"Apple Pie" Oatmeal

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1 cup GF Oats (I use bob's red mill quick-cooking oats)
2 cups water
2 chopped Macintosh apples
1 tbsp ground flax
1 splash gf vanilla
dash of salt
about a tsp or so of appie pie spice
another dash of cinnamon
top with brown sugar
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GF Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

It's been ages since I've posted! Work has been crazy, been traveling quite a bit for fun and work, and now I think things are getting back to normal!

I've been cooking quite a bit since the weather has gotten cooler, I'll be sure to share!

My favorite thing I've made in the past two weeks? These babies:


Umm, yum. Look at how light & fluffy there are too! We had a TON of apples from going apple picking, and after making an apple cake (that didn't turn out that good actually) and an apple pie, these sounded like a great idea - and they were. Sooo good. I'm not sure why I never thought to make this before?

We used the Gluten Free Bisquick, then chopped up the apples into little pieces, sprinkled them on the cakes, then sprinkled a little cinnamon mixed with sugar on top, like so:


I am definitely making these again in the very near future.

Food for Life Gluten Free English Muffins!

I was browsing the frozen gluten free section at Whole Foods the other day and saw these:

Yay! New GF product find! Of course I bought them, I couldn't resist. The price was also a good selling point. These were $5.49 at Whole Foods, compared to Glutino's english muffins that were $6.50-ish, and then compare to my fave english muffins (Joan's) at $13!

I haven't been buying Joan's lately, it's just too extravagent to pay that much for them, even though I love them. Ooh, I almost forgot, I really like Trader Joes GF/DF english muffins (wrote about them here) but don't have a Trader Joe's that is convenient to my new house :(

Woah, side-track.... anyway, Food for Life's Multi-Seed english muffins are really good! They definitely have the nooks & crannies goin' on:


And the flavor is really good. The seeds may be throwing the taste off a little, but I like it. They're a little bit dry too, I over-toasted my first one and it got a little too crunchy. My next one I microwaved to de-frost, then lightly toasted, and that one was much better.

I, of course, had a lovely ham, egg & cheese on mine:


Check out to see if these are near a store near you with their store finder.

Better Batter Giveaway!

I have been totally M.I.A with the blog - busy summer so far! Still getting settled into our new home and my sister got married last weekend! So I've been at shower/bachelorette/wedding for a few weekends...And now it's over :(

Anyway - I have some great reviews and a giveaway from BetterBatter! One of my faves! :)

They were recently kind enough to send me their new Pancake/Waffle Mix, some All Purpose Mix (of which I am already a loyal user) and their new Brownie Mix!

Here's a few pics & things I made.... The Pancake & Waffle Mix is awesome. Great flavor - very thick & fluffy pancakes. My only gripe with the Kinnik brand is they are very thin, so this is perfect! I had to experiment with the amount of liquid a little bit, on the first try, too thick: But I got them right after adding a little more milk into the batter, and ended up with delicious fluffy cakes! On the instructions it gives you options to add a little liquid up to a certain measure. I did the full measure plus a little & got them the way I like 'em. YUM. Excellent!

We also finally got to try out our waffle maker we got from the wedding! The waffles were PERFECT. Crunchy, excellent flavor, tasted delish with some syrup & sausages. OMG, I can barely write this I'm drooling. So, I'm a big fan of this new mix! I also made the brownie mix and to be honest, I ate the whole tray and didn't get a chance to take a picture! I don't even usually like brownies, but these were really really good. Again, excellent flavor - texture is a tad grainy at first, but not anything you would notice -- my husband actually asked if they were gluten free (like i'd make a whole tray of brownies non GF just for him - yeah right!) so, that's a good sign. We made some Brownie sundaes a couple of hot nights that were quite decadent. So much for dieting!

As for this All Purpose Mix.... This has been my go-to mix for a little over a year. I've posted about it before. It's great. It's worked in everything I've used it for. A few items:

I posted the Banana bread & cupcakes in the past. Both awesome. Last week I whipped together a quick dinner of Chicken & Capers. I dipped the chicken in egg white, then dredged in a very light Better Batter coating & fried in the pan. I removed the chicken & cooked shallots with white wine, a little butter, capers and lemon, then put the chicken back in for a bit - then poured over rice. Super quick & easy, and it's really delicious!

SO.... I'd like to offer these items to you!!! Please leave a comment and I will randomly pick a winner on MONDAY, June 28th! I will post who wins and we'll be in touch so I can ship the All Purpose mix, brownie mix, and pancake/waffle mix to you!

So exciting! My first giveaway!! Good luck :)

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.

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:

Best GF Store-Bought Bread I've found....STERK'S

OK -- who has had this before, and why have you been hiding it from me?

I was in Reading, MA at this cute little place in Reading, MA called The Natural Food Exchange and found quite a few GF products that I had never seen before, that I had to buy.

The best one - was Sterk's Italian Bread.

WOW - this is definitely the closest to real bread flavor & texture (when toasted only) that I have found. AND - there are like no calories or fat*, and there is some protein & fiber. Look, there's 7 ingredients in this bread:

I'm not sure how they get it to taste so good... or get the texture so spot on. Look at this delicious breakfast sandwich:

I mean c'mon -- looks like real toast. Needless to say, I ate the entire loaf in 4 days... and now I'm sad that I've run out, and don't have anywhere near me that sells it.

* I am exaggerating when I say "no" fat or calories - but it was really really low for both. Since I devoured the bag, I threw out the packaging and forgot to write it down. Sterk's doesn't have a website, but I found their products for sale here.

I heart you General Mills!

Saw THIS online today!  YAY. Great to see General Mills removing useless gluten from beloved cereal.

Breakfast..... again.

I feel like I often blog about breakfast... I'm not sure why. I always cook dinner, every night, but do I write about it? Rarely. I am definitely a morning person. I get up extra early to make a nice breakfast, drink my tea, watch the Today Show, and do some household chores. I usually don't get into work until 9:30 or 10, unless I have an early meeting.

At the end of the day I just want to relax. So I tend to have little to no motivation to take pictures of my food. During the day I also mentally plan all of these different productive activities for my evening - gym, wii, tv shows, dinner, dvd guitar lessons, wedding planning, crocheting, reading.... And when it comes down to it - It is usually just a workout (hopefully at the gym, or using the Wii Fit, or doing situps on my living room floor), making dinner, a TV show or three, and reading in bed. I really need to swap a TV show for guitar lessons/playing!

Anyway.... this weekend was an especially good breakfast, because it was made, with love, by 

my lovely friend whom I was visiting in NY. She told me she got some GF Rice tortillas from Trader Joes... and I brought an avocado with me (for fear of it going bad before I got back home) so she made me an egg white, avocado, black bean rollup.

Can I just say - this is really the most delicious combo! I can't believe I've never put these things together. Halfway through it I decided I should take a phone pic so I could document this goodness, and her cute plate:

Egg White/Avocado/Black Bean Rollup

3 egg whites

1/4 cup canned organic black beans (rinsed first)

onions

roasted red peppers

1/2 fresh avocado

bit of salt & pepper

Spray pan - cook onions until soft, add egg whites, beans, red peppers and cook (either scramble or try to keep together in omlette form to fit in tortilla)... place inside tortilla and place avocado slices on top of eggs, roll up, and serve! It actually held together pretty well but it was dripping onto the plate and rather messy, so I eventually had to eat it with a fork & knife... Here's the inside:

Blackberry pics again -- sorry! I forgot my camera!

Oatmeal Pancakes

Over the past week, I have been working on trying to get this recipe right, and I think I did it.

The original recipe is in Joy's LIFE Diet Book -- which we are attempting (poorly) to follow.... but of course, I had to change it a bit to be gluten free. It called for instant oats, so first try, I just followed exactly what was in the book and switched out instant oats for gluten free. Didn't quite work, it didn't hold together, we also used the wrong pan, it looks like a crepe:

Then I modified the recipe a bit -- used the GF Oats, but added a spoonful of pumpkin - and about 1/2 tbsp of gf all-purpose mix, much better consistency - we also used a smaller round pan: 

Third time was a charm... added more pumpkin, and a heaping tbsp of pancake mix, and we got a nice big delicious pancake with a great texture (the forkful at the top of the page is the winning pancake:

 

Gluten Free Oat Pancake

4 egg whites (whisk for a few minutes)

1/2 cup of gluten free oats

Heaping spoonful of pumpkin (no sugar added!) add as much as you like

1/2 tbsp vanilla - or more if you like

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp pancake mix 

1 tbsp granulated sugar

Mix everything together in a bowl -- spray a pan with cooking spray and pour in mixture. Edges will start to look finished just like a pancake - flip, cook until done -- only takes about 8 minutes or so. Finish with light syrup or whatever you like!

Hope you enjoy it -- it's incredibly filling & healthy too!