Delightfully Gluten Free (TM)

Mina’s Purely Divine

Do you ever make notes on something and then totally lose them?  Completely gone?  Well, that happened to me.  Granted, I moved this summer, which has totally flipped everything upside down, sideways, and shaken it for good measure.

My husband and I bought a foreclosure.  Yay for saving a little money, right?  There is a ton of work, though, and we had a lot of unnecessary complications along the way.  But I have FINALLY gotten my kitchen up and running.  It was dismal.

Kitchen BeforeIt doesn’t look as bad in the picture, but the faucet was broken, underneath the sink was completely black with mold, the counters were burned, the oven was missing, and the walls and cabinets were disgusting.

Kitchen AfterI still need to replace a drawer, but things are definitely looking up (I’ve since finished the painting and caulking around the backsplashes and the trim under the bar).  Our current main project is ripping up the ridiculously poorly-laid tile in the family room, scraping up the mortar (which is taking forever and covering the entire house in a thick layer of dust), and soon to tile the other rooms.

But now I have a kitchen again!  For those of you that cook and bake a lot, you will understand how completely frustrated I was because I didn’t have a fully functional kitchen for 6 weeks.  Eeeek!

With the move, I lost my notes on Mina’s Purely Divine chocolate cake mix.  I do have a picture, though.

Chocolate Cake with Sunbutter Icing

I do clearly remember the cake being soft and moist and really delicious.  My dad had made one of those comments like “you really can’t tell that this is gluten-free; they’ve really come a long way in the last ten years.”

I made a sunflower seed butter icing.  I wish I could give you the recipe (I clearly remember writing it down somewhere).  I worked really hard to make it not taste like sunflower seeds.  It had an almost insane amount of vanilla in it, but that’s all I remember.

In order to test Mina’s Bread Mix, I worked really hard to perfectly plan out the rising time and when to get it in the oven.  I was awesome.

Except, not really.  It was the first day of school and I didn’t realize my daughter’s school was letting out a half hour later than last year and the pick up line at Carter’s school took 30 minutes.  Instead of my perfectly-planned bread baking, I ended up with the bread rising for an hour and a half longer than it was supposed to.  Have you ever done that before?  It started falling before I got it in the oven.

The taste, however, was a success, even if it was not perfectly formed.

Mina's Bread Mix

My bread looks a little sad, honestly.  The pan and I were having a severe disagreement.  Mina’s picture, however, looks much better than mine.

“Pretty good, not too crumbly, and spongy, like it should be” were the pearls given to me by my not-so-talkative husband.  It had a good texture and tasted a bit like sourdough.  Braden even got to take sandwiches to school a few days, which is great since they cut off his microwave usage this year.

To add to the good taste and texture of these mixes, they are also great for people with multiple food allergies.  They are not only free of gluten, but also soy, corn, dairy, eggs, beans, and nuts.  Sometimes it is hard to cover all of the bases for Braden, but these mixes did it.

Now, should I take the all-purpose mix and make cookies?  Or cheese straws?  Or pumpkin bread?  Or fried chicken?  There are a variety of recipes for each mix, and I’m having a hard time deciding.  There are even vegan recipes, if you are so inclined.

Mina’s is currently offering free shipping on orders over $24.


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