Math Lesson: Gluten free baking flour and Legos

Hey Mom, why do you buy all that gluten free flour? Why are you getting so much?

Son, it is cheaper to shop in bulk than to buy big small bags. Let us go to the white board and bring the laptop.

First we found the price of favorite GF bread at the local grocery store and online.

Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour
Local Grocery $3.99 for 22oz (3.99/22) = $0.18 per oz (add tax,gas) = $0.25
Amazon $26.80 for 176.oz = (26.60/176) =$0.15 per oz


The Amazon flour is sold as a bulk item, so it may look like we are saving only pennies but factor in driving to the store, local sales taxes and just time spent shopping it can actually add time to our day. Amazon.com is better than local grocery store price per pound and you get free shipping over $25 dollars. Which saves on me driving to Wholefoods to buy Gluten Free items.

Hmmm Mom, does that work with Legos? Let's do the math.....



Okay at the Lego Store's small pick a brick bucket is about $8 you get about 40 pcs. The bigger bucket is $15 dollars and you get squeeze about 90 medium pcs or 200 small pcs in the bucket.

$8/40=$0.20 for the small bulk bucket and you points towards more Legos.
$14.00/90=$0.16 for the Big bulk bucket and you points towards more Legos.


So it's cheaper to buy the big bucket. Can we go to the Lego store?


(Why didn't I see that coming. LOL)

Kitchen Tip:
I also use http://www.mambosprouts.com/ which has organic food coupons.

I use my crockpot using this http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/03/perfect-gluten-free-bread-baked-in.html to make bread. All of her dishes are gluten free and it saves time, but you have to plan.

(All photos are borrowed from the web because my camera is off-line.)

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Cake Mixes ROCK!

We have been gluten free here at the Sandbox for about 18 months. In that time we have all experience a drastic improvement in our overall health most directly with our yearly allergies. We have gone from almost daily doctor visits during high allergy times to monitored check-ups. It has truly been a blessing.

Now the journey has not always been a tasty treat. One incident with gluten free croissants has become a cautionary tale in our home. We have tasted some incredible food and learned to appreciate cooking from scratch. But there is a lot to be said for time saving good gluten free food. This is where Betty Crocker comes in…..

In the past I would buy three types of flour and mix my own cake flour to avoid that grainy taste you can get from a lot of off the self gluten free cake mixes. This was time consuming but well worth the effort. Then imagine my surprise when we found Betty Crocker Gluten Free Cake Mixes at Super Target. It was not organic but very few birthday cakes are these days. So we decided to give it a try. Everyone LOVED them. Of course we did alter the directions rice milk instead of water and little bit more vanilla extract.

TS did all the measuring and read the directions too. He says now he wants to be like Alton Brown. LOL

Gluten Free Cookies and Icing are GOOOOOOOOOOOOD

Menu Planning October 6-12

Inspired by Kysha @ Love’s School and in an effort to become more organized, I am joining the good ladies over at "I'm An Organizing Junkie” for the weekly Menu Plan Monday. I am a firm believer in menu planning and have been doing it “offline” so to speak for three years. However, since we have gone gluten-free I have been slacking on actually writing down my plans and contributing my cost over runs to the new diet. Bad mommy.

Monday-
breakfast: GF Pancakes and turkey bacon and Simply Apple Juice
lunch:
dinner: Gluten Free Oven Fried Chicken, baked sweet potato and broccoli

Tuesday-
breakfast: GF Gorilla Munch, Clementine oranges and soy milk
lunch: lunch: Hormel’s Natural Turkey, grape tomatoes, GF pretzels
dinner: Crockpot Chicken and Brown Rice Casserole

Wednesday-
breakfast: GF Gorilla Munch, apples, turkey bacon and soymilk
lunch: Hormel’s Natural Turkey, baby carrots, tortilla chips, organic Lemonade
dinner: Super Easy Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce With Gluten-Free Rice Noodles and Salad

Thursday-
breakfast: GF Brown Rice cold cereal, grapes and milk
lunch: grilled chicken strips, Organic Applesauce and tator tots
dinner: Steak, salad, brown rice

Friday-
breakfast: boiled eggs, smoothies
lunch: leftovers
dinner: Crockpot Chicken Stew with mixed veggies and GF corn bread

Saturday-
breakfast: Van’s GT Waffles, turkey bacon, Simply Apple Juice, Watermelon
lunch: Homemade Pizza
dinner: Turkey Meatballs, string beans, brown rice

Sunday-
breakfast: bananas smoothies, Gorilla Munch
lunch: Cuban chicken and salad
dinner: Van’s GT Waffles, turkey bacon, Simply Apple Juice, Watermelon

Peace and Blessings,