Glutino chocolate and yogurt covered pretzel giveaway!

Next month is Celiac Awareness month, and as if I don't talk about gluten-free living enough, now I have even more reason to celebrate my life without the pesky grains. More and more people are being diagnosed, with even greater numbers of people walking around, unknowingly, with the disease. This is why it is so important to have tasty options out there, so making the change can seem just a little less life-altering.

Glutino was kind enough to send me samples of their newest treats, the chocolate and yogurt covered pretzels. I have always been a huge fan of their regular gluten-free pretzels and could never stop myself at one handful, so I knew that these new varieties were going to be trouble, and was I ever right! When they arrived I didn't know which one to break into first...I was just so excited to eat one of my favorite snacks from before being gluten-free. I decided to go for the yogurt-covered pretzels first, and was in love...I could barely stop myself in order to open the chocolate-covered pretzels...and of course these were just as delicious!

I shared these tasty treats with my gluten-able family and we all agreed they were both wonderful, and tasted no different, and maybe even better than their gluten-filled counterparts. I will definitely be buying these in the future.

So in celebration of Celiac Awareness month, Glutino is giving away 2 snack care packages, which include these new amazing pretzels and new cereals.

In order to enter the giveaway, please:

1. Leave a comment to this post about what is your favorite gluten-free snack to take on the go;

2. "Like" Gluten-Free Musings on Facebook;

3. Follow me on Twitter;

4. Post a tweet announcing this giveaway, with a link to this post, and including @gfreemusings.

I will randomly choose two winners on Monday, September 27th at midnight, and announce those winners on Tuesday, September 28th.

The contest is only open to US residents.

scarf o'rama

I caved, I couldn't help myself, and it was worth every delicious meaty bite!

My life in Atlanta has been hectic to say the least. To say that trying settle into a routine with Z in kindergarten and a having house full of boxes has been overwhelming is an understatement. But today I took a nice break and met with up with fellow writer, at Celiac-disease.com, Tiffany Janes at Yeah! Burger here in Atlanta.

I was a bit skeptical at first being that I have not eaten much meat in years, but knowing they had grass-fed beef and bison made it seem more attractive, because if I am going to fall off the wagon, I am going to do it with some good, grass-fed, local meat. I checked out their menu beforehand, and saw they also serve a gluten-free bun, onion rings and fries. I was ready for this heart attack in a basket!

I decided on the beef burger with cheddar on a gluten-free bun with a side of half onion rings/half fries (be sure to specify you would like the gluten-free onion rings and fries or you will get gluten-filled versions). Their menu clearly states the buns are made in a dedicated facility and the onion rings and fries are made in a dedicated fryer.

I wasn't even sure how to handle my first bite of ground goodness after so much time. This is typically the last type of meat I would ever order, but I was looking forward to my first taste. And Yeah! baby it was good!

My fried sides were also pretty incredible, but the star of the plate was definitely the burger. Coupling this fabulous lunch with great conversation made for a lovely lunch date.

Unfortunately, I don't think the week's worth of calories is going to do me any favors at the beach this weekend...or trying to get into my bridesmaid dress for my sister's wedding. Doh!

More gluten-free deliciousness from Udi's!

I have it on good authority that Udi's is going to release more gluten-free deliciousness in the near future. As many people already know, Udi's is one of the top gluten-free brands out there. Their bread is outstanding, and even the pickiest gluten-able eater would inhale a peanut butter and jelly or grilled cheese on Udi's gluten-free bread before they could refuse it. The day I discovered their bread, I never looked back and have been a faithful fan. You can take it right out of the package and eat it straight away with no heating. My daughter's daily school lunch sandwiches are made with Udi's and she can eat gluten!

Sometimes just for fun, when I have gluten-able friends over, I will just hand them a slice of bread out of the package to see their reaction, and they have all been amazed.

Not only does Udi's create fabulous gluten-free bread, but they also sell other equally amazing gluten-free products such as four different varieties of granola, blueberry muffins, lemon streusel muffins, double chocolate muffins, pizza crusts, bagels and cinnamon rolls.

And the best part, they are coming out with more! On their list, these are some of the new items we will see:

• Hamburger buns, hot dog buns, dinner rolls
• New muffins, including bran muffins
• Cinnamon raisin and whole grain bagels
• A new bread

To hear more about their new releases and Udi's as a company, check out this video by Gluten Free Angel, with Udi's founder, Etai Bar-on and marketing director, Heather Collins.

They have not announced a launch date, but I have a feeling it will be worth the wait!

Farmers market finds

One of my favorite weekly activities during the summer is going to the farmers market. Freshly picked local produce just tastes so much better than anything that could be found at the big grocery stores. And let's not forget local eggs and cheese. Buying a tomato at the store during the summer is just wrong. I am even starting to see more and more gluten-free baked goods being offered.

Usually I would be tending my own vegetable garden, with tomatoes started from seed, cared for since March, along with several other vegetables and herbs. But with the move this summer, I decided to let it go this year and it almost brings me to tears to see my veggie garden full of overgrown weeds. Gardening became my passion once we bought a house and had more space than we knew what to do with, but now....I guess we could all agree that gluten-free is my thing.

Tonight, armed with my farmers market (& gluten-free) finds I made a roasted beet salad with golden and red beets (above), and a caprese salad (below).

For the beets, I used golden and red beets. I cleaned and trimmed the beets, wrapped them in foil and cooked them for an hour at 375'. When they finished, I unwrapped them carefully and rubbed off the skins, chopped them in 1-inch chunks and let them chill in a bowl, in the fridge, for 30 minutes. I then tossed with olive oil, white balsamic vinegar and freshly ground salt and pepper. Easy and delicious. Z finished her plate, which coming from her is quite compliment. Or maybe she was just eager to see how the beets would effect her pee.

For the caprese, it is extremely simple....I chopped up various tomatoes (the black cherry ones were my favorite), tossed them with some olive oil, a splash of white balsamic, freshly ground salt and pepper and tossed with fresh mozzarella and fresh cut basil.

I love a fresh, local summer salad. Hopefully by moving to the South I can enjoy it for more of the year.

What is your favorite thing to make with your farmers market finds?

Bust a move

It is time to make a confession, the reason I have been so absent from my blog is because we are moving. I haven't wanted to talk about it too much in case I jinxed things, and of course that could still happen. But at the same time, I am feeling so guilty about not keeping up with my blog, I decided it was time to give a reason why. We are leaving Chicago for the durty South, we are headed to Atlanta. I will so miss the amazing city of Chicago, the people, the architecture, the neighborhoods, the food, the walkability and Lake Michigan, but we are ready for this change, and going to embrace it.

We spent the last 3 1/2 weeks in Atlanta looking for a place to live, and wow that was not an easy feat. We have lived in our house for almost 4 years, so apparently I didn't remember what it was like to look for a new living space. Not only did we have to find a place that we enjoy, but we also had to find a place in the right school zone for our daughter, which was never a factor before. But after looking at over 40 places in the sweltering heat and dragging Z from place to place, we finally found a place we love. Here is a glimpse of our amazing new backyard:

We will be living intown in a wonderful neighborhood full of gorgeous old houses and tall trees, with lots of bike paths and trails right out our door. It is hard to believe it is in the middle of the city. And the best part, there are lots of restaurants close by that I can easily eat gluten-free.

The last several weeks we ate out a lot, I think more than we have the last 2 years put together. I guess that is what happens when you don't have your kitchen. And in those 3 1/2 weeks, I ate out successfully every time without getting glutened...Chinese, Mexican, Italian, even Waffle House! Unfortunately, I did get glutened once and that happened on the 4th of July from chips and salsa that I bought from Whole Foods. The chips looked safe enough, the same ingredients of all other corn tortilla chips I buy, and I bought some of the Whole Foods pineapple mango salsa, which also looked pretty innocent...all I know is one of them was the guilty culprit, but I have no idea which one. It didn't seem like a risky snack, but I guess I was wrong. And let me tell you, having a gluten attack while waiting in traffic for the fireworks traffic to move is excruciating!

I have a lot of catching up to do, and a list of posts and articles to write that I hope to get done before the actual move, in a month. I did have a chance to review a couple of restaurants that you can check out here: Fuego Mundo, FIGO pasta and Jason's Deli, with lots more to come.