Karen Broussard's Page

Birthday

August 30, 1969

Looking For

Networking

About Me

I am the mom of a 6-year old with Celiac Disease who was diagnosed before he was even 2 years old. While getting up the learning curve and cooking gluten-free at home was relatively easy, we found it more of a challenge when dining out and traveling (keep in mind, this was 4 1/2 years ago!) To help others in this regard, I launched a website 18 months ago called GlutenFreeTravelSite.com ( http://www.glutenfreetravelsite.com ). It is a free site where you can go to Search or Submit Reviews of restaurants, grocery stores, hotels/resorts, and cruises anywhere in the world that accommodate gluten-free diets. Reviews are organized geographically so you can easily find the information that's relevant to you -- whether you're trying to find a safe place to eat in your city/town or someplace where you're traveling. It's great to get personal, first-hand advice from others with your same needs and concerns. We have 600 places reviewed on the site already, but we're always looking to get more reviews. So please share your favorite restaurants, etc. with us. It helps other Celiacs -- and also rewards all the great places that go the extra mile to learn about gluten-free food preparation and serve the gluten-free community. Our site also has a very user-friendly section called Gluten Free Restaurant Menus which lists national and regional chain restaurants that have gluten-free menus. We link directly to the restaurants' gluten-free menus, as well as their locations so you can see if they have a restaurant near you. Please visit our site...we have a monthly contest where we select a particularly useful review from the prior month's submissions. The winner gets their review showcased on our Featured Review page and wins a set of four Triumph Dining restaurant cards (one each for American, Italian, Chinese, and Mexican cuisines). I'd love to hear from you all! You can also follow our Blog: Gluten Free Travel Blog ( http://www.glutenfreetravelblog.typepad.com ) or follow me on Twitter @gftravelsite

Gluten-Free Since

April 16, 2005

Interests

Finding great new places to eat gluten-free, whether it's an independent neighborhood restaurant or a national chain that's recently added a gluten-free menu! I also enjoy finding places/companies that make gluten-free travel easy (hotels/resorts, travel agencies, companies that ship g-f foods to your travel destination, etc.) I love to eat and love to travel, so helping my son make these new "discoveries" as he grows up is so fulfilling for me.

Favorite Gluten-Free Websites/Blogs

GlutenFreeTravelSite.com ( http://www.glutenfreetravelsite.com ) and Gluten Free Travel Blog ( http://www.glutenfreetravelblog.typepad.com ), of course! There are also so many other Blogs I follow -- too many to list here. But you can check out my list of them on GlutenFreeTravelSite's Travel Resources page and on my Blog Roll.

Favorite Quotes

Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today?

Favorite Gluten-Free Foods

Again, too many to list here, and I don't even have to eat gluten-free (but do on many occasions along with my son)! I like Lifestream buckwheat wildberry frozen waffles, Pamela's pancake and baking mix, Tom Sawyer's gluten-free flour (the best I've found by far as a straight substitute for regular flour), new g-f chocolate ice cream "sugar" cones made by Goldbaum's , Josef's g-f graham crackers, Amy's frozen mac-n-cheese, gluten-free Z Pizza, all the gluten free choices at Biaggi's, P.F. Chang's, Rosa Mexicano, Bonefish, Carrabba's, and all the great gluten-free dinners I make myself at home!! I really have to say that cooking/eating gluten-free has not made us feel like we've "given anything up." There's so much good stuff out there now, and websites like GlutenFreeTravelSite want to help you find it!