Gluten Free Expo 2014! - Part 1

This weekend was the Gluten Free Expo! It's like my favorite weekend of the year! There are two things I like about the weekend, volunteering and getting to meet and chat with so many awesome gluten free people, or gluten free supports, as well as trying new products and getting new swag. My family is awesome and like trying new things and seeing where new products will be offered, so it doesn't take much to get them to come to the show. My brothers girlfriend likes trying all the new foods, because there is always so many good tasting foods. My boyfriends new term is It's GFF - Gluten Free Fantastic!!

Everyone does their tastings and picking up samples so we get a good selection of GF items to try and well, I get snacks for the next few months. It definitely makes the ticket price worth it! I did the most of my shopping and trying on Saturday, we got there with just under 3 hours, shockingly... Or not, we needed more time to really stop, check stuff out, shop and see everything. The staples were there, Smart flour, Glutino, Schars, Ian's, Udi's, Rudi's Bard's, and Enjoy Life Foods.

Some new comes that really stepped up, were Ultra foods, advertising their new advancements in carrying GF items, they've made a big entrance into the Chicagoland area recently. Other newbies were DeVine Lip Shimmers, Sonoma Flatbread pizzas, Leo's Italian Foods, Canyon Bakehouse, Lovely Candies, and Coconut Milk Ice cream.

I picked up a few items that were super tasty, Simple Mills was tasting the best banana muffin's at the show, and Lia P had oatmeal raisin cookies that melted in your mouth (and she's a local baker, a break off of Le Petite Sweets)!
Virtuous was a new seasoning company. They make 3 seasoning mix, and all are super tasty. 

I think the most Shocking product was a company Delights that is coming out with Stuffed sandwiches, (Gluten free Hot Pockets essentially!!!) Where are they going to be sold you want to know?! Meijers and Aldi's! I was shocked, that means they are affordable too. They were so good, I can't wait, looking at their website there are 4 flavors available.

Voulnteering on Sunday they wanted at least 6,000 goodie bags made up to hand out to people coming to the show. 6,000 on Palm Sunday, WOW! That's a lot of gluten free people "Trick or Treating" their way through all the exhibits. 

This was the back up stash of bags ready to go as the expo opened to people waiting in a line by 8:30. But I guess when you have your plan set, you can go in and get everything you need right away, the show was much busier on Sunday, it felt a lot more crowded when I got to go out and see what everyone was sampling.