Top 5 Things I've Learned as a New Celiac Mom

1. Be prepared

Gone are the days of just winging it. I always have to think ahead and have food packed. Whether it's a day at the beach, a hockey tournament weekend, or a drive into the city for the day, I am always prepared.

2. There are more gluten free folks in my circle there than I realized

I was worried that my Celiac Son would have a hard time going to friend's houses and that they wouldn't understand that, even though he was showing up with his own foods, there was still the issue of cross contamination. Luckily, he has many friends who have at least one gluten free member of their family AND they get it.

3. We've had the chance to try so many new yummy recipes

I have really enjoyed researching gluten free recipes. It has given me a chance to find gluten free bloggers like A Girl DeFloured who have the yummiest ideas and recipes to share.


4. We already ate a lot of gluten free foods before the Celiac diagnosis

Most of our dinners were already gluten free. Meat and vegetables are naturally gluten free—it's mostly just the sauces, dressings, and gravies that I have to pay better attention to. But honestly, our dinner menu has not changed drastically.

5. I am still an overprotective 'Mama Bear'

I thought I had outgrown this once my children started getting a little bit older, but you mess with my child, gluten, you're gonna hear me roar!


Image Credit: Creative Commons | babies-dangerous-wild-animals.blogspot.com

Podcast: I interviewed my Celiac child and here's what he had to say

If your child has been recently diagnosed with Celiac Disease, my elementary aged son and I know what you are going through. In the following podcast, I asked my Celiac son about his experience with Celiac Disease (so far). Some of his responses may surprise you.

Recipe Review: Warm Autumnal Rice and Vegetable Salad

Much of being a Celiac mom has to do with food. I guess that's true about being a mom, in general, though. Feeding our young is one of the primary functions of motherhood (along with loving them, clothing them, and providing them with shelter). My children would probably add things like: getting me an Xbox, driving me to Dick's Sporting Goods, and taking me to Walt Disney World to the list, but I digress.

So, what does a New Celiac Mom do at the beginning of her Celiac journey?

Look up new recipes.

As a blogger, I've looked to other bloggers in the gluten free space for yummy recipes that my whole family will enjoy. I've come across some amazing blogs (check out Blogs I Follow) including this one: A Girl Defloured.

Image Credit: www.agirldefloured.com

I love this blog! Not only is it so pretty to look at (am I right?), but A Girl Defloured has categorized her recipes into super fun categories like Ladies Who Lunch, Meatless Monday, From the Sea, and Mommy Needs A Drink (I will be checking this one out soon!).

This week, I tried one of her recipes for dinner. The recipe is Warm Autumnal Rice and Veg Salad. Yummy! Unfortunately, my picture isn't as pretty as the picture she has on her site (I think she must be a professional photographer as well as a yummy recipe maker), but I had to show it and to tell you how easy this recipe was to make.

Other than telling you that this salad was a big hit with Celiac child, there are other things you should know:

• A Girl DeFloured says prep time is 10 minutes.
• Prep time actually took me about 20 minutes, mainly due to chopping vegetables. Also, I couldn't find pre-cooked brown rice, so my rice took 20 minutes to cook. 
• I thought this would make for a great leftover lunch the next day. If you plan to get two meals out of it, do not combine all of the rice with the salad and the cooked vegetables. 
• Keep the parts separate for your leftover meal. If they are combined, you can't heat it up the next day. Otherwise you will either eat warmed up arugula (yuck!) or cold rice. 

Overall, Celiac son and I give this recipe an A! It was easy to make, looked fantastic, tasted yummy, and hit some major food groups!

Review: bionaturae Gluten Free Pasta

Years ago, when I moved into my first place, my Auntie took the time to put together a family recipe cookbook for me—handwritten! It was the most amazing gift. In her perfect penmanship, she carefully hand wrote recipe cards of the dishes I grew up eating. Auntie included recipes from my mother, her sisters, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother. Each recipe card included attribution to the chef. 

All these years later, my recipe book is looking a little worse for the wear. It is tattered. The spine is bent out of shape. There are splashes and smudges covering the most used recipe pages. These include chicken parmigiana, baked ziti, meatballs, pancakes, brownies, and apple pie. 

You see where I'm going with this?

I will admit that when Celiac son was first diagnosed, I felt guilty at how emotional I was, and I was trying to be so strong for him. And then another Celiac mother said to me "It's okay to be sad about this." So I was. I allowed myself a couple of really good cries. I cried that my son was never again going to get to eat Oreos, or Bertucci's bread, or "real" pizza, or my grandmother's whoopie pies or so many of the foods that I grew up with. 

But when I was done crying, it was time to get to work. I am, after all, his mother. And one of my primary jobs is to feed and to nourish him. Time to start learning a new way to cook, and finding substitutions to make some of those favorite family recipes work.

Celiac son was always a huge pasta fan. Funny—because when I look back to the couple of undiagnosed years BEFORE, he never gave up his pasta. He would shy away from McDonald's and Dairy Queen, and from sandwiches and cereal. I never noticed the pattern, though. I just thought he didn't like junk food. But he never backed down from a good bowl of pasta. 

And this is the reason for my post.

Trying to find the right pasta to satisfy him and to help him to embrace his new diet took a few tries, but we hit the jackpot early on.

The BEST gluten free pasta we have found is bionaturae Organic Gluten Free pasta.

I make it with everything! My grandmother's chicken parmigiana over linguini, my Auntie's gulash, my mother's spaghetti and meatballs (all with gluten free breadcrumbs of course), and another Auntie's baked ziti.

Our entire family devours this pasta like we did in the non-gluten free days. Even peanut-allergy brother, who is the pickiest eater in the house, doesn't even notice that he is eating gluten free pasta when I serve bionaturae. 

I have found bionaturae at Shaw's and Whole Foods. And unfortunately, it is pricey—about $3.99 for 12 ounces. But I promise you, it is worth every penny. We have tried about a half-dozen gluten free pastas and none of them even came close to bionaturae. 

How about you? Have you had any luck with gluten free pastas? I'd love to hear from you!

Welcome to my blog: New Celiac Mom!

Hello! Welcome to my very first post on my new blog: New Celiac Mom.

If you haven't read my About page, be sure to check it out. I am the mother of a 10 year old child who was diagnosed about 6 months ago with Celiac Disease. This diagnosis has changed the way our family functions (to say the least). We are in the very early stages of educating ourselves about Celiac, enduring trials and tribulations, and jubilating over the fact that my son's constant tummy aches are—for the most part—gone.

Celiac son has a peanut allergy brother, so food allergies are not brand new to us. Peanut allergy brother has traveled with an Epi-pen his entire life and does not know what a peanut (or peanut butter or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or peanut M&Ms) taste like. Peanut allergy brother could go into anaphylactic shock if he accidentally comes in contact with a peanut. Scary stuff.

Although Celiac son's symptoms do not seem as severe on the outside, we know that what is going on in the inside is just as scary. As a family, we want to do everything we can to keep him safe. Since his diagnosis came later in life, he knows what he's "missing." Pizza. Pasta. Bagels. Muffins. Baked Goods.

If you're reading this, I'm sure you can relate. 

So, if you are also on a new Celiac journey, or even if your journey is not so new, I'd love to hear from you. I will be sharing tips and tricks that have worked for us, how-to's, yummy recipes we love, reviews, and probably most of all, reflections of our Celiac journey.