NFCA Kids Corner Meeting
There is no meeting in April because of the spring holidays.
Susan Hyer
shyer@temple.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FEBRUARY MEETING
There will not be a Kids Cormer meeting at Abington Hospital in February.
All Kids Cormer participants are invited to an Ice Cream Social at Nemours Children's Celiac Center of the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE.
The Ice Cream Social will be held on Saturday, February 24th from 3-5 PM in the 3rd Floor Classrooms 1-4.
This
event is open to all children and families with celiac disease. Come
enjoy delicious gluten-free sundaes, play games, participate in
raffles, and socialize with others with celiac disease.
For more information or to RSVP to this free event, call 302-651-5787.
Susan Hyer
Chairperson, Kid's Corner
National Foundation for Celiac Awareness
215-542-9969
www.CeliacCentral.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
December Meeting
Date: Sunday, December 17, 2006
Place: Lenfest Pavilion Cafeteria
Abington Hospital
Time: 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
Please
join us for the holiday cookie exchange on Dec. 17th. Bring your
favorite gluten free cookies to share with the group and the cookie
recipe for everyone to take home.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOVEMBER MEETING
Date: Sunday, November 19, 2006
Place: Lenfest Pavilion Cafeteria
Abington Hospital/Room G
Time: 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
Theme: Cereal Swap
The November Meeting is Sunday, November 19th.
The meeting will be hosted by Janet Carroll. The main
feature of the meeting will be a cereal tasting. This includes a
"cereal swap", a great way for everyone to try out different
gluten-free cereal brands before purchasing them!
Carter Merenstein will be attending our Sunday
meeting to share how to make gluten free granola as part of his Bar
Mitzvah project, in which he plans to raise awareness for celiac
disease.
This is a great way to try out different gluten-free cereal brands before purchasing
them! So far we have the following cereals:
Nature's Path Organic Honeyed Corn Flakes
Cocoa Pebbles
Fruity Pebbles
Perky O's
We hope you can make it. And, feel free to invite other children and their families with celiac to the meeting.
Please
RSVP to Janet for November meeting (dooz@comcast.net) by 11/1 or sooner
so that she can coordinate the various cereals for the meeting. )
Thanks everyone for your continued support.
Susan Hyer
Chairperson, Kid's Corner
National Foundation for Celiac Awareness
215-542-9969
www.CeliacCentral.org
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAST KIDS CORNER MEETINGS
NOVEMBER MEETING
Hi everyone. A very special thanks to Janet Carroll for hosting the Kids Corner
celiac meeting yesterday, and to Karen and Carter Merenstein for participating
as special guests. Unfortunately, I missed the meeting as my son's team was in
a soccer championship game, and fortunately, they WON the championship!
The following is a note I'm passing along from Janet Carroll summarizing
yesterday's Kids Corner meeting:
"Today's Kids' Corner meeting was absolutely delicious! Carter Merenstein
showed all of us how to make gluten-free granola and had some already baked
for us to try ... it was fabulous!! We were all quite glad to not only
taste and take some home with us, but he shared his recipe with us, too, so
we'll be thinking of him often as we make it for ourselves (great at
breakfast or snack time)!
Also, good luck to Carter with the rest of Bar Mitzvah mitzvah project as he
helps build awareness of celiac disease!
Everyone enjoyed tasting new cereals and taking home samples. We also did a
"breakfast" word find, reminding us of all the great tasting breakfast items
that we all CAN eat! Of course, there was plenty of opportunity to share
our experiences of being gluten-free in a gluten world.
If there's any other kind of tasting that people would like to do (bread,
crackers, ...), please let Susan know so we can plan that into the group's
schedule."
Janet
AUGUST MEETING
Thank
you for attending the Kids Corner meeting on Sunday, August 20th. A
very special thank you to Chris Bacchetti from Epicure Gourmet Diet
Food Market, who visited from Spring Lake Heights, NJ and generously
shared many delicious gluten free foods with the group including
pizzas, ravioli, cinnamon buns, cookies, a great assortment of breads
and rolls, crackers, and so forth. We are so grateful for Chris’ hard
work and dedication and for providing so many wonderful food samples
for everyone! A very special thanks to Nancy Lavoro for arranging to
have Chris share his products with us at the meeting.
Thanks
also to Annette Tusing, who provided a fun craft at the Kids Corner
meeting - plastic label name/identification holders perfect for our
back-to-school theme for back packs. Zach Tusing did a fabulous job
sharing his childhood celiac experiences and favorite foods with the
group. Annette’s family was also the lucky winner of our free drawing
for two tickets to Sesame Place, donated by Nancy Ginter.
Everyone shared their ideas for “easy-to-pack” back to school lunches, which included the following:
- Rice cakes
- Gluten free (GF) bread with peanut butter and jelly
- GF cheese and lunchmeat sandwiches
- GF grilled cheese sandwiches
- Tostidos/corn chips
- Potato chips
- GF pretzels
- Carrot and celery sticks
- GF puddings
- Jello
- Fruit (Apples, Pears, Bananas, etc.)
- Rice crackers
- Energy crackers
- String cheese
- GF pizza
- Beef stew or other hot dishes in thermos
- GF hot dogs
- GF macaroni and cheese
- Yogurt
We discussed some back-to-school lunch tips:
- Give your child control of his/her diet.
-
Educate your child, principal, teachers, and other school staff about
celiac disease and your child’s dietary needs. Call for a school
meeting when necessary. Send in written notes to the school staff.
- Talk to the adult lunchtime supervisors to inform them of your child’s celiac condition.
- Provide teachers with a stash of gluten free snacks for your child
- Bring gluten free snacks on your child’s birthday.
-
Discuss special needs with the school staff including the use of school
refrigerators and microwaves to accommodate cold/hot foods.
-
Don’t be mad when others don’t accommodate your child’s food needs such
as parents bringing in gluten free foods for class parties and their
child’s birthday. It’s important that parents assume responsibility for
providing gluten free foods for their own child with celiac, and don’t
rely on others to accommodate their dietary needs at all times. Many
people are not aware and we are trying to make them aware of celiac by
politely educating them!
Many
thanks once again to everyone who attended the August meeting.
Reminder: there will not be a Sept. meeting at Abington Hospital. There
is a celiac convention on Sept. 16th at Dupont in Wilmington, DE,
posted on the NFCA website. I previously sent a flyer about the event
as well.
The
next Kids Corner meeting will be held at Abington Hospital in October,
which will be a Halloween costume party with a gluten free Halloween
trick-or-treat event, and Halloween crafts. More info to follow…
All the best,
Susan Hyer
Chair, NFCA Kids Corner
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JULY MEETING
Hi everyone. Our July meeting was fun!
Thanks
to all who attended and for the special gluten-free treats that
everyone brought. It was fun hearing Michael Hyer share his celiac
experiences, and having several lucky winners in Bingo.
We raffled off a few gluten-free products, too. (Pictures will be posted on the
NFCA website - Kids Corner section).
A special thanks to Judy at Namaste Foods for sharing her delicious mixes with us. The brownies were especially a hit!
Reminder: From July 17th (for
30-days), Namaste is offering NFCA Kids Corner members a 20% discount
off of their gluten free products. Please take advantage of this
special offer and check out the website at: www.namastefoods.com
If you purchase food items during the special 30-day offer, please be sure to
mention that you are a member of the NFCA Kids Corner group to qualify for the 20% discount.
Please mark your calendars for the next Kids Corner Meeting at Abington
Hospital from 1:30PM - 3:00PM on Sunday, August 20th. More info to follow.
Sincerely,
Susan
Chair, NFCA Kids Corner
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FEBRUARY MEETING
Hello Everyone!
We
had a fantastic time bowling on Sunday at Thunderbird Lanes! It
was so much fun to see the kids having a great time and not worrying
about the food. I want to thank the Faith family for bringing
chocolate chip cookies and the Carrolls for baking chocolate pound cake
and banana chocolate chip bread to share with everyone!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JANUARY MEETING
Hello Everyone!
Sunday's meeting went wonderfullly, despite the nasty winter weather we experienced on Saturday evening!
Our
guest speaker, Veronica Alicea, RD., drove down from Central New Jersey
to discuss new labeling laws, management of Celiac Disease, the newest
about oats and the cross contamination issue.
Veronica also brought
samples of some fantastic food! The picture below shows the EnJoy
Life products available (cereal-type bars and bagels), Perky O's cereal
(just like a Cheerio! in 3 flavors... original, frosted, and apple
cinnamon), and Toast It bags (reusable plastic bags to prevent cross
contamination while using a different toaster which may not be gluten
free!). These can be ordered through Veronica Alicea at www.toasterbags.com .
A huge thanks to Veronica Alicea, RD. for sharing her expertise with us!
The kids had fun, also! They played games and completed puzzles and tried some super food!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DECEMBER MEETING
Hello Everyone!
I
wanted to thank all of you that came to the Holiday Cookie Exchange
today for taking time to share your cookies/desserts with the
group! It was a big success and the kids really enjoyed picking
whatever they wanted to from the table.
A special thanks
goes to Devon for presenting her research project. I hope
that we can help her out with those teeth!!!!
Another
thanks goes to Mr. Paul Graven, GFN Foods (Gluten Free Naturals) for
traveling to Abington and for making the company's newest line of
pancake mix available for us to taste. The pancakes were
fantastic!! The other products include Brownie Mix, Cookie Flour,
and Pizza Crust Mix which were also available for purchase.
Next
month's meeting will be on January 15th and we are lucky to have
Veronica Alicia, RD to speak with us about diet and nutrition.
She will be bringing samples from EnJoy Life Foods as well.
Looking forward to seeing more of you at the next meeting!!!!
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
See you in 2006.
Jocelyn P. Robbins
Kid's Corner, National Foundation for Celiac Awareness
Cel-Kids Network Liaison (Princeton Area) CSA/USA
609.213.9689 cell
609.895.1011 home
www.celiacawareness.org
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOVEMBER MEETING
Hello Everyone!
I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the members, old and new, who came to the meeting today!
John
Muscarello, Head Chef and owner of Comfy Cuisine, drove all the way
from Long Island, NY to cook up some great pizzas for the kids and
parents. We ate cheese pizza and pepperoni pizza-- all cooked on
a table top skillet.
Mr. Muscarello and his son also
brought cheese crisps in a variety of flavors. The pizzas are
frozen and can be pre-sliced and frozen in individual portions.
This is great news also for people watching their carb intake because
the pizzas are not made with any flours at all. They are great
tasting and easy to reheat.
The product can be
found at Whole Foods in NJ and NY, but ask at the customer service desk
about the PA stores keeping it in stock. Wegman's also sells
Comfy Cuisine pizza, as well as some ShopRite stores.
In
a few weeks, Comfy Cuisine will be ready to market their frozen dinner
line which includes ravioli, vegetable lasagna, and manicotti. I
have tried the ravioli and the manicotti and they were great.
Lastly,
I wanted to remind everyone of the December meeting: Sunday,
December 18 at 1:30pm at Abington Memorial Hospital, Pavilion Grille,
Conference rooms P & G (inside the cafeteria). This is our
Holiday Cookie/Dessert Exchange so RSVP's are due by December 4th so we
can coordinate how many dozens of our yummies to bake! Bakery
boxes will be provided by me.
Oh, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
Jocelyn P. Robbins
Kid's Corner, National Foundation for Celiac Awareness
Cel-Kids Network Liaison (Princeton Area) CSA/USA
609.213.9689 cell
609.895.1011 home
www.celiacawareness.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUGUST MEETING
Hello everyone!
August's meeting was spectacular!
The
guest speaker was Elizabeth Barbone, owner and editor of Gluten Free
Baking and More Newsletter. Elizabeth traveled from New
York to share some of her best gluten free baking tips with us!
Here are just a few:
- Be sure to use dry measuring cups for dry
ingredients and liquid measuring cups for liquids! Sounds simple,
but how many of you measure flour in your Pyrex liquid measuring cup?
-
It is easier to bake gluten free when you have the right tools!
There are a few essentials that Elizabeth recommends - large
mixing bowls for mixing dry ingredients and liquid ingredients, a
cookie/muffin scoop, a gluten free set of wooden spoons, and a quality
stand mixer!
- Start simple and mix your own flours... she states that doing this in bulk will save time in the long run!
- Your freezer is a gluten free baker's best friend!
She
not only helped us with her presentation, but she answered so many
questions that we all had! Elizabeth was honest and funny and she
shared chocolate iced chocolate cupcakes and chocolate iced vanilla
cupcakes with the children. She also baked fabulous sugar cookies
that we all tasted!
A huge thanks to Elizabeth
Barbone and the staff of Gluten Free Baking and More for helping to
guide not only the novices, but the experts among our group.
Lastly,
there were abbreviated copies of her latest newsletter for the members
of the group to take with sample recipes. Everyone learned
something new at this month's meeting.
In addition, there
was lots of literature and samples for the members to take home, as
well as genetic tests available!
Check www.celiacawareness.org regularly for news and information regarding Celiac Disease. Also be sure to click on Kids' Corner and see what's new!
Take care,
Jocelyn P. Robbins
Kid's Corner, National Foundation for Celiac Awareness
Cel-Kids Network Liaison (Princeton Area) CSA/USA
609.213.9689 cell
609.895.1011 home
www.celiacawareness.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
JULY KIDS CORNER MEETING: LORIMER PARK
The
Kids' Corner meeting for July was great! The weather cooperated for
most of the picnic! We shared lots of ideas about breads, foods we
like, foods we don't like and the kids played soccer, frisbee, paddle
ball, football, and played in the rain.
Lorimer Park is a wonderful place just
3.5 miles from Abington Hospital. They have a very large picnic area,
Penny Pack Creek runs through it, and miles of walking/hiking trails.
Even the bathrooms were clean!!
We had a wonderful afternoon and we
will be going back there again! PLease go to the "PhotoGallery" section
of Kids Corner to see snapshots taken at this event.
Thanks to all who came and shared great gluten free snacks.
Warmest regards and hope to see everyone for the August 21st meeting with Elizabeth Barbone from "Gluten Free Baking and More".
Jocelyn Robbins and family
jpisauror@msn.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAY KIDS CORNER MEETING: ALL ABOUT NUTRITION
What a success!
Nancy
Patin Falini, MA, RD, LDN, spoke on nutrition and celiac disease.
She focused on the topics the parents wanted to know more about and
really cleared up some misconceptions!
Nancy Patin Falini talking about nutrition and Celiac Disease.
Nancy
stressed that iron and the B vitamins are super important for
everyone. She shared the names of some great companies and some
of the products they sell. She also mentioned that Manna From Anna makes a bread mix that tastes very close to the wheat-based breads we all used to eat. Manna From Anna can be found at www.glutenevolution.com.
Nancy
also told us that one should look for the enriched gluten-free
products. Fiber is extremely essential and you can get this
through flax seeds. You can add it to lots of things!
A
huge thank you to Nancy Patin Falini for spending time with our group
and presenting her book and sharing her wealth of knowledge with
us! Nancy's book is called Gluten-Free Friends: An Activity Book for Kids.
Another
huge thanks goes to Peloton Imports. This company from Lumberton,
New Jersey donated Leda Nutrition Gluten Free Snack Bars for our
members to taste! They were a big hit and everyone was able to
sample some of the flavors (blueberry, apricot, apple, apple cinnamon,
chocolate, chocolate orange, banana, to name a few). I was able
to send some home with everyone that attended. These are great when you
need to pack a school lunch or when going in the car and you might need
to have something on hand that doesn't need to be refrigerated.
Remember
to those of you with very young children and toddlers- a new food
needs to be introduced at least 10-15 times before a child will accept
it or eat it! Keep giving it in small portions.
Look
for the flyer for next month's meeting, June 12. It will be at a
park for an End of School Year Picnic/Get Together. There will be
snack-like foods and games!
Can't wait to see everyone!
Jocelyn Robbins
jpisauror@msn.com
