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CHECK IT OUT!
At the last meeting, the R.O.C.K. Star mothers decided to add a recipe section to the website.

You can find the new recipe section in the R.O.C.K. Diner.

(Just click on link or on the neon "OPEN" sign in the sidebar)

Growing Up Organic & Local

This week, our coordinators, Nikki Everett & Brenda Holland, took Erin to the local farmer's market in Davidson, N.C.

The Davidson's Farmer's Market vendors have some delicious gluten free items to choose from besides organic veggies and meats galore.

While we shopped for our veggies and meats, we were tickled to find a very nice lady who makes gluten free baked goods.

Her name is Dawn Beltrami & the name of her business is The Hippie Kitchen.

She does not have a website, but can be reached at hippiekitchen@bellsouth.net

Her gluten free zucchini muffins and pumpkin muffins were tasty and moist.

While talking with her, she said she adds 3 new items a week to her gluten free menu!

We will be visiting her again and encourage others to email her about product availability.

We bought some absolutely delicious gluten free breakfast sausage from Wild Turkey Farms.

The nice couple showed us the label and said they use no fillers, no hormones or antibitotics, and no nitrates.

What is nitrates?

Nitrates are used in bacon, sausage, and processed meat.

They are proven to cause immune disorders, gastrointestinal disorders and a number of cancers.

Lee Menius who runs the farm with his family - offer pork, pasture raised beef and chickens.

We also bought some fresh eggs from them and breakfast has never been better!

Erin says it is the best tasting sausage she has ever put in her mouth.

We bought some natural local beef from Mike Smith who is from Big Oak Farm.

Last night, we cooked a shoulder roast that was absolutely yummy.

Mike and his family have been farming over a hundred years.

The farmer's market is a great place to visit with music, food cooked and raw, and the best part is you are helping to save local agriculture which is proven to help the economy and environment.

Due to our coordinators being very busy, there haven't been any posts added to our delightful website.

We have promised little Erin E. to do better.

It's Never Too Early To Plan Ahead

Over the summer, Erin E. was a trailblazer for the R.O.C.K. Charlotte group.

Erin with her favorite counselor

Erin's mom & nana with counselors

She travelled all the way to Winder, Georgia for the Camp Weekaneatit 2009 summer camp at Fort Yargo State Park. She was the youngest girl there at 8 years old and was brave for going away from home at such a young age. Camp Weekaneatit is a week long, gluten free, summer camp with loads of fun activities like swimming, rock climbing, rope repelling, canoeing, more swimming, and even came with cream pie & water balloon fights!!

It is sponsored by the Georgia Celiac Foundation and Camp Twin Lakes. All food, lodging, and fun is included. And it is very reasonable in price!!

They even learned a song to dance to and make the parents proud of how independent they had become.

Check out the links and plan your summer early.

Be Aware of Halloween Candy

As Halloween night nears, all kinds of questions pop up about gluten free candy. No one likes to be sick on a night meant for fun. So listed here are a few places you can check to see if the candy you have in your treat sacks is edible.

NFCA Candy List

As always, you must still read the labels because ingredients change in products made daily.

We hope your Halloween is tummy ache free!

Gluten Free Quickie Quesadilla

Each month we will post a recipe that you can easily make at home with the help of a parent or responsible adult. Ask permission to print them out and keep them handy in your kitchen to refer to while cooking. With each recipe, you will also find a brief history of one of the main ingredients in the dish. It's fun to learn something about what you eat since you are what you eat.

Your very own cookbook and you aren't even a grown up yet!

How Cool is that?!?!?

Pretty cool if you ask us.

A BIG thank you to Melissa Mahoney for contributing the R.O.C.K. Recipe Of The Month for October. If you'd like to see your favorite recipe posted in our collection of recipes, please send it to us via email.

Quickie Quesadillas

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Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Corn Tortillas

Organic Refried Beans

Cheese

(We had it with Sour Cream, Guacomole, Cilantro & Salsa - if you like a bit of spice)

Spread refried beans and then some shredded cheese on top of a single tortilla.

 If you want any other topping on the Quesadilla, place that on top of the cheese.

Put another corn tortilla on top of the cheese.

Pour about 1/4 teaspoon of vegetable oil in a skillet.

Put the Quesadilla in and flip it like a pancake, until lightly browned on both sides. This warms up the beans and melts the cheese.

Cut it into little wedges with a pizza cutter (or knife)

It takes about 10 minutes to fix this dish!

You can cook some the night before school. Warm the Quesadilla up in the microwave, put it in tin foil, and take it to school for lunch. Stays warm enough that it is still tasty. Definately better than a sandwich every day!

Here at our house, we buy El Milagro tortillas at the local Mexican food store.

Did You Know?

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The history of quesadillas begins with the story of corn and the cooking of tortillas ~ a round, thin unleavened bread made from ground maize. It is not known how many millennia this has been a staple food. When the Conquistadores arrived in the New World in the late 15th century, they discovered that the natives made flat corn breads. The native name for these was tlaxcalli and the Spanish gave them the name tortilla.The art of tortilla-making was highly developed by the natives. Fresh tortillas are eaten as bread, used as plate and spoon, or filled to make dishes such as tacos and enchiladas. The original quesadilla is a 'turnover' made by folding a fresh tortilla in half around a simple filling such as cheese, epazote (a pungent herb), and peppers, or potatoes and chorizo, and then deep frying it.