The second day of the CDF Conference & Expo featured CDF’s stand alone gluten-free product expo.  As expected, it was phenomenal.

There were gluten-free foods galore and tons of people needing to eat gluten-free in order to stay healthy.  Guess what?  They were all happy to be there.

Since I was there as an official blogger, I decided that instead of reporting back to you on the major companies that you’ve most likely heard about such as Enjoy Life, Rudi’s, Udi’s, I’d pick a just a handful of companies for you.  This a small sampling of books and companies that were available at the expo.  How awesome is it to be able to try sample’s from all of these incredible vendors represented in one place?

Lucy’s cookies are made in a dedicated facility and are free of milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts and gluten.           Dr. Lucy Gibney was being interviewed by the LA Times during the Expo and there is no way I would have been able to remain as calm as she was during all of the chaos.  When Lucy’s son was diagnosed with multiple and severe allergies, she took action by changing her mom’s recipes into scrupulously safe cookies for all children whether they live allergen free or not.  Try these delightful cookies today.  As Lucy says, “Start eating what you’ve been missing.” Available at Well Amy.

Andean Dream makes some pretty impressive and flavorful cookies, pasta and soup.For now I will focus on their Andean Dream Quinoa Cookies. These yummy little morsels come in a carton as pictured and are individually wrapped for freshness.  All of the packaging is recyclable for those of us that are greenies.  For variety, they are produced in five flavors which are all free of gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, corn and nuts.  After tasting these protein packed treats, I bought a package of each kind for my kiddos to have with lunch.  I love the coffee and they love the coconut.  Can’t wait to try their other products!  Available at Well Amy.

Heavenly Organics Oh my!  This company really does live up to its name.  With many types of patties and Himalayan Honey to sample at their table, I could have stayed there all day.    So before I go off on a tangent about honey and how fabulous it is for your health and how bad sugar is for your body, I’m going to zoom in on my favorite flavor of patty.  Pomegranate.  Made with organic honey & dark chocolate this product is also gluten and dairy free.  Don’t you love when your food only has three ingredients(that you can pronounce) and tastes like heaven?  A magically delicious way to have a dessert without adding sugar.Available at Well Amy.

Arnel’s Originals  For some reason, I really connected with this lady right off the bat. When I got home and went to her website, I read the story of her journey and knew why.  We definitely have plenty in common as mother’s.  From what I read, it took 14 years to obtain a celiac disease diagnosis.  After all those years of frustration,  this woman had a mission to make some phenomenal gluten-free bread.  She also wanted it to be healthy.  Not stopping at just healthy, it needed to be dairy free, gluten-free, soy free and lastly GMO free.  The result was Arnel’s Originals Buckwheat Bread.  Made with organic buckwheat flour, organic brown rice flour and other wholesome ingredients, this bread has an awesome texture.   Arnel offers mixes and online baking videos so you don’t have to go through the 8 year process that she did to make such goodness from your oven.

Jilz Gluten Free Crackers – These crackers were so delish that I had to buy several containers and mixes.  Hopefully this health conscious company will be around for quite a while.  Our favorite flavor so far is Mediterranean.  Salty goodness.  Support your smaller gluten-free start-up businesses.  Find Jilz on Facebook by clicking here.

Weeknight Gluten Free by Kristine Kid For over 20 years, Kristine was the food editor of Bon Appetit magazine.  One look through this book and it’s pretty easy to see why.  This cookbook’s main focus is healthy living while offering you gluten-free recipes that are yummy but easy to make.  This book has something for everyone and features gorgeous food photos that make your mouth water.  Some of the recipes are so simple that my children can make me dinner too.  It hurts no one that they all happen to be healthy in addition.  There’s even a section called “Meatless Meals.”   Can’t wait to try Steak and Rajas Tacos and make Coconut-Rum Caramelized Bananas for dessert.

Well Amy Wouldn’t it be a wonderful time saver if you had someone who could research all of the gluten-free products on the market for you and find some of  healthier options for you?  Well there is.  Well Amy has recently launched their online market.  Go take a look.   Shop for your needs all in one place.  I was so pleased to see some of the booths at the Expo marked with her Well Amy logo because it made it much easier for me to seek out the type of vendors that I was looking for as a consumer.

Well Amy also offers you a way to connect with people who are like you whether they are living an allergen free, eco-friendly or are into healthy living.

Gluten is my Bitch by April Peveteaux is one helluva book.  I don’t think that I have ever laughed so hard about my gastrointestinal symptoms in my entire life.  It took me over 25 years of having these symptoms to be diagnosed.  That’s a whole lot of damage.  There is nothing funny about that.  BUT COME ON!  We need to laugh sometimes.  Why not laugh until you cry? I did.

I’ve never heard the word beshatting used in a sentence either.  No one else that I have ever met has ever had the guts to write a whole chapter about poop.  Kudos to April for discussing the matters of gluten-free living in adult words.  She will always be my GFF.  This Brooklyn girl has a whole lot of Chutzpah.  It was certainly refreshing to read a bunch of naughty words mixed with good advice after having deep and intense medical discussions during the previous weeks….months…years.