Welcome to With Extra Love. The title was chosen to reflect that we make our food With Extra Love to accommodate a house full of different taste buds, as well as without gluten. So if you have a member of the family who has a gluten sensitivity and others who do not, and bonus points if you have a toddler, then this is the place for you.

In my household there is myself who cannot eat gluten, dairy or eggs, my husband who can and will eat just about anything as long as he can put some hot sauce on it, and my daughter who is 3 and doesn’t want any gross things, aka vegetables, in her food. As most toddlers she also believes she can live on only dairy products, noodles and fruit. So, cooking can be a little challenging at times.

I am a busy person like many of us and I don’t have time to make three separate meals so most of our meals are made, as they say on the cooking shows, deconstructed. I will, of course, give you both options when sharing a recipe. I am sure most people with children are familiar with putting the spicy sauce on the side at least for a couple of years. I will share the work arounds I have discovered help me save steps and keep from having to make totally separate meals for the three of us.

As a busy person who has a kid I also realize that being budget conscious and saving money is pretty important. I shop around a lot trying to find the best deals on the gluten free products because they are more expensive than run of the mill products. I will share where I get these product and potentially provide a link to them. Some of them can be very hard to find and you may have to come up with your own version, if you do, please share with others in the comment section so that other readers may have even more options.

I have come to the conclusion that my child is more likely to eat food if she is involved in making it. So I have added a section on food you can make with your toddler. My kid is almost 4 years old and every child has different interests, but I believe that understanding how food is made and making food, with help of course, is a great activity for kids. So feel free to try out the Make It Gluten Free with Your Kid section and let me know how it goes!

I will also review the occasional local restaurant choice in Seattle, Washington USA which is where we live. So if you are from around these parts I hope it helps, if not, feel free to skip that part.

So if that sounds like something you are interested in, stay tuned!