Review: Lundberg Rice Chips

I don't know if these technically are a food storage item, because they take up alot of space and are kind of expensive, but here goes, anyway.

Harmon's has Lundberg Rice Chips on sale this week: 6 ounce bags 2/$4. Which is still pretty pricey for chips, but not gluten free, organic chips. According to the bag they are wheat free and gluten free. They are available in 5 flavors: Sea Salt, Pico de Gallo, Sesame & Seaweed, Fiesta Lime and Honey Dijon.

The Harmon's David went to only sells Santa Fe Barbecue and Sesame & Seaweed, so he bought 1 bag of each. I bought the Lundberg Honey Dijon Chips from Whole Foods a while back when they were on sale, so I'll review those, too.

Here's what we thought:

Sesame & Seaweed:
When I first saw the bag, I thought, "Eew, gross, why would David buy that flavor?" Actually, I couldn't even really taste the seaweed. They were just kind of salty and mild. You could taste the sesame a little bit, but not much. They taste a lot like regular tortilla chips, only better! Jarom was scared of them and would not try any. David, Amber and Cameron all liked them. Cameron said he could eat a whole bag of them by himself!

Santa Fe Barbecue: David and Amber liked these even better than the Seaweed kind. They were much more flavorful, a little spicy, but not spicy hot. David had to give them to Cameron so he wouldn't eat the whole bag by himself. After Amber tasted them, she said she was going to finish off the bag. She would have if I'd let her.

Honey Dijon: I love honey mustard anything and these were no exception. I think I actually did eat the whole bag of them all by myself. Talk about addictive!

So far, they haven't made me ill, even though they do have some masa corn flour in them. The corn is organic, so that's good. I won't eat GMO corn anymore! It makes me sick - literally. Unfortunately almost all of the corn grown in the US is GMO now.

As far as chips go, they're somewhat healthy. A 1 ounce serving has:
140 calories, 7 grams of fat, 90-110 mg sodium (depending on the flavor), less than 1 gram of fiber and 2 grams of protein. Plus they're organic. Hmmm...I just noticed the Seaweed kind has whey in it...

So here's my conclusion: I'm going to ask David not to buy these any more because I like them too much! OK, well maybe he can buy them on occasion when they're on sale.

P.S. I haven't made anything out of amaranth yet, so I decided to post this instead. I'm going to work on the amaranth this next week. Or maybe I'll have ma soeur Sheri review gluten free baking mixes.

UPDATE 05-19-09: OK, so the chips did make me sick after all. This makes me sad because they are gluten free and very tasty. Oh, well. Maybe people who don't have issues with corn and garlic will be ok with them. No one else in my family got sick from eating them. I think I'm gonna stick with Sesmark Brown Rice Crackers. Maybe I'll even learn to make my own, if I ever get that much energy.

Interesting Grain Info: Amaranth

I don't know if anyone has checked out the web site links on the right side of my blog, but I thought I would point out the AAOOB Foods web site. It has really interesting facts about grains, beans and so forth. Their home page has very loverly music that plays when you link to it. Woo Hoo! I usually mute the sound on my computer or click to another page on the website when I get tired of listening to it. Here's the link to their page about grains. (Sorry, no music on this page...)

I thought I would do a short synopsis of all the grains, but there's so much info on that web-site, I'm going to have to do one grain at a time. Here's the first one:

Amaranth

Interesting facts:
- Gluten free (yay!)
- Amaranth seeds are tan and about the size of poppy seeds.
- Mostly sold at health food stores.
- Grown for millennia by the Aztecs, Mayans and Incans who thought it had magical powers.
- More nutritious than wheat: much higher in protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals.
- Cook before eating, cannot be digested well raw by humans or animals.

Uses:
- Amaranth flour makes good breads. 100% amaranth flour can be used in breads that don’t need to rise like muffins, pancakes, biscuits or crackers. It does not work well in yeast breads unless xanthan gum or some other binder is used.
- Cooked cereal can be made by boiling whole amaranth seeds.
- Popped like popcorn it adds crunchiness to granola, soup, salad or bread.
- Amaranth flour makes a good thickener for gravies and sauces.
- Sprouted amaranth can be eaten in salads.

Storage:
- Short Term Storage: Once container is opened, best stored in the refrigerator due to high levels of poly-unsaturated fats.
- Long Term Storage: Store in an air-tight container with an oxygen absorber to extend shelf-life. Amaranth has a hard outer shell, so it should store better than buckwheat or quinoa.

Finding out this information kind of excited me. I found out yesterday that my Grandpa Pratt (who died before I was born) was renowned for his buttermilk biscuits. Who knew? Maybe I'll have to break out my old 4-H biscuit recipe and try amaranth flour in it. If it works out I'll post it on my blog. If it doesn't, well, pretend like I never said anything about it, ok?

Another exciting thing is that I found this amaranth flour blend on another blog. I'm excited to try it! I wonder which will work better, the straight amaranth flour or the blend?

One last thing, here's a link to all the amaranth recipes on recipezaar. Just in case you want to be adventerous and try one!