Okay, well, now that the craziness of life has somewhat subsided (for the moment!), I’m back. I have a delicious new recipe, but that will have to wait for tomorrow. Right now, I have a glowing review from one of my favorite people/baker/graphic designer (she’s pretty awesome), Marilla, from Cupcake Rehab. She was one of the winners of my giveaway that I did last month of Teri’s gluten free products from Mixes From The Heartland. I tried two of her products and LOVED them (and if you know me, you know I’m a crazy carb-whore). So I knew they were good… but would everyone else? She sure did. She got the Creamy Italian Noodles, and, well, here’s what she thought:

Let me start by saying I’m not a very adventurous person when it comes to food. Andrew Zimmern I am most certainly not. I mean, I refuse to try sushi, and the mere thought of vegan cheese or vegan hot dogs make me cringe, let alone anything like roasted crickets, dung beetles on toast or whatever it is that guy eats on that show. However, when it comes to stuff like pastas, I’m pretty open. I’ll try brown rice pasta, whole wheat pasta, potato pasta… anything. So I was pretty psyched when Brianne told me I won the Creamy Italian Noodles mix in her giveaway. Psyched, but yet not entirely optimistic. I was a bit uncertain about the flavor. These are vegan-friendly, gluten-free, low sodium products, so you know, I was kinda unsure. Usually in my opinion, when something says “______ FREE” it also means “taste free.”

I decided to make it as a side dish, although on the package it tells you to add a pound of chicken to make it a meal. I made homemade chicken fingers and had the noodles as a side. The prep was easy, 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup milk plus the seasoning packet in a saucepan, then cook the pasta until tender. Brown rice pasta cooks differently than regular wheat pasta. It gets soft pretty quick, but also sticks together more (like rice, I guess). They don’t give you a cooking time on the package so I just sorta played it by ear. When the pasta was cooking, I melted the butter with the other ingredients for the sauce in the saucepan. I’m sure if you’re vegan you could use rice or soy milk and vegan butter since the mix itself is vegan-friendly. Also the mix has no cholesterol, so if you use a fat-free milk and a butter substitute like Smart Balance you could reduce the fat even more. I was a bit more appeased when I saw the seasoning packet was loaded with herbs & dehydrated veggies (on the package it says it contains: powdered whey, dehydrated carrots, celery, red and green bell peppers, onions, parsley, tomatoes, rosemary, basil, oregano, marjoram, cilantro, thyme, savory, bay leaves and garlic powder). Lots of seasoning = lots of flavor. By the time I was done with the chicken, the noodles were done. I mixed the sauce with them and let it sit for a minute, just to thicken up a bit.

They were SO GOOD. Really. I’m not lying, I would definitely make these again. I’d add a little salt next time, but that’s just because I’m a bit of a salt fiend. The flavor of the sauce was like a kind of creamy pesto. My 92-year old grandmother who never ate a gluten-free thing in her life (let alone vegan-friendly) and who also dumps an ass-load of salt & butter on everything she eats said they were delicious too, and when I explained to her that it wasn’t “real” pasta but rice pasta, she just didn’t understand and asked me how that was possible, that’s how good it was. As a matter of fact, I’d like to try more of these mixes. They’re healther and more substantial than those name brand mixes you buy in the supermarket.

Thanks to Teri from Mixes from the Heartland and Brianne for the opportunity to try something new and outside my comfort zone. Now that it opened me up to a whole different world, I’m definitely willing to try more gluten-free foods!

So there you have it. I told you they were good. Stay tuned for more reviews, and recipes.

Also, if you’re interested, please check out the new widget of Mixes From The Heartland on the left side of the page. Click on that to take you to Teri’s site and try out some of her products. They’re delicious, and (I think) very well-priced. The amount of food is quite substantial, and much healthier since there’s no preservatives or any crap in them. It’s just GOOD food. So check her out. Or I’ll kick your ass.