The GLUTEN FREE dilemna

Going gluten free is not the easiest thing to do. It is just unimaginable where you will find wheat and gluten! We are also corn free here, so we have already been avoiding that (and that is also unreal!).

At first when you have to eliminate something from your diet, all you can think of is that which you can no longer have. With corn you think of all those "wonderful" processed foods like cookies, chips, frozen junk etc.. Well with gluten/wheat it's bread. Candy. Cookies. Gravy. Some sausages. Donuts. Muffins. Bread. Buns. Croissants. Spaghetti. Mac and cheese. Bread. Gravy. Pizza. Sauces. Bread. Vanilla extract. Gravy. Some alcohols like beer, some rum, some vodka, some whiskey (IF you drink or make your own tinctures, medicines, or Vanilla).

Do you see what I mean? Do you see what you are missing? I used to make bread almost everyday. But since our last blessing was born I have had to be very dutiful in being GF. Why? Because not only do I react to it, but so does the baby. What am I missing? Nausea, stomach cramps, debilitating migraines, vomiting, acid reflux, itchy skin, abdominal pain that made me double over. Am I really missing anything? I think not.

I am learning to make things GF. Muffins come out reasonably good. Cookies, no problem. pizza..um.. not quite yet. Which is a bummer because Christmas 2013 I perfected my pizza crust recipe and it was AMAZING! So now I am working on perfecting a GF pizza dough recipe.

As for pasta, well, I am not really missing it. I use rice pasta. We tried buckwheat pasta, but it has a very strong distinct flavor. Quinoa pasta is hard to find not mixed with corn or soy. But to replace pasta, I just use rice pasta. Peaches likes hers with quite a bit of chew to it, so we don't cook it as long as directed. But really, I only miss lasagna and spaghetti.. but not really because I can use rice pasta or spaghetti squash.

If you look for what you CAN eat when on a special diet, the whole food world opens up. Here in Washington, so many people are gluten free it is awesome! Restaurants are being more and more accommodating. One of our favorite places to go will wrap your burger in lettuce or use a GF bun. They also inform you that their fries are NOT GF, AND neither is their guacamole :(  Which means their guacamole comes premade (yuck), honestly it isn't that hard to make!

So what can a GF person eat? Well for starters pretty much all of the produce department is GF. Same with most of the meat department, minus some sausages and seasoned meats. Some of the dairy department is also GF.

A great way to have organic free produce is to grow it yourself. Lettuce grows easily, so do snap peas, zucchini, cucumber, strawberries, onions, garlic, tomatoes (if you have a very sunny warm place), pumpkins, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, beets, spinach, kale, chard, collards... really you pay a little for some seed or starts and you have a plethora of veg and fruit for summer.. and you can freeze the extras! Or can them. Or dehydrate them..

So going with out.. You aren't really going with out. Feeling better is so worth it!