Van's First Taste GIveaway

I eat a Van's waffle with peanut butter and honey pretty much every morning before work. It's easy, fast, and fills me up until lunch. A month back, I came across a contest on Facebook and signed up because Van's was giving away samples of some new products. I had completely forgotten about it until my hubby walked in with the mail. He was holding a package which he assumed I had ordered for Iivana, but it was actually my Van's First Taste Giveaway package! I couldn't believe it.

It was packed with three full-sized boxes! It included gluten free snack bars in cranberry almond, say cheese gluten free crackers, and gluten free honey nut crunch cereal. Plus, there was a cute Van's reusable bag that would make a handy little lunch bag.

I haven't seen these products at the store yet, so I'm not sure what they cost. But I will definitely be buying some in the future.

Say Cheese Crackers: These reminded me of Cheez-Its minus the puffiness. They were bite size and I couldn't keep my hand out of the box. I love Schar Cheese Bites, but these are different; they are cheesier.

Cranberry Almond Snack Bars: My first instinct was that these bars reminded me of a soft cookie. I've said it over and over that I love soft, chewy cookies so these bars awed me. I usually stick to KIND bars and Larabars, but these were chewier than my typical go-tos. I really want to try the peanut butter chocolate flavor.

Honey Nut Crunch Cereal: This cereal is a cross between Cap'n Crunch and Cheerios. I ate it in a bowl with milk and throughly enjoyed the cereal. The box suggests adding bananas or using it as a topping on yogurt, which I think would also be divine.

It was my Birthday!

I'm so thankful that my husband was home for my birthday. Saturday was my birthday, and the day always seems much better when it falls on a weekend.

I started out the morning with a wonderful breakfast made by my hubby. He made gluten free waffles with GF Bisquick. I also had a mimosa, fresh fruit with dip, and coffee.

We enjoyed football appetizers during the MSU game. For this game we ate skinless, boneless chicken tenders and gluten free bagel chips with cheddar and bean dip.  I'll post more about this dip recipe on a later post. 

For dinner we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Las Canarias. I savored the food so much that didn't document all of the food with photos! But as usual, it was decedent and delicious. We ordered a three course meal with a wine pairing. This is me with my final course, one scoop of coffee ice cream and one scoop of pistachio gelato. 

 The handsome man who made the whole day of food possible!

I love getting free birthday desserts! Even after my ice cream, they brought out chocolate covered strawberries for me. Remember last year when we celebrated my birthday in Dallas? I enjoyed some gelato then!

After dinner we went to a musical at the Cameo Theater. We saw The Marvelous Wonderettes, which was about four girls in the 50s and 60s. Following the show, we had some drinks downtown.

We were able to meet up with some friends I made while Justin was deployed where we danced the night away.

Me & Kara

Yummy Filled Donuts

While in Michigan, my mom's co-worker told her about a store in Rochester Hills called Celiac Specialties. My mom insisted that we check it out since it's really not that far from my parent's house. I looked at the website before to see if anything caught my eye. I'm glad I did because I saw donuts filled with jelly and custard on the site. I haven't come across any filled donuts since being gluten free, so I was excited about the prospect to try some. When I went to the store, I couldn't find them but I asked a worker about them. She didn't have any out but went and found some in the back! I was happy that I looked at the website before because I could've totally missed out on these donuts. I picked out two raspberry filled donuts and two custard filled donuts. 

They came frozen which is nice because then you don't have to worry about eating them all at once. I pulled out one of each flavor and put them in the refrigerator the day before I wanted to eat them. The powdered sugar comes on the side, which makes sense because of them being sold frozen.

I just dabbed powdered sugar all over and felt like I did a decent job. Doesn't it look like a regular gluten filled donut?

A gluten free jelly filled donut! The donut was a delightful treat that I usually don't consume. The dough had an airiness to it, but was soft and had a good consistency. I thought these were a good reproduction for a donut.

The custard filled donut came with chocolate frosting on the side.

 I didn't do the best job of frosting this one. Ok, it looks pretty pathetic, but it's more about flavor than looks!


The chocolate and the custard was the perfect pair. I don't think I can say I liked one flavor better than the other. The two kinds I picked were different, yet I enjoyed each equally. I recommend these donuts and look forward to eating more in the future!

Their croissant rolls are also highly recommended. I brought some to Wisconsin where Kristen and I made some great turkey and ham sandwiches from them.

Crunch Granola

I had another busy and wonderful weekend here in Michigan. I feel like I have so much to update on, but haven't been posting much because I am enjoying my time visiting with friends and family. So I will do a quick update tonight about a product I purchased last weekend when I was visiting my sister, Jill. 

It is a Michigan made gluten free granola that I used on top of plain Fage Greek yogurt (with a little honey too).

Jill spotted Crunch Granola at Kean's, a store we were at, and I was instantly intrigued. It's Michigan made. It's gluten free. And it donates 50 percent of its profits to local food banks. What's not to love?

100% Delicious

Made with Love

The granola makes the perfect topping for plain yogurt. It gives it crunch with a sweet and satisfying flavor. I would highly recommend trying a bag! 

GF Glazed Doughnut Muffins

I am a procrastinator. I always have been, but I always manage to get what I need done. With that said, I have a final paper due for class. However, it's not due for a week, but my initial intention was to have it done and turned it at class tomorrow. I'll tell you this: that is definitely not happening. Oh well, I still have plenty of time.

So what did I do to avoid my paper? I haven't baked in a while and pinned a new recipe yesterday that intrigued me, but I would have to make it gluten free. I followed this Glazed Doughnut Muffins recipe. Of course, I subbed the flour with Cup 4 Cup gluten free flour. But other than that I followed everything just as the recipe said. It was fairly simple! 

I was also excited because I had the opportunity to use my new owl measuring cups from West Elm. I found the West Elm site through Pinterest because there are no stores in the area here. I actually ordered them back in early March but haven't had the chance to try them out until now!

The batter was very elastic-y.

The recipe said to fill 12 muffin cups. Mine were overflowing with my sticky batter. I even had an extra glob that probably would have made one more cup. If I make these again I will use more cups and put less in each one.

As you can see, my doughnut-muffins were out of control!

I dipped them in the glaze twice. Look at those glistening doughnut-muffins!

I have 12 of these massive creations. I should probably take some to my gluten free friend at work so I can share my hard work.

Unfortunately I don't have my hubby taste tester to tell me if he thinks they are comparable to gluten filled foods. So my review is that these are moist, fluffy, and so doughnut-like. Making them in the muffin tin makes the process a breeze but still gives the sweet flavor. These are almost a cross between muffins, doughnuts, and cake! I'm not a huge frosting person but this glaze is on point! The glaze pairs perfectly with the cinnamon & nutmeg spice. I am also joyful that the Cup 4 Cup flour was an equal substitute and that these turned out.

Pumpkin Pancakes

I like to try different products, despite having my favorites. For pancakes, some of my top picks are Bisquick and Pamela's pancake mix. I know there is always room to add GF products to my go-to list and Allie's Awesome Buckwheat Pancake mix was an item I purchased with my Living Social deal. I recently noticed it sold at Whole Foods too.

For some reason, even though it is April I instantly craved pumpkin pancakes when I saw this recipe on the back of the box. I had can of pumpkin in my pantry that I had purchased in fall when I was going pumpkin crazy. When I made pumpkin waffles before all I did was add pumpkin. There's something about this recipe that seemed to produce magic in my mouth. It must have been the hint of sugar to sweeten them 'cakes.

Since it is just me, I halved the recipe.

At first the batter was pretty thick, so I gradually added some milk to thin the batter until it was a consistency that I was happy with.

It made 6 thick, fluffy pancakes.

There was so much flavor in the pancakes that I only needed a hint of maple syrup. I would definitely recommend this recipe and mix. But I'll have to try to make regular pancakes with Allie's mix too.

Typical Breakfast

I've written about my typical lunch for work. I recently added a new page at the top that includes some of my favorite products. When I started looking for links in my blog to list by each product for some of them, I found it to be more difficult than expected. I guess some of these things are so routine that I don't post them. I tend to post new things I've tried.

But in all honestly, these waffles are my breakfast most days...even today on vacation, they were my go to. I usually eat them before work too, because they are quick and easy. On weekends we often make bigger breakfasts, but Van's are a weekly buy. Justin prefers another GF brand, which I'll post on another day. But I like Van's because they are plain and I can add flavor.

I usually eat two and pop them in the toaster.

Then I coat them with peanut butter and some honey. I need the peanut butter for protein; it helps sustain me until lunch. These waffles really do curb my hunger until I have time to eat something.

 Of course, another necessity in the morning is coffee. We recently bought a new coffee maker that is just fabulous. It makes super hot coffee in just 3 minutes. Justin always talked about getting a Bunn, but I think I was turned off because I thought they were sort of ugly. (Hey, that's a good reason if it has to sit on my counter all day!) But after putting up with our other coffee maker, that took almost 30 minutes to brew luke warm coffee I was ready for change.

I must eat breakfast, I'm definitely not one of those breakfast skippers. Usually I wake up thinking about how I need some food and coffee in my belly!

Coffee + waffles = happy me

I can drink coffee black, but I do like some flavor in my life. I've recently become attached to  Coffee-mate's natural bliss because it is natural. It doesn't have twenty names I can't read on the label.

If you can see, it says nonfat milk, heavy cream, sugar, and natural flavor. The box on the lower left corner also denotes that it is gluten free.

I may find myself with this exact breakfast tomorrow again. My parents arrived today and we are probably heading to some outlets tomorrow. I'll definitely need a full stomach for some shopping!

Xmas

Justin and I spent Xmas in Texas this year; Christmas day we saw his grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousin, brother/wife, and kids, so it was nice to see some family. My parents are coming to visit tomorrow for a week too! We spent Christmas Eve at our house in San Antonio and were heading out to the hill country on Christmas day. Since we'd be going out to Wimberley, we decided to open presents on Xmas eve.

I must've been a good girl this year! Here are a few highlights of some of the gifts I received this year.

Pink shoes!

New watch with changeable straps.

Jingle bell charm for my charm bracelet.

I received the book, The Help, from Justin's family Xmas exchange from his cousin Jeanette. I finished it today and couldn't put it down!

So Justin bought me the movie, The Help...I'm interested to see how they compare.

I not only bought Justin Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, but the gift to play it most of the day on Xmas eve. I read The Help most of the day; it was nice for both of us to relax together.

Of course Iivana had her fill of gifts as well. These next several pictures are her opening a bone from Justin's parents. Iivana opened the bone all by herself from wrapping, to plastic, to bow, to consuming. I thought it was pretty commical.

On Christmas morning we had cinnamon rolls, it has sort of become a tradition of ours. Our first year of marriage we had gluten filled ones that you pop out of the Pillsbury can. Last year, I made them from scratch and it was my first GF Christmas. They were okay...I know a lot more about baking GF than I did a year ago. This year I took the easy route and bought Udi's Cinnamon rolls. I love Udi's bread and Udi's cookies, so I figured I'd give the cinnamon rolls a try. (While I was taking this photo, someone ehem...Iivana...decided to counter surf and check out what we were having for breakfast.)

I had kept them in the freezer and pulled them out Christmas morning. I looked at the box and was surprised there were no directions for how to heat them. Do people tend to not heat them up because they are already cooked? To me, I need warm cinnamon rolls, so I again took the easy route and used the microwave. I popped one in for about 30 seconds.

I warmed each and covered it with the cinnamon glaze that was provided. To be honest, I wasn't that impressed with the cinnamon rolls. I must have high expectations for Udi's products. I thought they were a little dry and I wasn't a huge fan of the glaze. I prefer a strictly vanilla flavored icing. Justin and I wondered if they were meant to be more like muffins and just kept in the fridge when ready to eat. Did warming them up, dry them out more? I'm not going to say I hated them, because I still found room for two. I guess I was just hoping for a more comparable GF version.

After breakfast we headed over to the squadron to serve Christmas dinner to basic trainees. We sported aprons and cool chefs' hats. It was fun volunteering, even if I did work up a sweat serving the potatoes, stuffing, and yams.

After lunch we stopped home to pack up the car and drove to Wimberley. We had a nice linner (lunch/dinner), gave the kids their presents, played games, and spent time chatting. For some reason, I always forget to take many pictures when we're there. I must be in the zone of relaxation!

I did get a few of our niece and nephews opening some gifts.