My 5 favorite gluten free foods that it has taken me 8 years to find

I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2003. I thought it was absolutely horrible at the time. I am sure that anyone who receives this diagnosis would feel the same way. You wonder what in the world are you going to eat. Eight years later, I find it much easier to eat like everyone else. I also know that I am eating much healthier than I would if I did not have Celiac Disease. The options are so much better!

I did some gluten free grocery shopping today and that inspired me to create this list. I have eaten some nasty gluten free foods over the years so I am extremely appreciative of the companies who have brought some quality great tasting foods to the market.

Try these out and let me know some of your favorites.

1) Udi's Gluten Free Whole Grain Bread - It's so nice to be able to eat a real sandwich. Crozet Great Valu carries this bread. Here is their FaceBook page Crozet Great Valu You can also find it at Martin's

2) Nature's Path Crunchy Maple Sunrise Cereal - I actually put my cereal in my Oikos greek yogurt in the mornings. I usually get the cereal at Crozet Great Valu or Martin's.

3) King Arthur Flour's Gluten Free Muffin Mix  - No one in my family can tell that these are gluten free. I add strawberries and blueberries to the mix. These are absolutely incredible. I can't rave enough about them. I buy the mix at Martin's.

4) Glutino Original Crackers - These are as close as you are going to get to regular crackers. What I really like about them is that they are not flavored. This makes them great for chicken and tuna salad. I find these at Martin's.

5) Kinnikinnick Pizza Crust - These are frozen so if you are going out to a pizza place you can take one with you wrapped in foil. Most places will make you a pizza with your crust. These are at Great Valu in Crozet as well.

Many of these items can be found at other stores. Kroger usually carries a nice selection of gluten free foods. Unfortunately, there isn't a Kroger near me. I have to say there is a real benefit to having a local grocer like my Great Valu. If I request something they will get it in. My local Great Valu has a nice selection of gluten free foods.

Service Calls - An Antiquated Business Model

Last week I had an experience that I am sure everyone reading this post has had at some point. My family has lived in the new house we built for almost two years now (end of May to be exact). As luck would have it, one of my carefully, over researched appliance purchases let me down. My husband worked from home a couple of weeks ago to be there during the "window" of time that the repair person would come out. There was a problem with the computer board in the stove so a new one had to be ordered since this was not a piece commonly carried in a repair truck. The bigger problem was that this meant that my husband or I would have to be at home for the return trip. We are both far more fortunate than most in that we each have the flexibility to perform a good deal of our work from our home office. This doesn't make it convenient to be there however as we both need to meet with people throughout the day and it's a 20 minute drive to our offices in town. My husband had a meeting scheduled for the day that the repair person needed to come back out to install the part so it was my turn. Our time "window" was from 8am - 12pm. I was quite sure that we would be first on the list given that they knew exactly what needed to be done at our house and should know the exact amount of time it would take as well. There were no mysteries to this job. And since this was a follow up visit, I would have thought someone in the process may have thought it good business to be respectful of our time.
I couldn't have been more wrong. We were absolutely last on the list. In fact, I received a call at 11:30 to let me know that the repair person was running late due to other jobs taking additional time. So, the person showed up at my house sometime around 12:30. The repair took all of about 15 minutes. I was pleasant to my repair person because I am quite certain that his route is given to him by someone else each day based on the calls that have been received and appointments that have been scheduled. So he really was not the person who needed to hear my frustration. He did the best he could and he correctly diagnosed my problem on his first call and fixed it on his second trip.
The problem lies with companies who have not adapted their service models to recognize that most American households have two working occupants. And beyond that has anyone ever been pleased by the fact that they had to commit to sitting in their house for at least 4 consecutive hours just waiting. Even when your problem is solved, do you feel good about the time that you lost because you had to wait. In my case, the oven that I had purchased from Sears had only been in use for about 20 months when it failed.
I do not believe that Sears is alone in continuing to operate such an antiquated service system. But I do think that they need to look at how some other businesses are handling service calls. I am not always happy with the local station interference on my Dish when it rains, but whenever I have to call them they have an immediate resolution or a service person who is seemingly hawking over my neighborhood. He calls me directly and tell me an exact time that he will be at my house. That is turning a negative customer experience into a positive one. So, thank you  Dish for the excellent customer service. Keep working on that whole rain problem though. :)
Please let me know about your experiences with service calls. Who has a good service model and who wastes your time unnecessarily.

My Quadruplicity take aways

Yesterday I spent my day at Quadruplicity, the Charlottesville Chamber's annual Business Women's conference. The conference is all about finding your own balance in your life, your career, your finances and health. I began this post last night and titled it. I didn't get very far because my son needed assistance with his homework and honestly my cold had gotten the best of me by late night. This morning I received an email from someone who I consider to be a good friend that was one of my guests at the conference yesterday. In it she included her take aways which I will quote. "Eat often, eat less, sleep more, walk more, a little stress good, a lot of stress bad and finally a minute is absolutely sufficient to sum up my life's work"

All of that seems pretty simple and like good common sense. But it's not what I do and I know it's not what she does.  In fact, I can tell you that at least 3 of the other women at my table who I happen to be friends with do not do those things appropriately. I am really going to work to use my common sense to apply these things to my own life more often. It will be hard. I have been trying to do just that for the last 3 months. Sometimes successfully and sometimes not.

As for summing up her life's work in a minute, I will not disputed that any of us can provide another with a general description of what our "job" is on the surface. Enough so that they will have an understanding of it. But I believe the real measure is not in the time spent describing the role but in the infinite value you derive from the impact you make on one life or many lives. You see, my friend who sent me that email has saved countless lives in her work. And those lives have gone on to provide emotional support for their loved ones in times of joy and sorrow. The impact is exponential. And I truly appreciate the countless hours and dedication she puts in to it.

I could give you similar examples for all of the women at my table. So I encourage all of you to take a moment to remind yourself of the value of your own work. Whether it is in your career, your volunteer efforts or your family. Your impact is infinite. Be proud.

The Final Countdown

I've worried over the last month that my blog looked like just another abandoned blog sitting out there. And, the truth is, it has. I have been keeping a secret from the public because I'm honestly afraid of failing. I have a professional designation exam that I will be taking on January 28th - this Friday. My close friends know about it. In fact, they've known about it for a year now.

My degree is in Economics. I'm an Econ dork. I love it. However, that degree was earned many years ago and although I use many aspects of it in my job, there are still many details to be learned. And the biggest challenge here is that I've had to learn it from a book. Not my style. You see my wonderful ADHD children didn't fall far from the tree. Mom has quite the case of ADHD herself. So while the material is right up my alley, the learning method is not. Organization and time management, not my gifts. Both are skill set that would have been extremely useful.

I am battling through. Procrastinating far too much at times. But today begins the sprint to the finish line. I can't tell you that I have a defined path for that. What I do recognize is that I have a tremendous amount of strength and fight in me. So I need to call on those traits to keep my nose (and head) in the books. I will finish strong.

And then I will come home and have drinks and play ping pong with my husband and my best friends!