Let’s take a peek in my kitchen to see what we’ll find in my gluten-free pantry.

The Good

Gluten-free items clearly marked. Use a sharpie pen to write the contents on the container, or stick on a blank address label and write on that. Don’t rely on your memory, some ingredients look similar. Four months later you may not remember what that powdery stuff in the container with the orange lid was. Aluminum-free baking powder? Sweet potato starch? Something else all together? If it’s a perishable item you can write the date as well.

The Bad

All-purpose wheat flour in an unmarked ziploc bag. Right on the shelf next to the ziploc bag of rice flour. I should probably toss them both out since I no longer eat wheat or rice, but sometimes I use them when cooking food for my family, who do love a good traditional from-scratch mac and cheese, or some mochi (glutinous rice cake) every now and then.

The Ugly

True story: Once when I was baking I grabbed the unmarked bag of wheat flour, thinking it was something else, and poured it into my mixing bowl right on top of my coconut flour. I immediately realized something wasn’t right, so I tasted the wheat flour to make sure that it really was wheat flour. Duh! End of baking session. Some mistakes you only make once.

The Makeover

Problem solved. I’m not going to mix that one up ever again.

Do you keep gluten-ful ingredients in your kitchen for other people in your family? How do you prevent cross-contamination?