GF Diet: The Budget Friendly Way!

When I went gluten free 9 years ago, my family and I made every effort to find substitutes for the basic foods I had to give up. Finding even a self full of GF goods in a Health Food store was hard back then, but now every major grocery (e.g. Wegmans, P&C, Stop & Shop, Giant...) seems to have a whole isle devoted just to those of us who scowl at food labels till our eyes cross. As I began to buy GF Cookies, GF Donuts, GF Hamburger Buns, GF Pretzels and every other processed GF food out their I realized just how expensive this diet was!

But then again...why does it have to be? Why did I have to manage a gluten free diet by supplementing what I couldn't eat? Yeah...those cookies and cinnamon donuts may tastes good, but so do other foods. Foods that are better on a general nutrition level and CHEAP! The American diet is very Celiac unfriendly, but by turning to other countries and cultures for cuisine we can turn ourselves into internationally savoy cooks.

Rice is the ultimate Gluten Free Miracle Grain in my opinion. So many options (especially with endless recipes on the Internet). I myself want to forgo the recipes and experiment on my own.

Silly-Yak

Usually when I Google search the word "celiac", I get a smattering of the latest GF (gluten free) products or quite a few non-profit websites trying to get the word out with diagrams, statistics and symptoms check lists. DID YOU KNOW THAT EVERY 1 in 133 AMERICANS ARE CELIACS? But recently I came across one site that made my day, perhaps even my week. In all of the 9 or so years that I've called myself a celiac... never had a realized the word's hidden hilarious potential. Silly-yak... BRILLIANT! My guess is this punny phrase came into existence when someone was trying to give "celiac" dumbed-down phonetics. The web site was created by a NY actor and celiac who sells t-shirts and other witty phrase laden products to raise money for celiac research. I myself am eyeing the bumper stickers. Check it out!