Nancy F. Browning
Welcome to Gluten-free and Grateful.
Please check out my weekly blog and a variety of gluten-free recipes. More coming soon...be sure to check back!
My Story
I’m glad to be eating gluten-free. But that’s not how I felt in September 2009, when I first learned that I could no longer eat wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and a laundry list of other foods that I loved. I went through all the stages of grief, including denial and anger. And then I shopped at every health food store and health food aisle of the local groceries, buying a wide range of packaged goods as well as a variety of flours. I scoured the Internet for recipes. And I noticed what ingredients pre-packaged gluten-free flour mixtures contained. I experimented with recipe books that expected me to have a million special flour mixtures for a number of purposes. And then I figured out the secret of baking gluten-free. It’s easy, and you’ll find it on my page of Gluten-free Baking Tips, under "substitutions.” From then on, just about every one of my gluten-free baked goods has turned out well, and some taste even better than when I made the same recipe with wheat.
Today there are many gluten-free products on the market; however, I cannot eat many of them because I also have an intolerance to potatoes (and potato starch is in just about everything) and to sunflower seeds and oil, as well as to milk, though I can eat cheese, butter, and cream. So when you see recipes using an equal amount of water and heavy cream, that is my substitution for milk. I also use a lot of unsweetened almond milk. I encourage you to try the recipes as they are written before trying your own substitutions.
None of the recipes on my website have any ingredients that I don’t eat. Of course, you can add them as you create your variations. But I wanted to explain why you won’t see tomato sauce or stuffed peppers or any of the nightshade vegetables, green beans, peanuts, sunflowers, pork, etc.
One surprise in my journey of eating gluten-free (and without so many other typical foods) is that I have branched out to eat foods that I hadn’t known of in the past, such as quinoa, millet, amaranth, and parsnips (which substitute well for potatoes in stews and soups). Many of my creations were made possible because I was thinking of ways to eat within my new dietary boundaries; ironically, these limits have helped me to transcend my feelings of missing out on food, as I now have an expanded range of food to eat.
May you also find that eating gluten-free helps you to enjoy food in a new way that is broader and healthier than before.
Please check out my weekly blog and a variety of gluten-free recipes. More coming soon...be sure to check back!
My Story
I’m glad to be eating gluten-free. But that’s not how I felt in September 2009, when I first learned that I could no longer eat wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and a laundry list of other foods that I loved. I went through all the stages of grief, including denial and anger. And then I shopped at every health food store and health food aisle of the local groceries, buying a wide range of packaged goods as well as a variety of flours. I scoured the Internet for recipes. And I noticed what ingredients pre-packaged gluten-free flour mixtures contained. I experimented with recipe books that expected me to have a million special flour mixtures for a number of purposes. And then I figured out the secret of baking gluten-free. It’s easy, and you’ll find it on my page of Gluten-free Baking Tips, under "substitutions.” From then on, just about every one of my gluten-free baked goods has turned out well, and some taste even better than when I made the same recipe with wheat.
Today there are many gluten-free products on the market; however, I cannot eat many of them because I also have an intolerance to potatoes (and potato starch is in just about everything) and to sunflower seeds and oil, as well as to milk, though I can eat cheese, butter, and cream. So when you see recipes using an equal amount of water and heavy cream, that is my substitution for milk. I also use a lot of unsweetened almond milk. I encourage you to try the recipes as they are written before trying your own substitutions.
None of the recipes on my website have any ingredients that I don’t eat. Of course, you can add them as you create your variations. But I wanted to explain why you won’t see tomato sauce or stuffed peppers or any of the nightshade vegetables, green beans, peanuts, sunflowers, pork, etc.
One surprise in my journey of eating gluten-free (and without so many other typical foods) is that I have branched out to eat foods that I hadn’t known of in the past, such as quinoa, millet, amaranth, and parsnips (which substitute well for potatoes in stews and soups). Many of my creations were made possible because I was thinking of ways to eat within my new dietary boundaries; ironically, these limits have helped me to transcend my feelings of missing out on food, as I now have an expanded range of food to eat.
May you also find that eating gluten-free helps you to enjoy food in a new way that is broader and healthier than before.
