Wow, what an amazing event I was lucky enough to attend. The Celiac Disease Foundation’s Greater Phoenix Chapter held the most wonderful gluten free event in Phoenix. As you can see, it was quite well-attended. Great crowd, great food.
The photo here is just a small portion of the great products offered at the event. There were children, families and people wandering for hours in a friendly, educational environment. I took my friend, her son was recently diagnosed with Celiac, and she had a great time finding out about the options out there for her.
I had a great time just trying all the wonderful food offered. There was soup, cheesecake, crackers, nutbars, pizza and more. A few of the vendors are listed below, and the rest I’ve saved for my Taste Test Tuesdays. I’ll take a few of the items and test them out each Tuesday until I run out-then I’ll find more!
Today, just for the record, I tried the lemon cheesecake from Innocent Indulgence and thought I went to heaven. The crust was moist and crunchy with a tart, light and fluffy, lemon cheesecake filling. A little goes a long way, but I could have eaten much, much more. Lucky for me the test bites were two-biters.
I also tried Heavenly Organics honey chocolate mint patties-do die for! I love when something has very few ingredients and these have just three: raw Himalayan honey, unsweetened chocolate, peppermint oil. That’s it! Sweet little bites of minty, chocolaty goodness. I wish I had a handful so I could have just one for each night with a cup of tea. I’ll definitely be getting more of these.
And finally, something I haven’t had in a very long time-shortbread. We all know, in the GF world, that shortbread is one of the hardest things to replicate from the world of wheat. It just doesn’t happen for most-it’s dry, gritty, powdery, too sweet, not sweet enough, too pasty, etc. You know what I mean…so why am I telling you this? I found one that was sublime-broke apart like a real shortbread should, tasted buttery, salty, sweet and begged for a cup of tea in your other hand. These little pillows of heaven are made by Simply Shari’s (formerly Gluten Free & Fabulous). As far as I know, they may be in Sprouts but can be found online. The company also has a frozen pizza but I couldn’t taste it since he was testing out the pepperoni variety. Veggie girl here had to wait.
I’ll have more reviews as time goes on, including a new GF beer (new to me, anyway.)
The ladies at Basha’s had crackers and info for everyone, and a smile! Thanks Ladies!
Honest Tea was handing out samples and they were cold, delicious and gluten free. We tried the mango and 1/2 tea/1/2 lemonade varieties. Yum!
Enjoy!
Gluten Free in AZ 