March 2010 Support Group Meeting

Note: February meeting has been cancelled/rescheduled to March meeting. Details are shown below.

When: Tuesday, March 2, 6:00 pm

Where: Shirley’s Home in King George, VA
(Note: Please email Shirley for directions if you are local and plan to attend.)

What: We’ll begin our meeting with our usual group meal, which is always completely gluten free. Many dishes and food items are also dairy free, refined sugar free, etc. The focus is on real food and dishes made from them. Our presentation will be two parts. First, I’ll do a presentation on my participation in the 2009 POM Wonderful Blogger Harvest Festival, that was hosted by POM Wonderful and held in Fresno and Visalia, CA, in October. I’ll share photos and what I learned from meeting with the POM folks, touring their orchards (on ground and with a flyover!) and their processing operations. The second part will be a presentation by Janel Ovrut, MS, RD, LDN. Janel was also part of the group of 15 bloggers selected to participate in the POM Wonderful Blogger Harvest Tour. She is a registered dietitian with a Master’s degree from the Nutrition Communication program at Tufts University in Boston, and a Bachelor’s degree in Dietetics from Syracuse University. Janel gave a very informative talk on antioxidants, free radicals, and healthy eating at the POM festival. She’ll be presenting similar information to us via Skype. Please note that while Janel does not eat gluten free, she is passionate about eating well and has much of value to share with us. You can check out her main website, Eat Well with Janel, here and her blog, here.

While Valentine’s Day will be long behind us at meeting time, February focused on another “red” theme—healthy hearts for American Heart Month. Since this is our rescheduled February meeting, we’ll still commemorate that event. Of course, POM Wonderful products are delightfully, ruby red and have even been shown to offer cardiovascular benefits. So, let’s go for red, pink, and heart-healthy foods for our meal! I’ll have some POM-spiced cider (courtesy of the POM Wonderful folks), two flavors of POM-based ice cream (POMerdoodle and Chocolate POMerdoodle; the latter is dairy free), and several other dishes that fit our theme. We might even have some other products from the POM folks for us to try.

This meeting should be informative, delicious, and fun. Hey, that sounds like all our meetings! Hope you’ll join us on the 2nd!

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

January 2010 Support Group Meeting

When: Tuesday, January 19, 6:00 pm

Where: Shirley’s Home in King George, VA
(Note: Please email Shirley for directions if you are local and plan to attend.)

What: We’ll share our usual group meal, completely gluten free and many items dairy free, refined sugar free, etc. With the cold weather, we’ve had of late, I’m thinking warm, comforting foods and beverages like soup, bread, and wassail, but bring whatever you’d like to share. Our speaker will be Tom Malterre, MS CN, of Whole Life Nutrition in Bellingham, WA. We’ll Skype Tom in as we have some of our most recent speakers. His presentation, Nutritional Complications in Celiac Disease, will begin about 7:30 pm. See additional information (extracted from Whole Life Nutrition’s website) on Tom below. I know many of you are already familiar with The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen, the amazing blog that Tom and his wife, Alissa Segersten, maintain. We’ve also talked about their wonderful resource/cookbook, The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook, in the past and I’ve featured it on my blog. If you’re new to the group or are not yet familiar with Whole Life Nutrition and The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen, please take a moment to check them out.

Tom Malterre received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science in Nutrition from Bastyr University and is licensed by the state of Washington as a Certified Nutritionist. Tom empowers people through classes, seminars, and private counseling with his insight and depth of knowledge on the biochemical interactions within our body and their relationship to our diet.

Hope to see you on the 19th!

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

December 2009 Support Group Meeting

King George Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Support Group

December 2009

Tuesday, December 15, 6:00 pm

We will enjoy a group meal together–the theme is holiday foods. Then, per request, Shirley will be sharing a presentation on her time at the POM Wonderful Blogger Harvest Festival.

Shirley’s House (email if you need directions)