The Beginning
It was the first day of 3rd grade in 1988. She walked into her new school filled with nerves and apprehension. Who would be her friend? Mrs. A saw the cute little blonde haired girl trying to blink away her tears and stepped in. Telling her she had just the friends to introduce her to; she walked up to a group of girls and introduced them all. One of those girls happened to be a petite and slightly outspoken strawberry blonde. The friendship was instant and the rest is history.
Our friendship is lifelong. It has stood the test of time. We were childhood friends, high school bffs, twenty-something bridesmaids, and we are thirty-something forever friends. Our children will never know a life without the Jovle’s and the Eid’s.
Meet Kristen
I am a new mother of an adorable one year old girl, and wife to a gluten and dairy intolerant husband. With both of us working full time we are always on the go and try to find meals that are easy, delicious, and that follow a gf/df diet.
My husband has had stomach problems all of his adult life. No doctor has ever been able to figure out the issue. He has tried countless different remedies and medications with no success. He finally tried the naturalist way and started seeing an acupuncturist, who suggested removing gluten from his diet. Instantly he started seeing results. It was a bit daunting at first but we were able to find substitutions and food we could both enjoy. This worked great until about a year later when he started having more stomach problems. Turns out that eating gluten for so long while being intolerant had damaged his body, resulting in an intolerance to dairy.
As hard as removing gluten from his diet was, removing dairy from was 100 times harder. It's taken us many months to figure out good substitutions and convenient meals that are tasty and fit our lifestyle. I don't eat completely gluten and dairy free (Can't give up my cheese and yogurt!!) but when cooking for the family I like to make foods that everyone can eat. Our daughter is just starting to try foods and I'm praying that she doesn't take after her dad with all of these issues.
Meet Kristie
I am 32 and I learn at least a few things about life and motherhood every single day. When I was growing up I pegged myself as having a stomach “like my mother’s” I knew to check where the closest public restroom was when I entered any store and especially any restaurant. Though not the healthiest decision, I chose to ignore my symptoms and eat what I thought wouldn’t make me sick. Sometimes I was right and unfortunately other times I was wrong.
I have two beautiful daughters. Mallory is five and is very inquisitive. She is smart, loves Kindergarten and she is a book hoarder. She has the typical palate of a five year old who survives on four different meals. Her favorite side dishes include a sleeve of yogurt and carrots with ranch dressing. My second daughter Mikayla came screaming into the world two years ago. She has been my curve ball. I thought I had parenting pretty well figured out until she came along. From the word go she has had a very sensitive tummy. She was colicky, suffered from reflux, and was finally diagnosed by a GI specialist with an allergy to lactose and casein. Through a natural approach she found much relief when all cow’s milk was taken out of her diet. She has a spunk all her own and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
By the recommendation of our Naturopathic doctor we did a round of allergy testing on me. Because Mikayla was under 9 months of age she would carry the same antibodies as myself and therefore would have the potential of reacting to any foods that I have an allergy or sensitivity to. I had a glaringly obvious allergy to dairy and a mild allergy to gluten. The answer was immediate for Mikayla: She would be on dairy free and gluten free diet for at least three years. Knowing she had already reacted to dairy her chances of reacting to gluten were just as high. Her chances of one day being able to tolerate dairy are slim due to her severe intestinal reaction from birth. Our hope is that keeping her GF for her first three years of life will build up her immunity to gluten, thus allowing her to one day tolerate small amounts of it. With my test results staring me straight in the eye, I could no longer run from the fact that I too had food allergies. At first I thought I would never happily survive without dairy and gluten in my life. I took the plunge on taking dairy out of my diet first. Survive I did and I was astounded at how much better I felt. Six months later when dairy seemed only a very distant desire I took gluten out of my diet. Within a week I could tell my body was thanking me.
Feeding a family of four on a “typical” diet can be challenging. When you throw into the mix that you need to leave dairy and gluten out for 2 of the 4 members and you have yourself a recipe for not only becoming a short order cook, but a stressed out mom. Slowly but surely we are finding out how to make it all work. I am finding recipes and products that keep every body’s tummies full and healthy. Mallory is learning to try new things and thankfully I have a husband who is willing to try just about anything.
