Welcome to the Arizona East Valley Celiac Support Group!!!

The mission of the Arizona East Valley Celiac Support Group is to offer both knowledge and support to those with Celiac and other related diseases, while creating a greater awareness not only within the Arizona East Valley community, but in any and all other areas that we can. Additionally, we work to empower our members to assert their dietary needs, pursue better health care, and support the best gluten free products and services to maintain good health in mind, body, and spirit.

The East Valley Celiac Support Group began holding monthly meetings in October 2009!
Date: 3rd Wednesday of every month (02/15/2012)
Time: 6:30-8:00 PM
Place: Sunrise Senior Living of Gilbert, AZ
580 South Gilbert Road
Gilbert, AZ 85296
United States
Phone: (480) 632-9400
Contact: Chandice Probst (435) 671-2211
E-mail: Chandice with any questions at azeastvalleysupportgroup@gmail.com

For February 15, 2012:

Annual Dining Out Gluten Free: Executive Chefs Panel from some of your favorite restaurants including our favorites like PF Changs, The Melting Pot, Chelsea's Kitchen, Tryst Cafe and award-winning Citizen Public House!!! They will be offering gluten free menus, insight into their gluten free preparations and what's to come for them. The event will be complete with a Q&A session from you the audience! Plus, Chocolate and Sweets Fun with Danells Signature Blends treats! We will also be featuring New Grains Bakery's famous, pink frosted sugar cookie, Elisabeth Hasselbeck's NoGii bars and so much more!!! This is such a fun and informative evening and is our most attended meeting year after year! You don't want to miss out!

***PLEASE NOTE: OUR MEETINGS WILL NOW BE IN THE FIRST BUILDING (instead of the 2nd) UPSTAIRS. It is a larger room with a full kitchen and lots of tables, which will benefit our group. There is an elevator for those who need it. THANK YOU! :)

As always, we will have a door prize as well as a prize for a member of the Celiac Disease Foundation. We will also have coupons, local menus, and many other handouts available.

*There is never a cost to attend our meetings, but we will gladly accept donations to cover the costs of printings and such. Thank you!

Thank you for your interest in this wonderful group. We look forward to seeing you soon!

~Your CDF Arizona East Valley Support Group Officers~

January 2012 Meeting

For January (01/18/12)-

January's focus was on New Year, New You! Many of us try to get off to a healthy start this time of year, so we had a few great companies talk to us about nutritious foods and healthy body care. My Dinner Kitchen kicked off the evening with "5 Meals Under 500 Calories," which included a delicious array of entrees and desserts that can be purchased ready to cook. The food was incredible! We also had a presentation from Reliv Nutritional Shakes and heard success stories of individuals freeing themselves from ailments with proper nutrition. See Chandice's product review here. For the body, we had representatives from Arbonne give us some information and let us test some products. They produce cosmetics, skincare, and hair care for both women and men, and all gluten free! To wrap up the night, we had drawings for a $25 Gift Card to My Dinner Kitchen, a Gift Bag of GF Foods from the Gluten Free Country Store, and a Gift Bag of GF Goodies. My Dinner Kitchen also raffled off an additional $25 Gift Card, which was a pleasant surprise!

We saw a lot of new members this month, so we would like to say a special welcome to you! We hope to see you again soon and get to know you as we all learn how to be healthy and stay healthy together!

December 2011 Meeting

For December (12/14/11)-

We had our Annual Gluten Free Cookie Exchange!!! We had TONS of amazing, gluten free cookies provided by members of the group for exchange. In addition to our cookie exchange, we also held our Annual Benefit Raffle. We had a number of great prizes to raffle off in an effort to raise money for our 2012 calender year. Also, we gave each member family an awesome Christmas/Holiday gift from the Board. We love our CDF support group family and have become so close these past few years that we always like to do something nice for each wonderful individual this time of year. Yummy cookies were enjoyed, taken home, and great prizes were won! We also had an informative presentation from The Green Asylum about raw and vegan foods. They provided tasty samples for us to try. What a fun night!!!

November 2011 Meeting

November (11/16/11)-

It was our Annual Gluten Free Thanksgiving Feast!!! We will had TONS of amazing side dishes that were provided by members of the group. In addition, Udi's Gluten Free Bread and a gluten free Honey Baked Ham were provided by the groups Board and Udi's Gluten Free. Angela Saban of Angel Cakes Bakery and Angela Saban Design provided us with an amazing array of delicious and gorgeous gluten free pies! They were so good!!! With the 3,300 people who attended the Believe Boutique in November, many had already tasted her stuff and were in awe that they were gluten free, they are so good! Many individuals who have no gluten intolerance or celiac disease were taken in by her delicious treats. We took pie orders for them for Thanksgiving and many took advantage of that great deal. We were so impressed by all the amazing side dishes and treats that everyone brought. We have some amazingly talented people!!! We can't wait to see each shine at the December cookie exchange! :)

We also handed out SOOO MANY awesome samples and treats to take home including Pamela's Products brownie mix, cookies and cooking utensils...yay! We all enjoyed a delicious gluten free feast with our group family!

October Meeting 2011

For October (10/19/11)-

The topic for the evening was "Tricks" of Holiday Baking by Angela Saban of Angela Saban Designs and "Treats" from Angel Cakes Bakery, WOW Bakery, Gluten Free Creations Bakery, Scott's Gourmet Cookie Company and many more!!! We had TONS of great products to share and we were able to introduce everyone to Angela Saban, an amazing event planner and gluten free pastry chef in the valley. Her gorgeous events have been featured in Style Unveiled as well as on ABC 15 Sonoran Living LIVE and Channel 12 News, Arizona Midday. Angela's treats are so delectable nobody could even tell they were gluten free. She will be providing us with a gorgeous dessert table at our November, Thanksgiving feast! We were so thrilled to have her as our guest speaker this month! The WOW Bakery items were the NEW holiday line of peppermint brownies, pumpkin spice cookies and white chocolate, cranberry cookies...yum!!!

We also had some wonderful new gluten free menus from restaurants in the valley as well as some features shared from recent restaurant visits, seen on Gluten Free Frenzy. There was a sneak peak given of the upcoming 25 Days of Christmas Giveaways, Gluten Free of Course! Event with thousands of dollars in FREE prizes on Gluten Free Frenzy this December. It is a much anticipated event in the gluten free community that we want everyone to be a part of.

September 2011 Meeting

For Sep.(9/21/2011)

The topic for the evening was Navigatong the food aisles and gluten free basics. We had lots of great info and products on hand to display and share. We will also had treats from Jewel's Bakery.

June 2011 Meeting

For June (6/15/11)-

The topic for the evening was Eating light, Eating right w/ Kristen of Nourish Restaurant in Scottsdale, AZ. We also had treats from Laura's Wholesome Junkfood...yum!!!

As always we had wonderful door prizes as well as a prize for a member of the Celiac Disease Foundation. We also had coupons, local menus and many other handouts available.