How about some nachos instead?

When you first hear the diagnosis of Celiac disease, and find out that you can no longer have gluten in any form, you feel totally overwhelmed.

We all know that gluten is in everything, and how on earth will we eat now?  While people mean well, it is somewhat difficult to be constantly told that “there is so much more available now,” or “I just saw a whole line of great gluten free products.”

I know it is better than it ever was, I know there are more choices, I know people want to be supportive, I get it.

But . . .

Here’s the thing — I don’t want to buy food in a box.  I don’t want to drive 30 miles round trip to get bakery cupcakes for my kid’s birthday party.  I don’t want to throw a tiny frozen pizza in the oven on a busy weeknight when that pizza cost a fortune and tastes like cardboard.  Initially we did that and, while we didn’t starve, I found myself increasingly frustrated by the inability to cook real food for my family.

I grew up in a household where we ate real food all the time.  My parents had a large garden at our house, and rented another garden plot at a nearby arboretum.  They visited several farmer’s markets to buy produce to freeze and can throughout the summer.  My mother made every dessert from scratch and made 8 loaves of sandwich bread every weekend – this while working full time.  We sat down – as a family — to a home-cooked, balanced meal every night.  While my early years as a parent were not spent at as pristine a dinner table as the one I sat at growing up, I made a real effort to cook well for my family.  The diagnosis of celiac was truly devastating for me as the chef and food provider in my home.

In the first two years of this new reality, I struggled.  I converted recipes to GF with some success, but often with great failure.  I wasted countless dollars worth of GF flour blends and I made more than one birthday cake a second time, late at night, after an initial disaster.  I sat at my dining room table and watched as my family gamely tried the latest creation – but didn’t ask for seconds.  Finally, about a year ago, I found a cookbook that helped me learn how to make GF yeast breads from scratch, with success!  Since then, I have been able to make all of our breads – sandwich bread, burger buns, french bread, tortillas – not always on the first try, but eventually I manage to get it.  For me, while I am spending much more time in the kitchen, I am also spending much less money at the grocery store, and that has been incredibly freeing.

Gluten free cooking and eating is still frustrating and expensive, but the excitement of the challenge has taken over my thinking, putting the overwhelming aspect of the job in the back seat most of the time.  I find myself trying to work around the days I have no bread made by coming up with a different idea, instead of tossing up my hands in defeat.  I have even gotten the family on board.  Just this week, I was planning sandwiches for lunch, when I realized the day’s loaf of bread would not be ready in time.  My husband, after looking at the exorbitant price of four GF bagels in the grocery store, looked at me and suggested that perhaps he could make us a batch of chicken nachos instead.  I liked that idea – it meant he was on board with the plan, and I didn’t have to cook!

-Anneke