Minute Reviews: Udi’s Hamburger Buns

Today’s review is on Udi’s Gluten Free Hamburger buns. And I must say right off that bat, the they are not that bad. I was actually surprised at how much substance they seemed to have. They were very thick and have a nice crust. The thickness is a bit of a problem if whatever you are eating in between the bun is on the thinner side. Definitely don’t be skimpy on what you put in between. 

It’s my go to hamburger bun right now, although I’ve only tried one other brand so far. Their buns are definitely better than their bread. An upside to these buns is they are dairy free and even though I am not dairy free (like I should be) it’s nice to find things that are both gluten & dairy free. Hopefully soon I will put a post up on the Chicken burger that is also pictured above with the bun. One of the best Chicken burgers I’ve ever had.

Now the one downside to the buns is the price. although that’s pretty much the case with anything gluten free. They cost $4.99, which I suppose isn’t to terrible but you only get 4 in a pack. I usually keep my eye out whenever I’m in a Kroger because sometimes they’ll be on sale for $3.99 or they’ll be marked down to like $2.19 because they’re close to the date.

Minute Reviews: Udis Breakfast Burrito

This review is kind of about all of Udi’s frozen burritos because they all pretty much have the same problem. Now, even before I was gluten free I didn’t eat very many frozen burritos so in not an expert but I’m pretty your shell isn’t supposed to disintegrate while its cooking which is basically what the Udis burritos do.

You can kind of see here how there’s just a sudden hole because the shell started disintegrating.

Also just overall the burritos don’t have much flavor. They don’t really taste anything like what the contents of the burrito should taste like. I don’t taste egg, sausage and the potatoes just taste like the shell. Which another problem, the shell tastes bad, just very blah. Over all I would not suggest them especially considering how expensive they are.

Minute Reviews: Aldis Gluten Free White Cheddar Mac & Cheese

in the past I have tried Aldi’s regular box Mac and cheese and was extremely disappointed. It has almost no cheese flavor. I was hoping this box would be an improvement, this was not the case.

The minute I took a bite, I almost wanted to spit it out. It had an odd beginning taste of what I would almost describe as Alfredo sauce but bad Alfredo sauce and once you swallowed there was just nothing. Thankfully the shells in this box cook better than the deluxe box of shells Mac and cheese. Those always stick together and so don’t cook properly.

Unfortunately on that initial taste alone I would not recommend it unless you like bland Mac and cheese. In the end, so it wasn’t wasted, I added a slice of American cheese, some shredded sharp cheddar and butter. This improved it immensely and I could actually eat it. For $1.99 it’s not a terrible deal so long as you don’t mind having to doctor it every time you eat it.

Where Did the Year Go?

Oh hey, how’s it going. How’s life? How are the kids? Have you lost weight?

So yeah it’s been a long time since last I posted. Crazy right. Anyhoo, I just wanted to you know catch up a little. Last year I moved back in with my parents and am back in my old room.

24 years old and I’m living in a room with no door. My little sister’s room is to the right. The stairs are by the window and my parent’s room and bathroom is to the left. They have a door. And yes it’s very messy.

Since moving back home it’s been harder to write some of the posts I usually did for this blog. I’m not really doing much cooking anymore, as it is making a piece of toast is a danger to my stomach. So that’s one of the reasons I’ve been MIA, plus this summer I started a second job because I’m poor and have to pay off loans for that education that was supposed to be my key to the American Dream. I’m not bitter :p

Anyway I wanted to start sharing with you guys again so my plan is to write little reviews on some of the different gluten free foods I find. Currently I kind of live off frozen and prepackaged gluten free meals. They’ll be quick reads, not super in depth. Just covering my initial reaction, whether I would suggest it and what I did to fix it if necessary. Hopefully I can get back to faithfully posting for you guys. I did not start another blog. This one is more for me to just write things that are on my mind and share some of my writings, that kind of thing. You can follow me here: https://introvertedfreighttrain.wordpress.com/

In the Kitchen with Krispy: Empty Cupboard Asian Style Noodles

So it’s a beautiful Sunday evening and I’m starving. I’m all geared up and ready to cook myself dinner, after spending my day apartment searching and aimlessly trolling the internet. I go into my fridge to start making my favorite soup ever, White Bean & Bacon soup, only to realize I don’t have all the ingredients I need.

Well phooey, that completely messes up the meal plan I had made for the week and so now I have to figure something else out. I also don’t have all of the ingredients for the meatloaf I wanted to make. (I got frustrated at Meijer and couldn’t find the Worcestershire sauce so I gave up, I’ll wait till I go home next)

I started scouring my cupboards and fridge, only to find that I don’t have much in the way of food. Which seems ridiculous since I just spent like $30 on groceries, groceries that were supposed to go toward the meal plan I made.

Well anyway I was really in the mood for something Asian, so I decided to go out on a limb and throw something together, hence you get my “Empty Cupboard Asian Style Noodles” creation. I have to say this was a ton of fun to create and even more fun/difficult to eat with the chopsticks I haven’t used in forever. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Empty Cupboard Asian Style Noodles:

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. package of medium thickness Gluten Free noodles

• 32 0z. Container of chicken broth (if you like a thinner broth with your noodles add about 1-2 more cups)

• 1-2 Carrots cut into small match sticks

• 4-8 oz. small cubed mushrooms

• 1-2 tbsp Gluten Free soy sauce

• Juice from half of a lemon

• Season with Tumeric, Ginger, Pepper, Garlic & Onion powder

Directions:

1. Bring chicken broth to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Add noodles and cook to instructions on package.

   

   I’m not very good at cutting carrots into match sticks, you’ll want yours a little smaller than that.

2. Once noodles are cooked turn burner down to low and add in carrots, mushrooms, soy sauce, and seasonings.

   

   I had to use angel hair pasta because it was all I had, but I would suggest a thicker noodle

3. Turn burner to medium and cook for about 5 minutes.

4. And you’re done!

Mine came out really creamy, if you want it to be a little less creamy just add more chicken broth.

This was so easy to make! Plus, it’s nice because it doesn’t require a lot and you can easily substitute. If you don’t have those exact veggies try a combination of something else. Maybe celery and mushrooms or spinach and carrots. You definitely want to make sure you have a crunchy veggie in there, because that really adds to it. If you don’t have chicken broth you could always make your own by boiling chicken in water and using that for your broth and then cook the chicken to serve with it. This is definitely going to be a new go to meal for me.

Well, Well A Review of Maleficent

One of the most anticipated movies of the summer has come out and that movie is Maleficent. There was a lot of different speculation about what the movie would be like. There were a lot of people who were looking forward to the changes that might be made to the story but there were others who didn’t want the story to change. Many people look at Maleficent as the evilest of all the Disney villains and didn’t want that ruined. In the Disney version she describes herself as the Mistress of all Evil.

But the thing I think people don’t realize is that Disney’s Sleeping Beauty isn’t the original fairy tale. In actuality there isn’t really much of an original fairy tale. One of the oldest known tellings of Sleeping Beauty starts with a prophecy that says the princess will suffer a flax related misfortune. She does and falls into a sort of deep sleep. While in this sleep the king rapes and impregnates her. She gives birth to twins all while sleeping and one of the twins sucks the flax out of her finger and she wakes up. The “evil fairy” in this story it’s the kings wife because she tries to kill the princess when she find out.

In another old telling of the story there is an old fairy and her reason for placing the curse is because she was not invited to the coronation. This is most likely where Disney started, but even that original tale is far off from the one that Disney created. So in many ways the idea that Maleficent wouldn’t stay true to the original story isn’t much of an argument.

*Small spoilers ahead*

Now to the actual movie. It was obvious from the beginning that this wasn’t going to be like the Disney version. The movie starts out showing a young Maleficent and she is the epitome of what Aurora is going to be. She’s young, innocent, beautiful and kind. She protects the forest that all of the magical creatures live in, from the humans that live in the neighboring kingdom. Basically her heart is broken, her innocence is taken away and she becomes a powerful woman, who is given a second chance in an unlikely form.

I’m not going to say to much about the actual story because I don’t want to give things away for those who haven’t seen it yet. The movie gives a more tangible reason behind Maleficent’s anger and rage. You really do still get the chance to see the evil Maleficent but as the story progresses you get to see her redemption. There are still elements taken from the Disney version. There’s the three fairies that take care of Aurora, although they’ve practically been reduced to bumbling idiots. Certain things in the story line are taken from the Disney version but our turned around. In Maleficent the thorns that are used to keep Phillip out are used by Maleficent to keep the king out of her domain.

In the end I was fine with the changes they made to the story. Its no longer Sleeping Beauty but it wasn’t supposed to be. It’s a retelling and like many retellings it has it’s own life, it’s trying to be it’s own thing. While slightly predictable at some points they did an excellent job with music, and cinematography. I’ve read some reviews that said the special effects were over the top but I feel like that’s a common complaint these days. Angelina Jolie did an amazing job as Maleficent. It was like she was born to play this role.

One problem I had with the story line was the lack of complexity to other characters. The king comes off very one dimensional. There is one part in the beginning where you seem a glimmer of something more but for the most part he’s just a man bent on power and vengeance with no real development. I also wish there had been more development with Prince Phillip. He comes off very one dimensional and perhaps the ending wouldn’t have felt so obvious if he had been more developed and came into the story sooner. I almost feel like the writers had an agenda where they wanted to flip the stereotypes of old fairy tales by making the men be the one dimensional boring characters and make the women more complex, while I understand the intent, I don’t think it was the correct way to go about it. We can’t fix the mistakes of some old stories by just switching things around, we have to make things more even across the board and realize that all people are complex.

One thing that I had been looking forward to when I first heard about this movie that didn’t happen was finally seeing a movie from the villains point of view. While technically this movies does that, it wasn’t quite in the way I was thinking. I was really hoping for a movie told from the villains perspective but still have the story play out as usual, you know closer to the original story, with the downfall of the villain, whatever way that may be. Something possibly more similar to the story Wicked, although I’ve never read that.

Overall though I thought it was an excellent movie and something I would see again and will eventually own for myself.

 

 

Tackling The Salad In A Jar

So for awhile now I’ve been wanting to tackle making salads in a Mason jar. I’ve seen them on pinterest before and have friends who’ve made them. Recently the thrift store I work at got some Mason jars in that were brand new. It was fate! I bought four the minute I got the chance and started pinning ideas.

One thing I realized in this process is I’m not very creative when it comes to creating salads and I probably should have done some more research. One thing I am decent at however is making salad dressing. I’ve kind of gotten to a point recently where I’m afraid to use salad dressing because I worry it could have gluten in it. I especially am careful when I go out to eat and mostly stick to vinaigrette. Because of this I made my own. Here’s a recipe I threw together after doing some research.

Asian Inspired Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

• 3 Tablespoons Olive oil

• 1 Tablespoon Rice wine vinegar

• 1 Tablespoon Gluten Free Soy sauce

• 1 1/2 Tablespoons Balsamic vinegar

• 1-2 cloves of Garlic chopped finely

• Salt & Pepper

Add all the ingredients into a container. I used my Nalgene water bottle because it’s all I had and I don’t really use it anymore.

You can easily double, triple, or quadruple this recipe to make however much you want. The balsamic gives it kind of sweet flavor, so if it seems to sweet add some more soy sauce or rice vinegar.

The Salads

For the salads I basically just grabbed whatever I had in my fridge. I diced up some onions, carrots, celery and green pepper.

I used a combination of spinach and artisan lettuce that I picked up from Aldi’s. I used two heads of the artisan lettuce and about three cups of spinach. I broke up the lettuce into small pieces and then put them in a bowl with the spinach and squeezed half a lemon over top of them.

Next I layered everything, starting with the dressing. Then I added in the smaller veggies, cheese and then the lettuce.

I’ve eaten one of them already and it was delicious! It came out really good. The dressing was delicious. The one I ate had green peppers, onions and celery in it. I think I put a little to much dressing in it. You really just need enough to cover the bottom, but it’s also personal preference. When you shake it up start by holding it upside down so everything get’s to the top of the jar and then shake. It may take some time to get the big junks of vegetables out of the bottom.

Here’s a little infrograph thing I found that could help in building your salad in a jar.

 

It’s My Day Off But I’m Gonna Cook Away

So it’s my off day and I’m spending most of it cooking. I always forget how much work and time goes into cooking. Part of I decided to spend some time cooking today was because I wanted to make some meals that would be easy for me to take to work so I don’t have to worry about cooking the day of. Also because I finally went grocery shopping on Monday and actually have food to cook with now.

I’ve been trying to get more avocado in my diet because it’s good for you. So far it’s been a struggle. I don’t like Avocado by itself, or as guacamole. I have been able to stand in salads recently, though so when I found this Grilled Chicken, Avocado & Bacon Salad I was excited to try it. I adapted this recipe from akitchencafe.com

Grilled Chicken, Avocado & Bacon Salad

Ingredients:

• 3 large chicken breasts

• 3-4 Green onions

• 1/2-3/4 package of Bacon

• 2 Avocados cubed

• 3-4 Tablespoons Greek Yogurt

• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook bacon on the stove and then set aside to cool. 

2. Season chicken however you wish. (I used a pepper/garlic mix, salt and onion powder) Grill chicken and then let it sit until it’s cool all the way through. 

3. Dice green onions and cube your avocados. Chop bacon.

4. Add everything to a large bowl. Add the Greek yogurt and stir. You
   just want enough to coat everything. Season with salt and pepper as desired. 

I personally had to make a few changes based on what I had and personal preference. I didn’t have enough chicken but I didn’t really have an issue with that, I stilled used the same proportions for everything else. I also realized that I didn’t pick up any plain Greek yogurt so I had to use vanilla. It gave the salad a kind of sweet flavor, which wasn’t terrible but I don’t think I would do it again. I was going to try and balance it out with some Dijon mustard but I only had Honey Mustard. I also don’t have a grill so I had to cook my chicken in a pan. I would definitely suggest going the grill route.

Overall it was a very good salad and something I will make again. Next time I think I will try it with some Dijon mustard because it just sounds good.

I’m Baaaaaaack! And I Come Baring Yummy Food

Oh hey, how’s it going? It’s been a couple of months since I last wrote. You guys have probably completely forgotten about me. It would serve me right if you have. I let you all down, I have no excuse for my lack of posting. I really do want to get back into it though and really get better at posting more frequently.

A lot of things have happened since the last time I wrote, well not really but one big thing happened. I moved! I’m now living in a house with three other girls. It’s only for the summer and then my roommate and I will have to move again but I had to find something before my lease was up at the apartment I was living in. It’s kind of cool living in a house. It is weird though living with two other people I don’t know. They’re great girls though.

Today was kind of my first break since moving in. Last week was pretty busy for me. I’m still not unpacked. Part of it is because I can’t put my mattress on my bed frame until I get slats put on it and the other part is because I have to much crap and I don’t know what to do with it.

Today was also my first real meal since I moved in because I was able to do some grocery shopping. I’ve been wanting to widen the variety of beans I eat, I’ve only been eating black and garbanzo, and I found some good looking recipes on pinterest. Well today for dinner I decided to make something with white beans and I found this recipe from musingsofahousewife.com

I ended up halfing the recipe because I only had two cans of white beans. I wish I had more because this soup came out delicious! I seasoned it with sea salt, cracked pepper, paprika, and chili pepper. It calls for pesto, which you’re supposed to add as a topping but I ended up just adding it to the actual soup. I used Sun dried tomato pesto and used approximately a 1/4 cup.

I can’t even begin to say how much I enjoyed this soup! I will definitely be making it again sometime, but this time I won’t be halfing the recipe, cause I want as much of it as possible.

I’ll Take a Serving of Social Media With an Apology on the Side

So I originally wrote this post awhile ago and then never posted it. I’ve been really bad about posting recently. The reason I haven’t been posting is because I recently lost internet at my apartment. I had been getting it for free because the school I live at was giving it to us for free cause the internet cable for Comcast had gotten knocked out. Once they fixed it they got rid of the free internet and so now we have to pay for it. Well I am a poor post college student that barely makes enough to pay rent and bills, I don’t have the money for what it costs to get internet. These past few months have been pretty crazy so I haven’t been able to take time to go somewhere that has internet. I know terrible excuses but this year I plan to do better!

November:

It’s been so long since I posted and I am ashamed. I really need to get better at that. I do have a very small and pitiful excuse though, I’ve recently been getting involved in some different social media outlets. When I first started this blog all I had was a twitter account. I was new to twitter at that point and I’m still kind of learning the ropes but as time has flown by, I’ve begun to realize there are more things I should probably get plugged into.It all started when I made an Instagram account because my friend wanted me to get one. I had one a long time ago but when I heard about the whole thing were they have the rights to your pictures, I was like hell no.

Anyway, after getting that, I started getting into watching vines. At first I just watched them on my computer but then I decided to get an account so I could watch them easier and follow the specific people I liked. Well one day, about a week after getting Vine I had the random idea that I should start making my own videos. What made me think I should do this, I do not know. I’m not really the Vining type of person, I’m an introvert, that’s one reason I write, but I did it anyway. I have three videos up so far, woot woot!

Me at Halloween :p

Here are some of the different social media outlets I’m using:
Twitter: KrispyKreative
Instagram: KrispyKreative
Vine: Darthkrispy

Well basically the reason for this post was to let you guys know where else you can connect with me. I also wanted to take a moment to let you all know that you may start seeing some different posts on my blog. When I originally started this blog it wasn’t just supposed to be about being a celiac and all the different recipes I try out. It was supposed to be a variety of things and I really want to get back to that. Hopefully you’ll all still enjoy them!