Are you lost in the sea of gluten-free? We can help!

If you are new to gluten-free living, welcome to our community! You have picked a great place to jump in. If you have lived this lifestyle for some time and just want to know more, this is a good place to continue learning as well. Living and eating gluten-free is a journey I have been on with my family for about three years now. It has been an exciting, frustrating, challenging and rewarding journey for us. I am still learning to navigate this sea of endless possibilities. As I learn more, my cooking improves and my family enjoys the wonderful things that can be made gluten-free.

Even three years ago, there were not nearly as many wonderful ready-made gluten-free options available, at least in our area. It seems that every month or so, a new bread, cracker, cookie, cake mix or brownie mix hits the shelves at our local specialty food or grocery store. It is amazing to me how quickly things have come out and also how good some of them really are.

If you are just considering or starting on this journey, you have picked a great time to start! Grocery stores and restaurants are finally "getting" the whole gluten-free market and the benefits of it all both to the body and to their bank accounts. Money talks and I think they are finally listening to the fact that gluten-related health issues are real and are becoming more and more common.

So, you have decided that avoiding gluten is the path you are going to try either on a doctor's advice or for any number of reasons. Now what? You can visit any number of specialty food stores and find a sea of options from individual flours to already baked breads and cookies, pasta in all kinds of shapes and flavors and rice cakes galore. How do you make it all work into your lifestyle? How do you make it work with your budget? Are you going to be feeding your whole family gluten-free foods or just yourself? Where do you start?

When I first started looking into changing our diet, I knew it would be for my whole family. In a way, that made things easier for me. Things also were more expensive having to cook that way for all six of us. We may as well face it, eating gluten-free foods can cost a small fortune if you are not careful. I had to make it work within my family's budget.

Another thing to think about before you "dive in" is, how are you used to cooking? Are you a make it from scratch kind of person or do you eat out? Perhaps you are somewhere in the middle and use mixes often. Are you willing to make your own mixes? Do you want to try to cut costs by making more of your foods from scratch?

There are many gluten-free food companies out there that make wonderful mixes for the cook that is used to using boxed mixes. I know how intimidating it can be to try to cook from scratch and also have it be gluten-free. Before we started on this journey, I made most everything from scratch. That part of my lifestyle did not change, but trust me, I have spent lots of time worrying over trying a new recipe or ingredient. Cooking and baking gluten-free is very different from cooking with traditional wheat flours. That being said, it can be done and done well!

For my family's budget, I could not justify buying premixed flour blends, bread, cookie and cake mixes. It would have cost us far more than we could afford to spend. Keep in mind though, that when I started out, I was feeding a family of six. Perhaps your family is smaller or you are just feeding yourself and not a whole family. Start by looking at your past cooking habits and what your budget can allow.

Once you have an idea as to where you fall in all of the cooking and budget areas, it is time to go shopping! Walking into a specialty store, if your area has one, or just the regular grocery store can be overwhelming the first time. Knowing what is safe in a mainstream grocery store can be a daunting challenge.

No matter where you shop, you must become a label reader. If you have not been a label reader to begin with, this can be yet another challenge. Gluten is put into the strangest of places from some varieties of sour cream to your Thanksgiving turkey! How crazy is that? Trust me, I had no clue when I first started out on this journey how many places gluten could be hiding. I also had no clue how many different names it could go by.

Now that I have you totally freaked out, rest assured that all is not hopeless! You can eat real food, you can eat tasty food and you can enjoy yourself on this gluten-free journey. There are extensive lists to be found on line in many places and your doctor can provide you with a detailed list of what to avoid. Here I will give you a basic list to start out with, things that I run into more often than not.

• Modified food starch
• Wheat starch
• Barley malt
• Bread flour
• Cookie crumbs
• Cookie dough
• Spelt
• Farina
• Graham flour
• Filler
• Teriyaki sauce
• Soy sauce

As I said, the list is long, but this will get you started.

Trust me, I know this seems like an impossible task, a journey that will leave you frazzled and unable to eat anything aside from plain meat, vegetables and fruit. There is so much wonderful food out there for the gluten-intolerant. Either ready made or made in your own kitchen. Made from a mix or from scratch. Good food is possible!

Spend some time looking at the recipe section here on Gling. Check out the local gluten-free grocer. Figure out how you are going to want to cook. Good food can be made to fit any kind of cook. Flours abound and so do the options for them all.

You can create wonderful gluten-free food for yourself and your family, trust me! I am here to help you on this journey, so check back often! I will be posting many tips and helpful hints to make this as easy as possible. Feel free to post questions on my blog or send me a message. I will do my best to answer any question you have or direct you to who can better help you if I am unable to.

You are not alone on this journey, the Gling community is here to help you! Like I said before, you have picked a great place to start this new adventure...a tasty one at that.