Some days are just mac n’ cheese kind of days. It happens about twice a year that I get a hankering for the stuff and absolutely nothing else will do. And it has to be the box kind~ no fancy cookery or anything like that, even though I’ve seen some pretty tempting recipes out there on the web. Today was one of those days~ maybe it was the crazy winds blowing through, maybe it was the May Day violence happening across the 520, or maybe (and most likely) it was the fact I helped 21 kindergartners paint this morning~ when I got home for lunch it was either a tall glass of red or a box of Annie’s. Luckily for my liver, I had a box in the way back corner of my pantry so I was able to indulge. It tasted excellent~ it’s been a long decade or so since I have had ‘regular’ mac n’ cheese, but I’m pretty sure this rice pasta version will help any child (or adult) transitioning to gluten free get over at least pining away for Kraft. That’s a great way to transition, by the way~ fill those cravings with the good gluten free alternatives out there. Pizza, pasta, cake~ you can find it all now which is so nice for kids especially. You can worry about making the healthiest choices later, after the whole shock of the diagnosis wears off. Because it will. In the beginning, again especially for children, the best thing to do is to not feel deprived, or different. I’m now really surprised when people say to me, “Oh it must be hard, or terrible, or earth shattering to avoid wheat!” It’s really not hard, or bad at all. To be honest, it bummed me out at first, and even now I’ll get an odd pang for something~ usually it’s visual like a movie where there is lonely, dirty guy in a dank French prison who gets handed a hunk of bread and I’ll think, “Oooo, that looks good!” But then I’ll make myself a batch of scones and think, “this is much better than being locked in an underground Medieval prison any old day.” Really, it gets easier, food tastes better, and once you feel good you never want to feel sick ever again.
spice of life blog 