Starbucks Tries GF again, Woo hoo!

In 2009, Starbucks offered an orange valencia coffee cake, which tasted good, but had this strange stringiness to it. If you've had it, you know what I mean. It's difficult to describe. I'm not sure why, but the cake was discontinued after a few months.

Recently, I noticed Starbucks is offering many GF snacks--and they are great! From Kind nut bars to Lucy's cinnamon crisps, http://www.drlucys.com/, they are all good complements to your favorite caffeinated beverage!

I am eager to hear why Starbucks reintroduced GF options. Anyone know the story?

Tips for Dining Out

My mom came to visit for Thanksgiving and we spent some time talking about dining out. We both have Celiac so eating gluten free isn't a choice, it's a requirement! We have both been at this for more than five years and it was really fun to hear her talk about how much more confidence she has in dining out since the early days. I agree, both wait staff and those in the kitchen are so much more knowledgeable!

Here are mom's latest tips:

1. Look at the menu and determine two dishes that might be or could easily be made gluten free. Order one and ask if it can be made gluten free. Most of the time the server will go speak with the chef and the chef will actually deliver the food to the table. They want you to enjoy your meal as much as you do!

2. Watch for soy sauce! I enjoy eating Carne Asada but some recipes include soy sauce. Remember to ask and you'll have a better experience.

3. GOOGLE! If I know ahead of time what restaurant I'm going to, I Google. For example, type Wendy's gluten free in the search engine and you'll quickly find their gluten free menu.

What are your best dining out tips?

WOW - Without Wheat sugar cookie dough

http://www.wowbaking.com/products/cookie-dough/sugar-cookie-dough/

This is a great time to be gluten free. We all benefit from better awareness, better labeling, and many new products available at local stores. I was in Mother's Market before Thanksgiving and picked up WOW Sugar Cookie dough in the refrigerated section. I have been intimidated by making sugar cookies, but wanted to share this holiday decorating tradition with my son. So, I eagerly grabbed the WOW dough off the shelf and smiled as I put it in my cart.

WOW is right! I let the dough sit a little bit on the counter so it was easier to work with and we were good to go. I rolled out the dough between two sheets of waxed paper. I don't know if you need to do this, but it made it super easy to work with. Within minutes the cookies were in the oven and baking to perfection. Now that I've seen how great sugar cookie dough can be, I am finally going to use make the Bob's Red Mill mix that has been sitting in my pantry for weeks.

The tub sells for under $5 at Mother's and you can make up to 14 cookies. Our cookie cutters were a little big, so we made fewer cookies. They tasted delicious!

The cookie dough comes in a variety of flavors: Chocolate Chip, peanut butter and ginger bread.

Looking for a gluten free spot for lunch? Try Corner Bakery!

http://www.cornerbakerycafe.com/Files/Misc/Nutritionals2008.pdf

It is easy to overlook the Corner Bakery as a dining option. They serve sandwiches and bakery items and cross-contamination was always a concern--until recently! The Corner Bakery has a gluten free menu. You have to scroll to the bottom of their nutritional chart, but it's there.

Many of their salads are gluten free, or can be made gluten free. ***To be on the safe side, request that they prepare the salad in a clean bowl and mention your allergy*** The salads usually come with a roll, so you will want to make sure they don't include it.

My favorite salad is the Santa Fe Ranch with Chicken. Very filling and flavorful!

It also appears that they have two soups to choose from: Three Lentil Vegetable and Tortilla. If you choose the Tortilla soup, request no tortilla strips. They tend to use the same utensils for the croutons and tortilla strips. Best to avoid it all together.

Feeling a little ripped off

I stopped by Whole Foods to pick up some pizza crusts to make pizza for dinner. I knew they carried kinnikinnick, www.kinnikinnick.com and they are great. To my surprise they also carry Udi's pizza crusts,

which are my new favorite, www.udisfood.com.

Whole Foods sells the pizza crusts for $8.99. You can purchase them from Stella Lucy and

Udi's web site for $5.00. (I haven't checked the price at Mother's Market.) I still purchased the crusts,

but won't pick them up at Whole Foods again. : (

Mother's Market & Udi's Bread

http://www.mothersmarket.com

http://www.udisfood.com

We were near Mother's Market last Friday and on a whim, my husband suggested we run in and see if they carry Udi's Bread (I love him!). I had checked a couple of months ago and didn't find it. We hit the jackpot Friday! Mother's Market carries both Udi's bread and pizza crusts and the price is right! We paid just $4.39 for a loaf of bread. In the past, I've paid as much as $8 for GF bread that tasted less than great.

Udi's ships their bread frozen, but it wasn't in the freezer case at Mother's...just the regular bread section. I put my bread in the refrigerator, but next time will leave it on the shelf. It dried out within days and started to fall apart. I am going to use the remainder of this loaf for stuffing cubes.

Whole Foods stuffing cubes

I am a big fan of stuffing on Thanksgiving Day--the traditional kind with celery and raisins covered with gravy. For the past few Thanksgivings, I've learned to enjoy a cornbread stuffing with apples and sausage. It works, but it isn't the same.

I recently picked up Whole Foods stuffing cubes, found in the freezer section. I was determined to make traditional stuffing, but unsure of how it would turn out. I am no chef! I found this recipe on the Whole Foods web site and followed it to the letter.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/recipe.php?recipeId=1354

The stuffing tasted like a little bit of heaven! Just another thing to be thankful for this year!