About Me

   Hi. My name is Nancy. I am a wife, homeschooling mother of two teens, and fanatical about my family, that I am blessed with. This is my journey to health for them. It has been a road with many twist, turns, and tears. I have a degree in dental hygiene with a background in nutrition counseling. I grew up with a mom who catered and still teaches cooking. To be honest, even though I would not have chosen this, I find it an enjoyable challenge.

   Why Blessedly Gluten Free?  Well let's be honest.  How many autoimmune diseases are there out there that you only have to change your food choice to not only control, but totally heal yourself?  It is a completely healthy diet/ lifestyle for anyone.  As my kid's pediatric gastroenterologist pointed out.  It can never hurt to go gluten free, but there can be a lot of damage done from not. That is about the best and sadly only advice I was given.  My goal with this blog is to encourage you, and to provide you with good, easy, "normal" foods.  I would like to point you toward information that has helped me greatly and given me peace.

  I began over three years ago trying to find answers to my son's stomach pains.  We were advised that it was probably constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, or just plain nerves from a big move we had made.  None of these things seemed to add up.  He would get really ill, even when having a great time with friends.  There seemed to be so many symptoms that I would, much to my shame, think he was making it up.  I later, through much research, found out that with gluten intolerance and celiac disease there can be hundreds of symptoms.  No two kids are alike in personality.  Mine are not.  It only reasons that no two kids/ adults will have exactly the same symptoms. My children did not fall into the failure to thrive stature that is associated with celiac disease either and  to be honest, neither did I!

   I did not start this diet with the hopes of doing anything, but making my son feel better. I cried the first night he came and told me his stomach didn't hurt anymore.  I would also not be telling the full story if I didn't tell you, he hated it at first.  The food can be crappy, gritty, and hard to make if you don't know what you are doing.   He begged us to eat regular food again, and so as we were experimenting at the beginning, we let him.  I few months later he came back to our bedroom at night, begging to go gluten free.  He was in so much pain, and had realized from trying gluten free, that pain is NOT normal.  We also noticed better attention and fidgeting had stopped while gluten free.  They came back immediately when eating gluten.  At the time I didn't know that was because his body was malnourished.  No matter how well I fed him, the gluten blocked and destroyed the ability for his body his body to receive the vitamins he needed.

   Last year we went through another whirlwind of proving there was an issue.  Why????  I am not certain now, but I will say it allowed me to reassess and fine tune our gluten free ideas.  I realized that we were cross contaminating in so many ways that I will give you tips on later today.  I am also thankful, because it pointed to the fact that not only my son suffered with this, but my daughter and I also had issues, just not the same symptoms. 

   I will tell more of this on going story later, but for now let me help you start realizing the blessings you have been given. If you have celiac or gluten intolerance there is really so much more food you can have then you may think.  Barring any other allergies: you can have and fruit; any vegetable; any milk (although milk may be hard to digest at first due to damage that needs to heal in the small intestine); and any meat.  I have found for us, that almost any chips (except BBQ and regular Nacho Doritos) can be consumed without fear.  Check your packages for wheat, rye, barley, and barley malt and avoid these at all cost.   I have found also that there are twelve families of grains and gluten is only present in one of those families.  Only one...that's not so bad.  Oats are naturally gluten free, but can be cross contaminated, so stick to gluten free certified oats found in the health food section of your grocery store. Good luck.

Blessings,
Nancy