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. 

Gluten-free instant oatmeal is fairly new to the market.  Glutenfreeda has been making one for the last year or 2, which is the only other one I have tried.  It is so nice to have these on hand for traveling or busy mornings.   I was pleasantly surprised to hear that there was another – Simpli Instant Apricot Oatmeal – that was gluten-free.  I was immediately intrigued, as apricots are one of my all time favs!   

The best thing about this oatmeal is that it contains only 4 ingredients – oats, apricots, sugar & salt.  That is it.  No preservatives or unwanted/unneeded junk.  To make the oatmeal, just add 2/3 cups of boiling water to the oats, stir and let sit for 1 minute.  I chopped up some dried apricots to sprinkle over the top.  I loved this oatmeal!!!  It was creamy and wasn’t too sweet at all.  It kept me full all morning until lunch time.  The nutritional stats are decent: 170 calories, 2.5g fat, 4g fiber and 5g protein.  If you wanted to bulk this breakfast up, top the oatmeal with some nut butter or Greek yogurt. 

More about Simpli Gluten-Free:

RIGOROUS QUALITY MANAGEMENT FROM SEED TO STORE

At Simpli, we take extra care to make sure our oats are certified gluten free and never contaminated by contact with other grains. Our oats are sustainably grown and harvested in fields dedicated to oats, processed and packaged in facilities used exclusively for oats. This rigorous quality control allows us to deliver the highest quality gluten-free oat products.

There are some gluten-free recipes on the Simpli recipe page that caught my eye, the pancakes in particular.  Simpli Instant Apricot Oatmeal can be purchased straight from their website. 

The wonderful folks at Simpli have offered to give 5 of my readers each a box of Simpli Instant Apricot Oatmeal!  The giveaway will run from Monday January 3, 2011 through Friday January 7, 2011 at midnight.  To enter to win, please complete the following.  Leave a comment for each task completed.   Each comment will earn you one entry.  One prize person. 

1.  Visit the Simpli website and tell me which gluten-free recipe you would most like to try. 

2.  “Like” Simpli on Facebook. 

3.  “Like” Gluten-free is Life on Facebook.

4.  Follow me on Twitter.

This giveaway is open to US residents only. 

**Full disclosure: The samples & prizes are offered free of charge by Simpli.  The opinions expressed in this post are mine and have not been influenced by anyone or anything.

Normal.  That is what we are looking for here.  Yes, the holidays were great, but I am ready for some good, old-fashioned routines around here.  I don’t deal well with change.  My body is all screwed up sleep-wise and my typical routine should help correct that. 

I found out last week from my doctor’s office that I am still anemic despite my eating as much iron-rich food as I could over the past 2 months.   My hemoglobin went from 11 to 11.3.  I have now purchased some iron supplements – Ferro-Sequels (they are even labeled “gluten-free”) and began taking them a few days ago.  With marathon training just starting, I can’t depend just on food to get my levels back up.  Oh, and I just found a coupon on their website for $2.00 off my next purchase! 

I am not ashamed to admit that my menu plan was kicked to the curb last week.  We had Mellow Mushroom at least once and may have had Pei Wei in there, too.  Another reason I can’t wait to get back in the swing of things. 

I finally took all of my decorations down today.  The only things left are the outside lights.  I should have taken them down when it was 55 degrees on Friday, but I didn’t even think about it.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they were up until Spring.  I guess as long as they aren’t on, right?  They are in my lilac tree and bushes, so they aren’t really visible to the neighbors. 

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Sunday – Salmon & shrimp, baked potatoes/brown rice, steamed broccoli & carrots & salad

Monday – Grilled Italian chicken breast, baked sweet potatoes, zucchini and salad

Tuesday – Tacos, refried beans, corn & salad

Wednesday – Spaghetti & meatballs, green beans & salad

Thursday- BBQ pulled pork, cheesy potatoes, broccoli & salad

Friday – Mellow Mushroom GF pizza

Saturday – Breakfast for dinner (waffles or omelettes)

Baked Goods

Rice Krispy Treats for Jon

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I still need to hear from Jenna and Jennifer, 2 of the 3 winners of the thinkThin giveaway.  Please email me at kim@glutenfreeislife.com with your information. 

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Stop back by tomorrow for a brand new giveaway that will have 5 winners!

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Week in Review – Mini-edition

Check out my friend Erin’s top 10 GF posts

Stop by to wish Shirley of Gluten-Free Easily a Happy 2 Year Blogiversary! 

LaraBar introduces a new flavor…can you guess what it is? 

Recall of fresh greens – Little Bear Produce

Top 10 gluten-free specialty foods found in Columbus

Mrs. Richardson’s dessert toppings are gluten-free

Did you stay up to see the new year in?  I didn’t.  I gave it a good faith effort, but was sound asleep before 11:30.  Hannah and I did get in a few rounds of dancing on Just Dance 2.  What a fun game!  I am not really making any resolutions this year, but do have a couple of goals that I am working towards.  

1.  Take better care of my skin.  I have a bad habit of going to bed with my make up on and don’t use the best products for my skin type.  I have a friend that works for Clinique who has spent some time showing me what I should be doing.  The best part about Clinique is that my friend has taken the time to compile a list of their products that are gluten-free.  Additionally, if there is a product that isn’t on the list, she can easily call and get the information for me.  I have been using my new regimen for a little over a week now and my skin feels so much better! 

2.  Run The Flying Pig Marathon uninjured.  I have signed up for a local training program to help me reach my goal.  I am working towards following this plan and not getting any crazy ideas about doing more or running shorter runs faster just because I feel that I can at that point in time (a habit that clearly got my in trouble last year). 

***Image courtesy of The Flying Pig Marathon

Do you make resolutions?  If so, what are they for this year?

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Thanks to all who entered my thinkThin giveaway!!  Now the news you have all been waiting for….the winners!!

Jenna Drew

December 27th, 2010 at 11:43 am

Hi Kim! It’s like you read my mind! I had just found the thinkThin bars yesterday on Twitter after searching for a gluten free protein bar for my fiance! We’re getting married in June 2011. Neither one of us will be ‘thinkingThin’ weight-wise this year, but we’ll be thinking Thin financially until the wedding! I’m following both you and thinkThin (@GFJenna), and I just liked both pages! I’d love to share these bars with my hunny!

cindy

December 27th, 2010 at 4:53 pm

I am going to track my calories for a while to see why I am gaining weight after healing and beginning to absorb again.

Jennifer M

December 28th, 2010 at 9:47 am

ThinkThin twitter follower as jennem1.

Congrats Jenna, Cindy & Jennifer!!  Please email me your contact information ASAP – kim@glutenfreeislife.com

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Now I am off to get my 7 mile run in (55 degrees and rainy on January 1st in Ohio is odd) and make my black eyed peas.  Have a wonderful day!