Be Free For Me Blog

Don’t you just love it when you find out that a company is doing some good? Giving back to the community and recognizing others that are also doing good?

I was smiling from ear-to-ear when I heard about Rudi’s newest campaign in honor of Celiac Disease Awareness Month.

Their campaign is called Spread the Bread (I just love the name!) and the concept is easy:

Rudi’s Gluten-Free will donate $1 to your favorite celiac organization when you download a $1 OFF coupon good towards any Rudi’s gluten-free bread.

It’s simple. Easy. And a win-win for everyone. Talk about spreading around some gluten-free love!

The celiac organizations that you can designate as the recipient of your $1.00 donation include:
Celiac Disease Foundation
Celiac Sprue Association
Gluten Intolerance Group of North America
National Foundation for Celiac Awareness

To get your $1.00 OFF coupon and designate the national organization to be the recipient of your $1.00 donation from Rudi’s, click on this Facebook Link.

On behalf of the gluten-free community – thank you, Rudi’s for this fantastic campaign!

Let’s hear your comments… What is your favorite national celiac organization? How about any local organizations?

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!

I plan on submitting a recipe… are you? Reply to this blog and let us know if you enter to win so your BeFreeForMe friends can check out your recipe and vote!

Be Free!

Just a quick reminder to everyone to sign up for Dr. Daniel Leffler’s FREE webinar that will take place this TUESDAY night, July 13th.

This week’s webinar is the last of three-part summer series of webinars that are presented by riceworks brown rice crisps and sponsored by BeFreeForMe.com.

Dr, Daniel Leffler, MD, MS, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Division of Gastroenterology at BIDMC, has just launched his book Real Life with Celiac Disease (I got a sneak peak and it is a great resource!). Join Dr. Leffler this Tuesday July 13th to learn about a wide range of topics from his new book including screening and diagnosis, associated conditions, food allergies and intolerances, complications, nongastrointestinal manifestations, and what the difference is between celiac disease and a gluten intolerance.

This is a great way to learn more about celiac disease and the gluten-free diet, lifestyle and living!  

I hope to see you all there!
Be Free!
Kathleen

On Monday, January 11, 2010 from 8:00 – 9:00 PM (EST) Glutino Foods (a brand we all know and love!) will be hosting a Gluten-Free Twitter Party… and you’re invited!

I am excited to be a part of this Glutino Twitter Party alongside Elisabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of “The View”, fellow celiac, and author of “The G-Free Diet”; the folks over at Ian’s Natural Foods, that make all natural, organic (plus allergen-free and gluten-free!) meals for kids; and Chad Hines, from GlutenFreeFaces, the gluten-free and celiac social network. During the party we will “chat” about living the gluten-free lifestyle, ways to make living gluten-free more manageable, tips & tricks, and also have some phenomenal gluten-free give-aways and prizes.

In order to RSVP to the party check out the invitation from Glutino. The hashtag for the party is #GF. (Note: A few days before the party, I will post another blog regarding specifics & tips on joining this Gluten-free twitter party).

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Twitter, or just haven’t gotten around to checking it out, NOW is the time!

In a nut-shell, Twitter is a free social networking or micro-blogging service that allows you to “tweet” or chat, back and forth, with other like-minded people (or “peeps” as they are know as on Twitter!). These tweets can conveniently be up to 140-characters – so they are short, but are packed with tons of information, links, ideas and thoughts. Those that subscribe to, or “follow”, you receive your tweets. In return, tweets from anyone you “follow” are delivered to your twitter account. You are able to send and receive tweets from the Twitter website, SMS messaging, or from other website applications (like tweetdeck.com or Twhirl.com).

Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, the on-line shoe superstore, says that although twitter seems a bit awkward at first, it will eventually be as common place as text messaging in your life. In fact, he goes on to say that if you and your friends all use Twitter for a 2 week period, it will “change your life”, and you will “wonder how you ever lived without it”. By the way, Tony has over 1,639,877 followers!

If you aren’t sure where to start join once you join Twitter, log on and start following me!

If you want to find out more about Twitter, how to join and tips on getting involved, check out the website and blog links listed at the end of this blog post. Get tweeting today!

On January 11th, crack open a bag of Glutino gluten-free pretzels, log-on to your Twitter account and join us for the first ever Glutino’s Gluten-free Twitter party! See you then!

Good Twitter Resources:

Zappos.com’s CEO, Tony Hsieh, “Beginner’s Quick Start Guide and Tutorial to Using Twitter”

PurpleCar.com: Great blog on “How to Start Using Twitter”

About.com: Information on Twitter

Since starting BeFreeForMe just a little more than a year ago, I have been amazed by the outpouring of warmth, sharing and compassion of the BeFreeForMe members. There have been members who have been diagnosed with celiac disease for over 15 years that have contacted me to offer their mentoring and support to the newly diagnosed. I’ve been contacted by a grandmother that has children, and grandchildren, with numerous food allergies, as well as years and years’ worth of tried-and-true recipes that she offered to share with a young, scared Mom whose toddler had been recently diagnosed with numerous food allergies. I’ve had teachers contact me asking where they could find the best resources to educate themselves about food allergies and celiac disease, since they had children in their classroom with these diagnoses and they wanted to educate themselves in order to make these children feel as welcomed and involved as possible.

One of the things I hear over and over from people that have food allergies and celiac disease is their amazement over the sense of community and goodness that has come from others that share in the same diagnosis.

I am amazed myself.

This positive energy from the celiac & food allergy community, often through the support groups, has provided me with a positive and more manageable diagnosis, and I will always be grateful.

That is why I want to share with all of the BeFreeForMe members, Show Us Your Goodness, a program sponsored by riceworks® brown rice crisps that will donate $20,000 to an inspiring nonprofit organization or charitable cause.

During this holiday season, I encourage all of you to check out the Show Us Your Goodness website and nominate one of your favorite nonprofit organizations or charitable causes. Your charity can be local or national. Grassroots or established. Recognized or not.

Also, once the three finalists are picked, I encourage you to vote for one of the nominated groups (the voting between the three finalists will take place between March 16th to April 30th . I will also blog about the three finalists once they are picked!).

If you nominate your favorite charity, or you support one of the previously nominated groups, make sure you comment on this blog post and tell us what charitable group you support. Six (Yes…6!) BeFreeForMe members that post a comment will win a FREE CASE of riceworks® brown rice crisps!  The winners will be picked on February 16th, 2010.

Some of the charitable non-profit groups which I have volunteered for and supported are listed at the bottom of this email. All of these charities have in some way helped my health and touched my soul.  I look forward to hearing about your favorite charities too!

Happy Holiday… Be Charitable… Enjoy the Spirit of the Season… and, as always…

Be Free!
———-
Some of My Favorite Charities:

* Michael Carter Lisnow Respite Center
* Food Allergy Initiative
* National Foundation for Celiac Awareness
* Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network
* Canadian Celiac Association
* Celiac Disease Foundation
* Celiac Sprue Association
* Healthy Villi
* Project Just Because

This past Saturday, October 3rd, I was given the opportunity to speak at the New England Celiac Conference in Marlborough, Massachusetts which was sponsored by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Greater Boston’s celiac/DH support group, The Healthy Villi. It was such a joy to meet so many fellow celiacs, their families & friends, as well as numerous dieticians & world-renowned doctors.

My presentation, “The Gluten Free Diet: Saving Money with Sense & Savvy” was just one of the workshops offered in the afternoon session. Other presenters included Doctors from Beth Israel, Children’s Hospital in Boston, and other hospitals; Register Dieticians, and chefs that baked-up some fantastic crepes, pies, and muffins! Plus, there were numerous food vendors that served up fantastic gluten free samples!

If you didn’t have the chance to attend this years conference make sure that you mark your calendar as soon as next years conference date is posted! Plus, the gluten free breakfast, lunch and snack breaks were absolutely delicious. 

If you did have the chance to attend, I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on the conference!

I want to spread the word about the New England Celiac Conference that taking place in Marlboro, Massachusetts on Saturday, October 3, 2009 from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM.

The Healthy Villi Support Group and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are sponsoring this fantastic event.   The conference features speakers, workshops, cooking demos, vendor sampling and product sales.

I have been asked to speak at the conference and will be providing a workshop on “Saving Money while Shopping Gluten Free” – besides being excited about speaking, I can’t wait to meet you all “face to face”! Other speakers include physicians that will be speaking about managing celiac disease, what is involved in participating in celiac research and a newly diagnosed workshop. There are also many cooking workshops.

I have been an attendee at the Healthy Villi meetings in the past, but this larger, regional conference is going to be the biggest and most interactive yet!

And don’t worry about toting along your gluten-free snacks … Along with a delicious 100%  gluten-free lunch and snack breaks, there will also be vendor tables that will showcase tons of gluten free samples and info!

I hope to meet as many BeFreeForMe members at the conference as possible!  Note: Marlboro, Massachusetts is right on Route 495, and just exits away from the Route 495 / Route 90 (Mass Pike) interchange. It is a quick and easy ride from Western Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

For more information and to register, checkout the Healthy Villi website or the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center website.

I hope to see all you Northeastern celiacs in Marlboro on October 3rd!
Be Free!
Kathleen