A Blogger A Day: Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef

Name: Shauna James Ahern
Lives in: Vashon, WA  (it’s a small island off Seattle)

Blogs at: www.glutenfreegirl.com
Tweets at: www.twitter.com/glutenfreegirl
Like her at: Gluten-Free Girl on Facebook
On the bookshelf: Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back and How You Can Too (food memoir with a few recipes) and Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: A Love Story with 100 Tempting Recipes (cookbook). Another cookbook, tentatively titled Gluten-Free Girl: Everyday, is in the works.

Why we’re fans: Shauna is the “it” girl of gluten-free. There’s rarely an article about gluten-free that doesn’t mention her blog, and her cookbook was named one of 2010′s best by The New York Times. But we were hooked long before that. It’s her inventive recipes, entrancing food photography and willingness to open her kitchen to us (sometimes literally) that keep us coming back for more.

Shauna James Ahern

Shauna’s Story: I began writing on my website at the end of May 2005. I had been diagnosed with celiac the month before, and I was thrilled to be well but angry I had been suffering so long without knowing why. For me, the only natural thing to do was write.

According to Shauna: Honestly, I have rarely found going gluten-free to be tough. I feel so much better, and more alive, without gluten, that I cannot imagine mourning it. At first, there’s a little shock. It’s true that you have to shift the way you look at food. But then you realize: what a gift! I’ve never eaten so well or enjoyed my life so much as I have since going gluten-free.

And my entire life I wanted to be a professional writer. Now, I am! All because I went gluten-free.

A taste of Gluten-Free Girl:

• Whole-Grain Muffins: Explaining our whole-grain mix and why we no longer use xanthan or guar gum
• Gluten-Free Pancakes for the Ratio Rally: Round one of the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally
• Apple-Fennel Slaw: On the need to not diet and celebrate our lives

For more of NFCA’s Celiac Awareness Month celebration, visit www.CeliacCentral.org/awarenessmonth.

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