MY GFAF EXPO EXPERIENCE

         I am so happy to have experienced this event this year for the first time!  The event was so much fun!!   My family and I spent the day experiencing such great food and products.  There were so many great companies.  Some of which are new companies sharing their gluten free products for the first time.

                What brought me first to the expo was the fact that my son and I have a gluten intolerance (allergy).   He has been on a primarily gluten free diet since he was a toddler to control behavior.  As he has gotten older it isn't as bad but we still strive to keep him gluten free as much as possible.  It has become easier over the years also with more and more companies creating gluten free products.
The reason for myself becoming gluten free is because I have suffered for years (unknowingly) from SIBO http://glutenintoleranceschool.com/small-intestinal-bacterial-overgrowth/ , until finally 4 years ago and several tests later I was diagnosed.  So to control it I eat a gluten free diet.  My hubby and daughter do not need to be on a gluten free diet but they LOVE  gluten free foods!

              So our adventure began in the early morning, Saturday  October 3rd , 2015.  We were so excited we were up and ready to go for our drive to New Jersey.  When we arrived all the bloggers got to meet up with Jen the founder of the GFAF Expo and with Marc Migdal from MASSEL.  MASSEL was the blogger sponsor for the event.  MASSEL was nice enough to give us a wonderful gift box filled with their great products.

                               I am so excited to try them!  They are gluten free AND vegan!!

                                               Next we received our "goodie" bags :

which we filled with more goodies throughout the day!!

We stopped by the enjoy life foods photo booth and took our pictures.  So much fun!

They also had a booth where they gave out some of their chewy bars and cookies too.  My kids LOVED the caramel apple ones!! They also had bowls of Plentils chips to sample.  Then once you try them you would tell them what your favorite flavor was and you would get a single serving size bag of that flavor! YUM! My favorite was the dill and sour cream.  

At the Glutino, Udi's, and Earth Balance booth they made delicious grilled cheese sandwiches, buffalo meatballs made with their new buffalo style pretzels and had the pretzels themselves to sample.  Hubby said the meatballs were AMAZING!!!  He went back for seconds AND thirds!! 

Another favorite because we are a pizza loving family was our stop at the Smart Flour Foods booth.   The pizza was so good!  You would never know it was gluten free.  The crust is made from ancient grains sorghum, amaranth and teff which give it added nutrition, had a perfect crunch and chewiness.   

I don't know about you but I love a good piece of bread.  I love toast for breakfast in the morning with  SunButter ( who was also at the expo) and a banana.  I am always looking for gluten free bread that tastes great.    There were several bread companies and bakery's at the expo.  The standouts for my family were Canyon BakeHouse which had samples of bagels with  cream cheese which were so delicious.  My son had several since bagels and cream cheese are one of his favorites!! We also loved Meredith's Bread .  We purchased a loaf of their peasant bread and a large black and white cookie ( my husbands request - he loves his sweets!).  

We also enjoyed trying the NEW Schar Artisan white bread.  Thank you Schar for the free loaf!! So glad to find a gluten free bread that is tasty and has good nutritional value!

Now how about some gluten free sweets!! These were some of our  favorites from the Expo.  ALEIAs had some samples of a variety of their cookies such as coconut macaroons, 

chocolate and peanut butter!  They were so tasty and made with simple ingredients.

We also enjoyed tasting cookies from My Dad's Cookies.  

We loved them so much we bought a package of their black and white cookies and chocolate chip.
We also purchased some cake and bread mixes from My Grandpa's Farm.  They are amazing! So much flavor and so moist.  We couldn't stop tasting them! They sell a variety of cakes mixes, breads, pizza dough mix and pancake mix.  Definitely makes baking a whole lot easier!

    They also had some classes during the event.  I went to the class given by Jenna Drew.  The class was "Essential Oils for Digestive Wellness".  As someone who uses essential oils but still learning about them it was great to learn some new things.  Some of the oils she discussed were lavender, clove, lemon, frankincense, and peppermint.   Peppermint is a great oil to help with digestion.   She discussed how oils can be used to help the mind, and body.

    There were so many more companies at the expo who had such great gluten free and allergy friendly foods and products.  We enjoyed this day so much knowing that everything was safe for anyone living a gluten free lifestyle or has other food allergies.  At the end of the day we left with our bellies full,  our bags full of treats, samples, coupons, information to help families with allergies and most important smiles on our faces!!  My kids said they can't wait till next year. That goes for me too!!

Check out my GFAF Expo Vlog :

And my GFAF Haul Video:

Interested in any of the vendors from the expo check them out here:

GFAF Expo vendors

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