Trader Joe's Organic Brown Rice Spaghetti Pasta

Being a mom of three young kids, I am always on the lookout for good pasta, especially when it comes to spaghetti. It is an invaluable meal that is easy to make and I can always count on my kids to gobble it down. Usually I steer away from the brown rice pastas, as they tend to be grainy and easy to overcook, but I was given this one by my mom and thought we'd give it a try.


Trader Joe's Organic Brown Rice Spaghetti Pasta

Taste : 5 stars

I have to say, this spaghetti surprised me with it's wonderful taste! We are big on the quinoa/corn pastas because they have good taste and texture, but this one actually was better! I'd say it was the closest to wheat pasta that I've tried so far. And it didn't get mushy on me, and even though the package says to rinse, I didn't and the pasta did great.


Texture: 5 stars

This pasta had great texture, not too grainy, not too mushy, a good chewy pasta, as they should be.


Usability: 5 stars

Easy to cook and use, we simply boiled it and tossed it with our spaghetti sauce. The package directions say to "rinse if desired" but I hate rinsing and didn't, and it still was great.


Cost: unknown

Since I was given this, I have no idea what it cots. I'm not a regular Trader Joe's shopper, but it has a reputation for being a little more expensive than the regular grocery store, yet still reasonable as far as gourmet grocery stores go.


Availability: 3 stars

I am assuming this is only available at Trader Joe's, so it gets 3 stars. Although the Trader Joe's brown rice penne pasta was also available on Amazon.


Also Dairy Free: Yes - ingredients are organic brown rice and water!


Overall: 4 stars

The only reason this doesn't get 5 stars, is because of limited availability. But \
I may just have to make a special trip to Trader Joe's to get this pasta and to check out what other gluten free products they have, since this one was so good.

Recipe - Chocolate Banana Pancakes

Today I decided to post a recipe! Gluten free pancakes! My family has always been big on pancakes, so I just had to find a gluten free one! I modified the pancake recipe from glutenfreecookingschool.com (found here: http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/saturday-morning-pancakes/) to make my own "fancified" version. Since I'm not big on syrup, I like adding things to pancakes so they can be eaten on their own, and I happened to have several super overripe bananas needing to be put in something. This one fit the bill! All three of my kids were happy digging in sans syrup! And really, how can you beat chocolate and bananas!

Here's the recipe with my modifications:


GLUTEN FREE CHOCOLATE BANANA PANCAKES

Ingredients:

2 C gluten free flour mix or pancake mix*
2/3 C gluten free oats, blended (or sub another 1/3 C of your GF flour mix)
4 Tbs sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

2 eggs, beaten (or egg alternative equivelant)
3 Tbs butter, melted, or canola oil**
1 1/2 C milk (cow, soy, rice, coconut, ect)
1/2 tsp vanilla

2 ripe bananas, sliced
small handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)


Directions:

1. Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir/whisk together.

2. In another bowl, beat two eggs well, then add the butter/oil, milk, and vanilla and mix well.

3. Pour wet ingredients into bowl with dry ingredients and stir together until just combined. Do not overmix! The batter should still have lumps in it. Gently stir in bananas and chocolate chips. (I sliced my two overripe bananas so we would get chunks of bananas in our pancakes, but you could also mash them if you'd prefer a smoother pancake.)
Set batter aside and preheat the griddle.

4. Cook pancakes over a heated griddle or pan. I like to use my large electric griddle, since I can fit quite a few pancakes on there and they get evenly cooked. I used my 2/3 measuring cup to scoop out batter and they were huge! So I would reccomend using yoru 1/4 or 1/3 measuring cup. I will also note that the batter seemed runny and spread out quite a bit on my pan, but then as it cooked puffed up a great deal! We had huge, thick, fluffy pancakes (just how I like them!).

(If you need some tips on exactly how to cook the pancakes, glutenfreecookingschool has some great instructions with pictures in their pancake recipe! see the link at the top)

5. Place cooked pancakes on a plate in a the oven at 200 degrees to keep warm as you continue to cook.

My batch made 9 huge pancakes, which was more than enough for me and my three young kids. The finished pancakes were crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, with little nuggets of yummy banana and chocolate!


NOTES:

*I used 1 1/2 C Bob's Mill pancake mix and 1/2 C Bob's Mill all-purpose flour, because that's what I had on hand, but my mix of choice would be Pamela's pancake and biscuit mix. It's so delicious and versatile - I basically use it like a all-purpose flour mix in pretty much everything. I also added oats to my recipe because I love oats and the texture and flavor they give food. I added twice the oats , so I think if you didn't like oats you could sub it for 1/3 cup more of your gluten free flour or pancake mix.

**I used canola oil, for ease. the recipe at glutenfreecookingschool says if you use butter, be sure your eggs and milk are at room tempurature prior to making your batter. If they are too cold, they will cause your butter to resolidify when you combine them. I never think far enough ahead to have things at room tempurature, hence the canola oil. I have in the past substituted applesauce for oil in muffin recipes with great results, so you could give that a try if you're trying to cut down on fats.