About our Healthy Gluten-Free Family
About Karen — Founder of Healthy Gluten-Free Family
Hi, I’m Karen — founder of Healthy Gluten-Free Family and the mom behind 600+ tested gluten-free recipes at healthygffamily.com. For 16 years, ever since my son was diagnosed with celiac disease as a young child, I’ve been cooking and baking gluten-free for our family, and for the past 11 years I’ve been sharing those recipes with a community of more than 300,000 followers on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. Every recipe on this site is tested multiple times — by me, my family, and an array of taste testers — because our recipes aren’t just gluten-free, they’re so delicious everyone at the table will love them.
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How We Became a Gluten-Free Family
In 2010 our younger son was diagnosed with celiac disease — an autoimmune condition where the body cannot tolerate any amount of gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. When gluten is ingested, the body responds by attacking the small intestine and inhibiting the absorption of nutrients. The only treatment is to adhere to a strict gluten-free diet. And so our journey began…
Back in 2010, celiac and gluten-free were not yet household words and gluten-free products were limited. Our son was five years old and his favorite food was pasta (yikes!) — but he was also my little foodie who loved trying new foods and savored the whole experience of a meal. I was not going to let celiac change that or take away that joy. So with the passion of a mom and the instincts of a trained marketer, I threw myself into the gluten-free world — testing every product we could find, experimenting with recipes, and learning to cook and live gluten-free from the ground up. That’s how we became Healthy Gluten-Free Family.
Our Gluten-Free Recipe Philosophy
Our family’s love of sharing a great meal and our son’s need to follow a strict gluten-free diet are what drive our kitchen. For the last 16 years, our goal has always been to cook and bake dishes so delicious that everyone — gluten-free or not — wants to eat them.
My boys are now in their twenties and fabulous cooks in their own right — between the four of us we cook constantly, everything from weeknight dinners and everyday snacks to desserts and full holiday meals. I’m a longtime vegetarian, sometimes pescatarian, feeding a family of omnivores, which means our recipes are endlessly varied and built to please everyone at the table.
What you’ll find here is everyday food — savory meals and sweet desserts — made with whole ingredients, fresh flavors, and always gluten-free. This is not diet food. It’s great tasting food that happens to be gluten-free.
Life with Celiac Disease — What We’ve Learned
Over the last sixteen years we’ve learned how to navigate playdates, school, sports and sleepovers, restaurants, college, travel by car, planes and boats, hotels, adventures and holidays. Along the way we’ve also built community — along with two other women with children who have celiac disease, we run Raising Our Celiac Kids (R.O.C.K.) in Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Through experimentation and research we’ve identified trusted products and brands that we share here. Celiac is not without its challenges and it requires real planning — but two unexpected upsides have been becoming part of a wonderful celiac and gluten-free community, and cooking and eating fresh, delicious food every single day.
A Little about Me Personally
I am a former beauty marketing executive who left the corporate world when our family moved to the suburbs eighteen years ago. I’m a sports mom, a music mom, and a celiac advocate. A former cardio junkie, I now strength train regularly and practice yoga — all so I can live a healthy life and keep up with my boys. We recently lost our beloved chocolate lab, who was truly part of our family and loved by all of us. I love my daily smoothie and green juice, and while I’m a city girl at heart, I’m equally in love with beach living and I love to travel. And trite as it may sound, nothing makes me happier than spending the day with my family.
Goal of this Website
Healthy Gluten-Free Family exists because great-tasting gluten-free food changes lives — and because no one should have to choose between eating safely and eating well. After sixteen years of cooking, testing, and sharing, our goal is still the same: to give you easy, trusted gluten-free recipes, made with simple ingredients, that everyone at the table will love. We hope this site becomes your go-to resource for gluten-free recipes and celiac tips — and that our food brings as much joy to your table as it does to ours.
