Review: DrSchar.com ~ TRUfree and Dietary Specials foods

The lovely Becky from Dr.Schar.com sent me a box of goodies to try. Inside were a variety of tasty things by TRUfree and Dietary Specials.


From TRUfree we received some rich tea biscuits and their tasty pretzels...

My daughter instantly spotted the biscuits and demanded to try some. When we opened the box (125g) we found 3pks of 6 biscuits each, i think this is great as it gives more freshness and life to them to make them last longer. However 6 biscuits is quite alot, maybe 4 packs of 4 biscuits would be better?
So i opened them and was disappointed that most of the biscuits were already broken into pieces, I've had these before and they were the same so it wasn't method of delivery. I just think that the biscuits are to thin, if they were slightly thicker then they'd break less. I made some tea to go with them and was disappointed that my tea ended up full of soggy biscuit crumbs.
The taste of the biscuit was nice though, the classic sweet and buttery taste that's plain and simple just like an ''original'' rich tea biscuit.

Next the pretzels got spotted by the non-coeliac in the house, Justin. He loves these and i regularly buy him them as he says (in his words) ''They taste like the real thing''. I find that i defiantly need a drink with these as they are very salty and hard. The bag is quite large, 60g, as just a snack. One for sharing, picnics or even opening a few bags at a party. I'd like to see smaller snack packets of 30g/40g sold in multi packs (6) for convenience, and some other flavours such as chocolate covered or garlic and herb? Yummy :)

From Dietary Specials we had their Chocolate & Orange crispy bars,

bread sticks and brown ciabatta rolls.

The crispy bars didn't stay in the packet very long as they looked really tasty! Inside the 180g box you get 5 individually wrapped bars, one for each week day :) They were very tasty with quite a tangy orange flavour, little pieces of orange were also dotted around the bars. Nice and chewy but not enough chocolate, it would be nice to have the chocolate running all the way though instead of just on the outside. This also might help to make them less dry and bland? Also available in apricot and raisin flavour, yummy.

Next up were their *new* product, bread sticks. They come in a 150g pack and inside are separated into 3pks. This is excellent for freshness and sharing, if you only want to nibble on a few the rest are still sealed and fresh for next time. Or open them all up for a party! I found them to be a bit dry and crumbly but with a dip they were fantastic :) Also they make a good alternative to biki-pegs for a teething toddler, hard enough to help with teething but edible and flavourless for them to like. Little snack sizes packets of these in miniature form would go down well at kids party's, in a lunch box or your handbag as a quick snack when on the go.

 Lastly we tried the brown ciabatta rolls, 200g with four rolls. Winner of the bread and bread mixes catergory at the Free From food awards. I had never tried ciabatta before having these and now i love it!

They are fresh enough to eat as they are but the taste develops if you warm them through. Either a few seconds in the microwave or a few minutes in the oven, for that beautiful fresh bread taste and smell :) I enjoyed mine oven warm with some margarine and a hearty beef stew. The outside turns crispy and the inside stays soft and fluffy with it chewy seeds, fantastic for moping up the gravy. I have previously used these to make garlic bread, again in the oven with fantastic tasty results. I wonder if some larger ones could be made to use as sandwiches? Yummy!!! 

I was overall very impressed with both of these brands, with their easily recognisable packaging and quite impressive products. I am keeping my eyes peeled for any new makes from them, i will be sure to give them a try out to :)

Dietary Specials also has an impressive frozen range including pizzas and pies, very exciting, low fat and flavoursome products again!

If you wish to purchase any of these products or just fancy a look at their full ranges then head over to your local supermarkets which are bound to stock of few items from each company or shop directly from them online here; Dietary Specials and TRUfree.

Review: Hale 'n' Hearty foods ~ Gluten and Wheat free products

Catarina over at Hale & Hearty sent me a box of treats, I was so excited as it contained lots of new yummy things for me and Lydia to try. Being Coeliac it is hard to find new tasty and good for you products, all i had to do was open the box and eat them!


Choco Jungle Pops

The first item that Lydia was immediately drawn to was the Choco Jungle Pops. A brightly coloured box with monkeys all over it, on the back of the box there is a little activity for children to do. Very similar concept of a leading brand product, making Coeliac children feel less left out at breakfast times :)

I was a bit supprised to find the box was only half full, it contained a freshly sealed bag with the cereal in. The bag was Almost half the size of the box, less packaging is needed i think.

The cereal is supposed to be chocolate flavour, i found that it was barely noticed in the taste at all. They were very hard and needed quite some time to soak in milk before they were soft/chewy enough to eat nicely. However, alike a kids leading brand again they did 'make the milk chocolatey'. More so in looks than taste. I found them to be quite sticky to your teeth after being hard to chew, with a very strong taste of the quinoa.

Priced at £2.75 (in Sainsbury's) for 275gram box, i feel is a little steep seeing as you can only get about three decent sized portions from the packet. I think a 350gram would be better value and last alot longer :) But if using them for a child i am sure you'd hear no complaints! (and they eat less)

Gluten-free Breadcrumbs

The next for us to try were the breadcrumbs. I was very impressed with these. A real loaf (gluten&wheat free of course) is cooked then used to make the breadcrumbs, this gives a very soft and tasty result.

I followed the recipe for breaded chicken nuggets. I adapted the recipe to my taste and added some boullion, herbs and garlic powder. Shallow fried them until golden brown and ate! They were so yummy that my non-GF/WF boyfriend wanted more than his share, to be honest so did i! He said he was very impressed with the results and generally doesn't like to eat 'my' food as it tastes different and is to dry, not these though, he said they tasted like 'real food'. They keep well if you seal them back up, i used a clip-grip on top of the original bag.

It was a few days later and i  had half a packet left over, so i decided to make some proper beef burgers. Using the meat, herbs and egg as usual i then was able to add some edible breadcrumbs to bind it all together. They made my burgers nice and sturdy, very tasty and filling for once!

A product idea for H&H could be that they make a few 'ready to use' versions of the breadcrumbs for certain recipes. A herby one, one with dried parmesan ready for the nuggets etc....

I am very impressed with these teeny crumbs, fish fingers are next on my 'to cook' list :)
At £2.79 (waitrose) for 250grams the price seems quite steep, but for the amount of use you get from them i think they are well with the investment! Yummy!

Mini Breadsticks & Mini Breadsticks with Parmesan



All i can say i is...they didn't last long! These breadsticks are so good!!! With a little help from my 16mth old daughter a whole packet of these were gone in about 1/2hr, so yummy and moreish.

If they lasted as long as to get them on the table they'd make a fabulous party nibble, add in a couple of dips and your off! Alternatively be a piggy like me and just devour the packet as it were a bag of crisps.

They're crunchy but not to hard, make you salivate so are not to dry and are cooked just enough to give you a satisfying toasted flavour.

The size of them is just great to, being the size of my thumb i could happily let Lydia munch away on them without fear of her choking on a small piece (before biting of course) or poking herself in the eye with a huge one.

I'd love to see multi-packs of smaller packets for snacking or to give to children to nibble, maybe 4-6pks of around 30-40grams.

That being said i would also love to see these in full sized restaurant style breadsticks for the adults, for dipping and enjoying the same way.

Priced £1.59 (Sainsbury's for the plain breadsticks) for 100g, fantastic price for a fantastic product! I always have an emergency packet stashed in my cupboard, not that they stay there very long....

Cassava Crisps

The last items we had to try were the multi-packs of Cassava crisps. Available in three yummy flavours; superbly spiced, perfectly peppered and beautifully barbecued. The spicey is just right, not over powering or to hot with chilli. And the barbecued is lovely and tasty, not burnt. And lastly the pepper flavour is a nice simple alternative to ready salted, plain and simple without being to hot.

Made with Cassava root rather than your usual humble spud these give a very different but tasty flavour. Its fantastic to know you can just grab them to eat and not have to worry about reading the label for that sneaky well known comment of 'may contain traces of wheat or gluten'.

The flavours are quite different to the normal flavours associated with crisps, and i would love to see more being made available. Two ideas i have and would love to see and eat are, plain salted and cheese & herb flavours. And making a larger 'to share' bag of the current individual flavours would make an ideal food for party's/film nibbles etc....

Priced at £2.59 (Tesco) for 6x30gram bags, i find is a good price. Average to what you'd pay for a normal multi-pack of crisps, but better because you know your safe to eat them and they're a healthier alternative. 

Over all i find Hale 'n' Hearty foods are of fantastic quality, value and a necessity to any healthy diet. I can't wait until my next food shop so i can find more of the range to try out.

The range is widely available to buy in these retailers; Sainsbury's, Waitrose, ASDA, Tesco, Holland & Barrett, Ocado, Booths, As Nature Intended, Planet Organic and Whole Foods Market.

Definatly a name to recommend to all your Coeliac or health conscious friends and family :) Yummy!