Junior Mints

Noticed this on the back of the Junior Mints box the other day. Gotta love a gluten free facility! 

Valentine Candy List

This blogger always does a great job looking up gluten free candy for every holiday season. Here is the link for Valentine's Day candy. 

http://celiacfamily.com/gluten-free-valentine-candy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CeliacFamily+%28celiacfamily.com%29

Sugar Cookies from a Box!

 I bought this cookie mix awhile ago and never got around to making it. The kids and I wanted to make Christmas cookies tonight but I didn't feel like all the work so I pulled out this little gem. They were SO easy to make and tasted great. The dough it a bit gooey to roll out for cookie cut outs (but maybe if you refrigerated it it'd work?) so we just made circles and decorated them. 

 Not bad for egg, dairy, & gluten free! 

Yum! 

** I bought the Cherry Brook's Kitchen mix at PCC, I think I've also seen it at Whole Foods. 

Just Discovered- Vegan & Gluten Free chocolate cake that is good!

Today my husband wanted to take our kids out for donuts. Since our daughter can't have gluten he stopped at Central Market to try and get her gluten free donuts before going to the donut shop. He wasn't able to find any but he found this cake in the freezer section and figured it'd work, which it did. She loved it!

They brought home the rest of the cake to me and I was amazed at how good it was. It was moist, flavorful and had great texture! A great go to item when you need something in a hurry and don't have time to bake. 

Great New Find at Trader Joe's!

We found these at Trader Joe's last night and the kids are in heaven over them! They are free of the 8 most common allergens which means no eggs, dairy, or gluten so we were thrilled! I can't remember the exact price but I know they were $3 or less. The box we bought last night is already gone...oops.

Gluten Free Vanilla

A lot of recipes call for "gluten free" vanilla and this often confused me when I first started being gluten free. How could vanilla have gluten in it? My understanding is that all pure vanilla is gluten free. The imitation vanillas contain caramel coloring which may contain gluten so they are a no no, unless you know for sure that the caramel coloring is from a US source (caramel coloring made in the US does not have gluten in it).  We always stick with the pure stuff just to be safe, plus it tastes better and isn't artificial. We buy this one at Costco. It is even labeled gluten free, which always makes me love things just a little bit more:) 

Favorite Snack Bar

There are a handful of gluten & dairy free snack bars out there but this one is my all time fav. They are sweetened with honey and have simple ingredients. KIND makes lots of flavors but the almond & coconut is hands down the favorite in our house. Fred Meyer often has them on sale for 10/$10 so we always stock up. The only thing that would make these better if they were dipped in chocolate:) 

Bean Salad

This morning I was watching the Today show and they were talking about 4 foods we should all be eating more of. They said salmon, beans, spinach, & eggs. Well Lauren & I both had allergy reactions to eggs on our panels so we try not to eat too many of those. But the other 3 are all things we love but probably don't eat as much as we should. So while at Costco today I was on a mission to get more beans & salmon. I came across this and was pretty excited. This salad is labeled gluten free, comes in a glass jar so no worries about the BPA in cans, & it was low in price (about $6 I think). I opened it as soon as we got home to take a bite and I loved it! So did Kevin. I haven't tried it on the kids yet but it is pretty sweet (does have sugar in it) so I have a feeling they will like it too.

Gluten Free Living

I was just searching some ingredients on line to find out if they were gluten free or not and I came across this great site. It is actually a site for this magazine "Gluten Free Living" which I'm sure is great, but very pricey. But the website had some great information, including this list of ingredients. Check it out:

http://www.glutenfreeliving.com/ingredient.php

If anyone gets this magazine let me know if it is worth the pricey subscription!

Gluten Free Lunch Meat

Lunch meat is one of those tricky products to buy. The labels typically have a lot of chemicals that I can't pronounce and I have no idea how to navigate my way through their labels. But this one is our families favorite. It is labeled gluten free (on the back under the ingredient list) and there are only 6 ingredients, I can pronounce them all, and know what they are! They also have a gluten free section on their website with a list of their gluten free products and recipes. http://www.hormelnatural.com/healthandwellness/glutenfree/default.aspx

I buy this at Fred Meyer, it is often on sale 2/$6. Though it is a little pricier than the other brands it is so worth it because you are paying for actual food instead of chemicals:)

Sometimes you just gotta have Mac N Cheese

Lauren (my 4 year old) LOVES mac and cheese. When we found out she couldn't have gluten and shouldn't have much dairy we knew we had to find an alternative for her. Annie's gluten free mac & cheese is fabulous. It isn't dairy free but we use earth balance and almond milk when we make it so it lessens the amount of dairy in it (obviously there is still dairy in the cheese powder). She loves it and doesn't get sick from the dairy (she & I can both tolerate dairy in small amounts though). We buy this at Fred Meyer, but they sell it at most stores. You have to be careful when buying it though because Annie's Organic Mac N Cheese comes in a blue box too, but it isn't gluten free. So make SURE you buy the one that says gluten free on it! That would be a really bad mistake!

Pasta done easy!

Sure I'd love to say I make homemade marinara sauce but the truth is I don't. I usually doctor it up a bit and add some fresh veggies & meat, but I pretty much always start with this. I buy it at Costco, it tastes great, and is labeled gluten free. Can't beat that.

See the gluten free label- it's right there above the "All Natural". Like I said before, I love companies that label, makes my life so much easier!

This is our families favorite pasta for Italian dishes. I'd use this pasta even if I didn't have Celiac Disease, it's that good. The quinoa pasta has a lot of protein and a great texture. Rice pasta is okay, but gets a little gummier than we like. We buy this at Fred Meyer in the natural food section & I've seen it at Safeway too. Try it, you'll love it!

Reason #4085 that I love Target!

Target has just recently started to label all of their up & up brand products with a Gluten Free label if they are gluten free. I was thrilled to see this!

See, there it is. Clearly labeled so there is no confusion.

I love you Target:)

Thank You Betty Crocker!

Betty Crocker now labels all their products that do not contain gluten with a Gluten Free label. It is so nice to have an easy option when making cupcakes or cake. Or if you just want a spoonful of frosting, which we've been known to do a time or two around here!

All Better Crocker products that are gluten free will have the GLUTEN FREE label at the bottom, to the right of the information panel & under the ingredients list. They also just came out with a gluten free Bisquick that makes a really yummy cake for Strawberry Shortcake!