My Gluten Free Kitchen

What does a gluten free kitchen look like? Come on a tour of my studio apartment's kitchen! It has a lot of the same types of items that a traditional cook and baker would have.

DISCLAIMER: all products shown in the pictures are gluten and dairy free based on my reading of their labels. Sometimes I screw up and purchase something with an offending ingredient and then pay the price if I don't triple check first (and get really upset with myself.)

Notice how the freezer is pretty packed with zip-lock containers. My biggest trick is to cook three or four portions of a meal, eat one, have one or two for lunch or dinner that week, and freeze the remainder. I defrost the container in the refrigerator the night before and have a ready-made delicious meal waiting for me! I have also recently discovered Van's Wheat Free Gluten Free waffles and am addicted.

I'm a giant bibliophile. My book selection varies by the month since I read a lot of library books! Harold Washington library is my friend!!! Their gluten-free cookbook selection is pretty awesome. My three most used gluten free cookbooks are Cooking for Isaiah: Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Recipes for Easy Delicious Meals by Silvana Nardone, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef by Shauna James Ahern and Daniel Ahern, and You Won't Believe It's Gluten-Free!: 500 Delicious, Foolproof Recipes for Healthy Living by Roben Ryberg. My most used traditional cookbooks are Better Home and Gardens New Cookbook, Betty Crocker Cookbook, and Cooking: A Common Sense Guide.

I finally cracked and bought a measuring scale. I love it! It opens the door to so many gf recipes which are weight-based.

The first picture demonstrates JUST how much of a baker I am! You'll notice the large amounts of gf pasta in the last picture. When it is on sale, I tend to stock up! No sense in spending over $3 a box on a package if I don't have to!

I love my little spice section next to my stove!

And now for The Toys. I have a George Foreman grill, a blender, rice cooker, slower cooker, 3 cup Cuisinart, a microwave and a spinning spice rack (not pictured: hand mixer). The glass containers are filled with gluten-free flours. I use the mixture from Cooking for Isaiah and pre-mixed her chocolate cake's dry ingredients. In the second picture, I have my cookbook holder, lunch box (super important!!!) and TV for watching Food Network. I recently hung a bulletin board in my kitchen and love it! I have pictures of my failed cookies as well as my successful cookies to remind me that it CAN get better and I shouldn't give up.

And it isn't quite the kitchen, but I do have an herb garden growing on my windowsill. I started with a pot full of parsley and have since expanded to include a large planter with basil, (more) parsley, oregano, tarragon, chives. Rosemary and cilantro are currently growing in their own small containers as well.

You'll notice something important lacking from my kitchen: a dishwasher. It drives me nuts most days because I do so much cooking and baking that I generate a LOT of dishes while creating in the kitchen!! There are a few different roads one can travel when living with a food intolerance (or two or three): I choose the one where I live my life fully and have a playful sense of adventure in my kitchen. My kitchen is my favorite place to be! (But I still wish I have a dishwasher...)