It's actually called The Gluten Free Bible: The All-in-One Guide to Enjoying Fabulous Food without Gluten, ISBN # 978-1-60553-723-8.

I was strolling down the aisles of Barnes and Noble's "Bargain" section and this book caught my eye. The title was catchy, but the picture of the corn tacos overflowing with ground beef, beans, and rice with a side of fresh lettuce, tomato and cilantro really drew me in. Ok, the price wasn't bad either.

When opening the book, I was glad to see that the first pages beyond the Table of Contents were many introductory sections. The first was titled Understanding Gluten. It was chock full of information regarding gluten, Celiac Disease, and symptoms people could experience. I also liked what they called the "Gluten Guessing Game" where they had readers guess where gluten hides in certain foods. They had another section about the "Gluten Free Kitchen" which gave a lot of information about different gluten free flours, baking tips and tricks and even had a whole section on trouble shooting. For example, one of the problems that they mentioned in the book was that gluten free bread sometimes burns on the outside but remains raw in the middle. Their solution: Lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees. Gluten free breads shouldn't be baked in black, glass or nonstick-coated pans. If the outside starts browning too quickly, the bread should be covered with foil. Learn something new everyday!

Furthermore, when flipping through the actual recipes, I was again drawn in by the vibrant, yet simplistic pictures of the food. Simplistic seems to be the magic word for this book. Not only are the recipe directions quite short in length, the number of ingredients for many of the recipes are few too. This is all what I'm looking for. Simplistic.

Something else that was interesting to me is that on most pages there is a small paragraph on the margin that has either gluten free info (interesting facts about gluten free foods), a recipe note, a how-to, allergy info, or a dairy-free variation to the recipe. There are even recipes that are completely dairy free and they are noted by a small picture of a milk carton and the words "dairy free" written at the top of the page.

I recommend this book to everyone that would like to cook gluten free, but possibly more so to someone just starting out. The beginning pages are very informative and the recipes, as I have stated, are very simple. It's not easy to jump right into gluten free cooking and it takes time to get used to. I think this book might be a good start.

When I first decided to go gluten-free, I have to admit what a huge role my son played in this picture! I had never been gluten-free. I felt I ate so healthy- why would I change that??

Well, I learned that Andrew AND me could benefit from going gluten-free. Me? I'm not nearly as sensitive... although I have been known to gain 5 lbs. in a week and develop an ulcer from the wrong dietary choices. But my son? There was no question. He had to avoid gluten... and dairy... and eventually soy... and perhaps corn (or at least an overabundance of).

When I first began changing my son's diet, the book Special Diets for Special Kids (by Lisa Lewis PhD. and Bernard Rimland) was a great support in this transformation. There's something about kids- you want to protect them from everything! If you're like me, you have an image of what childhood should be like. You want perfection! You want great memories! It's amazing how important eating is in the scheme of things.

This book wasn't just a cookbook, not to undermine the usefulness of a great cookbook, but it was also a support system. Sometimes, when we make decisions a bit off the beaten path, we are made to feel a bit odd about it. I'm not saying it's intentional, but it happens.

I have no problem admitting I'm a bit kooky- I went to art school! I was a vegan! I like to consider myself extremely open-minded and accepting. When I first began limiting foods for Andrew, some people were very upfront about their opinions. This book gave me a support system. Not only is it packed with kid-friendly food ideas, but there were stories and encouragement I found very comforting while facing the world of autism.

If you read Andrea and Kimberly's posts above and are interested in buying these books, you can get them on Gluterra:

Book: Gluten Free Bible: The All-in-One Guide to Enjoying Fabulous Food without Gluten

Book: Special Diets for Special Kids