When you hear the verdict…. your are intolerant to gluten or lactose it is almost like you are hit by a truck. What now?
What can you eat, what can’t you eat? How will this affect your social life? What can you eat in the office, when you go and have dinner with friends…It is even harder when this affects your child. What can you give them to bring to school? When they go to a party or have a play date with friends. It is a true quest.
When my husband was first diagnosed, the first thing I did was go out and buy a lot of books about gluten free eating, look up some blogs and clean out our pantry.
Our children and I still eat gluten from time to time (bread or toast) but all my baking (cake, cookies, waffles) has been entirely gluten free for over a year now. The most important thing is that you keep your gluten and gluten free products perfectly separated so you can’t have contamination.
First of all you really need to clean your oven, your sink, your closets and your pantry to get rid of all gluten residue.
Secondly you have to try out some recipes, mixtures and blends of flours. to see what works best for you and your family to bake pancakes, cookies, bread.
On the blog you can find some recipes of my favorite blends for pancakes and waffles, recipes for brioche, and focaccia, pizza….try them out and see if they work for you.
I have a new page online where you can find more information about the contents of my pantry. If you have any questions about this at all, don’t hesitate to contact me.
We are also eating much more vegetables, fruit, raw food, super foods and less sugar and carbs. The gluten intolerance was in fact the start of a much healthier lifestyle.
Our eating habits really changed.
Our breakfast routine has changed, we are no longer eating toast and bread but granola and smoothies. In the weekends we have waffles or pancakes.
Green Breakfast Smoothie
The children still eat bread at school but they also eat quinoa cookies, sweet potato fritters, chickpea and tuna salad and granola bars…. for lunch. I give them fruit and nuts and raw vegetables as a snack. In he beginning it was difficult finding what they liked but now we have a nice collection of ‘healthy’ school luncheons.
Quinoa cookies for lunch
Our dinners haven’t really changed all that much, just that the pasta has been replaced by quinoa pasta or other gluten free pasta. Over the years my cooking has become much lighter and more vegetable oriented we eat vegetarian dishes at least twice a week and almost no dairy products.
Great homemade (gluten free) cookies -guilty pleasure
If you go out to a restaurant, call them in advance and let them know about your intolerance.
When dining at friends, you can tell them in advance or bring a package of pasta in your bag to save your dinner last minute.
I am interested to know about your experience with passing onto a healthier lifestyle. Did you make any adjustments to your lifestyle recently?