About Gluten Free on a Shoestring

Welcome to Gluten Free on a Shoestring, one of the Internet’s premier food blogs and recipe websites for gluten free cooking and baking. I’m Nicole Hunn, and it's so nice to meet you. I founded this website in 2009 and have since published five best-selling gluten free cookbooks that you can find wherever books are sold.

This gluten free food blog has hundreds of tried-and-true original recipes, plus tips and guidance to help you make gluten free eating more enjoyable — and more affordable. That’s been my goal from the beginning of Gluten Free on a Shoestring. Here, you’ll find recipes for everything from delicious gluten free cookies and “can’t believe it’s gluten free” breads to pies and of course, dinners that even non-gluten free folks will enjoy. The guiding principle of all of my recipes is that “good, for gluten free” just isn't good enough. The food we make has to be really good—period.

When I launched Gluten Free on a Shoestring back in 2009, there weren’t many gluten free blogs or resources for gluten free recipes. There was clearly a need to support the gluten free community, and I felt driven to meet it. The blog quickly became a trusted source for gluten free recipes, after it was mentioned in a New York Times article titled, “The Expense of Eating with Celiac Disease.” In the years since those early days, the blog has really grown. Now, in addition to the millions of website visitors each month, Gluten Free on a Shoestring has over 600,000 followers on Facebook, 270,000 on Pinterest and thousands more on Instagram. 

My Gluten Free on a Shoestring recipes and gluten free advice have also been featured across numerous websites, publications and media outlets, such as Food52, The Kitchn, Parade, GFF Magazine, Refinery29, The Today Show, Better Homes and Gardens and The New York Daily News. I’ve also been interviewed on SiriusXM Radio’s Michael Smerconish Show.

First it was the blog. Then the cookbooks. In 2023, I decided it was time for another big step: sharing my personal best gluten free flour blend. So I launched Nicole’s Best Gluten Free Multipurpose Flour, an all purpose gluten free flour blend you can order online. I’ve personally tested the flour in every recipe category on the blog, and I truly believe it’s the most versatile gluten free flour blend I’ve ever used.

About Nicole Hunn

Like so many others, my path to a gluten free lifestyle was anything but direct. After I graduated with a B.A. from Binghamton University, I got a law degree from Brooklyn Law School 3 years later, and was a practicing attorney in New York City for over 13 years in large law international firms like Proskauer Rose and Morgan Lewis. I worked hard, and there were many aspects of the legal profession that I really loved. I feel that the logical part of my legal training really helps me with the process of developing really good gluten free recipes.

While I was working as an attorney, I also decided to go back to school to get a Master in Social Work (MSW) degree from Fordham University. I was thinking that my next career was going to be as a therapist. But it didn’t quite work out that way.

While working as a lawyer during the week and attending graduate school on the weekends, I started the blog. Soon thereafter, I met a literary agent and was offered a deal to write my first gluten free cookbook. That therapist career would need to wait. I wrote the cookbook, kept writing the blog, and still finished my MSW degree.

Although I never made it to practice as a therapist, that social work education is what has given me the ability to hold your hand as you enter the world of gluten free eating — and grieve the loss of your “old” way of cooking, baking and eating. It also gave me the skills to empower readers and help them feel confident that you can do more than get by on a gluten free diet. You can thrive and get back all of your old favorite foods. I really feel like all of my education plays an important role in helping me support you in your gluten free journey every single day.

How I came to live a gluten free lifestyle

I have a husband and 3 children. In 2004, our son Jonathan was still an infant and was diagnosed with celiac disease. I have to admit that at the time, I didn't really know what gluten was, much less how to avoid it. I bought expensive (and terrible) gluten free baking mixes, and ordered vacuum-sealed gluten free bread by the case from a retailer in Canada. Mostly though, I was just scared. A lot.

I quickly stopped buying, serving, or making anything with gluten in our home. To me, the reason was simple and obvious: I wanted my son to have one place on this earth where nothing was off-limits. Plus, he was a baby at the time, and babies will put anything in their mouths, whether it has gluten or not. So ever since that decision, even our dogs eat gluten free!

All the recipes I found at the time were challenging, with many unfamiliar ingredients. So when I discovered you could use a high quality all purpose gluten free flour blend for great baked goods, I was inspired. I wanted to feel normal again, and I wanted to make a world for my son where he knew the taste of really good, crusty and chewy bread, flaky pastries, crispy or chewy cookies, and tender cakes.

After I stopped practicing law in 2009, I also wanted to stay home with my 3 young children but I still needed to work. I was already making my own recipes since I was so disappointed in everything that was available on the Internet and in cookbooks at the time. Little by little, I started to develop gluten free recipes that were better than anything I could buy. My knowledge grew — and so did my confidence. I couldn't stop thinking about how I didn't want anyone else to go through the sadness and the desperation that I did when I first started baking gluten free for my son.

Now I’m proud to share my experience and recipes with all of you. I’m glad you found Gluten free on a Shoestring, and I hope you’ll have a look around. There’s plenty to see, learn and enjoy!