Grocery Outlet has gluten-free goodies

I was surprised to see quite a bit of gluten-free food when I popped in my local Grocery Outlet the other day. We found cookies, pretzels, cereal bars, and a few other snack items. And for way cheaper than you can get them anywhere else. So check it out if you have one in your neighborhood.

Chocolate raspberry trifle

Easter is upon us and this year I realized that I would have to bring dessert, if I wanted to eat dessert. I trust no-one with gluten free baking in a gluten filled kitchen. Here is a recipe for a GF trifle. Before you start, please make sure all of your ingredients are GF:

Chocolate raspberry trifle

1 pkg Pamela's chocolate cake mix (prepared)

2 pkgs (5.1oz) Jello vanilla pudding (prepared)

1 tub (8oz) Philadelphia cream cheese (softened)

2 pkgs (10oz) frozen raspberries

1/2 cup sugar

chocolate syrup

small container of fresh raspberries

Mash thawed, frozen raspberries with 1/2 cup sugar and let sit in fridge for a few hours. Prepare cake and cool. Cut cake into big bite-sized pieces. Prepare vanilla pudding as directed on package. Mix softened cream cheese together with both boxes of pudding.

(As a rule, my recipes are from memory. I do not claim to know the exact measurements I use. Use common sense and taste to add more or less of the ingredients I have used when you are layering. You may have some left over. That's okay, just eat it. :) When you are layering, be sure to spread everything to the edges so that you can see the layers through the sides of your bowl.

In a trifle dish or a tall, cylindrical bowl (preferably clear glass), put 1/3 of cut up cakein the bottom. Drizzle with chocolate syrup. Spread 1/3 of the raspberry mixture over cake. Spread 1/3 of the pudding mixture over raspberries. Repeat these steps for 3 layers. Top the last layer of pudding with fresh raspberries. Enjoy!

WOW cookies!

So we made a little trip to the WOW Baking Co. in Kent today. We picked up an order of generously donated cookies for my Celiac Disease Meetup group. The people there are great and gave us a bunch of cookies so that my whole group can try all of the flavors. BTW they have a new flavor. Oregon Oatmeal. Yeah....YUM. They are made with REAL gluten free oats. No faux oatmeal cookies there. And they have cranberries and apricots in them which makes them good for me, right? Right. :)

The little one was in heaven because they gave him a huge fresh baked cookie. I tried to finagle a few bites, but he couldn't spare much. I must say these are the best premade cookies you can buy, gluten free or not. Buy some now.

http://www.wowbaking.com/

Garlic Jims has GF pizza!

And it is so good. I have had trouble with pizza crusts at home. They weren't awful, but not great either. Well, I attended my first CD Meetup group last night and Garlic Jims donated 8 pizzas to our meeting. They are awesome. They brought all kinds of pizza and it was all fabulous. And very generous of them. The crust is thin obviously, but it's taste and texture were very "normal". They also give you the option of using feta cheese for those of you who don't eat casien....or those of you who just love feta. It is awesome that a chain restaurant, and especially a pizza place, has the social awareness to offer something like this. Way to go Garlic Jims!

http://www.garlicjims.com/

Great Harvest Bread

So I just found out that the Great Harvest Bread Company on South Hill has gluten-free bread and goodies. They only bake them on Wednesdays so that they are not baking regular bread at the same time I think. I got a loaf of fresh baked bread that is a nut and grain type bread. It is moist and sweet and most delicious. It is the only really tolerable bread I have found so far. I also picked up some cinnamon chip muffins. They are awesome. You really can't tell that you are eating GF. It turns out that a lady from my CD Meetup is great friends with the lady that owns that Great Harvest. And it is actually her bread recipe. I am so excited to have found a bread that I love. Apparently they bake different goodies from week to week because my friend said that last Wednesday she got a GF chocolate chip scone there. 3 cheers for Great Harvest!

http://www.greatharvest.com/

Son un jour splendide!

Yes, it's a great day. Because I made crepes. I am going to try to give you the recipe too, but I kinda just winged it when I was doing it. And this is so a "semi-homemade" type recipe.

What you need:

1 batch of Pamela's pancake mix, prepared by directions
2 extra eggs
1/4c to 1/2c milk (or water if you are casein free)

Prepare a batch of pancakes according to the directions on the package. You could probably use other brands too or make your own pancakes from scratch. Then you add the 2 extra eggs and mix well. Then add milk to achieve the right consistency. I really don't remember how much I added. If you have ever made crepes then you know the batter needs to be pretty runny. If you have never made crepes then I am not very helpful, sorry. Melt butter in a frying pan preheated at medium heat. Pour about a 3 inch diameter circle into the pan and quickly swirl it in circles so that the batter spreads out into a thinner, bigger circle. It may take a few tries to get the hang out swirling it. You need to be ready to swirl as soon as you pour the batter in. Cook for about 30 seconds, then loosen with a spatula and flip. Cook about 20 seconds on this side and then remove to wax paper. You can stack these with wax paper in between so they don't stick.

You can fill or top a crepe with pretty much anything you want. This is what we like to do.

Fill with Philadelphia pre-made cheesecake filling (Yes, you can buy it pre-made! I know. Yay!)
Roll up and top with thawed frozen, sweetened strawberries and syrup.
Top with whipped cream.

Delicious! And really bad for you. Enjoy!

They're everywhere, they're everywhere!!!

The only thing allowed in my house that has gluten in it is beer. That may be soon to change. My OCD nature does not seem to agree with having something that is poisonous to me sitting all over my house. When my husband drinks beer he seems to lack the common decency to throw away his caps which lay scattered about the counter. And every time I see a beer bottle I freak out. Don't let that spill, don't set that there, don't let your son touch that, don't kiss me, and so on. It's making me crazy....crazier than I already am. I may have to concede to my husbands desire to drink scotch. Ugh.

OH cupcakes

Can I just start by saying how much I love Pamela's GF baking products! They are all so good. I started off using Bob's Red Mill stuff and it's not too bad, but there is a general consensus among my GF friends and I that someone at Bob's is putting stuff in the wrong packages. Seriously, the pancakes taste like they should be muffins, the cake is like cornbread, the cornbread is actually pretty good, but we like it better as shortcake topped with strawberries and whipped cream. It's just confusing to me. Pamela's pancakes are awesome. No different from the real thing. And her chocolate cake mix is to die for! It is so moist and chocolatey and delicious. I make cupcakes and frost them with cream cheese frosting. Everyone at work gobbled them up. My daughter who is anti-GF asked if I could make her birthday cake out of it. Then my husband asked if he could take some to work and feed them to the guys that pick on him for having to go GF with me. Guess what thier wives will be buying at the store? Scrumptious!

Finally a good GF hair care line

If you are OCD like me then you probably like to make sure that your cosmetics and hair products are gluten free. I know I touch my hair a lot and I put my hands in my mouth a lot so it just makes sense to me. I used to use Designline Olive Oil shampoo and conditioner, but it has wheat right on the label. I have been using Herbal Essense, but I am more of a salon product type of gal. Well my friend works at Hair Masters and told me about the new line from Designline. It is called Pure Results. It is all GF! It is so hard to verify that cosmetics are completely gluten free, but this says it right on the bottle. You can find it at Regis Salons.

At long last my bread has arrived

So bread was kinda getting me down. All the gluten free bread I have tried have ranged from not incredibly edible to downright nasty. I thought there was no hope.

THERE IS HOPE MY FRIENDS!

I looked at Kinnikinnick gluten free food online, but they didn't list any retailers within hours of me. There white bread looked nice though so I was thinking that I might order some one day. Then I spotted it at Fred Meyer. I hadn't seen it before because it was in the frozen section of the natural foods and I am not big on tofu and other things they keep in there. I was so excited that I bought some right away. It was almost $7 and that would be the most I have spent on bread so far, but when I tried it, it was well worth every penny. It's still a bit dense like most gluten free breads, but the flavor is amazing and toasted you can't even tell the difference. At this point I am not big on sandwiches anymore, but I have the urge to make a whole loaf of toast and jam. Well....I better get on that.

Watch out

Lays has recently changed the ingredients of thier BBQ flavor Lays potato chips. The new ingredient is barley malt flour. They are no longer gluten free. Contact Frito-Lay at http://www.fritolay.com/about-us/contact-us.html and tell them what you think about thier new ingredient.

WOW

That's all I have to say about WOW Baking Company cookies.

My friend is a door to door salesman. He was out working a few weeks ago and ran into the guy who either runs the bakery or sells thier products, I don't know which. But, he gave my friend a few cookies to try and he immediately thought of me. Because they are GF of course.

Snickerdoodle- This cookie is fantastic. Moist, tasty, better that the original. They do fall apart a bit. Not like they are crumbly (they are very moist), but just like they don't stick together as well as a typical cookie. This is not conducive to a happy 2 year old. If you have a 2 year old who is neurotic and will have a major meltdown should his food break while being eaten, then by all means break them up first. Snickerdoodle is new and not available on thier website yet though you can find it in stores.

Chocolate chip- This may be the best chocolate chip cookie you have ever tasted. My 7 year old tells me that this is way better than a "regular" cookie and could I please just buy these all the time? Very moist. It tastes like it just came out of the oven. Yummy.

Peanut butter- I haven't tried this one personally. I guess they didn't have any when I went shopping. My boss who has CD also told me that these are great. I believe her. I want one now.

Ginger molasses- This cookie is great if you like ginger. I really don't. I try to be objective though and it is a good cookie. It just has a very distinct ginger flavor. If you love ginger then this is definately the cookie for you. Way more flavor than your typical mainstream ginger cookie.

Brownies- I have yet to try the brownies, but I don't doubt that they are great. If you have tried them, let me know.

You can order cookies from http://www.wowbaking.com/

Soon they will have frozen cookie dough available online too. Visit thier website and you can get a free cookie. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my Birthday. In honor of me I decided to post my favorite ice cream cake recipe. Enjoy!

You will need:

2 pkgs. GF brownie mix (for 9x9 inch pan or 1 pkg. that makes a 9x13 inch pan)

Ingredients to prepare brownies from package instructions

1 quart Gold Medal Ribbon ice cream from Baskin Robbins (or sub your favorite ice cream)

1 lb. bulk caramel

1/2 cup milk

Pkg. of 3 disposable 9x9 inch square foil pans

Prepare brownie mix as directed on package and bake in two foil pans. If you are using a 9x13 inch recipe, seperate evenly into two pans and reduce the oven temp by 25 degrees and check sooner than directed. When brownies are done place them directly into the freezer.

Let ice cream soften on the counter for 15 minutes, then spread into the remaining foil pan evenly. Freeze. When everything is frozen remove from pans and make a sandwich with ice cream in the middle of the two brownies. The foil pans are easy to bend or cut with scissors so everything comes out without breaking. The foil pans are essential! Once it is stacked, put it back in the freezer. Using a double boiler (or in my case a pan full of boiling water with a stainless steel bowl on top) melt caramels. Once they start to melt slowly stir in the 1/2 c. milk. Mix until smooth. Drizzle over your ice cream cake. Now you have the best tasting ice cream cake ever.

We made this long before we went gluten free, but I am excited to say that it tastes the same with gluten free brownie mix and it is easier to eat. With regular brownies you have to let it soften on the counter before you cam eat it. The GF brownies don't seem to freeze as hard so you can eat it directly from the freezer. YUM!

I don't like beer anyway

So, my husband is a beer drinker. He loves all kinds of beer. I call him a beer snob. He just loves it so much. Beer is the only thing allowed in my house that has gluten in it. I try to be a good wife. I can't take away his beer. I'm not sure if he really thinks it's worth it considering the fact that I chase him around telling him where to set his beer, not to knock it over, throw it away in here, wash your hands, etc. I mentioned that I have O.C.D. right?

So when I found out that there is a gluten free beer I told him he should try it. It's called Bard's Tale and it is made with Sorghum instead of Barley. We went and bought some today. He tried it and said it was okay, but not really his style. Okay, well I had to try it too. I don't like beer, I think it tastes gross. I always have. It's just not my thing. But I had to try it, right. They made it for me, right? (Yes, the world revolves around me.)

So I taste it and......uh.....YUM!

Me: Wow, this is good!
Hubby: Yeah? I thought it was okay.
Me: It doesn't have that gross...um...beer taste.
Hubby: It doesn't have the barley flavor.
Me: Yeah that. That's why it's good.
Hubby: It doesn't really taste like beer.
Me: I'm okay with that.
Hubby: It was $11.50 for a six pack.
Me: Yeah, I'm okay with that too.

So, while the guys at Bard's Tale may not have gotten my husband to convert, I think you will still find it in my fridge because they made a beer drinker out of me.

http://www.bardsbeer.com/

Yay for Sunny Valley Wheat Free

So, Sunny Valley Wheat Free is a gluten free bakery in Maple Valley, WA. Everything in the whole bakery is gluten free! They also cater to a lot of other food allergies. We made a trip there on Saturday and I was in Heaven. My son and I got doughnuts. With sprinkles! The doughnuts are great. They are more like a cake doughnut and kinda reminded me of Angel Food cake, but not as spongy. Tasted great though. We tried some different breads. I got Ola's Egg Free Loaf. It is yummy. Best gluten free bread I ever ate. And I don't eat gluten free bread. Because it's gross. But this is good. My husband is a poor unsuspecting victim of my dietary restrictions. Lucky for him they had Cheddar Jalepeno Sourdough bread. That's like his 3 favorite things in one. This bread is a bit denser than the egg free loaf, but tastes great. I also bought a blackberry torte which was delicious. I couldn't tell a difference between this torte and a glutenous one....except for maybe that this one was better.

There are so many great things at this bakery. You can get all kinds of bread, doughnuts, cookies, chocolate eclairs, tortes, quiche, pizzas, pizza crusts, ravioli, and many other things. Check it out, you won't be sorry.

http://www.sunnyvalleywheatfree.com/

Allow me to introduce myself

My name is Alia. I am 28 years old, a wife, and a mother of two. My kids are, Tanner who is 2 1/2 and Winter who is 7. Adam is my wonderful husband and the love of my life. I have Celiac Disease and Dermatitis Herpetiformis. I believe that my son also has Celiac Disease. We have gone completely gluten free in our house and are adjusting pretty well. I actually just found out I have Celiac, but have been researching it for quite some time. This is my story:

Four years ago I went to the doctor for a horrible itchy rash. She had no idea what it was, so she brought in another doc. They then decided to bring in a medical dictionary and that is where they figured that the only thing it could be was Dermatitis Herpetiformis. So they told me I needed a blood test for Celiac Disease. That came back positive so they told me I needed to go to a G.I. doc to have an intestinal biopsy. The G.I. talked to me for maybe 5 minutes, never laid a hand on me and then told me I didn't have Celiac Disease and sent me on my way. Well, obviously I was thrilled not to have it. I didn't know much about it and I didn't want to. I have learned a lot about it since then, but the one thing I didn't learn until a month ago is that if you have a positive biopsy for D.H. and a positive blood test, then you don't need an intestinal biopsy. That is a positive diagnosis in itself. And two doctors missed it. Had no clue. So, four years later I have had to diagnose myself and it explains everything that has ever been wrong with me. All these years of doctors thinking I'm crazy, not listening to me, telling me nothing's wrong. Yep, there's something wrong alright. At least I can fix it without them.

So, that's my Celiac story. Did you notice the O.C.D. part of the blog title? Yep, that's because I have O.C.D. Um, yeah, having C.D. definately makes it worse. But that's good news for you because I constantly research, call companies, dig deeper, and find anything I can to make my life easier and share that info with you so your life can be easier too! Stay tuned......