Gluten Free Food Reviews: Glutino Pizza Crust, Cosmos Puffed Corn & Luna Protein

Some new or new to me products are on the market and I have finally had a chance to test them out and give you a few gluten free food reviews.  

Cosmos Creations Puffed Corn

Cosmos Creations Puffed Corn is gluten free and Non-GMO

The company emailed me and asked if I would be interested in trying some of their product.  Well I am always up for popcorn, Cosmos Creations actually creates a puffed  corn (not popcorn), so I said yes.  

 They sent me four kinds. Sea Salt and Butter, Sea Salt and Vinegar, Salted Caramel, and Aged Cheddar and Cracked Pepper.  Emma and I LOVED the Sea Salt and Butter kind.  We are popcorn traditionalists what can we say.   Second place for me was the Aged Cheddar and Cracked Pepper.  

A gluten-free friend of mine, Bonnie, also tasted the salt and vinegar as well as the salted caramel kind.  She said, “The flavor of both kinds was really good.   The caramel corn did not taste artificial at all.”  She says she would buy this in the future. 

These treats use non-GMO corn, no trans fats and are gluten free.  Plus, there are no hulls.

You can find them at local stores plus Sam’s Club, TJ Maxx and Marshall’s, but their store locator page on their website will help you too.  If you buy from their website, a standard 6.5 – 7 ounce bag is about $4.99.  Some flavors also have a 16 oz. bag for 8.99.

Luna Protein Bar

Luna Protein Bars

You guys may think I am the pickiest eater ever.  I don’t really like nuts in anything, I don’t care for the texture of coconut…  So what kind of protein bar would I like — since most are laden with either one or both of those ingredients.  Well  Luna’s Lemon Vanilla bar from it’s “Luna Protein” line is pretty good!  The company sent me the bar free of charge earlier this spring to try.

It has a good lemon taste (with a little bit of an after taste however) and even though it has macadamia nuts in it, because it is macadamia nut butter, I was much better with the flavor and texture.  In fact, I couldn’t tell there were “nuts” in this bar.   My brother tried the other bar they sent me, Chocolate Coconut Almond and he said it was good as well. 

Luna Protein Bar — Lemon Vanilla flavor

Since then, I see they have a chocolate chip cookie dough bar — THAT would be up my alley.  There are a total of six bars and they are gluten free with 12 grams of protein in each bar.  You should easily be able to find these bars in the workout/energy/protein bar section of your grocery store.

Just make sure you are looking for the bars labeled LUNA PROTEIN, not just “Luna”.  Regular Luna bars more likely contain gluten.  To know more about which Luna bars are okay, check out this link from ClifBar (which owns Luna).  By clicking on the gluten-free tab, it instantly eliminates any products it doesn’t consider gluten free.

Glutino Pizza Crust

Recently, Glutino sent me a pizza crust mix to have me try it (I did not have to pay for the mix).

I wondered when I would get around to making it.  I procrastinate on these things because –well — when I use yeast (and don’t use my bread machine), I turn in to a chemistry-challenged nitwit.  But last Friday I was feeling daring and tried it out.

Spreading the dough mix for pizza crust

I mixed according to the directions. Then I put my oven on warm and turned it off, then I separated the dough into three pizzas that were more like a “homestyle” type of crust — not too thin and not to thick.  Emma isn’t a fan of thin crust — which let’s face it– most of the pre-made crusts are just that.  Once I pressed/spread the dough onto the cookie sheets, I covered and put in the the warmish oven to rise.  

After 40 minutes (as instructed) they looked great and raised nicely!  If I did it again, I would have sprayed cooking oil on the aluminum foil I covered them with.  The foil took the top layer of the crust dough with it.  But the crusts didn’t sink or anything so they were still good.   I topped two pizzas and kept a third one plain for par-baking.  I baked the pizzas for 20 min, and took the par-baked pizza out after about 1o minutes. The thicker crusts were cooked all the way through too! It was a baking success for me.

Finished gluten-free pizza using Glutino’s pizza crust mix

The crust mix sells for $4.99 per box on Glutino’s website.  Considering I got three, thicker 10-inch crusts out of the box, I say it is well worth the price!  

Happy shopping and eating!

Tags: celiac, corn, Cosmos, crust, free, gluten, Glutino, homemade, Luna, pizza, popcorn, protein, puffed, review, sensitivity, taste