Gluten-Free Food Review: Trader Joe Joe's

Although it is always best to eat whole foods and avoid processed crap (and this advice holds true for everyone, not just for people with Celiac disease), it is not realistic to think that you will never want convenience food again. As part of this blog, I want to perform regular gluten-free product reviews because 1. I love to eat and 2. this gives me an excuse to eat more. 

This week's contestant is: Gluten-Free Trader Joe Joe's

As is likely evident from the picture, Gluten-Free Joe Joe's are meant to be like Oreo Cookies. In college during my gluten days, I once binge-ate an entire package of "Double-Stuf" Oreos over the course of, like, two days (to be fair, I was probably on Prednisone, which induces quite a voracious appetite, but still)...ever since then, I haven't really purchased Oreos. I was a little nervous to try these cookies, because I feared if they were really good, I might eat the whole box.

Well, they were good. REALLY good, in fact. However, despite how delicious I found these, I was able to stop at 6 (which is 3 servings, but I counted the 390 calories for them in my phone app and moved on). The cookie part is slightly gritter and a little crumblier than a regular Oreo cookie, but they still taste great. The cookie is best enjoyed fresh. On Day 1, these cookies were fantastic, but a couple days later, they got a bit stale and the cookie got really crumbly. The creme filling was BETTER than what's inside Oreos. It actually tasted like vanilla, and it was softer and more frosting-like...less waxy, than I remember Oreos being. All in all, I give Trader Joe Joe's  4 out of 5 stars for flavor, and I would definitely purchase these again. For reference, I would also rate regular Oreos as 4 out of 5, so I think these act as a fine substitute. They're at least as good as the "real" thing, and possibly even better. I also think they would work fantastically as an ice cream mix-in (as most cookies n' cream ice cream is not gluten free) OR as a crust for cheesecake. NOM.