Not a very glamorous title, but it’s all I’ve got. Explanations following the things that I think need them.
Dinner and the next day’s lunch (for Kyle).
Pumpkin sage ravioli bob-bob-bobbing their heads up to say hi.
Minimalist toppings include olive oil, parmesan, & peas.
Vegan carrot cake. I froze it after our baby shower. The cake part was good, the frosting wasn’t my fave. FYI, this cake is made by Fabe’s and sold by Whole Foods. It’s gluten free and vegan, so the fact that the cake part was good is all the more impressive.
My favorite thing about this was that the cake was studded with golden raisins and there weren’t walnuts to pick out (it’s so rare for carrot cakes to be walnut free, so this pleased me to no end). I only ate about 10% of the frosting though. Too much frosting!
These are all the flavors included in the KIND gift boxes. Kyle keeps trying to steal them all. He’s swiped two so far…
This is the Dark Chocolate Cherry Cashew flavor, which he stole from my purse. Ordinarily he doesn’t really like cherry flavored bars so I thought it would be a safe one to bring with me, but the dark chocolate trumped the rest of the ingredients. He said it was good and he noticed more of a cranberry flavor than cherry, so that’s that.
The other one Kyle tried was the Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Pecan. He noted that he had never really had a cinnamon flavored bar before and thought it was really unique and tasty.
This Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt was my fave of them all. It’s a new flavor and it’s pretty much dessert in bar form. I love salted chocolate.
Ok, I take that back, the Cashew & Ginger Spice tied for top spot. It was like I took a bite into the holidays. We all know I adore ginger, but this bar had a more mellow gingerbread-like spice blend. It made me want to try making candied cashews with gingerbread seasonings. I still might have to do that.
The only KIND bar that is still unclaimed is the Almonds & Apricots in Yogurt. Neither of us are especially keen on trying it, but I’ll let you know if Kyle gives it a shot (since his food reviews are so informative).
Breakfast muffin quiches. I ask Kyle every night (as I am packing his lunch for the next day) if he’s getting sick of them, but he never does.
They are the cheapest and easiest thing to make. I use leftovers grains, veggies, and eggs (and Chobani plain 2% Greek yogurt instead of cheese this time) and that’s it! He is such a savory breakfast person. I wish he craved coffee cake and French toast and big sugary muffins so I could make big batches of that stuff to share, but alas, he just will not get on board.
Another batch of crock-pot applesauce. This stuff is fantastic. Especially for how little effort it takes.
It yielded two of these. I’ve been enjoying them slowly…savoring the apples since it seems like I only tolerate them when they’re cooked. I miss the crunch of them, but in the cold winter months I have no problem eating them like this. Sometimes I warm up the applesauce for dessert. It’s like pie filling. 🙂
Heel pieces of bread are my fave. I save them til the end so I can make a heel only sando. This loaf of WF light white gluten free bread will probably be my last for a while. The expense is too much to justify. I am determined to make my own gluten free loaf. I got a GF bread baking cookbook for Christmas so there are baking trials on the horizon…
Not fizzy, not flavorful, not worth the $. I was hoping this High Country brand would be good since it’s less pricey than the GT brand (my fave), but no such luck.
How do you tolerate the Kind bars? I’m about to go on the elimination stage to figure out what FODMAPS upset my stomach and I’m trying to see what foods I should try out. Also – I received my rice cooker this weekend and you’re right…it’s AMAZING!!!! Looking forward to seeing some GF breadmaker recipes!
Where did u get the ravioli? Looks yums!
I too am booking forward to bread recipes! I’d love to find one with coconut flour sans craptons of eggs and fats! Also yeast free breads too
i hate that the best bread is so expensive. why can’t the crappy stuff be the pricey one? i mean, the more natural it is, the easier the ingredients should be, right? thus, less expensive. UGh. better for my body shouldn’t have to equal worse for my wallet.
booo.
That carrot cake looks insanely delicious. And KIND bars are my favorite kind of gluten free bar!
What happened to fortune cookie titles? 😉
Thanks for the Kind Bar reviews – I’m really impressed by the 5 grams of sugar?! Is that possible? I guess I’m used to Larabars, which are awesome but so high in sugar, thanks to the dates I guess. Which are also awesome…anyway, will have to give these flavors a try.
Will be going back to your crockpot method for applesauce after a stovetop disaster yesterday. Burned applesauce = bah. That will not be happening again.
Those breakfast/lunch quiches look fantastic! Great husband lunch idea. My sweet guy gets salad everyday and often he makes it himself. I am going to make these for him.
Great blog!
Kombucha… I finally tried it and the verdict is YUCK!! I spit it out…
That said, have you heard of “Real Food Devotee”? She delivers 🙂
http://www.realfooddevotee.com/
Highly recommend her! Along with my delivery last week, I bought deodorant & body butter and WHOA! No more chemical poison under my arms. 🙂
thanks MM
btw i tried to leave a comment on your blog. wanted to tell you re cloth diapering:
i did a TON of research so ill let you know how my trials go… ill be attempting the bumgenius diapering starting ~1 month or so depending on his size (apparently newborns are just too small for most cloth diapers). until then im doing seventh generation disposables.
oh and ps the inserts for the bumgenius are called bumkins.
sad! (but good for your wallet)
out of curiosity what brand kombucha did you try?
doh! i should have done that.
KIND bars are now almost replacing clif in kyles rotation. he doesnt like larabars, and i agree the sugar stats are way better.
exactly. makes no sense.
i think it was TJs ravioli?
i agree about the breads. all the GF loaves have 800 flours and 800 eggs. i want a simple recipe that wont break the bank and will be easy to make over and over again.
fingers crossed!
actually KIND bars (the ones with mostly nuts and not much dried fruit) are really well tolerated! i was nervous since theres chicory root and honey in them, but in addition to the two i mentioned trying above, i like the almond & coconut, blueberry pecan, and almond cashew & flax ones. i tend to avoid the ones with fruity titles and lots of dried fruit. the amount of nuts seems small enough to not be too heavy of a fodmaps load, and combined with the crispy rice stuff, i think theyre really good!
if youre still in the elimination phase these may be too confusing for your gut though. even though the amounts are trace – they are different fodmaps categories.
The applesauce sounds so yummy and super easy! I’m definitely going to have to give that a try!
My husband is such a savory breakfast person too. We rarely get to share breakfast because I love my oatmeal, bananas, smoothies, almond butter and fruit, while he loves chickpeas and quinoa for breakfast! He will drink my green smoothies though, but insists on some sort of grain/bean combo. Luckily I usually save leftovers for the purpose.
Have you tried Rise Komboucha? Not sure if they have it in the US, but it’s the only one I enjoy other than GTs. They have a Hibiscus-Rose flavour and a Blueberry-Maple flavour, both of which are yummy, fizzy and feel good.
I would love that!
Thanks!!!
i havent…ill keep my eye out for it though, thx!
It seems like a lot of places mess up on the frosting for carrot cake. We went to a wedding last summer, and the wedding cake was carrot cake. I was so excited to taste it, but the frosting ended up tasting like straight up lard. Bleh.
gross…i rarely like frosting, but some bakeries do a great job. like sprinkles. they have vegan cupcakes that are awesome – excellent balance of cake to frosting. im all about the right ratio of ingreds in my sweets 🙂
heel sandwiches. always a good idea.
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