In 2014, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. We have thyroid in the family so I was lucky that I thought to have the doc test for it. I was not prepared for how much this diagnosis was going to change my life.
Hashimoto’s makes everything so much more fun. It makes convincing the doc that you don’t need an antidepressant, you need an endocrinologist more fun. It makes getting your husband to agree to keep the bedroom set to 58 degrees so you don’t wake up soak in sweat more fun (not really). It’s really fun to see massive clumps of hair sitting in the shower drain. It makes keeping weight gain under control just that much easier.
In case it wasn’t glaringly obvious, the above paragraph is sarcasm. All of those things pretty well suck.
Anyway. One of the things the endo at Duke Medical told me was that since my thyroid was technically in range, they weren’t going to put me on thyroid medicine. Which is fine except that I still felt like a bucket of assholes every day (tired, grumpy, cold, hair falling out and depressed as hell).
So she told me to switch to a low carb diet. Permanently.
Oh goody the gifts just keep on coming.
I tried a bunch of different gluten free products. They weren’t really anything to write home about but a funny thing happens when you stop eating gluten. Gluten free stuff starts tasting better.
I was disappointed to realize that the pizza crusts at Mellow Mushroom was not actually gluten free. And I discovered that there was pretty much no such thing as gluten free pizza in the wild.
And I also missed baking. I missed making chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies and everything else. And I really missed pancakes and pizza.
I tried a bunch of different flours and they were…meh. The kids wouldn’t touch most of them, which was kind of hurtful if we’re being honest. I tried mixing my own but honestly, who has time for that (kudos to you all that do this).
Then…a miracle happened. I stumbled across Namaste All Purpose Gluten free flour in Whole Foods. I figured what the hell, every other flour I tried fell through.
I didn’t tell the kids I was making gluten free cookies. They housed them. I didn’t tell my husband I was making gluten free pizza. He eats it to this day.
You can use this stuff for EVERYTHING. I use it for brownies, cookies, cakes, pizza. Breading on schnitzel. They also have a bunch of mixes if you’re looking for boxed cakes and recipes and they all come out pretty amazing.
I use this as a one for one swap in every recipe I’ve tried and it’s usually perfect. Sometimes, I add a little bit less than the regular flour b/c it can absorb a lot more of the moisture but for the most part, it’s pretty straight forward.
I buy it in packs of 6 from Amazon and it is honestly the best gluten free flour I’ve tried. I highly recommend it!
