new home

I think that I'm ready to make the plunge and get a house.

I met with a realtor the other day and saw a couple places. There's one that I think I can pretty much deal with.

The pluses: Tile floors (except bedrooms), high ceilings, big backyard, pet door already installed (dog sized, but cats will probably get used to it), split bedrooms, two bathrooms, backyard against a wash, and the previous owner built (and left) a craft center in the second room, some shelfs in the garage, and in the front hallway.

The minuses: Small kitchen, old appliances, and small master bathroom. The small kitchen really bugs me because the kitchen is so important to me. I think there were some cracked tiles in the living room.

Oh, and not sure if it counts as a minus, but I can see the first house my parents built from the backyard. It was kinda weird.

"Natural Flavoring" and labels

Here comes a rant.

This is the second time something has glutened me. And again, the only ingredient I can think of as "maybe" is something called Natural Flavoring (or Natural Flavors).

Unlike a lot of the gluten-free bloggers out there, I don't own a lot of exotic ingredients. And I still like to get a lot of things at a real grocery store. I was raised in a typical mid-west house with lots of comfort foods that aren't very healthy for you.

I wish products could specify more what they mean by natural flavoring. What the hell does that mean anyway? Where the hell does it come from?

I've eaten quite a few things that have the natural flavors in it, and not gotten gluten exposure. It's the crap shoot that I hate. I can't even remember what the first thing I ate was that got me sick. I just remember thinking it was the natural flavoring.

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Originally, I was happy to hear the FDA did adopt a standard of what can be called "Gluten-Free". It's the Canadian standard of less than 20 ppm. My biggest fear is that things that have "gluten-free" on the labels now will disappear due to companies (especially smaller ones) won't spend the money for the testing to verify gluten-free status. I noticed about six months ago, Amy's already changed theirs from "Gluten-Free" to "No Gluten Ingredients".

I guess I can live with labeling something with "No Gluten Ingredients". I'll still consider buying it.