Apple Spinach Salad:

I love fresh spinach, especially in the summer! This salad takes only a few ingredients, and is super fast to put together. My family really enjoyed it and I hope you do too!!

8 ounces fresh spinach

4 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled

2 red apples, diced

1/3 cup mayonnaise

3 tblsp. frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

In a medium bowl, toss together the spinach, bacon and apple. In a small bowl, whisk together the mayo and juice concentrate until smooth. Pour half the dressing over the spinach and toss to coat. Add more dressing, a little at a time, until you have as much as you like. I did not use all the dressing, because we don't like a lot of dressing on our salads, but you can use as much or as little as you like. 

Note:

-I did not have any bacon, so I used 4 tblsp. bacon bits and it worked out fine. 

-This is definitely not something you can make ahead. You will want to put it all together and serve immediately. 

I served this with:

-Grilled Speedy Chicken Marinade-

-Becky's Potato Salad-

Granola Bar Bites:

I have been making several batches of granola bars lately,

and enjoying experimenting with variations on their shapes!

My favorite so far, has been to mold them into muffin tins.

After I mix them up, instead of pressing them into a 9x13-inch baking dish,

I use a 1-inch cookie scoop and place two scoops in each cup for the regular size muffin cups

and one scoop in each of the mini-muffin cups

(make sure to very lightly spray the tins with cooking spray before you put in any of the granola mixture). After I have used all of the mixture, I use my fingers

and press as hard as I can down in each cup to make them firm and flat.

Allow them to cool for about an hour and then just use a table knife and pop them right out!!

I store them in an airtight container between layers of wax paper.

The small ones are by far my favorite! They are just the perfect size, whether you want 1 or 5!!

I hope you give them a try!

Click HERE for the original Granola Bar Recipe

Wegmans:

We were in the Baltimore/DC area for my sister's graduation last weekend, and we stayed with my dad's cousin. She went ALL out in providing us with AMAZING gluten-free food the whole time! It was all so delicious! Thank you so much, Viv! I don't know how we could ever thank you enough!

Anyway, she sent us home with a bag of macaroni noodles that she didn't use over the weekend.

We had never had the brand, so I was excited to try them out!

And they were far from disappointing!!!

Actually, they were FABULOUS!!!!!

It was Wegmans Brand. I had heard of the grocery store, but had never been in one.

You can check out their website by clicking here and hopefully find a store in your area.

They have a lot of gluten-free foods. Almost like a Martins or Kroger, but they have different things and brands as well.

I'm sure they probably have other brands, but the Wegmans brand is what we tried.

It's a 100% corn pasta.

The pasta that our Walmart carries, and what we normally use, is a corn and rice pasta. I do like that pasta, but I feel like the Wegmans isn't as thick - more like a normal wheat pasta. In fact, it tasted a lot like wheat pasta. It was even good cold, which if you have tried very many gluten-free pastas, you know that that is almost never the case!

The Wegmans Pasta cooks extremely fast, unlike other varieties that take quite some time.

Also, the water you cook it in, does not become thick and foggy like the rice pasta does.

I have found a Wegmans close to me, and I hope to be able to go there soon and definitely get some more pasta, but also try out some of their other food items as well!

And I hope you do to!!!

Let me know if you try out anything from there and how you like it!!

Greek Yogurt Chocolate Muffins:

We were a little sceptical of these are first, because I haven't done much with Greek yogurt. But after one bite, we were convinced! We made one batch one morning - they were gone by the afternoon, so we made another batch the next morning! I hope you give them a try too, because I know you'll love them as much as we do!

1 cup Flour

1 tsp. xanthan gum

1/2 cup baking cocoa

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup plain or vanilla Greek Yogurt

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup chocolate chips

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, xanthan gum, cocoa, baking powder, salt and sugar; set a side. In a small bowl, combine the yogurt, eggs, vanilla and oil. Mix well. Combine with dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill paper lined muffins tins 3/4 full using an ice cream scoop. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the pan and cover with a clean dish towel to cool. Store in an airtight container.