Giveaway: General Mills "Live Gluten Freely" Product Box!

As you know I am a big fan of General Mills and their dedication to offering great tasting gluten free convenience foods and resources for the gluten free community.  If you haven't already had a chance to try some of their best selling gluten free products, here is your chance to WIN them!

You could WIN this General Mills "Live Gluten Freely" product box!

My family enjoyed everything in the Live Gluten Freely product box...

We savored Saturday morning pancakes made with the new Bisquick® Gluten Free Original Pancake and Baking Mix.  The pancakes were light and fluffy, just as they should be! For speedy week day breakfasts my kids all but devoured the crunchy, sweet, Honey Nut Chex® Cereal (I was lucky to get one bowl)!

My tween age son is just becoming interested in baking and made fudgy brownies using the Betty Crocker® Gluten-Free Brownie Mix (he even mixed them with the Betty Crocker® Red Serving Spoon we received!).  My family ate the whole pan in one night; we are brownie hounds, and these are really good brownies!

The Betty Crocker® Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix was transformed into a dozen delicious cupcakes, which my daughter's frosted using the Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy Chocolate Frosting.  My youngest daughter is dairy free, so we left a few cupcakes plain and she topped them with homemade dairy free chocolate glaze instead.  This was a fun project for my girls, and the whole family enjoyed the tasty results! 

For a quick week night meal, I mixed together some dry Betty Crocker® Potato Buds® Mashed Potatoes and fresh chopped herbs from my garden to make a crispy coating for Tilapia fillets (I got this idea from Food Network).  If you want to try this, simply salt and pepper your fish fillets, dip fillets in beaten egg, and then press the Potato Bud/Herb mixture onto the fish.  Heat oil in a skillet until hot but not smoking, and cook each side only until golden brown.  Transfer fish to a metal rack set on a baking pan to catch drippings, and finish off in a 375 degree oven until the fish flakes easily with a fork (time will vary depending on the thickness of your fish; mine only took 5 minutes).  Easy, healthy, delicious, and of course gluten free!

My kids adore fruit snacks and went gaga for the Betty Crocker® Fruit Flavored Snacks Variety Pack which contains Fruit Roll-Ups®, Fruit Gushers®, Fruit by the Foot®.  This fun selection brought smiles to my kids faces, and they have been enjoying them as an occasional sweet treat.

The Peanut Butter Cookie Lärabar® Snack Bar made a perfect healthy school snack for my daughter.  She said that it it kept her satisfied until lunch time, and has asked me to buy more.  I am always happy to provide my kids with wholesome snack options like Larabar Snack Bars.

LIVE GLUTEN FREELY:

The Live Gluten Freely website offers many wonderful gluten free recipes, as well as gluten free resource links.  You can even purchase a Live Gluten Freely product box exactly like the one being given away in the photo above and have it shipped to yourself or to a loved one as a thoughtful gift. The Live Gluten Freely product box also contains gluten free recipes, coupons and information.

BUY IT:

Click here to purchase a Live Gluten Freely product box directly from the General Mills Live Gluten Freely website.

WIN IT:

(1) lucky Gluten Free Taste of Home follower will WIN a Live Gluten Freely product box as shown in the photo above containing: Betty Crocker® Gluten-Free Brownie Mix, Betty Crocker® Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix, Mix Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy Chocolate Frosting, Honey Nut Chex® Cereal, Bisquick® Gluten Free Original Pancake and Baking Mix, Betty Crocker® Fruit Flavored Snacks Variety Pack - Fruit Roll-Ups®, Fruit Gushers®, Fruit by the Foot®, Peanut Butter Cookie Lärabar® Snack Bar, Betty Crocker® Potato Buds® Mashed Potatoes, Betty Crocker® Red Serving Spoon, Coupons, and More!
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TO ENTER GIVEAWAY (#1 is a mandatory entry):

1) Become a Gluten Free Taste of Home follower (must follow PUBLICLY via Google Friend Connect in the side bar of this website) AND visit the Live Gluten Freely website; LEAVE ME A COMMENT telling me you now follow me PUBLICLY, AND tell me what gluten free product you would most like to try from the Live Gluten Freely website. (1 entry)

BONUS ENTRIES (each entry comment must be entered separately to be a valid entry):

2) "Like" my Gluten Free Taste of Home page on Facebook; LEAVE ME A COMMENT telling me you did this. (1 entry)


3) "Like" my Freebie Fairy page on Facebook; LEAVE ME A COMMENT telling me you did this. (3 entries)

4) "Like" Live Gluten Freely on Facebook; LEAVE ME A COMMENT telling me you did this. (1 entry)

5) Blog about this giveaway linking it back to this blog post AND the Live Gluten Freely website. Please LEAVE ME A COMMENT with THE LINK TO YOUR POST or it will not count. (3 entries)

6) Follow Gluten Free Taste of Home on Twitter AND tweet the giveaway; LEAVE ME A COMMENT (with your twitter link) telling me you did it. (one entry per tweet/RT; DO NOT EXCEED (1) TWEET/RT PER HOUR!)

7) Vote for Gluten Free Taste of Home on Picket Fence Blogs (click the "We're on the Fence!" button in the sidebar of this blog to vote). (2 entries)

8) Grab my Gluten Free Taste of Home button and display it on your website/blog (copy the html code for my button from the sidebar of this website and paste the code into your website), and LEAVE ME A COMMENT with a LINK to where you pasted my button. (1 entry)

9) Follow my Freebie Fairy blog PUBLICLY via Google Friend Connect and LEAVE ME A COMMENT telling me you did it. (1 entry)

10) Follow my Freebie Fairy blog on Twitter. (1 entry)

*GIVEAWAY OPEN TO US ONLY* (Sorry, prize cannot be shipped to P.O. boxes)
Giveaway ends on Monday, November 22 at 7:00 p.m. PST (entries received after this time will not be posted). Winner will be selected by random.org. Winner will be notified by e-mail and will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is selected.

*REMEMBER... please leave your e-mail address with EACH entry so I can contact you if you win.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I was not compensated for this post; the product, prize pack, information, and giveaway have all been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I was not required to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Best of luck!

I Attended the Gluten Free Summit at the General Mills Headquarters in Minneapolis!

The General Mills Visitor's Reception Area

When I started my Gluten Free Taste of Home blog a year and a half ago, I never dreamed it would take me to the General Mills headquarters in Minneapolis Minnesota, to serve as a voice for my daughter with Celiac Disease, and the greater gluten free community.  Unbelievably, that it precisely what happened!  Myself and 9 other gluten free bloggers were invited to attend a gluten free summit on behalf of General Mills.  Danna Korn, author of the book Kids with Celiac Disease and Founder of the R.O.C.K. support group has been working with General Mills developing their gluten free division, and was given the responsibility of choosing a group of gluten free bloggers to travel to the General Mills headquarters for an intensive one day gluten free summit.  By some amazing twist of fate, she invited me.

The gluten free bloggers and General Mills staff members at the gluten free summit.   I'm in the back row, 5th from the left. This photo was taken in the Betty Crocker kitchens by Jill of the Hey, That Tastes Good! blog.  Thanks Jill!  

It was a whirlwind of a trip, flying from my home in Washington to Minneapolis early in the morning and finally arriving to the hotel in the late afternoon.  I had the privilege of visiting with relatives from Minnesota that I haven't seen in over twenty years in the two spare hours between arriving at the hotel and meeting up with the other bloggers and General Mills staff.  What a gift that was!

The gluten free bloggers all attended  a "get to know you" dinner at Biaggi's Ristorante Italiano in Minneapolis later that evening.  Gluten Free bread, pasta, pizza, and even chocolate cake was served to the gluten free bloggers.  I tried the gluten free pizza, bread, and chocolate cake; all were quite good, with the pizza being my favorite of the three.  Dear Biaggi's, please open a location in the greater Seattle area soon!

Here are the gluten free bloggers who attended the gluten free summit at General Mills:

Amanda from A Few Short Cuts

Lynn from Lynn's Kitchen Adventures

Jill from Hey, That Tastes Good!

Shirley from Gluten Free Easily

Linda from The Gluten Free Homemaker

Amy from The Savvy Celiac

Rachel from The Crispy Cook

Cinde from Gluten Free Taste of Home (that's me!)

Maureen from Hold the Gluten 

Vanessa from The Celiac Princess

and

Shelly from the Minneapolis Chapter R.O.C.K support group

It was my sincere pleasure to be in the company of this amazing group of gluten free bloggers!  I was truly sad when I had to say good by to them!  They are all dedicated, strong women, with a true passion for making a difference in the gluten free world.

I am not at liberty to say much regarding General Mills' plans for their gluten free division yet.  What I can tell you is that General Mills has shown genuine interest in servicing the gluten free consumer in more ways than one.  They were eager to hear the opinions of the gluten free bloggers at the summit, be it positive or negative. Being that General Mills is the 6th largest food company in the world, it is exciting to imagine the magnitude of the impact that their involvement in the gluten free community could bring.  As soon as I am at liberty to share more details, you will be the first to know. :)  For now, you can visit General Mills Live Gluten Freely website for gluten free recipes and resources.

Oil Painting of "Betty" herself,  from the Betty Crocker Kitchens in Minneapolis.  This was one of a series of framed oil paintings of Betty Crocker from the 1940's all the way through the present.  I chose to post this particular photo because this is the image I remember from my Mom's Betty Crocker cookbook when I was a girl; it takes me right back to my childhood (bell bottoms and all).

What I can share with you now is that I had the unique experience of baking with my fellow gluten free bloggers in the Betty Crocker Kitchens!  You may remember from past posts that I have been a Betty Crocker fan since I was a little girl.  In fact, back in the 1970's when I was in elementary school, I was crowned the "Betty Crocker Coupon Queen."  Seriously.  I still have the trophy to this day! If your scratching your head wondering how that came about, let me explain. My Sunday school class had a contest to see who could collect the most Betty Crocker Coupons for the church.  My Mom was an avid Betty Crocker consumer, and as a result I brought in the most Betty Crocker coupons.  In addition to receiving a big trophy, a handmade paper crown adorned with plastic spoons and forks was placed upon my head.  I was queen for a day.  A proud, 7 year old, plastic-fork n' spoon-crown-wearing queen. :)  From that moment forward, I have always felt bonded to Betty Crocker.  

Left to right: Linda from The Gluten Free Homemaker, Shirley from Gluten Free Easily, and I baking gluten free desserts in the Betty Crocker kitchens.  The Betty Crocker Gluten Free Dessert Mixes and the new Gluten Free Bisquick were the core ingredients used in the recipes.  

A big hello to my new gluten free blogger friends, I miss you and hope to see you again! Also a huge thank you to all of the wonderful General Mills staff and gluten free summit organizers who gave me this unforgettable opportunity to be a part of something very special.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I was not compensated for this post, nor was I compensated to attend the gluten free summit.  The opinions I have expressed are solely my own.  Others who attended may have different opinions.  General Mills paid for my airfare, ground transportation, lodging and meals for the purpose of having me attend the gluten free summit.  Airport parking, baggage fees and meals at the airport/airplane were paid by me.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”