Product: Quest Bar Chocolate Peanut Butter – $2.39+
So, I’ve been slowly working my way through different high protein bars…because…I am. Because, sometimes I have to eat on the go, and they are an easy-to-grab snack/meal. They are also great on race days when I might not be going anywhere fast and will need something to hold me over until I next get to eat.
That was what happened today.
I ran a 10K race in Frankfort, Kentucky…and since I placed in both the race and the racing series…I was now staying at the scene of the crime…er…race…for a bit longer than anticipated. No problem. I come prepared for these such occasions.
For quite a long while now, I’ve been hearing my friends rave about Quest Bar. But I couldn’t find them. Anywhere. What it took was a trip to Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati, Ohio. They were in the gluten-free section…and I grabbed a few to try. They didn’t have the flavor everyone was raving about, but they had some that sounded beyond delicious…so…why not give them a try?
Except…despite toting these places with me, I never really needed them. That’s not a bad thing…it just means I was around actual food instead. But today…today that changed.
So, as I settled in on the steps of the Kentucky State Capitol, I removed my Quest Bar from the backpack my roomie has with her. It was a bit misshapen. Unfortunately. That’s from toting it around to all those other events…in the heat…and having it soften and then harden back up. That’s fine. If it tastes good…it doesn’t have to look perfect.
But that was the question…would it taste good?
I broke off a bit for my roommate to try and she took a bite…and chewed…and chewed…and chewed…
“How is it?”
“Chewy.”
Thanks for that! Since it was the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar…I was hoping it would taste like a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. I took a bite. And began to chew…and chew…and chew…damn…it was chewy…
It didn’t taste like a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. Not at all. It tasted like a really chewy hunk of chocolate…with a bit of nutty flavor and texture mixed in. It wasn’t bad. But…my jaw was already starting to hurt from working so hard on this bar. I am seriously hoping that this chewy texture (overly chewy!) was really brought on by having the bar melt a couple times in the heat and then reform. Because…by the third bite…my jaw was done with chewing and I still had half a bar left. Which I did manage to finish. And then give my jaw a much needed break. Back to the flavor though…the peanut butter part was really hidden under the flavor of the chocolate. It was just an undertone. And I don’t know if that was on purpose or not…but peanut butter is my favorite thing in life…so I was just expecting more of it to shine through. Peanut butter and chocolate are best mates and a classic combination…so this works. The flavor was good. Like eating dessert…without it being overly sweet.
It will be interesting to see how the next bar is as far as chewiness. Because now I’m curious!
Let’s look at the ingredients in this high protein and low carb bar, shall we? The Quest Bar Chocolate Peanut Butter is made from a protein blend (whey protein isolate, milk protein isolate), Isomalto-Oligosaccharides* (Prebiotic Fiber), peanuts, water, erythritol, and cocoa. This bar also contains less than 2% of the following: sea salt, stevia, lo han guo, and natural flavors. This bar is High Fiber, Gluten Free, and sweetened without the use of sugar or artificial sweeteners.
A serving size of the Quest Bar Chocolate Peanut Butter is 1 bar. This bar provides you with 160 calories and 5 grams of fat. You also will be taking in 5 mg cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, and 2 grams of sugar. This bar provides your body with 255 mg potassium. And finally, you will be consuming 25 grams carbohydrates, 17 grams of fiber and 20 grams of protein.
Trust me…you’ll feel full!
So, as I said, this bar wasn’t bad…it was just…not really what I was expecting. It was the perfect thing after my race though, when I knew it would be awhile before I ate anything. It definitely held me over for hours and I ran some errands and even settled in a bit at home before I even thought about making an early dinner. The flavor was good…and I’m really hoping the next one isn’t as chewy.
Guess we’ll find out.
Quest Bar Chocolate Peanut Butter (unwrapped with a chunk torn out of it)
Product: Gone Pie Vegan Bakery Coconut Brownie – (part of Cuisine Cube and no price online)
Are any of you familiar with Cuisine Cube? I wasn’t either. Not until a special offer came across my Groupon-like gluten-free saver sort of mailing that I belong to. I showed the e-mail to my roomie and said I wanted to try it. She said to go for it. Want to make me happy? Tell me I can get Cuisine Cube.
So, for those of you who don’t know what Cuisine Cube is…let me explain. Cuisine Cube is a subscription-based, monthly delivered box of gluten-free foodie goodness. The concept was crafted by a team of enthusiastic eaters, food professionals, and allergy sufferers from New York City who were on the hunt for great gluten-free food. They became aware that gluten intolerance is more prevalent today. And, while gluten-free brands are more readily available in supermarkets all over the country…sometimes the bigger the brand the more preservatives and additives they contain. Gluten-free foods are a lot of processed foods. And, they…much like me…want to cut out as much processed food as possible. And…at the same time…keep the food we do eat tasty. We all know, even the biggest brands in gluten-free foods don’t always taste the best. So, the creators of Cuisine Cube sought out lesser known brands made by small artisan producers, which they found often tasted better and were better for you. Not to mention, it meant supporting small businesses. But sometimes finding these smaller and lesser-known brands can be hard. Thankfully, Cuisine Cube does the leg work for you. They select different foods in each meal category and the box is delivered to my door. All of it is gluten-free…and affordable. Seriously.
I received my first Cuisine Cube in May. And, with the exception of one product inside, I hadn’t ever heard of any of the other brands inside. Gotta love it.
So…tonight…it was time to give one of these products a try.
And I made the most obvious choice…
Dessert.
The dessert category in May’s Cuisine Cube was by Gone Pie Vegan Bakery. And the item…the Gluten-Free and Vegan Coconut Brownie.
I had never heard of Gone Pie Vegan Bakery before. And for good reason. Gone Pie is a Brooklyn based brownie maker who went from shop owner to wholesale producer. Listening to the customer’s needs, all items that Gone Pie produces and sells are gluten-free as well as vegan.
This…is my happy face.
So after eating my fantastic gluten-free pizza for dinner…dessert was the next logical step. Time for some Gone Pie Vegan Bakery Coconut Brownie! I opened up the plastic wrapper and removed this very moist and chocolatey brownie. It looked so rich and smelled amazing. On top, you could see toasted coconut flakes. I couldn’t wait to take a bite. But…first I needed pictures for the blog and to split it in half so the roomie could indulge too.
She took the first bite…so I had to know what she thought. She said it was pretty good…and it tasted…familiar. That didn’t tell me much and since she’s congested, I decided just to go off my own thoughts on this one. I settled in…and took a bite.
Soft. Moist. Amazing. You could really taste the toasted coconut that is baked inside and toasted on top. I loved the richness of this brownie, and how it was kept soft and decadent with the inclusion of dates. But the dates don’t overpower or take away from that brownie feel, so don’t worry about that at all. The chocolate is the star…and it is prevalent in each bite…without being too sweet. So fantastic. I wish I had more of these. Seriously!
While these have no nutritional information, I can give you a run-down of the ingredients! The Gone Pie Vegan Bakery Coconut Brownie is made from vegan fairtrade sugar, gluten free flour blend (sorghum, buckwheat, amaranth, garfava, tapioca, potato, brown rice), dates, brown rice syrup, coconut milk, gluten-free vegan fairtrade semi-sweet chocolate, gluten-free vegan fairtrade chocolate liquor, non-GMO canola oil, vegan fairtrade unsweetened cocoa powder, aluminum-free baking powder, and spices
Thanks to Cuisine Cube, I am being introduced to some fantastic and unique products I never would have even known existed. I never would have even known about Gone Pie Vegan Bakery or their amazing products if not for Cuisine Cube. In fact…I have since visited Gone Pie Vegan Bakery’s Web site. Their variety of gluten-free goodies sound so good. And now, I will make a point to order something else and give it a try.
Yes…this brownie impressed that much.
Thank you Cuisine Cube and thank you Gone Pie Vegan Bakery!
Product: Jovial Gluten Free Fig Fruit Filled Cookies – $5.99+
Do you know how long it has been since I have eaten a Fig Newton? Three years. This journey began three years ago…and…I won’t lie to you…there are times I walk past items in the grocery store and it’s all I want. Fig Newtons were one of my favorite snacks. Always were…even growing up. They were dropped from my diet when Celiac entered my life. And I have missed them. A lot.
While Jovial is one of my favorite makers of gluten-free pastas on the market, I hadn’t ventured much beyond that. A few of our local natural food stores carry other Jovial items…like their gluten-free cookies. I’ve just never justified spending money on them. I know…I’m a cookie monster, but there are usually more pressing matters on my grocery list…like…whole foods and fruits and vegetables and…the non-processed, doesn’t come with a label, best foods out there for you kind of stuff. And while I splurge every now and again, I find my budget growing tighter and tighter and my money less and less.
And it sucks.
But…sometimes…you end up in Birmingham, Alabama, visiting your family and splurges happen. Often. And this last visit, when my mom and I went shopping out at Organic Harvest, I decided that it was time to give into that craving to, perhaps, relive some Fig Newton goodness…and I purchased a box of Jovial Gluten Free Fig Fruit Filled Cookies. And they came home with me. And…I kept staring at the box, wanting to open them…wanting to see if they were even close to reminiscent of my Fig Newton noshing days.
Well, the day finally came. Today, while at work, my morning snack (because cookies in the morning is perfectly logical, yes?) became the Jovial Gluten Free Fig Fruit Filled Cookies. Hey…cookies with fruit in them can be a good morning snack! Right?!
I knew you’d agree with me!
So…at 10:30 a.m….I opened up my little package of figgy cookie goodness…and took my first taste.
So…here’s the deal with the Jovial Gluten Free Fig Fruit Filled Cookies…
They do taste a lot like Fig Newtons. They really do. Except for one…very minor…but important detail. The cookie part…the part that encases the entire figgy center…is so dry. It’s so dry that it’s crumbly. Think…shortbread texture. That’s what it immediately reminded me of. And the fact that it didn’t have that rich, soft, gooeyness that Fig Newtons had (you know…one bite and it all melts together), was actually more of a let down. The flavor is spot on! I LOVE that part. But I found the fig center to be under-stuffed and that cookie to be dry and a bit of a distraction from the fig fruit middle. It was disappointing, but not disgusting. I will (and intend to) polish off this box of cookies…but I don’t think I’ll purchase them again. At least not in the near future. My roomie tried one too…and she thought the same thing about both the cookie and the lack of fig center. And she has recently had both Fig Newtons and Fig Newmans…so, she’s in the right figgy frame of mind for this.
Ingredient-wise, these are actually really well put together. They are made from organic figs, organic rice flour, organic sugar, organic potato starch, organic palm fruit oil, organic rice starch, organic rice syrup, organic eggs, organic chick pea flour, organic arabic gum, leavening, salt, pectin, citric acid, and guar gum. They are gluten-free and casein-free. And, granted, these are the first gluten-free option for people who love figs! I will give them that! And, according to the Web site, the Jovial Gluten Free Fig Fruit Filled Cookies are baked in small batches with ingredients that are mixed by hand. They use a unique and delicate process to hide the filling completely inside the cookie before baking (unlike Fig Newtons & Fig Newmans where you see the fig filling on each end).
Nutritionally speaking, a serving size of the Jovial Gluten Free Fig Fruit Filled Cookies is 2 cookies. These two little two-bite cookies serve you up 130 calories and 4 grams of fat. Two cookies will also provide you with 5 mg cholesterol, 65 mg sodium, and 12 grams of sugar (YIKES!). Additionally, you will be taking in 1 gram of fiber and 1 gram of protein…so this is not a filling treat either. Just keep that in mind.
Yes…I was disappointed by the cookie shell of the Jovial Gluten Free Fig Fruit Filled Cookies, but…they weren’t a complete loss. The flavors were there. The cookie was just crumbly and the filling a bit scant, that’s all. And that’s me…being the cookie monster that I am…looking for the quality that I pay for. And these cookies are not cheap. Like I said, I’d eat them again…sure. But I won’t actively seek them out on a consistent basis. I would, however, like to try the other two cookie options available by Jovial.
Halo Top Creamery Lemon Cake All Natural Light Ice Cream
Product: Halo Top Creamery Lemon Cake All Natural Light Ice Cream – $5.49+
So…a couple weeks ago I posted my first blog on my first flavor of Halo Top Creamery All Natural Ice Cream. It was the vanilla flavor…and save for some not-so-creamy texture…it ranked high in my book! What’s not to love about an ice cream that has fantastic flavor, dishes up like ice cream, and is low in calories and high in protein? There is SO much to love about that…let me tell you!
So, I was sort of (okay…maybe a little more than sort of) excited about dishing up a bowl of the other flavor that my roomie and I decided to pick up that day there was a special on them at our natural food store. I chose Vanilla Bean. She chose Lemon Cake. This shouldn’t surprise anyone…as she is a lemon freak! Like…freaky freak over lemon. Like Rick James Superfreak over lemon. I mean…I love lemon too, but she takes her lemon love to a new and somewhat disturbing extreme. HA!
Recall…the Halo Top Creamery Vanilla Bean All Natural Light Ice Cream had amazing flavor, but was less creamy than regular ice cream. It wasn’t bad through and it didn’t fall apart and flake when dished. It still rolled up perfectly in the ice cream scoop and made pretty little balls of ice cream in my bowl.
Well…tonight…it was the Lemon Cake flavor’s turn to shine.
We polished off dinner (Gluten-Free and Vegan BLATs [vegan bacon (made with black beans and buckwheat groats…yes…I make it myself!), lettuce, avocado, and tomato sandwiches) with grilled corn-on-the-cob. I asked if she wanted ice cream of cookies for dessert. She had no opinion…and I didn’t care. Since we had the ice cream longer than the cookies…I opted for the ice cream. Besides, she has a cold and up until this morning a sore throat…so ice cream is the best remedy for that, right? Of course!
I pulled it from the freezer, got my 1/2 cup measuring cup out (yes…I portion-size everything!), ice cream scoop, and ice cream bowls. I was ready to dish. The ice cream scoop went into the pint…and it flaked. It flaked!! It didn’t roll up into the scoop. It busted up into little ice cream like pieces…and crumbled. The result was a bowl of ice cream that looked more like scrambled eggs than ice cream.
BUMMER!
So…the texture on this one was WAY off. But…what about the flavor?
On the Web site, the Halo Top Creamery Lemon Cake All Natural Light Ice Cream is described as being not too sweet and not too sour. It states that it has the perfect amount of zesty freshness and sweet richness. And it’s called Lemon Cake because it has a “smooth cheesecake-y texture.”
*eyes scrambled egg-like ice cream in bowl*
REALLY??!!
Okay…the flavor was actually a very delicate and enticing blend of lemon flavor. It wasn’t overwhelming…but Cathy didn’t even realize she was eating the Lemon Cake Halo Top Creamery Ice Cream. I mentioned it after and she said, “That was the lemon cake?” I don’t know what to say about that…because she also is fighting a cold. To me…the lemon flavor was actually spot-on. It wasn’t overpowering but it wasn’t too under-the-radar either. It had great flavor.
But…my GOD…it was not at all ice cream-like. More like…sorbet gone wrong. And it’s too bad. It really is too bad because I had such high hopes for the Halo Top Creamery Lemon Cake All Natural Light Ice Cream. If you don’t mind flaky, crusty ice cream…then this is for you. But, it is called ice cream for a reason. And this…was not the texture I was hoping for when I bought it.
Disappointment.
The Halo Top Creamery Lemon Cake All Natural Light Ice Cream is made up of milk and cream, cultured non-fat milk, cage-free eggs, whey, erythritol, organic cane sugar, chicory root, casein protein, acacia gum, sea salt, organic lemon peel, organic lemon oil, organic sunflower oil, organic carob gum, organic guar gum, carrageenan, and organic stevia.
As for nutrition…a serving of Halo Top Creamery Lemon Cake All Natural Ice Cream is 1/2 cup. This serving dishes up only 70 calories and 3 grams of fat. A serving also gives you 43 mg cholesterol, 89 mg sodium, and 4 grams of sugar. This 1/2 cup serving will also provide you with 4 grams of fiber and 7 grams of protein. Not bad.
Too bad the ice cream is not good…
This was a huge disappointment. I wanted to try all the flavors, but this sort of made me not want to waste my money.
Sad.
A “scoop” of Halo Top Creamery Lemon Cake All Natural Light Ice Cream
It’s no secret around here…my go-to food for…whatever emotion I’m feeling…is peanut butter.
PEANUT-FREAKIN’-BUTTER! When I’m stressed, sad, lonely, hungry, angry, confused, and yes…even happy or content…I have a jar…and a spoon…and I eat all the peanut butter.
Well, that’s not what I set out to do…but that’s normally what happens because when it comes to the creamy, rich, sweet and salty flavor of peanut butter…I sometimes can’t stop myself. Honestly, it would be best for me if I had Cathy hide the peanut butter. This may have to happen.
That being said, this morning I opened up a new dreamy jar of a new kind of peanut butter. My friend Jenn found a jar of PB Crave (my local World Market seems to be the one place locally I can get this!) and was kind enough to pick one up for me. The flavor – Cookie Nookie. As in…cookie flavored peanut butter. And, before you fret, it is gluten-free! It’s been sitting, standing on it’s lid (it’s all natural, so the ingredients separate), in my pantry, since I brought it home from Columbus, Ohio. But the time had come. I didn’t want to wait any longer. That and Cathy really seemed to want the gluten-free bagel thins instead of eggs this morning…and I needed something to schmear on them. Congratulations PB Crave…your time to shine.
I uncapped the jar this morning and got out a butter knife to begin the task of stirring the ingredients together. Hey…I don’t mind working for my peanut butter. Honestly. It smelled amazing…like peanut butter cookie dough, so I couldn’t wait to get it on that bagel. I worked for about 5 minutes, making sure the oil was mixed in well and that there were no clumpy bits. I hate clumpy bits in my peanut butter. Then, I recapped it and got the bagels out to toast in the oven. They were lightly toasted and I was ready to top them off.
PB Crave is the brainchild of Curt Riess, who was raised on traditional peanut butter and (gasp) hated it! But that all changed one day when he tried a combination of peanut butter, raspberries, and chocolate. The new twist on an old classic was what sparked the idea to begin his own peanut butter company. Curt’s Peanut Butter Company was born and soon developed four very unique flavors for their line PB Crave. The company is based out of Cannon Falls, Minnesota, and they believe in quality, citizenship, and innovation. They are not only re-inventing peanut butter (and doing a fine job of it too!), and focusing on quality products, they are setting out to change the world. No joke. Their Web site has a link to Project Peanut Butter, where the company donates a minimum of 2% of the profits from every jar of PB Crave to Project Peanut Butter, a non-profit organization that focuses on treating malnourished children. So, PB Crave is actually setting out to make a difference. You gotta love that!
But, I digress…
Kinda.
So, the gluten-free bagel thins were now dressed up in PB Crave Cookie Nookie Peanut Butter and ready for their first taste test. I handed Cathy her plate and went to clean up a little and pour myself some coffee. As she is fighting off a cold, I didn’t bother to ask her what she thought of it. I always get the same response anyway these days and I grow weary of hearing it every time. So, I settled in with my own plate and took a bite.
Rich. Creamy. And it tastes like peanut butter cookie dough with chcolate chips in it. It’s like…eating dessert on my bagel. Man…it was amazing. And really fantastic with the texture. It stirred together well and just became this smooth spread with chocolate chips throughout. And…that’s exactly what it should taste like. The PB Crave Cookie Nookie Peanut Butter is a delicious combination of chocolate chips, cookie dough flavor, wild honey, and premium peanut butter. So…cookies…peanut butter…chocolate chips…honey…did I die and go to peanut butter heaven? This was one rich, sweet treat to have on my bagel this morning. I fell in love with first bite…and then wanted to lick the plate.
I actually did lick the plate.
PB Crave is crafted using high-quality ingredients and proven practices. These jars of twisted peanut butter gives you the flavor combinations you crave without the stuff you don’t…and that your body doesn’t need. In other words, PB Crave has no hydrogenated oils, no artificial flavors, no syrups, no high-fructose corn syrup, and…yes…it is gluten-free and cholesterol free. PB Crave Cookie Nookie Peanut Butter is an artisan-crafted blend of peanuts, sugar, palm oil, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, whole milk, natural flavor, salt, maltodextrin, soy lecithin, honey, and vanilla.
Nutritionally speaking, a serving of PB Crave Cookie Nookie Peanut Butter is 2 tablespoons. This serving gives you 180 calories and 15 grams of fat. A serving of PB Crave Cookie Nookie also dishes up 130 mg sodium and 5 grams of sugar. You also will be taking in 2 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein. Honestly, not bad for a peanut butter.
The problem is keeping yourself limited to that serving size. Because now it’s peanut butter and dessert rolled into one. I’ve eaten peanut butter for dessert…but this is like a whole new level of spoon-licking awesomeness. Spread it on anything. Apple slices…toast…celery…and kick it up a notch. Substitute it in your recipe for peanut butter cookies. When peanut butter is elevated to a new level…it becomes PB Crave Cookie Nookie.
It just becomes PB Crave. And now I want to try all four flavors. PB Crave also is offered in Choco Choco (double dose of dark chocolate with peanut butter and honey), Coco Bananas (tropical blend of bananas, cocoa, honey and peanut butter), and Razzle Dazzle (twisted blend of red raspberry, honey, white chocolate, dark chocolate, and peanut butter).
Sound epic?
You bet your peanut butter craving panties it does!
Time to go on the hunt…or at least place an order online. This is a necessity for the pantry. For always.
Now, pardon me while I go raid the rest of the jar…
Trader Joe’s Gluten-Free Joe Joe’s Chocolate Vanilla Creme Cookies
Product: Trader Joe’s Gluten-Free Joe Joe’s Chocolate Vanilla Creme Cookies – $3.99
COOKIES!!
COOKIE MONSTER STRIKES AGAIN!!
It’s been a little while now since I spotted the Gluten-Free Joe Joe’s on the shelf of my local Trader Joe’s. At the time, I had so many cookies in my pantry that I couldn’t justify purchasing them. I’m a cookie monster, for sure, but even I know where to draw the line at times. HA! Or…so I like to tell myself anyway. I am she of no self control when it comes to certain things (Helllllllllllo….peanut butter!). I tend to behave, most of the time, when I know what still waits for me at home.
I was happy to have these though. When my friend, Stacey, threw a challenge at me to make a gluten-free and vegan grasshopper pie…I was short on my pie crust, so I pulled out six cookies, scraped out the filling (which Cathy then snacked on), and then threw them in the food processor…ultimately getting my pie crust amount right where it needed to be. Happiness and joy. But…now I had an open box of sandwich cookies.
Oh…I guess I forgot to mention that. In case you don’t know about Trader Joe’s and their products, they have their own version of an Oreo cookie…called Joe Joe’s. Well, I think around a year ago, they introduced a gluten-free version of these cookies. Sandwich cookies…are amazing. Growing up, I was an Oreo fiend. I would pour a giant glass of milk and grab Oreo after Oreo…dipping them in the milk and keeping it there while that delicious chocolate cookie would grow soft. That’s the ultimate and best (in my opinion…but honestly…it is) way to eat a sandwich cookie.
When I went gluten-free, I thought my cookie eating days were over. Until I realized that the gluten-free cookie industry is BOOMING! Really, if it’s an unhealthy snack, there is a gluten-free version of it somewhere. Some better than others, of course. And my first gluten-free sandwich cookie (of Oreo-like goodness) came from Glutino…thanks to my mom. There are other brands out there that I still need to try (K-Toos for one), but I have stuck it out with Glutino for the longest time. Because…they are flippin’ fantastic. For real! But…there came a moment of weakness during a quick Trader Joe’s stop…where a box of the Gluten-Free Joe Joe’s made it into my basket and then into my shopping bag…and then into my pantry.
So…last night…since the box was now open, I figured this would be an easy dessert. Besides, you give the option of milk (for me almond milk) and cookies to my roommate, and you have a happy roomie. HAHA! It’s the truth. She wanted to have nothing of the other dessert options that I listed off. I said milk and cookies and…that’s what she zeroed in on. And that…was what we had.
I poured her a glass of skim milk and me a glass of my unsweetened almond milk and pulled out two cookies each for us. Suddenly, I was feeling like a kid again. I felt like I was sidling up to the breakfast table at my friend’s house with the entire package and devouring most of said package in that sitting as we just kept dunking and eating and enjoying those tasty, delicious, amazing Oreo cookies. The instant I dunked that cookie into my almond milk and held it there, counting silently to the magic number that gets the cookie all soaked and mushy without it breaking off and pooling at the bottom of the glass (hate when that happens). I carefully lifted it to my lips…and that first bite…pure magic.
These…are fantastic. They are damn good. They might not be up to the level of Glutino, but they are also less expensive to purchase, and it’s been awhile since I even had the Glutino sandwich cookies…so perhaps the comparison is unfair. The chocolate cookie part itself is rich and dark and just…that right amount of crunchy and crumbly. Perfect balance. It didn’t take long for it to soak up that almond milk and get it to that level of sogginess that I love when I eat these sorts of cookies. The creme layer itself is…different. I found it to be a bit dry…and a little on the thin side. As in…I expect these cookies to have a good layer of creme (not double-stuff, but still a good layer!). So, that creme filling was a little lacking. I loved, however, that you could actually see the vanilla bean specks inside the creme. No fake and artificial vanilla flavor here. That’s the real deal. Too bad they sort of skimped out on that filling, eh? But…the cookie is the star and the cookie was amazing. The chocolate flavor just floods your mouth…and I think that’s where that creme layer needed to really be there…to sort of bring a balance. But…it’s something they can consider for the future. If a product is a cookie with creme…give me the damn creme!
Two cookies…gone way too soon. The temptation to get the package and just keep going was definitely there. Oh…to have the metabolism I had as a child…and no knowledge of what the hell a calorie was. Ignorance really is bliss. Sandwiched between two chocolate cookies. *sigh*
Let’s take a look at the ingredients that go into Trader Joe’s Gluten-Free Joe Joe’s Chocolate Vanilla Creme Cookies, shall we? These cookies are made from: cane sugar, grain blend (corn flour, rice flour, cornstarch, potato flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, xanthan gum, arabic gum, and carrageenan), palm oil, cocoa powder, expeller pressed canola oil, invert syrup, cocoa powder, egg white powder, sea salt, baking powder, vanilla bean seeds, soy lecithin, natural flavors and ammonium bicarbonate. Not a fan of the canola oil, the carrageenan…honestly. But…I don’t eat these often, so as a treat…
As far as nutrition goes…these are cookies…keep that in mind. A serving size is 2 of the Gluten-Free Joe Joe’s Chocolate Vanilla Creme Cookies. I know it’s difficult…but try to keep to that serving size. This serving will provide you with 130 calories and 6 grams of fat. Additionally, you will be taking in 65 mg sodium and 11 grams of sugar. These cookies are cholesterol free. Finally, you will be provided with less than 1 gram of fiber and 1 gram of protein. Filling…it’s a cookie…it’s not going to be filling. It is going to be a nice sweet treat though.
So…yes…I know these are not clean eating, nor are they healthy. But, you can’t be 100% all the time. And since I can’t eat Oreos anymore…I have to find my alternative. Trader Joe’s does a decent job with their Gluten-Free Joe Joe’s Chocolate Vanilla Creme Cookies! They are packed with flavor…just not with filling. Which, might be a blessing rather than a curse (keeps that calorie count down!). However, let’s face it…the creme is one of the best parts of sandwich cookies…so I want to be aware of it when I binge on these addictive little treats (made even more addictive when dunked…I can’t explain it…but it’s true!). So, I’m not disappointed with this purchase, and would probably buy these again in the future. After all…sometimes you just can’t beat that Trader Joe’s price!
Halo Top Creamery Vanilla Bean All Natural Light Ice Cream
Product: Halo Top Creamery Vanilla Bean All Natural Light Ice Cream – $5.49+
Cookies might be one of my favorite desserts in the world…but sometimes…you just can’t beat the sweet, savory, melty goodness of ice cream. I love ice cream. I love ice cream so much that I take a lactase supplement so I can eat it, as my lactose intolerance otherwise doesn’t handle the dairy well. And, where I can, I keep it dairy-free…sometimes you just want to try something new in that freezer section at the grocery store.
For a while now, I had been eying the Halo Top Creamery All Natural Light Ice Cream at my local natural food store. What really caught my attention, above everything else in that freezer, was that the pints declared that a serving contained 7 grams of protein and only 70 calories. I’m sorry…70 calories!!!!! Be still my ice cream loving heart!
Our local natural food store was having a great sale on this brand a couple weeks back, so Cathy and I gave a little bit of leeway to our budget and purchased two pints. One flavor…the lemon cake. The other…vanilla bean.
I’ve been wanting to dive into these since we bought them, but we had some cookies (ooooh…cookies!) to use up first. And then I made a Vegan and Gluten-Free Grasshopper Pie. But…to celebrate another marathon…we picked up a brownie from Annie May’s Sweet Café in Louisville, Kentucky, with the original thought to take it to our local ice cream shop (Comfy Cow) and have them use it in a brownie sundae. But…with our budget tight due to some traveling for the marathon…I said we could make the sundaes at home. She agreed that saving money was a good idea…but…the sundae had to wait until…tonight. Three days after we purchased the brownie…we finally had a break in our dessert schedule to open up one of the ice cream pints.
The most logical choice, of course, was the Halo Top Creamy Vanilla Bean All Natural Light Ice Cream.
I love vanilla. Vanilla is the ultimate test of how good any ice cream is. Because if you can’t make a good vanilla…you can’t make good ice cream. Whenever I try a new ice cream brand, I usually opt for vanilla first. This is how I judge them. Seriously. I am an ice cream lover from my childhood. I know good ice cream. Halo Top Creamy spares no expense when it comes to making their Vanilla Bean flavor. They use pure Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Vanilla, which is the top of the line vanilla that money can buy. Honestly.
A 1/2 cup serving of Halo Top Creamery Vanilla Bean All Natural Light Ice Cream
So…this is how I utilized the Vanilla Bean ice cream from Halo Top Creamery. I started off by warming up the Gluten-Free Double Fudge Brownie from Annie May’s Sweet Café. I sliced it in half and put one half in each ice cream bowl. Then, I warmed up some hot fudge in the microwave. While that was warming, I scooped up a 1/2 cup serving of the Halo Top Creamery Vanilla Bean All Natural Light Ice Cream and gently placed it on top of the brownie slice. Once the hot fudge was ready, I drizzled it over the top, added some chopped pecans (or walnuts on Cathy’s sundae…as she prefers walnuts and I prefer pecans). And…it was time to dig in.
I was actually surprised with how rich and smooth this flavor was. The ice cream, much like the ice creams made from coconut milk or soy milk, definitely aren’t as soft and pliable when scooped, but the flavor was amazing. It crumbles a little, but that’s the nature of ice cream with very little fat in it. And very little sugar. In fact, one of my favorite aspects of this ice cream is that it has almost twice the protein as sugar. How’s that for epic? The ice cream might be a bit crumbly, but the flavor is outstanding. You want to get good vanilla ice cream, grab a spoon and dig into this guilt-free pleasure. The vanilla is really the star and you can tell that they pulled out all the stops when it came to creating this flavor. I was in love at first bite. And each one that followed, weather it was on its own or covered in fudge and accompanied by some warm brownie.
Are you drooling yet?
So, let’s look at what the Halo Top Creamery Vanilla Bean All Natural Light Ice Cream is made from. The ingredients are milk and cream, cultured nonfat milk, cage-free eggs, whey, erythritol, organic cane sugar, chicory root, casein protein, organic vanilla extract, organic vanilla beans, acacia gum, sea salt, organic carob gum, organic guar gum, carrageenan, and organic stevia. So…it has that damn carrageenan in it…but it’s not so bad otherwise. And the FAQ on the Web site does say that their ice cream is gluten-free and vegetarian! Some ice creams use gelatine. Not Halo Top Creamery!
As for the nutrition information…you’ll love this. A serving size is 1/2 cup. In this big scoop of ice cream, you will be provided with only 70 calories and 3 grams of fat. You will be taking in 43 mg of cholesterol, 89 mg sodium, and only 4 grams of sugar. In addition, you will be taking in 4 grams of fiber and 7 grams of protein. That’s incredible!
So, yeah…I was excited…and a bit nervous when it came to actually trying Halo Top Creamery’s All Natural Light Ice Cream. I was afraid it would be like…the nastiness that is Arctic Zero. GROSS! But it turns out that, the Vanilla Bean flavor, at least, is fantastic. It’s light and tasty and just…good. While the texture isn’t as creamy as you’d expect, it still works and it still tastes good. It’s one fine vanilla ice cream. And you won’t feel guilty piling it on top of a brownie and coating it with some hot fudge. Well, you shouldn’t at least. Honestly…I was actually pleasantly surprised when it came to the taste, texture, and all around flavor of Halo Top Creamery Vanilla Bean All Natural Light Ice Cream.
Find it. Try it. Indulge. Hitting the freezer has never been so guilt-free and simply delicious.
A Gluten-Free Brownie Sundae made with Halo Top Creamery Vanilla Bean All Natural Light Ice Cream (on a gluten-free double chocolate brownie, covered with hot fudge and chopped pecans)
Product: Aldi liveGfree Gluten-Free Blueberry Pancakes – $2.69
Thanks to a lot of really good friends and some coworkers, I found out that in the beginning of May (also Celiac Awareness Month…which I had every intention to blog about…and then May got insane and my blog got backlogged with all the traveling I was doing), Aldi was going to be test driving a line of gluten-free products in their stores.
The brand is currently being called liveGfree…and I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I stepped into Aldi that afternoon with my roommate. Almost immediately, we were surrounded by the white boxes that held the gluten-free products. From brownie mixes to bread mixes to snack bars to pastas to baking mixes, cookie mixes, and…gluten-free wraps. It was almost overwhelming.
If you’ve ever bought gluten-free products, you understand that they can be rather pricey at times. Gluten-free convenience foods, prepared foods, baked goods, and (especially) bread can cost up to twice as much as the regular gluten-filled products on the market. So imagine my glee and the happy gleam in my eyes when I noted the Aldi liveGfree price tags. Seriously, a gluten-free budget shoppers dream. I never have bought gluten-free products for these prices. Even more importantly, however, is that the entire line of liveGfree products are certified gluten-free. YES!
But an even happier dance happened after stocking up on some of the boxes and bags of items at the front of the store…because in the freezer section there was more! YES! MORE! And one of those items just happened to be the liveGfree Gluten-Free Blueberry Pancakes.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking…why can’t you just make your own gluten-free blueberry pancakes from scratch. Well…I can. And I have. And I will again. But this was a new product. I had to try it. I just had to. Even more so when I spotted the phrase “light and fluffy” on the box itself. Hmmm…really? Needless to say, the freezer I had worked so hard to clear out…is back to being full. HA! Same goes for the pantry.
I am not ashamed.
Well, Monday morning came around. And Monday morning is a busy morning for me. Not only do I run bright and early, but I also have a 5:30 a.m. spin class. So, I eat something before I run and then something after spin class. But, there isn’t a lot of time in between getting home from class, showering, and getting to work. The more convenient the breakfast the better. Especially since Cathy (the roomie) is nothing but a slug in the mornings…and really just sits on the couch and reads instead of fixing up something while I shower.
A package of three of the Aldi liveGfree Gluten-Free Blueberry Pancakes
That being said…this was going to be perfect. There are three ways to cook the liveGfree Gluten-Free Blueberry Pancakes. Yep. Three ways. One way I can negate because it involves a toaster oven…and I don’t have one. On Monday morning, I decided to cook them up in the conventional oven. So, I walked through the door and tossed my spin stuff to the side, hustled into the kitchen and preheated the oven to 375°F. While the oven was heating, I removed the box from the freezer and pulled out two of the pre-packaged stacks of three pancakes. Wouldn’t you know it…a serving size was three pancakes. Perfect. I opened up the packet and placed the pancakes on a baking sheet. I covered the pancakes loosely with foil and tossed them into the oven while I went to shower.
They were just finishing up when I emerged from my room, clean, clothed and ready to eat. I got out my maple agave syrup and gave it a little warm-up in the microwave. Then, I took the pancakes out of the oven and served them up with a little butter and hot syrup.
I wasn’t sure what sort of quality to expect from Aldi’s liveGfree Gluten-Free Blueberry Pancakes. But I delivered a plate of them to Cathy, who dug in. I asked her how they were and got the typical, “They’re pretty good!” Which I never know what that actually means. But she was diving in for more, so I took that as a good sign. I settled in with my own plate and gave them a try.
They really were light and fluffy. Seriously. Almost like they were homemade. You gotta love that. They are a bit small in size, but all frozen pancakes are, let’s be honest! They weren’t gummy or gritty. They were soft and light and packed with a buttermilk flavor with a delightful sweetness from the bits of dry blueberries that are incorporated throughout the little pancakes themselves. They were steamy and honestly tasted like I had just pulled them off the griddle.
Fast forward to Tuesday morning. This is a gym morning for Cathy and I. So, I bring breakfast to the office to do up quickly before settling in for a long day of paper pushing. Without the convenience of an oven at work, I was going to try the other way too cook these up – the microwave. For three pancakes, the box said to simply heat on high for 1 minute. Additional time might be needed depending on the microwave, but that’s never the case with the one at the office. Trust me! I heated them up for a minute, gave them the schmear of butter and the drizzle of the syrup…and they were served. I was actually more concerned about how these would taste after being nuked for a minute instead of toasted in an oven. They didn’t have that light crust that I love…but they were soft without being soggy. They remained light and fluffy and didn’t crumble because they were steamed or anything in the confines of the microwave. I was beyond impressed.
I admit…these definitely are not clean eating. But they are convenient. Ingredients in the liveGfree Gluten-Free Blueberry Pancakes include: water, rice flour, tapioca flour, sugar, soy flour, potato flour, blueberry bits, whole egg powder, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum. I have seen longer ingredient lists than this…but you know the blueberry bits contain sugar, rice flour, dried blueberries, corn starch canola oil, fructose, natural colorings from concentrated juices (which include elderberry, watermelon and huito), natural flavor and sodium bicarbonate.
As for the nutrional information…it’s really not too bad. A serving size of liveGfree Gluten-Free Blueberry Pancakes is three pancakes (1 package). This serving provides you with 210 calories and 4 grams of fat. You will be taking in 40 mg cholesterol, 390 mg sodium, and 10 grams of sugar. Yep…I know…that’s a lot of sugar. You will also be taking in 1 gram of fiber (so they aren’t too filling) and 5 grams of protein.
As this is a trial run of a product line being done by Aldi, I really hope they decide to keep these in stores. With this being my first taste of all the products I purchased that day in Aldi, the liveGfree brand is already impressing me. Great flavor. Easy to make, and fantastic texture. While I prefer to make things from scratch, these are awesome for those busy mornings or evenings when you are in a hurry and short on time. Seriously. And you definitely can’t beat the price.
Aldi liveGfree Gluten-Free Blueberry Pancakes (fresh from the oven)
It had been a long day. By the time I rolled into Buffalo, I had already gotten up early to do a shakeout run while still in Ohio, stretched, did my ab routine, pack, get the car loaded up, and make the seemingly endless drive from Columbus, Ohio all the way up to Buffalo, New York…with one stop in Erie, Pennsylvania for lunch. Getting into Buffalo, I got checked into my hotel, hit up the race expo (I was there for a race, naturally), went back to my room, did more stretching, did some foam rolling, got things ready ahead of time so the evening wouldn’t be as hectic, and watched Food Network.
Because…that’s what I do.
HA!
But, before I knew it…it was time to head out to dinner. I was meeting up with my good friend, Kat, and her boyfriend, Adam, for dinner that night. It was the night before a race, so we wanted to have plenty of options for everyone. Kat requires brown rice pasta…so we narrowed it down to three places, but in the end…chose a place called…
Merge.
Kat was very high on this place when we were trying to make the decision. She said not only can they do a lot of their foods vegan/vegetarian, but a lot can be done gluten-free as well. AWESOME! Sounded perfect. And…the menu was a little different from anything I have down this way, so that was a bonus too. We were to meet for dinner at 5:00 p.m. So, at around 4:15, we set out to walk from our hotel up to Merge. It didn’t take us as long as we expected…so…we stood outside in the slightly chilly air. Right around 5, Kat and Adam showed up…and we stepped inside.
I already liked the place. Dimly lit…with a stage off to the right as you walk in. We were greeted and Kat gave the reservation. We were shown to our table and seated. As it was pre-race, I stuck with just water to drink. I hadn’t been too good about hydrating that day while on the road, so I wanted to make up for that a bit now. The waiter went to retrieve drinks and we sat and perused the menu.
Now, I had looked at the menu numerous times, trying to figure out what I wanted for dinner. Normally, pre-race means a gluten-free pizza. And that was completely available. HOWEVER…there were so many other delicious sounding items on the menu, that I thought, perhaps, to screw with tradition again…and do something completely different, but enough that would fuel up my muscles and top off those glycogen stores for the next morning. I was flip-flopping. On one hand, the gluten-free and dairy-free pizza was one with Daiya cheese, red onion, asparagus…it sounded awesome. But…again…I can get good gluten-free pizza in Louisville. So, it was down to trying the Gluten-Free and Vegan Mac & Cheese that Kat had told me so much about…or the special of the night…the Gluten-Free Eggplant Caponata…or the Gluten-Free Arugula Pesto Pasta.
So…while I was trying to decide, the rest of the table ordered. Kat went with the an appetizer of the Dairy-Free Stuffed Potato Skins ($10.00) which comes with a fresh corn salad with turkey bacon, Daiya Cheese, and a Chipotle Cream and then for an entree went with the Gluten-Free Eggplant Caponata ($18.00). Adam went with the Daily Pizza ($10.00). Jenn chose the Sweet Basil Gnocchi (which included roasted red peppers, red onion, spinach, roasted garlic and a white wine sauce) for her meal ($15.00). Cathy went with the Coconut Lemongrass Stir-fry ($15.00), which is a mix of organic tofu, snap peas, red onion, carrot, and rice vermicelli, served with toasted cashews, bean sprouts, and fresh lime.
And I was still stumped!
I went over my choices with the waiter to get his opinion and to maybe help me make a decision, because I was seriously waffling. Pizza…or something different…pizza…or something different…tradition…or not….AH! The waiter said he highly recommended the Arugula Pesto Pasta. Kat made sure that the pesto didn’t have Parmesan in it (as someone with a dairy allergy…she knows all about the importance of asking about things like that because so many pesto recipes include Parmesan…and being lactose intolerant…I avoid all things dairy before a race). He said that it was vegan…and so…I went with it. Why not?!
There it was…tradition once again bucked…
I went with the Gluten-Free Arugula Pesto Pasta ($15.00), which was brown rice pasta with local tomato, red onion, spinach, and tossed with toasted walnuts. Oooh…I’d get some nice vitamins from that spinach and some Omega from those walnuts. Nice choice. Glad I had some help in making it!
So, we all sat around and talked about various topics, not just running. In fact, running didn’t really come up all that much that night. We were just having a good time and relaxing. Because that is important before a race. Trust me. The atmosphere of Merge is very conducive to that too. It was really, really nice. The appetizer was brought to the table and Kat let me try one of the potato skins. I didn’t put the corn and bacon topping on it since it was real meat, but the Daiya cheese and the chipotle cream were put on the potato skin…and it was phenomenal. Quite tasty. I want to recreate this at home…and just might this week! It was a great way to start off the dining experience.
But, before long our meals were being served up and we were all happily about to feast on our food of choice.
Merge’s Gluten-Free Arugula Pesto Pasta
I actually was quite happy when I took my first bite of the Arugula Pesto Pasta. It was smooth and delicious. I love pesto as it is…but this was really seasoned well. It paired well with the brown rice pasta. And the fresh vegetables that were sauteed and added to the mix just made for a nice break in the texture and a lot of added flavor as well. LOVE. The toasted walnuts were the perfect way to add a bit of crunch to something that would otherwise be very soft. I told Cathy to give it a try and she loved it as well. It’s not every day I get a plate of green pasta (ah, pesto…you’re so much fun on food!) that had so much going on and so much nutritionally sound ingredients added to it. It was just what I think I needed that evening. You could tell everything was fresh. Because this pasta was perfection. So, I broke tradition again…it was worth it for this meal. Trust me.
Everyone else seemed to like their meals as well. Kat’s only complaint was there was too little pasta (she’s carbing up!) in her dish…and Jenn ate around all the vegetables in hers. The rest of us devoured everything in front of us.
The big question of dessert came up. And…we felt it was necessary. They had so many gluten-free and vegan options on their dessert menu…how could I pass up the opportunity?
In the end, Kat went with the Apple Cranberry Cobbler with Salty Caramel Sauce and Homemade Vanilla Soy Ice Cream ($7.00) for her dessert. Jenn and Adam both got the Vegan Carrot Cake with Walnuts and Cream Cheese Frosting ($6.00). And Cathy and I decided to split the Vegan Chocolate Mousse with Spiced Berry Compote ($6.00). I kind of wanted to split the Vegan and Gluten-Free Brownie Sundae…but Cathy is apparently anti-brownie these days. So…that was a no-go.
With our orders in, we eagerly anticipated our sweet reward and end of the night treat. After a short wait, the desserts were brought to the table. They all looked fantastic. Especially the carrot cake. If only that had been gluten-free. Then again, Cathy is anti-carrot cake as well…so it wouldn’t have done any good. GRRRR! Anyway…it all looked delicious and we spared no time digging in.
The Vegan Chocolate Mousse with the Spiced Berry Compote was…different. This wasn’t your usual mousse. It was probably made with cashew cream…which would be the reason for the grittiness to it. In fact, it also wasn’t very fluffy or light. More like a heavy pudding than a mousse to be sure. That being said…the spiced berry compote was beyond delicious. Ultimately, it was my favorite part of the dessert. Cathy agreed. When I think of mousse, I expect something whipped and airy and light…and this just wasn’t a mousse.
Jenn absolutely loved the carrot cake (damn it for not being gluten-free!). Cat and Adam split each of their desserts and both seemed quite happy with their choices. So, that was good.
We finished up dessert and wound up getting caught up in conversations again. And soon, because they are a hot-spot in town, we were asked to leave so other people could have the table. I needed to get back to the hotel anyway and get ready for sleep to be rested up for the morning ahead of me.
All-in-all…a great restaurant in Buffalo, New York. I would happily eat here again without any qualms. Everything I had was good, and sometimes even great. My pasta was the star, for sure. And even if the dessert didn’t wow me…it was still fantastic. Cathy stole a bite of Jenn’s carrot cake and raved about it. The atmosphere was amazing. The food was delicious. And the staff was quite accommodating. I couldn’t have asked for a better pre-race meal.
Merge, when I come back to Buffalo, New York sometime…I hope to come back.
Merge’s Vegan Chocolate Mousse with Spiced Berry Compote
Product: Annie May’s Sweet Café Easter Holiday Menu 2014
I am a little late on posting this blog because…life has been crazy-busy as of late. But…I didn’t want anything to fall by the wayside, especially when it is my favorite allergen-free bakery. Lucky me…it’s in my own hometown. And every year, around Easter time, Annie May’s Sweet Café offers people the chance to have their own individually wrapped items for an Easter basket. This year’s Easter Holiday Menu was enticing. And…I told my roomie to order for me…and surprise me with what she chose for us to try.
This year brought a change to the standards normally seen on the menu. Due to a chocolate shortage at the wholesale level, Annie May’s Sweet Café announced they would NOT be making the chocolate bunnies or chocolate candy this year. Bummer…because that sunbutter bunny I ate last year was beyond amazing. But…with the rising cost and lack of availability, I can’t blame them.
So…the weekend before Easter, Cathy placed an order at the bakery…and I didn’t listen in or anything. I was so excited about being surprised with what I would find inside. The only thing I was aware of was the 1 Dozen Gluten-Free Lemon Bars that Cathy and I had discussed purchasing, because I had been eying these on the menu every time…but they were never in the case. And Lemon Bars are one of Cathy’s favorite thing in life.
Mine too, honestly.
So…
The Saturday before Easter, we stepped into Annie May’s Sweet Café for breakfast. After we ate, Cathy went to get all the goodies for the Easter Basket she ordered. We got a large pink box containing the one dozen Gluten-Free Lemon Bars. But it was the surprises that I was ready to discover.
Turns out, Cathy put in an order for one of everything…save the Gluten-Free Double Chocolate Brownie as that item is always in the case at the bakery. Always. Trust me…our friend Greg always orders at least two of them.
So…here’s a review of everything inside my Gluten-Free Easter Basket of Awesome!
Gluten-Free Lemon Bars – $38.50
Annie May’s Sweet Café Gluten-Free Lemon Bars
One big pink box is what we brought home and immediately stuck in the refrigerator. Because lingering inside was 12 bars of lemony goodness. For real. And these weren’t small bars either. This dozen lemon bars could easily have been split in half and been enjoyed for much longer. But where is the fun in that? Needless to say…Cathy and I didn’t do that. Not at all.
These bars had this delicious shortbread-like crust. Then…the lemon curd in the center. And a delicious sugary crust on top. It was heaven. Heaven with each bite. The lemon was fantastic and refreshing. The curd inside was soft and lemony, without being overwhelming. That sugary crust on top added a bit of texture. And…I think I have declared these the best gluten-free lemon bars I have tasted.
And yes…I have had a few…some from Cherbourg Bakery in Columbus, Ohio…and some from Sinfully Gluten Free in Dayton, Ohio. But these…these from Annie May’s were the best ever. I hope she starts putting them in the case for Saturdays…because I will literally buy them all. Yes…they are that delicious. Trust me…I can’t make this up. I looked forward to dessert for six days straight! Lemony goodness indeed!
Annie May’s Sweet Café Allergen-Free Mini Oatmeal Cream Pie
Allergen-Free Mini Oatmeal Cream Pie – $3.50
Annie May’s Sweet Café is known for their Oatmeal Cream Pies. The thing is…these things are so huge at the bakery…that they can be quite daunting to eat. This is often the treat my guests choose to eat…and then they end up taking more than half of it with them. Oh…they are good. Just…sometimes a bit much.
So, for Easter, Annie May’s Sweet Café downsized them. And this…was absolutely perfect. You know those oatmeal cream pies you’d buy at the grocery store and devour as a child. These are sort of like that…but better. Two soft mini oatmeal cookies surround a thick layer of frosting. It’s sweet…with a hint of that savory oatmeal cookie appeal. I love texture of the cookies and the way they pair well with the filling.
It might just remind you how sweet some of life’s simplest pleasures really are. Like…cookies and icing. Simple…but oh…so good. And since this is one of their signature items…it’s totally worth the purchase!
Allergen-Free Mix & Match Petit Four Pack – $4.00
Annie May’s Sweet Café Mix & Match Petit Fours
Mmmm…little bite-size cakes of goodness. I love petit fours. Before I had to go gluten-free, I was often sent little petit fours at Christmas time from Swiss Colony. So, I totally missed these little one-bite goodies. But…not anymore. Not at Easter. Thanks to Cathy!
Annie May’s Sweet Café did up a four-pack of Petit Fours, two chocolate with a chocolate ganache topping, and two vanilla with a vanilla icing. And…boy, were these ever moist. I actually found that the vanilla was my favorite. Not a surprise. While I am a choc-o-holic, I also find that I prefer vanilla in some cases. Especially when it comes to cakes. I don’t know why…I just do.
I loved how the icing complimented the moist and sweet cake beneath. I enjoyed having a dessert I could just pop into my mouth and not feel guilty about the little indulgence. Not that I ever feel guilty about enjoying a dessert…but you get what I mean. These little cakes made me so happy. They didn’t last long if that tells you anything.
Mmmm…sugar cookies. I never make sugar cookies. Ever. Well, I tried a couple of times. It never ends well. Ever.
So…when I see gluten-free sugar cookies in the wild…you better believe I want one. It doesn’t get much better than a sweet, sometimes a bit gritty (mmmm…sugar!), soft cookie. It is one of the simplest…but most amazing cookies ever made. Almost always, sugar cookies have some sort of decorative flair to them. Last year, Kenna (co-owner of Annie May’s Sweet Café) hand painted Peter Rabbit on the cookies. This year, the cookie was shaped like an egg and decorated with white icing and various designs to make it look like an Easter egg.
I almost hated to cut it in half and devour it with Cathy’s assistance. But, my sweet tooth wins out over the artistic beauty of the cookie in the end. This sugar cookie was soft and sweet, without it being too sweet. Even with the icing, it found a nice balance. And it really was a beautifully decorated cookie. Hands down one of the best, and softest, gluten-free sugar cookies I have had to date.
Gluten-Free Six-Pack Caramels – $4.50
Annie May’s Sweet Café Gluten-Free Caramels
Two words.
Homemade Caramels.
I actually saved these for last. Honestly. I had to. I wanted them to be last because caramel is one of my favorite things in the world. Especially if it’s salted. This wasn’t…but that’s okay. Seriously. Because caramel is the thing that delicious dreams are made of.
Always.
The caramels that Annie May’s Sweet Café put together for Easter were chewy and soft…and sweet. I loved how stretchy it was. But it didn’t attach itself indefinitely to your teeth either. I could taste the sugar, and how it caramelized down into the soft candy. These were so amazing. They practically melted in your mouth when you took a bite.
These were love. Soft, chewy, caramel-y love.
I’m addicted. And the three days I had these in my life were some of my best. More, please!
~*~*~
So…there it is…
Another Easter has come and gone…and for the second year in a row, Annie May’s Sweet Café provided me with a safe and epically sweet and delicious Easter basket. Their Easter menu was out of this world this year. I didn’t even miss the chocolate candies and chocolate bunny.
And seriously…if they ever start putting the lemon bars in that case…I’ll buy them all.
I’m already craving them again.
Maybe I can see about getting these for my birthday this year…
Maybe.
Thank you, Annie May’s Sweet Café, for another fantastic holiday treat. I seriously had some of the best desserts of my life in the comfort of my own home…without having to turn on my oven once.
The Celiathlete 