Fresh gluten-free treats at Walmart!

OK - I'm not much of a WM shopper so when a close gluten-free friend of mine told me I HAD to try the delicious gluten-free cookies and muffins she found at the WM over in Cobb county, I said yeah yeah...and promptly forgot about it.  First of all, these days I have to choose my carbs very carefully.  If something isn't amazing, I stop eating it after the first bite.  Secondly, as mentioned above, I rarely go to WM.

Several weeks pass and I'm offered a chance to taste the WM goodies.  Clearly, based on my very picky (like me) friend's comments about this product line, I had to take advantage of this great opportunity!  Not only was my friend dead on in her review of the FRESH treats sold in the regular WM bakery, everything was better than I could have imagined! Oh, and everything is VERY affordable to boot ;)



Starting with the cookies, they are VERY large and VERY soft!  Aside from cookies made in a gluten-free (walk-in) bakery or ones I've baked myself, I've never had  delicious, soft and chewy gluten-free cookies like these.  They taste like homemade cookies...seriously!  If you heat them up for a few seconds, I'm sure they'll taste like they just came out of the oven.  Now, for the sad party of this story, the cookie monster in our house (who can eat any cookie on earth!) ate every cookie in two packages in less than two days!  I wanted to make an ice cream sandwich with them, but that will have to wait.

On to the brownies.  I'm not sure why, but I've always been a huge fan of brownie bites - very small mini-muffin sized brownies.  The WM Bakery gluten-free brownies are the perfect size!  They're also just chocolaty and sweet enough without being too much of either.  I ate one of them at room temperature (remember, they're in the bakery at WM - not in the freezer!) and it was really scrumptious!  Then after giving ONE brownie to the husband, I froze the rest to insure they would still be there the next day.

Eventually, I thawed out several brownies and made ice cream sundaes with them.  Making that treat called for slightly heating the brownies in the microwave (one for me and three for the husband!) and topping with vanilla ice cream and Trader Joe's Midnight Moo (the only chocolate sauce we'll eat now).  OK - we topped the sundaes off with a touch of canned whipped cream...lol!  The only thing missing was a cherry on top - but we didn't miss the gluten one bit!

Lastly, we have the blueberry gluten-free muffins.  These amazing soft and moist treats are my new go-to ready-made blueberry muffins!  They come in a 2-pack which is perfect for us!  One thing I could not figure out was how the blueberries tasted like someone had picked them that day and made a batch of muffins with them... Seriously - the best blueberries I've had in any muffin ever!  We didn't get a chance to freeze these, but based on the ingredients, they'll likely freeze well.  Aside from enjoying at home, they're a nice item to keep stocked for trips to the in-laws' (or friends') house where you need to take your own b'fast breads.

Here is a little more info on this great new option for FRESH gluten-free baked goods - sold only at Walmart under the brand 'The Bakery, gluten-free'.

• Certified gluten-free
• Certified Kosher
• Contains soy, dairy and egg
• Made in nut-free facility
• NO artificial flavors or colors
• NO trans fats
• NO hydrogenated oils
• Naturally flavored

Now I know most of us have trained ourselves to avoid the bakery at any store like the plague.  Why torture ourselves looking longingly at all the fresh, gluten-filled goodness?  But it's time to reprogram our brains to enjoy going to the FRESH bakery section again - at least at Walmart!  ALL U.S. locations should have these wonderful products by now, but if you can't find them, be sure and ask the bakery manager at your store to get them in STAT!

To keep up with all the news from this exciting line, be sure to follow the WMBakeryGlutenFree Twitter page!            

Are gluten-free menus going away?

There is finally a gluten-free labeling law in the U.S. (it went info effect earlier this month) which is cause for celebration.  The FDA was supposed to have the law worked out by August 2008...oh well, we are talking about the government, after all.

If  you notice some items no longer sport gluten-free on the label even though nothing has changed regarding the ingredients, don't be alarmed.  Companies that want to claim their products are gluten-free have to be able to prove that fact.  Therefore, some companies that previously listed gluten-free on their labels might drop it only because they never tested their products as there was not a reason for it.

If the only thing a company produces is canned pineapple, there is not a reason to test the pineapple to see if it's gluten-free.  It is - period.  So even though we finally have a labeling law, label reading is still going to be part of our shopping trips.  At least if you see the GF symbol or the words gluten free now, you'll know the item is definitely gluten-free.

The worst part of the new law is a tiny stipulation which mentions restaurants have to meet the same requirements as food companies that produce packaged foods with labels.  Yes, that is basically what the law says...it sounds ridiculous, right?  There is obviously no way this is doable in a non gluten-free restaurant setting so guess what?  Larger chains are already pulling their gluten-free menus and renaming them things like gluten-friendly menu, low gluten menu and avoiding gluten menu - yikes!!!  I'm glad I'm not new to the gluten-free dining scene.  If I was, I might be scared to death to eat out.

When you see packaged food items from Europe that contain gluten, they say just that - 'contains gluten'.  How easy is that?!         

Sprouts Market is coming to Johns Creek!

It's exciting that Sprouts Market opened in Snellville recently and I've heard it's a great store if you can get into it (according to the husband's co-workers, there is apparently a traffic issue at that location).  I missed the blogger sneak peak for that store since it was in the middle of a work day and on the other side of town to boot.  But I know from bloggers elsewhere that Sprouts Market is a VERY gluten-free friendly place to shop.  That's why I've been excited about the company expanding to this area ever since I spotted the coming soon sign near Trader Joe's in Norcross.

I thought that the (yet to open) store over there would be the most convenient to us, now that we moved out of Gwinnett county.  However, as I was on 141 last weekend, I noticed that the space vacated by a massive shoe store recently is being renovated to be a Sprouts Market!  Let's see...if I drive pretty slow, the Sprouts Market over here is about a five minute drive from our house!  This is seriously exciting news since about a month after we moved, the Natural Foods Warehouse on 141 closed down.  It's a short distance to the NFW location on N. Main Street, but with weekend traffic it can be a bear to get there.

The grand opening date for this location is set for September 17, 2014.  Check out this page on the Sprouts website to see where more new stores are opening in the near future.  

UPDATE:  The open date for this location is being pushed out so it will not open on September 17th.  I'll announce the actual opening date when I get one I think is legit ;)