My Black Friday Giveaway !!!

Thanks to MyBlogSpark and Betty Crocker I'm able to giveaway a really fun, and tasty might I add little pack of goodies this Black Friday. This pack includes a frisbee, yo-yo, pick-up sticks and Fruit Snacks. My two year old has been enjoying the fruit snack immensely as have I.

I must say that I could have gone without the fruit gushers, something about the aftertaste bugged me a big, but every other variety as far as a fruit snack goes has been great. Our favorite are the Create-A-Bug, they have a soft texture and good flavor (not to mention real fruit juice,) and making up our own crazy bugs out of the shapes is a lot of fun. While most fruit snacks are gluten free it was also nice to see the boxes clearly labeled gluten free on the fronts.

If you'd like to take one of these home, especially if you have kids!! Enter to win, you and your children.. or just you, will enjoy!! To enter leave a comment with your contact information AND what you like to do for fun during the holidays!! Contest will end on December 4th!!

Thank you to MyBlogSpark for providing the product to try and giveaway!

Adopt a Blogger - November

Jill over at Hey that tastes good! is always posting the most scrumptious, adventurous gluten free dishes. One day she hit the nail straight on the head for me, gluten free chinese dumplings (I call them pot-stickers) !!!! Something I'd been missing for a long time, something my husband and son eat in front of me on a regular basis which just feeds my craving for them. I was so excited to see that she had posted these on her blog that I almost sang. I decided I would make them and use them for my November - Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger post hosted by Sea at The Book of Yum.

It was interesting making these, you see Jill was inspired by another blogger, so I flipped back and forth between the two sites. I ended up using Jill's wrapper and sauce recipe and finding a pork and cabbage filling recipe elsewhere on the web. I'll be honest, this was a time consuming and slightly complicated endeavor, however the result was very worth it. These tasted just like I remembered them tasting, and they had good texture and browned right up. I was a very happy camper.

I ended up having a few issues with my paper towels that were used between wrappers (so they didn't stick together while making them) being too damp and later causing issues with the handling and forming of the dumpling. These pot-sticker/dumplings freeze well, there was no way I could eat a whole batch at once so I froze the stuffed and formed (raw) extras in a single layer, when I took them out later to cook them, from frozen they came out almost as good as freshly done, very edible.

I'll probably be making these again soon, I might try Ellen's wrapper recipe next time just to see which I prefer. However if you're craving a pot-sticker, this is a very very good recipe for you.

Gluten Free Chinese Dumplings/Pot-Stickers

Eating on the road.

This month I traveled to Minnesota with my family to visit my husbands parents. I ate very well on the way thanks to glutenfreeregistery.com as I was able to pick a safe place to eat in most of the places we stopped.

Bozeman Montana, what a surprise you were. I can't believe the hidden treasures I found there. Two restaurants that hold a very special place in my stomach now and I hope to visit again.

Montana Ale Works, there aren't enough good things to say about this place. We walked in and the atmosphere was great, reminded me so much of my favorite places in Eugene, OR. Live music was playing, the waitstaff was very friendly and knowledgable and the menu, there isn't a gluten free specific menu, you know why...? As a gluten free person you can order most of the things on the regular menu (except the fries,) tell your waiter that you're gluten free and they'll let you know all about it. You can order a burger, they come with a fabulous gluten free bun. I got the Black and Blue burger (that's right, they use gluten free blue cheese) and a side of coleslaw. I savored every bit of that burger. The bun never got soggy or fell apart, it had good flavor and a nice soft chew. I was very tempted to get a pasta dish they all sounded so tasty as they have gluten free pasta too I could have!! But that burger really called to me.

I also found The Nova Cafe in Bozeman. We ate here for breakfast on our way out of town, the first thing I saw when I walked in was the front display case, full of gluten free baked goods; lemon bars, muffins, cookies... all looked and later tasted very good. We sat down and I ordered an omelet, named the Forager, lost of mushrooms and artichoke hearts... best omelet ever and the kicker was the three grain gluten free bread that came with my meal. I was impressed at this restaurant too and again would visit it the next time I stop in Bozeman.

All I can say is that Bozeman was a wonderful gluten free experience for me. Thank you so much for making my stay so pleasant.

A new winner!

Congratulations GFreeLizzie!!!

You are the new winner of the $25 gift cert to Storehouse Foods. Thanks for participating I'll be contacting you shortly with details.

Thanks again to Storehouse Foods for sponsoring this great giveaway.

Giveaway Winner - Storehouse Foods Gift Certificate

Congratulations Craftbition!!!

Please e-mail me (babyfro97 at gmail.com) with your information (Name and shipping address) within the next 48 hours or I'll have to choose a new winner.

A big thank you to Storehouse Foods for sponsoring this giveaway. Another thank you to all of those who participated in this giveaway. Keep an eye out for more in the future.

Product Review and giveaway: Storehouse Foods

We all have occasion to need a quick meal, be it a day where you're running late for a meeting, you get called out of the house and by the time you get home there's no time to put something elaborate together, or your fridge dies and your planned meal is now sitting in the garbage. Times like these it would be nice to have something so easy and quick to put together that you'd have no reason not to keep it around for those just in case instances.

Storehouse Foods is the perfect answer. A meal in a bag that takes 10 minutes and some boiling water to get to the table, something so easy even your husband could provide a gluten free meal for the family without any trouble. (Although my husband has managed to fail at boiling water...) My family recently tried their Black Bart Chili with Beans and All American Roast Beef Hash options. I'll tell you up front, I was a little leery and wondered just how good a "re-hydrated" meal would taste.

Black Bart Chili with Beans

The chili was good, nicely spiced with recognizable chunks of meat and beans throughout. It re-hydrated to just the right consistency and the 2 serving pouch was two very hearty servings. My husband and I both thought it was a little salty, however since this product is meant to store for a long period of time so I'm sure it has a purpose for that. We cut the saltiness with a dollop of sour cream and some cheddar cheese.

The roast beef hash I found to have a bit too much liquid (double checked, I followed the directions) and so I let it sit longer than the 10 minutes asked for. Even so it had more liquid than I would have liked. The flavor was good, again just a bit salty. The potatoes, beef and onions had great texture after re-hydration. I'll admit this... I would have eaten the whole thing myself if I hadn't had a guilty conscience. The longer I let this meal sit the better the flavor got.

From roughly $4-8 a pouch, with quite a bit of variety these are a worthwhile purchase. I'd certainly get the the All American Roast Beef Hash again and may try a few of the other options Storehouse Foods provides. I know that owning our own business, having a toddler and family close by, along with all the other things life throws my way that I need quick meal options on occasion and from what I tried these fit the bill. Not to mention these pouches are all natural, NO artificial preservatives, flavorings, colorings, MSG, or white sugar are added which makes me feel good about serving them.

If I've peaked your interest and you think you too might like to try some of Storehouse Foods gluten free meals then you'll be pleased to know that I'm going to give away one $25 gift certificate for their product so you can try it for yourself. In order to enter all you have to do is leave a comment letting me know how you might put one of these pouches to work. Winner will be drawn on the 15th of November.

If you Tweet my StoreHouse Foods Giveaway AND follow Storehouse Foods(@storehousefoods) on Twitter then you will receive 20% off of you entire order from their website. Leave a second comment and I'll contact you with the code!

You can also join Storehouse Foods race to reach 1000 Facebook fans: If you become a fan of StoreHouse Foods Facebook page you will automatically be entered for a chance to win (1) of (3) $50.00 StoreHouse Foods gift certificates. They will randomly choose (3) of thier FaceBook fans as winners when they reach 1000 fans.