LOVE YOU BETTY CROCKER

I wrote about this the other day, but now there is a link & a lovely picture!

PS - Update on Paris coming soon!

Paris-bound - TODAY.

Hello all... I am literally bouncing around in my chair at my office waiting for the clock to JUST MOVE FASTER. It's 12:15 now, and at 3 I'm heading to the airport to go to PARIS. I'll be sure to fill you all in when I get back.

Also - I need to tell you all about the fantastic dining experience we had at NEBO last week! Three gluten free gals and I headed over there for dinner and it was SO AMAZING. I'm working on a massive post, but if you're feeling like it - head to NEBO in Boston this weekend for gluten free pizza, pasta, fried calamari, and Redbridge!

Also -- THANK YOU to Erin at Gluten Free With a Purpose to "Z" Gluten Free From A to Z for giving me the Attitude of Gratitude award! I love that people out there think I'm making lemonade from lemons, and I really do love being able to share all of these great (and not so great) gluten free finds with you all!!

I'm going to pass this on next week, but for now... au revoir! voyez-vous la semaine prochaine!

Best Gluten Free Cupcakes I've ever made

Ahh cupcakes, I didn't realized I missed you so, until I took a bite of one of these. Thanks to the genius that is Better Batter mix - I have created the most delicious cupcake. And it was SO easy. Too easy almost. I want to make more, but I'm afraid it was a fluke and I'll never be able to re-create them. 

Here's the recipe (found it online somewhere, just did a search for regular cupcakes, and substituted):

2 cups gluten free all purpose flour mix (preferably Better Batter)

1.5 cups sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 egg whites from large eggs

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup 2% milk

2 large eggs

1.5 tsp vanilla

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, shortening, milk and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Mix at low speed for 2 minutes. Scrape bowl. Add egg whites and eggs and mix at high speed until fluffy and smooth, approx. 2 minutes.

Fill liners 1/2 to 2/3 full of batter. Do not overfill. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 10 minutes in pans then remove from pan & place on wire racks to cool completely. Frost & decorate as desired.

For the frosting, I just did a quick Buttercream Vanilla with butter, confectionary sugar, a bit of milk and a bit of vanilla. It was perfect. I'm drooling after writing this post.

Another new GF Find

When I was at that natural food store in Reading, MA this was another product I hadn't seen before. I've been eating a lot of wraps as of late, and this one is definitely a winner.

Made by La Tortilla Factory - these Sonoma brand wraps are made with whole grain ivory teff. Teff is a gluten free grain that is high in protein giving each wrap 2g protein and 3g of fiber. You can check out more nutritional information here. 

I found these frozen, took them home and kept them in my fridge.... After two weeks - they were still rolling up without breaking! Here is the proof in the form of that breakfast roll-up I mentioned a few weeks ago:

Wrap, egg whites mixed with salsa and onions, rinsed black beans, avocado slices and drizzled with lemon. Sooo good, healthy & filling.

Newish (to me) Gluten Free Pizza place in Boston!

90 north washington st • boston, ma 02113 617.723.nebo (6326)

I was online the other day (procrastinating of course, I can literally get lost in the world of blogs for hours, it's bad)... ANYWAY - found a restaurant located right next to the North End in Boston, AND, very close to my office called NEBO that serves gluten free pasta, pizza, etc!!!! REJOICE!

Sadly, I haven't had time to get there to try it.... but perhaps a gluten free girls trip is in order SOON?

I'll be sure to report back. Hopefully the pizza is good -- either way, this is the first place to serve GF pizza in Boston (besides Unos).

Their menu doesn't mention gluten free, but I saw this video on Boston.com where they talk about offering a gluten free options.

Trader Joe's GF/DF English Muffins

I was SO PSYCHED when I saw a new gluten free product at Trader Joe's last week. It's funny - every time I go, I check the bread area hoping to see something new, and never have, until now.

And even better than just finding something new - I actually really like them! I'm not sure I like them as much as Glutino or Joan's -- but I'm sure they are cheaper - I can't remember the price, but it was under $5.

So here is a picture story of my beloved breakfast sandwich:

Better Batter - and really good banana bread

When I was at that natural foods store in Reading, MA -- I saw a new box that was not familiar to me - Better Batter. A pre-mixed gluten free flour containing rice and brown rice flours, tapioca starch, potato starch, potato flour, xanthan gum, and pectin. I was going to try to mix my own gf pre-made mix - but I don't really bake all that much. I had a big bag of Tom Sawyer GF Mix that lasted me about 2 years.... Plus, I've gotta say - i was drawn to this packaging. You don't see much clean, fresh packaging in the gluten free world - and this drives me crazy. 

So props to better batter for both a cute box -and an even cuter website -- speaking of which, definitely check it out - they have tons of really great looking recipes.

Anyway - I had only dug into the 2lb bag I bought one other time to make some beef stew - so last night, I had some very rotten bananas so I decided to make some banana bread. I used Mark Bittman's recipe from "How to Cook Everything" (no surprise here, I only use this book as of late - and it never fails!)

Anyway -- I used 2.5 cups of the Better Batter, and also used 1/2 cup of just brown rice flour - and OH MAN -- by far, the best tasting banana bread I have ever made. I've had a string of bad luck with baking as of late, and this was delicious! Even matt went back for seconds and thirds - which definitely means it was great - and NO weird gluten free taste at all.