Gluten Free

I am dead on my feet! I have been cooking and grocery shopping for two solid days.This is a good kind of exhaustion as I've been in my glorious element cooking.

Today I made two pumpkin pies, two pecan pies, one loaf of gluten free bread, 1 gluten free pie crust for another pumpkin pie, a sinful chocolate cake (new recipe), dressing and baked chicken legs which I used to make our gravy.

Daughter #1 began a gluten free diet about 6 months ago. Prior to that she had daily migraines and had been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome. Nothing the doctors gave her seemed to make her feel better so on a whim she decided to stop eating wheat. In a very short amount of time she was headache free and the irritable bowel syndrome disappeared. Her doctor sees no reason to test her for Celiac disease as she has already figured out that her body doesn't want wheat! There have been many challenges along the way. I made a batch of oatmeal buns yesterday and decided daughter #1 needed her own bread, too. I thickened the gravy with cornstarch and have plenty of veggies planned so she will have plenty to eat.

I spent quite a few hours last night searching for recipes and information. I landed on the King Arthur Flour website and was thrilled. They have tons of recipes, a great gluten free all-purpose flour as well as many grocery shelf products like the bread mix I made today. The flour is a bit pricey, but worth every penny.

I am also amazed at how much easier it is to find the ingredients needed for a gluten free diet. Bob's Red Mill has many options and I can usually find that along-side the King Arthur Flour choices.

I can't wait for tomorrow so I can taste the bread and the pie crust I made from the gluten free recipes!