Out of Left Field: Do YOU want to learn to cook gluten-, dairy- and soy-free?
By Kyra Hoggan
My son and I have been gluten-, dairy- and soy-free all his almost-15 years of life. I don’t mind admitting, when I first went gluten-free, I almost starved. I was scared to eat anything – I’m on the extreme end of the continuum in terms of celiac disease, and I was terrified of the pain and sores and mental/emotional incapacitation (if I find myself struggling with debilitating depression, I need only look back on what I’ve been eating to find the culprit – it’s almost always a food issue).
Needless to say, I take the diet VERY seriously.
But what a pain in the posterior it was (when I made a mistake AND when I didn’t)!
By the time Devon was two years old, he was pretending to read ingredients on products in Safeway … seriously adorable, but I felt bad for him, at the time, knowing what a burden the diet can be.
Then I almost broke the bank trying to eat the way I used to, but using gluten-free food as substitutes (bread, bagels, pasta, etc.). Bottom line, though, was that I couldn’t afford it and didn’t enjoy it – few glutinous products lend themselves well to gluten-free alternatives (although gluten-free brownies are to DIE for, dense and chewy and …. sorry, I digress).
Actually, hang on a sec while I go get a brownie, wouldja ….
Okay, I’m back, brownie in hand … speaking of baked goods, I used to love to bake, my banana bread was a thing of beauty and renown – but, no more. It’s too much hassle to use a half-dozen different kinds of flour to replace a single wheat flour, and I’m fundamentally lazy.
What I’m NOT, is willing to live without really good food. I’m a hedonist at heart, and scarfing fabulous food is right up there, for me, with soft sheets, hot sunshine, even sex. It’s a BIG deal.
As a single mom and small business owner, I don’t have the time to spend all day in the kitchen, or the money to buy the kind of high-end foods I used to associate with living well (I could live off crab, no problem, but there’s that pesky banker in my face in a matter of days …).
So we’ve gone through a decade-and-a-half of hit-and-miss meals (some WAY more miss than hit – just ask Dev, who had to stick it out, but really wanted to put himself up for adoption, some days), figuring out meals that are superbly healthy, relatively inexpensive, free of all the nasties that will kill us, and that only take a half-hour or so to prepare.
Now, let me be clear, I’m no gourmet – I’m still not entirely sure bay leaves make a difference (but I always add them anyway, just like I try not to step on the sidewalk cracks), and I can’t taste the difference between olive oil that costs $4 and olive oil that goes for $25. I feel guilty only buying the extra virgin variety – that feels sexist, somehow – but there it is, it’s what I buy.
But we do eat incredibly healthy food that tastes amazing, and we do it with little investment of time and expense.
Oddly, the diet has always been a very private thing for us – food is an integral thread in the fabric of our socialization. When I was first diagnosed, nobody had heard of celiac disease, and the first time I went through a drive-through asking for a burger without the bun, I think the kid at the window actually peed himself a little, he was laughing so hard. People felt bad for us, and wouldn’t invite us to events, knowing they centred around food we couldn’t eat (think: 10-year-old birthday party – ice cream, cake, hot dogs). So we just stopped telling people or talking about it.
Today, gluten-free has gone mainstream and, like Facebook or 50 Shades of Grey, everyone seems to want to check it out.
So I thought I might do a column every Sunday, not just with recipes, but with tips and tricks that will help make restricted diets easier and more sensible for people who have better things to do with their time than spend all day in the kitchen.
But, being biased, I don’t know if there’s really an appetite (forgive the pun) for it, and as I mentioned a couple of times, I don’t like wasting my time.
So I need to hear from you all. Is it worth the effort? Are there enough of you foodies out there with intolerances to justify a column of this sort?
Comment on here or our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Castlegar-Source/161396481445?ref=hl or message me on FB or email me at khoggan@telus.net . If you’re really enthusiastic, make me a picture frame out of gluten-free macaroni (just kidding about that, I’m a mom, I have lots of those).
And enjoy your Sunday dinner, I’ll be thinking of you!
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