Review: Kettle Cuisine Chili and Bob's Red Mill Cornbread

It's only been a few days since I switched back to a strictly gluten and dairy free diet. It's funny how when I was eating gluten for a while, people would ask me if I was reacting to it and I'd say "no, I feel fine" and I thought I did. Well the thing is, because I was on medication my immune system was suppressed, therefore not reacting as severly as usual to the bad foods. Immediately after going off the meds the painful cramping returned. I knew going gluten free was the answer, but I just didn't want to do it. It's like starting all over again. Then last night I was getting ready for bed and I realized... my stomach was totally calm. All day. No cramps, no bloating, no gas, no gurgles. Just quiet and calm... and wonderful. Then I started thinking back over the last 6 months or so that I was eating gluten and realized that the entire time I was experiencing all the symptoms I had in the beginning, just to a much lesser degree thanks to the meds. I was in denial!! Deep in the back of my mind though, I knew I should've stuck with the gf diet. I even voiced it a bunch of times. I'm glad that I had to get off the meds. It's exactly what I needed, a wakeup call if you will. Sigh. It's a learning curve...

Anyway, so since it's my first week back on the wagon, I am pretty low on groceries. I'm also pretty low on funds. Yesterday I went to the grocery store to grab a few things and it was lunch time so I was looking for something quick. I was at the GF section and saw the Kettle Cuisine soups, which I love, so I grabbed a new one for me, the Chili. And what goes with Chili? Cornbread of course! I knew I didn't have all the ingredients to make it from scratch and I saw they had the Bob's Red Mill mix so I picked it up. I have not been a fan of Bob's Red Mill mixes in the past but I was obviously in a haze of hunger confusion and bought this anyway.

I threw the mix together and put it in the oven for 30 minutes, and then put the chili in the microwave at the last few minutes. Easy.

The chili was very good, as far as frozen chili goes. I also am not really a chili expert and don't eat it that often, so for me it was delicious. The beef tasted great and the overall flavor was yummy, not too spicy but spicy enough. Kettle Cuisine wins me over once again.

The cornbread... I should've paid attention to that little voice in my head that said "don't do it!". It was horrible. Didn't even taste remotely like corn. Gritty, tasteless, blech.

Now I should say this, the individual flours that they sell are great. I also like the hot cereal. But the brownie mix and the cornbread have both been a big disappointment. I've heard that the pizza dough is good and I will give that a shot one of these days.