Dear loyal readers (and those of you who have just recently happened upon The Gluten Free Lab. Thanks, Google!),

It is with mixed feelings we say our goodbyes.

This blog started in 2009 as a resource to other celiacs and gluten-intolerants who we imagined were in need of a little peptalk; a fun take on being gluten free that would point out all the great foods to make at home, the restaurants where one could safely eat (and drink) gluten-free, the new products popping up on grocery store shelves nation-wide. And as gluten-free has grown into its own mainstream market — one of the fastest growing, in fact! — and as our sister company notion:creative has flourished into its own entity, well… SOMEthing has to give. That something, sadly, has to be The Gluten Free Lab.

The scouts in us still exist, and there may from time-to-time be something we just need to share with the wide world of the Internet, so check back to see if any new posts have been made. If not, you’ll always be able to log onto theglutenfreelab.com to access some of your faves. And speaking of faves, our most popular posts continue to be these ones:

rice crispy treats with homemade marshmallow

gluten-free butter crackers (and also the corresponding sandwich cookie, inspired by this humble butter cracker!)

gluten-free sugar cookie. Hmm, looks like we’re known for our sweets recipes! No surprise…

In addition to these favorites, the entire website will remain on the internet, our queue of recipes ready for the taking. We’ve sure had a great time being The Gluten Free Lab, and we shed a few tears at the thought of letting it drift into the lower ranks of search engine results. On the positive side, we’ve had so much fun reviewing products, making new friends, creating new recipes.

Our best wishes for health & happiness!
Aly, Heather & Molly

Oh, goodness. When there’s a new kid on the gluten-free block, you KNOW we’ve gotta get up in there and test out some sweets. Right?

The Lilajay’s Baked Goods menu is extensive, with little nibbles (literally “little”! The sizes of these cute sweets are just a couple of inches around, with the exception of the LJ Thins, pictured above with a dot of chopped Guittard chocolate in the center) that are sweet to look at, fun to unwrap, and a delight to munch. These high-quality treats are made from real ingredients, real grain flours and limited amounts of starch. The care that goes into the selection of ingredients shows.

white chocolate dipped O’Reallyz, Lilajay’s version of Oreo cookies

Depending on our mood and the intensity of our very demanding sweet tooth, we reached most readily for either the Original Chocolate Brownies — moist, delicious and loaded with Guittard chocolate (not pictured) — or the Sugar Mamaz, soft buttery cookies covered in a nearly-crackly coating of powdered sugar icing (pictured below). But it’s not entirely about our opinion, here. Lilajay’s Baked Goods was born when a pint-size member of Lila’s family was diagnosed with Celiac disease and suffered the loss of regular sweets. The horror! And even though Lila has lived as a gluten-free Celiac for over a decade, that was exactly the impetus she and her partner Jay needed to get their business off the ground. They would develop sweet treats using whole grain flours and quality ingredients that would appeal first and foremost to the little ones in the family, who wouldn’t miss a single sugary thing. And if the grownups liked them too? All the better.

Sugar Mamaz, white chocolate-covered vanilla bean cookie

The grownups here at The Lab most certainly liked them. That craving for one more cookie might just be our inner kid speaking up.

holiday white chocolate dipped brownie (center), flanked by holiday chocolate dipped O’Reallyz

If these treats look good to the kid in you, hurry on over to the online Lilajay’s Baked Goods shop to make your purchase! Now through the end of 2011, get 20% off all purchases by using the coupon code gfreelab20 when you check out. Whadda deal! Be sure to check out the limited edition holiday baked goods, too. Brownies and O’Reallyz with crushed mint candy garnish? Yes, please!

Yayyyyy! KINDness lives on, and our KIND prize packs will be sent to lucky numbers 7 and 9 (entrant number 1 was our KIND rep, hence the omission from the random number generator). We will contact the winners via email. If we don’t hear from the initial winners in a week from sending out our announcement email, a replacement winner will be chosen.

And congratulations to our first 10 entrants, they all received a coupon for $4 off a box of KIND bars!

KIND. A brand after our own heart, what with their hip, colorful packaging, their delicious (and always gluten-free) bars, their do-good vibe, and now — makeshift seed mix no more! — Healthy Grains cereal-cum-snack mix-cum-granola.

These new whole-grain mixes are a best-possible version of homemade granola, where the flavors are fresh, the ingredients are entirely wholesome (i.e. everything on the ingredients list is pronounceable), and the nutritious benefits are through the roof. We’re constantly putting foods to the test here at The Lab, and these KIND Healthy Grains have been eaten over yogurt, with milk and by the handful. And, yah. They pass our stringent taste tests with flying colors, plus they have actual nutritional content, so snacking on a handful of Healthy Grains tends to stick with us.

Here are a few of our fave flavors:

Cinnamon Oat Clusters with Flax Seeds combine antioxidant rich cinnamon, flax seeds and whole grains amaranth, quinoa, oats, millet and buckwheat for a delicious snack. These hand-crafted clusters are high in fiber and contain 720mg of omega-3 fatty acids and 16g of whole grains per serving.

Vanilla Blueberry Clusters with Flax Seeds are a nutritionally rich blend of blueberries, flax seeds and whole grains amaranth, quinoa, oats, millet and buckwheat with a hint of vanilla. These perfectly sweet clusters are high in fiber and contain 750mg of omega-3 fatty acids and 16g of whole grains per serving.

Maple Walnut Clusters with Chia & Quinoa are a heart healthy blend of walnuts, chia and whole grains amaranth, quinoa, oats, millet and buckwheat with a sweet touch of maple. These palate-pleasing clusters contain 300mg of omega-3 fatty acids and provide 17g of whole grains per serving.

. . .

Want to try for yourself? We have 2 pretty incredible giveaways you can enter to win, and (AND!) entries 1 through 10 will get a coupon for $4 off a box of KIND bars. Consider it an unexpected KINDING (unexpected act of kindness).

KINDness Pack #1

1 KIND Healthy Grains, Maple Walnut Clusters with Chia & Quinoa
1 KIND Healthy Grains, Vanilla Blueberry Clusters with Flax Seeds
1 box KIND Fruit & Nut bars, Apple Cinnamon & Pecan
1 KIND Flexfit cap, size S/M

KINDness Pack #2

1 KIND Healthy Grains, Cinnamon Oat Clusters with Flax Seeds
1 KIND Healthy Grains, Vanilla Blueberry Clusters with Flax Seeds
1 box KIND Fruit & Nut bars, Nut Delight
1 KIND tee, size M

. . .

Winners have been randomly selected, this giveaway is closed.

Enter to win by leaving a comment with your favorite (or what sounds like your favorite) Healthy Grains flavor, all listed here, and your prize pack preference. Leave your comment at the bottom of this post by Monday, November 28 at 3:30 PST (aka snack time!). TWO (yes, 2!) winners will be selected at random using random number generator and will receive one of the above prize packs (valid for U.S. and Canada residents only), plus, as mentioned above, entries 1 through 10 will get a coupon for $4 off a box of KIND bars (valid only in the U.S.). The rules are these:

1. Be sure to leave a valid email

2. You may enter only once

3. If we don’t hear from the initial winners in a week from sending out our announcement email, a replacement winner will be chosen.

Now go! Practice random acts of KINDness.

Back in the day, one of us Lab gals worked at La Vera Pizza in downtown Santa Rosa as a young waitress slingin’ pies. This was prior to a celiac disease diagnosis, so most shifts ended with a slice (or three). Oh how we miss pizza — after 13 years of being gluten-free, it’s still at the top of our cravings list.

We recently heard that LaVera now features a gluten-free crust, so naturally we had to go try it out for the benefit of our readers (the things we do…).

Gluten-free pizza is NOT listed on the menu just yet. BUT! LaVera assured us that it’s a regular menu item, all you have to do is ask for it. The pizza is limited to a medium size (perfect, in our opinion, to share with a friend alongside a salad), and there are no limitations on what you pile on top of it — you can order any of their pizza creations with the GF crust or custom-mix your fave topping combo. The GF crust was relatively thin, and it held its own against the creation we chose (Combo Mia + gorgonzola, yum!). The edges were crackery but had the perfect balance of chew and crunch throughout. We thoroughly enjoyed every bite, as did our non-GF dining partner.

Look out La Vera, the gals are coming back…!

. . .

629 4th Street
Santa Rosa, CA
707 575 1113
Open Sunday 12-9, M-Th 11-9, Friday 11-10, Saturday 12-10

Here’s the thing about Annie’s products: they stand for something, and they always have.

The classic Annie’s Shells & White Cheddar meal and the BE GREEN bumper stickers are a staple of the brand, something we’ve always counted on as consumers. When Annie’s approached us for a little Taste & Tell of their new products in celebration of Celiac Disease Awareness Month, we didn’t have to do a whole lot of thinking about it. Or a lot of research. We already knew the products would be quality. They would be made with excellent ingredients. They would be organic. They would be healthy. We hoped they would be delicious.

Annies’ venture into gluten-free snacks started with Rice Pasta Shells & Cheddar, a proverbial toe-in-the-water. As the gluten-free food movement took hold, Annie’s bolstered their GF product line and added some fun new snacks that kids (and adults) are certain to fall for.  Here’s our account of what we tried:

organic bunny fruit snacks, pink lemonade
Your typical fruit snack: soft, chewy, fruity. The Organic Pink Lemonade flavor offers a burst of slightly sweet lemon flavor. These take us back to our playground days, although here at the office at snack-thirty? We were racing each other to the last pack. They feel like dessert without ACTUALLY being dessert. Love that. These have one serving of fruit in every pouch and are certified organic.

organic bunny fruit snacks, grapes galore
A typical fruit snack, like the above Pink Lemonade flavor. Organic Grapes Galore Fruit Snacks are enlivened with the taste of juicy grapes. Certified organic, these bunny-shaped fruit snacks are made with real fruit juice and packed with 100% Daily Value of Vitamin C.

organic orchard fruit bites, cherry
More like a fruit leather than a fruit snack: a heartier, juicier fruit snack experience. While the bunny fruit snacks are clear(ish) — like the jelly of the fruit snack world — these are opaque, the jam of the fruit snack world. Like the fruit snacks, though, we always felt just a smidge like we were “cheating” by eating these because they felt so much like dessert. Again. Love that! These have one serving of fruit in every pouch and are certified organic.

totally natural cocoa & vanilla bunny cookies
Some of us are vanilla girls, and some of us are chocolate girls, but we all seemed to “accidentally” pick out the cocoa-flavored bunnies in this box of mini cookies. Made with white and brown rice flour and yellow corn flour, these bunny-shaped cookies are a great addition to lunch boxes or office snack drawers. (WHAT?! We’re definitely not too old for these sweet snackers!)

totally natural rice pasta & extra cheesy cheddar sauce
If your kids (or you) are a fan of Annie’s GF rice pasta & cheddar, this is going to blow. your. mind. No additional ingredients are required for this Rice Pasta & Extra Cheesy Cheddar — just cook the pasta and squeeze in the creamy cheese. There’s also a recipe on the box for how to convert the Rice Pasta & Extra Cheesy Cheddar into gluten-free “lasagna” by adding ground meat, marinara, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and fresh herbs. Perfect for a weeknight meal!

. . .

It’s no surprise (to us), but we will continue to seek out Annie’s products in our local grocery aisles. If any of these goodies look good to you, buy them at the online Annie’s store, or talk to your grocer about carrying some of these new & exciting gluten-free snacks!

Wholesome Chow is a relatively new line of baking mixes we’ve seen hitting shelves, and while all of their mixes are organic and vegan — with fairly-sourced and high-quality ingredients — a handful of these mixes are also gluten free. Twofer!

The first product we wanted to test was the Wholesome Chow Gluten-Free All-Purpose & Pancake Mix. We heart Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix, especially in a cookie-craving pinch, but it contains powdered dairy, which isn’t always convenient we’re cooking for our vegan friends. The Wholesome Chow mix performed adequately in its most basic form — the pancake — although we’re intrigued by The Blissful Chef‘s idea of cutting the mix with a little brown rice flour. “This gave the baked good an excellent texture and crumb, browning the outsides while leaving the inside soft.” The cooked up ‘cakes had nice loft, although the texture tended toward the rubbery side.

Next up? Chocolate chip cookies. Yummers. Again, we used the Wholesome Chow Gluten-Free All-Purpose & Pancake Mix. Since these mixes are vegan, we followed the directions, adding oil to the mix rather than butter. The dough came together in a cinch, but the baked cookies left a little something to be desired both in flavor and in texture.

The cake, though, made from Wholesome Chow’s Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake Mix, is a shining star. And, oh, how we put it to the test! Imagine the very orderly chaos that is The Gluten Free Lab up in the mountains — WITH spouses & significant others in tow — and with limited ingredients in the cupboard. Quick tally? That’s baking at high-altitude AND being forced to use olive oil in place of a more neutrally-flavored oil like the recipe calls for. And still the cake turned out delicious (GIANT sigh of relief, as this trial dessert doubled as one of our spouse’s birthday cakes!).

Cakes are tricky mixes. They can so easily be too overwhelmingly sweet, too dense, too dry, too crumbly, too…you get the picture. We have a lot of great things to say about this cake with its moist and tender crumb, quality vanilla flavor, and its hold-up-ability to a stiff batch of cream cheese frosting. This is a go-to cake mix when time is tight, when a special birthday is nigh, or just when a cake craving comes on strong.

. . .

Wholesome Chow Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake
makes one 9-inch cake

1 package Wholesome Chow’s Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake Mix
1 cup Milk (Non Dairy or Dairy)
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar, or other vinegar
1/3 cup Oil (Canola, Coconut, Grapeseed, etc)

1. Preheat oven to 350℉ and grease a 9″ round pan or cupcake pan.
2.  In a medium sized bowl, combine milk with apple cider vinegar.
3.  Let mixture sit for 5 minutes, or until foamy.  Add oil and whisk well.
4.  Slowly whisk the baking mix into the liquid ingredients and blend until smooth, about 10 seconds.
5.  Pour the batter into desired pan and bake for 25-30 minutes for cake or 18-23 minutes for cupcakes.
6.  Let cool for 15 minutes, top with your favorite frosting and serve!f

It seems like we always hear about new gluten-free items appearing in the vast aisles at Costco. We get super excited, make a trip during the craziest weekend hours, and then we aren’t able to unearth what we were there for in the first place, yet wind up checking out for hundreds of dollars. WTF, how does that happen?!

It’s not all bad, though. During these excursions, we’ve discovered Costco’s 5-pound bag of organic quinoa; large, reasonably-priced jars of our favorite stock-alternative, Better Than Bouillon. But we want to find Crunchmaster crackers! And LÄRABARs! And gluten-free ravioli!

It took a couple of trips, but finally we discovered where they hide the Pasta Prima gluten-free ravioli: in the refrigerator section! This product is the first-ever GF refrigerated pasta, actually. It comes in a two-pack, the entirety of which you’ll need to serve a hungry family of four. For a household of two adults, one pack was perfect with a hefty pour of hearty, homemade ragu.

Pasta Prima says of their new gluten-free products, “We think gluten free foods should be delicious! We tried hundreds of recipes before we created one so incredible that we could call it Pasta Prima Gluten Free Ravioli. Do you think wheat free tastes differently? Try ours! Our Gluten Free Ravioli is the first fresh pasta to be certified g-free. The verification was performed by the Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO). Pasta Prima Gluten Free Ravioli is handcrafted from a 100% Natural blend of corn and rice flour mixed with fresh whole eggs. The whole family will enjoy this healthy and delicious meal. Our fans call our Gluten Free Ravioli amazingly good and delicious.”

We found the end-result to be quite delicious. The texture has a bit of extra spongeyness to it, but that’s if we’re really looking for a difference between this amazing, fresh, gluten-free ravioli and a comparable conventional ravioli. In short? Keep a couple packs in your fridge for those nights when you want a simple Italian meal.

. . .

Gluten-free Pasta Prima ravioli with hearty ragu
serves 2 as main course or 4 as first course

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon bacon drippings (substitute more oil if you’re vegan or don’t keep drippings on-hand)
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons anchovy paste
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 large leaf kale, chopped fine
6 medium tomatoes, peeled & chopped roughly
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped finely, divided
salt & pepper to taste

Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil and bacon drippings, swirl until melted and hot. Add onion and allow to cook until translucent, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and anchovy paste. Stir 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Add tomato paste, kale, chopped tomatoes, and 1 tablespoon basil. Season to taste with salt & pepper and allow to simmer over medium-low heat until flavors come together, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook ravioli according to package directions.

Adjust ragu seasoning to taste (consider adding sugar if your tomatoes were especially acidic). Stir in remaining tablespoon chopped fresh basil just before spooning sauce over shallow bowls of cooked ravioli.

Get ready local readers, there’s a delicious baker in town!

Flour Girl is a one-woman sweet shop who cranks out delicious gluten-free (and conventional, for the record) cakes, cupcakes and cookies. From the website:

“Using the highest quality, locally produced organic ingredients, the focus is on flavor…you won’t find any fake, fancy schmancy goo here! And in the interest of keeping it local and keeping the carbon footprint small, the girl only delivers in Healdsburg…by bike!”

On one of our daily quests for a delicious mid-day pick-me-up, we discovered a mason jar filled with a half-dozen gluten-free chocolate chip cookies at nearby Shelton’s Natural Foods, and just couldn’t resist. Good thing, because these cookies were pretty much perfect. Moist, chewy, a dense crumb, perfect chocolate chip-to-cookie ratio …everything we look for in a solid cookie.

Flour Girl offers other assorted gluten-free desserts, too, including lemon coconut cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes & Chinese 5-spice macarons with salted caramel filling. If you’re in the Healdsburg, Calif. area, don’t wait a minute longer. Run to Shelton’s for a luck-of-the-draw dessert (look on the deli case for assorted desserts or in the pastries bin at the end of the checkstands for single cookies) or contact The Girl for orders.

We’re fortunate enough to have the amazing! incredible! unbeatable! Puerto Rican restaurant Sol Food within driving distance, but it’s a good 45-minute trek from our home base. Some desperate evenings when we’re really jonesing for a cubano sandwich, we’ll pull together what it takes to make our own rendition: the Copa Cubano.

We stumbled upon these Against the Grain Gourmet baguettes, and it turns out they’re really what help make this sando something special. The baguette is crusty on the outside, moist and airy on the inside, and it flattens beautifully under our makeshift sandwich press (picture a heavy cast iron skillet weighted with cans of tomatoes. Goofy, but it works!).

If you’re wanting to make a full meal out of this sandwich recipe, consider pairing it with fried plantains, white rice, pink beans & mixed greens with lime vinaigrette. Now that is a feast fit for a king!

. . .

Copa Cubano
makes 4 6-inch sandwiches

SANDWICH
2 Against The Grain gluten-free baguettes
12 slices turkey breast
8 slices black forest ham
4 tablespoons yellow mustard
4 tablespoons cilantro-lime aioli (recipe below)
6 slices bread & butter-style pickles
1/2 jar Mezzetta Roasted Red Bell Pepper Strips & Caramelized Onions
7 oz. sliced swiss cheese
8 slices tomato, about 1/4-inch thick
2 teaspoons olive oil

DIPPING SAUCE
1/2 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1/4 cup white onion, chopped fine
2 slices jalapeño
2 slices serrano
zest and juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon chile flake

CILANTRO-LIME AIOLI
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, minced
1 tablespoon prepared dipping sauce

MAKE DIPPING SAUCE
Place garlic, onion, jalapeño, serrano, lime zest and juice and chile flake in small heat-proof bowl. Heat olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat just until smoking. Pour hot oil over garlic mixture and set aside to come to room temperature.

MAKE CILANTRO-LIME AIOLI
In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, cilantro and prepared dipping sauce. Stir well to combine. Set aside.

MAKE SANDWICHES
Halve the baguettes lengthwise and place cut-side-up on a flat surface. Spread 1 tablespoon of yellow mustard on one half of each sandwich, and spread 1/4 of the aioli on the other half of each sandwich. Top the mustard with 3 pickle slices, then 3 slices turkey breast, 2 slices black forest ham, a few strips of Mezzetta Roasted Red Bell Pepper Strips & Caramelized Onions, 2 slices tomato, and 2 slices Swiss cheese. Top with aioli-coated baguette half. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat with olive oil and carefully transfer sandwiches into pan. Weigh down with a sandwich press or a slightly smaller skillet filled with canned goods (e.g. cans of beans). Allow sandwiches to cook until golden brown and warmed through, about 4 minutes per side.

Slice each pressed sandwich on the diagonal. Serve with extra dipping sauce alongside.