Hi Christina,
I do understand what you're going through! But the whole gluten free thing doesn't have to be that tough.
I tried cooking gluten free just for me and "regular" food for everyone else and it didn't work....to much cross-contamination from crumbs. I was always getting sick. Also, you have to realize that your children are very likely to have inherited the tendency towards gluten intolerance from you, and even if they are not having problems now doesn't mean that it's good for them to eat gluten!
I'll bet there are a lot of gluten free meals that you already eat, or that would be easy to make gluten free....at least, I know I was able to figure out that there were gluten free meals that I made on a regular basis for my family. For example, a simple breakfast of bacon, eggs, and fruit is naturally gluten free, as is a dinner of steak, baked potatoes, and a green salad, or roasted chicken, rice pilaf, and steamed broccoli. Even beans and rice makes a wonderful (and gluten free) meal!
Some manufacturers have recently become more sensitive to the needs of celiacs and others who are gluten intolerant, such as the makers of Chex cereals and Betty Crocker: Rice Chex has always been gluten free, but some of the Chex cereals are now being made gluten free as well, while Betty Crocker now has two cake mixes, a
cookie mix and a brownie mix that are all gluten free. Kraft is very good about
listing allergens such as gluten and soy on their labels (not everyone is!).
Mexican food is frequently gluten free because they use corn tortillas in many recipes, such as enchiladas and tacos. You just need to either find or make gluten free enchilada sauce and taco seasonings (McCormicks makes a lot of gluten free spice mixes).
Below are links to several websites with tons of wonderful (some even inexpensive) gluten free recipes, plus lists of safe and unsafe foods:
Gluten free recipes for the Crockpot by Stephanie (Steph is Scottish and very frugal):
crockpot365.blogspot.com/Wonderful, gourmet recipes by Karina:
glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/Karina's "How to go gluten free" primer:
glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2006/01/morning-after-diagnosis-that-is.htmlHomey southern cooking by Carrie (look at her older recipes because she's currently vegan):
www.gingerlemongirl.blogspot.com/My current favorite gluten free blogger, Elana (she's totally grain free, cooks with almond and coconut flours):
www.elanaspantry.com/Unsafe foods (from celiac.com):
www.celiac.com/articles/182/1/Unsafe-Gluten-Free-Food-List-Unsafe-Ingredients/Page1.htmlSafe foods (from celiac.com):
www.celiac.com/articles/181/1/Safe-Gluten-Free-Food-List-Safe-Ingredients/Page1.htmlSome of my favorite gluten-free recipes, archived on the Internet:
joannsgfrecipes.blogspot.comTake care and good luck with everything! Keep us posted!
(((hugs)))
JoAnn