My childhood memories of being in the kitchen were mixed. I have great memories of cooking and baking with my both my parents. And I also have those, not so great memories of, “you cannot leave the dinner table until you have finished eating”. Those were the memories I tend to remember more. That said, it is so important that I create happy moments in the kitchen with my boys.

I consider my kitchen the heart of our home. It is the room we come together in most often and I like to think of it as our happy place.

Creating my gluten free kitchen really helped me get re-aquainted with my cooking. It was easier to get into the mindset of cooking gluten free when I removed everything from our pre-gluten free days. I organized my pantry, bought new tools, decorated and have found a new love for aprons.

When I started cooking gluten free each meal was an experiment. A lot of time and money was spent on trial and error. When I served dinner each night, I always had a small level of anxiety because I was fearful my new meal would be rejected.

The good news is, the more I cooked the more I learned and the better my meals tasted. Slowly the stress and anxiety began to go away. My boys now have a wide variety of meals they love. In fact, dessert time has become an extra special time in my kitchen as well.

My time in the kitchen has changed

These days, my time in my kitchen is enjoyable, in a way, it is even therapeutic. I spend time preparing meals, baking bread, muffins and biscuits. I am even able to sprinkle in a little first grade homework while I am cooking.

Meal planning a few days in advance has made my time so much more efficient. It is so nice to be able to spend more time creating and less time worrying.

Please don’t feel intimidated by the time you will spend in the kitchen preparing and cooking food. This is probably the number one reason people do not stay gluten free for long. I promise it won’t always be this hard, this is just the part of the starting process. The time you invest will become shorter and shorter as you get into a routine.

These ideas will help you get started

• Meal plan
• Use your freezer
• Dust off your crockpot
• Repurpose leftovers

And make your kitchen your favorite room in your home

I love spending time in the kitchen because I love to experiment with new recipes, but it wasn’t always like this. Once I came up with a good menu of options for my family, I began to feel more comfortable with this new way of life. So I decided to make my kitchen a room that I loved to be in.

What do you love most about your kitchen?

What was the last thing you baked?