Product Review: Crunchmaster GFCF crackers

A few weeks ago, the folks at Crunchmaster asked if they could send me some gluten-free crackers to try in exchange for my review. I agreed, since I am always looking for new allergy-friendly treats for my boys. After visiting their website, I determined that we could only have a couple of different varieties due to multiple food allergies. As a result, they sent me their Sea Salt Multi-Grain crackers, which were safe for my boys to try.

The Sea Salt Multi-Grain crackers are gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and vegan.

Around the time I received the crackers, I had some meetings scheduled for my nonprofit. Many people involved with my nonprofit either have children with food allergies and sensitivities, or have their own personal dietary concerns. I literally had a captive audience of people who understand gluten-free. It was a perfect opportunity for an impromptu taste test!

The general consensus was very positive and there was no hesitation with their opinions whatsoever. One comment I received was that the crackers had a very satisfying crunch. Another person said that they were good enough to eat by themselves just as a snack – you do not need dip or other toppings to enjoy them.

I took the remaining crackers home to test with my husband and my boys. We all tried them out when I prepared potato soup for dinner one night. I thought the crackers would be a perfect accompaniment, and I was right.

My boys loved them so much they finished off all of the rest of the crackers in one sitting.      

From my own taste test, I can tell you that the Crunchmaster crackers have a slightly different texture than many of the typical rice-based gluten-free crackers on the market, which is a pleasant and appreciated change. If you are familiar with what I’m talking about, those other kinds of crackers can almost have a waxy feel to them, which I do not prefer.

I also like that some of their products are verified GMO-free by the Non-GMO Project. Unfortunately, the variety I tried was not verified GMO-free. I hope that Crunchmaster continues working on getting the rest of their products verified.

Another way to make the product more desirable to families like mine is to use organic ingredients. This is very important to us and we always prefer to purchase products that are organic.

Overall, the Crunchmaster Sea Salt Multi-Grain crackers were a big hit with everyone who tried them. If you are interested in tasting them for yourself, they offer a coupon on their site that you should check out.  

Product Review: The best GFCF dinner rolls ever!

I really mean that! The BEST ever. Do you have any idea how many different gluten-free recipes and brands I’ve used over the past several years? A lot! Do you know how many times extended family and friends have paid me fake compliments as they choke down the GFCF bread bricks that I serve fresh from my oven?

It usually starts out with me saying something like this:

“I tried another new gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free, egg-free, nut-free bread recipe! I hope it turned out okay!"

They reply back with something to the effect of:

“Well, for gluten-free they aren’t bad.”

Uh huh. Sure. Great way to dodge the fact that they taste like crumbly, heavy cardboard. I think I’ve only ever heard a truly positive remark once. It was in regard to a box mix I tried out last Christmas - Gluten Free Pantry’s french bread and pizza mix. It was decent enough. Generally speaking, we no longer go out of our way to eat bread because gluten-free varieties are always so disappointing.

But things are different now. I found the bread mix that puts all other gluten-free bread mixes to shame. I first tried it last month for Thanksgiving dinner with my parents. I made rolls again last night for an early Christmas dinner with my husband’s dad and his family. Do you want to know what the response was? It wasn’t the polite, “these rolls are better than the last ones you made” kind of remark. Oh no, indeed! We had entire conversations about how awesome these rolls were. The response was overwhelmingly positive! For Thanksgiving, we ate all the rolls in one sitting. No leftovers! That was a first! For our early Christmas dinner last night, I made a double-batch (anticipating a good response) and there were only a few left over. By golly…we have success!

I was introduced to this mix by my good friend, Granny Lala, an allergen-free baker. She is most definitely in the know! After she and I did some beta testing on some new sandwich rolls in her commercial kitchen one night, she was extremely generous and sent me home with a sample of this mix to try.

I know you’re dying to know what the brand is and where to get it. Are you ready? Go get a pencil.  

Wordless Wednesday: Carrot 911

The first carrots harvested from my garden look, um, interesting. They are all looking like this! You should have seen the look on my hubby's face when he saw them! This is the 3rd year that I've grown carrots that are funky and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I started all of my seeds inside my house, sowing them individually in peat. I transplanted them outside after they got to be several inches tall. The garden is in a raised bed with uncompacted, organic soil. I need help from all of my gardener friends for ideas on how to grow normal carrots!  Your input and comments are requested! Thanks for your help! 

Dusting off the juicer

I love this time of year for 1 big reason, and no, it’s not that the kids are out of school. Does that make me a bad mom? No way! Any autism mom would likely agree that summer is the most stressful time of year because our kids crave routine. For me, the best part about summer is the fact that lots of fabulous produce becomes available.

Here is one of my bowls of harvested spinach.
Many of the leaves are larger than a slice of bread!

I love watching beautiful, organic veggies grow in my garden. In fact, I’ve already harvested several huge bowls of spinach in the past couple of weeks! It’s so much fun to plan the garden and plant my seeds in the spring, knowing that there will be some great things to eat in the coming months.

And, I adore going to our local organic farms and also perusing the wonderful farmers markets to buy gorgeous fruits and vegetables that are far superior to anything I could get at the grocery store. The visual variety alone makes it worth each trip. I fill up my reusable bags with goodies each time I go.

I try to engage my children fully in the process of picking out things to buy at the farmers market. I know that by doing so, they are more likely to at least try a bite of something new because they picked it out themselves. Sometimes they even help me pay and carry the bag while we continue shopping. If they are particularly proud of their efforts, they may also carry the items on their lap as we travel back home in the car.

Even if after all of their participation they somehow take issue with eating the vegetable, they still "eat" it. Oh yes, I see to that! I’m a mean sneaky mom that way.

This is where the magic of the juicer comes in. You may recall that I wrote a post back in January about how to hide vitamins by doing things like juicing. The juicer is a wonderful tool for any parent! In that post I talk about how I make juices like “Silly Strawberry,” which is comprised of kale (or spinach) and strawberries. In fact, I have some organic Italian kale and organic strawberries in my fridge right now that I plan to use for this very juice. Kale is chock full of essential nutrients like: Vitamin A, Vitamin K, calcium, and magnesium, just to name a few.

As long as there is a strong berry or fruit flavor, the “yucky” veggie is effectively masked. You might have to be sly and make the green portion of the juice when your kid is not watching and then serve it in a colored or ceramic cup (with a sippy-style lid or opaque straw). You can add in a reward system to help them drink the new concoctions, too. It worked great for us!

It makes me happy to know that my boys will be getting fresh and organic juice, full of absorbable vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. This stuff is a far cry from the dead sugar water (a.k.a. pasteurized juice) that we buy in the store! It’s time to dust off the juicer and put it in position for heavy use this summer!

Do you juice? What is your favorite juice to give to your children?    

What the heck is a "Radura" and why should I care?

- I wrote this entry back in November of 2008 and posted it on another blog. In light of the Japanese nuclear crisis and our heightened awareness of radiation, I felt it was a worthy topic to recycle. -   

Parents of special needs children are already very aware of what they are feeding their children, especially when there is concern about toxic load and the effects the food may have on your child. As the mother of two boys with multiple food allergies/sensitivities, autism, and sensory processing disorder, I monitor every ingredient on every label of everything I buy. For our family, diet was the key to the most significant progress, particularly when my youngest began talking two weeks after we went off of all of the allergenic foods. As a result, I am very conscious of what things come into our home and whether or not each item will help or hinder my children’s progress. Now there’s something else to watch out for. The article, “Beware the Radura: Bombarding food with radiation results in preservation at a price” by Eric Schneider in the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of Energy Times, had me sit up and take notice.

“Radura,” a fairly innocuous term, is the name of a new logo to be on the look out for at a store near you. The logo itself is described as a “minimalist…two-leaved plant enclosed by a circle, with breaks in the top half that allude to ionizing rays.” This flower-like logo, which seems to imply something healthy and natural, is a sign that the food you are about to purchase has been treated with radiation. Irradiation has been slowly gaining momentum since the FDA approved it in 1963, and over the years irradiated foods include meat, vegetables and spices. Since the 2006 E. coli outbreak that affected the spinach industry and the salmonella outbreak this past May that affected tomatoes and peppers, the FDA has pushed forward the usage of irradiation to now include lettuce and spinach.

The thing that really caught my attention was that spices are treated with the equivalent of one billion chest x-rays and a hamburger is treated with the equivalent of 15 million chest x-rays. Seriously? When we get an x-ray, we have to wear a protective lead shield. Are we supposed to really believe that eating food exposed to ONE BILLION the times of radiation as when we are wearing our cute lead smock is actually SAFE? Do I have the word stupid tattooed to my forehead? You have got to be kidding me! As if the actual logic wasn’t enough to convince me that irradiation is a bad idea, there is actual data proving that it is harmful.

And so it begins...

Is there a 12-step program for gardening? I said it before and I'll say it again: I have a problem. Since my earlier entry about a slight gardening obsession, I went to the store again. Four times. And I bought more stuff. Did you expect any less? This weekend I dodged the downpours and got myself outside to play in the dirt a little bit. Oh, who am I kidding? It was mud.

Let me tell you the highlight of my weekend. I went out to pick up some organic potting soil and 2 more large pots. I got to the store right after a rain squall came through and was outside with my big cart seeking to gather my supplies. I found the exact pots I wanted, but they were up on a shelf and I had to stand on my tip-toes to get the pots down. Being from the great Pacific Northwest, you would think I know a thing or two about rain and would be smart enough to think about what happens when it rains. You know how rain has a way of magically collecting into all sorts of little nooks and crannies? Well, the pots I selected to buy were stored upside down, rendering the top edges into a nice, wide brim…perfect for collecting a plentiful reservoir of rainwater.

Can you already picture what’s about to happen? Unfortunately, I was still clueless. So, I’m reaching on my tip-toes to pull down these pots from the shelf. And that’s when the rainwater pours over me like a small waterfall. It got in my hair, soaked my arms, splashed on my leg and down into my shoe, and made a nice spot of wet in my mid-section in a not-so-flattering way. Mind you, I’m wearing light grey sweats, so the water shows up as ugly dark splotches of embarrassment. It was awesome.

I now resemble a partially drowned rat and I hadn’t even gotten the dirt yet. Thankfully, I am the only one crazy enough to be outside in the garden department on a rainy day. So, I decide to hang out there for a little while longer until the water spots become less noticeable. Frankly, I’m enjoying my time all alone with the entire garden paradise to myself. Then, I feel the first drops of rain. I remember that I still need to get dirt, which was my primary reason for making the trip out to the store in the first place. Why did I wait to get the dirt? I get so distracted when I’m having fun.

As I begin browsing the selection of various planting mediums, I realize that there’s a lot to go through before I can find what I want. With each step, the rain increases. What I need is completely out in the elements, and by now, it’s pretty much a downpour. Well, what the heck? I’m already drenched and I need dirt. I’m not afraid of rain. So, I begin slugging the heavy bags of dirt onto my cart. Those suckers gain a tremendous amount of weight when they’ve been sitting under a rainy sky! Not to mention the fact that any dirt residue on the outside of the bag is now a minor mud slick that makes the bag slippery. And, there’s the fact that the mud is now on my light grey clothing as I’m trying to leverage the bags against my body so they don’t slip out of my grip as I maneuver them. 



I wasn't nearly this cute in the rain.

By the time I’m done, I am more uniformly wet as I’ve been throwing around bags of dirt in the rain. My hands are covered in a flattering shade of dirt brown to accessorize with my dirty and damp sweats. I’m a muddy, wet mess. I manage to find a little puddle of water to dip my hands into so that I can try to clean up a little bit before I start rummaging around in my purse to pay for my items. My glorious tale makes you want to garden, doesn’t it? It’s so glamorous, you know.

All that being said, I’ve added the following seeds to my growing collection:

• Yellow onion
• Sage
• Oregano
• Dill
• Basil
• Stevia
• Golden beets

And, in addition to the 2 pots that drenched me, I also purchased a frost blanket, and a makeshift raised planting bed which I will construct into a 2’ x 10’ size to complement my current raised planting bed and other large pots.

I went ahead and filled up my first Jiffy tray with seeds to get the seedlings going indoors in preparation for planting them outside sometime soon. This takes care of about half of what I intend to start from seed. In outdoor pots I planted blueberries, garlic, asparagus, and my first batch of potatoes.  

With all the stuff I’ve acquired, I am not sure I’ll have enough room to grow it all. Here’s hoping everything works out and grows well! You gotta love fresh, organic produce from the back yard. C'mon, spring! I wanna get this party started.

Calling all gardeners!

It’s March! That means that all the stores are stocking garden supplies. I can’t resist! Never mind that it was just snowing here 2 days ago… Why, yes! I do need more seeds. I just bought seeds. For the third time in 3 weeks. I may have a problem.

Want a look into my gardening neurosis? So far this year, I’ve purchased:

·         Carrot seeds

·         Beefsteak tomato seeds

·         Loose-leaf lettuce seeds

·         Sugar snap pea seeds

·         Bush bean seeds

·         Broccoli seeds

·         Straightneck summer squash seeds

·         Cylindrical beet seeds

·         Spinach seeds

·         Garlic starts

·         Blue and red seed potatoes

·         Asparagus starts

·         Blueberry shrubs

From last year, I’ve already got:

·         Strawberries

·         Boysenberry canes

·         Thyme

I still want to buy:

·         Yellow onion seeds/starts

·         Basil

·         Sage

·         Dill

·         Oregano

I’m sure there’s more, but I know I’ve already gone overboard. I don’t have enough room for what I’ve got.

Almost everything I grow originates from organic seed and I use organic soil and fertilizer. Last year I installed a new 4' x 8' raised garden bed. I’m going to need about 2 more of them and don’t have any money to buy them, much less room to install them. I have a feeling that I’m going to be doing lots of gardening in pots this year. The soil in my yard is awful, and gardening attempts prior to the new raised planting bed (with all new soil) yielded pitiful results. Last year was my first real success and I'd like it to be bigger and better this year.  

I just bought a huge new pot that I will grow potatoes in. I read an article about using a barrel or large pot to grow potatoes, so I’m going to give it a try. Basically, you add some soil in the bottom of the barrel, add the seed potatoes and let them grow about 6 inches or more, and then add another layer of soil, not covering the leaves of the existing plants, and add more seed potatoes. Keep growing, layering and planting until you reach the top and then at the end of the season, dump the whole thing over and collect your bounty. I can't wait to try it.

I think I may also attempt collecting my own seeds this year, too. I really have no idea how to do it, but I’m sure Google will offer up some great suggestions. Do you collect your own seeds?

My biggest flop from last year was growing carrots. All of my carrots were short, tiny, fat and funky. I’d like them to actually look like carrots this year so that my kids will eat them. How do you get carrots to grow properly?

I’m fairly new to the gardening thing and I have a lot to learn. As for now, I need to figure out when to start the seeds so that my little plants are all ready to grow out in the big, bad world after the fear of frost is gone. When should I start the seeds?    

Do you garden? Do you have any tips? I’m all ears (well, I guess it would be eyes…)! Please, feel free to comment below with your favorite gardening tip. I’d love to hear from you!  

Are you skinnier and more organized yet?

It's the last day of January. How many New Year's resolutions did you make and break? My record is perfect - zero made, zero broken. But, I've made changes! The following is a re-post of an entry I did earlier this month on my local support group's blog. I thought I'd recycle this one for the Caffeinated Autism Mom crowd. Find out why I don't make resolutions anymore. Enjoy! 

Well, here we are. It's 2011. Once again, it’s time to plan how we will fill the blank pages of a new year. I went out to shop some of the after Christmas sales and found that a majority of the stores already had made the move from Santa’s red and green Wonderland to the Pepto-Bismol pink glow of Valentine’s Day. Besides the change in holidays, I repeatedly saw items related to fitness and organization. There were stacks and rows of plastic storage tubs and boxes, wicker baskets, yoga mats, water bottles, heart rate monitors and more. Does everyone in the US resolve to the do same thing year after year? Get fit! Get organized!  Are we that predictable? 

I think so. I was one of those people. Every year I would resolve to be healthier, among other lofty and unattainable goals. Inevitably, I would disappoint myself. My resolutions were typically busted by the second week of January. What can I say? Willpower is not my forte.

Things changed for me about 5 years ago when my husband was diagnosed with lymphoma. For his 30th birthday, the gift he got was recuperation from surgery and the anticipation of chemotherapy and radiation. Needless to say, it was not a banner year for us. However, something happened to me that changed me forever. In my quest to help my husband, I opened my eyes, ears, and mind to things I never gave a second thought to before.

It was this forced awakening about things like toxic load that prepared me to make significant changes when we received the diagnosis for our boys. In learning about autism and changes I might need to make for our kids, I realized I’d done this before. It wasn’t as overwhelming the second time around. Yes, it sucks and it’s really hard, but I’m a combat veteran from cancer. I got this! At least I hoped I did.

Where to begin? Clean up your environment. What do you eat? What do you drink? What do you put on your body? What do you allow into your home? Changes are needed in droves! Cue the resolutions!

As I mentioned before, resolutions and I don’t usually get along. So instead of resolutions, I now make an agreement with my husband about what issue we want to take on over the course of a year. Then we set out to do the things necessary related to that issue. You know, accountability. Two heads are better than one. That kind of thing. And, these ideas are permanent changes that we incorporate into our lifestyle. Resolutions don’t work for us, but tangible planning in unison does. What does this look like in action, you ask? Well…

Three years ago we dealt with the air we breathe. We installed a hospital-grade whole house air filtration system. We also bought in-room air ionizers and several Himalayan salt lamps.

Two years ago, we tackled food and chemicals. We had already made the switch to mostly organic produce the year before, but then I made a newly concerted effort to buy exclusively organic products whenever possible. We’re talking organic grass-fed meat, wild-caught fish, free-range organic poultry and eggs, replacing all of my spices with organic ones (which aren’t irradiated!), etc. We switched out all of our cleaning products, detergents, beauty products, etc., to ones that are plant-based, non-toxic and non-chemical. I even went so far as to carry the new standards over to my lawn and yard care products. Chemicals be gone!

Last year we focused on water. We installed charcoal filters on our shower heads to filter out the chlorine that our body was exposed to both topically and as a gas when we took a shower. We had already made the switch from tap water (chock full of fluoride and chlorine!) to spring water with naturally occurring minerals and a pH just a hair on the alkaline side of neutral. We used spring water for drinking and cooking, and typically went through a gallon a day, sometimes more. That gets expensive, especially when the government enacts a water tax on every ounce of bottled water you buy. As a result of the tax, something we’d talked about before as a “wouldn’t it be great?” item for the house became much more reasonable to entertain. We ran the numbers and decided to buy an atmospheric water generator. Yes folks, we make our own water from the air. It’s filtered in a multi-step process (reverse osmosis, UV, etc.), it adds minerals back in, and it has instant cold and instant hot spigots that you can set to whatever temperatures your heart desires. No more tea kettle for me! Now I water my plants with this water, we cook with it, we drink it, and not only is it good, we know it’s safe.

Now, we’re here at the dawn of 2011. What’s the plan for this year? We’re changing how we cook. I just bought some frying pans that don’t release PTFE when heated. The old non-stick pans are gone! I already acquired some cast iron and stainless steel pans over the past few years, and we’ve switched our daily usage containers from plastic to glass. We also took a big risk to our sense of convenience, and unplugged the microwave. I bought a toaster oven that has convection, and will use it to replace my dying toaster and my food-destroying microwave. It’s also large enough to replace my oven on most things (which will save energy). There will definitely be a learning curve here, as we’ve come to rely on the ease of tossing something into the microwave at the last minute. This change will require a little bit more planning and time, but we agree that it’s a good change and we’re willing to take the plunge.

The kinds of changes we’ve made at our house are much too intense to take on all at one time. By breaking things down into steps we can manage, we continue to better our household without incurring major sticker shock. It’s much easier and less overwhelming that way. I wonder what we’ll change for 2012? Who knows? I’ve got a whole year to think about it, and besides, I need to become an expert with my new style of cooking first.

Here’s to resolving to make permanent changes! Happy New Year!