Yummy dinner!

Thanks to JILLIAN for this awesome present...two boxes of gluten free mac and cheese from a recent trip to Trader Joes!! Jillian, a great friend I met at work, is just AWESOME and sooo generous! She always finds me little goodies...and I love her for it!!

I have a pot of water with one box of the noodles a'boilin' downstairs and can't wait to eat it! After that I am off for a pedicure...a silly indulgence, I know ;). It is in preparation for our trip to AZ on Thursday...my biggest trip yet while gluten free! It'll be an adventure, I am sure...but I am up for it! :) Time to go consume said mac and cheese....have a lovely night, all!

Some new favorite products...and an old favorite as well!

First, a sweet treat: Mi-Del brand gluten-free ginger snaps! I originally bought these from our local Meijer grocery store with the intent of keeping them on hand to use to make a graham-cracker style crust for a pie or cheesecake (I had read that gluten-free gingersnaps are a good substitution for making a gluten-free version of these kinds of crusts)...but I ended up opening the bag out of curiosity and loved them! It's a pretty big bag of them, so I think they will last me a while ;). I do, though, plan on purchasing a fresh bag at some point in the not-so-distant future to try to make a crust for some kind of delicious dessert! Don't worry, I will keep you informed :).

Next, Blue Diamond Naturals' Almond Nut Thin crackers...Jeremy's mom had these on hand for me this past weekend during our visit to their house. I had previously tried the Cheddar variety, and they were decent. The Almond ones, though, are fantastic! I really like them a lot. The are light, airy, and perfectly salty. They are great plain, or with cheese or peanut butter. I would definitely recommend them! There are other varieties as well (including Pecan and Hazelnut), but so far I have only tried the Almond and Cheddar. They sound great, though, so I will probably have to indulge myself at some point!! :)

Third...here's tonight's dinner: De Boles' Gluten Free Rice Pasta and Cheese (or, gluten free macaroni and cheese!). Consensus? Not bad...in fact, it's pretty darn good! I am enjoying some right now as I type, in fact! This afternoon I was at a child's home that was literally down the street from Kroger, so I stopped in to buy some Boar's Head deli turkey (gluten free, all natural, and fabulous!!). I noticed that they had a natural foods section, so I meandered by and found tons of gluten free products, including this! I have seen, purchased, and enjoyed De Boles brand pastas before, but never the macaroni and cheese variety! I had high hopes and, while it's no Kraft ;), it didn't disappoint. This product, as with many other gluten free products, reminds me that I need to remember to separate the gluten free from the gluten-ous...meaning, if I tell myself "I am eating rice pasta with all-natural cheese sauce" and not "I am eating something that should taste like Kraft macaroni and cheese...but doesn't"...things really aren't that bad.

Last...also during my trip to Kroger, I found 3 new varieties of Larabars! I bought Banana Bread, Key Lime Pie, and Lemon Bar...we'll see!! :)

Have a lovely day, all! I am off to enjoy the rest of my delicious pasta!! :)

if anyone reading this is from Bloomington, note that the Kroger I am referring to is the Kroger on College, not Oakland....they seem to have a better selection! The natural foods are behind the produce department and the gluten free foods are mixed in with the non-gluten-free foods, for example the crackers are located in the "Crackers" section, and not in a specific "gluten-free" section, the pasta in the pasta section...and so on. Enjoy! And GO KROGER!! (They are cheaper than Meijer and Naturally Yours, too! :))

Lately...

First...I have successfully made it through 25 gluten-free days! Today is day 26 and I am still going strong. I think once I heard something about new habits...and if you do whatever you want to become your "new habit" for 21 days, it becomes a habit. Maybe that's way off. But, whatever, that's what's in my head right now...so I will just make myself think I have successfully formed a new habit...living gluten-free!

Let's see. Monday night after a long day at work (I left around 6:30), I came home and decided to make gluten-free home-made baked macaroni and cheese. I found a recipe in my trusty Carol Fenster book and got to work. I used corn elbow noodles I had purchased from Naturally Yours earlier that morning when I was on my way back to work from an offsite visit with a kiddo I had. It took a while, naturally, to make the sauce (basically rice milk, tapioca flour, a ton of cheese, and a tiny dash of hot sauce), but finally the big caserole dish full of cheesy noodles, topped with gluten-free bread crumbs...was in the oven! I was really pumped up, as I had been craving macaroni and cheese. Well, we were both sorely disappointed. It was terrible! We think the problem was the corn noodles....and maybe the tapioca flour in the cheese sauce. They tasted funky and were an odd texture. I felt terrible, but we threw away the whole thing. It was bad. Bad, bad, bad! I almost cried...and I definitely sat on the couch and sulked for a while. It was so frustrating to waste ALL of that TIME and MONEY on those ingredients! Jeremy pointed out that I can't win every time...but I still want to! I stopped sulking long enough to get ready to go to the gym...so off we went. I felt MUCH better after an intense workout. And, after I got back I popped some popcorn with our stove popper. I don't think I have mentioned yet how much I LOVE popcorn. It has seriously become the biggest staple of my diet in the past 3 weeks! Our stove-top popper gets quite the workout!

So, also on Monday...my friend AWESOME Jillian from work informed me early that morning that she had a treat for me. She led me to her office and pulled from her purse two bars and a cookbook she had checked out from the library for me...Gluten Free and Easy. How awesome is she?!

The bars...oh my gosh. They are AWESOME! They are called Larabars. Click on the link to check them out! She got me two different flavors: Peanut Butter Cookie, and Cherry Pie. I ate the Peanut Butter Cookie one that morning and I ate the Cherry Pie one yesterday morning! The Peanut Butter Cookie one seriously tasted like a peanut butter cookie...and the only ingredients were dates, peanuts, and salt! Are you kidding me!? These bars are AWESOME and have MINIMAL ingredients..and are all natural and organic!

When I went to Naturally yours later Monday morning to purchase the nasty corn noodles for that nights doomed dinner, I also looked around for Larabars. I found some...but not the Peanut Butter Cookie flavor, unfortunately! I purchased a Pecan Pie one, and also two Jocolate chocolate bars also made by Larabar...check them out below!

YUM! I can't wait to try those last three! Which one should I eat today?!