Gluten free diet blog

I was unorganized in the kitchen for YEARS, wasting tons and tons offood. Drove my poor husband NUTS. Then two summers ago (before our own GFCFdays–we were starting Feingold then), I offered to watch a friend’s daughterfora couple of weeks while her mom went to help out her sister after a caraccident. This child had Down’s and autism, and was GFCF and soy free.Soooo….outof necessity, I sat down with a menu planning form (which I had here but hadnever attempted to use) and began to really think about meals.

I was not about to worry over who ate what, so everyone got the same mealsand snacks. I started with meats, and filled in a main meat item for about 4-5days a week (the other days were “potluck”). Then I figured out what vegetableswould go nicely with that particular meat. Then I planned a simple dessert(homemade ice pops, Rice Dream, fruit salad with a topping, smoothies,store-bought GFCFSF cookies, etc.). Then I wrote out a list of acceptable snackitems,so I wouldn’t have to think about it when the kids started “browsing” formunchies.

I kept it VERY simple and plain–no one here is a gourmet! I used SpecialDiets for Special Kids for some of my meal ideas, and the Feingold cookbook(copyrighted) for others (which I had to adapt for GFCF, at times). To beabsolutely honest, once I’d done this–and stuck to it–for a couple of weeks, Iwaskicking myself for not doing it sooner! It wasn’t NEARLY the hassle I thought itwould be, and it really did cut down on my grocery budget! My husband wasTHRILLED, I felt organized, and we ate really well PLUS stuck to everyone’sdietary needs! Can’t do better than that!