Gluten Free Vegan Living

When I became Gluten Free Vegan a few years ago, I needed to rethink everything I had eaten in the past and all the food I had on hand.  Many of the items in my pantry had gluten, dairy or eggs in them.  Since my husband is still a meat eater, we kept some of those item, but moved them to a separate area in the pantry.  All the foods with excess sugar or gluten in them were pulled out of our kitchen.

We had seven boxes of ‘stuff’ when we were all done sorting!!  Unbelievable!!  Of course, we had loads of flour, sugar and baking items, but we also got rid of artificial sweetened foods (high fructose corn syrup and imitation maple syrup).  We had a couple boxes of cold and hot cereal that contained gluten plus bread, tortillas, chips and crackers that we hauled away.  I am a big soup eater, so I sorted through each can of soup, one by one, to see which had gluten and which did not.

Then we went into the bathroom.  Out went several bottles of shampoo and condition that contained wheat!  We also changed brands of toothpaste and mouth wash.  My step-daughter had just started selling MaryKay Cosmetics, so I was able to go through the list of non-gluten products with her and replenish much of my makeup!

At the time, it seemed like an overwhelming task!  We ended up giving away most of the boxes of food (I really hate to threw out food!).  But now my pantry (and kitchen and bathroom) look much different than they did.  Instead of boxes and cans of prepared foods, there is lots of beans, rice, grain, fresh produce, and fruit.  I still can’t believe how far we have come in our search for better health!

So, over the next several weeks, I am going to write a series of post on what is now in our pantry and why we have these items.  …  Thus the name:  My Pantry!!