Adamson Eve - Jennifers way kitchen: easy allergen-free, anti-inflammatory recipes for a delicious life

M Y FIRST BOOK, Jennifers Way, was dedicated to all the celiacs, diagnosed and undiagnosed. I feel for anyone who must walk down the scary road that this disease can be. I dedicate this book to all of them again, but not to just them. This book is for everyone who deals with health questions that go unanswered and health issues that go undiagnosed. I believe times are changing and that people are realizing the latest pill is not the answer. While there is a time and a place for medication, it is my belief that what we eat can dramatically impact how we feel. I am not just a believer in this. I live it, and practice what I preach every day, and this is why I dedicate this book to all those people who are doing the same, or want and need to begin that process.

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

MAYA ANGELOU

It all started with a chocolate chip cookie. Warm, ooey-gooey, and sweetchocolaty chunks inside a soft, tender cookie with the perfect crunchy exterior. I baked them every year at Christmastime, and what a treat they were! I remember that chocolate-chip-cookie aroma seeping into every room in the house. I remember eating them just after they came out of the oven. But most of all, I remember the thrill of making them with my sister. Thats what really made those simple chocolate chip cookies so special. It was tradition. It was comfort. Baking them made me feel happy and connected. It completed the holidays for me.

Ever since I was a kid, food has been a huge part of my life. Birthday parties with friends and family meant homemade chocolate cake. Saturday mornings meant fresh-made pancakes and French toast covered in butter and real maple syrup. Sunday Italian dinners started at three in the afternoon and went on for hours. For me, the love of food, and especially of sharing food with the people I love, was one of the most important aspects of growing up.

As an adult, my world suddenly tilted. After 20 years of unanswered health questions and misdiagnoses (you can read more about that in my first book, Jennifers Way), I was diagnosed with a devastating case of celiac disease. I learned that the thing I loved with such a passion was also the cause of my illness. Food was my enemy. How could this be? How could something I loved so dearly, something that gave me life and so much happiness, be killing me slowly?

I felt betrayed. I was a mess (to say the very least)forced to face a new, uncertain future where food was suddenly safe or not safe, where restrictions and limits dictated every choice I made. When fear seeps in, baking cookies isnt an easy option anymore, and that left a hole in my life. I knew I needed to give myself time to heal, learn, and grow. I came to terms with what my diagnosis would mean and slowly learned to change my lifestyle to rebuild my health. While food could certainly hurt me, I learned that it could also be lifesaving. Soul-saving too.

But it would take some time to get to that place. At first, I struggled to understand all the things I could no longer eat. Gluten, which I was told at diagnosis I could never eat again, I understood. I was already mourning all the things I could no longer enjoybread and bagels, pizza and pasta, cake and those dearly beloved chocolate chip cookies. But I gradually began to discover that in my case (and for many others with autoimmune or other chronic conditions), what I couldnt eat went far beyond gluten. I also reacted negatively to dairy products, eggs, soy, and refined sugar. This was a long learning process, as I kept discovering more and more foods I couldnt eat without worsening my symptoms. The more items I had to cross of my Okay list, the more my food landscape seemed barren and depressing. In my lowest moments I was so ill that it was difficult to summon the energy or optimism to do anything about it. I became severely malnourished, but I didnt know how to fix it safely. I used what little energy I had to search for answers about how to heal myself and also get the essential vitamins and minerals I needed.

I knew my mourning was about more than the laundry list of foods Id cut out of my life. I needed to find some kind of peace and joy with food again, because if I couldnt find that, eating hardly seemed worth the effort. For me, losing the joy was even worse than losing any particular food I loved. Sure, I missed bagels, but even more I missed the sense of community and belonging that food had always contributed to my life.

Where was the joy? I certainly wasnt finding it at the supermarket. The gluten-free foods most stores had to offer were filled with empty calories, preservatives, loads of sodium, and tons of sugar, not to mention the blatant presence of other allergens I could no longer eat. These processed health foods had no redeeming qualities, especially not good taste. To me, they tasted like cardboard, or a damp sponge.

I longed for that joy, along with a way to heal myself. Was it too much to ask to have both in my life? Finally, as with so many other things in life, I realized that if what I wanted didnt exist, I was going to have to create it myself. I was going to have to get back in the kitchen, where I had started all those years before, making those chocolate chip cookies in the fullness of food freedom. This too would be a long learning process, and I would make many mistakes, but I would learn by trial and error how to cook and bake for my life nowfor my new normal. No matter how difficult, I was determined to get there. I wanted to find my food freedom again.