Review: Schar Shortbread Cookies

I've been meaning to try these cookies for a long time, and after reading about them on Heidi's blog I couldn't resist. I meant to try to make these into twix bars but I've already eaten more than half the bag. I'm keeping them in my desk at work so I can grab a couple after lunch. Let me just preface this by saying that I do not typically care for shortbread cookies, but I was at the grocery store the other day and they just sounded really good. And they are! I really like these, they are light and crunchy and great for something sweet after lunch. I tend to eat a lot of salad at lunch time and I always want something to kind of cleanse my palate afterwards and these are great for that. Schar makes some awesome products and I'm rarely disappointed with them. Thanks Schar!!

Beaten like a red-headed step child.

First of all, read THIS article. Not even our natural food sources are safe anymore and I'm basically convinced that no matter how hard I try, none of the food I eat is completely safe. So I'm just going to do the best I can.

Second, I have bruises. Always. All over my legs. I don't know how they get there most of the time. Lately I've been elevating my legs at work by resting them on the edge of my trash barrel and this morning I noticed that I now have bruises on the back of both of my legs where I rest them on the barrel. Really? I have big veins and thin skin, you can see my veins coursing through my legs, but is that really all this is? I've always bruised easily but lately it seems a bit excessive. So I'm writing about it here, to all my autoimmune friends, to see if any of you have experienced this? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Review: Udi's Chocolate Muffins and Turtle Mountain Ice Cream

In my effort to avoid too much sugar, I asked the awesome folks at Udi's if I could sample their chocolate chocolate chip muffins along with the pizza crust they offered to send me. They were so kind to oblige. I have been waiting for these to show up in my stores but at the moment I can only ever find the Blueberry (awesome) and the Lemon Streusel (haven't tried yet but I know I will love them too). Three out of four of these were consumed just plain, warmed up in the microwave for 20 seconds and they are so delicious. Addictive. Chocolatey awesomeness. For one of these little delights, I decided to make a dessert out of it. As if these aren't already dessert enough on their own. I heated one up in the microwave and topped it off with some Turtle Mountain Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl ice cream. Wow this was such a good idea!!!! If I were ever going to a party where there would be cake and ice cream and I wanted to be able to have something for myself, I'd totally bring this! This ice cream is so so so good, the first time I bought it, when I got it home it had just melted enough that it was perfect to eat and I ate the entire pint.... I swear, I really am doing better about eating a lot less sugar but once in a while you've got to treat yourself!

Review: Udi's Gluten Free Pizza Crust

I have been eating a lot of pizza lately!! Ever since I discovered Daiya cheese it's my new favorite thing. Last week I posted that I made some pizza using Kinnikinnick crust and the awesome folks at Udi's offered to send me some of their crust to try since I hadn't found it yet at my local shops. The Kinnikinnick crust was great but the Udi's crust is even better!!! It's thin and crunchy and doesn't get mushy under the toppings. I piled this pizza high with sauce, slices of tomatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms and both mozzarella and cheddar style Daiya cheese.. oh and also a couple slices of Boar's Head bacon!! Delicious. The only thing I noticed about this crust that I don't love is that it's got a lot of dust on it, like extra flour dust. I do like a little flour dust on my pizza crust but I thought it was a little excessive here. But really, other than that, this is another amazing Udi's product!!!

Microwave Ovens

Have you ever thought about what a microwave does to your food? I just watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and now I'm reading articles online about microwaves and chemical structure and I'm starting to think this is another piece to the autoimmunity puzzle. Very curious.

The Manwife Chronicles

I randomly stumbled across this guy today on Twitter and he's new to the world of Celiac and the gluten free life. He is a funny guy and writes a blog about being a "manwife" after being laid off. This particular post about Celiac was hilarious and I thought you'd all get a kick out of it. Enjoy!

Revew: Udi's Gluten Free Bagels

Whole Foods is finally carrying Udi's products! I found the bread and muffins there last week but yesterday I found the bagels. I don't generally care that much about bagels but I just had to try these. I left them out overnight to defrost and then toasted one up this morning and made an egg sandwich with it. I am certainly impressed. These are soft, bready, delicious bagels. They don't have that crunchy outside like a traditional bagel but still, excellent. I didn't even bother looking at the nutritional info because I know these aren't a great choice but there's only four in the bag so that's not too bad. I won't buy them very often since I don't often buy bagels in general, but whenever I get the urge, I definitely will grab these! Udi's is the best! I made pizza last night with Kinnikinnick crust but I thought about making bagel pizzas, now that would be awesome! Pizza post coming soon!