Gluten Free Friday, Day 3

Continuing with my Gluten Free Basics series, today I'm going to post about Cooking from Scratch.

Eating gluten free is simple if you can cook some things from scratch. Of course, many of us do not feel entirely proficient in the kitchen (myself included). Don't let that stop you from being adventurous! Don't be afraid to try new things. When you make something from scratch, you know exactly what's in it and you can be sure that it truly is gluten free.

You can read here about my first experience cooking with dried beans. I was a little nervous about trying it, but since it turned out fine, I'm much more confident now when I use dried beans. I feel a good sense of accomplishment that comes only from tackling something that's "scary," and realizing it's really easy! And, I have a renewed zeal for experimenting in the kitchen!

Use foods that are naturally gluten free; there are a ton of them. Cook with rice, beans, meats, fruits, and veggies. When you combine these foods, you've got a meal so great, you won't even notice it's gluten free. It's just a "normal" meal.

Rice noodles are a staple in our house. We have "spaghetti" usually at least every other week, and we have rice noodles for breakfast every Thursday morning. We buy our rice noodles at the local Oriental foods store called Nana's Oriental Market. It's much cheaper than the rice noodles at our grocery store (Hy-Vee). We'll sometimes get rice pasta from the health food section of Hy-Vee for a macaroni hotdish or something, but we generally stick with oriental rice noodles.

So don't be timid in the kitchen; try new things in your gluten-free-cooking-from-scratch journey!