Photo credit: Jon Eisner

Well, it appears that yesterday was National Pancake Day.

Unfortunately I didn’t realize this until the middle of the day.

Fortunately, there are 364 other days of the year when pancakes can also be on the menu!

Unfortunately I haven’t yet found a pancake mix that is whole grain, gluten, dairy, rice, and soy free that my whole family loves.

Fortunately Zemas sent me some of their pancake mix to try and I was pleasantly surprised that everyone loved it.

The box they sent had a gazillion coupons in it (if any of you are in Portland, feel free to swing by my office and grab one!), a box of the Multigrain Pancake and Waffle mix and 4-5 small trial packets of the Cocoa Teff Pancake and Waffle Mix.

We (we being my husband and my son) had the Cocoa packets first as it was very convenient to make the small batches on school days. A later email from my friends at Zemas informed me that those were supposed to be to give to patients but who’s going to blame me for not knowing that ahead of time? Anyway, I digress.

The pancakes were great. A touch sweet so you only need a little bit of syrup. Crispy on the outside and soft but not gummy in the middle (if you’re the gummy pancake type this wouldn’t be the one for you.)

As for which we preferred,  since we started with the cocoa I thought perhaps my 7-year old was just thrilled to have chocolate in his breakfast but it turns out he liked the Multigrain cakes just as much. That said, I’d still pick the Cocoa version because of the 6 grams of fiber per serving. Love that!

Overall a double thumbs up on both of them. You can get the products at any New Seasons Market store in Portland.

Thanks Zemas for sending the goodies and for making such a delish product.

Enjoy!

There are so many amazing local products that I’m bursting at the seams to review for you here at Gluten-free Portland. I’ve got a list and a line up and we’ve reorganized the site so you will be able to get to them all easily (check out the nav bar, above.) Still working on the back end stuff- and a new look for the site. It’s all volunteer so it’s taking a little longer than I’d like. Well, a lot longer, but please bear with us- the end result will make you very happy, I promise.

Ok, so back to the products thing. I was just going to do local products. But then I was eating an amazing cracker from Washington. And I thought well, that’s close enough. But then I got a large, very cold, and relatively heavy box from Texas. Inside a heap of dry ice and 3 boxes of Ruby’s Rockets Fruit and Vegetable Pops. (I’ll add here that until I sat down to write this post I had no idea that Popsicle is a brand, not a category of treat, go figure…)  So I decided that I’m also going to review cool new GF products- no pun intended, we’ll also review cooked products- from anywhere, they just won’t be listed under local, I mean, if we can BUY the products here they’re good for Gluten-free Portlanders.

Now, how about those Ruby’s Rockets?

Here’s what they’ve got to say on the site:

“Looking for organic ingredients?  Over 70% of our ingredients come to us from organic growers.
Ruby’s Rockets are healthy, with natural flavors and added probiotics for digestive and immune support.*
We’re the first pop of this kind to offer probiotics.
The only colors you see in our pops are the beautiful colors of the fruits and vegetables themselves:  the kiwis, spinach and avocados in Galaxy Green, the strawberries, carrots and beets in Rock-It Red, and the yams, oranges and carrots in Orbit Orange.
And check the calorie counts:
ROCK- IT RED — Only 2 grams of sugar and 25 calories!
GALAXY GREEN — Only 1 gram of sugar and 35 calories!
ORBIT ORANGE — Only 2 grams of sugar and 25 calories!”

I hope that most parents aren’t counting calories for their kids but I get the point. Since the lovelies over at Ruby’s Rockets sent a box of each flavor I passed them out to my staff and the mail carrier, David (he’s gluten-free too.)

We all agreed the Rock-It Red was most like a typical pop in flavor (dare I say popcicle?.) Lightly sweet. Berry flavor. Karen thought it was “light and refreshing.” I didn’t taste the orange but the general consensus was that it tasted like a “frozen smoothie.” The Galaxy Green was light, less sweet, and my favorite.

When David brought our mail the next day we chatted about them a little more and we agreed the take home is that they’re very good and that kids wouldn’t know that they had veggies in them if you didn’t want them to know. I might disagree with that re: the green pop as it has a texture to it but I don’t really think that matters at all.

Since it’s a review party I gave one to my husband too. He was extremely confused about how they only have 1-2 grams of sugar per pop. Confused and excited. He liked that it was 35 calories, so I guess there is a point in touting that after all. His favorite was the Green Galaxy as well, noting it was refreshing and that it tastes like “real food.” Please note after he finished it he then wandered over to the freezer and pulled out a Rock-It Red to eat as well since “it’s only 25 calories.”

As for the little one (he’s almost 7) the Galaxy Green didn’t go over well. And I don’t think it’s because of the veggie factor. This child eats his greens hand over fist. Not quite sure what the issue was but just not his thing. After he tried it we left to walk to a neighbor’s house and he mused “they should make a red one with beets.” Funny enough, child, they did! And he got that one later in the day. Here’s what he thought about the Rock-it-Red flavor.

And he’s right, you can taste the beets in there. The sweet yummy part.

Enjoy (available at Zupans)!