Gluten Free At Metro

I was going through the flyers this morning, my usual Saturday morning ritual, and much to my surprise I see the words "NEW Irresistibles GLUTEN FREE For All Your Gluten Free Needs" I immediately open up the paper to that section and there it is, a whole entire page of the paper dedicated to Metro's new line of gluten free products. Irresistibles is Metro's private label and they have a whole line of well priced gluten free products including pasta ($2.49), rice crackers, bread crumbs, tortilla chips, croutons, macaroni and cheese, pancake mix, chewy bars, rice, and cake mix.
Now, I haven't tasted any of the products yet, so I don't know how fabulous this is, but I have to say that even seeing this in the local paper is exciting and I will definitely be heading to Metro this week to check it out!

P.F. Changs Gluten Free Menu

I recently went to Buffalo with a friend, in search of the latest and greatest gluten free foods. We began our day at Target, where we stocked up on General Mills Rice Chex and Nature Valley Almond Crunch Granola Bars. Then, it was off to Tops for more exploring. Here we stocked up on General Mills Cinnamon Chex and Chocolate Chex, as well as Post Cupcake Pebbles and Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownies. We also found a Hamburger Helper Beef and Rice and Chicken and Rice, both labeled gluten free! The gluten free possibilities were endless and we were enjoying every minute. It is so nice to shop in the U.S., where gluten free items are actually labeled gluten free. We bought Quaker Rice Cakes, I think just because they were labeled gluten free! After spending the morning in the grocery stores shopping, we headed for lunch at P.F Changs, where we were able to order off the gluten free menu. Check it out at www.pfchangs.com/menu. The gluten free menu includes starters (chicken lettuce wraps, our personal favourites!), noodles, vegetarian dishes, soup, rice, sides, entrees (18 different entrees including chicken, beef, shrimp, and, scallops), and dessert. Can you believe that all these items are on their gluten free menu!!!! You can well imagine we had a field day choosing the dishes and then eating. The server was very knowledgeable with respect to the gluten free diet and needed no explanations. They mixed sauces at our table using gluten free soy sauce and spicy sauce and hot mustard and explained to us that all gluten free dishes come out of the kitchen on specific plates so that there is no chance of mixing up dishes. It was thrilling to be able to go to a restaurant and have such good service and feel safe about what we were eating, while at the same time enjoying every mouthful!
After a delicious lunch, we headed to Wegmans for our final destination. Wegmans has a gluten free section, where I stocked up on Cherrybrook Kitchen products (pancake and waffle mix and sugar cookies are my personal favourites) and showed my friend how fabulous the Wegman's Private Label is marked with a "g" for gluten free.
We didn't even spend a lot of money, we just purchased our personal favourites and found some new items that may become favourites in time!
It was so liberating to be able to have so much choice that you actually have to leave items behind. It was a great day!

deeLiciously Gluten Free

Last week, I had a wonderful breakfast meeting with the owner of deeLiciously Gluten Free, Heather Keeso and a mutual friend of ours, Carole. We talked about everything gluten free and healthy and we sampled some of the new deeLiciously Gluten Free Products. Heather and Carole are both former educators and both are very committed to living and promoting a healthy lifestyle. All the gluten free baked goods that Heather makes are not just tasty but very healthy as well. I am always so impressed by her attention to each and every ingredient, making sure everything that goes into her baked goods has nutritional value. In the past I have sampled her breakfast bars, spicy pumpkin bread, and ginger cookies, and this time around I sampled a carrot bread, cookie, and muffin. The taste was great, the smell was wonderful, and the texture was nice. DeeLiciously Gluten Free products are not nut free, so they can not be used as a healthy snack for school. However, they are perfect as an after school snack or even for a meal.
Needless to say, I had a wonderful time catching up with friends and sampling the latest creations by deeLiciously Gluten Free. Heather is passionate about her gluten free creations! These are gluten free baked goods that I can feel good about feeding to my children.