I received 3 different varieties of Enjoy Life Granola to sample & review a week or so ago.  The flavors are Cinnamon Crunch, Cranapple Crunch & Very Berry Crunch.  I had tried these granolas a while back and they were good, however, they are now “new & improved”! 

I have only had the chance to sample the Cranapple Crunch so far, but was in love.  YUM!!  I poured some over my Oikos yogurt the other day for a delicious afternoon snack!

There were big chunks of cranberries and this was very close to the granola I remember eating before having to go gluten-free.  Here is the ingredient list:

ingredients:

Brown Rice Flakes; Brown Rice Syrup; Evaporated Cane Juice; Water; Rice Bran; Dried Cranberries (Cranberries, Sugar, Sunflower Oil)*; Dried Apples*; Rice Crisps ( Rice Flour, Rice Bran, Raisin Juice Concentrate, Honey, Salt); Expeller-Pressed Vegetable Oil (Safflower Oil and/or Sunflower Oil); Natural Apple Flavor; Malic Acid; Ground Flaxseed; Rosemary Extract

NO TRANS FAT, NO ARTIFICIAL ANYTHING, VEGAN, KOSHER PAREVE, VITAMIN FORTIFIED, 23 GRAMS OR MORE OF WHOLE GRAIN PER SERVING, GLUTEN FREE, CASEIN FREE

vitamins and minerals:

Magnesium; Iron; Niacin (Vitamin B3); Zinc; Thiamin (Vitamin B1); Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5); Folate; Vitamin B6

Very impressive!  I can’t wait to break into the other 2!  I will make sure to review those flavors as well. 

I happened upon a sale on these Popcorn Clusters the other day and picked some up.  There are 3 different flavors, however, only the Cranberry Almond is gluten-free.  The label states that each serving (or pack) contains 5 grams of fiber & 20% of the RDA of calcium!  This is a bonus when you can’t do a lot of dairy products (there is dairy in this product, so beware if you have a milk allergy).  I have lactose intolerance, but am able to do small amounts of dairy with a Lactaid pill. 

I don’t know what I was expecting when I opened up this snack pack, but I was very impressed!  What a great flavor!  Reminds me of Cracker Jacks, but healthier!  I ate these as a mid-morning snack & they kept me full until lunch time.  Great snack to keep in your purse or car (if it isn’t too hot) for emergencies!  5 star review for this one!

Can’t believe that it is almost June!  That means that school is almost over & I will soon have an 8th grader & a 2nd grader!  Where does the time go?  We are getting ready to go on our beach vacation for 2 weeks in June, so I need to use up what we have in our freezer before we leave.  So, you will see a lot of things on my menu that are incorporating what I have “on hand”.  We have over 3 pounds of ground beef frozen, so that will be used in the tacos & spaghetti sauce.  I also have a lot of frozen chicken breast & some filet mignon, too.  I only plan on buying fresh fruits & veggies, milk, eggs & bread (for those that eat it) until after we get back.

Sunday ~ Burgers (sweet potato/black bean burger for me), veggies & salad

Monday ~ Filet, baked potato/sweet potato, steamed green beans & salad

Tuesday ~ Mexican Pizza/tacos, refried or black beans, corn & salad

Wednesday ~ Bourbon Chicken, steamed brown rice, broccoli & salad

Thursday~ Spaghetti & Meat Sauce, veggies & salad

Friday~ Dinner out w/friends

Saturday~ Dinner out with Mary & Mack

Baked Goods

Bread

Brownies (didn’t get to them last week)

Don’t forget to check out the Gluten-Free Menu Swap at Book of Yum.  Thanks to Sea for hosting.  Also, there are many more menu plans at Orgjunkie, too. 

I posted a fabulous review of La Tortilla Factory’s Gluten-Free Tortillas at the end of April.  I didn’t have a picture of the wrap in action, so wanted to make sure to share that now that I have a couple.  I really, really can’t say enough good things about these wraps.  They are a dream come true, as everyone who has tried numerous GF wraps knows.   

Here is one as a deli wrap w/ turkey breast, cheese, tomato & spinach (on the side I had some amazing Food Should Taste Good Sweet Potato Chips):

Then, I grilled a tuna salad burrito style wrap (not as pretty, but still, no cracking!).  This was tuna salad & spinach leaves grilled on the George Foreman:

So, don’t pass these puppies up if you run across them!  So worth the $$!

I sang the praises of Bob’s Red Mill Pizza Crust Mix a week or so ago in this post.   Imagine how fast I ran to the store when I found out it was on sale!  LOL!  I bought 2 cases of the stuff (8 mixes).  So, we enjoyed another fabulous pizza last night.

I made Jon’s the same way, though he wanted pepperoni, sadly I was out.  He had your basic marinara & extra cheese.  I got all fancy with mine.  I took a couple of chicken breast & sliced into strips & then marinated in some balsamic vinaigrette & lots of Frank’s Red Hot.  I tossed into a saute pan & cooked through.  Then I topped my side of the pizza with a tsp. or 2 of olive oil, fresh spinach leaves, sliced Roma tomatoes, the Buffalo chicken strips & some shredded provolone & mozzarella cheese.  YUM!!  Excellent pizza!  Thankfully we have leftovers slated for tonight….I can’t wait!!  🙂

One more shot….

A couple weeks back I had emailed Turkey Hill Dairy to see which flavors of ice cream were free of gluten.  I received an email back with instructions on how to find out.  The information is actually right on the web site:

“Click on the product category you are interested in (i.e. Frozen Desserts). Then click on the product line you are interested in (i.e. Premium Ice Cream). The individual flavors will be listed. Click the “More Nutritional Info” link to view the complete nutrition facts. The gluten and wheat information is listed at the bottom under the “Contains” statement or “Additional Info”

Very, very helpful.  Then, much to my surprise, a few days later I received a wonderful packet full of information from Melissa at Turkey Hill.  Not only did it have a printed gluten-free list, but also contained a bunch of coupons!!!  Thanks Melissa!!!

Check all of these out:

I got the Vanilla Bean as my first flavor and was super impressed!  Some of the best ice cream I have tasted!!  I can’t wait to try some of the others, like Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks! 

I bought these bars to snack on before my longer runs or when I am on the run & need a quick snack.  I was please with the chocolada walnut bar I had a few weeks back, so this was the next flavor choice.  It is cranberry/goji berry.  What is a goji berry?  I have no idea, so I looked it up. A goji berry is also called a wolfberry.   If you click on the link it will take you to Wikipedia to get all kinds of info. 

Some facts:

Loaded with goodness – organic dates, fig paste, cashews, dried sweetened cranberries, goji berries, orange peel, lemon juice concentrate and orange oil.

Made with love and …

Organic dates, organic fig paste, organic cashews, organic dried sweetened cranberries (organic cranberries, organic evaporated cane juice, organic sunflower oil), organic goji berries, organic dried orange peel, organic lemon juice concentrate, organic orange oil.

Upon taking my first bite of this bar, it reminded me of a Fig Newton!  I was surprised & pleased!  Love Fig Newtons, but as you all know, they are not gluten-free.  There were lots of other yummy flavors in the bar, including orange & cranberry.  This bar ROCKED!!  I will definitely be purchasing it again.  It also held me over until lunch…about 2 hours or so. 

I was doing some quick grocery shopping last week when I happened upon a sale on Purely Decadent Ice Cream made by Turtle Mountain.  For a small pint, it is normally $5.99 and it was on sale for $2.50!!  I saw that the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough had “Gluten-Free” written all over the package.  Score!  I picked up 2 pints and was on my way.  Here are some stats on this product:

The true test was going to be, how does it taste?  Well, I dug in and WOW!  What an amazing taste!  It doesn’t taste just like ice cream, but it is amazing.  Very creamy.  The flavor of the chocolate chip cookie dough is spot on.  Jon was the one to eat the majority of the ice cream & he loved it!!  5 stars from us!!! 

**Note:  this product is made with soy.  They do have coconut milk based ice creams as well, though the GF status is not clear on all of them, only the cookie dough. 

I needed to make a quick dessert last Saturday, so I turned to an old favorite.  This is a dessert that I first made when I was 13 or 14 years old (Jon’s age!).  I pulled out a frozen pie crust from Whole Foods Bakehouse. 

Nestle’ Toll House Chocolate Chip Pie

1 unbaked pie shell (I used Wh0le Foods Bakehouse GF Pie Crust)

2 large eggs

1/2 cup GF Flour (I used Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts (I omitted this b/c I didn’t have enough)

Sweetened whipped cream or ice cream for topping (I used Cool Whip in a can)

Preheat oven to 325.

Beat eggs in large mixing bowl on high speed until foamy.  Beat in flour, sugar & brown sugar.  Beat in butter.  Stir in chocolate chips & nuts.  Spoon into pie shell.

Bake for 55 to 6o minutes or until knife inserted halfway between the center & the edge comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack.  Serve warm w/ whipped cream or ice cream.

**I baked for about 50 minutes.  Keep a close eye on this.  Mine almost looked overdone on the top, but was perfect. 

**If you don’t want all the chips to sink to the bottom, either use mini chocolate chips or dust with GF flour or cocoa. 

This was a huge hit.  I forgot just how simple & delicious this dessert is.  The only bad thing….Jon dropped the last 2 pieces on the floor!! ACK!!  I was almost in tears. 

This was one of my favorite desserts growing up.  I know, I had a lot of favorites.  😉  A girl can’t help her sweet tooth!!  I found that this was extremely easy to convert to gluten-free.  Really, the crust was all I had to change. 

Pistachio Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

1 ¼ cups flour (I used Pamela’s GF Baking Mix)

½ cup chopped pecans

8 oz. Cream cheese (softened)

1 cup powdered sugar

8 oz. Carton of Cool Whip

2 small pkg. Pistachio Instant Pudding Mix

3 cups milk

1. Making the Crust:

Blend melted stick of butter, 1 ¼ cups of flour & pecans. Spread in a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. ***Note…Kelly recommends doubling the recipe for the crust b/c it is too thin otherwise. I used an 8 x 11 pan and didn’t double. Bake 15-20 minutes at 350 or until light golden brown. COOL COMPLETELY!

2. Making the Cheesecake Filling:

Mix 8 oz. Softened cream cheese and 1 cup powdered sugar. Then fold in

½ carton of Cool Whip. Spread on top of cooled crust. Refrigerate for 30

minutes.

3. Topping:

Mix 2 small packages of pudding mix with 3 cups of milk. Beat for 2

2 minutes. Pour on top of cooled filling. Chill until set & then top with

remaining Cool Whip.

I served this at our Mother’s Day function & it got rave reviews, even from those who don’t have to eat GF.  I absolutely love this stuff.  If you want, you could even experiment with other flavors of pudding such as, chocolate, lemon, coconut…..the list is endless!