g-free for me.

With tests showing that my husband's gallbladder was only function at 16% (40% is considered low-functioning), we assumed that the removal of it, back in 2010, would cure his pain. Now, with it being almost two years later, he is still in pain. 

Recently, he began doing some research. He would search his symptoms and ironically gallbladder disease would never show up as a cause. After a couple weeks of research, all signs point to gluten intolerance. 

Do you realize how many things contain some form of gluten? It's unreal! We went through our cabinets and realized that we would need to throw about just about everything...literally, everything! 

No wheat, in any form.

No barley.

No malt.

No rye.

No breaded or floured or "crusted" meat, poultry, seafood, or vegetables.

No soy sauce.

No teriyaki sauce.

...but after years of pain, we have decided to give gluten free a try. 

Last week I did all of our basic grocery shopping at Aldi. Ya know, your fruits, vegetables, meats, your basics. Then I went to Reasor's in Jenks to buy my g-free flour and bread and whatever else I stumbled upon. The Reasor's in Jenks has the largest variety of g-free food because Mr. and Mrs. Reasor live in Jenks, OK. Mrs. Reasor has Celiacs Disease. So to accommodate Mrs. Reasor's g-free lifestyle, they keep the Jenks store fully stoked with things she can eat. Lucky for us, Jenks is the closest Reasor's to our house :) With all that being said, I assumed that changing to g-free ingredients, cooking, and lifestyle, it would be really expensive. Well, come to find out, I spent the exact same amount of money that I would have just buying all my regular groceries at Wal-Mart. It all worked out!! 

We haven't fully "converted" to completely g-free yet. We are trying things here and there. Lee tried the sliced bread that I bought. He said it doesn't have a bad flavor, but the texture is weird (which we knew would be). He said, "Imagine eating a sandwich on a cracker. With every bite you take, it crumbles and falls apart." But like I told him, there were plenty of other brands of bread we can try. 

Last night I made our favorite: Fried Chicken :) Who doesn't love fried chicken? Well, it was my first attempt at doing it g-free and with g-free flour. It worked out and was pretty yummy too!

I planned to do more g-free cooking this week, but I threw my back out like an old person yesterday so I'm out of commission for a few day. Bummer.