Why I Started This Blog

Since I began eating gluten-free, I have had quite a few friends ask me about my diet. Some have been diagnosed with gluten intolerance themselves, some suspect gluten as an underlying problem for them, and others are simply curious. ("You can't eat all those things? Well, what CAN you eat?!") This blog is mostly for the benefit of the first two categories of folks, but certainly does not exclude the last. I hope to share my favorite gluten-free recipes -- some inherited from pre-gluten-free days (no, I didn't eat gluten at every meal), some collected from various sources, and some that I have invented myself. I will also share gluten-free products that I enjoy. And besides providing a resource for those already eating gluten-free, I hope to convince a few unbelievers that this kind of diet really is doable. ;-)

With the recent (and rapid) increase in celiac diagnoses and rising popularity of gluten-free cooking and products, I do not consider it a terribly unique thing to have a gluten-free blog anymore. (Gluten Free Girl is one of the most popular that I have run into so far, as well as A Year of Slow Cooking, whose author cooks gluten-free. Both these ladies have their own cookbooks for sale. I received the former author's second book for Christmas, and it is quite good so far.) Yet, I have had a hard time finding a website that I can just throw out there as the best one I can recommend, the one on which I can always find something that I want to cook. So naturally, I am just going to have to create it myself.

Hats off to my sister and her friend for having the recipe blog that I recommend the most, though: The Main Course. They don't post super often, but there is a nice collection of recipes already up there. I mostly just want my own spot to share recipes that I particularly enjoy. Hopefully I'll post often enough to make it worth it. And probably steal a few recipes from over there while I'm at it.

A few things about this blog that are a little different than some:

1) My cooking is also almost always dairy-free. I do not have any dairy sensitivities as far as I know, but my husband and children do. Since I have been nursing and cooking for these children for nearly 4 years, I have gotten pretty used to eating dairy-free (mostly) myself. Though, I have to admit that I'm probably gonna get me a big whopping bowl of ice cream on the day my baby weans. Nobody's perfect.

2) I am by no means an expert chef. I grew up with lots of older sisters and a younger sister who loved to cook, so I barely knew how to boil a pot of frozen vegetables when I got married. (Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad...) At the same time, I have developed a love for the Food Network over the past few years, and I love learning more about how to cook delicious, nutritious food. So the recipes you see from me should not be too complicated for the inexpert cook, but (hopefully) they will also be appetizing enough for even a more picky palate.

3) I have three kids under 4, and a husband whose job takes him out of town fairly often. That means two things: first, you know I don't have a whole lot of time to cook every day; second, you know I am working with unsophisticated palates as well.

4) Oh yeah, and one more thing. Look at the blog title. Yep, that's me. To me, probably the most painful part of cooking gluten-and-dairy-free is how it affects my grocery bill. My husband does make a fair paycheck, but we are both pretty darn cheap. I clip coupons every Sunday, shop sales nearly every week, and buy as much as I can from Walmart without disturbing my whole-foods-loving conscience. So the recipes I post will not often include exotic ingredients (not more than is necessary for a gluten-free diet, anyway), and I plan to recommend where you can get good gluten-free products as cheaply as possible.

All that said, I don't expect that I will have a huge readership outside my circle of friends (or friends of friends). So if you are one of those reading here, please do comment as often as you wish! I love comments, and I would love to hear your stories and try your recipes as well. If you have a story or recipe that you would like to share, please email me at glutenfreecheapskate@gmail.com (or my personal email address for those of you who know it). Thanks for reading!!