Gluten-free for life

I think I'll be gluten-free for life.  It has its challenges and some of the pre-packaged foods like cookies,bread, etc, are pretty pricey, but I think I will need to stay on this for a long time to come.  I'm feeling so much better, I've lost about 12 pounds and slimmed down enough that I feel comfortable in my skin again (I can't tell you how long it's been since I've felt that good).  I'm getting back into cooking at home and making things from scratch, which as we all know is better for us anyhow than anything prepared and processed.  There are some cookies and crackers that we are buying so we can have snack foods besides tortilla chips and hummus or salsa. 

Donald is thinking of going gluten-free for a while so he can try to get his weight back down to where it should be and hopefully it will lower his cholesterol levels.  He needs to get a doctor and get in for a physical so maybe once he's feeling better himself, he will book that appt.  I have a physical on Thursday (which reminded me I wanted to work from home that day but now may not be able to! ugh!) and it's been a long time since I've had a full blown physical so I'm curious to see how things turn out.  I was getting concerned about my cholesterol and my sugar levels and such, so it would be nice to see some good things to match how good I feel. 

If you were interested in trying out some of the GF products, here are a few of the faves I found that aren't too pricey:

• Blue Diamond (the nut company) has these nut & rice crackers that are wheat & gluten free.  The pecan are pretty good.  We bought the cheese to try out - I'll let you know if they suck or not. 
• Jo-Sef's chocolate animal cookies are pretty much allergen free (dairy, gluten, nut) and are pretty yummy.  
• Mi-Del cookies:  arrowroot animal cookies and the ginger snaps are pretty darned good. 
• Chocolate chex.  Rice chex has always been GF but this has chocolate and it's much, much better than the other cereals we've tried.  Barbara's Puffins are sooooo bland we need to add extra sugar!
• Pamela's baking mix.  Good stuff... great muffins.  They have a lot of alternative flours (rice, corn, etc) but have nut flours as well so the muffins come out with this great nutty smell and flavor.  Add some milk, honey, eggs, dried fruit and I found a little plain yogurt for moisture and they are super yummy!

We've also found some GF salad dressings and sauces and discovered that there is a lot of misinformation about what contains gluten and what doesn't.  Did you know vinegar doesn't but a lot of people think it does?  Vinegar is also in sooooo many things: ketchup, salad dressings, salsa, bbq sauce, etc. 

Here's to another week GF and hopefully another pound or two down!