A while back, I received a complimentary sampling of Surf Sweets Organic and Natural Gummy Candy and Jelly Beans to review on my blog. I have to admit, I received these back in December and I am embarrassed that I am just NOW reviewing them at the end of January! I am a big “out of sight, out of mind” girl and the candy has long been gobbled up, so I have not had a package laying around to trigger my memory!

When the candy arrived, I swiped a bag to try for myself and stashed the rest away to put in the boys stockings for Christmas. I was very curious about the gummy bears because I happen to consider myself a gummy bear “expert” of sorts. I actually had a problem a while back and I am happy to say that I am now in gummy bear recovery. I am very picky about my gummy bears, and I have only ever liked the “Gold Bears” by Haribo, which are also gluten-free. The reason I like Haribo is because of the “firm and chewy” texture and the slightly tart punch. I personally do not care for the “soft and gummy” (and super-sweet) types of gummy bears.

I was eagerly anticipating trying out the Surf Sweets Gummy Bears to see where they fell in the texture category. I was extremely pleased with the chewy texture that I found! They taste great too!

Not only are Surf Sweets candies gluten-free, but they are also free of the following:

• Casein (and Gluten)

• Peanuts (and they are produced in a peanut-free factory)

• Artificial Colors, they are Stage 2 Feingold Approved. (Did you know: Artificial colors are primarily coal-tar derivatives made from chemical compounds which are made when coal is distilled?? I did not know that! It is amazing how once you find out what some of these ingredients are, you suddenly lose your appetite!)

• Wheat, Dairy, Soy, Eggs, Tree Nuts, Nuts, Fish, and Shellfish (and they are manufactured in a facility that is 100% free of those ingredients).

They even have some Vegetarian and Vegan products:

Four of their products are Vegetarian (Fruity Bears, Gummy Swirls, Jelly Beans and Sour Worms). The Gummy Bears and Gummy Worms contain gelatin so they are not vegetarian.

Three of their products are Vegan (Fruity Bears, Gummy Swirls, and Sour Worms).

Surf Sweets candy provides 100% of your Vitamin C per serving. All of their products are free of trans fats, GMOs, corn syrup, gluten, artificial colors and flavor.

Surf Sweets, in my opinion, are candies that a mom can feel good about (teeth brushing still required though)!

I got so excited when I found these the other day at Whole Foods! Grass-Fed Beef Hot Dogs by Applegate Farms!

And they were only $4.99!

And they are really really good!

I cannot recall exactly but I think these actually cost a little bit less than the Nathan’s Famous (now gluten-free) hot dogs that I bought back in December. Organic and grass-fed beef for LESS than the cost of a mainstream supermarket package of hot dogs, with all the extra “stuff” in them! Applegate Farms does not add any Nitrates or Nitrites to their hot dogs and deli meat products, in case you are sensitive like my mom is (I never knew what they were exactly until the moment of this post!).

(Please forgive the following photographs. It’s embarrassing really, my lack of camera skills!)

Only 8 grams of fat, (Nathan’s Famous Beef Franks have 15 grams of fat).

And they are Gluten and Casein Free!

Sam wanted me to show a photo from the Rodeo we went to tonight. It was fun to watch the boys having a good time, but I found myself rooting for the bulls after watching the film Food, Inc. and seeing all the poor feed-lot cattle.

I used the random number generator at Random.org to pick the winner of a free 4-pack of blue dominoes gluten-free finger paint.

And the winner is… #3! Karla, if you will please email me at heidikelly13@gmail.com with your mailing address, I will get the fingerpaints out to you!

Thank you all for participating! Check back on Monday for a new giveaway of Better Batter Gluten Free Flour! Click on Better Batter’s link and start looking through their recipe archive, the question for the contest will be: “What recipe would you make first with Better Batter Gluten Free Flour if you win?”

I was just reading my friend Kim’s blog, Gluten Free Is Life and she reviewed a variety of gluten-free cheesecakes and brownies by Moondance Heavenly Desserts. They looked so divine, that I had to share with everyone!

You can check out Kim’s review here and enter for a chance to win a sampling of gluten-free brownies!

Did anyone else happen to see the Dr. Oz show yesterday? It was on in the background as I was writing the post for the blue dominoes Safe Art Finger paint review and giveaway (don’t forget to enter for your chance to win a 4-pack of gluten-free, wheat-free, dairy-free, soy-free, egg-free, peanut and tree nut-free, fish and shellfish-free finger paint that is also free of lead, heavy metals, Bromine, Touelene and Bisphenol-A). Dr. Oz had a segment titled “Three Dangerous Food Toxins,” where he highlighted the levels of Mercury, Bisphenol-A (or BPA) and pesticides in our foods. The show cited a recent study that estimates, “90% of us have measurable levels of BPA in our blood stream.” The BPA is coming not only from clear, hard plastics (like Polycarbonate) but in many canned foods. Consumer Reports recently tested 19 name brand canned foods and “nearly all of them contained some level of BPA.” They also noted that “canned organic foods did not always have lower levels of BPA than the non-organic brands.” I especially love this one: they “even found the chemical in some products in cans that were labeled BPA-free!”

Whaaa?!?

Oprah is doing a show today (1/27/10) titled, “Before You Grocery Shop Again: Food 101 With Michael Pollan.” Set your DVR (or VCR )!

Anyway, onward and upward…

I actually got to meet one of my readers who lives in the Albuquerque area (and who also went to The Ohio State University, GO BUCKS! Seriously, what are the odds??) this past weekend at the local GIG (Gluten Intolerance Group) bi-monthly potluck. Renee brought the following Quinoa Salad and OMG, it was soooo good! I did not get to have much at the potluck because as usual, I was late and it was almost gone when I got there! Renee kindly sent me the recipe so I could make more at home and also share the recipe with everyone.

Renee got the following recipe from Inca Organics.

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

2 cups Quinoa, cooked in 4 cups of water as directed (I used a blend of two varieties of Quinoa, see below)

2 cups lightly cooked Green Peas

1/2 large Red Onion, diced

1 Red Bell Pepper, diced

1 Green Bell Pepper, diced

1/2 c sliced pitted Black Olives (I used Kalamata Olives)

1 cup Golden Raisins

1/4 cup fresh Parsley, chopped

1/4 cup fresh Dill, chopped

1/4 cup Pine Nuts, toasted

1/2 cup Vinaigrette (See Below)

Vinaigrette

Whisk all ingredients together:

1/8 c Balsamic Vinegar

1/8 c White Wine Vinegar

1/4 c Olive Oil

1/2 tsp Sugar

1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard

2 cloves Garlic

1/2-1 tsp Salt to taste (I used Kosher Salt)

1/4-1/2 tsp Pepper to taste

• Cook quinoa according to directions. Fluff with fork and cool.

• Cook peas (I cooked mine in a pot of boiling water for 1 minute, then immediately put in an ice water bath to stop the cooking process, this will prevent your peas from turning an undesirable green color) and cool.

• When quinoa is cool, mix all ingredients together.

• Toss with vinaigrette.

• Taste and add more salt if desired.

For more on: Ancient Brand Quinoa

Health benefits of: Phosphorus

For more on: Country of Origin (COO)

I am so UNBELIEVABLY excited about this!!! A while back I had the opportunity to try out blue dominoes Safe Art Activity Dough which is not only gluten-free, but is also free of the top 8 allergens, including wheat and soy! We loved the play dough, especially Sam, who built a whole battle scene with the dough (he is very big on battles!).

What I really appreciate, especially as the mother of a child with celiac disease (oh okay, it also eases the paranoia due to my new obsession with ingredient labels and “Frankenfood” Documentaries! ) is that blue dominoes puts all of the ingredients they use right on the label! They give me the facts straight up so I can make my own decision on whether or not to use the product. It is frustrating as all get-out to try and get art supply ingredients from other companies. I have made a new pledge to myself to support companies that make my life easier!

Blue Dominoes Safe Art also takes it a step further by telling me what is NOT in their products too, (which is exceptionally important to me considering a good portion of it will undoubtedly end up in Luke’s mouth!) :

Finger Paints are made with all Natural Ingredients that are free of Lead, Heavy Metals, Bromine, Toluene and Bisphenol-A

Green from start to finish:  Eco-friendly, BPA 
and phthalate free packaging

What the heck is a phthalate???

And BPA?? (I remember when I first heard about this and Luke was still on a bottle, an Avent bottle to be specific, which contained BPA at the time. It is a real @!%?! to get a baby to change bottles!! Just a quick FYI: I got the following off the Phillips website:

The Philips AVENT Airflex reusable bottle is made from polycarbonate and therefore contains BPA. This product is no longer sold in the United States and Canada. Philips offers two BPA-free reusable bottles in its Infant Feeding line.

I received the following press release and a complimentary sample of the new finger paints from Debbie Lindgren, one of the co-founders of blue dominoes, (BTW, I highly recommend reading how the name blue dominoes came to be. I am 110% in agreement with their philosophy, in fact, it is the same approach I take with my own blog. I want to highlight the key points that reflect my personal views as well because I could not have said it better myself! ) :

We incorporated the word dominoes to demonstrate how unique each of our paths to healing is and what works for one person may not work for another.

Further, some people even stack dominoes in a line and then knock the first domino over and watch the rest of the dominoes fall into place. This is also the mindset behind using the word dominoes because often times getting on the right path and seeing the domino effect leads us to breaking down those barriers; just as the initial domino caused the momentum to keep going and extend to the other domino blocks.

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TAKE MATTERS INTO YOUR OWN HANDS!
ECO-FRIENDLY, GLUTEN-FREE, ALL-NATURAL FINGER PAINTS ARE HERE!

No harmful chemicals, free of the eight most common allergens and thoroughly tested – perfect for all the little children in your life!

January 11, 2010 – San Diego, CA –  Finger painting is a wonderful and therapeutic way for people, particularly children to express themselves and have fun. However, if children are sensitive to the ingredients being used in some finger paints such as: gluten, wheat, toluene, synthetic chemicals and dyes – they cannot participate in the activity and that is NOT fun.

Bluedominoes Safe Art™ Finger Paints are made from food grade ingredients, free of the eight most common allergens including gluten, wheat
and soy, made with all natural colors, laboratory-tested to be free of heavy metals such as lead, mercury and arsenic and is free of chemicals
such as toluene. In addition, the Finger Paints have been certified by the Celiac Sprue Association and accepted by the Feingold association assuring the products are free of gluten and do not use artificial colors.

Debbie Lindgren and Linda Manaster founded bluedominoes after Lindgren’s younger son reacted to art supplies being used in his Kindergarten class.  “His teacher realized he reacted to art supplies with yellow and red pigments particularly modeling products and paints.  We together took steps to make his environment and those of the other children in the classroom safer by identifying and providing alternative options,” states Lindgren, who brought in her own formulations for the classroom.  Lindgren and Manaster eventually assembled an expert team who aid in the identification of ingredients and product development.  The team previously developed Safe Art™ Activity Dough, which was recognized in Dr. Toy’s Best Picks Children’s Products – 2009, and was selected as Most Innovative Product by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“Since children are tempted to taste art supply products, we felt it was necessary to use food grade ingredients in our art supply products aimed at younger children.  In addition, toxins such as toluene and lead are both absorbed through the skin as well as through ingestion, so we took steps to use ingredients that do not contain these substances and to have our products independently tested by highly respected U.S. laboratories.”  Though not legally required, bluedominoes lists all of its Safe Art™ Finger Paints ingredients on the package.

By complying with rigorous standards, bluedominoes Safe Art™ products are the first to receive certification from the Celiac Sprue Association and acceptance by the Feingold Association. Bluedominoes has a complete line of Safe Art™ products in the pipeline, and the company is committed to the same level of purity, safety and integrity for all of its products. All bluedominoes Safe Art™ products are developed in San Diego, and all of its patent-pending formulas are manufactured in the USA.  Products can be ordered by visiting www.bluedominoes.com.

About bluedominoes, inc:  bluedominoes, with its highly informative website and safe children’s art supply products, is the go-to resource for parents and teachers to keep their children safe and the Safe Art™ brand manufacturer that parents and teachers trust. For more information about bluedominoes green children’s art supplies, including our award-winning Safe Art™ Activity Dough and trusted resources to keep your family safe, visit www.bluedominoes.com.

bluedominoes, inc.  PO Box 3559, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067

Toll-Free 858.759.7435 www.bluedominoes.com

Now for the fun!

blue dominoes Safe Art Finger Paint Giveaway

Debbie has graciously offered to giveaway (one) 4-pack of finger paints to one of my fabulous readers! WOO-HOO!

**In order to be eligible for the giveaway you are going to have to do a few small things (it will be painless, I promise!):

First, (so I can keep track of the entries and get to know you a bit in the process ):

Leave a comment to this post telling me what it means to you to know there is a company out there like blue dominoes making Safe Art supplies like finger paints (and play dough) for our kiddos AND volunteering to put the ingredients right on the package label. (My hope is that maybe other art supply companies will read this, read our thoughts on the subject and follow blue dominoes lead by making their ingredients available on their product labels!).

Second, do at least one (or all!) of the following three things (fellow bloggers, please see below):

• If you have a Twitter account, sign-up to follow @bluedominoes (you can follow me too if you want! @adventuresgfmom). Once you start following @bluedominoes, “tweet” about this contest and include a link to this post in your tweet (I highly recommend using Tinyurl). Be sure to include @bluedominoes and @adventuresgfmom in your tweet. Please include any hashtags to community groups you participate in, like #GF, etc.

and/or

• In case you are a Twitter holdout (like I was up until a couple of months ago), you can become a “fan” of blue dominoes Safe Art Supplies on Facebook. Please send me an email at heidikelly13@gmail.com once you have done this.

and/or

• If you do not use Twitter or Facebook, you can subscribe to the bluedominoes ENewletter (upper right corner of their web page). I signed up, and have found it to be a great source of information regarding things like What’s In Your School’s Cleaning Supplies? and Artificial Food and Cosmetic Coloring – A Hidden Source of Toxic Metals (Which reminds me, I need to start trying out natural food colorings, or better yet, learn how to make my own, since I go through such a large volume during my cake decorating courses… and I have one beginning in a couple of weeks! Any suggestions??). Please send me an email at heidikelly13@gmail.com once you have done this.

For bloggers...

There is a teeny tiny little extra in order for you to enter:

Please mention this giveaway (and include a link to this post) in one of your blog posts (thank you kindly).

You have until 5pm Pacific time (8pm Eastern) this coming Friday, January, 29, 2010 to enter. I will then use a Random Number Generator to “pick” the winner. Your comment’s place in line will be your number; for example: if you are the third comment, your number is 3. I will do a post Friday evening announcing the winner. You will need to send me an email with your mailing address by Sunday evening (1/31/10) or I will pick a new winner on Monday, February 1, 2010.

One entry per person please.

blue dominoes is also going to offer a 10% discount on all first time orders until February 28, 2010. Use the coupon code GFMOM at checkout.

I realized today when I was at my local GIG potluck/meeting that while I see a lot of #GF headlines, etc., (sorry, couldn’t resist inserting a Twitter hashtag… but more on this in another post) from around the country and beyond, there are a lot of folks that do not hear about stories such as this, unless they happen to live where it happens. I really encourage everyone who is gluten-free to sign-up for a free Twitter account (you do not need a cell phone). There is an amazing gluten-free community on Twitter that has become not only a great resource to me as far as “real-time,” up-to date celiac disease information but I also get first hand knowledge of new gluten-free products before they hit the shelves and awareness of stories such as the one that follows. I have also made some wonderful friends who truly understand what I go through everyday… think of it like a virtual support group!

I believe awareness can be a very effective learning tool for all of us in the gluten-free community…

The following is a link to a Raleigh, NC news story about a bakery; Great Specialty Grains, whose “gluten-free” bread was tested and found to contain 5,000 ppm of gluten. 5,000! Quite a difference to the FDA’s proposed standard for the definition of gluten-free: less than 20 ppm. Click here to go to the article and local news video.

The person who this happened to, or rather her son, is another gluten-free blogger, and a *virtual* friend of mine; Rebecca. When I first read her story, it literally made me itch (but I won’t go “there”). Rebecca could not have said it better in her blog post titled, “Every Celiac’s Nightmare.” I encourage you to read all the comments in response to her post too.

Here is an update on the story from Rebecca’s blog (which is called, “The GFCF Cookbook“): Vindication. While you are on her site, check out Rebecca’s recipe for Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Whoopie Pies!

More information on the FDA’s proposed definition for the term gluten-free.

Okay, there is an upside to this recipe and a downside.

I will start with the downside. You will need celery juice.

You could buy it (make sure it is GF) or if you are anything like me, you can dig out the gift your husband gave you a few years ago for Christmas… during  your “juicing phase” that lasted all of a week. Right up until the moment your husband convinced you to drink a glass of beet/kale/carrot/tomato/apple juice because, “the apple juice hides the *tastes like dirt* flavor of the beets and kale.”

My husband is a liar. I drank apple flavored dirt. That was then end of my juicing phase. The juicer had been sitting in a box in the garage for 2 years until I resurrected it for this recipe.

GF Condensed Cream of Celery Soup

1 cup Gluten-Free Magic Mix

1/4 tsp. Onion Powder

1/8 tsp. Celery Salt (optional, but I liked it)

3/4 Celery Juice (I have made this with the full 3/4 cup of celery juice, which was pretty strong. And also with 1/2 cup celery juice + 1/4 cup water, which was milder. Adjust to your personal taste, just be sure to use 3/4 cup of liquid).

• Add Magic Mix, onion powder and celery juice to a saucepan. Mix well.

• Turn heat to medium and stir constantly until the mixture thickens (this does not take very long).

Use one recipe of this for each can of Condensed Cream of Celery Soup called for in your recipe.

Comparison time (this is the upside):

So I have to comment further on this. I am actually glad I did not research Campbell’s version first or I would have tried to replicate it. When I first opened it (fully expecting at least a light green color), I was surprised at how yellow it was (remember, it has been MANY years since this product was used by me in a recipe). I then moved closer to smell it. Know what it smelled like? Glue. Wet wheat flour. I did not detect even a hint of celery! Huh?

So here is the good news I mentioned above. Since the Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Celery Soup does not smell like celery (as for taste, well, I just cannot tell you that. Nor will I ever be able to). I am assuming that you could also just saute some celery and fold it into a GF Magic Mix Cream Soup Base.

Gluten-Free Magic Mix Condensed Cream Soup Base:

I cup Gluten Free Magic Mix

1/4 tsp. Onion Powder

3/4 cup water (remember, the Magic Mix has powdered milk in it)

Suggestions for GF Condensed Cream of Celery Soup (without the celery juice):

Add 1/8 – 1/4 tsp. Celery Salt or Celery Seed for added celery flavor

Fold in 1/4 cup sauteed celery.

If you use this method, I would recommend making it the day ahead to allow the celery flavor to develop.

How I made celery juice:

I have the Breville  BJE200XL juicer. It is available on Amazon.com for $99.90 with free shipping. Breville makes a few juicers in different price ranges and you can read user reviews on Amazon.com There are other brands of juicers too and you can see some samples here. Overall, Breville seems to rate among the highest with users and I agree, I absolutely LOVE mine (just not for the aforementioned juice blend)! Back in the fall, I started juicing apples to make the boys fresh apple juice. I have also juiced pears and grapefruit. If we manage to actually produce any tomatoes this year, I would like to make my own tomato juice for condensed tomato soup. I am also curious to see if juicing blueberries, raspberries, etc. would work as a natural food coloring in some things, but that is an experiment for another day. I really know nothing about that subject! Does anyone else happen to have a dehydrator? Can you dehydrate liquids in a home dehydrator? Sorry… see why I can get so behind??

Check this out on the health benefits of celery juice from Natural News.com, and all these years I thought celery was as nutritious as Iceberg Lettuce!

I really like the celery juice version, especially after reading about the health benefits of celery juice. The combined celery juice and onion powder taste reminds me of the aroma from sauteing celery and onion for Thanksgiving dressing. I only have one recipe that calls for Condensed Cream of Celery Soup, and by the time you add it to a bunch of other ingredients, the celery bits aren’t noticeable anyway, which is why I don’t mess with the added celery.

GF Condensed Cream of Tomato Soup

1 cup Gluten-Free Magic Mix

1/4 tsp. Onion Powder

3/4 cup Tomato Juice (see below)

• Add Magic Mix, onion powder and tomato juice to a saucepan. Mix well.

• Turn heat to medium and stir constantly until the mixture thickens (this does not take very long).

Use one recipe of this for each can of Condensed Tomato Soup called for in your recipe.

Comparison to the “real” thing:

The texture and consistency of the Campbell’s is quite a bit thinner than what I came up with. The Campbell’s version is more like a thick Tomato Sauce. I will tinker around and see if I can come up with something more like the Campbell’s Condensed Tomato Soup (eventually, I am a bit backlogged at the moment ). Any which way, I have been using the GF Condensed Cream of Tomato Soup in all my recipes that call for Condensed Tomato Soup and we have liked it all the same, even if it does lend a creamier consistency to the finished product. Besides, it’s been 5 years… I have essentially wiped out any real memories of casseroles in my former gluten-life!

Okay, I couldn’t stop myself. Monopotassium Phosphate (this is only a clip from Wikipedia, click on the link for further info):

is a soluble salt which is used as a fertilizer, a food additive and a fungicide.

I love how they sandwiched “food additive” in between “fertilizer” and “fungicide.” Couldn’t they have at least put “food additive” first??

What I used in the Gluten-Free Condensed Cream of Tomato Soup Recipe (this is actually rather funny in an ironic sort of way!):

Click here for a list of Campbell’s Gluten Free Products.

Since I do not drink tomato juice and I do not use condensed tomato soup all that often, I freeze the left over juice in ice cube trays to use as needed. :-)

GF Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup

1 cup Gluten Free Magic Mix

1/4 tsp. Onion Powder

3/4 cup canned Chicken Liquid (if not using canned chicken, use GF Chicken Broth)

1/4 cup canned Chicken, chopped (if not using canned chicken, use baked Chicken Breast)

• Add Magic Mix, onion powder and canned chicken liquid or chicken broth to a saucepan. Mix well.

• Turn heat to medium and stir constantly until the mixture thickens (does not take very long).

• Fold in 1/4 cup chopped chicken.

Use one recipe of this for each can of condensed cream of chicken soup called for in your recipe.

See the bottom of this post for the canned chicken I used…

Comparison time:

Onward and upward…

For the canned chicken, I used a 13-0z. can of:

What I do to store leftover canned chicken:

By freezing the leftover canned chicken in ice cube trays covered with water, you will eliminate freezer burn and the funky texture that can result from freezer burn! I use one or two “cubes” of chicken that has been thawed and drained in future batches of condensed cream of chicken soup.

Also, when I make chicken salad or something else that calls for canned chicken, instead of discarding the liquid, I freeze it in ice cube trays too, then thaw several cubes for the soup recipe once I get a surplus!

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