I began my research first in baking gluten-free breads and bought several books by Bette Hagman. She was known as the "gluten-free gourmet." I tried several of her bread recipes and with a little more of my own experimenting came up with the right proportions of the ingredients that worked for me.

We were on the gluten-free diet for about two weeks when we decided to go to a steak house for a regular date night out. After we looked at the menu we found what we could eat that was gluten-free. We made the order. The server brought us the famous whole grain loaf of bread. We looked at it, and for a moment I forgot that I needed to be wheat-free. I caught myself just as my husband picked up the knife. "I can’t eat this!" I yelled." My husband responded, "Eat what?" "The Bread!" "Well I can," and he proceeded to eat the little loaf while I waited on the rest of our meal. Near the end of the meal my husband started to feel awful and felt bloated for over 6 hours.

It was at that moment when he realized that for nearly 40 years, every time he ate a wheat bread sandwich he would feel bloated to one degree or another. He cannot eat whole-wheat at all. The big bonus is that he feels better than he has in years, all because we have greatly limited the gluten in his diet.

While I was working on all this bread baking I began to hear stories from my clients and doctor about people who had Celiac Disease. This disease comes as a result of being gluten intolerant. It may not show itself at first, but over time a person who has celiac disease will gradually feel run down and depressed. If not stopped, this disease can lead to cancer.

Gluten affects a person with celiac disease by literally rubbing the villi (the tiny hair-like stems in the small intestine that collect nutrients) raw. Gluten acts like sand paper on the villi. With the villi damaged the person can no longer absorb the nutrients they need to thrive. They begin to have symptoms like chronic fatigue.

There are over 300 symptoms of celiac disease. The most common are: bloating, diarrhea, constipation, fatigue, itchy skin rash, tingling or numbness, pale mouth sores, joint pain, delayed growth, poor weight gain, thin bones, infertility, headaches, depression, irritability, and discolored teeth. There is also evidence to suggest that those who have been diagnosed with autism actually improve when given a gluten-free diet. Information about celiac disease and its connection to autism can be found at www.celiaccentral.org.

For persons with celiac disease, the only way to get better at all is to stay completely away from gluten. They cannot eat anything with wheat, barley, or rye in it or from a food manufacture who does not isolate these grains from the processing of gluten-free flours.

The list of foods containing gluten is nearly endless. Fortunately because of the diagnosis of celiac disease many stores are stocking gluten-free products. But the cost is insane. If you want to mortgage your children and pay $7.00 or more for one cake mix, be my guest. But I decided to find a more inexpensive alternative.

It was at this point that I decided something had to be done. So after making bread for several months I began to work on recipes that I liked and started substituting the flours and experimenting with the combinations of ingredients. From this I have come up with recipes that really help those who need to be gluten-free. The goodies are the things that most celiac patients really miss out on. So that is why I created my business, Lindy's Gluten-Free Goodies. Now gluten-intolerant people and anyone else can eat the tasty desserts and foods on this website and in my books.

I look forward to helping you live a gluten-free lifestyle!