Going Gluten-Free

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Gluten-free. It sounds kind of crazy, doesn't it? Breads are everywhere around us, and people LOVE them -- us too! But we eventually had to take the plunge and do it.

After we'd cut all of Bekah's known allergens, many of her symptoms did improve. She was sleeping through the night about 2/3 of the time instead of rarely. She didn't have diaper rash too often. She seemed "fine" most of the time, although I knew she really wasn't, not completely.

I really was in denial for a long time, though. I kept thinking, "but she's been eating bread forever. Surely we would have noticed before now if it were a problem!" But then I joined the Foodlab group on yahoo, and talked to some of those very expert parents about Bekah's remaining symptoms (which at this time included red, rough, itchy palms). They suggested that gluten probably was an issue, and that I should try cutting it. One even referred to it as "rat poison!" I thought, if it'll help her feel better, I'll do it.

I picked a Friday (a grocery shopping day, about 6 weeks ago) to be the day we went gluten-free. Two days later, Bekah started sleeping through the night -- and did for NINE DAYS in a row! This was a record. Normally I didn't get more than two days in row out of her. Her palms began to heal. We were definitely seeing improvements!

The rest of us were gluten-free, too. Ben didn't really notice anything. I had a headache for almost two weeks straight (withdrawal? lol). We didn't notice any change in Daniel, either.

First, I bought coconut and buckwheat flour. There are many gluten-free flours, and many mixes, too. I prefer to bake from scratch, so I began reading whatever I could, and these two flours sounded good. Coconut flour requires a lot of eggs, so by using the pastured eggs, we'd get a lot of great nutrition (coconut flour itself is also very high in fiber). I found this recipe on Cheeseslave's blog, and although I haven't tried it yet (Bekah hasn't been too keen on blueberries lately), it inspired me to get the coconut flour. I've also read plenty of recipes for buckwheat pancakes, so I decided to go for that.

My early experiments, with both coconut and buckwheat pancakes were good! Bekah loved them. I couldn't, however, use these flours for EVERYTHING. So I decided to buy some different flours. There are so MANY options -- potato flour, nut flours, garbanzo bean flour, sorghum flour, brown and white rice flours, etc. -- that I didn't want to try to figure out which was the best, or which combination worked well. I also didn't have the money to buy a whole bunch of different flours. So I chose Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour.

I've enjoyed working with this. It made great muffins and great pancakes. I attempted a yeasted bread, with not-so-great results. But I'll settle for yummy quick breads so far! I recommend this blend.

Soon I'll be trying some nut flours. There are a lot of great recipes here: Elana's Pantry. I haven't tried them yet, but they look really good!

A lot of my recipes are simply naturally gluten-free, like making soups with brown rice instead of noodles. I don't much like the brown-rice pasta, but I'll eat it from time to time. It's easier to just avoid meals that have gluten, anyway! I don't really like substitutes much. I feel like, I'm avoiding this food to be healthier, so why am I looking for something -- which is probably processed -- to replace it? So I'm trying to limit subs as much as I can.

It hasn't been too bad to go gluten-free, and I think we're all feeling better for it. As I try new recipes and techniques to bake gluten-free, I will post more recipes. It's not as hard as it seems at first, trust me!

Are you gluten-free? Have you tried any of the recipes on the sites I mentioned? if so, tell us your tips and secrets and what you like to eat!