Alot of gluten free recipes that you find are so complicated and fancy. Being a southern girl, I am a believer in simple recipes. Plus, I am always going ninety to nothing so I need recipes that don't take much time to make. I will admit that I love cooking and making recipes, but there are those time when all I feel like doing is cooking something out of a box. It's not often, but it does happen. Some might believe that a dessert made from a mix could not possibly be as good as one made from scratch, but I disagree. Especially when you are making it for kids.
This weekend I visited Sam's Club again and just happened to stumble across another item labeled gluten free. I am an avid baker, so I always have certain ingredients on hand in my house. I find that some things are easier and cheaper to buy in bulk so one of the things on my grocery list this weekend was powdered sugar. I knew it was gluten free, but I'm always amazed to see things labeled as such.
I guess it's the little things in life that amaze me the most. The most amazing thing is that my mom, who was shopping with me, completely missed that it said gluten free. Naturally, that was the very first thing I noticed when looking at the bag. Maybe once you are living gluten free you just snap into a mode where you look for those two words on any food you come across. Are you as apt as I am to catch the words gluten free on a product package?
When I was first diagnosed with Celiac Disease, I dreaded walking into the grocery store. There was never anything that said gluten free, and the only foods I could buy were the ones I was so tired of eating. Times have really changed, it seems. I went into Sam's Club yesterday and had a wonderful shopping experience. Several of the items I usually buy and know are gluten free, actually say it on the box now!
I was so surprised and excited to find that these things now say gluten free. In fact, I took pictures of some of the items and immediately put them on twitter. While I know that makes me a huge gluten free nerd, I just get so excited to see gluten free everywhere on products from tons of different companies. Every time I go to the grocery store, there seems to be a new product that says gluten free on the label. I really hope this trend continues and makes the gluten free world a lot easier.
For some, living gluten free is like a punishment. It turns their world upside down and they have no idea what to do. For others, it is a chance to change their life. For me, it was a little of both. I was fifteen when I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, and if you had asked me then, I would have said the world was ending. Of course it really wasn't that dramatic, but you couldn't have convinced me. Looking back now I laugh at myself because while it was hard at first, life is so much better now. I can cook just about anything, and will eat just about anything that doesn't have gluten in it. Both of these things happened because of my Celiac Disease. I've always loved to cook, but after starting the gluten free diet, there was a lot of experimenting with recipes to get things to cook right and taste good. There were some successes and some huge failures, but every experience taught me something I could apply the next time. Now I can just make up a recipe as I go. That is something I never would have tried to do before the gluten free diet. In a lot of ways, I have my Celiac Disease to thank for making me the person I am today. I am a person that wants to help others in any way I can, which is why I started this blog. I have tons of knowledge and secrets about living gluten free and I want to share it with anyone who wants it. I remember starting out and having no idea what foods I could eat. I would hope those starting out now would have better resources than I did back then, but if they don't they have the gluten free community. From Facebook and Twitter, to Linked In and Gluten Free Faces. We're all here to help those that need it, and to give ideas to each other. That is the best thing gluten free has given me.
