About Us

Welcome to The Gluteny Bakery! We are a small (as in two people with big ideas and big sweet tooths) 'company' located in the outskirts of Houston, TX. Our goal is to open a little slice of gluten-free Heaven in our area within the next five years. While our timeline is extensive, we have plenty to accomplish to get there!

I'm Jeanne, the writer and baker behind this big idea. My journey into the dark world of the gluten free began in 2010, when I was diagnosed with a minor wheat allergy. Let me explain...

In early 2010, I started feeling like absolute garbage. I've always been a smaller person - at 5'3'', I weighed 105 pounds at my high school graduation - and very active. I rode dressage and hunter/jumper, played tennis, joined a gym, and built my relationship with my husband in the kitchen. While we loved sweets, it wasn't to the extent that my body should have reacted the way it did. Gradually I started gaining weight - and I couldn't get it off. I swore off sodas, sweets, eating after 8; I ate more fruit (I then ate less fruit), I went on Weight Watchers, I ran 2-3 miles three times a week. Nothing worked. I tried diet pills...I tried everything. I also noticed that my allergies worsened to the point where I was always sick regardless of what medication I took. Depressed, I figured that this was just who I was. Soon, I developed dull, achy headaches. Nothing worked for me, and so depressed I was at my wits' end, I headed over to my OBGYN's office to see what was happening to me. I love my doctor and her staff - I've been seeing them since 2002 - and they have always taken excellent care of me. Knowing that they would get right down to business, I made the appointment and poured my heart out to them. They responded by taking five vials of blood from me and sending me home to wait.

A week later, the results were back - I had developed a prolactinoma, but behind all of that mess, they also caught my wheat allergy. Wheat allergy?? Yep, get off all wheat products and do it now.

So I did.

I'm sure that's exactly how easy it was for you too, right? WRONG! Immediately after my prolactinoma was treated, I got pregnant. I then threw caution to the wind and ate whatever sounded good to me and my now 2 1/2 year old garbage disposal of a little boy. I figured that being pregnant would outweigh the wheat allergy...and boy, did I outweigh it. At delivery I weighed almost 200 pounds. I had developed gestational diabetes and my body was so swollen and in so much pain that I spent my last two weeks of pregnancy in bed in my jammies. I delivered a beautiful 7 pounds 14 ounces boy and went home three days later. I immediately swore off gluten. At one point I could cheat a little, but soon my body responded in ways that kept me home from work. The pain, the burning, and the body aches were too much to bear.

I wish I could tell you that it was easy to do, but we all know how heartbreaking it is to stand in the grocery store and burst into tears because all you want is a cookie or to find a steak marinade that won't send you running for cover. Many nights I choked down the prepackaged frozen bread that I'd paid $8.00 per loaf. Many times I brought my own sweets - prepackaged, of course - and chugged a half gallon of milk or water to just so I could have something sweet. But I've stuck with it, and in those 2 1/2 years that I've been a mommy, I've lost a whopping 80 pounds, have low blood pressure, clearer skin, reduced my antidepressant medication by 75%, and have enough energy to not only chase our son around, but to be pregnant with our second baby! This pregnancy, while completely different in that I've had severe morning sickness, is the same - no gluten. But what does every pregnant woman want?

Cupcakes.
Cookies.
Pastries.

And there is no way I'm eating that prepackaged stuff ever again.

So that brings us to late 2013.

I'm originally a SharePoint analyst and a Technical Writer, but for the past six months I've had an urge to start baking. One of my dear friends from high school just learned that her little girl is gluten, dairy, and egg intolerant. My heart ached knowing that Jassy can't have a yummy cupcake or a chocolate chip cookie like the rest of her friends. So...I got to thinking...and thinking...and like the writer that I am, I got to writing and researching. Why not start a gluten-free bakery? There aren't many local specialty bakeries within a 20 mile radius of our house, and my son's school is already peanut free, and our research is showing that gluten-free purchases are rising (as in the grocery stores near me are always out of sweets).

With that being said...welcome to "The Gluteny Bakery". Why "Gluteny"? Think about it. Who says celiacs and wheat allergic people can't indulge like the rest of the world? Who says you have to buy prepackaged, frozen for 6 months before hitting the stores baked 'goods'? That's why we're here! Our goal is to create a bakery that will make you feel like you've indulged in the real sweet thing. We are starting our operation as completely wheat free, and as we grow we will experiment with egg and dairy free items. Once we're up and running in our facility, we will guarantee peanut/nut free and dust free items as well. My other half of this operation is my husband Kevin. Originally a restaurant manager for over ten years, he is the brains behind our bakery. His business sense, experience from quick to full service restaurants, kitchen equipment knowledge and the ability to make the world's most amazing gluten free fried chicken is why he's being brought on board.

Finally, we have our first taster, our son Mason. Mason is a fan of Eggo Waffles, peanut butter and crackers, pancakes, and all things gluten that make my esophagus burn into oblivion. Therefore he is our first taster of what we bake. If it's good enough for his gluten-savvy tastebuds, then it's worth sending out to my other tasters.

So...sit back, enjoy the ride, the pictures, the experiments...the journey that is "The Gluteny Bakery". Thanks for reading!

Jeanne