Going gluten-free...

AnnieBananie

AnnieBananie

New member
I have stomach and skin issues that can't ever seem to get cleared up (or explained), so I think it's time I take matters into my own hands... I'm going to cut gluten from my diet... But I need some help easing into it-- recipes and tips or sites or whatever. I don't know how I'm going to do it... :unsure::unsure:

Thanks :)
 
Let me know if you need some cookbooks and such--I have some sitting around here that I'd be glad to send you.
 
Annie - you might also consider the dairy issue..we found that it was a HUGE problem for me - and cutting out cow's milk wherever I could helped a lot. We've switched to a lot of sheep's milk and goat's milk cheeses, I hate regular milk anyway, and we have a box of soy milk just for my cereal.

Here's some GF info from a dear friend of ours who has Celiac's disease...take what you can use :)

Favorite places for information:
St. John’s Listserv http://www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html
*You can join the list and get daily emails or not. Great source from all over the world, able to search archives. Scroll down this page, it has some useful info.

[email protected] found on Yahoo Groups


Bread:
We use the Zojirushi bread machine. It is heavy duty with 2 paddles. It also has custom settings that allow us to skip the multiple kneading cycles. I cannot imagine life without it, a huge help! The best prices I found are through Sam’s or Costco online.

Our favorite bread mix is the Kinnikinnick bread and bun mix. One bag makes 2 loaves of bread. Note: I also use this bun mix to make hamburger buns, occasional hotdog buns, and dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls. For hamburger buns, I place the English muffin rings on a cookie sheet and spray with canola oil. Then I spoon in the mix about 2/3 full. If it doesn’t settle nicely, I spray a rubber spatula and smooth the tops. Dough for one loaf of bread equals 12 buns. For dinner rolls, I use muffin tins and yield about 12-18 rolls depending on the size of your tins etc.
***Also fyi, I love the ice cream type scoops. I use these when making cookies, buns, rolls etc. So much easier, I get an even amounts, and because it tends to be sticky it is quick and easy to just scoop and click.

Gluten free bread tends to dry out quickly and can go bad quickly if left out since it has no preservatives. We usually wrap it and put it in the refrig. or slice it and freeze it. When I go to make a sandwich, I warm it up for a few seconds in the microwave to revive it.

Cookbooks:
Bette Hagman is our favorite, Danna Korn is another good author with some recipes.




Flour substitutes:
We mix our own using Bette Hagman’s recipe for her all purpose blend. You can buy it premixed also.
Some friends use the Authentic brand multi use. They say they can substitute it one for one for regular flour with amazing results.

Favorite Products found locally:

Tinkyada Pasta—go with the brown rice, the white rice is somewhat mushy. This is by far our favorite brand. They make spaghetti, macs, penne, shells (small and large) and lasagna.

Kinnikinnick bread and bun mix—I use this mix to make our bread, hamburger buns, rolls, baguettes, and cinnamon rolls

Pamela’s chocolate and white cake mix—we make it according to the package plus add a stick of butter and ½ to 1 whole can of the Pillsbury frosting. The chocolate cake will make 2 very thick layers so we usually make it into 3 layers. You will have to increase the baking time at least 5-10 minutes. I just keep checking until it is toothpick done.

Gluten Free Pantry brownies

K-Toos— Kinnikinnick brand, vanilla or chocolate Oreo subs. The other brands we tried had an aftertaste.

Enjoy Life cookies—Snickerdoodles as well as other flavors, moister and softer than Pamela’s

Enviro Kids animal cookies are good for s’mores

Midel gf animal cookies

EnerG Pretzels—small bags for take along snacks
Glutino Pretzels-large bags but probably have the best flavor

Pancakes: The kids like the Kinnikinnick brand, I prefer the Glutino or the Gluten Free Pantry brand. Have not tried any others. We like to add blueberries or ripe bananas and/or mini chocolate chips to them. You can also use these mixes to make waffles.

Glutino crackers—by far our favorite. I have also tried other brands like Schar and they have some dif types which I think you can find these at the Frisco Health Market and maybe Delic n Fit.

Cereal –Enviro Kids, Erewon rice crispy type (great for rice crispy treats but make sure you get the gf box!) , some major brands if you look hard like Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles.

Glutino Muffins—we like to add a spoonful of preserves on top of each muffin or mini chocolate chips prior to baking.

Enjoy Life or Glutino “breakfast” bars—these are great to have for emergencies too.

Pizza crust—hmmm….this is a hard one. We currently use Namaste. I will say it is an acquired taste. You will either like it or hate it. (If you try it, let me know and I will give you pointers on how to roll it out.) The premade shells at Whole Foods were good. The Kinnikinnick premade shells available at Delic. N Fit, Kroger, or Frisco are good and nice to have on hand in the freezer. The Chebe bread version is not bad either. We did not like the Gluten Free Pantry brand at all.

Snacks—Flavored rice cakes, pudding cups, yogurt, fruit, raisins, chips (not Pringles and not the Lay’s Nacho Cheese flavor), popcorn, pretzels, cookies

Candy—We like Hersheys and M&Ms, ***do not go for the Hershey miniatures as they use a paste for all them that will be cross contaminated with the crunch bars. Candy with rice crispies in them will prob. have barley malt.

Pound Cake—‘Cause You’re Special brand, can be found at the Frisco Market, Delic N Fit? Or online. Try adding some almond extract too. The kids like it with strawberries and whipped cream on top.

Lunch Meat—Boar’s Head, ask them to clean the slicer first

Ordering Online

Glutenfree.com—Wide variety of products. We like the Great Food Company Biscuits. We usually order the ‘Cause You’re Special items because we can get them for a better price than locally. This may be true for other items. We like the Gluten Free Pantry brand Coffee Cake and Spice Cake which I have not seen locally.

Miss Robens or Allergygrocer.com—our favorite sugar cookie!, the Crunchy Versatile Cookie Mix. We bake them for 10 minutes because the kids like them really soft and we frost with the Pillsbury classic white frosting. We like the chocolate cake from here also. Sometimes I make it as cupcakes and pipe in a creamy white center for a mock “Ding dong”.

Amazon.com—occasionally I can find some of the items we use for great prices and with the free super saver shipping.


Note: Check your shampoos and soaps too. You would be surprised. I found wheat in my shampoo! Lol, I didn’t realize how hard it was to keep my mouth shut the whole time I was washing my hair.


Hope this is some help
 
I hope that you find the answer you are looking for! I've been wondering if I need to try goign gluten free too.... my husband would hate that, he thinks I already spend too much on groceries, and I think my favourite thing the WORLD is bread (better than chocolate!) but I have stomache issues too, that just won't go away.
Keep us posted okay?? You can do this. :)
 
Thanks all!

Leu, ♥ you're too sweet... but I'd hate for you to waste postage if this doesn't work... kwim? If it does, I'm totally mooching your books off of you! ;) ROFL Thanks for all the links!

Darcy, cutting dairy was pretty much the only advice my doctor ever gave-- albiet, that was quite a few years back. I tried it for a couple months back then and again recently for a few weeks and it didn't work at all either time :( Thanks for all of that info! Wow!
 
i'm no great wisdom on this but wanted to give {{hugs}}

my son Josh has Ulcerative Colitis (which is an inflammatory bowel disease) and he's on a bunch of meds, which suck and right now he's even on steroids and they aren't doing much good, so like you i feel like i have to take things into my own hands...

i've heard some people rave over the Carbohydrate Specific Diet for help w/ UC and other issues... i've only started looking into it (just picked up a few books this morning on amazon), but i believe it's gluten free (as well as free of a lot of other stuff) You can google "The Carbohydrate Specific Diet" for other links, but here's a few:

http://altmedicine.about.com/od/popularhealthdiets/a/specific_carb.htm
http://www.pecanbread.com/new/aboutscd.html
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/

SCD Recipes -
http://www.scdrecipe.com/

Josh is my PICKIEST eater and lives on carbs, so i have no clue how i'm going to get him to adapt his diet, but if it means no pills then seems worth a shot.

okay i'm rambling, but anywho, wasn't sure if there might be recipes that might help you out too! good luck!

xoox
 
You may also check the grocery stores in town. I went to a market that I don't usually go to and they have a whole aisle and freezer/fridge area dedicated to gluten-free foods. There were even some prepared meals ready to go in the freezer case. Good luck. I know this is a difficult transition.

Anna Aspes has spoken a lot about it on her blog too. Here's the link:http://annaaspnes.typepad.com/anna/gfdf/
 
I have a good friend who figured out her issues were related to gluten and she is doing much better now that she changed her diet.

Good luck with the changes you are going to incorporate into your life!
 
A friend of mine found out about 2.5 years ago that she has Celiac's and she had to go completely gluten-free. She said it was really hard, but she feels SO much better! When she got married, they had a traditional cake for the guests, but the top peices were rice-krispy cake (so she could have some of her own wedding cake!)! And her italian BIL made the lasagnas (OMGoodness... dying)... but made them with rice flour noodles....

SO the good news is, if you cut out gluten, you don't necesarilly have to cut out carbs. You just have to substitute them for things that don't bother you! I hope it goes well for you!!
 
Annie, another thing to keep in mind (and this may have been mentioned) is that you really should either replace or find a way to thoroughly clean all your cookware/untensils--especially cutting boards and the like. When we put D on the GF diet, we bought an inexpensive set of cookware/dishes/cutlery specifically for his use. It may not seem like a big deal, but if it is truly a gluten intolerance, even crumbs can cause problems. ♥
 
Just wanted to let you know that Betty Crocker has recently come out with a line of gluten free mixes. I haven't seen them at a store yet but Amazon is selling them. If you need to, you can actually order a lot of gluten free products from Amazon.
 
Better Crocker just came out with a gluten free brownie mix. I've yet to try it, but if you call them, they'll send you a coupon to try it for free.
 
I think it was Robin who mentioned that most supermarkets have dedicated aisles to special diets, and sections of the freezer section too - but do ask at the customer info desk for help too, because I'm sure it will be the same in the US as over here, but many supermarkets produce lists of their products found elsewhere in the store that are gluten free, which can only help you create more interesting meals!

I thought you might like to see some alternate recipes, so this is a link to my favourite UK foodie web site, detailing their ideas for gluten free meals.

One last thing, my Dad has to have a GF diet too (he's a coeliac) - and his biggest complaint is the quality of bread. So do shop around 'cos the quality of taste and texture between brands is huge.

I thought I'd add this link to the Coeliac Society's (in the UK) recipe page too.
 
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