While perusing the shelves at Whole Foods, I stumbled upon these goodies. GO BUY THESE. They are the perfect dessert item for the summer. I love the size of them as well… not too big, but large enough to be satisfying. Yummy!
Tag Archives: dessert
Ice Cream Sandwiches
28 MayPizza By The Slice!
9 May
Is that a beautiful sign or what? Behold, the first restaurant in Santa Barbara to offer gluten-free pizza by the slice. Adama, which already had a gluten-free menu, now has gluten-free pizza and a bakery that is almost entirely GF. Last night, we shared an order of the Fritto Misto to start. It was just as good as the last time we had it. We also got a slice of the GF pizza just to try it.
The bread was good, but there was only a tiny bit that served as an outer crust. That edge was nice and crunchy, but this was definitely a fork and knife pizza as it was softer under all of the tasty toppings. I then ordered the special… falafel with their GF ciabatta bread.
I am not sure if I have ever had falafel but it was really good. The outside was nice and crispy. The bread was really good now that I could taste it a bit better. It was served with a GF tabbouleh that was made from millet. Then came the fun part… dessert. All of the desserts in the case were gluten-free other than the oatmeal raisin cookies (the oats they use are not GF-certified). We went with the apple pie served with soy vanilla ice cream and a peanut butter cookie.
They warmed up the pie which was a nice touch. There is just something about warm apple pie that makes everything right in the world. The peanut butter cookie had a good taste but the consistency was a bit off.
It is just really exciting for a local restaurant to continue pushing themselves to give us GF peeps more and more options when dining out!
Taking Advantage of the Ridiculous Weather
28 Apr
After an excruciating day at work, I felt the need to take advantage of the beautiful weather and have an al fresco dinner. We went to Pierre Lafond on State Street and sat on their patio so we could watch all of the people in town for the Gaucho Reunion. I ordered the Greek Shrimo Salad as my main dish which was tasty, but could have used some more shrimp. We also shared a side of the grilled broccolini.
This had the perfect amount of salt, and was speedily consumed. After dinner, it was still warm out so we walked to Yogurtland to get some frozen yogurt. I love how they have each flavor labeled whether it is GF or not. I got the peanut butter flavor and topped it with reeses peanut butter cups.
Jane
7 Mar
I have been meaning to try Jane for quite some time since it just looks appealing from the outside. We started our meal by sharing the grilled pasilla chiles with swiss cheese, fresh cilantro and a tomato vinaigrette. This was very good. I just love the taste of pasilla chiles. For my main dish, I had the Gorgonzola Salad Bowl without the gorgonzola.
This had grilled chicken breast, avocado, bacon, tomato, chopped romaine and a red wine vinaigrette. The chicken was still warm from the grill and the ingredients just tasted very fresh. We weren’t planning on getting dessert, but then we saw the Jane Sundae on the menu. It consisted of soft serve vanilla ice cream, caramel, homemade toffee and whipped cream. After the waitress confirmed that all of the ingredients were ok for me, we dove in.
If they sold that toffee, I would buy it by the ton… seriously. It was that good.
Don’t forget to stop by at Whole Foods Market tomorrow night for the big event!
Petit Valentien
19 Feb
One of my favorite nooks of downtown Santa Barbara is La Arcada. I have been meaning to try Petit Valentien for quite some time since it is in such a charming walkthrough, so we went last night. Our waitress knew right off the bat what I could and could not have. I started with a salad with greens, roasted beets and really good goat cheese. For my main dish, I had lamb served with mashed potatoes and ratatouille. It was quite good. Then came the desserts. As our waitress ran down the list, there were 3 that she told me were GF! Now I am not a big dessert person, but if someone tells me that 3 desserts are GF, I think that it is my responsibility to try all of them. The three were a flourless chocolate cake, a GF cheesecake (cheesecake!) and a vanilla creme brulee.
The creme brulee had a great vanilla taste, making it my favorite of the three. The cheesecake came in a close second. It was just so exciting to be able to eat cheesecake since they typically have crusts. The flourless chocolate cake was good, but I found it to be a bit dry. From start to finish, the meal at Petit Valentien exceeded my expectations!
Julienne
18 Feb
Last night my parents and I decided to try Julienne since we have been hearing good things about it. I started with their special cauliflower soup which had little bits of the most flavorful purple cauliflower in the center of it. I then had their caesar salad without the croutons.
It had a garlic anchovy dressing that was quite wonderful and was topped off with lots of grated cheese. For my main dish, I had the steamed halibut with crispy red lentils and a cabbage puree.
The crispy lentils that went with this were so unbelievably tasty. I could eat a whole bowl of them. I wasn’t going to order dessert but then I saw that they had a homemade ice cream that night that was York Peppermint Patties ice cream. Our waitress assured me that it was GF and so I made the very good decision of ordering it.
This tasted like a great mint ice cream with the bonus of getting little chunks of the peppermint patties. This entire meal was just so fantastic. Our waitress was very well informed as to what I could and could not have. Another perk of dining here is that they have embraced the farm to fork mentality, supporting our local Santa Barbara businesses. We will definitely be returning sooner than later to get more of this gem!
Lunch at Sojourner Cafe
6 Feb
If you are like me, you sometimes look at restaurant websites to see what their specials are for the day. That is what I was doing this morning when I saw “hearty vegetable soup” on Sojourner Cafe’s menu and knew that that was what I must consume for lunch. I started with a cup of this GF hearty soup which was perfect on an overcast day like today. Then I had the garlicky caesar salad without croutons.
I wasn’t planning on getting dessert, but then our waitress informed me that they had a gluten-free brownie bite. Of course I had to get it so that you could see a picture of it.
This was the perfect amount of richness. What a perfect lunch for a rare day off from work!
Brewhouse and Dessert
15 Nov
We decided to return to our old neighborhood and go to Brewhouse tonight. It was pretty dark in there, so no food pictures came out. I started with the Fire Roasted Artichoke which had an awesome grill taste to it. I then had the Salmon Salad which had two pan seared pieces of salmon on Mixed Greens with Tomato, Red Onion, Capers, Feta Cheese and Champagne Vinaigrette. The pieces of salmon were a smidge overcooked, but overall it was a good salad. Make sure to request it without the bread. I noticed on the menu that they had a “Tanka Dog” on the menu that mentioned that it was gluten free. I asked the waitress about it and she said the actual hot dog was gluten free but that it wasn’t on a GF bun which pretty much defeated the purpose of it for those with allergies. Seemed silly to me. After dinner, we headed to Yogurtland.
On each of the flavors, they mention any specific health tidbits including whether or not the self-serve flavor is gluten-free! How cool is that?
Pizza Guru
25 Sep
Tonight to celebrate my first day of work, my husband wanted to take me out to a nice dinner at Tre Lune. As delicious as that sounded though, all I really wanted was some pizza so that I could kick my feet up and enjoy some food in the comfort of our (temporary) home. After meeting my friend’s beautiful new baby boy, we went to pick up some pizza from Pizza Guru. We ordered two medium-sized GF pizzas… the Mystic Pizza and the Peaceful Pesto. They were both decent. As far as the toppings, we both thought they could have had a little more kick to them. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the crust which was firm enough to hold the toppings. It was pretty thin, but thicker than the cracker type crust you often see with GF pizzas. They also seemed very cautious of cross contamination. We just got the pizzas but apparently you can order GF wings, bread sticks, beer (Green’s), and even chocolate cake!
gluten-free in sb 
