Gluten Free: Sticker Shock and Kitchen Phobia

When I was younger, I thought allergies were a lot like fashion trends: there always seemed to be a new "trendy" allergy. I can remember watching my mother mournfully explain to other moms how my two sisters were "lactose intolerant", watching the reactive condolences with equally mournful expressions. Then came the peanut allergy, the MSG allergy, and, I now feel bad about this, I actually laughed when I met some one with a Soy allergy, because I found it so ironic that they had been replacing peanuts with soy in so many products, that now they find people are allergic to it as well! The latest "fad" allergy seemed to be the Gluten Allergy. I pretty much ignored all my mom said about how she had "discovered" she was Gluten Intolerant and what wonders it did for her and blah blah blah. She had said the same thing about MSG! But she kept saying that my husband of (at that point) 2 years seemed to have similar symptoms. He and I both brushed it off...preposterous! But I started watching...and noticing that once again, my mother was right *grimace*

It took a lot of convincing, but my Darling Hubby (DH from here out) finally agreed to go 1 week without a single hamburger, pizza, or Italian dish. And in just a few days, he felt the difference. No abdominal cramps, no "issues of Gastronomical proportions", he seemed to be free of his IBS symptoms. It took another week, but we decided to go Gluten Free 100%, so much to the point that I gave away all my wheat products, instead of the original plan of eating through them and not replacing them. We then discovered that our 18-month-old son (IE from here on out) was also Gluten Intolerant. Oh joy. I am apparently the only one not afflicted. And yet, to a degree, I am the one with the biggest burden. I am responsible for feeding our little trio. Needless to say, I no longer think of allergies with such off-handed amusement.

As soon as we were on the bandwagon, my mom started sending in recommendations, I scoured the web for recipes and blogs. What I found both shocked me and intimidated me. HAVE YOU SEEN THE PRICE FOR THIS STUFF? A loaf of GF bread is nearly $6! And a tiny bag of flour is $4! I went on to search for alternatives, and here in came the blogs. Women armed up to the hilt with Kitchen Aid mixers, milling machines and pantries full of exotic sounding flours that they mix together by the 1/8 cup. *sweat dripping down my forehead*

Don't get me wrong, I love to cook. I am actually rather good at it, despite pretending to be completely Kitchen Phobic all through High School. But still, I rely on things from the local grocer and avoid things that are too extravagant (but don't ask about my Norwegian cuisine obsession that calls for things like Cardamon...) So asking me to drop the breading off the baked chicken, the biscuits off the Country Chicken Casserole and totally forget waffles seemed like a death sentence to DH and a nervous break down to me! But, slowly I have found a few ways to cut costs and even discover a few new things that DH loves but never would have tried before. (Oh, and it turns out much of Norwegian cuisine is GF, hehe, major win for me!)

What my hope is for this blog to chronicle what I have learned, to follow me as I continue to learn and hopefully bridge the gap for those, who like me, are a little intimidated of milling my own flour or restricted on what we can spend for what boils down to luxury items like crackers and cookies.

I plan on updating twice a week, hopefully a Tuesday & Thursday schedule with one recipe and one product review a week.