Product Description

"A delightful memoir of learning to eat superbly while remaining gluten free."
—Newsweek magazine

"Give yourself a treat! Gluten-Free Girl offers delectable tips on dining and living with zest–gluten-free. This is a story for anyone who is interested in changing his or her life from the inside out!"
—Alice Bast, executive director National Foundation for Celiac Awareness

"Shauna's food, the ignition of healthy with delicious, explodes with flavor—proof positive that people who choose to eat gluten-free can do it with passion, perfection, and power."
—John La Puma, MD, New York Times bestselling co-author of The RealAge Diet and Cooking the RealAge Way

"A breakthrough first book by a gifted writer not at all what I expected from a story about living with celiac disease. Foodies everywhere will love this book. Celiacs will make it their bible."
—Linda Carucci, author of Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks and IACP Cooking Teacher of the Year, 2002

An entire generation was raised to believe that cooking meant opening a box, ripping off the plastic wrap, adding water, or popping it in the microwave. Gluten-Free Girl, with its gluten-free healthful approach, seeks to bring a love of eating back to our diets. Living gluten-free means having to give up traditional bread, beer, pasta, as well as the foods where gluten likes to hide—such as store-bought ice cream, chocolate bars, even nuts that might have been dusted with flour. However, Gluten-Free Girl shows readers how to say yes to the foods they can eat. Written by award-winning blogger Shauna James, who became a interested in food once she was diagnosed with celiac disease and went gluten-free, Gluten-Free Girl is filled with funny accounts of the author’s own life including wholesome, delicious recipes, this book will guide readers to the simple pleasures of real, healthful food. Includes dozens of recipes like salmon with blackberry sauce, sorghum bread, and lemon olive oil cookies as well as resources for those living gluten-free.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42534 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Review
Blogger Ahern's story sheds light on celiac disease, a little-known and difficult-to-diagnose autoimmune condition. Those afflicted cannot digest gluten, a protein in wheat, barley, rye, and related grains. Ahern explains how she learned of her malady and found that she was able to enjoy food while avoiding gluten. She even met and married a chef. This entertaining memoir includes gluten-free gourmet recipes. (Library Journal, February 1, 2008)

From the Inside Flap
Do you love food? Do you, or someone you love, have to avoid certain foods? Imagine passing on the pizza during your honeymoon in Rome, or skipping the sugar cookie s your sister makes at Christmas. Shauna James Ahern understands your pain-literally. After years of inexplicable exhaustion and endless medical tests, she found relief in her diagnosis of celiac disease. After giving up gluten, she learned how to live well and love food more fully. Now you can, too!

In Gluten-Free Girl, Shauna James Ahern shares the journey that changed her from a typical Gen-X processed-food junkie to a fun-loving foodie who enjoys cooking and living gluten-free-naturally. Readers from around the world have followed her stories and insights on her award-winning blog, glutenfreegirl.com. Now she shows you how to say yes to a gluten-free lifestyle, too, and embrace a whole new world of fresh foods and flavors.

Even if you never learned to cook, Shauna shows you how to feel comfortable in the kitchen. You'll discover (or rediscover) the kick of ginger, the irresistible crunch of fresh greens, and other delicious delights. She gives you dozens of terrific recipes that every9one will love, such as Curried Carrot Soup, Chicken Thighs Braised in Pomegranate Molasses, Crusty Sorghum Bread, and Fig Cookies. Her dishes focus on ingredients that are naturally gluten-free. She has not simply reworked recipes and plugged in gluten-free substitutes-these are original recipes. You'll also find important guidance on navigating everyday life without being "glutenized," from reading between the lines of food labels to traveling and eating out safely and successfully.

Enlivened with funny accounts of Shauna's experiences, this book is as entertaining to read as it is to prop up in the kitchen. Whether she's reminiscing about the Wonder bread and Fried-bologna sandwiches of her childhood or misusing on the pork-chop -shaped mouse pad she won at a professional cooking conference, her stories are lively and interesting.

Part memoir, part best friend giving advice, part cookbook-and all inspiring-Gluten-Free Girl will put the spring back in your step and your diet, one delicious meal at a time.

From the Back Cover
Praise for Gluten-Free Girl

"Give yourself a treat! Gluten-Free Girl offers delectable tips on living and dining with zest-gluten-free. This is a story for anyone who is interested in changing his or her life from the inside out!"
—Alice Bast, Executive Director of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness

"A breakthrough first look book by a gifted writer-Shauna James Ahern's writing and compelling recipes made me want to dash first to the farmers' market and then to the stove and cook-not at all what I expected from a story about living with celiac disease. Foodies everywhere will love this book. Celiacs will make it their bible."
—Linda Carucci, author of Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks and IACP Cooking Teacher of the Year, 2002

"What's been missing in 'healthy' is 'delicious,' and Shauna's food explodes with flavor-proof positive that people who choose to eat gluten-free can do it with passion and power."
—John La Puma, MD, New York Times bestselling coauthor of the RealAge Diet and Cooking the RealAge Way

"This is not just a book about living gluten-free, it is a book about a brave and generous woman who turns obstacles into blessings through the magic of her smile and written word."
—Clotilde Dusoulier, author of Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen

"The theme of Shauna's writing isn't gluten-free, it's gluten freedom. She focuses much more on the delicious world of what she can have rather than fixating on what she can't. Her enthusiasms for exploring the world of gluten-free cooking is infectious and her knack for communicating her experiences to the reader is heartfelt, inspiring, and informational."
—Heidi Swanson, author of Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking

"Finally, someone as bond and passionate as Shauna James Ahern has been able to demystify celiac disease with a message that a life gluten-free is a life of abundance. In Gluten-Free Girl, she shares inspired recipes that are simple to create and simply bring out the best of each ingredient. this book is a fantastic addition to any food lover's collection."
—Seis Kamimura, former Executive Sous Chef to Wolfgang Puck

Customer Reviews

Fun, touching, I love the food!
As a person who is perfectly capable of eating all the gluten I like, I appreciate the chance to try out some different food choices. I found the stories entertaining and the tone of the book very approachable.

Embarassing to read
I have been reading the author's website for a while, and pondering whether to get tested for celiac disease, as I have some of the symptoms. I got this book from the library, thinking it would have more information about the disease and practical information about diagnosis, lifestyle, et cetera.

This book is merely a rehashing of a lot of her longer blog posts. Some are word-for-word, verbatim. That's a lazy approach to writing a book. At some point, she looked at all her lengthy blog posts and thought, "I've got a book here!" No. No, you don't.

The flowery descriptions of food at some point got unbearable. Her snobbery regarding food and foodies is apparent, especially when she shuns a "thin, wan girl with no discernible personality" (apparently only those who wax poetic about food have personality) who simply states that she doesn't understand why people "talk about food all the time. It's just food." The author states that she and that girl had nothing to talk about after that. I would like to point out that a good sign of maturity is the ability to talk to others about what THEY are interested in, not reject them because they don't share your pet passion. I have friends who don't share my passion for homeschooling. I don't reject them.

This passage, more than any other, turned me against the author. It is a wonderful thing to be diagnosed, finally, with a crippling illness and to find the way back to health. And with celiac, it is clear that it is wonderful to find the treatment in the very thing that once made you sick. It is another to become so insular and snobbish that you look down on those who don't share your passion for, say, truffle salt or fine olive oils. For some people, yes, food is just food. I bet there are celiacs out there who look at food as fuel and get on with their lives.

The other passage (actually, it's a whole chapter) that was just cringe-worthy was the one describing her meeting her future husband. While I'm happy for them, and sure that they'll have a wonderful, blissful life together, this didn't need to be in the book. For me, it was way too personal and passionate; I felt as if i were reading a love letter she'd written to "The Chef" (which, sorry, pretentious. He has a name, right?) I felt like I'd been dropped into a Harlequin Romance, where people moan and giggle in the kitchen rather than the bedroom. Way too personal, and added nothing to my knowledge of celiac disease.

The passage at the very end, "Where does Gluten Hide" seems like an afterthought, plunked down after her ecstatic description of "the Chef's" proposal. It would have been better placed in the section about her diagnosis, or about gluten, for heaven's sake. It's like the editor got to the end and said, "Uh....what is gluten, again, and where can you find it?" And the author said, "Oh. Yeah. Let's get back to that aspect of my life."

Do not buy this book, unless you want an overly-personal, florid description one's relationship, with a big helping of snobbery. After reading it, I felt as though the author was presenting us with her ideal image of herself and her life, not the reality of living with celiac. She's "never" had the urge to eat a piece of bread? Or a slice of pizza? Wow. When I had to go on a low-fat diet for health reasons, even though I was told that eating too much fat could seriously harm my body, I sure was tempted. I found her superiority and snobbery hard to take.

I gave this book two stars for the recipes, which look interesting and worth trying. Without the recipes, it would have been one star.

Good for you Chick Lit
I downloaded the sample of this book on my Kindle ONLY because I'd been hearing about gluten-free this and gluten-free that and I knew nothing about the topic. I ended up enjoying the writing so much that I bought the book and further educated myself. I have no medical need to be gluten free, but I enjoy reading about food and this was just a plain good read -- chick lit that is good for you!