Big thanks to Karina’s Kitchen Recipes for this amazing “Gluten-Free Cheat-Sheet for Going G-free” (I am posting this for myself as much as for anyone else who is GF-curious).

Gluten is the elastic protein in the grains: wheat, rye, barley, durum, einkorn, graham, semolina, bulgur wheat, spelt, farro, kamut, and triticale. Commercial oats also contain gluten due to cross contamination in processing.

Recipes that use flour (bleached white flour, whole wheat, cracked wheat, barley, semolina, spelt, farro, kamut, triticale) or vital wheat gluten are not gluten-free.

Semolina, spelt and whole wheat pasta, including couscous, are not gluten-free.

Beer, ale and lager are not gluten-free. Brats, meats and sausage cooked in beer are not gluten-free.

Malt vinegar, malt flavorings and barley malt are not gluten-free.

Recipes calling for breadcrumbs, breaded coatings, flour dredging, bread and flat bread, croutons, bagels, croissants, flour tortillas, pizza crust, graham crackers, granola, cereal, wheat germ, wheat berries, cookie crumbs, pie crust, crackers, pretzels, toast, flour tortillas, wraps and lavash, or pita bread are not gluten-free.

The vegan protein called seitan is not gluten-free; and some tempeh is not gluten-free (you must check). Flavored tofu may or may not be gluten-free. Injera bread (traditionally made from teff flour) and Asian rice wraps may be gluten-free, but are not necessarily gluten-free (check labels).

Barley enzymes used in malt, natural flavors, and to process some non-dairy beverages, chocolate chips, coffee and dessert syrups (and even some brown rice syrups), are not gluten-free. Always check.

Gluten is sneaky.

Hidden gluten can be found in gravy, broth, bouillon, soy sauce, tamari, marinades, sauces, salad dressings, cured meats, sausage, hot dogs, vegan hot dogs, sausages and burgers, self-basting poultry, flavored and herb cheeses, blue veined (bread mold based) cheeses, spice blends including curry powder, dry mustard, canned and prepared soups, tomato paste, sweeteners, confectioner’s and brown sugar, beverages, flavored coffees, herbal teas (watch for barley), roasted, flavored or spiced nuts, jerky, flavored yogurts and puddings, some chocolate and chocolate chips, cocoa and instant coffee mixes, flavored vinegars, cooking wines, flavored liqueur and liquor, wine coolers, some ice cream and frozen desserts. Always read labels. Call the manufacturer.

What IS gluten-free?

Grains, flours, starches and thickeners that are safe for celiac and wheat allergies include:

• Corn, grits, polenta and cornmeal
• Buckwheat, buckwheat cereal, kasha and buckwheat flour
• Rice- white, brown, risotto, basmati, jasmine, sticky rice, rice cereal
• Rice flour- white rice, sweet (glutinous) rice and brown rice flour
• Quinoa, quinoa cereal flakes, and quinoa flour
• Millet and millet flour
• Sorghum flour
• Amaranth and amaranth flour
• Certified gluten-free oats and oatmeal
• Coconut flour
• Teff flour
• Nut meals and flours- almond, chestnut, pecan, cashew
• Chick pea, garbanzo, soy (soya) and bean flour
• Tapioca and tapioca starch (manioc)
• Potato flour and starch
• Sweet potato and yam flour
• Arrowroot starch
• Cornstarch

Pre-made ingredients that are safe for celiac include:

• 100% corn tortillas and taco shells, pre-made polenta rolls
• Plain teff wraps made from 100% teff flour
• Plain 100% brown rice tortilla wraps
• Unflavored mochi
• 100% Corn pasta
• Quinoa and corn pasta
• Soy pasta (if it states gluten-free)
• Brown and white rice pasta, rice noodles, rice glass noodles
• 100% buckwheat soba noodles
• Rice paper, rice and tapioca rice paper wraps
• 100% nut butters: almond, peanut, cashew, pecan
• 100% seed butters:  sesame tahini, sunflower and hemp seed butter

About baking recipes:

When it comes to converting your favorite baking recipes to gluten-free, a simple one-to-one flour substitution will not yield the same results as your recipe based on wheat flour.

Gluten is a giving, stretchy ingredient that supports rise, structure, texture and kneadablity. It takes more than a single gluten-free flour replacement to make a cake, bread, muffin or cookie recipe work. A combination of gluten-free flours and starches with some extra egg whites or leavening, and xanthan gum added to improve viscosity is necessary for optimum results.

The Gluten-Free Cheat-Sheet is © 2009 Karina Allrich All rights reserved.

One of the moms at Rosa Parks Elementary, Lora H., filmed the families marching in the 2009 Cherry Blossom Parade!

Here is the amazing video she edited together, set to the soundtrack of the Rosa Parks JBBP kids/families singing their customized, Japanese-ized version of “We Are Family.” Enjoy!

UPDATE: Here are the photos from today’s festivities on Flickr:
Cherry Blossom Parade 2009
It was a HOT beautiful day and the kids did great!

Ohayo-gozaimasu!
Just in case you are heading to J-town for the Cherry Blossom Festival and Parade this weekend…

On Sunday 4/19 @ 1pm, we will be marching in the parade down Post Street! Look for the kids/families of Rosa Parks JBBP (Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program) singing along to a customized, Japanese-ized version of “We Are Family.”

Our group is #14, sort of near the front of the parade (just a few back after the amazing drumming of San Francisco Taiko Dojo), and most of the younger kids enter at Laguna, since they can’t make the full trek all the way from City Hall.

Here is a video from last year’s parade:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/initial_tai/2429953007/

Also, the JBBP has a fundraising booth selling super yummy Sakura Popcorn — JBBP’s own addictive, savory-sweet popcorn with Japanese “furikake” and rice crackers (think Japanese kettle corn). You don’t want to miss the tasty goodness…

Here is a link to the Cherry Blossom informational website for more info on the festival and parade:
http://nccbf.org/home/

Hope to see you there, and arigato gozaimasu!

We are raising money to plant trees at and around Nora’s school, Rosa Parks Elementary, a San Francisco Public School. The schoolyard is all blacktop and chain link right now, and we’re working hard to change that. The city of San Francisco has put together this fantastic “buy a tree” program… the trees will be donated, installed, and cared for for 3 years by the city!

WANT TO DONATE? http://snipurl.com/trees4rosaparks
(Please be sure to enter “Rosa Parks Elementary” for the “name of SFUSD school”)

WE ACHIEVED OUR TREE GOAL, but you can still donate!

Dear Amazing Rosa Parks Green Team-

You have really outdone yourselves this time. In the last week, you have been able to raise $4800 towards your goal of 20 trees. That means you more than covered the cost of the initial batch. And the donations keep coming in; just in the past few hours someone from Redmond, WA donated another tree.

This has been an unparalleled success and has shown the organizers of the 2012 by 2012 Campaign (SFUSD, FUF, the Mayor’s Office, and the SF Green Schoolyard Alliance) what can be done at a school with an incredible parent base. I’m glad that the 2012 website and my offer to augment your efforts with District funding have helped to spur such an immense flurry of activity.

Now that you’ve reached 20 trees, Suzanne at FUF will be contacting you to schedule a planting date. As more donations come in, those will go toward your bigger goal of planting 30 trees. She can also talk to you about reaching out to the community and finding homeowners who would like to plant trees in front of their house.

Either way, come this fall, RP will have a new batch of trees to beautify the school and make kids feel well. Cheers to a job well done!

-Nik

Nik Kaestner
Director of Sustainability
San Francisco Unified School District

INFO ABOUT THE TREE PROGRAM HERE: http://www.fuf.net/2012by2012/index.html

Creating a greener San Francisco, tree by tree! Tax deductible contributions to help plant 2012 new trees in and around SF schools by 2012. A program of SFUSD, in collaboration with Friends of the Urban Forest, SF Green Schoolyard Alliance, and the Mayor’s Office of Greening.

Here is my sweetheart of a niece, Kalissa Goodwin, when Nicki & Andy were visiting SF last weekend.

Nora’s school, Rosa Parks Elementary, won a huge contest for a “green makeover” estimated at about a quarter of a million dollars! Please watch the video our students made, along with the help of Barb Fujimoto, Lora Hirschberg, Mr. T (that would be T for Thompson!), Mr. Nagle, Ms. Jefferson, Ms. McPherson and of course many others.  The video is priceless, and it makes me laugh and cry at the same time. I can’t wait to see what wonderful changes this brings to the school over the coming months and years.  

From the SFGate.com post:

Rosa Parks beat out 13 other San Francisco schools vying for the environmentally friendly upgrade in the Green Schools Initiative contest sponsored by EcoMedia and CBS Corp. The students created a cute-as-a-button video entry in the format of a television news program. It won over the judges.

I can’t embed the video here (the video only resides on the Ecozone website), so you have to go to the Green My School contest website to view the video. Here is a screenshot of what you will see when you go to the page. You have to scroll down to the Rosa Parks Elementary video entry; it is not a direct link to the video.

Watch the Winning Video Entry!

A snippet from the EcoMedia press release:

EcoMedia, a leading environmental media company, and CBS Corporation today announced the winner of their Green Schools Initiative. In a ceremony hosted by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, it was announced that Rosa Parks Elementary School will be awarded the grand prize “green makeover” that will be overseen by a green schools professional and approved by the San Francisco Unified School District.

Potential projects could include energy efficient lighting, solar and wind projects, a green roof and internal and external green upgrades. San Francisco Unified School District will receive the grand prize green makeover for Rosa Parks and a sustainable environmental program valued at approximately $250,000 in products and services.

Read the full EcoMedia press release.

Watch the CBS 5 KPIX  video on the announcement of winning the contest.

Read an article on SFGate.com about Rosa Parks Elementary winning the “Green My School” contest.

Read the Examiner.com’s take on the story.

If you haven’t already, watch the winning video entry here. Be sure to scroll down to the entry for Rosa Parks Elementary.

1: Nora gets “Elf on the Shelf” from MamaT and PapaT

2: Dell reads “Elf on the Shelf” to Nora

3: Nora Discovers that the “Elf on the Shelf” has Moved!

Funny Elf Videos – Enjoy!

The Disco Elves

The Country Elves