Betty Crocker Gluten Free All Purpose Rice Flour Blend

Betty Crocker has worked hard for years to be the go-to company for baking mixes. A few years ago, they also decided to take care of us gluten free folks by adding a whole line of gluten free mixes. I have tried and reviewed most of them, and have been fairly impressed so far. Well, now Betty Crocker has extended their gluten free offerings with a new sugar cookie mix and an all purpose rice flour blend. I was most surprised to see the rice flour blend. After all, what’s left after gluten free Bisquik? A lot, apparently :)

I am a member of MyBlogSpark, and have enjoyed this for years since they give me a heads-up about all sorts of new products. When they sent me the email letting me know about this new Betty Crocker Gluten Free All Purpose Rice Flour Blend, you know I had to try it!

Gluten Free Whisk Bliss from Shirley J

Gluten Free Whisk Bliss is a universal cooking base that makes seriously creamy sauces, cream soups and creamy-type ingredients for other recipes. It is free from trans fats, saturated fats, hydrogenated oils and MSG. It is also my new favorite kitchen ingredient.

I want to start this review with a warning: This review is for a product so amazing that it will sound like an advertisement. There, I said it. There is nothing that makes me happier than creamy sauces (on anything and everything), and this product delivers just that. I promise, Shirley J did send me the Gluten Free Whisk Bliss to try for free, but I am not obligated to write a good review and I am certainly not a paid spokesperson… Though, at this point I wouldn’t turn down the offer. I honestly adore this product. The other day I saw a post on Facebook asking what gluten free product I would most like to have a lifetime supply of and, I have to say, Gluten Free Whisk Bliss wins, hands down! You could just stop reading here and order the product for yourself, but I have plenty more gushing to do...

Mugging! Gluten Free Chocolate Brownie Cake from Shirley J

A few weeks ago, I got an email that made me giggle like a little school girl. It was from a company that I had never heard of, asking me if I’d have any interest in trying a couple of their products. The products named were Mugging! Gluten Free Chocolate Brownie Cake and Gluten Free Whisk Bliss, and the company is Shirley J. Well, I checked the links to the website to get an idea of what these products were and I’m telling you that I couldn’t reply fast enough with a resounding YES!

Mugging! Gluten Free Chocolate Brownie Cake is a super quick gluten free brownie mix that you make in individual mugs. This stuff is pure fun! D.D. and I could not wait for this package to arrive. As usual, in the interest of full disclosure: This product was sent to me by Shirley J to try. I am under no obligation to give a favorable review, pander to the company or sell my firstborn.

Thai Kitchen Rice Noodle Carts

 There’s another product review on the table today, my friends. This time it is the noodle cart style

entrees from Thai Kitchen. You may have tried some of the dry noodle soup offerings from Thai Kitchen - What we refer to in our house as "gluten free ramen”. The noodle cart meals are a little different, though.

Bella Lucia Gluten Free Pizzelles: Anise Flavor

I have not had a pizzelle in so long that I forgot they existed. It was pretty exciting to see them waiting for me on the shelf after Poj went shopping this week. D.D. couldn't wait to tear into the package since she had never tried this type of cookie before and was completely unfamiliar with anise. I tried to tell her that it was the same flavor as black licorice, but she's been gluten free for so long she barely knows what licorice is. Oh well, one more chance to educate her tastebuds, right?

Evol Bowls

Food is a huge deal in our house. I mean, everybody eats, but we LOVE food! Every time we get a new product from the store or have one delivered to the house specifically for reviews D.D. and I do a little happy dance. When we got these Evol Bowls, the happy dance was pretty vigorous. After all, Evol is love spelled backwards so we did our dance to a musical accompaniment of ‘Evil Love’, to the tune of ‘Tainted Love’, of course. Second, the frozen bowls were packed in a huge cooler with giant bricks of dry ice. If there’s one thing we love almost as much as food, it’s dry ice. To top this off, the delivery came during one of the busiest weeks we’ve had in a long time. You can’t beat a timely delivery of convenient, fast and healthy food!

Rudi's Gluten Free Tortillas

Rudi's has gotten into the gluten free tortilla game, and they obviously know how to play. There are three different flavors, and each one is pretty special. D.D. and I attacked these like a couple of vultures and made sure to thoroughly test them... for you, of course.

Katz Gluten Free Vanilla Rugelech

Katz Gluten Free has released a new flavor of Rugelech! As I'm sure you guessed from the title to this post, the new flavor is vanilla :) I'm sure I must have mentioned how vanilla obsessed I am in past posts so you can imagine my excitement over this new snacking option.

Katz is doing a Winter Grand Prize Giveaway to help roll out this new product. The Grand Prize is a huge box filled with one each of the Katz goodies. To enter the drawing (winner will be chosen on Jan. 3, 2011) follow this link to the Katz Page :)

One more thing before we move on to the review stuff: Katz has also supplied GFPR with a free sample pack to give to one lucky winner! To enter, just read this post and leave a comment. A winner will be chosen at random from all available entries on Monday, January 10, 2011. Now on to the review!

Gluten Free Bisquick

I'm sure that I'm not the only person on a gluten free diet that did backflips of excitement when I first heard that gluten free Bisquick was coming our way. (Figurative backflips, of course, I am not nearly that athletic.)After all, I am one of the newly gluten free, only two years. I remember vividly how easy meals used to be. I could eat anything, anywhere. For some reason Bisquick seemed like a return of this freedom and normalcy.

It took awhile to reach my local stores after being released. I was worried that it would be hard to find, or that I might not be able to find it at all. Thank goodness for MyBlogSpark! They offered to send me some to try and I was backflipping once again. Not only did they send me the gluten free Bisquick, but an entire prize pack to go with it. You may have guessed, Bisquick and MyBlogSpark have also provided one to give away! Look for details at the bottom of this post :) For now, on to the review!

Gluten Free Cookbook Review: Cooking for Isaiah by Silvana Nardone

I’m so excited right now! This is the first cookbook I have reviewed for GFPR, and it is fantastic! I had to create a whole new criteria and format for this, so let me know what you think. Are there any categories I have left out?

Cooking for Isaiah was  inspired by pure love. This is the first thing I noticed when I opened the book. The second thing I noticed was that Silvana Nardone knows what she is talking about. I learned so many new tips just by reading the first few pages that the recipes became secondary (for about five minutes...)