Udi's in the UK

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Apart from making/crafting, taking photos & Basketball I love food.  I love talking about it, cooking it & of course eating it!

About three or four years ago I started to follow a gluten free diet.  This change of diet has been beneficial to my health, giving me more energy to continue crafting.  Like the handmade industry a gluten free diet can be hard work.

Bread, pastry, pasta, real ale & gravy are only a few of the things missing from my diet.  As the years have passed I have been lucky to meet others who follow a wheat & gluten free diet.  My knowledge has grown and I have been able to introduce gluten free alternatives back into my diet.

Tesco started stocking quite a wide range of gluten free foods and at the beginning of October the yellow logo of Udi's was a part of that range.  I knew Udi was widely available in the US and got rather excited about the prospect of being able to eat bagels after 3ish years.  So excited I posted photos on my Instagram page.  I didn't think I would become one of those people who took pictures of my food but I am.  I think when you have dietary requirements it can be useful to others and share ideas of what you can eat.

I got an email asking if I wanted to try some products from Udi's and I jumped at the chance.  Then this lovely box turned with a cute label on it.

Inside the box I was delighted to find lots of goodies

Including jalapeno ancient grain crisps, cinnamon & sugar bagel chips, cinnamon & raisin bagels, aged cheddar ancient grain crisps, apple & cinnamon toaster pastries and chocolate chip & toffee flavoured muffins.  

I started with the crisps and they were nice, it's sometimes hard to get gluten free flavoured crisps.  The jalapeno ancient grain crisps do have a kick of heat to them but I didn't mind.

I then looked at the muffins as I have an allergy to chocolate, I thought about giving the packet to a gluten free colleague.  I re-read the packet and only had to give away one.  My colleague Jayne was really excited and enjoyed the muffin.  She said the muffin was a good size light and fluffy in taste.  I did enjoy the toffee muffin and we both thought the mixed packet was a great idea.






I had an urge for bread and butter pudding and thought I could use the bagels.  I then couldn't be bothered to cut them up and used the bagel chips, this saved me adding any sugar or flavouring to the pudding.  The full recipe will be detailed in a separate blog entry.  Oh my word it was a great pudding!  I have frozen the rest of the fresh bagels and they have defrosted really well.

The toaster pastries were a convenient product to keep at work, I did find the pastry a bit salty but overall they were ok.

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to try some new gluten free products and share my experiences.  Now I 'd need to look through some of my photos taken of my products.

Reasons to be cheerful

Before Christmas I got an email asking if some of me stitch markers could be featured in a knitting magazine.  I did have to read the email a few times to believe the contents, then I snapped up the offer.
I was really excited but didn't tell many people, I also was asked to provide a high resolution photo to be used in the magazine.

Roll on Friday 17th January 2014 and the February issue of Let's Knit was published.  I couldn't wait until I finished my day job to buy a copy of the magazine so went to the shop in my lunch break.  I started flicking through the pages and there are some lovely patterns to add to my knitting to do list.  Not forgetting a lovely article from Rachel Coopey who designs some wonderful stuff, including socks, hats & cowls.

I then got to page 39 and there they were on a page titled "Reasons to be cheerful".

This when I kept singing in my head the Ian Dury & the Blockheads song of the same name.  This page has lots of beautiful things featured and I am very proud to be part of it.  I have also had some lovely feedback from friends and customers.

The above article is the 2nd time my stitch markers have been featured in a magazine.  Below was the first time in Let's Get Crafting.

My stitch markers are at the top of page

I am very grateful to have these opportunities to be featured in magazines and hope people will check out my website & Etsy store hopefully buy my wares.