gluten free snacks - Stuff Parents Need

Thanks to CVS for providing yummy gluten-free snacks for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

My mother-in-law is in town, (which is an AWESOME thing!) and whenever she is with us, I try to make sure I have some gluten-free snacks on hand. She has a wheat allergy, and has been diagnosed with one for quite some time now. She has told me that the last few years have been SO exciting, as the number and quality of wheat free and gluten-free products on the market has exploded.

I really enjoy finding new products that she hasn’t tried yet, and I have a terrific one for her this time around! CVS stores have their own house brand of food products called Gold Emblem, and they have just launched a line of gluten-free crackers called Gold Emblem Baked Rice Crisps.

These crisps are bite-size and so perfect to have out on the table as an appetizer or just an afternoon snack. They come in two flavors: sea salt and barbecue. And they are priced nicely at $2.49/bag. My personal favorite is the barbecue flavor. The crisps aren’t drowning in barbecue, but have just enough of that flavor to be pretty darn irresistible.

I like to serve the barbecue chips with cole slaw as the dip. Cole slaw and barbecue, after all, are a marriage made in heaven!

If you are on the lookout for gluten-free snacks, or if you just want a fat-free, light snacking option that tastes yummy, definitely swing by your nearest CVS and try out the Gold Emblem Baked Rice Crisps. My family loves them, and I bet yours will, too!

It is very likely that you personally know someone who has some sort of gluten sensitivity. That person might even be someone in your immediate family. My mother-in-law cannot eat wheat, so we try to remember to have some wheat-free options on hand every time she visits.

I recently got to experience what it was like to not only be wheat free, but also gluten-free. Tim and I practiced the Paleo diet for about a month, and one of the things you avoid on this diet is gluten. While it was tough to break old habits and stop eating things I was very used to eating (pasta, bread, carbs of all shapes and sizes), I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to find YUMMY food that was gluten-free in the stores. When I asked my mother-in-law about her experience finding such products, she said that it has become significantly easier over the past few years, as awareness and diagnosis of the allergy has increased.

Gluten-Free Snacks

Van’s Natural Foods is a brand that I have purchased before and will definitely purchase again. They make a wide variety of nutritious and delicious products, including two gluten-free options I wanted to highlight today. And trust me when I say that you don’t need have a gluten sensitivity to love these. They are DELISH!!!

First up are the Van’s Whole Grain Crackers. Lately I’ve been pairing these with hummus and just keeping a platter on the dining room table for snacking throughout the day. We’ve tried the Multigrain flavor and the Say Cheese flavor, and I would buy them both again! These retail for a very reasonable $2.99 and are made with gluten-free oats, brown rice, millet, quinoa and amaranth. They are free of artificial colors, flavors and preservatives, which makes them very clean-eating friendly, too! Don’t they look yummy?

The other product we have been enjoying, especially around 3pm when you hit that slump in the day, is the Van’s Whole Grain Snack Bars, which retail for $4.49 per pack. These contain more than four times the fiber of other gluten-free bars on the market today, and they are nutrient-rich. I will usually split one with Darah along with a glass of milk. They are very satisfying!

One of the reasons I’m particularly fond of these snack options from Van’s is because they pack so much nutrition into products that are very fun to eat. I think that’s a big improvement over things like popsicles, which are of course also fun to eat, but typically just full of empty calories.

What are you serving up for snack time over the summer? Any suggestions to offer to others as they make their grocery lists?

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win 2 coupons for free whole grain snack bars and 2 coupons for free whole grain crackers (ARV $14.96)!

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I received complimentary products for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.