Gluten Free Recipes Blog

It seems as though I am meeting more and more people who have gluten intolerance or Celiac disease. Either that, or it is just being talked about more than it used to be. We try to buy as much organic food as we can, so much of our food (that we don't raise ourselves), comes from our buying club or natural food stores. There are significantly more gluten free products than when we changed our diet about 7 years ago.

I was surfing some blogs tonight and came across this one that has lots of great looking recipes that aren't too out there, with ingredients that I couldn't find.

http://killthegluten.blogspot.com/

The two bloggers are sister-in-laws and evidently both the brother and sister have Celiac disease, so the two are posting recipes that they use. Even though it may not be a need for you, perhaps you know someone who could benefit. And if nothing else, the recipes look scrumptious to me. I think we'll be trying some of these out soon.

Bon Appetit!

Check Out the Safety of Your Personal Care Products

http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep/?key=11394112&message=Successfully+updated+Supporter+information

You can go to this website address and search through the products in the database. They are rated as low, moderate, or high concern. Since we use many organic and natural products I was curious to see if they were as good as I thought they were supposed to be. Most were pretty good, although some were higher than I thought they would be.

Go around your house and check out your shampoos, toothpastes, makeups, etc at this site. I learned a lot.

Protect Your Freedom By Speaking Out

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55370

April 30, 2007 is the deadline for comment on the FDA's proposed rule that would regulate herbs, vitamins, supplements, homeopathy and other alternative therapies. Basically it would include anything that can be used to treat illness.

Many, many people utilize these alternatives to avoid the sometimes nasty side effects of FDA-approved drugs by pharmaceutical companies. There have been a number of drugs taken off the market after it was determined that they caused terrible side effects, even death in some cases.

Please read the linked article and make your comments known. Please read the entire article. We really should be alarmed.

We still live in a society with free speech. Please let your voice be heard!

A Rare Day....

Today was one of those rare days where I didn't have to go anywhere. Where I could just stay home. I didn't have to be on someone else's time schedule. That felt really good. It seems that these days everyone is so busy and being pushed by the clock, that it feels good to ignore it once in a while.

Tomorrow is another day and I've already got a list of things to do at specific times, meeting with people, being somewhere for a regularly scheduled meeting. These unscheduled days don't come by too often, but I must remember to savor each moment when I have them. I bet if we looked back 30 years, we weren't so busy from the moment we get up till the moment we go to bed. How life has changed and how quickly.

Do yourself a favor from time to time and try to enjoy an unscheduled day. You might find it a welcome respite from the sometimes frantic world we live in.

Enter to Win these Organic Earth Day Contests

The Organic Earth Day contests are listed at: http://organicearthday.org/go/ContestAndGiveaways

There are several contests to enter:
1. A trip for two to a wellness spa in Austin, TX
2. A free toy (stuffed animal)
3. Organic products

Contest rules are posted at the link above. Who wouldn't want to win a spa weekend for you and your spouse. Good luck!

Drowning in Paper!!

Is it just me, or does the paper just multiply anymore? I am drowning. There are several categories of paper of course:

Bills
Sale Flyers
Newspapers
Credit Card Offers
Junk Mail
Phone messages that need to be returned
Magazine subscriptions
Kids Artwork
Honey-Do lists ---LOL!
Letters that need responses
Papers to be filed for future reference (taxes, medical, etc)

While I realize that you can stop some of them from coming to your house, most can't. I have tried (and failed at) many different methods of corralling all this paper. I've tried the tickler file, the portable file box, the inbox-outbox, the file drawer, the filing cabinet.

I can't say that any of them have really worked. What I have come to realize is that no system is going to work, if you 1) don't make the time to process the paper and 2) stay on top of it...and there is my downfall. When you are so busy just trying to keep up with the dailyness of life, paperwork is not high on the list of priorities.....cooking, cleaning, schooling and running a business are.

Of course it wouldn't hurt to have the hubby and kids helping out either! But I digress! My plan is to really cut down on the stuff coming into our house and this summer, clear out the backlog of files. Then I need to schedule a block of time every week to deal with it all so it doesn't get out of hand again.

If you have any great ideas, I'm all ears!

Brownie Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

1 (19.8 or 21.5 oz.) pkg. fudge brownie mix (9 in. pan)
3 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1 (14 oz.) can Eagle sweetened condensed milk
2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 c. mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of 9 inch springform pan. Prepare brownie mix as package directs for chewy brownies. Spread evenly in prepared pan. Bake 35 minutes or until set. Meanwhile, in large mixer bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in condensed milk. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Stir in chips. Pour into prepared pan. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees. Bake 50 minutes or until center is set. Cool. Chill thoroughly. Remove side of springform pan. Garnish as desired. Refrigerate leftovers.

Prep time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours

I'm Jumping In Too!

I've been blogging for a little while now, but haven't been very consistent at it. Part of the reason, is that I didn't think it was very easy to do much, but add text to my blog. I could never seem to make it look like I wanted. After reading many friends blogs here and hearing that it was relatively easy, I decided to change over. I will probably bring those posts over at some time.

My other blog was primarily about homeschooling, but included my interests of scrapbooking as well. I hope to blog about a larger variety of topics. In case you can't tell from the title of my blog, I LOVE CHOCOLATE!!!! Pretty much any shape or form! I am an avowed coffee-hater, but my friends even convinced me to try a chocolate covered coffee bean this morning and it wasn't bad at all! So you will see posts on a number of topics here: scrapbooking, chocolate, homeschooling, an organic lifestyle, running your own business, family, pets, books I've read, living in the country, things I believe in, decorating, organization, cute kids and the things they say, my pet peeves and A Day in the Life......

How's that for a bit of everything? Please come back often and if I am not posting, don't hesitate to remind me, it's time to post something new!