The Smiling Heart

www.savethescc.com

This is the place to go if you want to really fight for T:TSCC. They are organized and professional. I think we might have a chance of winning this fight. The latest idea they have is to rent a mobile billboard and have it drive around LA for 3 days paying particular attention to the WB Studio. They are plannin gto have this coincide with the release of Season 2 on DVD and Blu-Ray. They need $3500 by August 20. If you can help, please do!!!!!

WE ARE THE RESISTANCE!!

  Here is the link to donate!!

http://www.savethescc.com/billboard.html

Hello, everyone! I just wanted to take a minute to tell you about a recent outing I took to Outback Steakhouse. In case you don’t know, Outback has done alot of work with the GIG (Gluten Intolerance Group) and have worked hard to make sure their restaurants have trained staff. At the very least, that they are familiar with Celiac and the difficult issues we face when eating out. I stopped by my local Outback for dinner a couple of months ago. They had a GF menu ready to hand to me and my waitress knew what I meant and needed when I told her I was a Celiac and needed to eat gluten free. I didn’t get sick and it was a lovely evening! About two weeks ago I found myself away from home much longer then I had anticipated and needed to get some substantial food to hold me over so as to not suffer any ill effects from the Juvenile Diabetes. I went to the closest Outback which was at a different location then my previous visit had been. This hostess clearly didn’t know what I meant when I asked for a GF menu but assured me she would have the manager look into it. About 5 minutes later the manager came to my table with a print out of their GF menu from the webpage and apologized profusely for not having an actual menu. He assured me he would check my food himself and I would be safe. I asked my waitress if she was familiar with Celiac and the gluten free diet and she said she wasn’t. I asked if she would sit with us for a moment while I told her some important things about it. She very happily sat with us and I gave a quick, short lesson. She seemed sincerely interested and grateful. I went on to have a wonderful small lunch and did not suffer any ill effects at all. So I can wholeheartedly recommend Outback Steakhouse to all my fellow Celiacs out there. Go out and enjoy a nice steak dinner!! Allow your food to be cooked for you and be served to you! You deserve it! If you haven’t ventured out yet don’t be afraid. I know it’s easier said then done. I’m in that same small boat with you but you won’t regret it. I believe you will be well taken care of at Outback and it’s time you went out and had a nice dinner in a restaurant. Here are the links to their webpage and GF menu:

 http://www.outbacksteakhouse.com/ 

 http://www.outbacksteakhouse.com/foodandmenus/pdf/glutenfree.pdf

  Thought I’d take a picture of the new GF Honey Nut Chex box. I have read a lot of conflicting things on the blogs out there. The new boxes DO have the “Now Gluten Free” image on the front despite what General Mills is showing on their page. There is NO MALT FLAVORING in the ingredients list. I was at the Super Walmart that’s just down the road last night. I thought I would check the cereal aisle just to see if they had the new Chex cereals on the shelf. Sure enough, just as pretty as a picture, there they were!! I was surprised how excited I felt. I LOVE cold cereal, don’t get me wrong. I have other health problems though. I, also, have Juvenile Diabetes and because of this I have stayed away from a lot of cereal. Cereal would send my blood sugar through the roof and I would be sick all day long. No matter how much I loved cereal it was not worth the cost. So I would avoid it until the memory faded and then I would give in thinking it must not be that bad only to suffer miserably for my failing memory. After I was diagnosed with the Celiac I quickly put two and two together and thought perhaps it was the gluten that was having such a profound affect on my blood sugar. Sure enough, I can manage my blood sugar levels much easier now while eating gluten free cereals but the lessons of a lifetime do not fade away quite so easily. So I wasn’t expecting to be as excited as I was when I turned that corner and saw the Rice, Corn, Cinnamon, and Honey Nut Chex cereal boxes sitting there with those three beautiful words on them! I think I may have heard angels singing in the background, too. =) It was a sight to behold and then my eyes moved down and I saw the price tag on the shelf and I’ll admit I let out a tiny scream of elation. It said $2.58!! $2.58 for a whole, big box of cereal that I could find on the regular shelf in any grocery store no less!! Oh, it’s these small moments in life that bring happiness. String them all together and soon you have a large moment embracing a certain area of your life. This small moment was added to the small moment when I discovered Tinkyada pasta and knew I would never, never have to go without a good spaghetti dinner even if I was a Celiac. I’m still working on my large moment but I have no doubt it will get larger as Celiacs lose our special power of invisibility and the world has to deal with us. Eat up, friends!! Eat up!

Just a quick post to say that the General Mill’s Chex cereals are now gluten free!!! Yay!!! They have removed the barley malt flavoring and substituted with another flavoring. It’s TRUE, my Celiac friends! So run to the store, don’t walk, run! Buy some cereal off the regular cereal aisle and have a party! Okay…. maybe not a party, but you can do a little dance in your kitchen while you eat it. Don’t forget to call General Mills and thank them for their decision to reformulate in our favor. Hopefully, they will follow by reformulating some of their other cereals and then maybe Kellogg’s will wake up…… and then (!!!!) the world will be ours! *lol* Well, it’s a wonderful first step anyway. Remember to be careful the first few times you go to buy your Chex that it is the NEW formulation. The stores may still have some old product on their shelves. Read the label like we always do. It will now say “Now Gluten Free” on the front of the box, too. Here’s the number to call and thank them:

Call: 1-800-248-7310 between (7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. CT, weekdays)

Fax: 1-763-764-8330

Write: General Mills, Inc.
              P.O. Box 9452
             Minneapolis, MN 55440

HAPPY EATING!!!

In fact, I am so new I just accidentally deleted the 600+ word post I just wrote!! Just wanted to say I am new to this blogging thing and still trying to wrap my head around it. I know this blog is pretty empty right now but I have plans to input a lot of information in the pages on the left hand side. Of course, the categories will fill with time. I have started to add some links so perhaps my blog can be of some help while I work on getting it going. I will be blogging about my life in general along with any thoughts or opinions I may have about what’s happening in the world. I will, also, be blogging about my cats which are huge part of my life, my life with juvenile diabetes/celiac/pernicious anemia/thyroid disease/rheumatoid arthritis, my devotion to God, and my inability to have children and how I have coped. Please check back in later as I hope I’ll be working on this blog daily. =)

Testing new blog.

Testing new blog.