Vital Wheat Gluten

I remember shopping at the Macey's fantastic case lot sale a few years ago and running across a carton of Vital Wheat Gluten. Over the years, I had met a person here and another one there and another one there that was, in one way or another, affected by Celiac Disease and therefore, I was aware that there was a certain portion of the population that couldn't process wheat gluten and that it actually made them very sick and prevented them from becoming properly nourished.

At that moment in Macey's, I found the term "Vital Wheat Gluten" to be somewhat ironic.

Now I find it extremely ironic.

Before Christmas, Brent found out that he's gluten intolerant. What this means for you is that you will no longer have to listen to him share way too much information about his digestion process, nor will he likely feel the need to tell you about his awesome, uber toilet that will wash you, dry you, do your laundry and vacuum your floors. It also means that if you plan to dine with us any time, ever, for the rest of our lives, you will have to listen to us ask about every ingredient in every dish and then tell everyone that he can't eat it and possibly bring our own food along.

What this means for me... is a lot more.

As a wife and mother, I'd say that I spend a cool 50% of my life thinking about what to make for dinner, shopping for food for dinner, making food for dinner, baking goodies for after dinner (or before) and cleaning up the dishes from dinner. And now, none of this involves flour. Excuse me, none of this involves WHEAT flour. I can use lots of other kinds of flour. Observe...

In my pantry, I've also got potato starch, xanthum gum, sorghum flour and brown rice flour. And maybe a couple others. I'd have to check.

I'm learning that no matter what kind of flour/starch cocktail you manage to come up with, you really can't recreate the texture and flavor of good old all purpose wheat flour... but sometimes we can get close, and we can get creative. And its completely worth it, because it's not just Brent that can't eat wheat. Of course, Lizzy's test came back positive as well.

She's been a total trooper with it. She loves rules and structure and seems to be thriving on her new dietary restrictions. We took her to a bakery last weekend to get a special cupcake, she was so excited.

And now, I'm that mom following her to school and church and birthday parties explaining that my child has "special dietary needs" and bringing along her own snacks and treats. I don't like it very much. I'm hoping that eventually, people will just know that she can't have wheat and I won't have to hover so much. Or that she'll be self regulating when it comes to her diet. She's pretty uptight and tends to enjoy self deprivation, so I can see that happening before too long.

Isn't life funny? So here's to curve balls and gluten free cooking and a healthy family!