Decontamination Day

And it starts. We're decontaminating our household. We shall scrub the counters, cabinets and floors. We are banishing small appliances that contain potential biotoxin. We shall rid the kitchen and dining room of every speck of contaminant. No major appliance will be overlooked. The pantry will be organized, all contaminated food packed up to be donated to the food pantry.

Ok, that sounds bad. We love people who need to visit food pantries and would never harm them. It's up to them whether or not they eat food containing gluten. Since my celiac diagnosis, gluten isn't an option for me, and any contamination makes me very ill.  

Being the only gluten-free person in a household of seven was more than a challenge. Now that our older daughter has decided to give a gluten-free diet a try to see if it helps with her joint pain and exhaustion, we've come to the conclusion that having a gluten-free household might just be a good idea. Said daughter has been told she does not have arthritis, nor celiac, yet presents with the same symptoms as I have for most of my life.

We are sure to meet some obstacles. In fact, we already know one. We shall refer to him as Three of Seven. Three of Seven has what has been diagnosed, but not officially, as Aspergers (but that's another blog post!). He eats around 15 foods. These foods include peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches, pizza, pancakes, waffles, chicken nuggets, pasta, bread/rolls, muffins/sweet breads/cupcakes, bagels, donuts, and cake. He has problems with textures of foods, so gf substitutes of the foods he usually eats should be interesting. We have successfully managed to feed him gf pancakes, waffles and cake. Pasta might prove to be trickier. Bread could prove disastrous. Only time will tell.


Thanks to our tax refund, I've replaced the four slice toaster with a toaster oven and our gluteny bread machine with a new one. We have new cooking utensils, cutting board, food storage containers, and the list goes on.

Former "gluten island" is now breakfast and baking island. The former breadbox (the big metal thing on the left) now houses peanut butter and jelly, with gf cereal on top. Two huge jars are filled with gf snacks to pack for homeschool co-op days and outings.
There are plates and bowls for an easy breakfast,the stand mixer,
 my favorite crockpot and the bread machine all ready for action.

It's not easy to convert a kitchen to a gluten-free kitchen. We've had to de-glutenize our cast iron pans, which involved freezing ourselves with windows open while the pans baked in the oven on the cleaning cycle, and again as the pans were being seasoned in the oven. We have to get rid of wood, bamboo and plastic utensils, bowls, and containers. My favorite strainer has to go as well, as no matter how well we wash it, the gluten will  hide out in the zillions of holes.



One of the side effects of this process is that it's feeding my OCD nicely and I've made the effort to reorganize things as well. Our pantry has never been so organized, nor our spices and dry goods.


Spring cleaning has come a little early, but with the help of many rannygahoots, whom I'm brib....err....paying to help, the decontamination process should be done soon. And then I have to make a trip to Target for more storage bins - and to take the horde to spend their hard-earned money.