Thanks to Starbucks for selling gluten-free items.

Finally the buzz with gluten-free diets is starting to become much more known and talked about. I am very thankful for that. No one can quite understand unless they have experienced this what it is like to have to be so careful with everything you eat. Being sick from eating is no fun. I think personally traveling is one of the hardest things. You never know what will be around for you to eat and grabbing food on the go is not easy for a celiac. I commend Starbucks for introducing gluten-free items into their prepackaged foods because for one thing you can find a Starbucks almost everywhere. (except in Arkansas) Today I was able to finally get one of their new gluten-free muffins. It was very good and very moist. YUM! I will be back. They are supposed to be getting something new next week too so I look forward to that as well.









Thank you Starbucks!!

Gluten-free pizza

About a year ago I took a few gluten-free cooking classes at Market Street. I learned so much from those classes and had a lot of fun. I purchased the cookbook from the lady teaching the class, and it is the only book I use. Tonight we are having gluten-free pizza (well I am I don't make my husband eat gluten free, we just don't share pans) and I took some pictures to show you how easy it is. I really does taste like pizza. If you are interested in looking at the book I use for baking you can see it here this version is a little more updated than my version.

It really is amazing how much this tastes like a wheat version of pizza. I have learned that there are a lot more flours in the world other than just plain white flour, which is in almost everything, and not gluten free! The main flour in this recipe and really in all of the recipes is brown rice flour (a lot healthier than plain white flour), and millet flour along with a few other ingredients. Baking is a challenge for me already, I am much better at cooking. Gluten-free baking is an even bigger challenge. Almost every ingredient was foreign to me in the beginning.


The "baking" book that I use for all of my recipes




the prepared dough




I use the bottom of a springform pan for my pizza pan. You have to have a bumpy/textured pan for the dough. It cannot be a flat/smooth pan.



These last few steps are just like making any type of pizza, but gluten-free dough is very sticky compared to regular dough. It is a little bit trickier to spread out even. It may not look as pretty as regular pizza dough, but I'm not too concerned with that when I am eating it. :)



Dough after rising for about 20 minutes (in the summer it rises a lot faster than in the winter. In the winter I put a space heater next to it to get it to rise faster.)



Finished product. Not too bad.

Some handmade soaps that I am really loving

A couple of months ago I purchased 5 natural/handmade bar soaps from a nice person on Etsy. For some reason lately I have really been into natural soap. It started with Lush. I really love Lush, but let's be honest it is pretty expensive. My favorite soap from Lush is Honey I washed the kids. I was able to find an exact dupe for it on Etsy, so I decided to purchase a few other soaps from this seller as well. You can view this sellers items here I wish I was able to share pictures with you of my personal soap, but I cut into them so they are no where near as pretty as they were when she shipped them to me.

I purchased the pink sugar cold process soap, cannabis and coconut, honey be sweet (lush dupe), citrus bliss, and coconut orange. My 2 favorites so far are the pink sugar and cannabis and coconut. I am really loving them all though. Check her stuff out. She has a lot of really cute soaps for a really good price. Oh and of course they are gluten free. :)

PF Changs, an amazing gluten-free dining experience

If you have not already been to PF Changs to experience their amazing gluten-free menu, get to one as soon as you can! They are one of the best restaurants for a wonderful gluten-free dining experience. I went with my husband and 2 friends and we had a great dinner. They are having a special right now where you can get soup; an appetizer; entree; and dessert for 2 people, and the cost is 39.99. That's right 20.00 per person!! I had egg drop soup (this stuff is VERY good) gluten free lettuce wraps (taste like the real thing) Ginger chicken with broccoli (not my favorite dish but still good) and since none of the desserts that you could pick from were gluten-free I paid extra and got the Flourless Chocolate Dome cake!! This thing is so good! I recommend it to you if you love chocolate. It is very sweet and rich. It comes with raspberry sauce and fresh berries. It is to die for!

Check out PF Chang's gluten-free menu here


I hope you have a great experience there as well!

My first post!

So I have always wanted to start a blog, but never really knew what exactly I wanted to say, and maybe I still don't, but this is my attempt at helping people live a gluten free lifestyle. I hope to somehow help someone out there, even if it just one person. It is not easy to do and can be very confusing and lonely. Aside from gluten free posts I will occasionally throw in other things as well. Whatever I am feeling that day I will post it. It might be just about what I did that day or what I am loving at the moment. I hope you enjoy!

I was diagnosed with Celiac disease in the summer of 2005. My mom was diagnosed previous to me and my brother shortly after. My mom has lived with horrible symptoms of this disease for a very long time and finally someone figured out what was wrong with her. I am happy to say after completely eliminating gluten out of her diet she feels so much better now. So as you can see it is extremely hereditary, and if anyone in your family is diagnosed, everyone should be tested.

So what the heck is Celiac disease and gluten? Celiac disease is an intolerance of gluten. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, some oats, barley and rye. This is a very serious disease and will cause lots and lots of symptoms if not treated correctly. The only fix for Celiac disease is following a gluten free diet. The best thing about all of this is it is reversible, but you MUST follow a gluten free diet for the rest of your life. There is a lot more information about this on my favorite website www.celiac.com

With all of that said I'm excited that this is my first post and I'm finally getting this blog together. I will post as often as I can come up with something to say which will hopefully be often. :) I hope you enjoy and find this helpful!