gluten-free Kitchen..

[goldyjlox]

I have been gluten free for a few days now and I am getting used to eating gluten-free and working in my kitchen, however my husband is still going to eat gluten, which is completely fine with me. I was thinking thou, as I was making him chocolate chip cookies tonight with real flour that maybe this could be bad for me. Does preparing meals and baking for others that are not going to be gluten free harmful to me?? I washed my hands good with soap, cleaning under my nails.... I make sure that the surfaces in my kitchen is cleaned (cutting board). Should I worry??

I bought a toaster, strainer...is there any thing else I can do??

Thanks

[Darn210]

I don't maintain a gluten-free kitchen, but I only do gluten-free baking. The gluten is prepackaged stuff - bread, cereal, cookies . . .

I was making icing not too long ago and the mixer speed was a little high. It threw powdered sugar every where and there was a small cloud of it in the air. That's when I decided that I would only do the gluten free baking - if that had been flour, it would have been everywhere.

Plus, when I go to the trouble of making something, I want everyone to be able to enjoy it. The gluten-free choc chip cookies I make are just as good as the ones I used to make with gluten. The cake, cupcakes, and muffins have turned out great, too.

For the most part, the meals are gluten-free except that the gluten-eaters (3 out of 4 in our house) might have the addition of a bun or a tortilla or something along that line.

We do have a gluten-free cutting board (per the dietician's recommendation). She said you can't addequately clean out the cuts/cracks in the board.

[hathor]

I don't make anything with gluten in it. Like Darn210, I just have some premade gluteny items available. I have gluten-free utensils now & I don't want to deal with keeping them separated from any "tainted" ones. I also don't want to worry about scrubbing my fingers constantly, breathing in the flour that flies into the air, or the like.

One thing I've done is to put the glutened items in one cupboard and the gluten-free items in another. That way I don't accidentally eat the wrong thing (or have to read labels each time) and my family members save the expensive gluten-free stuff for me.

Have you gotten rid of all your old wooden spoons, any scratched cookware, and the like? I've heard here that gluten can persist in the cracks despite washing attempts. You don't mention what your cutting board is made out of -- you may need a new one. If you are going to bake with regular flour and use a wooden spoon, you would have to keep that separate from anything that might be used for your food.

The only other thing that occurs to me right now is to be sure to train your family members not to get crumbs into items like butter, PB, mayonnaise, or whatever. (The dangerous item in my house is hummus.) They need to learn to either get all they need with a clean knife, or to pull out all they need with a clean utensil and then spread from that.

It is a learning process. I'm still trying to train my husband to use the left side of the toaster oven for glutened items and leave the right side for me. I've even given him a couple mnemonics to remember -- "my wife is always right" ( ) and "gluten is sinister." But he seems incapable of remembering the first (hmmm...) and didn't take Latin (where "left" is "sinister.") Amazing how he can be a successful professional and can't remember something simple. I've lost track of how many years it took for him to learn what day the garbage men come, what and how we recycle, etc. Sigh ...

[SillyBoo]

I started out trying to separate gluten and non-gluten items in the kitchen, since I have 3 gluten-eating family members (hubby and 2 teenage daughters). However, I found that it didn't work for me. I really needed a completely gluten-free house. My husband and daughters have ample opportunity to eat gluten outside of our house.

We have many other things in our kitchen that I cannot eat, and that doesn't affect me at all. But having gluten around, especially flour (which ends up everywhere), seriously inhibits my recovery. This stuff is a deadly poison to some of us, harming every organ in our bodies. To me, having it right under my nose (literally) just isn't worth the risk.

Interestingly, it was my husband who really pushed to get all gluten out of our house. At first, I was hesitant to "inconvenience" the family, but they got used to it. There are so many gluten-free alternatives - it really isn't such a horribly sacrifice for our loved ones to make.

I know that some people manage to keep gluten in their kitchens, and do alright with it. I think it probably depends on 2 things - how sensitive you are to it (which you will discover as you progress down this path), and how meticulous all family members are at isolation and control of the gluten.

Good luck!

[imsohungry]

My kitchen resembles many others' gluten-free kitchens. I do not keep any gluten flours or other gluten baking/cooking items in my house. This way, I know that my kitchen is "gluten-free" as much as possible. My hubby still has his store-bought bread (which he keeps in a separate bread box). He also still has his cookies, chips, etc. containing gluten (again, separated from my food). My countertops are wiped down constantly, and I have my own condiments and toaster.

-Julie

[kbtoyssni]

I live alone so my kitchen is gluten-free. When I lived with my parents, my mum and I were gluten-free and dad and brother were gluten eaters. The kitchen was 95% gluten-free. We'd buy gluten-free brands of condiments, corn tortillas instead of wheat, corn chips, etc. The only gluten items in the house were pre-packaged things like crackers and cookies. And my dad was really careful about not contaminating things. My mother likes to bake and has developed some good gluten-free bread recipes so now my dad eats gluten-free bread, too. And we always have gluten-free cakes.

A kitchen that isn't entirely gluten-free is doable with some work. But the one thing I would NOT allow would be wheat flour. That stuff can travel out of its container so easily and will probably be getting into the air if you use it. Even if you cleaned the kitchen after using, I don't think you could guarantee you've gotten all of it.

[goldyjlox]

Wow, this is a big change. I my self a new toaster, stariner, cutting board, mixing spoons, flipper and I will have my own pantry all for gluten free. We do have regular flour in the house and the bag is sitting in my laundry room next to the kitchen. I had no idea that it was an issue, I make pancakes all the time with it and baking for my husband. He wll not change his diet and I will not ask him to either, he comes from a family that eats alot of homemade stuff and alot of gluten. And since I am a SAHM and dont have any income but his, (money is tight) I will have to maintain a kitchen that is both gluten and gluten free. Until I perfect some recipes and change all my baking to gluten free.

Thanks. I have got alot to learn.

[melmak5]

I share with two gluten-eating house mates.

They are respectful of my gluten free cabinet and bin of cooking utensils, and let me know when they are going to use wheat flour. (the first time someone made banana bread just walking through the kitchen made me sneeze... so I go elsewhere and wait a while to come back)

I never put anything of mine on any counter. Even after I wash the counter/stove I put down a clean dish towel or paper towel first. (our kitchen counters are not sealed, and there are too many nooks and crannies for my sense of safety)

I have a celiac friend who makes gluten-based products for her husband and kids. She wears gloves, but admits almost every time she gets glutened.

It is totally up to you, what you feel comfortable with, but for me I just don't feel safe, so I choose not to handle flour. That being said, I do come into contact with gluten by virtue of the fact I live with two other people who no matter how much I explain that "yes, crumbs really are that serious" I am sure I am not 100% gluten-free, but I cannot afford to move out... so not handling wheat flour is part of my be as close to a zero tolerance policy as I can get.

[NewGFMom]

When my son got dx, I got all the gluten out of my house because I wanted it to be a safe environment for him. But he's four years old, so it is a different situation.

However, you can make gluten-free cookies and pancakes and everything he's used to with gluten-free flours. It just takes a bit of practice, but gluten-free baking is really no more difficult than regular baking. I think it's ok to have pre-packaged 'regular' stuff in a house with a celiac, but it will be very difficult for you to heal if you're using flour in your kitchen.

I highly recommend Annalise Robert's baking book. It only uses ONE flour mixture for all of the treats and they are all FABULOUS. As a non-celiac who can go out and eat whatever I want versus what I make from that book, and I really prefer her recipes to anything I made before. The brown rice flour she recommends is very expensive, however a lot of folks have made her flour mix using finely ground white rice flour from asian supermarkets (at .79 a pound) with very good results. (or so I've read here!)

Good luck!