Wheat Free Recipes

Since we started our no-wheat, no gluten odyssey, we've had to wing it most of the time. Thankfully, we were already a "from-scratch", fresh veggie, fresh fruit kind of family, so the adjustments weren't far outside our zone.

Our youngest boy, Steele, is gluten intolerant, which simply means that any wheat substance that contains gliadin/gluten causes digestive problems and makes him highly emotional. This is a lighter version of Celiac disease, or Celiac sprue.

No matter what level of which version you're dealing with, it presents a number of challenges. The first hurdle to jump is actually getting a diagnosis. I've read blogs from people in their forties or sixties who just found out they were Celiacs, or gluten intolerant, after a lifetime of unexplained or partially resolved health issues.

Diets, habits, eating routines, social lives and budgets have to be reworked immediately.

In our case it was a about equal portions of both aspects. We've had to either stop feeding Steele certain foods or find wheat free replacements. In our experience, most wheat free alternatives are either painfully expensive, hard to find, or taste horrible. Each case is usually a maddening combination of the three.

Two of the hardest things to substitute for are plain old bread and cereal. Our little guy loves peanut butter sandwiches and Frosted Flakes© like any kid, but in his case, consuming regular, store-bought versions have unpleasant consequences.

We didn't dash out to buy wheat free replacements when we discovered Steele's allergy. We did some research (a lot of research) and found (1) we couldn't afford to keep Steele in store-bought wheat free versions and (2) we didn't really like the options available on many of the in-store varieties anyway.

Number 2 solved number 1 without a great deal of trouble.

But back to the problem: how to keep this kid in sandwiches and cereal when he can't eat the main ingredient.

Diva's solution: rice cakes. No really. They aren't dry, tasteless items constructed of semi-edible Styrofoam anymore.

Promise.

The recipes are included below. Feel free to experiment.