Marion's Smart Delights

I was sent this press release today and thought I'd share it with you. The Lemon Bars sound very yummy! The mix is processed on dedicated gluten free lines and the website says:

Allergen Information:
Free of: Gluten, nuts, tree nuts, soy, dairy and egg, manufactured in a GFCO-Certified, dedicated facility free of wheat, gluten, nuts, tree nuts, soy, dairy and egg.

Well, that covers our allergens. These sound very good and I'm going to have to try them.

The press release with information is below:


(Arlington, VA), January 27, 2011 -- There has been a dramatic increase in the number of gluten-free products sold in stores and websites, but there has not been a gluten-free lemon bar mix -- until now.

Just introduced by Marion's Smart Delights®, the new Gluten-Free Lemon Bar Baking Mix is not only certified gluten-free, but also allergen-free, Kosher certified, and made with 100 percent natural ingredients including gluten-free whole grains.

Like Marion's Smart Delights Cookie & Muffin Baking Mix, the Gluten-Free Lemon Bar Baking Mix returns the joy of baking and eating to people with celiac disease, food allergies, food intolerances, diabetes and just about anyone seeking delicious taste AND wholesome nutrition. The mixes are available in select stores or can be purchased directly online ($5.99 for the Cookie and Muffin Baking Mix; $6.49 for the Lemon Bar Baking Mix).

Marion's Smart Delights mixes bake up into luscious treats with rich, old-fashioned flavor and wholesome nutrition. Made in a dedicated gluten-free facility, they contain whole grains, lower sodium and less sugar than other leading mixes.

Marion Braswell, PhD, president of Marion's Smart Delights, experimented for years and consulted with leading nutritionists in order to create baking mixes that are not only gluten free and free of the top eight allergens, but delicious tasting. The result, according to Braswell, are great tasting and nutritious baking mixes that allow those on special diets to enjoy a happier, healthier relationship with food.

"Our products can be made to meet many special dietary needs from heart-healthy to gluten-free. We provide nutritional information and diabetes exchanges. You can indulge your sweet tooth and know that you made a smart nutritional choice," says Braswell.

Marion’s Smart Delights website features many resources and recipes for using Marion's Smart Delights baking mixes to create a wide array of mouth-watering, gluten-free treats like scrumptious carrot cake muffins and cranberry bread. Enjoy dairy-free, vegan, and heart-healthier versions of the basic cookie, muffin and lemon bar recipes, plus holiday treats and much, much more.

Also available is a new in-depth report from Steffany Moonaz, PhD, a nationally known Health Behaviorist. Too Sweet for Our Own Good Health: Considerations of Sugar and its Substitutes offers fresh insights into the health consequences of today's super-sweet Western diet, including the role sugar plays not only in obesity but in other diseases and disorders. In addition, Dr. Moonaz suggests how to explore healthier substitutes for traditional sugar and "re-train the taste buds" to appreciate more subtle, natural sweetness.

About Marion's Smart Delights: Founded by Marion Braswell, PhD, Arlington, VA-based Marion's Smart Delights is a small company dedicated to solving a big problem for people seeking a nutritious and safe way to bake delicious treats. The company's ready-mixes contain gluten-free whole grains like quinoa and amaranth and include just enough sugar for luscious bakery-shop texture. The mixes can be adapted for dairy-free, diabetes, vegan, and heart-healthy diets. Products are packed at an allergen-free, certified gluten-free and Kosher-certified facility. Visit our website at www.marionssmartdelights.com or follow us on Twitter.

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For more information check out:
Marion's Smart Delights

Lemon Bar Allergen and Ingredient Information

Follow Marion's Smart Delights on twitter.

Slow Cooker Tuesday

It's Tuesday, that mean's I've got the Slow Cooker going (I had it going on Saturday too but didn't have time to post. I made this soup by the way)

Today we have Asian Chicken Wings in the slow cooker:

40 chicken wings (mine were still frozen and I didn't bother to separate mine at the joint either... L.A.Z.Y. am I)
1 cup of soy sauce (we use gluten free soy sauce)
3 Tbs. of honey
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 tsp. ground ginger
few shakes of hot pepper flakes to taste
2 Tbs. olive oil

Throw it all in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

I'll be serving these with a salad.

Saturday while my soup was cooking they boys were at a local hospital getting a tour with their cub scout troop. They had a lot of fun.




Who wouldn't have fun with a giant teddy bear? When my husband called to set this tour up, they told him that they teach the kids what happens in the ER on a teddy bear. They didn't say LIFE SIZE, GIANT, MAN IN COSTUME teddy bear. Imagine my husbands surprise. We were thinking your average, every day teddy bear. This was so much better :)

What have you had in your slow cooker lately?

Restaurant Training Videos From FAAN

These Training videos are not only great for those who work or own restaurants but should also be watched by us with food allergies who dine in restaurants. It's another learning tool to add to our arsenal. Thanks FAAN for these wonderful videos!!











For more educational videos from FAAN go here.

Slow Cooker Tuesday

I'm calling it Slow Cooker Tuesday because Tuesday's are crazy busy around here and I think I'm going to make it honorary slow cooker day. Todays recipe comes from More, Make It Fast, Cook It Slow by Stephanie O'Dea. It's pork and involves root beer. Enough said there. This will be my third recipe from the book so expect a review very soon. Normally I'd share the recipe I'm using, but since I'm sure that Stephanie would like you to buy the book (and not have me give them all away for free), I'll not do that today (but I'll share one on the review). If you need a slow cooker recipe, you can check out her blog, A Year Of Slow Cooking to find one.

Today is also organization day for me. I've started by trying to organize my in box. You know that little link on the bottom of solicitation e-mails that says "unsubscribe"? I've been using that. I sign up for all these e-mail alerts because I'm afraid I'll miss a great sale, and then I just end up trashing them. I rarely see a good sale. The trashing of e-mails is time consuming so I'm just stopping them altogether.

I'm also going to start utilizing On Line Stop Watch to control my on line time. I love Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date on food allergy information but you can stay on there all day. They can become huge time sucks. So I'm allowing myself 15 minutes at a time for things not work related.

I also hope to clean all the floors today. The basement floor really needs it.

So I'm off. To exercise and then clean floors. Wish me luck. I've got a lot to do and a little time to do it.

How To Raise Your Adult Children: A Book Review

The Book "How To Raise Your Adult Children by Gail Parent and Susan Ende, M.F.T. was sent to me for review purposes.
On the front cover it says "Because Big Kids Have Money , Work , In-Laws , Marraige Even Bigger Problems.

That's the truth isn't it??

I'm the parent of small children and this book is written for parents of adult children. But I will be there one day (one day sooner than I'd like to think I'm sure) and I'm an adult child so I thought that maybe I could learn something from the book.

And I did.

The book is broken up by chapter discussions. Each chapter has a topic i.e. money, dating, work, aging and illness etc. Someone sends in a letter with a question or a tough situation and both Gail and Susan answer it separately. For example:

Dear Gail and Susan,
We have a small vacation cottage on a lake. We let our son temporarily move into it while he was deciding what he wanted to do with his life. My wife and I figured he would be there for a few months, but it's been three years. We don't know how to get him out. By the way, our son did decide what he wanted to be - a poet. Are we just stuck with this situation? Lawrence

Gail: Dear Father of a Poet, Don't worry. Your son will make a lot of money selling poetry and then he can buy his own cottage. You're not happy with my answer are you? Let me try again. You and your wife shouldn't have let your son be in your cottage for a few moths. "Temporarily" should have been defined. But that boat has sailed... (she continues to tell them that their son is immature and that they have perpetuated this. They'll have to evict him. They're only stuck with the situation if they choose to be).

Susan: (Likes Gails comments. Says that parents today have a hard time setting limits and then they wonder why they end up with spoiled , unrealistic children. She also agrees that he needs to move out. If he won't, move him out and change the locks). Limits - "temporarily" is not a limit; three months is.
Boundaries - "my house is not your house" is a boundary.
No - means separateness. "I have a vacation house I pay for; you do not have a vacation house. We are separate".

The book covers many topics that parents of adult children find themselves in today. You have a divorced child that moved back home and now won't move out but uses your house as a bachelor pad. What to do? You have an adult child on drugs that doesn't seem to want help. What to do? You have children that have gotten themselves in debt and now want to use your retirement fund to pay off their bills. What to do? You don't like who they are dating. They don't like who you are dating. What to do?

The advice in the book is good and honest. It's not touchy feely either. It gives you the straight talk. And of course, Gail is hysterical.

Gail Parent is an Emmy Award winning writer and producer who worked on Tracy Takes On (Tracy Ullman), The Carol Burnett Show, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and the Golden Girls (my all time favorite show).

Susan Ende is a psychotherapist that has been in private practice for over 25 years and has taught at California Institute of Technology, Pepperdine University, and California State University, Los Angeles.

Even if you are the adult child in the relationship, the book is beneficial because it not only helps you to see where your parents are coming from and how you should be acting, but the parents are not always right and Gail and Susan correct their behavior too. They give you ammunition to throw back at them with too (not you Mom and Dad).

The book is a quick read and a quick witted read.


The publishers of How To Raise Your Adult Children provided me with a free copy of the book for the sold purpose of a book review.

Too Much Time On My Hands

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

And This Face...

my first born.




Stole my heart from the second I saw him. He's going to be 9 next month. I don't think you truly understand the saying "Time Flies" until you're a mother.

This Face...

gets me every time (even with chocolate on his nose)



I love that boy.

Slippin' and Slidin' and it ain't over yet

Happy Snow filled Wednesday! If you're reading this and live in the U.S. chances are, you have some snow (at least somewhere by you).

Driving the kids to school this morning was an odyssey. Where as down south you get a snow day for 1 inch, we seem to need at least 1 foot (or more since the previous Governor made a rule that we only get 3 snow days each year and we've already used those... a genius he was not).

We're supposed to get 6-8 more inches by the end of the day. That should make pick up even more fun and exciting.

My drive in photos (bad photos because I took them with my cell phone*, but photos nonetheless):



Where's the plow?



Maybe they didn't have a snow day because even though the roads were terrible the sun was out.



*It is not advisable to take cell phone pictures while driving on bad roads. Just a little PSA.

Hey Cleveland, Did you know Paladar Latin Kitchen cooks Gluten Free?

I love Paladar Latin Kitchen (I heart the Paladar Margarita.... I'm just sayin').

The Gluten Free Homemaker tweeted that Annapolis, MD had a new #gf restaurant and when I clicked on it I said "HEY, We have one of those too". It turns out that both Annapolis and Cleveland have one.

You can find the Gluten Free Menu Here.

Now let me say that I haven't actually spoken to them to see how well they are trained in gluten free cooking or in cooking for the Little Man's other allergies, but it's promising that they actually have a gf menu and are aware that it's not just taking a bun off of a sandwich. I would want to do more investigating before I told the gluten free population of Cleveland to eat there, but maybe you all could investigate it on your own and come back and let me know how they do.

This is something that I'll be looking into. I loved eating there (business dinner for the husband, full of gluten, no allergies involved). And I'd love to take my son back there and have another safe place for him to eat.

If we go, I'll report back and let know how our experience went. Or if I call them and don't get a warm fuzzy, I'll let you know that too.

2011

Christmas Greetings



WOW!! 2011 Already? I'm feeling old...

A new year is like a new beginning. I'm not really going to make resolutions this year though. I'm just going to set a goal. My goal for 2011 is:

TO GET MORE ORGANIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yea, that's it.

Doesn't seem like much, but I've been feeling completely unorganized and that pretty much touches all facets of my life.

Getting more organized will help me:

1. Find more time to Exercise (and thus lose weight. Yep, there it is...)

2. Menu plan more (therefore cutting down the cost of groceries)

3. Get the house in better order (therefore finding more time to for myself because the house will run better).

4. Keep my schedule together (therefore I'll know what I already have committed myself to do and I won't over-schedule myself.... there are other people out there that can shoulder some of the work)

I think you get the picture. Unorganization effects all aspects of my life. By getting organized, all the other things should fall into place nicely and I won't have to make resolutions that I probably won't stick to.

So there it is. The BIG plan for 2011.

I hope you all have a healthy, blessed and organized 2011!!