Before my body started to reject me, one of my favorite things to do was go to a meal with my friends. There isn’t much in the way of fancy eateries in Hardin county Kentucky, so we would make due with a buffet, or a Red Lobster and just enjoy the conversation more than anything. I mentioned these two places because I think I embarrassed myself more than anything at these two places during special events. The buffet, well, it no longer exists, driven out of business by a poor location and a competing Golden Corral on the other side of town. Red Lobster of course, is still going, I guess strong for central Kentucky.
The stories I have an about gorging myself. The long closed buffet in question did a shrimp promotion back in like 2011, the last time I was with someone and truly happy, and I ate for what seemed like an hour straight. The second time, it was at Red Lobster during Endless Shrimp. I feel the same way about shrimp as Bubba Gump did, it truly is one of the most perfect foods.
Shrimp of course, is naturally gluten free. It’s when you start to butterfly it and toss it in flour and breadcrumbs when it becomes a danger, but something like a shrimp scampi? Well that’s basically butter (or oil) with garlic, lemon juice and Parmesan cheese. Serve it over rice or gluten free pasta and you have a popular pairing. I wanted something that reminded me of being with my friends, but not a thing that would make me so sick as to not want to be awake.
Then I saw this absolute game changer on WalMart while shopping for groceries, and suddenly, I had a meal planned out in my head. 
For many, this is the main reason to go to Red Lobster. These biscuits, chewy little balls of dough baked with cheese and topped with a butter herb sauce and addicting and a very pleasant part of the dining experience. They were something I missed a lot, and seeing this I just had to have them.
Of course, I forgot to order cheese so I had to wait to enjoy them. I am not a smart person sometimes, I just got so excited, remembering the taste of one of my favorite biscuits. To go with that I cooked up the following.
I realize that it is cheap and easy to make my own scampi, its just the style of preparation after all. However, the Gorton’s product wasn’t that expensive, and I decided to go with it, instead of cooking it from a bag of frozen shrimp. It’s not like we’re getting fresh shrimp from our fishmongers in northern Hardin county (however, there is a fishmonger in Central Hardin that does do fresh Gulf shrimp). Besides this is a blog that reviews gluten free convenience food, and cooking it myself when a product exists defeats the purpose of the blog!
However it just hits different whenever you make it yourself, I will not deny that at all. I made my choices and I stick with them.
So first things first. I made the biscuits, they were super simple to make, requiring a cup of water, a half cup of cheddar cheese, and the mix. Mixed it up, spooned it on to a baking sheet, and put them in the oven. They baked for a short period of time, 15 or so minutes, got melty, golden brown, and filled the house with a wonderful smell. Pulling them out of the oven, I melted a quarter cup of butter, mixed it with the herb package, and put a teaspoon of that on the top, letting the butter and herbs marry the still hot biscuits. Throwing them in the microwave to keep them kinda hot, I pulled out the shrimp packages, both in oven safe bags, put them on a sheet, and cooked them, waiting until half way (about 15 minutes) to get the pasta water on. When it started to boil, I added the pasta, cooked to al dente in 8 minutes and had that out at the same time as the scampi. Drained the pasta, cut open the bags, microwaved the biscuits for about 20 seconds just to be warm, and served myself a pretty sizeable portion of food.
It looked like this.
Yes, I use a child’s serving bowl for everything. It really does help keep me from overeating and getting sick. I realized that this is not the best picture, but I am really hampered by only having a decades old iPad. It’s okay though.
The food overall was really good. The biscuits though, they were just incredible. When I had my first taste of them, it sent my mind back to a time where I was at the actual restaurant, laughing and eating with much missed friends. They tasted very close to what you would actually get at Red Lobster.
The Gorton’s shrimp scampi had a rich, flavorful sauce, and the shrimp were large enough to be filling, but some weren’t completely without their tail. I understand that it’s going to happen, sometimes tail fragments will slip through the assembly line, but it’s awfully disappointing to get a mouthful of food, to chew it, and realize that there is something in there that you can’t chew. It really turned a great meal into one that was so-so.
The Barilla pasta is my favorite gluten free pasta brand. It doesn’t have the same texture issues that other brands have (some brands taste like they were made with sand, and have a very grainy mouthfeel.) but it also doesn’t have a ton of surface starch, so sauces have a hard time sticking to the noodle. I’ll take the trade off though, I’d rather have a pasta that has a mouthfeel of what I used to be able to eat, over one that doesn’t but does better with sauce.
The meal was fine, if a bit disappointing because of the tail issue. However, if you have a real craving for Cheddar Bay Biscuits, and can’t eat them anymore because of a gluten issue, I would strongly recommend them.
Ratings:
Red Lobster Gluten Free Cheddar Bay Biscuits: 5 of 5.
The taste was top notch, there was a chewiness and moistness to the biscuits, and I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between this product and what is normally served at the chain.
Gorton’s Classic Scampi Simply Bake Shrimp: 1 of 5.
Simple to cook, just open the box, place on a tray and bake. My issue with this is, if there are tail fragments in your bags, it presents a choking hazard (which did become an issue while I had leftovers the next day). While eating carefully gets around that, it’s a drag to spit something out of your mouth and see it. It’s better to me, to just make scampi myself next time.
Barilla’s Gluten Free Spaghetti. 4 of 5.
It is a gluten free pasta that makes my mouth think I am eating a regular pasta. It is the best on the market for that I feel. But to be honest, it’s pasta, and it wasn’t needed for the meal for it to be a success. The shrimp would have been fine on their own, and just as filling.
Nutrition facts.
Left: Gluten Free Biscuit Mix
Center: Simply Bake Shrimp Scampi
Right: Gluten Free Spaghetti
The Gluten Free Mage 