Celiac Support Network

Forest Hills Foods will be holding another Gluten-Free tasting day on Monday, March 10 from 12:00-7:00 pm. Enjoy!

Handy little list of Meijer brand products that are gluten-free!  Nice job, Meijer!

What a great meeting we had tonight! Our monthly meetings have become a real bright spot in my life…thanks for being a part of that!  Special thanks to our guests, Erin from Coco Charlotte Gluten-free Gourmet Bakery and Paul Swanson from Full Flavor Foods. The samples they brought were nothing short of amazing!

We had several new people attending for the first time at this meeting and a really nice attendance, considering some messy roads.  I’m so glad that you all ventured out for the meeting!

New samples for this meeting from Pamela’s (cookies, chip clips, hats & t-shirts), Glutino (pretzels), and some other fun stuff. The vendors have been very generous in sharing samples with us. It’s so nice to be able to try new products without spending a lot of money, only to find out we may not like the items.

Join us on Saturday, February 16 from 10 am - 3 pm for our 1st Gluten-Free Fair at the Hudsonville Harvest Health Location.  We will sample a wide variety of Gluten-Free products, vendors will be on hand to talk about their products and we will feature Special One Day Pricing on certain Gluten-Free Products!  Customer drawings for baskets of G/F products. Bring your favorite - tried and true - Gluten-Free recipe to share or email it to Info@HarvestHealthFoods.com.

Hey, we tried the Spinach Parmesan Risotto and used the Lundberg Wild Rice in place of barley in a homemade soup this last week and the entire family loved them both!

I did find a new chocolate cake mix at Meijer this last week as well. It is put out by Bob’s Red Mill and I will let you know how it bakes up because if it is good, which I have every confidence that it will be, it is about HALF the cost of the chocolate cake I’ve used the last 4 or 5 years. I’m anxious to try it just to save the money. Eating gluten free feels a lot better to the gut but not necessarily to the pocketbook as we all know.

I did notice, but didn’t take the opportunity to read yet(sigh), the article in RD that mentions Celiac Disease as a reason for stomach troubles. It is great to see CD coming more and more to the forefront of the minds of those who can help and being suggested as a possible resolution once identified.

Thanks again, Kim, for all of the great samples you handed out. I have seen several of the products on the shelves since we picked those up and it is great to now know for sure that some items that aren’t shelved specifically in the GF section are indeed gluten free!

I’m looking forwad to the next meeting on the 17th and hoping to see everyone out for the guest speaker and getting ready for the Christmas rush. See you all there!

I’ve been sampling some of the Full Flavor Foods mixes, and I have to say that I have been very impressed. The brown and turkey gravies were both very good and the only real difference that I noticed was that they formed a skin on top as they cooled down (faster than non-gluten versions). Once you stirred it again, that disappeared and it was fine again.

The other “experiment” that I tried turned out really well. I used a packet of the cream soup and a packet of the cheese sauce together. Here’s the recipe:

Chicken Spaghetti Pie

• Cut up cooked chicken breasts into small cubes
• Cook Tinkyada rice penne, per directions, and drain
• Prepare FFF Cheese Sauce and Cream Soup mixes together, as directed

Mix penne, sauce mixes, and chicken together. Add shredded cheese (I used sharp cheddar and mozzarella) and stir. Put in baking dish/pan and cover top with more cheese. Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is thoroughly melted (we even like ours a little browned on top), approximately 20-30 minutes. Allow to cool 5-10 minutes before serving.

I think this has been the biggest GF hit that I’ve made yet. My husband and teenage boys are anxious to have me make this again!

There are more tips and ideas for FFF mixes on their website.  You can purchase these mixes at Otto’s Turkey Store and they are coming soon to Meijer!  We are anxious to have Paul Swanson (owner of FFF) with us in January!

We had a really great meeting last night.  We had 18 people, only 3 of which had been to a previous meeting, so that was really great!  Many of the people who attended our meeting found out about it through an article in the local newspapers.  Unfortunately, our special guest had an emergency and wasn’t able to join us.

 We sampled some Miss Roben’s Soft Pretzels that the Allergy Grocer was so nice to supply for us.  Susan, who was not able to attend the meeting, was nice enough to prepare these for the group. [Thanks, Susan!]  Some preparation notes that she sent along:

These were prepared with yeast, olive oil, and vinegar.  I used warm water.

• Way too thick & sticky for a hand mixer.  Use a heavy duty stand mixer.
• Takes 15 min. (at least ) to brown on bottom before you turn them.
• Pretty much have to make “sticks” because dough is very difficult to work with.  I attempted a “pretzel shape” & it did not work.
• I baked these on a silicon baking sheet instead of greasing a pan–this may have affected browning.

We were also treated to some donut holes from Celiac Specialties in Chesterfield Township, near Detroit.  These were pretty much amazing!  They sent us glazed and cinnamon sugar.  They were a cake-like donut, not fluffy, like a Krispy Kreme style. 

 Allison was also nice enought to make us some really, really good peanut-butter, chocolate chip cookies from a recipe found on the All Recipes website.  [Thanks, Allison!]  For convenience, I will reprint the recipe here, but be sure to visit the site for a LOT of really great recipes!

Gluten-free Peanut Butter Cookies

Submitted by: Jackie Rated: 5 out of 5 by 29 members

Yields: 15 servings

“This recipe is gluten-free and delicious! Pecans are great in these, but feel free to use peanuts or any other nut you choose.”

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups peanut butter 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs, beaten

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional) 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheet.
2.	Combine peanut butter, eggs, and sugar and mix until smooth. Mix in chocolate chips and nuts, if desired. Spoon dough by tablespoons onto a cookie sheet.
3.	Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets for 5 to 10 minutes before removing.

Everyone who attended received a bag full of sample products from various gluten-free vendors.  We will be posting reveiws of these products in the near future.  If you would like to add your comments about the pretzels, donut holes or cookies, please do so by leaving a comment.

We had a great time out Monday evening; we were able to sample some new (brand new!) products from fatgiraffebakery that were fabulous!, and the mixes for cakes and brownies and pancakes from CherryBrook Kitchen were a real treat, GF or not!, the Full Flavor Foods table had Beef Burgundy, Turkey with gravy, and an Alfredo that will blow you away!…Can you tell I am excited with the new GF options that are out there now all of a sudden?

FHF will also be carrying very soon a couple of additional new products from an old favorite GF supplier, Bob’s Red Mill…Rolled and Steel Cut Oats! Cindy (from FHF) said that they are just waiting on the suppliers now the orders have been placed. I don’t have any pricing info on the new products but having the availability at a relatively local grocery will be fantasic.

Let me back up to the fatgiraffe for a moment…these folks were so COOL! Peiter has been living wheat free (not celiac, but he’s been eating gluten free for a while now) and wanted there to be something a little more “fun” available and has developed cookie mixes that are so yummy I may be in diet trouble very soon All in all, the “tasting event” went off beautifully.

Paul Swanson, of FFF mentioned that the traffic through the store was quite steady throughout the day which is always good to hear when something is held open for a number of hours. It was quite busy while we were there and I thought we were hitting the tail end but people just kept coming. I really think the GF food industry is about to bloom into full force…there are so many of us out there now and more on the way, no doubt as people become more aware.

I have been busy contacting various vendors regarding sending us samples and have gotten some VERY positive responses!  I’m so excited about it!  We have some hot cereal from Bob’s Red Mill, some dry mixes from the Allergy Grocer, and a TON of stuff from Lundberg Family Farms!  I’m talking about a TON!  There were 5 huge boxes waiting for me at home!  Today, I came home to samples for the group from Cebe.  I can’t believe how generous the vendors have been!

I need some volunteers to do some baking, though!  How about it?  Just let me know if you can help.  Boy, I think we all need to skip dinner before the November 19 meeting! 

I also need some volunteers to write some posts for the website.  They can be anything–like…

• restaurant reviews
• product reviews
• book reviews
• general information about Celiac or GF Living
• Celiac/GF events that are coming up
• etc. — be creative! 

We also want to get the word out to the general public about the group so we can help as many people as we can.  I had some business/information cards printed, so I’ll pass those out at the next meeting.  If you have some ideas, please let me know!

From Paul Swanson:

“I wanted to let you know that I recently spoke to Tom Otto (at Otto’s Turkey Farm in Middleville) and he wants to put Full Flavor Foods products on his store shelves.  He will be offering a few of my other products (not currently available at Forest Hills) and they will be easier for you to acquire. The “other products” will include FFF Cream Soup Mix, Mushroom Sauce and Cheese Sauce.  These items will probably be brought in by Forest Hills soon.”

So, we have another location which it seems some or most of the group was at least familiar with the Otto farm anyway.  Paul is very anxious to have all of us have access to these mixes which are really great tasting too.  We had one for lunch today when Bill brought home one of the sales reps who was in town for some meetings and he was not only happy for a home cooked meal he was clueless as to the fact that it was GF!

P.S.~We hope to have Paul as a guest at our January meeting!