If Only...

I "like" so many pages on Facebook dealing with Celiac disease and Gluten-free everything. One of those pages is Schar, a brand of gluten-free products. They had a giveaway for a free sample of their Ciabatta rolls. When they came in, I made some simple turkey sandwiches. They were amazing -- just turkey, bread, mayo, and tomato. This was the first gluten-free bread product that I found I can tolerate, and they weren't just tolerable, they were great! My problem is that nobody sells them here. So as of now, the only way for me to get them is to order straight from the Schar website. I refuse to pay $5 for 4 little rolls and then $10 in shipping. I'm busting my butt trying to get them stocked at my local grocery stores. Here's hoping that works, because I miss eating bread!!

If only....

Peanut Butter M&M Cookie Goodness

I found a recipe online for some extremely simple peanut butter cookies. 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, and 1 egg. Like I said, extremely simple but oh so yummy. I decided to add in some m&m's to make them a little more exciting and added a dash of vanilla as well for some extra flavor. They turned out amazing.

Absent-minded Chef

On Monday, three people close to my heart lost their mother. I have known these three siblings and their mother since I was 15 years old. The funeral was this morning, and naturally I attended to be there for my friends during this horrible time. After the funeral, I came home to get my Loaded Baked Potato Soup into the crock pot. I spent about 30 minutes peeling and cubing potatoes and dicing onions. I got all the ingredients into the crock pot and turned it on. About an hour later, I wanted to go check on it and noticed I didn't plug the crock pot in. FAIL!!!! I plugged it in and decided to go out to dinner. The soup wasn't going to be ready until 9 pm and that's too late to be sitting down to dinner, especially with a toddler in the house. The soup will have to wait until tomorrow. Nevertheless, the soup looks great!

Absent-mindedness can get the best of anyone

A Setback

For the past two months, I have spent countless hours looking at various websites for gluten-free recipes. Most of these websites have been designed with nothing but gluten-free recipes. So, when I was looking at the Crock Pot Girls website, I completely forgot that I was looking at a normal website and needed to pay attention to ingredients. I found several recipes, one being Enchiladas. Anyone who knows me, knows how obsessed I am with Mexican food. Naturally, this was the first recipe I decided to try -- and it was amazing!

About an hour after I finished eating, my stomach started to hurt. After that, came the horrible headache. After two trips to the bathroom, I suddenly remembered what I had done with the recipe websites. I immediately looked at the ingredients and found that two of them are not gluten-free. Well, great. No wonder I was not feeling well. I packed up the leftovers and took them next door to my very eager and grateful next door neighbors. I won't make that mistake again! I must find another recipe for enchiladas that is completely gluten-free

Oh how I will miss you, enchiladas!

The night wasn't all bad. I cleaned out my crock pot and decided to try the White Hot Chocolate recipe I got from the same site. After triple checking the ingredients, I was happy to see that it was completely gluten-free. This was another very simple recipe that only called for 4 ingredients. 

White Bliss

Chebe Dogs

For those not familiar with gluten-free products, you probably have no idea what Chebe is. Chebe is a brand of bread mix. Thankfully it's not too expensive -- just $2.99 a box. I decided to try the cheese bread mix for this one as suggested by a page I follow on Facebook. Again, this was a very simple thing to make and well worth it!

You just make the mix as the box states, obviously omitting the cooking part until you have the hot dogs wrapped. Then wrap the hot dogs in sort of a swirl like a snake wrapped around it's prey. Then bake for about 20 minutes until the bread is starting to brown.

These were so good! And perfect for a pre-trick or treat dinner. Bella, my friend Sara, and I each had two! Some other friends of mine joined us trick or treating and tried one of the remaining Chebe dogs. They weren't fans of the breading. They're also not in the need of a gluten free diet. I do realize that gluten-free bread has a very different taste to it. It took me about a month to get used to it, and I'm still having to work towards some of the bread options out there. So, ok, these aren't so great for the non-gluten-free eaters out there. But if you're gluten-free, I definitely suggest you try these!

CHEBE!!!!!!!!

A Very Gabba Halloween

Forgive me in advance as there will be several posts this evening. I have tried many new things this past week and just haven't had a chance to blog about them.

For Halloween, I decided to finally try the Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake mix. I decided to go ahead and do cupcakes and decorate them with the colors from Yo Gabba Gabba. The cupcakes themselves contained red, pink, yellow, blue, and red, and I iced them with vanilla frosting that I dyed orange.

I opened the box and started mixing ingredients before I realized that I needed two teaspoons of vanilla extract, which naturally I didn't have. Thankfully my next door neighbor was home and had some vanilla she let me use. Thanks Shelly!!!!

The mix was very self explanatory and easy. The cupcakes were amazing! I definitely found the mix I will be using for Bella's birthday next month. Although, I think  I'm going to go with chocolate frosting or something other than vanilla. Vanilla on vanilla was just too much.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

Update/Vent

Wow. I haven't posted in a week. I haven't tried anything exciting this past week, so I guess that's why I haven't posted much. I've cooked some pretty normal meals, and we've gone out to eat a bunch. I did try a new pizza place as suggested by a friend. The gluten free pizza was okay....the one I made with the Wholesome Foods Bakery crust was better, and cheaper.

I'm starting to get more and more frustrated with the added cost of eating gluten free. I used to be able to spend very little at the grocery store. So, to save money, I'm trying to avoid buying the special foods as much as possible. There is still a lot that Bells and I can eat that costs normal prices. Obviously things like bread, pasta, pretzels, and pizza I will have to buy gluten free...but as I said, I'm trying to avoid eating those things as much as possible.

I did try the other brand of gluten free cake mix. It was decent. Today, I bought Betty Crocker's gluten free Vanilla Cake Mix. I will cook that this week, so stay tuned for that post.

Tomorrow before taking Bells on her first trick or treating adventure, I'm making Chebe dogs. I saw this idea on a gluten free Facebook page I follow. You take Chebe gluten free cheese bread mix, and wrap it around a hot dog. Bake and eat! So I'll be posting that soon too. I'm so excited to try these. It's like a new take on corn dogs. If they're good, I will most likely serve these at Bella's birthday party in December.