Happy Easter!

Wow what a day! I started the morning off watching my soon to be 7 year old daughter search through the house for the basket she just "knew" the Easter Bunny left her. I giggled everytime she walked further away from it and told her "you're cold"! She didn't find that funny. When she found said basket she was delighted to find lots of non food goodies as well as a few select known to be gluten free candies. Cotton Candy for breakfast is a great thing!

Then we went to church. Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Marietta to be exact. And not really an "Easter" service. More of a "Flower Communion" followed by a memorial service for a dearly departed member of our church family.

After that it was off to a late lunch at Outback. Man I love their gluten free menu! Even though I know exactly what I'm going to order, I still request the gluten free menu every single time, just so they know I'm serious. Lunch was delicious but it left me craving bread, so now I have a loaf of Pamela's Wheat Free Bread mix going in my bread machine. It's smells fantastic and I can't wait for it to be done!

Did I mention that I love Cadbury Cream Eggs and will be sad to see them vanish off the store shelves for another year?

April Fools!

Today is April Fools Day... and I'm feeling a bit foolish. I need to rest and take some time off because I've been working like a dog and the pollen count is in the thousands and I'm up all night coughing. Why do I feel foolish? Because I scheduled a massage client this morning. I don't mind, I really don't, but I should have said I'm sick and left it at that.

My hubby said I need to take the rest of the day and rest, but I need to bake. I'm craving some good gluten free bread (Pamela's Wheat Free Bread Mix does the trick for me), and I need to think about meals for the week. When I'm busy and don't have time to cook I rely on the meals I've made ahead of time. The drop in freezer is my friend!

Where do I start?

I have just hit the four year anniversary of being diagnosed with Celiac Disease and being on the gluten free diet. What have I learned in these past four years? An awful lot! I've learned to focus on what foods I can eat, not on what I can't. I've learned that I love public speaking and helping people! That most people are willing to help me and my daughter navigate a world filled with gluten.

I hope to be able to keep up with this blog and make it interesting to readers. I love to write, I am not a professional writer by any stretch of the imagination though, so forgive any grammatical errors and errors in spelling!

My daughter is also gluten free, while I feel badly for her that she can't always eat what her friends are eating, I'm so glad that by figuring this out early on she won't have the same health issues I've had.

Chey will be 7 in just 2 weeks and I'm already worrying that her classmates won't want to eat her gluten free cupcakes. It hasn't happened before, but I've heard as kids get older, they can be cruel.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I've been doing Gluten Free Food Demos at several local health food stores on behalf of the chiropractor I work with, Dr. Joe Esposito (www.drjoeesposito.com), and I'm really enjoying being able to share my love of cooking great tasting food with others.