I have been hearing about chia seeds all over blog land and finally picked some up the other day at Whole Foods.  The chia cereal that I bought is Ruth’s Chia Goodness made by Ruth’s Hemp Foods.  RCG comes in 3 flavors…plain, cranberry ginger or apple almond cinnamon.  I only saw plain at WF, so that is what I bought.  I was very impressed by the nutritional stats on the label: per 2 TBSP this cereal contains 140 calories, 8 grams of fat, 5 grams of fiber & 6 grams of protein!  Certainly packs a punch! 

Upon looking into the bag, I was a little scared by the look of the cereal.  It looked like seeds.  LOL!  Considering the only ingredients are Chia (Salvia hispanica), buckwheat, hulled hemp seeds & Celtic Sea Salt, I shouldn’t have been shocked.  I decided to make a bowl for my morning snack.  I combined 2TBSP of Chia Goodness with 4 TBSP of Almond Milk, stirred and let sit for 5 minutes.  After the 5 minutes was up I added blueberries & blackberries.  I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised!  Perfect for my snack!  The taste was slightly sweet (most likely due to my unsweetened vanilla almond milk).  The texture was slightly chewy, but nice & hearty.  I have to say thumbs up on this stuff! 

From the package:

Marketed under various names, the modest chia seed (Salvia hispanica)is quite possibly the most nutritious seed ever.  Lactose free, chia contains more than 5 times the calcium of milk.  it is a good source of fiber, and contains no gluten.  With lots of essential fatty acids, trace minerals and protein, it is an all-around superfood.  We’ve combined the goodness of chia with other wonderfully nutritious seeds: hemp & buckwheat, to help you power up in the morning and keep you feeling great all day long. 

If you have been waiting to try chia seeds or cereal, wait no longer!  You can also sprinkle Chia Goodness into your yogurt, oatmeal or granola.   It will thicken it a bit after a few minutes.  There are also recipes on the site for muffins & pancakes. 

It’s hot! What is one of America’s favorite pastimes in the summer? Trips to the ice cream shop! There are ice cream shops all over the place these days, but what do you do if you have to follow a gluten-free diet? Cold Stone Creamery, that is what! Cold Stone Creamery has lots of options for those who have to follow a gluten-free diet.

Cold Stone Creamery offers a variety of gluten-free flavors that you can choose from. Once you have selected your flavor, then you select your mix-in. Mix-ins range from candy pieces, to nuts, to fruit & all kinds of fun stuff. Once you have chosen the mix-in, the employee will scoop your ice cream & place it on a marble slab. Then your mix-in is place on top of the ice cream and the mixing begins. Cold Stone includes 1 mix-in with the price of your ice cream and then you pay for each additional mix-in. Cold Stone is very careful about cross-contamination and is more than happy to get clean ice cream scoops from the back or wash one. Also, to ensure that your ice cream doesn’t come in contact with any kind of crumbs/bits on the marble slab, you should ask the employee to mix your ice cream & mix-ins in a large bowl instead of on the slab.

Cold Stone changes their flavors seasonally. Right now for Summer they are offering Country Time Lemonade Sorbet, Jell-O Butterscotch Pudding Ice Cream & Jell-O Chocolate Pudding Ice Cream, all are a nice, scrumptious treat! The perfect way to cool off after a hot day.  I had to have the Butterscotch Pudding Ice Cream last week with Reese’s PB cups mixed in.  OH.MY.GOLLY!  I got a kids size cup and I could barely finish it because it was so sweet.  This flavor brought back so many wonderful childhood memories!  Do you remember when Del-Monte used to package this butterscotch pudding in those little cans?  That is how my Grandma bought them.  She passed away in 1999, so this was a nice reminder of her.  The next time I went in I got the Berry Berry Tart & Tangy yogurt with coconut sprinkled on top.  Much better on the sweet level.  🙂 

Nutritional information for Cold Stone Creamery.  A 5 star rating in my book!

We all scream for ICE CREAM!!  Turkey Hill is celebrating National Ice Cream month by giving away free ice cream every day in July!  WOOHOO!!!  Their blog, Ice Cream Journal, has all the fun details on how to enter to win.  It is really easy to enter.  Simply join the conversation by leaving a comment or 2 on their blog & you are entered!  Does it get much easier then that?  One of the best things about Turkey Hill Ice Cream is that most of the flavors are gluten-free.  I wrote about Turkey Hill not too long ago and detailed where to find the gluten-free information for their products on their site. 

So, what are you waiting for?  Hop on over to the Ice Cream Journal & leave some comments!