new ota.bar in town


Quick blog before bed...
I have an exciting breakthrough to share!

ota.bars are now gluten-free friendly!!

The regular bars are not gluten-free but I have come up with a recipe for a gluten-free version. I took out the oats and wheat germ and replaced them with more nuts, more pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and a few other things. I tried out the cinna-fuse variety and they turned out better than expected. I still have some perfecting to do with the recipe but it was a great first trial.

Every weekend at the market I have people ask me if any of the bars are gluten-free. I really wanted to make a point in addressing this issue. My hope is to deliver a bar that is just as delicious and healthy. Even if you are not on a gluten-free diet, these bars are delish!

The other good news is that the bars are doing great at Common Market. The owner ordered more and said that people are responding really well to them and that the bright colors catch peoples' attention. This is really exciting because he has allll the nutrition bars in his store...Clif Bar, Larabar, Kind bar, etc. etc. So, to get people to stray away from their typical purchase and try my bars is kind of exciting!

Well, that is all...I don't have any ota.bar related photos so I'll leave you with this one that I took from our weekend anniversary trip. They are coconut pancakes that were pretty delicious. You realllly have to like coconut =) If you do here is the recipe link - (also my absolute favorite food website at the moment) The recipes are amazing..and the food photography is inspirational!

Come on out to the market! Lots to choose from this weekend =)



4 comments:

Jenna said...

hey, my dad's on gf free diet and we cook steel cut oatmeal and it's ok for him. he can also tolerate spelt but this is rare and most doctors advise against it if you are on a gf free diet. hope this helps!

Ashley [ota.bars] said...

Hi Jenna! Thanks for the comment. Because a lot of people on the GF diet have different tolerances when it comes to oats, I wanted to take the oats completely out. I thought it would be the best decision, so anyone on the GF diet could try one of the GF specific bars! Thanks for your comment =) Apparently I have heard oats are usually tolerated but are contaminated by wheat at some point when processing down to oats.

Anonymous said...

You can now buy oats that are certified gluten free, for example Bob's Red Mill is one of the company's that sells them. Just an FYI.

Ashley [ota] said...

Thanks! That is definitely something to further look into. It still makes me a little nervous to make the gluten-free bar even if I use all different pans and am really careful about cross contaminating. I guess I will just have to use the disclaimer "made in a facility that uses wheat." So, if anyone has an extreme algery or intolerance it might be best for them to not try the bars. Thanks again for the tip!

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