I want to send out a huge congratulations to all of those who ran marathons today – Chicago & Portland both had their marathons today on 10/10/10. Valerie at Vegan by Valerie and Kris (@SeeKrisRun) both ran – so proud of you guys!! The Columbus Half Marathon & Marathon is next Sunday, 10/17/2010. I am disappointed that I not able to participate this year, but I will be cheering all of those who are. The weather looks like it is going to cooperate at this point in time – Partly sunny with a high of 68 and low of 45. Nice!

Speaking of running, I have been working towards getting back to “normal” training since completing my “Return to Running” program. I ran 19 miles this past week and am feeling great!! I hope to get up to and then maintain approximately 25 miles per week until I start marathon training again in January.

Sunday – Rotisserie chicken, sweet potato puffs, steamed green beans & salad

Monday – Salmon, parmesan pea risotto, sugar snap peas & salad

Tuesday -Chicken tacos, refried beans, roasted corn & salad

Wednesday – Spaghetti with meat sauce (ground turkey), roasted broccoli & salad

Thursday -Turkey Burgers, baked steak fries, zucchini & salad

Friday – Happy 65th birthday celebration for my father-in-law, Mack

Saturday -Mini-pizzas (make your own) and salad

Baked Goods

Brownies (Gluten-free Pantry mix)

Bread

Bagels (may attempt pumpkin bagels)

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Weekly Recap

Celiac Awareness

Holiday Baking Company begins online sales

Raisin Rack has some great October sales

Gluten-Free You & Me opens a new facility

I reviewed Kinnikinnick’s Pumpkin Spice Donuts

Jules Gluten Free is offering a Thanksgiving e-Book

Surf Sweets offers a Halloween pack

Book Review: Gluten-free Girl & the Chef

Review: Trader Joe’s Snickerdoodles

Review: Glutenfreeda Oatmeal, Burritos & Granola

Heidi makes Gluten-free, Dairy-free “Hostess Cupcakes”

My online, gluten-free sister, Erin, got married this weekend!! Congrats Erin & Jeff!! I am so happy for you both.

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Hope you all have a great week! Make sure to check back in tomorrow for a new giveaway!! 🙂

It is that time of year again – time for Celiac Awareness. I know that we just had Celiac Awareness month in May, but here we are in October saying that it is Celiac Awareness month. I don’t know why, but I am going to roll with it because as far as I am concerned, the more awareness, the better. With 97% of those with Celiac Disease being undiagnosed, there is no time like the present to talk about Celiac Disease until we are blue in the face.  After I initially wrote & scheduled this blog post, I came across this information on Twitter regarding the issue.  🙂

While I have been thinking about ways to bring more awareness to Celiac Disease this month, I have come across several others doing the same.

Mambo Sprouts is a huge supporter of Celiac Disease Awareness month. Check out their coupons on the left hand side of their home page! Sign up for free coupons & newsletters to be delivered right to your inbox. I have once again partnered with Mambo Sprouts to bring about as much awareness as I can to Celiac Disease. Keep an eye out for new product reviews over the next few weeks.

I received a newsletter from my daughter’s school today titled “Nurse Notes”. I assumed that it had something to do with flu season and how we should vaccinate our chilidren, yada, yada, yada. I almost deleted the email, but hesitated. I am just OCD and plain nosey to do that. I opened it and check out what I found (I apologize for the formatting of this – it was from their newsletter format):

October is Celiac Awareness month…

Celiac disease (CD) is a genetically linked
disease with an environmental trigger. In
people with CD, eating certain types of protein
fractions, commonly called gluten, set off an
autoimmune response that causes damage to
the small intestine. This, in turn, causes the
small intestine to lose the ability to absorb the
nutrients found in food, leading to malnutrition
and a variety of other complications.

Celiac Disease is:

*an inherited disease. Celiac disease
effects those with a genetic
predisposition
*linked to genetically transmitted
histocompatibility cell antigens
*COMMON. Approximately 1 in 133
people have CD, however, only about
3% of these have been diagnosed.
This number is based upon a
milestone multi-center study of blood
samples collected from 13,145 people
from February 1996 to May of 2001.
This means that there were over 2.1
million undiagnosed people with celiac
disease in the United States in 2001.
*characterized by (IgA mediated)
damage to the mucosal lining of the
small intestine which is known as
villous atrophy.
*responsible for the malabsorption of
nutrients resulting in malnutrition.
*linked to skin blisters known as
dermatitis herpetiformis (DH).
*not age-dependent. It may become
active at any age.

Celiac Disease is NOT:

*simply a food allergy (IgA).
*an idiosyncratic reaction to food
proteins (mediated by IgE).
*typified by a rapid histamine-type
reaction (such as bronchospasm,
urticaria, etc.).

To learn more, visit www.csaceliacs.org

I was speechless (and that doesn’t happen often, folks, just ask my husband). I wanted to jump up & down and hug the person who included this in the elementary school Nurse’s newsletter. Lucky for those involved, I contained myself and decided to write an email instead. 😉 I expressed my appreciation for helping bring attention to such an important issue and offered my help to any newly diagnosed children or adults.

Lastly, I wanted to share a tidbit shared by my mom. My mom was tested to see if she had Celiac Disease a couple of years back and her tests came back negative, or mostly. One number was slightly elevated. Pair that with the fact that she has ulcerative colitis (another autoimmune disease) and I suggested that she be re-tested. She went into her GI appt. this year fully armed with information. The dr agreed to do the tests, but didn’t really seem on board at first. The more information my mom tossed at her doctor, the more the doctor seemed to become on board. My mom also asked for the gene test to see if she had one of the genes associated with Celiac Disease. That way if the tests come back inconclusive, she will know if she could be at risk and should undergo an endoscopy. The doctor left the room to confirm the labs and to make sure they ran those tests and when she came back she was all of a sudden completely on board. My mom said she had heard her doctor speaking with another doctor in the hallway. It was suddenly as if this was all the dr’s idea and not my mom’s! LOL! Whatever it takes, I guess. It is my hope that this doctor will now use this urging by my mom in her practice to consider Celiac Disease in some of her other patients that may be suffering from similar symptoms or ailments.

I will leave you with some links to other Celiac Awareness posts that I have shared in the past:

Five Things to Know About Gluten-Free

Books on Celiac Disease/Gluten-Free Diet

Celiac Awareness in USA Today

Lessons Learned – Celiac Awareness

An article from The Washington Post about Celiac Disease Sufferers

Stay tuned for another fun giveaway starting Monday!!

It has been a while since I have had anyone write a guess post for Gluten-free is Life, so I am thrilled to have Joy’s post to share with you guys today. Enjoy!

Book Review: Flying Apron’s Gluten-Free & Vegan Baking Book

After a few years of feeling like everything I ate made me feel awful, my doctor and I finally figured out I was gluten intolerant. I’m sure you experienced the same feelings of frustration as me– not everyone has the time to completely revamp their diet right away to make it both gluten free and delicious! And, being vegetarian and lactose intolerant (ugh) I felt like I couldn’t eat anything. I started realizing what a big part of my diet bread and other wheat products had been.

Finally I got sick of making fried rice for myself every night and did my best to stop feeling sorry for myself (okay, I still feel a little sorry) and started doing research about how to really enjoy a gluten free lifestyle. I found this blog, of course, and I started buying gluten free cookbooks and experimenting with them. Let me tell you how happy I was to find Flying Apron’s Gluten-Free & Vegan Baking Book. Baked goods have always been my weak spot, and I was sick of buying $7 brownies from the specialty bakery in my town all the time. Although I love supporting them, the costs add up, and I missed the fun of baking at home.

Why makes Flying Apron so good? I’ve tried a lot of gluten free baking recipes with brown rice flour, and been sadly disappointed, ney, disgusted at the results. Simply put, Flying Apron finds a way to make brown rice and other gluten-free flour options delicious because of their combinations with rich, flavorful foods. Take their maple berry muffins for example; the raspberries and blueberries combine deliciously with maple syrup to make something rich and delectable.

And, I love the fact that the book is vegan. Even if you’re not vegan (I’m not), I really appreciate that I don’t have to worry about making dairy substitutions when using it, because of my lactose intolerance. And, with my new food allergy, I also like that they don’t use soy products, since this is a common allergen for many. Buying environmentally-friendly dairy and eggs can get really expensive, and sometimes its nice to simply to not have to worry about shelling out the bucks for those products.

Even though all the cookie, muffin, and scone recipes I tried turned out great, there were a few recipes in the book that did leave me wanting. The bread I found to be a bit of a let down. I was truly disappointed too, because I used to love making bread and was finally going to be able to eat some fresh out of the oven again. While the final product tasted good, it’s not “bread” in the sense that I was hoping; it was super crumbly and uncuttable, and there’s no way you could make a sandwich with it. Plus, I could definitely taste some chalkiness from the baking soda in the final product.

So, even though Flying Apron won’t be the answer to all your gluten-free prayers, it’s still a worthwhile buy, at least for the tasty sweets. Here’s an easy recipe from the book so that you can give it a test run. I picked it because it uses hazelnut flour, something you might never have thought to use before in your GF baking. And, the ingredient list is short, unlike many gluten free recipes. Give it a shot, they turn out great!

Hazelnut Honey Cookies

* 2 cups hazelnut flour
* 1 cup honey
* 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon dried lavender or dried rosemary
* 15 Ranier or Bing cherries (fresh or frozen), pitted

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine hazelnut flour, honey, salt, vanilla, and dried lavender in a large bowl. Mix until smooth.
Scoop the cookie dough into Ping Pong ball-sized mounds and place on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Lightly press a cherry on top of each cookie and bake until firm to the touch, about 20 minutes.

Reprinted with permission courtesy of Sasquatch Books.

Joy Paley is a guest blogger for An Apple a Day and a writer on becoming a medical assistant for Guide to Healthcare Schools.

Thanks, Joy, for taking the time to share this review with us!

No, that is not my pet name for my husband, nor is it his pet name for me. It is the name of a type of squash that I picked up the other day at the store. The sweet dumpling squash is a type of winter squash. There are many types of winter squash in the same species (Cucurbita pepo) as the sweet dumpling. Some of those other types are:

Acorn squash
Delicata squash
Dodi marrow, grown in South Asia[2]
Gem squash
Heart of gold squash
Pattypan squash
Some types of Pumpkin
Spaghetti squash
Sweet dumpling squash
Yellow crookneck squash
Yellow summer squash
Zucchini

That seems about right. I don’t think I have met a squash that I didn’t like. I love to roast squash and then bake the seeds to eat later on. Spaghetti squash makes a great substitution for pasta for those on a low carb diet. It also works great as a vegetable stir fry. Just take a look at how pretty the sweet dumpling squash is.

It was almost too pretty to roast & eat. Almost. There are many different methods to baking or roasting squash. I prefer to start by cutting off the top and scooping the seeds out. Then I slice the squash in pieces that allow it to roast quickly, as opposed to keeping it whole. By cutting it into pieces I am looking at 30 minutes or less to roast. I don’t peel my squash before I roast it. I enjoy the taste & texture of most of the skins or peels, but if they do end up being too tough, I can always remove them after roasting or baking. This method also helps me keep all of my appendages attached. 😉 If you have ever cut up a raw squash, you know what I am talking about.

After the squash is cut into pieces I toss in a little bit of extra-virgin olive oil and then season. My go-to seasoning is simply sea salt & pepper. There are so many spices that would compliment this squash. Cinnamon, nutmeg and a touch of honey or agave or spice it up with some curry or cumin & cayenne. I love to add this squash to a big bowl of garbanzo beans, brown rice or quinoa and then toss in some feta or goat cheese. Adding in even more roasted veggies is good, too.

If you really wanted to get adventurous, you could bake or roast the squash in one piece (hollowed out) and then fill with a nice, warm chili or soup. I bet this Cocoa Coconut Chili would be awesome in this! I love playing with my food. 🙂

Have you tried any new fall vegetables? I am really trying to eat in season, so I am open to hear any ideas from you guys.

First, I apologize for not getting this up Monday. Google Chrome has been acting up for me and Internet Explorer was only working when it felt like it. I have now hopefully fixed my issues. I also downloaded WordPress for Android so that I can blog from my phone, if need be. 🙂

Now, the moment you have all been waiting for……

Jill September 30th, 2010 at 11:05 am liked you on fb

Congrats Jill!!! Please contact me at kim@glutenfreeislife.com with your contact information.

Thanks to all who entered!!

Greetings blog readers! It is a super rainy Sunday here in Central Ohio. The high temperature isn’t even supposed to hit 60 degrees. I’ll take this over the sweltering heat, though. I love fall and the cool, crisp air that comes along with it. I love the colorful leaves. The day here and there of rain is worth the rest of the fall days.

Before I get to my weekly menu plan, I wanted to remind you to enter the Gluten-Free Bisquick giveaway. The giveaway ends tonight at midnight, so don’t miss your chance! This is the perfect opportunity for those of you who can’t find the new Bisquick in stores close to you.

Halloween candy has been on my mind since my vision is bombarded with it every time I walk into a grocery store. I have been a good girl, though, and haven’t purchased anything but a bag of mini Heath bars. They didn’t last long. I need to find a new hiding place for them – perhaps the safe is a good place. 😉

There are many candy lists out there for those needing to stay gluten-free. I am going to list a few below:

Post I wrote last year regarding Brach’s & some other candies.

2009 Silly Yak Candy List

My Gluten Facts 2010 Candy List

I need to get some candy corn, STAT!

This week’s menu:

Sunday – Broiled Steelhead Trout, roasted red potatoes, steamed broccoli & salad

Monday – Turkey tacos, black beans, corn & salad.

Tuesday – Grilled balsamic chicken, parmesan pea risotto, roasted carrots & salad

Wednesday-Filet mignon, baked sweet potatoes, zucchini & salad

Thursday – BBQ pulled pork sammies, baked steak fries, steamed green beans & salad

Friday -Calzones and salad

Saturday -Leftovers

Baked Goods

bread

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Weekly Recap:

Holiday Baking Company now has pumpkin products.

Anderson’s General Store in Columbus is now carrying Woodchuck Pumpkin Cider.

Pacific Natural Foods now has GF condensed soups just in time for the holidays!

Kinnikinnick launches pumpkin spice donuts!

Are you getting enough nutrients on the GF diet?

I reviewed Naked Nuggets – they are awesome chicken nuggets with no breading. So good!

Hope you all have a great week!!

I know there are a lot of you out there that have been waiting to get your hands on the brand spanking new Gluten-Free Bisquick. Well, I have some good news for you all – together with Bisquick & MyBlogSpark, I am offering up a super cool prize package that includes a box of the Gluten-Free Bisquick.

There are so many recipes on the Gluten-Free Bisquick site! Strawberry Shortcake, French Apple Pie, Pizza Crust and more. Of course you can make pancakes, too, and that is what this prize package is all about. For more information on how to use GF Bisquick, make sure to “Like” Bisquick on Facebook. Tips & tricks for cooking & baking with GF Bisquick can also be found here.

Not only can you make mini-pancakes with the cast iron pan (called a Swedish Platt Pan), but you can make your own designs with the pancake pen! The Swedish Platt Pan is used to make tasty Scandinavian Pancakes. The recipe will be included with your prize package. And I don’t know about you, but I love spatulas like this. There is a place for a wider spatula and monster pancakes or pizzas are it!

I bet you want to know what you have to do to win this package now, right? Just follow the simple steps below. Only the first comment is mandatory to enter. Each additional step you complete earns you an additional entry! Ready?

1. If you win, what would you make with the Gluten-Free Bisquick?

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

3. Tweet about this giveaway making sure to include “@kbouldin” and “#myblogspark”

4. Share on your blog or Facebook page and then post a link.

This giveaway will run through Sunday, October 3, 2010 at midnight. Good luck!!!

Click here to print a coupon for $1.00 off any Bisquick product.

**I received the prize package above courtesy of Bisquick & MyBlogSpark free of charge.

When I got my October 2010 issue of Cooking Light in the mail this month, I stopped in my tracks as I drooled over the Peanut Butter Banana Bread on the front cover. I knew right then & there that I would have to make that bread – and soon. Peanut butter & bananas are a classic combination. Elvis loved peanut butter & banana sandwiches, so I have no doubt that this bread would be a favorite of his.

One of the reasons that I love Cooking Light is that they take decadent foods and make them healthier. Some people get scared when they hear the words “healthy” and “food” together in the same sentence. Healthy food doesn’t have to be tasteless, boring food. As I often preach about the gluten-free diet – a diet is what you make it. There are so many wonderful, healthy foods out there; sometimes we just need to take our blinders off to find & experience them.

This recipe is so simple! With roughly 200 calories, 4.7g protein, 7.4g fat and almost 2g fiber per slice (16 slices per loaf), pair this with a bowl or a piece of fruit and an egg or egg white and you have a nice start to your day.

BREAD:
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana
1/3 cup plain fat-free yogurt (I used Fage 0%)
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Skippy Natural)
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
6.75 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups) (I used King Arthur’s Gluten-Free Flour)
1/4 cup ground flaxseed (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
1 tsp xanthan gum

3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
2 tablespoons chopped dry-roasted peanuts
Cooking spray

GLAZE:
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon 1% low-fat milk (I used skim, but almond milk should work just fine)
1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 5 bread pan with Pam.

2. Measure out flour (using a kitchen scale is key), flaxseed, xanthan gum, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and all spice. Combine in a bowl & set aside. Chop peanuts and set aside.

3. Mix first five ingredients together with a mixer on medium speed. Add sugars & blend well.

4. Add flour mixture and mix just until blended. Stir in peanuts.

5. Pour into pan and bake at 350 for 55 minutes or so. Toothpick should come out clean. Oven temperature is key here – if you don’t have a thermometer to monitor the temperature inside your oven, consider buying one. It will be the best $10 you ever spend. I found out that my new oven was 25 degrees off. Now I can adjust and not over or under cook anything.

6. The original directions say to cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack & then remove the bread from the pan. Being the rebel that I am (Ok, maybe I just forgot), I let my bread cool completely & then removed it from the pan. This worked just fine for me. I didn’t even need to run a knife along side of the edges.

7. Combine the powdered sugar, milk & peanut butter in a bowl with a whisk until smooth; drizzle over the bread.

8. Hide Serve bread.

This is the link to the original, non-gluten-free recipe.

This recipe completely exceeded my expectations. I love peanut butter and I love bananas, but I had no idea that this bread would leave me drooling for more. The only thing that could make this bread better? Chocolate. Either dark chocolate chips or maybe even a dark chocolate peanut butter glaze instead of just using peanut butter in the glaze. I bet that Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa would be an excellent addition to that glaze!

As I have mentioned many times in the past, it is imperative to diligently check labels on every product you buy. It doesn’t matter if you have been buying this product for the last 10 years and it has been gluten-free that whole time. The fact of the matter is that ingredients change. Manufacturer’s change suppliers or formulations to make their products better and inadvertently make a gluten-free product no longer gluten-free.

Case in point – Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix. This product has been gluten-free for at least the past 4.5+ years, but as Tiffany Janes mentions here, they have reformulated the product and it now contains barley. The barley is clearly marked on the package, so just be sure to check the label. As Tiffany mentions, there may still be old products out there that are gluten-free, just be cautious. If you are now left in a bind, check out this copycat recipe that you can make at home.

I know that I have been lax on more than one occasion when I have been in a hurry. I do always check when opening a product, but not always when I purchase it. So far I have been lucky and haven’t had to make any return trips back to the grocery store.

I think I have a problem and it has to do with pumpkin. I have had 3 pumpkin lattes from Caribou this week. I purchased and sampled Woodchuck’s new pumpkin cider. If this keeps up, I may need an intervention. I haven’t even started on the pumpkin baking yet! LOL!

I am vowing to make 80% of my menus this week. Last week I failed miserably. The week turned crazy and I got cranky. Cranky, crazy mom does not cook well. Fortunately I had some gluten-free convenience food samples that we needed to try to help me through. Watch for those reviews in the next week.

Here we go…

Sunday – Rotisserie Chicken, sugar snap peas, sweet potatoes & salad

Monday -Fish Fry, baked fries, broccoli & salad

Tuesday – Mexican night – Chicken Nachos or Mexican Pizzas, corn & salad

Wednesday – Bourbon chicken, zucchini, brown rice & salad

Thursday – Breakfast for dinner, fruit & toast

Friday – Pizza night!

Saturday – Leftovers (we will be painting several rooms, so I will be in no mood to cook)

Baked Goods

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Pumpkin something

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Week in Review:

Joan’s GF Great Bakes is running a special.

Gluten-free Fall – fun recipe!

Book review: “Mommy, What is Celiac Disease?”

There was a recall on pork sausage for undeclared wheat.

Franklin Park Conservatory is offering a gluten-free cooking class.

King Arthur Products are now in Meijer stores.

Heidi makes gluten-free mozzarella sticks!

If you happened to miss the webinar last week “The Gluten-Free Effect on Athletes”, you can now view it here.