Thrifty and Gluten Free: About

Diagnosis

I was diagnosed with severe gluten/wheat allergies over 20 years ago. The diagnosis was devastating; it literally turned my world upside down. At the same time, I was diagnosed with a huge list of allergies (including other food allergies) and moderate-persistent asthma.

Talk about a 1-2 punch…mine was more like three or four hard punches at one time. I was a single mother of two, and we had a very tight budget. It was overwhelming learning how to balance our grocery budget while providing food that was safe and good to eat.

Gluten-Free Back in the Day

At the time I was diagnosed, mainstream grocery stores didn’t offer much in the way of gluten-free products. You had to turn to the health food stores, and even then, the options were sparse. The gluten-free products that did exist were horribly expensive, too.

Self-Education & My New Gluten-Free Diet
The first thing I did, after diagnosis, was begin a process of self-education. I bought books at the health food store and read everything I could get my hands on.

One of the first and most helpful books I found at the time was Bette Hagman’s The Gluten-Free Gourmet. Her book reached out to me like no other. Bette had celiac disease, but her advice and recipes were applicable to my wheat/gluten allergies.

The Gluten Free Gourmet (Amazon affiliate link) got me started in the right direction, with advice and recipes that made sense and were easy to follow. I gained confidence through reading and cooking with The Gluten Free Gourmet; I still use this cookbook as my gluten-free “bible.”

Starting This Blog

I wanted to start this blog a few years ago, but other life experiences came first—becoming an empty-nest mother and a newlywed, then moving overseas.

All of these changes came over a four-year period. My kids were on their own, and I had married a Czech guy and moved to the Czech Republic. That’s a lot of life changes in a relatively short amount of time…and why this blog was put on hold until now!