Just saw this come across in an email – an updated list from Melanie at Silly Yaks.  Some of the information may be outdated, but Melanie noted that she kept the information there for everyone to make the decision themselves.

I will be back later on with my menu plan and a review on some great new natural & organic candy that I just tried.

Last week I had the pleasure of reviewing a brand new gluten-free product, Custom Choice Cereal.  Custom Choice Cereal is a gluten-free cereal mix that you create that is then mixed in a dedicated facility to avoid cross-contamination.  Does it get any better than that? 

I was able to select my cereal mix from a nice variety of choices.  First, you select a base from 3 different choices.  After selecting a base, you add your favorite dried fruits.  Then you can add nuts or seeds and finally, you can name your mix.  The whole process from start to finish could not be easier. 

I selected Good Morning Flakes as my base.  Good Morning Flakes are made up of Organic corn flakes enriched with flax, buckwheat, quinoa & amaranth.  I chose apricots & cranberries for my dried fruit & almond & coconut for my nuts and/or seeds. 

You can click this picture to enlarge it.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how much dried fruit & nuts my mix contained.  What a great combination of flavors.  I love to mix things into my cereal and rarely just eat 1 cereal plain, so this is right up my alley.  Another wonderful gluten-free option out on the market.  Prices vary based on the mix you create. 

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Check out my latest Examiner articles.  Roasted Fall Vegetables and Gluten-Free Dining at P.F. Chang’s. 

Hope you all have a great Saturday!  Go BUCKEYES!

You will all have to excuse my lack of blogging and/or recipes this week.  I have been struggling to keep up with day to day life with this virus.  While I hesitate to say it, I think that now, after 7 days, I have finally turned the corner & my chest no longer feels as if someone is sitting on it.  I hope I don’t jinx myself. 

Last Friday I had the wonderful opportunity to meet up with an amazing woman, Heidi, from Adventures of a Gluten-free Mom.  Heidi lives in New Mexico, but grew up here in Ohio!  When Heidi contacted me to see if I wanted to meet for lunch when she was in town, I was so excited!  We met at Cheeseburger in Paradise for an awesome gluten-free lunch.  Being the chatty bloggers that we are, we managed to have Jon take a picture of us, but we forgot to take pictures of our food?!?!  What is up with that?  LOL!  The kids had school off that day, so they joined us for lunch.  Heidi was able to pick Jon’s brain a bit, but being the extremely cooperative 13 year old boy that he is, he probably wasn’t as forthcoming as Heidi would have liked.  The kids were well behaved for the time that we were there.  🙂  Jon ordered the gluten-free cheeseburger & fries and a salad on the side.  He wasn’t happy with the way his burger was cooked, but that was because I won’t let him order it medium-rare.  Geez, Mom, lighten up already! 😉  I ordered the Turkey Burger with mushrooms, Swiss & avocado on top with a side of fries and a salad.  That was the first time I had fries in close to a year!  Carb loading & fries go hand-in-hand.  Heidi had the Cheeseburger in Paradise (I think) and fries.  She was very pleased to see fries on the gluten-free menu.  Want to see a picture of us?

Heidi, it was so great to meet you!  Thank you so much for the bottle of wine & green salsa.  One of these days I will be able to drink that wine.  Must stop taking cold medicine first. 😉  Please let me know the next time you will be in town.  Maybe I can make you dinner! 🙂 

I don’t know what we got hit with in this house, but if it wasn’t the H1N1 flu, I have no desire to see what it is like.  We have gone through more medication in this house in the past week, it isn’t even funny.  On Monday I started to keep a log of all the medications that myself, Jon & Hannah were taking.  I couldn’t keep track.  I now have 4-5 pages full – not kidding.  Good news is that the kids only missed 2 days of school (so far).  Jon’s cough is gone (interesting considering he is the one with asthma).  Hannah and I both still have a nasty cough, though I think she is feeling better overall than I am.  I may have set myself back running a half marathon last week, but you know, you gotta do what you gotta do.  I think that I am on the mend now, but it is slow going. 

So the first obstacle that I came to was – what is gluten-free that will help this nasty virus?   I consulted my handy list and found I could take Mucinex & I know Delsym is gluten-free as I have called them to verify it.  Sudafed PE (and it’s Walmart generic are gluten-free).  Hall’s cough drops are also gluten-free.  I chose the Hall’s Natural Cough Drops (Honey Lemon Chamomile) as they have the least number of ingredients & no artificial sweeteners. 

The most important thing, even above & beyond the gluten factor is to make sure that you are not overdosing by taking 2 different medicines that contain the same medication.  If you are unsure, always ask a pharmacist.  Some of the multi-symptom medications on the market not only contain a decongestant & cough suppressant, but a pain killer, too.  Also,  check to make sure that any other medications that you take on a day-to-day basis are compatible with the cold/cough medications.  I found out that one of my medications can have possible interactions with Delsym (dextromethorphan).  Good thing I asked. 

Hope you all stay healthy!  Wash those hands! 

Jon has really taken to baking & cooking over the past year.  Last week when I was not feeling well, he asked if he could bake a cake.  Of course I told him to go ahead.  He used Betty Crocker’s Devils Food Cake Mix and followed all of the instructions.  Once the cake was baked & had cooled, he wanted to decorate it.  Here are some pictures of his awesome creation.

Jon added powdered sugar, Special Dark chocolate chips & Brach’s Candy Corn to the top.  Can you see the smiley face?  Not only does the cake look cool – it was amazing!

Sorry for the delay in choosing a winner for this contest.  Both kids are home sick today and were yesterday, too!  Tis the season!

The winner is:

Doreen, on October 18th, 2009 at 10:05 pm Said:

The Pumpkin Ginger bars would be yummy!

Doreen – please contact me with your mailing information as soon as you can!  kbouldin@insight.rr.com

Congrats!

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Make sure to check out this article on the Examiner about a great gluten-free sales event at Meijer grocery stores. 

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If you love  pumpkin like I do, make sure to check out these amazing recipes using pumpkin!  They aren’t all gluten-free, but can be modified easily. 

I unfortunately came down with a cold/cough on Friday night.  I was bound & determined to run.  I was healthy for the past 8 months – what kind of cruel joke is this to get sick the few days before??  I made a deal with myself that as long as I was fever free and not fatigued, I would run.  I happily woke up (cough & all) on Sunday Am raring to go.  I didn’t feel bad – it was one of those things where I sounded much worse than I felt.  It was 32 degrees out..BRRR!!  I bundled up (well, in runner’s terms) and my Dad came to pick Jon & I up.  What an amazing experience this was for me.  I am so glad that I was able to run.  I started off well and felt great until about mile 8.  Then, I had taken a Clif Shot and because it was so cold out, it didn’t go down well and seemed to make all the crud in my throat just congeal.  It felt like I had to cough and something was stuck, but nothing budged.  I worked through it and kept reminding myself that this was all temporary and that there were others that have gone through (and are going through) much worse.  I had made a list before my race of people that I was dedicating my miles to and thinking of those people while I was struggling during mile 8 and then again during those last couple miles, kept me going.  I also saw this quote on the back of a guy in front of me from the Marines “Pain is weakness leaving the body”.  That was a bit of motivation, too.  The “official” stats are below:

bib number: 10572
age: 36
gender: F
location: Lewis Center, OH
overall place: 2585 out of 6858
division place: 180 out of 695
gender place: 1081 out of 4070
time: 2:01:22
pace: 9:16
10k: 57:08

My goal had been to finish under 2 hours, but considering I was sick & had to stop to tie my stupid shoe, I’ll take this and feel great about it.  I can’t wait to train for & run a full marathon in May 2010.  🙂 

Here is a pic my Mom took (a little blurry).  I am in the red w/black pants:

And here….there I go…

After the race with my medal & shirt.  Like the hair?  LOL!

Should get the race picture sometime this week. 

Oh, I did want to mention that after the finish, I was walking through the lines to get some fuel.  I was very discouraged to see that there was mainly doughnuts (gluten) and bagels (more gluten).  I did spot some bananas….not even close to ripe & too cold and then the only other thing I could eat, Conn’s Potato Chips.  Thank God they were gluten-free.  I scarfed them down like I hadn’t eaten for weeks!  LOL!  I know those other items were quick carbs/sugar, and I should be thankful there was something I could eat.  Plus, during the race they gave out gatorade (GF) and Clif Shots (also GF). 

Hi guys!  Tis the beginning of a new week.  The kids are both sick 🙁  Not sure what they have yet, but Hannah is seeing the dr today to rule out a kidney infection.  While she is there, the dr will test her for H1N1.  If she has it, then Jon does too.  Does the madness ever stop?

On a positive note, I ran my half marathon yesterday!  You can read about it here.

This week Wendy of Celiacs in the House is hosting the gluten-free menu swap.  Her ingredient choice this week is squash.  Another favorite of mine.  I will have plenty of squash this week.  I love kabocha, butternut, acorn, spaghetti….you name it!  I don’t think that I have met a squash that I didn’t like!  Thanks for hosting, Wendy!

Sunday – Rotisserie chix, pasta, green beans & salad

Monday- Bostons Gourmet Pizza (rewarding the half marathon!)

Tuesday- Burgers, butternut squash fries, broccoli & salad

Wednesday – Roasted Kabocha, coconut brown rice & chickpeas, asparagus & salad

Thursday -Salmon, roasted sweet potatoes & beets, mixed veggies & salad

Friday – Leftovers

Saturday- Breakfast for dinner

Baking

Pumpkin goodies

Bread and cinnamon raisin bread

Also, don’t forget to check out Orgjunkie for lots more menu ideas.

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I will be posting the winner of the My Blog Spark Tablespoon giveaway later today! 🙂

First things first.  The winner of the Febreeze/My Blog Spark giveaway never responded, so, onto a new winner!  And, the new winner is:

VeggieGirl, on October 5th, 2009 at 8:20 am Said: Edit Comment

I would use it to make my home smell like tantalizing fruit scents

Please contact me at kbouldin@insight.rr.com so I can send your gift card out!

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Now, onto a fun, new contest!  A few weeks back, MyBlogSpark contacted me and told me about a new website from General Mills, where you can find, save & share new recipes.  We all know how much I love General Mills.  General Mills is the maker of the Chex cereals, which now have 6 gluten-free varieties!

Some more information about Tablespoon:

When you visit Tablespoon.com, you can:

• View more than 25,000 of the best recipes on the web
• Share recipes easily on places like Facebook and Twitter

When you join Tablespoon.com, you can:

• Add your own recipe creations
• Create your own version of existing recipes that suit your taste.
• Save up to $80 every month with printable coupons from brands you love Rate, comment, and save the recipes you try

Bonus! And if that wasn’t enough, if you add your recipes to Tablespoon, your recipe and profile could be featured in a Tablespoon newsletter, which is sent to thousands of subscribers! The Tablespoon team will select some of the highest rated member submitted recipes to be featured in the weekly newsletter. If your recipe is highly rated, it could even be the main feature!

The Tablespoon site is not a gluten-free recipe site, but recipes can easily be modified.

Now, the fun stuff.  MyBlogSpark sent me a really cool prize package.  The “Pass the Inspiration” prize pack included a couple of nice pot holders, a stainless steel liquid measuring cup & a set of stainless steel measuring spoons.  One lucky reader will win a “Pass the Inspiration” prize package!  All you have to do is:

1.  Visit Tablespoon and leave a comment letting me know which recipe you would like to try.

2.  Subscribe to my blog.

Good luck!!!  This giveaway will run until midnight on Sunday, October 18, 2009.  I will choose a winner on Monday.

I was looking around the net for gluten-free candy info this morning and while there hasn’t been any update to the Silly Yaks list, I did find another list that may be helpful.  You can find that list here. 

I hope this is helpful and I will post updates as I get them.  Another option is to subscribe to Zeer.com and then you can check the status.  I did a mini-review of Zeer here.  Basic is free and the select has been lowered to $4.95/month!  A great resource, especially if you or a family member is newly diagnosed or gluten-free.