Today we’d like to introduce you to Abeer Sharawi.
Hi Abeer, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Hi, my name is Abeer. I am a mother of three young kids.
I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2015. Celiac is an autoimmune disease where your body starts attacking your intestines when you ingest any amount of gluten no matter how small it is.
When the doctor told me my diagnosis, she said it’s easy you just need to follow a gluten-free diet. I had no idea what that is! She said you need to stay away from bread and pasta. As difficult as that was, I did. A year after I repeated my endoscopy and it showed nothing changed. All my bread deprivation was for nothing! Turns out gluten is in so many other things than just bread and pasta, it’s in sauces and spices and soups not to mention cross-contamination.
So, after that, I decided not to eat anything that didn’t clearly say gluten-free on it which was very limiting back then. There wasn’t really that many options, I missed bread and I missed cake and slowly I started trying out recipes and slowly was able to make some of my favorite dishes gluten-free.
I started sharing my dishes with my friends and I was encouraged by their feedback. I started thinking how great it would be to have a dedicated gluten-free place that people with celiac or gluten intolerance can go to and safely enjoy anything on the menu.
My husband suggested that I start from home and see how people react. Thankfully, the feedback has been great and the business is slowly growing. My dream is still to have my own store where people can relax, do some work and enjoy some yummy gluten-free dishes.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has been an interesting road. When I started in 2018, I was working full time. With three young kids at home, I only had the weekends to bake.
Marketing was one of the hardest things. It still is actually. There’s a lot more I can probably do with Instagram and Facebook. I am still learning how to create posts that can capture an audience.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My business specializes in providing safe gluten-free products. Like I said earlier, the smallest amount of gluten can cause a lot of harm to a celiac person. There’s the immediate indigestion symptoms that can be extremely annoying and then there’s the more serious issues like god forbid colon cancer.
My kitchen is a dedicated gluten-free area. I do not use any regular flours on my day-to-day cooking. My family eats like me inside our house but obviously they do not follow the gluten-free diet anywhere else 😊
I am always happy to try to make a gluten-free version of. old favorites. And I’m always proud when I feel that the result was yummy and close to the original version.
I am always open to hear what people are craving to try and make it gluten-free. If I succeed, it’s added to the list of things I offer people.
I am originally from the Middle East and we have so many yummy foods and desserts that are not originally gluten-free. I was able to provide a gluten-free version for some of these dishes like baklava for example 😊
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Taking risks can be rewarding. I was lucky enough to have the support of my husband when I decided to leave my full-time job and focus on my business.
I left my full-time job in March 2020 which was the beginning of Covid and the first few months I tested a lot of recipes because the kids were home and didn’t have school or practice. It got a little harder once the new school year started online, I didn’t have the luxury of time anymore. With three of them being in school and all the issues we faced with the online system; it was a struggle.
I’m hoping that now that things calmed down, I can refocus on the next steps to grow my business and hopefully, my risk will pay off!
Contact Info:
- Email: Atyourservice@thehouseofgf.com
- Instagram: @thehouseofgf
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/thehouseofgf
