Gluten-free??

A couple of my friends up here are gluten-intolerant and thus cannot eat wheat products. It has mystified me as to how they manage to eat ANYTHING, let alone make it taste good! Well, I got to find out today, as one said friend had a baby last week, and I signed up to take her a meal. I decided to make the same thing for our dinner because why make two different meals if you don't have to... I did the research online to find GF recipes and went shopping. I felt pretty good about my choices (meatloaf, twice-baked potatoes, green beans, and peanut butter cookies). It was actually easier than I thought it might be, because if you pay attention to the labels of foods, some say "gluten-free" and most do not. But, I also found out that you have to be careful because even if the ingredients don't contain wheat exactly, there are code words you still have to look for that mean wheat. So, after carefully looking everything over, and still possibly not quite succeeding with the meatloaf (which Erin knew about-don't worry), I was excited to see how Tyler reacted (I didn't tell him until afterwards that everything was GF) and how the food would taste. The potatoes I really didn't have to worry about because I've made those for us to eat before. The meatloaf was pretty good actually. It used grated parmesan cheese instead of bread crumbs and everything else was already gluten-free. It was a little on the salty side, but good. The most surprising thing was the cookies! I would never have known they weren't regular cookies if I'd just picked one up somewhere. There was no strange aftertaste like I've heard there can be and they were nice and chewy and soft! I got them at Trader Joe's in the frozen section, if any of you are interested in trying them. They also had a brownie mix that looked tempting...I guess if I ever develop Celiac's disease, I'll at least have desserts I know I'll like! :) Through the whole experience, though, I really learned how HARD it is to find foods that are GF. Even if you find ingredients that are okay to eat, figuring out what to do with them is no easy task. That is not to say, however, that I regret my journey into GF-land. I completely enjoyed making the meal for Erin and her family and would do it again without hestitation. Let's just say that my hat is off to all those of you who have to deal with this on a daily basis!!