Starting the gluten free purdge

After I got home from the dietitian's office my head was spinning. I'm so glad I wrote the post when I did because I'm sure I would not even remember 1/2 the stuff I was told. If you want to read what I wrote it's here. But I took the weekend and started the the process of going through all of the food in our cupboards and throwing away/separating the foods containing gluten and reading labels.

I'm a self proclaimed bread and pasta lover and always have been so this process was particularly difficult for me. We've decided to keep a few things like cereals, a little bit of pasta, and some things for me to eat for lunch while the kids are at school in the house and we'll be keeping these things in a tote until we can buy more suitable pantry cabinet or find a storage area in our very small kitchen.

I started to figure out very soon that the gluten containing items I wanted to keep were not going to work in the container I had purchased. I needed to be able to put the cover on it to keep Eden from getting into it. I let it sit on the table for a while and as I was doing other things in the house I would walk by and grab something and put it in the box I was giving to my sister. I'm still not sure if I could say it was easy because I described it like being dumped in a relationship and the gluten is moving out.  I really didn't want or need to have to do this, but it's the only way we really can make sure Eden is going to be healthy and stay gluten free. We also have limited the kids bringing food into the house that have gluten in it. We won't bring anything in that Eden would like and can't be either made or bought gluten free. This decision was made by the whole family before we started this journey, so the older girls are in agreement.

The box of food we were giving away ended up overflowing! This was the start of the things we gave away. This box didn't stay in the house long because as soon as my sister came to the house the break up was complete. It really does feel better having it out of the house thought. We now have no flour of any kind, baking mixes, bread crumbs, and a lot of the pasta, soups and rice with wheat products are gone.


Our cupboard looks empty, but it's safe for Eden. We usually keep at least a week's extra food in here so we don't have to rush out to the store every time we need anything and we are not there yet. We are in the process of replacing the items we don't use all the time and haven't missed yet, and there is also the adventure of trying new things. So many possibilities, and I'm feeling better now that we are a few days after the moving out process.

The spice cupboard has yet to be done, but I'm taking things one at a time. I'm realizing this is a big process, bigger than I thought it was going to be. I keep hearing people talk about the cost of going gluten free, I think the cost of the food is higher in general but the cost to replace the food you need to get rid of makes things so much more difficult. and of course you are not aware you need something until you are elbow deep in meatloaf without any bread crumbs! The next post is going to be about going gluten free but it's beyond just the food.