Help a Celiac out... Sign the Petition!

I am sick and tired of playing hide and seek with gluten!  And let me tell you what.... gluten is getting better and better at hiding and it's kicking our butts...literally!  Sometimes it feels like we aren't even in the game anymore.  It's time that we step up our defense.... and I need your help to do it!

I don't know about you, but it think it would be absolutely amazing if I could use the time I spend reading labels to do something that I actually enjoy.  I could get a lot done in the amount of time I have to needlessly waste meticulously reading food labels.  Not to mention, it would save me A LOT of worry and stress too!  A wheat warning isn't enough... food labels need to be serious about gluten.  It has come to the point that I only purchase items that say gluten free on the packaging because gluten is hidden in so many ingredients.  But it could be so much easier...

November 1st is the last day to sign the petition that would make gluten a known allergen on food labels.  It would rank right up there with peanuts, eggs, milk, and many more.  I want Celiacs everywhere to have the peace of mind knowning that if there were gluten hiding in anything it would say GLUTEN in big fat letters in the allergen statement as a warning to us.  This doesn't have to be a dream for us anymore.... let's make it happen!

The goal is 25,000 signatures by November 1st, 2012.  When I last checked we had around 8,500 to go.    So let's get back in the game... get your name on there and spread the word!! 

 

Click Here to Sign the Petition

 

Finalize Standards for GLUTEN-FREE Labeling

The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act required Health and Human Services to set a gluten-free labeling rule by 2008 to aid people with celiac disease, a life-threatening autoimmune condition. The only known treatment is a strict gluten-free diet.

 

An estimated 3 million Americans have celiac and even more may have non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Without adequate labeling, those on a medically prescribed gluten-free diet struggle to make safe food choices and stay well.

 

Children with celiac cannot participate in the National School Lunch Program when food service staff cannot determine if products are gluten-free.

 

Congress did its part by passing the law. It is up to the White House to protect the health of millions of adults and children by finalizing the rule NOW.

Trick? Or treat?!

Anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE holidays, especially Halloween!  It is one of my favorite holidays (oh who am I kidding?..All the holidays are my favorites... except Valentine's day... but that is another story and I'm getting better about that...yay me!)  But anyway...I. Love. Halloween!  I love everything about it (except gory horror movies and especially not Michael Myers... yikes!) I love dressing up, I love seeing what costumes my kids are going to show up in for our school party, I love seeing all the Trick-or-Treaters, I love jack-o-lanters, and candy.... I love candy! 

But a Celiac Halloween is a bit different that your average person's Halloween.  You see to us...not all candy is created equally.  And sometimes it can be a real pain in the you know what to figure out what is safe, because companies are constantly changing ingredients and processing of the treats.  It all feels a little more trickish than treatish!


Lucky for us Celiacs, the good people at MyGlutenFacts.com do all the work for us!  They update this list every year before Halloween and include extensive information on how the candy is produced. They indicate if it is made in a dedicated gluten free facility (DF), on a dedicated gluten free equipment line in a facility that does process wheat (DL), or on equipment that is cleaned after processing gluten containing products but before processing the gluten free products (CL).  This alphabetical list can be narrowed down according to processing depending on your sensitivity.  You can also search by brand or keyword if you are questioning something in particular.  Easy peasy... but please remember that this is just a guide.  It is still necessary to check labels before buying anything just to be 100% sure.  But at least this gives us somewhere to start.  Also, with 385 items on the list there should be something that appeals to all trick-or-treaters, both big and small!  I posted the link for you all below and I hope it allows you to spend less time worrying and more time enjoying Halloween!

http://www.myglutenfacts.com/2012-gluten-free-halloween-candy-list/

So thank you MyGlutenFacts.com for making our lives so much easier! I hope you all put their hard work to good use and find yourselves something you like!  My personal favorite is Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins... why do they taste so much better when they are shaped like pumpkins?!

Stay tuned to hear about one of my favorite Halloween traditions and hear what I finally decided to dress up as!

Halloween Traditions: Costumes & Soup!

I have made THE big decision....what to be for Halloween.!  I'm going for an Alice in Wonderland theme this year! I will be a brunette Alice (I know...not quite authentic, but I hate itchy wigs).  Miss Penny Su has the most adorable little bunny costume so she can be the White Rabbit. She even has a clock to wear on her collar to make it official! Now if we could only get Mr. Kat to be the Mad Hatter... don't hold your breath!

Here we are last year as a caterpillar and butterfly!!

I'm pretty proud of those wings... check 'em out!!  I made them myself!!

I love passing out candy on Halloween night!  My parents live in one of the IT trick-or-treating locations in our town and a lot of my kids, both past and present, come see me at their doorstep.  I love seeing all their smiling faces and their costumes!  We go through between four and five hundred pieces of candy in a two hour time frame depending on the weather.  That is quite a lot considering our town is pretty small.  A lot of our family and friends gather at my parent's home to watch all the festivities through the big picture window.  I sit outside on the front porch step with Penny Su, Mr. Kat, and whoever else wants to tough out the cold with me.  We try to pass out more candy than we eat!   This is my favorite part about Halloween!  Everyone gathers together and we share A LOT of good food, yummy treats/snacks, and Halloween cocktails! 

My Papa always used to make chili for Halloween night.  And let me tell you what... this chili is probably a big part of why everyone started gathering at my parent's house on Halloween! But when Papa started traveling for work, unfortunately he had to miss a lot of Halloweens....and Halloween was never the same with out him :(.  We had to keep the tradition alive, but chili is Papa's thing, and my chili didn't stand a chance of living up to his.  So I had a plan...Soup... now that is my thing.  So for the past few years I have made soup for everyone on Halloween night, it has sort of became our new tradition.  Last year it was Taco Soup, and it was a really big hit.  So this year I wanted to do something a little bit different, but also kind of similar. 

I decided on Stuffed Pepper Soup.  It is one of Mr. Kat's favorites!  It is fairly easy and perfect for a cool fall Illinois Halloween night; very hearty, just a hint of spicy, and fairly healthy to help make up for all the other junk we are eating!  And most importantly...of course it is gluten free! 

Stuffed Pepper Soup

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 4 hrs

Serves: 8 (I will double this for Halloween night)

Ingredients: 4 Cups Vegetable Broth* 4 Cups Beef Broth* 2 lbs Ground Beef/Turkey/Pork Sausage- (I usually use a lb each of beef and turkey, but I like to mix it up sometimes) 1 28oz can Crushed Tomatoes 2 (8oz) cans Tomato Sauce 1 10oz can Rotel 1 Cup uncooked Brown Rice 2 Green Peppers- diced 2 Red Peppers- diced 1 Yellow Pepper- diced 1 Orange Pepper- diced 1 Large Red Onion- diced 4 Garlic Cloves- diced 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar 1 1/2 tsp Sea Salt 1 tsp Ground Pepper 1 tsp Onion Powder 1 tsp Garlic Powder

Instructions:

1. In a large skillet brown ground beef- when done, drain.
2. In a crock pot add all ingredients – rice will cook in soup.
3. Set on high for 4 hours

*Please be very careful when buying the broths... they are hard to find gluten free. Mine always come from Aldi (Chef's Cupboard or Fit & Active... always double check!) and they have a label that I love right on them...Naturally A Gluten Free Food!  Makes my life so much easier!  The same goes for all of the other canned ingredients (Happy Harvest brand) I put in this soup as well as the meat.  So a big thanks to Aldi for being so Celiac friendly!

And just for fun I always write the soup recipes that I make for Halloween on fancy Halloween recipe cards (and I always bring extra to share!).  This way I can look back years from now and remember which recipes I have used each year for Halloween.  These are some of my favorites from http://cheekypaperie.com/.  If you sign up for their newsletter you can print these for free, plus get a bunch of other fun freebies!

What are some of your favorite Halloween traditions? What are you all going to dress up as for Halloween?

Hello Friends!

Holy Wow!... Celiac Disease is a pain in the you know what!!  Sometimes it makes me want to pull my hair out, but then I recall that that would not be necessary considering all the gluten hidden in my shampoo essentially did that for me.  But that is another story.  I should probably introduce myself first.

So... Hello Friends! I'm Katrina, or Miss Kat as my kids calls me.  I am the proud mama to three rescue pets.  We all live happily ever after in our farmhouse that I lovingly nicknamed the Red Roof Inn.  You are probably wondering about these kids I speak of that call me Miss Kat.  Well, those are my preschoolers who make me smile everyday I see them.    In addition to preschool, I also teach yoga, do energy healing, make jewelry, and make cars looks gorgeous.  Let's just say I stay busy.  And as if that isn't enough, add Celiac Awareness Advocate to the list. 

So as you have probably already figured out... I have Celiac Disease.  I was diagnosed at 19, thanks to my papa who insisted I be tested for a disease that I didn't even seem to have symptoms for (long story.... we will get to that a little more later).  I consider myself a seasoned veteran at this gluten free business, as I had celiac before celiac was cool!

As I mentioned before, I didn't seem to have symptoms of this disease.  Seem being the key word.  I always had what my mama called "a nervous stomach" and I had learned to simply ignore it.  When I cut gluten out of my life it became very clear that my so called "nervous stomach" was much more than that, and it wasn't something I just had to live with.  No gluten meant no belly aches!  I learned to live with the fact that being gluten free was a lifelong committment.  I tried not to focus too much on what I was missing out on, but more on the fact that this disease wouldn't kill me as long as I was disciplined.  I was strict with my diet, but probably not strict enough.  I never had too terrible of symptoms and had learned to ignore my tummy so it was hard for me to notice when I got glutened, thus I was never forced to be all that careful.  This didn't mean that I allowed my self to cheat (besides on Sundays at church), but I was never really that strict about "hidden gluten" or cross contamination.

Looking back, I know I should have been way more careful.  It wasn't until I had visible symptoms of this disease that it became so clear to me that I needed to get way more serious about it.  And this time I meant business!  Breaking out in rashes, losing my hair, and struggling with anxiety that made me feel like a crazy person were not acceptable to me.  They were visible representations of what this disease had done to my body and mind, and it was destroying my life.  If it was showing up on the outside, I shuddered to think what it had done internally.  This also meant that this was a disease that was out there for everyone to see, I could no longer be tough and hide it.  Before these symptoms, I could choose to let people know I had it, or just pretend I was normal like everyone else, fooling them and myself. 

With these new symptoms, particularly my skin issues, I felt an insane amount of stress.  I was constantly worried. Worried about my shampoo, my makeup, my toothpaste, communion at church, going out to dinner, laundry detergent, salad dressing, car wax, or essentially anything that touched me.  All these worries and anxieties put me smack dab in the middle of the worst depression of my life, one that I quite honestly feared I wouldn't survive.  After a very long struggle, a punching bag, multiple yoga mats, a great counselor, an understanding and supportive family, good friends, my little smiling faces at school, and a just a little tequila I managed to pick myself up, I dusted myself off, and decided I was going to live my life.  I was in control of this disease, not vice versa!   I reminded myself that I have a fancy biology degree and I needed to use it.  I would educate myself on vitamin deficiencies, immune responses, mental health symptoms, and anything and everything associated with Celiac Disease.

I threw myself into learning.  I got serious about my nutrition, not just my food.  Before all this I always told myself that it was enough that I had to worry about being gluten free, that I had no more energy to devote to making sure I was eating healthy too.  And I am proof that just because you are gluten free doesn't mean you are healthy.  Chocolate, ice cream, Jack & Coke, potato chips, and highly processed GF foods are all gluten free... but that doesn't mean they are healthy.  As for vegetables, forget about it, I avoided them as if they were full of gluten.  So I changed my diet like my life depended on it, because it essentially did.  I started cutting out sweets and soda, making my own salad dressings, eating vegetables, cutting out most processed foods, and being way more serious about gluten.  This gave me back a sense of the control that I needed.

Next up, the whole idea of anything that touched me.  I know it is a somewhat controversial topic, but I believe that topical gluten is a huge issue for some Celiac patients.  (The sole reason I was tested to begin with was because my Uncle was suffering from severe dermatitis herpetiformis which eventually led to his diagnosis of Celiac)  I educated my self on gluten containing ingredients in cosmetics and cleaning supplies and overhauled my entire home.  From nail polish and lip gloss to dish soap and tampons (yes... some do contain gluten... I know...outrageous!) I got rid of anything that had gluten.  And Oh. My. Goodness. You would be surprised what I was left with.  A whole lot of nothing!  I began researching ingredients, calling companies (some very helpful, others not so much), and documenting what my options were.  It was then that I had another realization.

I said Miss Kat, you need to share this with the world.  You are putting in a HUGE effort, and there are a lot of individuals out there who could use this information (not to mention you can refer to it later).  Maybe someone needs to know what nail polish brands are gluten free, or maybe lip balm.   Or maybe someone wants to know which brands of gluten free bread are actually edible.  I have always tossed around the idea of having a blog like this, but I never felt that I was responsible enough to share my gluten free-ness with others.  After all my gluten free-ness was never hard core enough to share.  I could destroy my own intestines, but not the intestines of others (a little dramatic, I know, but true).  But now I am holding myself accountable for helping you go completely gluten free.  And I vow to you all, and to myself, that I will be hard-core!  So stay tuned to see what fabulous gluten free-ness I'm up to, be patient with me because I know nothing about blogging,  let me know if you have any questions, share your experiences, and most of all just enjoy life with me.. even if you have to do it with Celiac!