Welcome to our new weekly post, Food Free Friday!  Every Friday we'll be featuring something non-food that is gluten free (and hopefully fabulous)!

Today, we're talking lip products.  Did you know that many cosmetics contain gluten?  It's a sad and annoying fact that us Celiacs have to deal with every day.  Now, many of you may be thinking that whether or not your cosmetics are gluten free doesn't matter, but in fact it does. It's not so much the absorption into our skin (although some will argue that it is) as the likelihood that we may ingest some of what we put on our bodies.  Just imagine for a moment about your normal morning routine and you'll probably be able to come up with quite a few ways that you could accidentally ingest your beauty products.

My suggestion is that you start to pay attention to the products you choose, starting with your lips.  Anything that goes on your lips is guaranteed to get into your mouth at least a little bit, there's just no way around it.  If Celiac experts recommend that your non-Celiac significant other brush their teeth before kissing you (they do say this is a risk for cross contamination), then you can just imagine how important gluten free lip products are. 

One lip product that I've grown to love is Softlips chapstick.  They're just so smooth and tasty!  That may sound silly, but it's true.  They have a chapstick that's vanilla flavored and it's just plain delicious!  Plus, with spf 15 you can't beat it.  Protection and a great flavor, yay!  Softlips also has tinted chapsticks, which makes getting ready in a flash quite simple.  Another yay!  So far I've only tried the "pearl" color, which is very nice and light.

Now, we need your help.  What are your favorite gluten free lip products?  Share with us and we'll post them on here!  We'll even test products out and share our results, if you like.

I know I've got some catch up to do on here and I apologize for slacking. Now that I'm getting back into the swing of things with work, I should start writing more on here.

Coming back from summer break just throws us teachers off, as I'm sure many of you can relate to. So, do expect some more updates in the near future. For now, here's a quick blog about a product I should have known better than to buy.

We were at Trader Joes and I figured I'd look around for some quick snacks that were out of the norm of what I normally buy.

I spotted these fruit sauce crushers and noticed they were gluten free. Seriously, "fruit crushers," why did I even pick them up.

My husband just eyed them oddly (smart man) as the cashier said they tasted like apple sauce.

I figured I'd give them a try and try to get a few more fruits and veggies in my day. Dumb idea! Squashed fruits of veggies?!? Really Rachel?! Obviously I can report that it tasted like I was eating baby food!! You know, Gerber from the little bottle! Yuck!

So, for all you moms out there, this is a great buy for your little ones. For the rest of you, just walk away!

So I'm a slacker, maybe just too busy, but nonetheless a slacker.

I will now tell you an adventurous story about my eating habits, well, non-adventurous maybe.

Next to sandwiches, salads are probably one of my favorite things to eat.

Now I know most of you gluten haters out there probably already eat more salad then you would want to honestly admit. (Probably because everyone thinks you're a vegetarian when you tell them you are allergic to gluten.)

Rachel and I do up salads right.

Now I'm not one of those weird vegetable (which names you can't pronounce or when you look at it, it reminds you of an animal that was run over on the side of the road) type eater.

I like my salad with flavor, but not too much.

Our typical salad is as such:

Ok, I guess first I should put a little disclaimer.  BJ's Restaurant, never fails on taste, BUT they do often fail with getting the order right.  I say this not to complain, but to warn people with allergies to be very careful. Always double check your order and your food when you get it.  Make sure your gluten free options are indeed gluten free.  You never know when there's going to be an onion ring on your gf pizza (true story).

Now to the pizookie.  All I gotta say is, tried it, loved it...going back next week!

Thanks to our wonderful friends Robert and Vita (who are expecting their first baby soon, yay!) for suggesting we dine at the wonderful BJ's restaurant with them.

I can't believe I even suggested CPK (not that I have anything against them, but HELLO, I just wrote a blog about BJ's new gluten free pizookie).  I would have been a fool...glad they set me straight! :-)

So, like I started off with, tried it and loved it!  This pizookie was amazing!  They have their new 2 for $20 deal, so Crosby and I ate like royalty for half the price of what it normally costs us.

We got our own salads, his with extra everything, literally! I love how he orders salads, makes me giggle.  But oh, he's got some insight with that extra cheese! :-)

Then we split a delicious pepperoni, bacon, and pineapple pizza.  Again, Crosby was the pepperoni and pineapple guy, I always got ham.  Man, his choice is way better, so now I follow suit.

So we had our wonderful pizza and then....DA DA DA...wait for it...ohhh....DESSERT!!!!!
A warm, gooey pizookie that I could enjoy!  Imagine people, the taste!?!?!  So soft and chocolatey with a heap of cold, vanilla ice cream on top!  I was already full before this sucker arrived, but I didn't care.  I made room! :-)  SOOOOOOO worth it!!!