Chrystal Carver, cook book author of “Sweet & Simple Gluten-free Baking”, Gluten-free Chef, and Recipe Developer
I met Ivy from Ivy’s Garden at the Gluten-Free Food Allergy Fest in Portland. She was super sweet and offered up recipes, friendship, and samples of her Chicken Nuggets, Lemon Chicken and Sweet & Sour Chicken. I knew right away that she was my kind of person
You guys know I dont typically write product reviews. I’ve been having so much fun developing recipes for you and traveling for my cookbook tour – I don’t really have a lot of time left over. I decided a couple months back to accept some products for testing because my family gets stuck in a rut every once in a while and its nice to know there are quick and easy off-the-shelf (or freezer) products we can grab in a pinch.
I met Ivy from Ivy’s Garden at the Gluten-Free Food Allergy Fest in Portland. She was super sweet and offered up recipes, friendship, and samples of her Chicken Nuggets, Lemon Chicken and Sweet & Sour Chicken. I knew right away that she was my kind of person, but it wasn’t until she gave my daughter a recipe for gluten-free calamari (my daughters favorite) that we decided to test her products.
She kindly sent my family a box of each product she offered, all of which are 100% gluten-free. When I received her products, the first thing I did was check the label for ingredients. I loved that I could pronounce all the ingredients used and that the instructions were simple to follow. We started with the Chicken Nuggets, which were gluten-free, egg-free, nut-free and yeast-free… and full of flavor. They were crunchy and tasted fresh. They weren’t greasy like other store bought brands that we’ve tried.
A couple of nights ago we tried the Sweet & Sour Chicken. I knew I was going into this one with a bias since I make my own homemade Sweet & Sour Chicken. I was pleasantly surprised that it tasted fresh, the chicken was crispy, and the vegetables still had a bit of a crunch to them (not mushy like some frozen veggies). My family enjoyed the Sweet & Sour Chicken over fresh steamed rice (not included) and would definitely purchase this item in the future.
We haven’t tried the Lemon Chicken yet, but I am sure it will be just as wonderful as the other two dishes we’ve tested. Ivy’s Garden is available for purchase online (shipped frozen), New Seasons Market and some Safeway Markets.
Disclaimer: One box of Sweet & Sour Chicken and one box of Lemon Chicken were provided to me free of charge but the opinions expressed here are my own.