healthygffamily.com

If you’ve followed me a while, you probably know we are BIG fans of pasta! Both my and my husband’s family are Italian, so we grew up eating an assortment of classic Italian pasta dishes, and over the years we have tried so many new combinations of pasta sauces we’ve lost count. Today, pasta makes a weekly appearance in our house for the obvious reasons… it’s quick, it’s easy, it’s crowd pleasing, the pasta/sauce combinations are endless, and it is just delicious!  So naturally one of the questions I am most often asked is… What is our favorite brand of  gluten-free pasta? A little background… My youngest son inherited a love for pasta (I don’t really think you can inherit a love for pasta but you know what I mean…) and ever since he was old enough to eat solid food, he’s loved pasta! And it wasn’t just the pasta (although he has always appreciated different shapes and flavors of pasta)… he loved the sauces

The reason I started the Healthy Gluten-Free Family is that my son needs to eat a gluten-free diet (hello Celiac Disease) AND because he’s always loved trying new foods and the dining experience (see The Young Celiac Chef). If he doesn’t eat what I’ve made initially, at least he’s had the chance to try something new in a safe environment and will know what it tastes like. They are simple, real foods and among the easiest to prepare gluten-free and free of cross contamination, which makes it easier for him dining out and traveling with celiac disease. So, because of my son’s constant interest in trying new foods, I’ll continue to cook not only his favorites but lots of new-to-him flavors and foods.

He’s the kid who would rather enjoy 5 bites of his food than scarf down an entire lunchbox during a short school lunch. He’s the kid who even at a young age wanted to sit at the family table and have good conversation over food. He used to look at cooking magazines with me and mark pages of food and recipes for me to cook. He’s learned tons of basic skills by watching YouTube: did you know that fried eggs should be cooked in a hot pan, while scrambled eggs a warm pan?

I get easily worked up about food labeling, drug labeling, restaurant cross contamination, awareness within the medical community, self-diagnosis, reluctance to be tested, screening and testing, ability for my son to socialize easily… are you getting the picture? My posts here are mostly about delicious, easy to make food and how to live a healthy, gluten-free life with some planning and preparation. As a mom of someone with celiac, I balance making things easy for my child to lessen the burden of living with an autoimmune disease with educating and encouraging him to take increasing responsibility for his gluten-free and health needs. And thus with limited hours in the day, and the need to constantly feed my growing teenage boys, my online focus has been on sharing great tasting, easy to make gluten-free food.