Adventures in Bennionland

There are times when being gluten-free can feel overwhelming. We can’t stop to just grab something at a fast food place. We plan out our meals, pack up food for almost everywhere we go, and buy in bulk to try and get the biggest bang for our buck.

But mostly, it tastes and feels wonderful. Especially when we realize that Will keeps growing and growing and growing.

Or when we hear that the “normal” food community is recognizing the need for gluten free alternatives. Like the fact that Disneyland has a six page handout of all the GF options at the park. So Will, like the rest of the visitors, can choose from hot dogs, pizza, candy, hamburgers…

Riding on the wave of a wonderful GF trip to Disneyland we are thrilled to announce some other great GF news!!

In what can only be hailed as a stellar move, General Mills has announced that in addition to Rice Chex, they have reformulated the following to be GF:
Corn Chex
Strawberry Chex
Honey Nut Chex
Chocolate Chex
Cinnamon Chex

All the newly formulated cereals are hitting the shelves with proud Gluten-Free labels!

Speaking of labels – Kraft Foods has also started labeling their products with “Gluten-Free” on the back near the ingredients. No more reading through all the ingredients and trying to sound out strange words!

We also heard that as of June 1st Betty Crocker will have a line of IN-STORE mixes. Holy-mother-of-American-cooking-Batman! Our friends at Kill.The.Gluten have reviewed both the cake mix, brownies and the cookies.

Freakin’ awesome! We’re on the verge of Celiac Disease Awareness month (May) and this is all great news to kick it off.

On another, yet similar note, many of you relatives have asked for a list of favorite gluten-free products. Friends and blog readers, this may be where you log-off.

Here is a short and sweet list of some of our favorite gluten-free products. These are products made by speciality companies. However there are many “mainstream” products that are GF that we love.

Bread: Gluten Free Pantry’s Favorite Sandwich Bread
Flour: Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix, Bob’s Red Mill GF Flour Mix
(we’ve heard good news about Better Batter but have yet to try it)
Pizza: Bob’s Red Mill and Gluten Free Pantry
Cake Mix: Pamela’s Chocolate Cake Mix, Whole Foods’ Brand GF Cake mixes
Cookies: Kinnikinick KinniKritter Animal Cookies, Pamela’s Chocolate Chunk and Shortbread cookies
Crackers: Glutino’s Original Crackers
Snacks: EnviroKidz Koala Crispy Rice Bars, Glutino Gluten Free Pretzels, EnerG GF pretzels, Lara Bars and Luna Bars (not all Luna Bars are GF)
Brownies: Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Brownies, Gluten-Free Pantry Chocolate Truffle Brownies, Namaste Foods Brownies
Pasta: Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta (many shapes), Annie’s GF Mac & Cheese

There are a lot of sugary items on the list above – we actually don’t eat a lot of cookies and cakes so these tend to last us a while!

Hope this helps those of you wanting to stock a few things up. Feel free to ask if there are other things you need to know.

Turning five is filled with ups and downs.

Ups such as:
- an airplane theme birthday party
- packages in the mail
- chocolate chip pancakes
- Matterhorn
- It’s a Small World
- Gadget’s Go Coaster
- Splash Mountain
- The Haunted Mansion
- The Pirates of The Caribbean
- Space Mountain
- Autotopia
- Buzz Lightyear
- Dumbo

Downs such as:
- DPT
- Varicella
- MMR
- OPV

Will went to visit our favorite Dr, Doctor Berry, and was met with four shots. While he thought getting the shots was just crappy – he was thrilled to know it was all in preparation for Kindergarten.

And for all you enquiring minds (aka grandparents) he’s grown about four inches and gained 3 pounds since last year!

More on his birthday, his trip to Disneyland with Eric, and the rest of his birthday ups will be coming soon.

Yesterday I got hit by a bus. Ok, not a real bus but a cold bus. And if you know me well you know that it takes a lot to get me to slow down and even more to stop. But if you’d come by here yesterday you would have seen me laying on the floor staring at the ceiling. You would have seen Will playing his second hour on the computer and Walker walking around with a marker drawing on any empty surface of his body.

So I finally called in the reserves. E was over here within 1/2 hour ready to relieve me. Phew.

Last night he even convinced me to take a Nyquil – then he locked our bedroom door and shut it for the night. I got six hours of uninterrupted sleep – and when I was interrupted it was by the stray cats in our complex who were having some sort of hoe-down in our backyard. And then, I rolled over and went back to sleep for another two hours.

But I must say, the best form of medicine that E gave me was this. Sent with a note encouraging me to feel better. And it has.