Food Allergy Bloggers Conference RECAP - VEGAS 2013

WOW, what a wonderful experience I had at the Food Allergy Bloggers Conference! It was an absolute pleasure meeting other fellow bloggers, as well as attending the sessions and filling my brain with resourceful information about blogging, how to be an effective advocate, self-publishing, social media and so much more.  What I always take from these conferences and expos is the stories I hear from my fellow bloggers...from having a child living with celiac disease or life threatening food allergies or their own experiences of living gluten-free, egg-free, peanut-free, tree nuts-free, soy-free, dairy-free, shellfish-free and so on.  Having almost 100 celiac disease/food allergy advocates/bloggers under one roof, was absolutely amazing.

View from my room on the 21st Floor of the South Point Hotel

This may be hard to believe, but this was my 1st TIME TO VEGAS! So not only was I stoked about that,   I was even more pumped to see my #GFBFFs.

      

            Handed these out to fellow bloggers.
             Jelly Belly Jelly Beans are food allergen friendly!

I am so blessed to have met some wonderful friends along this journey. Our common bond of raising awareness, sharing recipes and resources for the gluten-free and food allergy community has truly brought us together and we encourage one another, swap recipes and make each other laugh along the way.

My GFBFFs:

Back Row:

Claudine Phillips: Gluten-Free Greenbean
Pam Jordan: I'm a Celiac
Keeley McGuire: Keeley McGuire

Front Row:

Cindy Gordon: Vegetarian Mamma
Lauren Kossack: Epi Family (she couldn't be with us, but we wanted to make sure to include her).
Me: with my GF tee on from Celiac and the Beast



Then, you have the SWAG! There was so much swag to be had! I may or may not have eaten a whole box of Enjoy Life's Soft Baked Snickerdoodle cookies. Luckily, I had another box to bring home for Jack and he LOVED them!  Sun Cups - peanut-free and gluten-free sunbutter cups. They have a mint cup, my daughter absolutely loved it!  Also SunButter, my friends that are peanut-free, LOVE Sun Butter.  And lastly, 1-2-3 Baking Mixes - looking forward to making some Pumpkin Pan Bars in my NEW KITCHEN AID STAND MIXER THAT I WON!!

That's right, besides my wedding day, and the births of my three children, this was one of the best days of my life! I've been dreaming of a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer! I've never owned a stand mixer, so I am so excited! I think it will take my gluten-free baking to a whole new level...that sounds like a lot of pressure...but I'm up for the challenge!

Let's be honest, not much can beat scoring a new stand mixer, BUT I will tell you, I did score some fabulous reading material!

I had the pleasure of hanging out with Erica Dermer, the author of Celiac and the Beast. She's one of kind! She's funny, witty and is brutally honest about living with celiac disease. Ok, so this book may not be kid friendly due to some explicit wordage, but it's funny, a tell it like it is journey of living with celiac disease and how she manages it on a daily basis. I'm looking forward to reading more of it and having my husband read it as well.

I look forward to hanging out with Erica at future expos and conferences and I hope one day she'll come to Nashville, TN and hang with Jack and I while we make some gluten-free cupcakes in my new mixer! ;)

Ahhh, The Warm Kitchen by Amy Fothergill. I finally met Amy for the first time in Vegas. She is a lovely lady, who is passionate about cooking and baking gluten-free. What a love about this cookbook, is that it has recipes that I will ACTUALLY make! As a busy mother of 3 and traveling husband, I need a cookbook that's truly going to help provide EASY, healthy gluten-free recipes. And this has all that! The pictures are amazing and there's a lot of them - which I really enjoy and can visualize these different meals in our home, ready to devour!  Thank you Amy for sharing your book with me, I can't wait to dive in and try some new recipes! Job well done!

Well, as you all know, all good things must come to an end...I don't know if I really like that saying, maybe cause it's true! Monday was our last evening in Vegas, so after the conference was over, we headed for the STRIP! Yep, that's Britney in the background...just me and Britney. I gotta say, it's definitely worth seeing if you've never been! Since my husband has never been, I think we'll go back together and explore the attractions a little more! Bellagio fountains were AWESOME! And that's all I really had time for...so I definitely need to go back.

Thank you so much to Jenny Sprague and Homa Woodrum and the rest of team for bringing the Food Allergy Bloggers Conference to life! Looking forward to next year already! 

Until then, I'm sure I'll be busy, trying not to break my new Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. :)