What am I eating lately?  Weird combinations, that is what.  I don’t know what inspires me to combine certain foods, but my family often gives me strange looks.  That’s okay, I am a big girl, I can take it.  My current obsession is wraps with Food for Life Brown Rice Tortillas.  I try & pick these up when I am at Whole Foods once or twice a month and freeze the until I am ready to use them.  Once I have opened the package, I store them in the refrigerator.  While I have tried other gluten-free tortillas, I have come back to these.  They behave nicely and consistently.  For a while I had been using the La Tortilla Teff Tortillas, but they weren’t consistent.  Sometimes they wrapped well, other times they cracked.  We can’t have wraps that crack, right?  The Food for Life tortillas are less expensive, to boot!  Bonus! 

This latest wrap pictured above has Applegate Farms turkey, mushrooms, avocado, dill pickle relish and mixed greens.  I heated the wrap up for 30 seconds in the microwave and then filled with the ingredients that I mentioned, so the insides were not warm, but cold.  I dipped the wrap in Trader Joe’s spicy brown mustard.  How do I know when a certain combination is a hit?  When I wake up craving it.  (No, I am not pregnant.)

I also love to make quesadillas with these tortillas – turkey, thinly sliced apple or pear and cheddar cheese makes a fabulous combination.

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Have you all read the article circulating the web about celiac patients being able to eat products made with hydrolyzed wheat flour with no ill effects? I am not sure how I feel about this.  If it is possible to eat a diet full of nutritious foods, why would I risk eating products that contain wheat flour, even if extensive research says they are safe?  What about those who don’t have Celiac disease, but non-celiac gluten intolerance?  There are not many times in my life where I feel deprived these days.  I feel that gluten-free food has come a long way with some of the products that have hit the market in the past 2 years. 

Would you eat products made with hydrolyzed wheat flour?  

Has it been cold where you are?  I am way over winter.  Yesterday I had a training run with my marathon group and we ran 6 miles in extremely cold temperatures.  The temp was –1 with –11 wind chill when we headed out at 8:00 AM.  Yes, something is wrong with us.  LOL!  I have no interest in repeating that anytime soon.  I don’t think my toes thawed until mile 4.  My hands did fair a little better due to a find at Fleet Feet this week – Hot Lava Instant Heat Pack made by BioRelief.  You click the little button in these puppies and they heat up and stay warm for about an hour.  They can be reused.  You boil them to return them to their natural state.  While my hands did get a little cold by the end of the run, I am sure they were much better off than if I hadn’t used these new packs at all.  I warmed myself up last night with some spicy tuna rolls & cabernet at Molly Woo’s.  Can’t beat gluten-free sushi & wine, right? 

I am hoping for a warm up this week, but I am not sure that I am going to get that wish.  One can hope, right? 

Sunday – Breakfast for dinner – craving some sweet potato hash browns

Monday- BBQ chicken breasts, parmesan potatoes, steamed broccoli & salad

Tuesday – Mexican night – going to try to encourage Jon to branch out – perhaps burritos or chimichangas

Wednesday – Shrimp pasta, roasted veggies and salad

Thursday – Burgers, baked steak fries, green beans & salad

Friday – Leftovers or pizza

Saturday – Spaghetti & bison meatballs and salad

Baked Goods

I am feeling brownies this week.

Maple Oat Scones

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Week in Review

T.G.I.Friday’s adds gluten-free menu

Gluten-free groceries – what you need to know.

Cherbourg Bakery to hold grand opening this week.  

Review: Peas of Mind Veggie Wedgies & Puffets. 

Gluten-Free Surprise Cupcakes

Post introduces 90 calorie marshmallow treats – gluten-free

Kikkomen introduces gluten-free soy sauce

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie heaven

Gluten-free lemon meringues

Stay warm! Hope you have a wonderful week! 

I have been experimenting with my Gluten Free Oats and Jules Gluten Free Flour over the past couple of weeks.  First I made Oatmeal Raisin Cookies that disappeared so fast that I was thankful I had saved a small amount of the dough and hid it in the freezer!  Surely my family wouldn’t find it buried under the edamame, right?  As I was browsing my email one morning, I came across a recipe that Jules shared for Oatmeal Cake.  Being that it is National Oatmeal Month, I thought it was only fitting that I made it. 

The recipe for the cake can be found here.  I made a minor change or two that I will share below:

1.  I used Mott’s Apple Juice instead of apple cider.  I could have purchased the apple cider, but no one would drink it, so I went with the juice. 

2.  I used Sun Maid Raisins in place of baking raisins.  I could have boiled the raisins to plump them up, but I was in a hurry, so I didn’t. 

3.  I used Silk Pure Almond Unsweetened for the milk

Another modification that I chose to add was a drizzling of non-fat vanilla yogurt (Stonyfield) when I served the cake.

This cake was very moist and flavorful.  I loved the combination of the pumpkin pie spice & cinnamon.  The cake held together well and the vanilla yogurt was a nice compliment to the flavors.  This would be nice to serve at a brunch as a coffee cake along side a large bowl of fruit salad or fruit skewers.  It was the prefect ending to a freezing cold winter day.  The next time I make this, I will be using Jules homemade apple butter in place of the applesauce, as she suggests.  Yum! 

You can see the Oatmeal Cookies here…I think I will be pulling them out of the freezer today and baking when no one else is looking.  That may be hard seeing as we have a snow day and everyone is home. 

Are you snowed in?  I am more than ready for spring!

You may remember my talking about Stonyfield Organic Yogurt & Oikos in the past.  When I buy yogurt, I typically buy Stonyfield.  I love to use the plain Oikos in place of sour cream on baked potatoes or tacos, in baking, or even on cereal with fruit.  The Caramel & Chocolate Oikos are one some of my favorite desserts!  I can’t forget the Stonyfield Fat Free Vanilla – it is a staple in our house as well.  We use the vanilla mainly for baking or breakfast cereal. 

I received an email from Kristina at Stonyfield Farm today and wanted to pass this exciting information right along to you. 

Good afternoon!

I wanted to share some news with you about an exciting campaign that we’re running through the end of this February.

We’re passionate about working to support organic farming every day and we’re very excited to be running a campaign that directly supports this goal.
Check out our new Grant a Farmer’s Wish Campaign: Get to know six amazing organic farmers and VOTE to help us decide who gets $31,000 in grant money!

Participating in this campaign gives you the opportunity to get to know some amazing farmers and hear their stories. Learn about the people who make Stonyfield organic yogurt possible!

As a thank you to all who help us support organic farming and the CROPP/Organic Valley farmers who produce our milk, we’re offering great coupons for Stonyfield milk and yogurt and OV butter and cheese to all who place a vote.

Read their stories, watch their videos, and VOTE for the proposal that makes a difference in environmental impact, innovation, and ability to sustain organic practices. We’ll award $10,000 to the farmer that gets the most votes, $7,500 to 2nd and 3rd place, and $2,000 to 4th-6th. Every vote counts so get to know some great farmers, VOTE, and share the news with your friends! (Vote now through February 28th.)

Vote here now!

Here are some of the farmers’ videos:

Bansen

Beidler

Mahaffy

Shirk

Snyder

Teague

I am currently viewing the videos and mulling over the choices before I vote.  I loved viewing these stories – some great ideas! 

Some big news this week in the gluten-free community – Subway is testing gluten-free buns and brownies in Texas!  If there was every a time that I wished that I still lived Texas, now may be that time!  The brownies & buns come prepackaged with a one-time use knife to help prevent the risk of cross-contamination.  There are currently over 700 stores in Dallas and East Texas testing the new products out.  I was bummed to see that there are no plans at this time to expand the program across the country.  If this does catch on and go nationwide, it will just be one more option out there. 

Still cold here in Ohio, as it seems to be in a lot of places.  I saw a story on CNN the other day that said 49 of the 50 states had snow on the ground!  Can you guess which state was lacking snow?  It wasn’t Hawaii!  It was a little warmer – low to mid 30’s, which made for a much nicer outdoor run. 

Sunday – Buffalo burgers, baked potatoes, roasted asparagus & salad

Monday –Spaghetti with ground turkey meatballs, green beans & salad

Tuesday –Burritos, corn, black beans & salad

Wednesday –Grilled BBQ chicken breasts, chili cheese potatoes, broccoli & salad

Thursday – Salmon, coconut baked brown rice, roasted root veggies & salad

Friday – Pizza and salad

Saturday –Brinner (thanks for reminding me of the cool name, Erin)

Baked Goods

Oatmeal Cake

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Week in Recap

Please check here to see if you won the Rudi’s giveaway or here to see if you won the Simpli giveaway.  Still waiting to hear from a few people.

Recipe for Lemon Meringues. 

Allergen statements: What do they mean to you?

Elisabeth Hasselbeck creates a new line of protein bars. 

Kinnikinnick offers a new donut flavor – Apple Cinnamon for Valentine’s Day.

Review: Udi’s Cinnamon Raisin Bagels. 

Gluten-free Carrot Cake recipe.

Raisin Rack is carrying the newest Udi’s gluten-free products. 

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Hope you all have a great week! 

First, I want to thank everyone who entered the Rudi’s giveaway this week!  What a great turnout!  The winners of the giveaway are:

Tracy

January 10th, 2011 at 1:02 pm

I just made grilled cheese yesterday with Rudi’s whole grain bread. So very good, I was happy. Now I want another, with bacon!
I would like to try the cinnamon raisin, but of course would be happy with any!

Kim Buckton

January 10th, 2011 at 6:06 pm

I like Rudi’s on FB

Sarah

January 12th, 2011 at 1:52 pm

I would love to toast the cinnamon raisin bread!

Congrats to you all!!!  Please shoot me an email with your contact information to kim@glutenfreeislife.com.  Don’t forget to include which type of Rudi’s bread you want for your prize. 

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A side note – I actually registered for The Flying Pig Marathon today!  ACK!  Now it seems so much more real! 

Today marks the 5 year anniversary of my starting the gluten-free diet.  On January 9, 2006 my doctor called to tell me that I would have to start a gluten-free diet.  I was scared & excited.  Excited that I may start to feel better, but scared that I would no longer be able to enjoy my favorite foods.  Little did I know where that road would lead when I started down it. 

Fast forward 5 years down the road and here I am.  I am writing for Celiac-Disease.com, Live Gluten Freely and am the Columbus Gluten-Free Food Examiner, all in addition to maintaining my own gluten-free blog about living life without gluten.  I like to say that I took my lemons and made an awful lot of lemonade.  I am not one to let something keep me down for long – I am all about finding a way to make things work.  I truly believe in the saying “where there is a will, there is a way”. 

Over the past five years I have watched the gluten-free food market explode.  I remember the first time I went grocery shopping looking for gluten-free food.  I believe that trip ended in tears, as did a few after that.  Not only was I terrified that I was going to mess up and eat something with gluten, but gluten-free food wasn’t nearly as prominent then.  There wasn’t nearly as much awareness as there is now.  It was a rarity to see a mainstream company label a product “gluten-free”.  I think the first mainstream products I remember seeing the words “gluten-free” on were Smart Balance margarine and Clabber Girl Baking Powder.  Clabber Girl has said that on the side for years.  I can remember seeing that on the side of the can way back when I had no idea what gluten was.  Funny how things work out.  

I have gone from being terrified of dining out to taking charge and helping to educate restaurants & chefs on how to feed us safely.  Sure, there are times that I still become frustrated because even though there is so much more awareness, it has not reached all corners of the restaurant world.  Those establishments are behind the times, in my opinion.  As a former restaurant manager, I believe that it is crucial to know your competition and what they are offering.  What makes your restaurant better than the one next door?  Options and customer service go a long way.  If a restaurant takes care of your special dietary needs, you are more likely to spread the word and remain loyal to that establishment.  

So what am I doing to celebrate?  I enjoyed many pieces of carrot cake for my birthday, so I believe that was my celebration.  What I plan to do this next year is to continue to raise awareness by getting the word out there via my blogs, Twitter and Facebook pages.  I love to find new gluten-free foods and share them with all of you.  I have a feeling that 2011 is going to be a big year for gluten-free! 

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Remember to enter my Rudi’s Gluten-Free Giveaway before Friday!  Good luck!!

Have you had a chance to try any of Rudi’s Gluten-Free breads yet?  If not, you need to change that soon!  Rudi’s has 3 varieties of gluten-free breads available – Whole Grain, Original & Cinnamon Raisin.  My personal favorite is the Cinnamon Raisin – I love to top it with almond butter for breakfast!  The whole grain is great for making sandwiches – either grilled, packed for school lunch or a deli-style turkey & cheese.  Make sure to head over to Rudi’s Gluten-Free blog to keep up on all of the newest happenings. 

Read below for more information on Rudi’s, the NFCA and how the program works…

How does “Spread the Bread” work?

For every $1 off coupon downloaded for a loaf of Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bread, Rudi’s will donate $1 to support the NFCA’s CME program, up to $20,000. Coupons are available now on Rudi’s Gluten-Free’s website and Facebook page, and will remain available through February, or until the goal is reached.

Through Spread the Bread, Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery is proudly supporting the NFCA’s efforts to educate physicians on the diagnosis of celiac disease through its Continuing Medical Education (CME) program. NFCA teamed up with top celiac doctors nationwide to create a program that provides education for primary care physicians focused on celiac disease with the goal of improving diagnosis and management of the disease. For full accreditation information, please visit: www.CeliacCMECentral.com.

“Every year, millions of people suffer unnecessarily as a result of the lack of diagnosis of celiac disease,” said Alice Bast, Founder and President of NFCA. “Our mission is to decrease the amount of time it takes for someone to get diagnosed, improve quality of life, and with the support of companies like Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery, we can better reach that goal.”

“We created Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery so people with celiac disease and gluten intolerance can once again take pleasure in eating tasty and healthy breads,” said Doug Radi, vice president of marketing for Rudi’s Organic Bakery. “In addition to creating great-tasting gluten-free breads, we’re also committed to raising awareness and furthering education about celiac disease through partnerships with organizations like NFCA. The Continuing Medical Education program’s goal to teach doctors to diagnose celiac disease will greatly impact the gluten-free community.”

There are an estimated three million people in the U.S. suffering from celiac disease – that’s one in 133– yet less than 200,000 are diagnosed. Through partnerships with gluten-free organizations like NFCA, Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery hopes to elevate the level of education and awareness on celiac disease and gluten-intolerance, as well as the gluten-free diet, through local and national initiatives that drive hope for a better, brighter future, like the Spread the Bread program.

Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery breads are available nationally at natural foods stores and select mainstream supermarkets. For more information, visit http://www.rudisglutenfree.com.

To help kick off this great program, I am partnering with Rudi’s Gluten-Free to offer 3 of my wonderful readers each a loaf of Rudi’s Gluten-Free bread (winners will choose their variety).  If you haven’t tried Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bread, this is the perfect time to enter & win!  Here is what you need to do to enter:

1.  Tell me which variety of bread you would like to try and what you will make with it.  For more information on the breads, click here. 

Optional tasks to earn you extra entries (please leave a comment for each task completed so I can accurately count entries)

2.  Follow Rudi’s Gluten-Free on Twittere

3.  “Like” Rudi’s Gluten-Free on Facebook

4.  Follow me on Twitter

5.  “Like” Gluten-Free is Life on Facebook

Rules & Regulations:

1.  This contest is open to US residents only.

2.  You can only win one loaf of bread – if your name comes up more than once, I will choose the next person in line.

This contest will run until Friday, January 14, 2011 at Midnight.   Good luck to you all!!

I think I am going to make a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich on Rudi’s Gluten-Free bread for lunch.  I have some Gouda cheese that think I will pair with cheddar and then squeeze some sun-dried tomatoes in there – YUM!

***The prizes offered in this giveaway are provided free of charge to the winners.  The opinions stated in this post are mine and have not been influenced by anyone or anything.

Yesterday my birthday.  I am 29 + 8 years old.  My mom, Linda, was kind enough to share her birthday with me – Thank you!   I have always loved celebrating my birthday with one of my very favorite people.  Our busy schedules didn’t permit us to get together on our actual birthday, so we arranged to celebrate on Friday night instead.  

Our celebration started out at Boston’s Gourmet Pizza for some pre-hockey game cocktails.  I considered ordering a glass of red wine, but one I found out they have Redbridge, I changed my mind!  Nothing like an ice cold beer that doesn’t make me sick.  As much as I would have liked to order dinner there, we had a hockey game to get to.  Jon’s JV team played and unfortunately lost. 

After the game we went to Mellow Mushroom to pick up carry-out.  We just may be keeping them in business these days.  The gluten-free pizza is Jon’s favorite. 

For dessert I made a gluten-free carrot cake because I know how much my mom loves carrot cake and it is my favorite next to chocolate.  I followed a recipe from Betty Crocker and even made the frosting from scratch.  The recipe will be shared later this week on Celiac-Disease.com.  Here is a teaser picture….

Last night hubby and I went out for a birthday dinner and the kids had a rotisserie chicken – Hannah was happier about it than Jon was.  Jon said I promised him I would never buy a rotisserie chicken again.  Hmm….not sure I remember that.  He has had a weird aversion to chicken lately along with some other pickiness. 

Monday – Spaghetti with marinutta sauce, roasted broccoli & salad

Tuesday –Mexican pizzas, refried beans, corn & salad

Wednesday – Burgers, steak fries, zucchini and salad

Thursday –Mellow Mushroom

Friday  -Breakfast for dinner – frittatas, turkey bacon and fruit

Saturday – Filet mignon, baked potato, steamed green beans and salad

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And now the moment you have all been waiting for – the winners of my Simpli Instant Apricot Oatmeal giveaway!

monica
January 3rd, 2011 at 2:24 pm
I liked Simpli on Fb
Amo
January 3rd, 2011 at 2:26 pm
I like GF is Life on Facebook
Amy Clark
amoeidson@yahoo.com
Marisa H
January 5th, 2011 at 12:20 pm
I followed you on Twitter! (Spaceodditygirl)
Christy
January 7th, 2011 at 9:39 am
We already like gluten free is life on Facebook. Love the blog!
Alex
January 7th, 2011 at 9:31 pm
I like Simpli on FB! Alex Smith.
Congrats to you all!!  Please shoot me an email with your contact information so that Simpli can mail out your packages!
 
For those who didn’t win, check back later today for another cool giveaway!  This next one will have 3 winners.  
 

I have made my own kale chips in the past, but I haven’t tried any packaged kale chips.  When I received samples of Rhythm Chips, I was very curious!  I wondered how the chips would hold up or how they would taste.  Rhythm Superfoods has a great philosophy:

We create delicious, clean, nutritionally powerful products to encourage people to achieve optimal energy. The foods we make are RAW, VEGAN, GLUTEN-FREE, NUTRIENT-RICH, and always DELICIOUS.

• All Natural. We never use chemicals, preservatives, chlorine, processed, genetically modified, or otherwise denatured food. Why? Because we ourselves are organic creatures of the earth.
• Local and Organic. This is becoming simply a survival mechanism. We support the reintegration of farming and foraging into our communities, and the development of sustainable lifestyles. We support the re-mineralization of ourselves and our soils in order to achieve a higher state of health and wellness. We will always strive to be as local and organic as possible.
• Balance. We seek balance in our recipes. The art and science of food combination is the key to making a great dish or product.
• Superfoods are miracle foods. We believe in offering these amazing treasures. More nutritional bang for your bite.
• Flavor. It doesn’t matter how healthy something is, if it doesn’t taste good, people simply will not come back for more. We are committed to delivering you only the tastiest foods possible. This is our way of helping you stay on your wellness path.
• Price. As we all know, eating healthy can be expensive. We strive to deliver a top shelf product line at a price point people can afford.
• Rhythm. Music. Dance. Play. Eat. Live. Love.

Rhythm Superfoods is the brainchild of Keith Wahrer, an Austin music producer & chef. Keith began his journey into health foods at the age of 19 when he made the switch to an all-natural vegan diet to cure himself from chronic sinus infections and allergies. In 2003 Keith co-founded Daily Juice, which quickly became known as the best little juice bar in Texas. It was here that he began experimenting with superfoods and living cuisine. This quickly led him to bring his first product to market, the Baraka Bar, a delicious line of raw, vegan, gluten-free superfood bars. As time went on, many more amazing raw foods products were developed, sparking the interest of a few notable Austin entrepreneurs including Clayton Christopher and David Smith from Sweet Leaf Tea, and Scott Jensen, former CEO at Stubb’s BBQ. Now these like-minded foodie-preneurs have teamed up and are excited to bring Rhythm Superfoods to the people!

My thoughts…

There are 3 different varieties of the Kale Chips – Bombay Curry, Zesty Nacho & Cool Ranch.  I broke these out on Christmas Eve, much to the delight of my guests.  These were a huge hit!  The chips had a wonderful flavor and texture.  They were a little on the delicate side, but that is really the only downside I can find to this product.  No less than 5 people sampled all of these and there were none left by the end of the night.  I think that tells you how good they were!  I think my favorite flavor was the Bombay Curry, though the other 2 were very appealing, too.  There are 2 new flavors – Texas BBQ & Mango Habenero – coming out soon! 

Rhythm Superfoods will also be debuting Sweet Potato Chips in March 2011!  I can’t wait to give those a try!  These chips will also be raw, vegan and gluten-free. 

Look for Rhythm Chips in their online store, Daily Juice.  They are sold out right now, but should be restocking very soon, so keep checking back. 

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Don’t forget to enter to win in my Simpli Instant Apricot Oatmeal Giveaway!  The contest will run until Friday night!

***The kale chips were provided to me free of charge.  The opinions on this blog are mine and have not been influenced by anyone or anything.