Woe Woe Woe is Me...

Shopping for the gfcf diet can be really confusing. I went to Giant today with my gfcf shopping guide in my purse and my little laminated cards in hand. What would have normally taken about 35 minutes took me an hour! Giant doesn't stock the soy sauce I need (yes, even soy sauce has gluten - it is made with wheat).

I got home and had a few meals planned out in my head. Then I realized that some of my spice mixes are not gfcf! Many spice mixes are made with whey which is basically milk. To top it all off, I just spent an hour researching Rice Dream milk which is labeled "gluten free". However, it is not actually gluten free. Here's the deal...in the US, manufactuers can label something gluten free if it only contains miniscule amounts. Rice Dream is processed with barley but only a very small amount. The BIG BUT is that some people react to even tiny traces of the forbidden ingredient. SO...my decision is to stick to the Almond Breeze milk (much better tasting), maybe try the Pacific brand rice milk, and remove Rice Dream from the acceptable list of foods until Sarah is completely on the diet. Once she is completely on the diet for a little while, we may try Rice Dream and see if there are any changes in behavior, progress, etc. It's not a huge deal since she won't drink the stuff anyway. But, I do use it to make her pancakes and waffles. Dumping down the drain now...

On a more positive note, Sarah has finally started eating her new gfcf cereal. She has been snacking on "Gorilla Munch" all day today. YIPPEE! She won't eat it with any of her dairy free milk, but she's eating it. Tomorrow I'm off to Whole Foods to get a second box for daycare. Speaking of daycare, I am spending the rest of the evening printing out info on the gfcf diet, success stories, and lists of acceptable ingredients for Sarah's daycare mother. I plan to take a bag of gfcf stuff there on Monday morning.

Although I spent an hour at the store today, I will likely spend another two between Safeway, Trade Joe's and Whole Foods tomorrow. I may even go to the "Gucci" Giant since they are known to carry everything under the sun. Thank God my husband returns from London tomorrow!