GF Goodies

We were shopping and wanted to treat our girlie, so we decided to try Graeter’s ice cream. Before getting in line, I looked to see if any of their ice creams were gluten free and they had quite a few. Our girlie loves mint chocolate chip ice cream so that’s what she wanted to try. When I ordered for her, I started by telling them that our girlie had celiac disease.

While picking up a few things for Easter at Meijer, we were looking for a good Mac & cheese to try and found this Kraft Deluxe Mac & Cheese. I made it for our girlie for Easter dinner and she really liked it. It had one of those cheese sauce packets included, also labeled gluten free. Our girlie said she would definitely eat it again!

We found a few more great gluten free Easter candies that I wanted to share. Our girlie has an expander in her mouth to get ready for braces, so anything chewy, gummy or sticky is out. We needed other options and found these great ones that were all gluten free. She was so excited to get all of them on Easter morning!

It’s our first Easter with celiac disease for our girlie and we really had no idea what Easter candy she could eat. A lot of the people I follow mentioned that most solid chocolate Easter bunnies that you could buy at Target were not gluten free. And a lot of other holiday candy is made in a facility with products that contain wheat. I was determined that our girlie would have a solid chocolate bunny in her Easter basket this year - it’s a tradition! After a lot of research, I found See’s Candies.

We found the Made Good Soft Baked Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies at Target and our girlie thought they were great! All of the Made Good products (that we’ve tried) have been gluten free, so I don’t have to worry when we pick them up at the store.

We were so excited to find a gluten free chicken noodle soup! It’s one of those winter staples that our girlie missed with her celiac disease. Thank you, Annie’s!

We had never had a coconut roller before our girlie’s celiac diagnosis, and we only tried them because they were gluten free. Surprisingly, coconut rollers are great! It’s just a little bit of sweet with lots of crunch. We got our first batch from Costco and had previously reviewed them (yum!). This set was from Fresh Thyme. The original flavor tasted very similar to the Costco version.

I can only say 1 thing about these cookies…..delicious! We picked up this Miss Jones Baking Co. Chocolate Chip cookie mix at Fresh Thyme on our last trip. The packaging made the cookies look great, so we wanted to try them. I made them today while our girlie had a friend over. Her friend isn’t gluten free, but they both thought the cookies were amazing! The rest of the family also tried them and we thought they were just as good as cookies with gluten. This is the best gluten free cookie mix we’ve ever had!

We just tried this new bag of Kind Dipped Clusters (Dark Chocolate Vanilla Cashew) and our girlie LOVED them! They are a delicious combination of chocolate and sugar coated nuts. There were 2 small issues that we found with this great new snack, though.

Our girlie wanted to give the Goodies Cheddy Mac a try since a good mac and cheese is a must-have. She liked it but said it didn’t compare to the old Kraft mac and cheese that she remembers. It will be great in a pinch if she’s craving it, but we’re still on the lookout for a quick mac and cheese brand. Stay tuned as we try some other brands!

We made it back from our Spring Break trip to New York City and I’m working on a recap of our trip - including all of the amazing gluten free restaurants! Since we were low on groceries when we got back, we needed to stock up on some gluten free items. I’ll review them as our girlie eats them, but here’s the overall list of new gluten free items we’re trying.

Our girlie loves the Made Good brand because they have delicious options that are all 100% gluten free. This granola bar is birthday cake flavored and the part she loves is that it’s dipped in chocolate on the bottom and drizzled in it on the top. The part that really makes it fun are the small, colorful little pieces of rice.

When our favorite brand also makes a gluten free version of a snack we like, we celebrate! We found Annie’s Gluten Free Bunny Grahams on Amazon and thought we would try them. Our girlie said they’re as good as the regular bunnies, so we’re happy!

This Marble Cake, a little chocolate swirl pound cake, from Schar was a perfect, quick dessert for our family! It was small but fed all 4 of us with some left over. Our girlie thought it was great and asked us to buy it again! I feel like next time we could add some strawberries and whipped cream and it would be even more delicious!

Cereal is one of our go-to’s in the morning, so we love finding new, delicious ones. If you’ve never tried Chocolate Chex, what are you waiting for?! They are crispy with just enough chocolate flavor. Our family has even started eating them without milk for a quick snack. I feel like these would be a great addition to a Chex mix recipe - maybe puppy chow.

DELICIOUS! This pizza crust from Schar can only be described as delicious! Our girlie agreed that this is one of the best gluten free pizzas we’ve had since she was diagnosed. She made both pizzas herself, which was a welcome break for me, and she did an amazing job.

Happy Valentine’s Day! We tried the Pillsbury Gluten Free Double Chocolate Brownies tonight to celebrate and they were great! The kids asked if they could have them fresh out of the oven with some ice cream and I added red sprinkles to make it more festive. These were definitely something that we would all eat again, especially our girlie!

We don’t have biscuits much at home but when we saw this Live G Free Gluten Free Cheddar Cheese Biscuit Mix at Aldi, we had to get it. You make them like regular biscuits and when they are fresh out of the oven, you melt butter and mix it with their garlic seasoning and pour over the freshly cooked biscuits. They were a hit with everyone in the family, except our girlie. She didn’t seem to love the garlic butter mixture. I’m still giving it a thumbs up, though. If you’re over 10 years old and love garlic biscuits, it’s probably a mix worth trying!

This is our second time trying the King Arthur Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Mix and the whole family loves it! It’s moist and chocolatey and tastes even better than some cakes that have gluten.

Finding a good gluten free garlic bread had proven to be a challenge. However, we found Brazi Bites that were Brazilian Garlic Cheese Bread flavored and decided to try them. They aren’t normal sized pieces of bread, like most garlic breads. They are small, round, cheesy bread bites, and were a great garlic bread substitute. Our girie recommends buttering them right out of the oven!

Amazing find!! While doing my usual “gluten free” search of the Kroger app to see if there is anything new for our girlie to try, I came across the Schar Twin Bar! Our girlie loved it and the bonus was that the package had individually wrapped bars. Kit Kats used to be one of her favorite candies, so she had a look of pure happiness when she found out that Schar made a gluten free chocolate covered crispy wafer bar.

While at Costco a few months ago, we came across these Fresh Additions Fully Cooked Chicken Breast Bites. We’re always looking for ways to increase the protein in both kid’s lunches, so we thought we’d try them. These have 24g of protein per small package. They were so popular among both kids that we have bought them 2-3 more times! They come in a package of 10 small containers (Costco style), so they are the perfect lunch sized portion.

Ever since our girl was diagnosed with Celiac a few months ago, we’ve been eating a lot of dinners with meat, potatoes and a vegetable. Sometimes we have sports or somewhere to go to in the evening and we need something easy. We decided to try a frozen gluten free lasagna from Udi’s and were pleasantly surprised with how much our girlie liked it.

My husband made chili for dinner tonight and I thought it would be perfect to make cornbread with it. I searched our grocery store and they carried a gluten free Honey Cornbread by Krusteaz. We found out that our girlie isn’t a big fan of cornbread, since this was the first time she’s ever tried it. The rest of the family loved it, though!

A cookie….dipped in dark chocolate….yes, please! These Chocolate Dipped Cookies from Schar Gluten Free were definitely a win for our girlie! They are like a shortbread cookie that’s not too crumbly or dry, dipped in a delicious chocolate coating on the bottom.

I had shared previously that we ordered a haul from Katz and we’ve started to try a few things-one of them being the gluten free apple pie. This is highly recommended by the whole family and our girlie said she “would definitely eat it again”!

We were at Whole Foods looking for new gluten free snacks and came across the brand, The GOOD Crisp Company. Our girlie (and non-celiac son!) wanted to try a few different kinds, so we bought the Cheddar Cheese Balls, the Spicy Cheese Balls, and the Classic Original Potato Crisps. The favorite out of the bunch, for everyone, was the Cheddar Cheese Balls.

Our girlie is a chocolate chip pancake lover. We had to find a good substitute that would make the whole family happy and Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Pancake Mix did! We’re so happy that it didn’t take long to find a mix we liked (it was only the 2nd one we tried). This is now one of our go-to breakfasts. We have ours with a pile of bacon and that makes for a very happy girlie!

Right before Thanksgiving, we picked up a Katz Pumpkin Pie and it was amazing! (review in a previous post) My husband looked to see if Katz made anything else, and came across their whole amazing gluten free website! They sell so many amazing treats that we had to try more of them. We ordered right around Christmas and were able to try one of their special holiday items!

One of the most difficult things to find after our girlie got her celiac diagnosis was a good gluten free loaf of bread. She didn’t like the taste of a lot of the bread we tried or it just fell apart when she was eating it. Until we tried Canyon Bakehouse Hawaiian Sweet bread! My dad went on a mission to find her the best bread (because he’s a great grandpa!). He told us about the awesome reviews of this bread and bought us a loaf to try from Kroger. We tried it for a PB&J sandwich, and our girlie instantly told us it was her favorite! It’s the only bread that we keep in the house for her these days, unless it’s sold out because apparently we aren’t the only ones around here who love it.