Sometimes you just can't make it into the kitchen to cook. Dr. Gourmet has reviewed some common convenience foods, ingredients, and restaurant selections so that you know what's worth eating - and what's not.

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Dr. Gourmet's Food Reviews

Three Gluten Free Favorite Treats

The main issue with gluten free baked goods is that the number of calories is usually much higher than their counterparts made with wheat flour. The flours used in cookies, bread, cakes, pastas and the like are simply more calorie dense. The second issue is one of texture. Gluten is a protein that when mixed with the right ingredients forms elastic chains. It is that elasticity that gives baked goods as well as pastas their distinctive texture.

We've reviewed breads and found them acceptable. Most are dense and overly moist, however. There are fairly good cookies on the market as well.

French Meadow BakeryWe were intrigued by a company called French Meadow Bakery. I've been seeing more and more of their products in the freezer case. While we had reviewed their pizza dough a while back and found it to be pretty terrible, their packaging of baked good treats caught my eye.

Everybody loves cupcakes and that's a challenge for those eating gluten free. If you're not going to bake your own, what to do? There's just not a lot of availability. French Meadow has a lovely little package of four in the freezer case. The ones we tasted were white cake with white butter cream frosting. These were, well... cupcakes. Frozen cupcakes, mind you, but they were pretty much like you would expect a frozen cupcake to be. The "crumb" (what bakers call the texture of the cake and the ratio of cake to air) is good. They are moist enough and the frosting creamy. The only drawback is that they are 220 calories each. This size cupcake made with wheat flour would be 50 calories less.

Their chocolate chip cookie dough doesn't fare quite as well. These too are, well... cookies. They come preformed and are the shape of a hockey puck but smaller. The don't bake up well being crispy and flaky on the outside and a little moist inside. The flavor tends to be a bit on the cocoa side but that's how a chocolate chip cookie should be. Many are too chocolaty. For you gluten free chocolate lovers out there we think that the Mi-Del chocolate chip cookies are far better and you don't have to bake them.

We did save the best for last, however. The French Meadow fudge brownies are pretty darn good. They have a dense, moist, heavy chocolate flavor. The only drawback? The calories (you knew that was coming, didn't you). The squares are individually wrapped and these come from the freezer so they may help you control your portions (we know that having to think about portion size and waiting for your food are good strategies to controlling your intake).

When you do thaw and unwrap the 2 inch square brownie it'll cost you 170 calories (again, about 50 calories more than a wheat flour brownie the same size).

Even so, all of these are good treats for those who are gluten sensitive. The cookie is OK, the cupcake good and the brownie very good.