my saviour. The jumbo oats are perfect to add into the already boiled porridge to bring taste and texture, or pour into your yougurth etc. The instant porridge is gods gift to people who's workplaces got no proper kitchen.
The problem with instant oats usually is that the texture of the porridge can end up a little...Well, either like wallpaper glu or cement. It's rocket sience to get it just right no matter how carefully you follow the isntructions. The bags are also often ridiculously small and you need to use at least two at once to fill your tummy. It of course makes getting the texture just right double as hard.

But not with Provena. The texture is perfect and one bag has enough to be called a breakfast. And the taste. Gosh, these are soooo good. Silky and full at the same time. The best instant oats ever. Even if you don't have celiacy, try these. Seriously. Worth the lil over 3€ price you need to pay for one box of 5.


So yea, all praises from me. Mr's. opinion of porridge in general remains.