Hard to understand

When I told my friend that we had to go gluten free, she said, "Oh, you'll miss potatoes." And when I told my Mom, she said, "So that means no more rice."

I can't say that, two weeks ago, I would have responded differently.

What the heck is gluten? Is it starch? Who knows?

With so much misunderstanding out there, the idea of going someplace other than here at home for a gluten-free meal seems scary. How would anyone know that it no potatoes and rice? How would they know to check the soy sauce?

We've decided to just have meals at home for a while.

Bean flour?

First epic fail, as Marcy would say. I made blueberry muffins with Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Flour Mix. They "tasted like moldy corn muffins" according to you know who. And I agreed. Plus, they were pale and anemic looking. My first thought was, "So this is gluten-free baking?"

However, my neighbor came to the rescue with some GOOD All Purpose Flour Mix by Cooqi, available at Tailor Made in Woodbury, MN. The next batch of blueberry muffins turned out much better.

Turns out, the first ingredient in Bob's AP Flour Mix is garbanzo beans. Can anything - anything? - good come from garbanzo bean flour?

Almost blew it again

I decided to make blueberry muffins for Marcy. The recipe calls for vanilla. I make my own vanilla, so I just got it out of the pantry and was about to pour it in when I realized: I made this vanilla with grain alcohol. I decided to skip it till I can figure out a good substitute.

Lactose Intolerant

Little One is lactose intolerant, too. So stopping at Cold Stone Creamery tonight posed its own set of challenges. No cones, for sure, but we found a FABULOUS non-dairy raspberry sorbet, only 160 calories and 0 fat. I forgot to make sure they used a clean scoop, however, as one dipped in cookies and cream ice cream then used for the sorbet could set off a gluten response.

Chipotle has a gluten free burrito bowl. But we have to make sure staff change their gloves before making it.

So many details. I'll get this right soon, I hope.

Confusion at Trader Joe's

I have been to four grocery stores in search of gluten-free foods. They aren't that hard to find. But finding gluten-free foods made in a plant that doesn't manufacture wheat is a little harder, though.

That's the big difference between "gluten free" and "no gluten ingredients". The cross contamination, or threat of cross contamination, is what celiacs have to avoid.

Whole Foods is light years ahead of everyone else in terms of selection and signing of gluten-free foods. They gave me a little tour and handed me 20 pages of items.

SuperTarget comes in second. You have to really look, but there are Ian's frozen foods in the frozen/children's section. There are gluten free Betty Crocker mixes and Bisquick has jumped on board, too.

Trader Joe's caused me the most confusion. Looking at the five pages of g-free foods listed on their website, I was thinking it was the promised land. But most stuff has the threat of cross contamination -- gluten free, made in plants that manufacture wheat products BUT their vendors sterilize the equipment between processing runs. Well, that was an option I wasn't prepared for.

In the end, I did not buy them because I don't want to end up with more food I can't use. Even their canned black beans had wheat ingredients. That means that the gluten-free meal I served last week really wasn't gluten free.

Byerly's comes in dead last. I sent them an e-mail last Tuesday regarding some salad-bar caesar dressing. The shelf dressing has a different set of ingredients than the salad bar does. But they still haven't gotten around to responding.

Gluten in Taco Seasoning?

Why, oh why, would anyone think about checking taco seasoning mix for gluten? Good thing they did, though, because there it is. Trader Joe's has a gluten-free version, but I think I will investigate making my own.

The Purge

I cleaned out the pantry today. I have three bags of groceries for the Boy Scouts' Food Drive that is coming up. I also brought three bags of groceries back to SuperTarget and they took everything. Everything!

Another Surprise, This Time About Cookies

Jim called from work to report that he was doing all he could to go g-free. He wants to know how hard it is, he says, so at the coffee shop, he got an oatmeal cookie.

I had to explain to him that oatmeal cookies generally still have flour in them.

He didn't know.

I asked him if he had ever made cookies before.

He hasn't.

Third Surprise

Gluten in soy sauce? Yep, it's true. There is hidden gluten in all kinds of things, including soy sauce.

Second Surprise

Once we found out that Marcy has celiac, we were told that we had to be tested, too. There is a genetic component to celiac. Jim's test came back negative, our second surprise. I was sure he would be the culprit! Those Irish genes seemed to point right to it. I get tested this Thursday.

First Surprise

After a year and a half of stomach issues and several visits to the pediatrician, my daughter, now 13, made it clear that these stomach issues were affecting her life. She was waking up at 4 in the morning with stomach pain, missing school days and extremely tired every day. Rashes would appear for no reason. Migraines and headaches were becoming more frequent.

Since we had tried everything our pediatrician had recommended and none of it worked, we first tried going lactose free. That helped for a few days but then stopped.

I decided to get a referral to a specialist and was sent to the pediatric Minnesota GI clinic. We had to wait four weeks to get in.

They asked about my daughter Marcy's symptoms then drew some blood. They sent us home with a lactose intolerance test.

The tests came back saying the celiac panel was high.

The next step was an upper endoscopy. This would require going to the hospital, IVs and the works. Couldn't we just go gluten-free? No. Too big of a life change, they said. You want to be sure.

So to be sure, we went to the hospital and two days later found out that she does, indeed, have celiac disease. That was our first surprise.