April Gluten Free Discounts and Coupons

•   Blue Diamond Almonds (Online)Receive different coupons for future purchases on regular and gluten free products. www.bluediamond.com/index.cfm?navid=8

•   Venice Bakery (Online) 
•  Venice Baking Company, a proud sponsor of CDF, has established an exclusive promotion for CDF members and friends which will give you a 10% discount for your online purchase of gluten-free pizza crust sold through the Venice Baking Co. website.  Venice Baking Co. will also donate 5% to CDF for each online purchase of gluten-free pizza crust sold through the Venice Baking Co. website using the promotion code CDF2011.
• Venice Baking Company also offers our group a 10% discount on your next order.  Use promotional code REP2011.  www.venicebakery.com

•  Cream of Rice Cream of rice supports the Celiac Disease Foundation by providing $1.00 off coupon for your next purchase. http://coupons2.smartsource.com/smartsource/index.jsp?Link=VNYPKIIZY7J2W

Rudi's Gluten Free Contest

I love good old fashioned competition. Especially when it has to do with cooking that’s involves delicious gluten-free foods!


In case you haven’t heard, Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery is hosting a recipe contest and is inviting all of their Facebook fans to submit their most delicious gluten-free recipe using any one of the Rudi’s gluten-free products (bread, hot dog rolls and hamburger rolls).   Once a recipe is submitted, other Facebook fans will do the voting, which ends on June 6th.

The prize? The ten fans that have submitted one of the top ten recipes will receive a $250 gift card from William-Sonoma, Rudi’s products and giveaways and (here’s the really exciting part….) move onto the next round of judging! The next round of judging is done not by your peers, but a line-up of chef’s, Rudi’s executives and other in the gluten-free community. These judges will select three finalists from the top ten who will win a trip to beautiful Boulder, Colorado from June 23 to 26 – to compete in a gluten-free cook-off!
Then the exciting grand prize! The grand prize winner of Rudi’s Gluten-free Bakery’s recipe contest will get to star in an episode of the Alternative Appetites (National Foundation for Celiac Awareness) cooking show (watch out Rachael Raye!), and will also be featured in a national Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery advertisement.
And at the end of the program all the recipes that were submitted will be added to the Rudi’s Gluten-Free website recipe sections –so we can all have at our fingertips (by easily typing on our keyboards!) another great resource of tried-and-trued gluten-free recipes!  Reply to this blog and let us know if you enter to win so your BeFreeForMe friends can check out your recipe and vote!
Source: http://www.befreeforme.com/blog/?p=4836

Registration Fees Increase May 1st!

Hilton Hotel Los Angeles/Universal City 555 Universal Hollywood Drive Universal City, CA 91608  Rates increase on May 1st.  Don't wait!  Register TODAY! Easy online registration at www.celiac.org  FEATURING TOP INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS Alessio Fasano, M.D. Martin F. Kagnoff, M.D.  Robyn Karlstadt, M.D., MACG Danna Korn Author & Founder R.O.C.K.   Carol Fenster, Ph.D. President/Founder Savory Palate, Inc. BREAKOUT SESSIONS  Q & A Alessio Fassano, M.D. and Martin F. Kagnoff, M.D. Q & A Parents of Celiac Children Danna Korn Author & Founder R.O.C.K.   Frank Baldassare  Living gluten-free - food, health & wellness   Meet Support Group Leaders and Members Young Adults & Teens Get Together Ryann Fraser CDF Ambassador - Elite triathlete, NYU student, Wilhelmina model Carrie Willoughby U.S. Paralympic cyclist and former U.S. Paralympic swimmer Ask the Dieticians Alicia Calvo, MPH, RD, CDE Evette Richardson, RD, MS, CFT Conference Registration includes: Admission to all sessions Continental gluten-free breakfast and luncheon Gluten-free goodie bag Gluten-free pizza and beer tasting Access to extensive exhibitor displays with gluten-free food samples and sales Gluten-free product give-away Validated self-parking at the hotel  Download CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT  for more details! REGISTER NOW     2011 CDF Annual Education Conference and Food Faire sponsored by

Tax Perks for Celiac Disease

For anyone with Celiac Disease you get use to people telling you no.  NO, you can't eat this.NO, you can't eat that. NO, we can't make your entree gluten-free.  The same holds true with filing your taxes. NO you can't claim your pets as kids.  NO you can't deduct your family vacation as mental medical therapy.

But now having Celiac Disease gives you a big YES! The IRS publication 502 allows person's with Celiac Disease or those caring for a person with Celiac Disease to deduct the cost of Gluten-Free (GF) food that is in EXCESS of the cost of the gluten containing food that you are replacing.  For example: if your gluten-free cereal costs $5.00 and the regular flour containing counterpart costs $2.50, you can deduct the difference of the two ($2.50).   For specialty items that do not have a regular flour containing counterpart (i.e. Xathan Gum) you can deduct the full amount of the specialty item.

Here's another YES!  You can deduct transportation costs. If you make a special trip to a specialty store to purchase GF foods, the actual cost of your transportation to and from the store is deductible. If you used your vehicle for the trip during the year 2010, you may deduct 16.5 cents per mile for 2010. If you use your vehicle for this purpose during 2011, you may deduct 19 cents per mile. You may include tolls and parking fees.

And finally, Yes you can deduct the full cost of postage or other delivery expenses for GF foods made by mail.

Click here for a worksheet to help keep track of your gluten-free purchases, mileage and product replaced to help you begin tracking all of your YES' for next year's taxes.

Cookie, Cookies and More Cookies!

I had the fortunate event of stumbling onto Charlotte's Bakery while shopping at the Wealth of Health in Idaho Falls.  If you are looking for sugar cookies, pies, or rolls that could fool anyone Charlotte's your golden ticket!  Pictured above are her wonderful sugar cookies with butter-cream frosting.  Light and fluffy, these cookies crumble ever so slightly when bitten into and make dipping into a cold glass of milk a treat again instead of a dreaded necessity.  For ordering information click here.

Enjoying Jovial Foods

If you haven't tried Jovial Foods gluten free penne rigate pasta or fig filled cookies, then you haven't seen just how far gluten-free has come.  For our February celiac support group meeting, Jovial generously offered the group samples of their gluten-free pasta and cookies. Using Jovial gluten-free pasta in a recipe I had for Pork Marsala, I added a bit of broccoli for color and voila- dinner is served!  Their pasta has a great al dente texture and cooks in half the time of most other gluten-free pastas.  And, if you missed having flour filled Fig Newtons, you'll love their Fig Filled Cookies! 

Pizza Night is Back!

For our celiac support meeting last month, Venice Bakery was very generous and offered the group samples of their mini pizzas as well as their plain and seasoned pizza crusts.  What a hit!!  Finally pizza that tastes like pizza.  With perfect mouth feel, texture, chewiness, and simple heating time- this is the best gluten-free pizza crust I've had to date.  For the group, I took one of the seasoned pizza crusts (allowing it to thaw on the counter top for 10 minutes) brushed it lightly with a butter-garlic sauce and then lightly topped with grated Colby jack cheese.  Fifteen minutes later, voila...perfect cheese bread!  For ordering information click here.