Gluten and Allergen Free Expo and Nourished Food Bloggers Conference Recap

I am home from the most incredible weekend!  I attended the Gluten and Allergen Free Expo and Nourished Food Bloggers Conference in Chicago, IL and had the most amazing time.

On Thursday night, I enjoyed dinner with my new friend Suzanne from the Salty Fig.  She has a great website where you can collect recipes from the blogs you love and turn them into a recipe book!  It would actually make a great favor for a party or shower or a gift for any occasion.  It is FREE to sign up and become a user.  We are a partner with the Salty Fig and you can find our Gluten-Free recipes there.  In fact Suzanne made a Expo cookbook and featured several of our recipes in the cookbook.  You can download it here.

My dear friend Denise of 26 years met me in Chicago for the weekend.  She and I are finding ourselves going Gluten Free together.  She doesn’t have Celiac Disease like me but has a Gluten Intolerance and I am thrilled to be able to help her on her journey.  We enjoyed so many laughs and good times throughout the weekend.  I am thankful that she came to help me for the event.

I spoke at Nourished  Food Bloggers Conference on Friday afternoon about Social Media.  I shared some tips with participating bloggers and had a great time meeting the other bloggers and brands in attendance.

I finally met in person my friend Christine who blogs at The Menu Mom.  We are Blog Frog Community Leaders together and it was so much fun to finally meet her “in person”.  She is a true delight if you haven’t had a chance to check our her blog, she is great.

Here is a photo of Denise and I before we headed to dinner at Kona Grill.  It was a yummy night of gluten free sushi for us!

On Saturday we had a vendor table and I spoke on the stage about Saving Money Gluten Free.  I also had the honor of meeting Mrs Alaska 2011 – Brandy Wendler – who has Celiac Disease.  It was a lot of fun sharing my tips for how to Save Money Gluten Free as it is so expensive!  I loved being able to share that with the attendees of the Expo.

It was so much fun to meet the attendee’s, several of our readers and really enjoyed the conversations.  We handed out hundreds of coupons at our table and enjoyed sharing tips for saving money.

The Expo was PACKED with over 150 vendors.  I was in Gluten Free Heaven!  I enjoyed sampling and collecting coupons   It was one of the best days of my gluten free life   Not having to ask “is this gluten free” and just walking around from table to table snacking and enjoying my friend Denise’s company.  It was a great weekend and if you ever get a chance to attend one of of the Gluten and Allergen Free Expos – I highly suggest it!  My tips would be to come hungry, plan for a full day (it took us a full 4 hours to get through the Expo) and to bring a couple bottles of bottled water.

You can make plans now for the next Gluten and Allergen Free Expo which will be in Dallas, TX – September 8 – 9, 2012.  Hopefully I will see you there!

Be sure to enter our giveaway for The Gluten Free Bar – one of my favorite finds from the Expo.