My Martha Stewart phase has passed...

When we started this gluten-free thing in December, I admit that I was totally desperate for SOMETHING/ANYTHING that might make life easier with Jen. Looking back now, I actually feel bad because the possibility that we needed to go gluten-free had been suggested to us about 10 months previous. I did a brief 6-week phase of wheat-free once a few years back (gluten-free is even more restrictive than wheat-free) and I spent 10 months clinging to the hope that we wouldn't have to go this route. However, when we hit early December, I was ready to try ANYTHING. I have a lot of newfound empathy for people that try bizarre-sounding medical and naturopathic treatments for conditions that are not responding to traditional medicine, as I've now been there!! If someone had told us to soak Jennica for three days in a mixture of red wine and cat poop, I might have been willing to do it at that point!!!

So I jumped into the gluten-free thing with gusto. Fortunately, small gains were seen almost instantly, which encouraged me to keep going. I cooked, baked, fried, experimented, cooked, baked, fried, and experimented some more. I am SO grateful to the thousands of families across the country that are linked by computers and are living this daily life to help our children. There are bazillions of recipes out there, and millions of ways to create virtually every standard dish in a gluten-free/casein-free/egg-free form.

Now that we've been gluten free for 100+ days, I've hit my stride. I've found the things that work for us, and have definitely found some things that don't. Jennica will eat some things that even our dogs won't touch. (GFCF mac-and-cheese does NOT resemble what you and I think of as mac-and-cheese, but she loves it, so.....what the heck!!) We've found GF pretzels that are better than Rold Gold. And, best of all, I've learned to CHEAT. No more hours in the kitchen. BETH IS BACK! And Martha Stewart can kiss my gluten-free fanny!!! Heh heh heh. I still have some things to perfect, but for the most part, I'm happy with our current menu of meals. Jen has a broad variety of things that work for lunches and dinners and snacks. Breakfast is still, by far, the toughest. But, bless their cotton-pickin' hearts (wiping a tear here), General Mills has announced that on top of their already-gluten-free rice chex, they are releasing several more GF cereals soon. Let's just hope that the average normal grocery store carries them! Driving 146 miles for Glutino-brand pretzels is a little ridiculous!

Is it rude to torch the apron the kids bought me?