Life, Gluten Free

Happy New Year 2012!

A couple of years ago on New Years, I received an email from a local toy shoppe wishing their customers a Happy New Year. What was in the email was such a sweet sentiment that I have not forgotten it. I thought I would share it with all of you:

Believe that a better world for our children begins with us and align your thoughts, feelings and actions toward that goal.

Believe in your dreams.

Believe in today.

Believe that you are loved.

Believe that you make a difference.

Believe we can build a better world.

Believe when others might not.

Believe there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Believe that you might be that light for someone else.

Believe in yourself. Believe in each other.

Believe that the best is yet to be.

Our version of New Years is calm and quiet, reflecting on the past year and dreaming for the next.

I will never forget the New Years Eve when I was pregnant with Sophie. My husband and I both looked at each other and exchanged looks that said "there's no way we're staying up until midnight." I was very pregnant at the time, and he was very overworked at the job he had at the time. Needless to say we did not stay up until 12am. But as luck has it, my husband and I both woke up within a few minutes of 12am. We kissed and promptly went back to sleep.

We make sure we eat food that's lucky (grapes, cakes or anything round, greens such as collards and kale, black-eyed peas) just for the fun for it. I am a firm believer that your thoughts create your world. So, my New Years resolution is simple.

Love more, smile more, laugh more, cherish more, hike more, take deep breaths, be thankful everyday and worry not about the little things.

One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this:  To rise above the little things. ~John Burroughs

Here's to you! Happy New Year! May you be blessed in the New Year with lots of love, good times, family, friends and moments to treasure.

Christmas Snapshots

We had a nice Christmas at home with lots of fun and laughter. The days after Christmas may be the best, because that's when you get to enjoy all that you received. Sophie got a set of watercolor crayons and has been using some blank watercolor postcards to make thank you cards for family that sent her gifts :)

One of her favorite gifts that she got from Santa (aka mommy and daddy!) was a mermaid costume from Sarah's Silks. This company is great, they make non-toxic hypoallergenic dress-up and play items for kids.

Sophie also really loved the homemade felt tea bags + cookies that I made her!

This year, we made a lot of homemade wrapping paper which was so much fun to do. One of our favorites was using cookie cutters dipped in paint!

On Pinterest, I saw ideas for using doilies for decoration when wrapping gifts and had to try that out too:

I hope you had a lovely Christmas, and that you have a wonderful New Year :)

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

I'm signing off to finish getting ready for Santa and his reindeer. There's gluten-free cookies to be made. This is serious busines you know. Don't forget to leave carrots for the reindeer.

Need last minute holiday recipes? here's some. Take your pick!

Gluten-free Banana Bake

A reader made this and said:

"I made your recipe this evening and it was heavenly.  I made mine with apple bananas orange juice lemon rind gluten free granola as a topping and in the center of the dish I made a well and put in one cup of gluten free peach yogurt. It was so good it tasted like a apple banana custard pie."

Doesn't that sound good? Thanks again for your email Ellen! I appreciate it very much. :)

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Pumpkin Cookies

Apricot Fig Bars

Baked Sausage and Brown Rice (we don't eat grains anymore, but it's a great recipe if you can tolerate grains)

Tomato Sauce with Balsamic Vinegar

Last minute gifts or something to keep the kids busy?

Easy pom-pom garland for kids to make

DIY felt tea bags and cookies

and from Tinker Lab comes something so sweet and fun, DIY kits that kids can put together for their friends. We are thinking about making one of the "Make an Ornament Kit," it's honestly just to awesome to pass up. Great ideas from Rachelle at Tinker Lab.

And in other news, the calendar said yesterday was the official first day of winter and mother nature said "you're darn right it is" and left us with this:

Sorry Santa, hope you don't slip on our roof. By the way, we don't have a chimney.

Thanks for reading my blog! You are cherished. Have a wonderful Christmas!

Gluten-free Banana Bake

This banana bake is one of my favorite desserts. I cannot even remember exactly how it came to be. I think it was one of those light-bulb moments. I like bananas, I like coconut oil.. so why not put them together and bake? Seemed like a rational thing to do. Since then, I've come up with so many awesome variations of this recipe. It is really limitless and it works great for parties and even charity fundraisers.

Ingredients:

5 bananas, peeled and sliced into rounds

1 cup raisins

2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

Juice of 1 mandarin orange (or valencia orange works fine too)

1/3 cup melted coconut oil (don't fill to the top)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350.

Slice banana into rounds.

Mix in a bowl with raisins and the citrus juice.

Add coconut oil, mix well again and add to an oven-safe baking dish.

Bake at 350 Degrees for about 30 minutes.

I've done many variations of this dish. Here a few. You just follow the basic recipe but change it up a bit. You can get creative!

- Peach, mango and banana

- Banana with raisins and fig sauce

- Banana with raisins and cinnamon

- Banana with chocolate (I made this for a charity fundraisier and got many requests for the recipe. Follow the same recipe above, but don't add the lemon. Just add fresh squeezed orange juice. Bake until almost done, then top with chocolate chips and put back in the oven again just for a few minutes so the chocolate melts).

Give just $2 to sponsor a summer camp for gluten-free kids

Like I said in my last post, it's easy to give back this holiday season.

And today, I can tell you how to donate just $2 to sponsor a scholarship to a Gluten-free Summer Camp for kids with celiac disease or gluten intolerance.

This week through Sunday, December 25, Gluten-Free Saver has partnered with Van’s Natural Foods to raise money to send children to a summer camp in 2012 sponsored by Celiac Disease Foundation.

And as luck has it, donating $2 doesn’t mean you’re just donating $2… because Van’s is matching all donations up to $1,000!

The goal is to raise $2,000 – and when you donate $2, you’re really contributing $4.

The summer camp will be held in San Bernardino in Southern California from July 30 to August 3, 2012, and it’s open to all 7-15 year old gluten intolerant and gluten-sensitive children – not just those diagnosed with celiac disease.
 
And if you were curious, 100% of all the proceeds goes directly to the Celiac Disease Foundation.

Get your giving groove on and hop over to donate $2 or more. Everyone can spare just $2 dollars, right?

Giving Back This Holiday Season

 

My husband and I knew we wanted to start holiday giving traditions to teach our daughter the joy of giving to others, but luck has it she is apparently a natural philanthropist. She believes that every single person she knows should get a gift this Christmas. That includes our mail carrier (whom we actually are giving a Christmas card and homemade ornament to).

Sophie bought small gifts for two of her neighbor-friends, and she saved up a spot in her money bank to buy a book for a young girl through the I Have A Dream Foundation sponsored by Barnes and Noble.

She also helped me make some homemade gifts for family and friends that we know they will love and cherish!

Last year, we cooked a Christmas Eve meal for a family that we know who has a young child with an illness. She is in and out of the hospital a lot. In fact, this time last year she was in the hospital around Christmas and we just found out she is again this year. My husband and I decided to offer to cook them dinner again for Christmas Eve and they thankfully accepted.

We cook them a nice meal, and my husband delivers it to them around their dinner time along with a few gifts for their kids.

They appreciate it so much, and we feel so very good to do be able to help them out. Since Sophie has severe allergies and has had some hospitalizations, we know what it's like when your kid is sick. It's hard. Big time hard.

Doing things like this is easy to do, and it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. The book Sophie bought at Barnes and Noble was just $6, and it undoubtedly will make some little girl very happy this Christmas.

We also donated to our community food share program to sponsor meals for the homeless, and gave to a local canned food drive.

All in all, these efforts seem small but I know every little bit helps. We like to give back as much as we can, because we have a lot be to thankful for. Helping others is something that we all should do, no matter what. We can all give something, and I am a firm believer that every.little.bit.helps.

Does your family have any giving traditions? What are your favorite organizations to support?

If you haven't donated to an organization yet but want to, stay tuned for my next post where I am partnering with Gluten Free Saver to show you how you can can help donate just $2 to sponsor a gluten-free camp next Summer for kids with Celiac Disease.

Easy pompom garland for kids to make

This pompom garland is really easy for kids to help make!

It has become our tradition to decorate a mini rosemary tree for Christmas. And since we love DIY Christmas decorations, I put my crafty think cap on and thought of: pompoms!

Later I realized, what a great idea this was because we don't eat grains. Since we can't string popcorn, we can string pompoms :)

The best part for me was how happy this made Sophie. She was able to do this all by herself. I wish I had recorded her excitement so I could play it back to you! Here are some exerpts:

"I can do this all by myself! I love this!"

"Wait until Daddy sees!!"

*Please note it is important to supervise children during this craft. I gave Sophie a "blunt" needle to use. It was only very slightly pointy at the tip, and she was very careful. I showed her how to thread it through the middle of the pompoms for best results. She remained sitting during this activity (never let kids roam around with a needle!). See our how-to below.

How we did it:

We used pompoms of a variety of size and color.

I threaded a needle with regular sewing floss and tied a large knot at the end so the pompoms will not slip off.

Sophie pushed the needle through the center of each pompom (we used jingle bells too).

Once done, we trimmed the string and then I tied another large knot to secure.

If you make one, let us know! :)

How to Help People Understand Food Allergies

My daughter has severe food allergies and celiac disease.

I also have food allergies and celiac disease.

My husband has food allergies.

A good friend of mine has food allergies.

Her daughter does too.

Many more of our friends have food allergies, celiac disease, or gluten intolerance.

- More than 12 million Americans in the U.S. have food allergies.

- There is no cure for food allergies. Strict avoidance of food allergens and early recognition and management of allergic reactions to food are important measures to prevent serious health consequences.

But although both food allergies and celiac disease are on the rise, the awareness around each of them in the general population is still quite poor.

Sometimes you feel like you are talking to a brick wall because no one seems to understand.

Sound familiar?

How to help others understand your dietary needs

Step 1) Live your life the way you need to.

Step 2) Openly talk about your food allergies to help spread awareness.

Step 3) Be open to questions from friends and family to help them understand better.

Step 4) Provide concise, factual information for those who seem to respond well to that type of explanation.

And eventually, your friends and family will start to understand better.

The number one choice that helped us the most was to live our life the way we need to.

We take the precautions necessary to keep our daughter safe (making it clear to guests that our house is a gluten-free and nut-free zone, wiping down picnic tables at parks before eating on them, politely refusing food that isn't safe for us, etc). Even if others don't understand.

and we kindly remind people:

This is our life. We live it every day. It's not odd to us, it's our version of normal.

Do you have any tips? share them in the comments section!

 

DIY Felt Tea Bags & Cookies - Homemade Gifts for Kids!

My daughter loves to play with her kitchen, and she especially loves playing tea party. I recently spotted some wooden tea bags for kids, but they were pretty pricey for just 4 tea bags. They also smelled funny (polyurathane finish). So I thought, why can't I make some? with felt?

I drew a pattern for the tea bag onto paper, cut it out and traced it onto cream colored felt.

When I was finished, I had made 6 tea bags and it was super easy (and very affordable!).

I decided to make some cookies too. I simply cut those free hand, but you could make a circle pattern if you wish.

I love the handmade look and I think handstitching adds personality and shows each one was made individually by hand - with love! ♥

I think we will be served many cups of tea, with cookies, in the near future.

And I will savor each taste :)

The tea bags and cookies are stuffed with a bamboo blend batting. It's very soft, and more ecofriendly and healthy for kids.

 

I am so excited and I can't wait to give them to her for Christmas. I think she will be so thrilled!

5 Fun & Educational Gifts for Kids

Still doing your christmas shopping and need a gift for a kiddo in your life? Look no further.

I visited The Stubby Pencil Studio and put together 5 great gifts that are fun, educational, non-toxic and inspire creativity. Gifts that you can feel good about giving!

Here is a sample of what you will find there:

Do-It-Yourself Kaleidoscope Kit - ages 3+

Tea Party Puzzle - made from 90% reycled paper, ages 2+

Creative Scissor Pack - Ages 3+

Glob Natural Blends Paint - biodegradable botanical ingredients, ages 3+

Finger Printing Art Kit - ages 3+

Honestly, it was hard picking just five items! I could go on and on.

Okay just one more. Real quick. #6 Jumbo Felt Pens. I may have to break down and get these soon! What a fun stocking stuffer.

Visit The Stubby Pencil Studio and check it out for yourself, while you are there be sure to check their bonus + specials.

You will be pleased, I guarantee it!

*PLEASE NOTE*: I was not asked to blog about The Stubby Pencil Studio. I have ordered from there in the past, I love the product selection they offer and I want to support them by spreading the word. This post was my idea, and it was not sponsored in anyway.