New town, new life, new love...Maninis!

My goodness, I just realized how long it's been since I've posted. I post frequently on Facebook for my quick thoughts, ideas, links and conversations, and save the longer blog format for recipes and stories--but it's been a while!  Would you believe in the past few months that I've plunged headfirst into a heavy-duty new day job, moved to a new state, bought a condo and traveled twice out of that state on business?  Whew. No wonder I'm tired :)  BUT, I love love love it, it was all worth it....I've left LA for Seattle and have not looked back.  One of the reasons I was so comfortable with moving to the Seattle area (besides the niceness of the people) is that is it a HUGE foodie city.  (So is Portland, for that matter, Pacific Northwesterners are passionate about food, yay.)

So I was not THAT surprised to discover my new love here in Seattle--Maninis gluten free products.  Hands-down, they have delivered the best-tasting, best-textured gluten-free breads, muffins, pastas, and brownies that I've ever had!  They are not rice-based, but are based on ancient grains such as teff, amaranth and sorghum. They also use tapioca and cornstarch, with all non-GMO ingredients.  The texture for the baked goods is just right--crusty on the outside, and soft on the inside.  I've been getting their amazing muffins every week at my local farmers market (fresh peach or the chocolate chip raspberry are my faves). Their fresh pastas have also been outstanding (with flavors such as green onion/basil, and black truffle, needing only a little bit of margarine or olive oil to complement the flavors.  Sadly, they only sell their fresh products in the Pacific Northwest at Whole Foods and at local farmers markets so far, however, they do sell their mixes online for you to make the products at home, and they have recipes on their site.

I'm sharing a few pictures here to show you just how beautifully they turn out--great texture, a fine crumb, and no aftertaste that you get with some of the garbanzo bean mixes. Planning to buy some mixes to try them myself. It's hard to want to bake though when I have a stash of their fantastic muffins in my freezer, ready to go.  It's ironic that my personal muffin top is getting muffin-ier because of them, but after years of baked goods deprivation, it's heaven. I love Maninis!