BlueWater Grill Fish Review (and GIVEAWAY)

Giveaway Now Closed

I was contacted by BlueWater Seafoods to review their new gluten free frozen grill fish fillets. I was excited to try this product because we are big fans of fish and easy dinners. In the mail I received 1 FPC (free product coupon) for a BlueWater frozen seafood item and a BlueWater bag. I also received 3 envelopes, each stuffed with a coupon and bag to mail out to 3 lucky readers.

 

 I decided to purchase the Haddock Classic Grill variety. I baked the fish in the oven according to the directions on the back of the box (I believe it took somewhere around 15 minutes at 400 F). It is clear that this product is made with high quality ingredients. The texture of the fish was moist, tender and flaky.  My only complaint is the size of the fillet. I felt that I could have eaten at least 1 1/2 times the amount. The flavour was very good but not too spicy or overpowering for those that prefer mild seasonings. These fillets would be a good option for people who do not especially enjoy fish, but are trying to incorporate more fish in to their diet, because there is no strong fishy after taste.

frozen haddock

after baking

As most of you probably know, fish is a very healthy meal option. BlueWater products make it easier to incorporate fish into your diet because the fillets are so easy to prepare. Many packaged, pre-seasoned products contain gluten, but BlueWater has provided a gluten free version that is equal to or greater in quality than other similar products. This convenience does come at a price, however. When I used my coupon to buy the Haddock Classic Grill fillet, it was on sale for $3.99 (for 2 fillets - 179g). I believe the regular price is somewhere around $5.00 and above. This makes for a very expensive meal, especially if you are feeding more than 2 people. I usually buy frozen, unseasoned white fish for  $1.00-$1.50 per 100g. The BlueWater Haddock product came to over $2.00 per 100g on sale. It's not something that I would be able to afford on a regular basis, but if you can afford it and you think it will help you get more fish in to your diet then I would definitely recommend it. Or you could just win a free box of fish by entering my giveaway (see below)!

BlueWater Haddock with a veggie and quinoa side dish

I served up our fillets with stir fried veggies mixed with quinoa and a little Italian dressing. I found this meal to be extremely filling and satisfying. BlueWater has some gluten free recipe ideas on their website if you're looking for something a little more exciting to do with your fish.


Health       5 stars
Cost          1.5 stars
Taste         4.5 stars
Texture     4.5 stars
Overall Rating 3.9 stars




What you can win:

1 FPC (free product coupon) for any BlueWater frozen seafood item
1 BlueWater bag

FPC

bag in attached case

open bag

GIVEAWAY INFO - now closed

You can enter up to 3 times but will only be able to win once (it will just increase your chances of winning)

Note:You need to post a new comment for every entry because I will be using a random number generator to choose the winning posts. If the same person is drawn twice, I will generate a new number in its place.

This giveaway is only open to Canadian readers. Sorry to everyone else :(

Entry 1: Post a comment on this blog saying why you would love to try the BlueWater grill fish fillets. (Send me an email at andraglutenfree at gmail dot com with your email address so I can notify you if you win - or simply include your email address in the comment)

Entry 2: Go to the gluten free page on BlueWater's website and tweet the page on your twitter account (click here to go to website). Post the link to your tweet in a new comment.

Entry 3: Go to the gluten free page on BlueWater's website and click the like button to like them on Facebook (click here to go to website). Post a new comment telling me you did this.


I will accept entries until March 30th, 2013. The winner will be contacted by email and announced on this page. The winner will have 48 hours to respond. If I have not heard from them by then, I will choose a new winner and they will have 48 hours to respond etc, etc.



Thanks BlueWater Seafoods for providing these free samples for me to review. All opinions are my own.

King Arthur Flour GF Mixes and a GIVEAWAY

Giveaway is now over!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/is a well known and trusted American company that has been providing high quality baking ingredients since 1790. Recently, they have come out with a line of gluten free baking mixes and flours. Unfortunately, these products are only sold in the US (lucky for my American viewers), but international customers can order these mixes from their website.

The wonderful people at King Arthur Flour were kind enough to send me a few of their new gluten free mixes to try. The 3 mixes that will be featured here are the cookie mix, the pizza crust mix, and the bread mix. For all gluten free mixes sold by KAF check out their website. I am impressed with the quality of the ingredients featured in these mixes. They are a bit pricy (especially if you have to pay for shipping as well), but you definitely get what you pay for. When compared to the wheat flour mixes by KAF, you will find that the gluten free versions are very similar in price, which is uncommon and pleasantly surprising.

KAF Gluten Free Cookie Mix

This mix is very easy to put together and only required the addition of 1/2 cup butter (I used margarine), water, and 1 egg to create. You could choose to add 1-3 cups of your favorite add-ins (chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit, etc) or simply cook the brown sugar based cookies as they were. I added 1/2 cup chopped raw almonds and 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I loved the taste of this dough and so did my husband (who is not gluten free). I mixed the dough by hand, but you could also use an electric mixer. The suggested cooking time was 10-12 minutes and mine took 11. The mix made 30 cookies with an avg diameter of 2 3/4" (plus my husband probably ate 1-2 cookies worth before I could bake them).

The taste of the dough was great, but the baked cookies were even better. They were actually chewy! Something I have yet to create. I left some on the counter in a plastic bag overnight to see how they would keep and they were still chewy and soft! I also froze some and, after reheating in the microwave, found them to retain that same texture. My dad (who is gluten free) declared them "outstanding!" and my gluten-eating husband gave more of a "those are pretty good for gluten free" kind of review. I, however, am very impressed with the taste and feel of these cookies and am having a hard time resisting the ones sitting on my counter top. I would definitely recommend this mix because I have never tasted a better gluten free chocolate chip cookie!

I can't give this one a great review for health, something I wouldn't expect from a cookie anyway, so I will leave that part out of the overall rating. The mix is a good price for a brand like King Arthur Flour ($6.95), but still a little high for a batch of cookies. I would encourage you to treat yourself and try this one out! But don't feel the need to share with anyone who isn't gluten free ;)

Health    1 star

Cost       3 stars

Taste      5 stars 

Texture  4.5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.2 stars

my finished product

KAF Gluten Free Bread Mix

 click here for review

KAF Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix

click here for review


GIVEAWAY INFO - NOW CLOSED

My very first giveaway! I’m so excited!

One of my lucky readers will get to choose 2 of King Arthur Flour’s new GF mixes to try for themselves.
You can enter up to 5 times, just follow the directions below! Note: this is only open to Canadian and American readers.
(you will need to post a different comment for each entry because I will be using a random number generator to pick one of the comments)

This is what you have to do:

1.      Leave a comment on this post with your name and an email address I can reach you at (or if you’d prefer not to show your email address to the world, you can send me an email at AndraGlutenFree@gmail.com identifying yourself) (This gets you 1 entry)

2.      Follow King Arthur Flour on Twitter. Then post a comment saying you did. (1 entry)

3.      Like King Arthur Flour on Facebook. Then post a comment saying you did. (1 entry)

4.      Sign up for the King Arthur Flour newsletter. Then post a comment saying you did. (1 entry)

5.      Join the community at King Arthur flour. Then post a comment saying you did. (1 entry)

Entries will be received until September 9^th (2011) and the winner will be contacted by email and announced on this page. The winner will have 48 hours to respond. If I have not heard from them by then, I will choose a new winner and they will have 48 hours to respond etc. etc.

So good luck everyone!