Happy Halloween

Ready for trick-or-treaters.

London broil roast with mashed potatoes and corn - a hearty meal for a perfect fall night.

Ghostly Pines red wine with fall colored peanut butter M & Ms.

Backup bags ready.

Full bowl of full sized candy bars for the neighbor kids. (Some gluten free and some gluten-full candy.)

 Uncle Sam reporting for duty.

Lady Liberty a.k.a according to one small girl...Barbie.

And Minnie Mouse!

The Way Fall Should Be

During September and October, we spent four weekends out of town. Four out of eight weekends we weren't home; 50% of the time we were gone if you didn't get the math the first time. While I loved going to Dallas twice and Michigan two times, it felt good to be home this weekend and to know the next couple of weekends we would be here as well.

While I'm happy to be home, last weekend was fun and memorable! We were able to spend time with friends and family.

Wedding fun.

Me and the Hubby

Tailgating at MSU

Gorgeous fall! Trees actually changing color...I miss fall so much living in the south.

Justin and Jett looking at planes.

 The banks of the red cedar

My whole family was at tailgate

Sparty and an MSU win over Wisconsin.

We picked up an exhausted, clean dog from the pet resort complete with a Halloween bandana who was excited to see her ma and pop.

Looking at my pictures, I can't believe I didn't take any GF food ones! There were so many great food memories too. A GF wedding meal and my sister, Kristen stopped by to generously bring me snacks, GF beer, and an Udi's bagel. Tailgating was filled with GF goodies and late night GF pizza from Cottage Inn. And on Sunday, a GF brunch at my sister, Jill's house. Thank you to everyone who provided me with treats to eat on the weekend out of town; it is most definitely appreciated and made the trip that much easier. So my recap of the weekend focuses on what mattered the most, seeing my wonderful family and friends.

15 days since my last post?!?

So I said I would post about these amazing pumpkin cookies:

And I seem to be a broken record the last couple months:

I'm busy, busy, busy!

Justin used this recipe, but he substituted the the regular wheat flour for Cup 4 Cup flour from Williams-Sonoma.

He didn't make the frosting either and chose Pillsbury Cream Cheese frosting.

I thought the frosting was the perfect compliment, especially since it's GF!

They were soft, puffy cookies! I L-O-V-E soft cookie...I was so proud of my hubby for baking these for me. They had a good consistency and the Cup 4 Cup flour was a good substitute in this recipe.

I wouldn't share them with anyone either! (I'm usually not that greedy.)

Now I'm inspired to try more recipes with the Cup 4 Cup flour! And try more recipes with pumpkin.

Pumpkin-mania

We tried pumpkin Woodchuck Hard Cider at the Gluten Free Expo in Dallas. This past weekend we saw some of the limited production available at Central Market and couldn't resist!

It's the perfect fall drink. It tasted like original Woodchuck but with strong hints of rich pumpkin flavorings.

I know this is blurry, but you can see the turkey and duck pictures...it supposedly pairs perfectly with the two birds. I may have to buy us some more to eat with Thanksgiving (which seems far away, but will be here before we know it.)

My husband surprised me tonight while I was at class, and he baked me some pumpkin cookies! I never knew my husband could bake, let alone bake GF. I'll post the recipe later this week. But for now, I leave your mouth watering...because they were soft, moist, and delicious.

Belly Flop, I Think Not

I'm ready to admit I have a problem, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to fix it.

I am a candyholic.

(As seen here, here, here, and here.)

I couldn't pass these up when we recently saw them at Big Lots:

Belly Flop Jelly Bellys

The Irregular Jelly Beans

With weird shapes and colors - all the "rejected" beans

But still the same great flavor of Jelly Bellys

Without the hefty price tag!

This 1 pound bag was only 3 dollars.

And Gluten Free

Yum

P.S. When I eat Jelly Bellys if I don't like a flavor, I won't eat it...I put it back in the bag. Eventually I'm left with a bag of Buttered Popcorn and Black Licorice Jelly Beans.

Rest of Weekend Trip

Last Saturday night we went out to dinner at Kenichi in Dallas to celebrate my birthday.

Justin tried some different Sakes.

I, on the other hand, had a sake mixed drink which was similar to a mojito.

We started with an appetizer: fried rice with pork belly - that we ate with chopsticks only! We were chopstick champs. It may have took us a while, but slowed down our eating for sure.

We participated in a Sake bomb world record!

We shared two sushi rolls. The Mean Green - which had some spicy sauces I couldn't eat, but Justin could enjoy.

Miami Roll - wrapped in cucumber in a vinaigrette, that was so delicious. I could fully enjoy this one with out skipping out a part of it.

Birthday gelato!

Happy Birthday to me!

After dinner we went to the bar area to watch the Tigers's game. We happened to run into Don Nelson, former NBA player and coach.

We enjoyed a few beverages with him

The next day we had tickets to the Lions versus Cowboys game. We had amazing seats.

And were able to see an amazing game, where the Lions came from behind. I love seeing Dallas fans in silence!

So...even the cheerleaders came pretty close to us.

Go Lions!

Cowboy Stadium view as we walked to our car after the game.

Homework Break

I told Justin I had a ton of homework to do this weekend, so we had to lay low. I have a literature review due in 2 weeks and haven't really started yet, so I had to spend some time this weekend working on it. Even though I've been reading on and off all day, I have yet to write anything. In fact, I still need to read through a few more articles before I commence writing.

My birthday was on Thursday the 29th of September, so last weekend we went to Dallas for my 27th birthday, the GF Expo, and the Lions vs. Cowboys football game. The weekend was awesome!

We opted to fly there because we scored a great deal on plane tickets. The only bad part was that we left Saturday morning at 6:00 am! Here's Justin on the bus to the rental car place.

We started off breakfast at the Kozy Kitchen. We arrived before they even opened, but needed a full breakfast before we hit up the Expo.

Justin ordered the "Hangover Helper" which consisted of grass fed buffalo, eggs, basil guacamole, and mushrooms. Although we weren't hungover, it was fresh, delicious, and filling. We actually could've shared this because both of our choices were huge.

Our breakfasts were filling because they were packed with fresh vegetables. I ordered the "Veggie Connection" which was an open-face omelet stacked with various in-season vegetables. Yes, I ordered eggs! I've been eating eggs a little bit more, as long as their masked with plenty of "stuff" like vegetables or meat.

Then we made our way over to the Gluten and Allergen Free Expo. We bought tickets for the vendor fair to check out different products.

I only took a few pictures...I probably could've taken one at each booth. I ate so many samples of sweets and junk food that was all GF! These chicken tenders were awesome! They are even at Disney World; I think Justin and I will need a trip to Disney World soon.

Dallas area Subway's have gluten free buns! The other day in class, it seemed everyone around me was eating Subway...how I longed for one after smelling everyone's sandwiches.

Who doesn't love Woodchuck cider? They even had a new pumpkin, which is the perfect fall drink. In fact, we picked some up after dinner last night at Central Market. I was able to enjoy one today!

Like I said, I didn't get pictures of all my favorite booths. I signed up for a two year subscription for Living Without Magazine. We also bought a cookbook that the author signed for me. I'll post more about it when we try some of the recipes. I sampled some Udi's Snickerdoodle cookies, which are even better than their chocolate chip cookies. I picked up some awesome Pamela's samples that I've never tried. I've been taking a sample of something different in my lunch everyday. I've been trying some products, I've never had before!

After we had enough of the Expo, we needed some lunch. Since I've been so deprived of Subway, I convinced Justin to go to there. Plus, we had a dollar off coupon that we wouldn't be able to use anywhere else. You can see the GF rolls are in a sealed package in the right hand corner.

 The girl changed her gloves and cut the bun with a new plastic knife. I ordered a turkey sandwich with all my favorite veggies.

We took them back to the hotel to eat. The buns were pretty good too, they were soft and had an okay consistency. It was great to have some Subway...now if only all Subways would get GF buns.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency! 

The balance of veggies, meat, and bun was perfect together!

 I also bought some bread mixes. The brown bread mix should bake a bread that we can make Reuben  sandwiches from! I'll let you know how it goes.

After lunch that Saturday, we were exhausted! We took a nap before heading out for my birthday dinner. (I'll hopefully post tomorrow about that and the rest of our weekend.)