Nourished-A Food Blogger Conference and Get Cultured Class 4/21/12

I spent this past weekend in Chicago at Nourished and I’m so glad I did.  I learned invaluable information from our sessions, made great friends, and ate fabulous gluten free food! Before you take a peek at my Chicago adventure I want to invite you to my upcoming cultured vegetable class:

Get Cultured!

Where:  Old Thyme Remedies 2475 E Nine Mile Road Suite E, Pensacola, FL 32514

When: Saturday, April 21st at 10:00 am

Cost: $20 or $15 each with a friend!

RSVP to Theresa at (850) 912-6996.

I hope to see you there!

Nourished

Sorry it's blurry!

The lovely Amy Green from Simply Sugar and Gluten Free

The conference was centered around educational sessions from authors, bloggers, and food writers.  Here is a brief recap of  3 out of the 4 sessions I attended.

Mary Fran Wiley of Franny Cakes taught me how to carve my niche, create a logo, and most importantly to follow my gut.

I learned from Karen Morgan of Blackbird Bakery how to fine tune my g-free recipe development, how to bake without a rubber band (gluten), and not to click “publish” until it’s perfect.

Lauren Lucille of Celiac Divas and Anne, Schar’s Dietician gave pointers on making the best of a business partnership and being bold in your goals.  They said that in Italy, if you get diagnosed with celiac disease you get an extra 200 euro a month for food!  Just might be moving to Europe.

As usual when traveling, I packed a ton of food including lunch for the day of the conference. What an awesome surprise to walk into this room and be served a gourmet gluten free lunch.  There was not an ounce of room left in my stomach after finishing our meal.

Yup, I didn’t go hungry.  That little purple leaf is an amaranth sprout, isn’t it beautiful?!  Everything tasted as good as it looked and you would have never known it was gluten free.

Having lunch with some fabulous ladies!

It was great to be able to eat lunch at a conference and not have to ask or worry if the food you were eating truly was gluten free.   That in and of itself was beautiful, and we all  felt connected by the feeling that we were being nourished without having to scrutinize each bite, which made the atmosphere inviting and comfortable.

White chocolate raspberry cupcakes.  Gluten freedom.

I also learned from Jennifer Harris of the examiner.com how to properly eat a cupcake.  Jennifer explained that you cut the bottom off the cupcake and place it on the top making a cupcake sandwich, then sink your teeth in.  It’s lady like and you get frosting in every bite.  It was worth flying to Chicago just to learn this little tip!

Classy ladies!  Rachel from Gfree Gal, Lauren Lucille from Celiac Diva, and Jasmine from Healthy Jasmine.

Lasting connections!

We finished off the day with the key note speaker Cybele Pascal and a g-free cocktail party!  After having our fill of goodies from local and national vendors, we all received two huge goody bags filled with g-free awesomeness!

Me with Rebecca from Going Free…such a sweetheart!

When you have to eat different from everyone else (either for personal choices or health reasons) feeling isolated can often become the norm due to the difficulty in dining out, traveling, family dinners, or work.  I can’t tell you how many social gatherings I turned down when I first went gluten free for fear there wouldn’t be anything for me to eat, or being tempted to eat something that I knew would make me sick.

We often become undernourished in the friend/connections category, but instead of turning to a croissant for comfort we look into the virtual internet world and find that there is a whole community out there just like us living exactly the way we do and having the very same experiences we have.  We have built a community for ourselves so that when we come online its like seeing a friendly neighbor waving when they post a fabulous recipe or we see the flash of a smile when someone leaves a comment on our blog.

Conferences like Nourished bring a family of friends together tied by two things, the love of food and sharing it with others.  Just like gluten really ties together a croissant–just kidding!  After Nourished, not only were our tummies filled with delicious g-free food, but our hearts were filled with love as friendships were solidified or simply began.  Nourished was nourishing for the body, soul, and mind.  Thank you to Amy and Jen for creating such a beautiful event!  I can’t wait until next year when it will be held in Dallas!

-Melanie

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