French? Italian? Nope, my Food Culture is Gluten Free!

Ethnic wise, I usually call myself a mutt. If I'm feeling funny, I'll say, "Skinny white girl," but otherwise mutt works. What else do you call a mix of Canadian, English, Indian, German, and many other random ethnicities? This didn't - and doesn't - bother me, but sometimes when I scarfed down ethnic foods at my friend's house or the restaurant next door, I wished I had cultural recipes passed down through my family tree. 

As strange as it sounds, gluten free has become that cultural flair, but I didn't realize how much celiac diagnosis changed my view on food until I helped my mom with dinner tonight. 

I've always been one of those people. Those people who declare that this is the day, week, month or year that they will transform from an expert microwave operator to a cook who can make a five course dinner in half an hour. Or, at least, a cook who can make a delicious dinner not out of a box.

I don't know how the years I've been saying this have flown by so quickly, but suddenly I'm faced with the immobile date of my college orientation with only a "baked potato" on my cooking resume. At least they're gluten free...

So today I helped my mom make dinner. Meatloaf. One of our favorite dishes since my diagnosis and my family's transition to gluten free. Although I love eating it, this was the first time I saw it on a ceramic platter instead of my plate? Wasn't it just a slab of beef with some spices and ketchup? Apparently not. An actual recipe was needed!

My hands washed and hair pulled back, I waited expectantly for Mom to get out the cookbook. The one from Amazon? Or maybe the Barnes and Noble bargain we discovered three weeks after my diagnosis? Instead, she sat a skinny white binder on the island, papers fluttering around accordion-style when opened. I knew she looked up recipes - I sent some to her for heavens sake - but that she actually printed them out somehow made a big difference.

They went from random recipes found on Tumblr, blogs and About.com to an actual family cookbook, all, of course, gluten free. It's a whimpy cookbook of bad quality printing and questionable sources, but it's a cookbook that we created to reflect the new gluten free lifestyle that has become part of our family. 

I'm not just a skinny white girl, anymore, or a mutt. I'm all of those plus gluten free. And I hope that, years from now, I can pass down the gluten free recipes my Mom and I have found, adapted, and called our own to my kids. 

Hopefully, they won't need to be gluten free like I do. Hopefully, by the same stroke of luck that added the term "celiac disease" to my medical file, they will be spared. But, either away, they deserve to know where their mom comes from. And now, I think gluten free food - like the delicious meatloaf I now know how to make - helps spell out my story.

For a copy of this awesome recipe, check out this link!

So good I forgot to take a photo before digging in!

Has your view on food changed since going gluten free? Do you collect your own gluten free recipes? Comment below!