The obvious question is, why? The answer is simple. My wife has discovered that she is allergic to gluten.
This is a major problem. Everything, and I mean everything, contains gluten. You name it. Hot dogs, hamburgers, sausage biscuits, pancakes, cereal, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and everything in between. You know, the entire food pyramid!
Oh, yeah... Except fruits and vegetables, of course. I'm still trying to figure out what those things are and where one would locate them and how they fit into that triangle thingy. I've heard they grow on trees...
The hardest part of this gluten free thing is going out to eat. As long as I'm cooking, I pretty much know what to do. The challenge is figuring out what the restaurant has done.
Is it fried, breaded or baked? Does it contain wheat product? Does it contain preservatives, or MSG's?
Salads are generally okay, depending on croutons and salad dressing.
We have Mexican food mostly figured out. This is good since Mexican is a staple for my family. Thank goodness for La Hacienda! Ole!
Other places are not quite so simple. Bruster's Ice cream could neither confirm nor deny gluten in their product. Teenagers. So helpful.
On top of all this, I find out gluten is not just in food. It's also in vitamins, medicines and even hand lotions!
I called the customer service line on the back of the Jergens brand hand lotion bottle. Like the Bruster's teenager, the rep could "neither confirm nor deny" whether her product contained gluten or not.
Now we're trying all sorts of new foods around my house like seaweed, oat crackers and hummus. What's a hummus?
And quinoa. What's a quinoa? Is it really edible? Is it a plant or an animal? How do you even pronounce that?
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| Sprouted Quinoa Trio? Looks like bird seed! |
it is hard to figure out ... never knew so much add it added to it and WHY?
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