Friday, January 15, 2010

Help Request!

Hello readers!

A child of a friend of a friend (hee) was just diagnosed as gluten free. What were your favorite web sites, books, or any other resources for getting started gluten free?


6 comments:

Angela S said...

I was diagnosed with celiac Oct 08 and have been GF since then. Stephanie ODea's crockpot 365 is great, I have her cookbook though it is all online. Its my go to cookbook.

Pamela's baking mix is by far my favorite. I've not tried mixing flours on my own but pamela's is easy and great. I've gotten it pretty cheap in bulk on amazon.com.

Nameste mixes are a waste of money, they taste nasty.

Glutino/gluten free pantry is one of my favorite brands. Walmart carries some mixes.

Blogs and websites have had the best information in my opinion. My doctors treated me like they didn't believe I was following the rules. The nutritionists I met didn't know as much as I'd learned online.
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/12748442458947958789/label/Gluten%20Free
I made my gluten free folder in google reader public if you want to take a look at the different bloggers.

I don't feel all much better a year later but have been told it can take about two years to heal and notice a difference. But my numbers are better and switching to GF really wasn't that big a deal. There is still plenty of junk you can eat if you choose and lots of good stuff.

Kinnikinnik brand oreos are very very good, Amy's brand pizza have a horrible crust, Glutinos crust on the duo cheese pizza and spinich feta is good but on the three cheese and others is more like Amy's crust. They do use two different crusts. Udi's muffins are amazing but expensive, so I make my own with Pamela's mix. Watch for contamination in foods made on shared equipment with wheat.

Watch for dextrin (unless you know the source), modified food starch and regular food starch and malt or malt extract. Once I find stuff I like I just order it online. Sam's club has some crackers near the gold fish and oreos that are really seedy but are gluten free. They are good, I just finally got sick of them.

I ate mostly rice for the first six months and promptly got sick of it. For the following 6 months I wouldn't eat it. GF pastas have been hit and miss, I don't love pasta so I've had it maybe a half dozen times. I've heard quinoa pasta is the best. Amy's makes a GF mac and cheese that is ok. Blue Diamond crackers have become my fave, I think the almond or whatever is in the blue box. The taste is the most neutral. The pecan are much stronger tasting.

Institute a no double dipping rule in your house or have a GF peanut butter and regular. We're still training for this. I always use a fresh stick of butter rather than from the dish. I also reguarly clean my stand mixer so I don't get contamination. As well I use parchment paper when cooking in my oven on our baking stone, I just didn't feel like getting a second stone.

Rice Chex and most chex flavors are gluten free and they are great. There are a few brands of gluten free frozen waffles that are good, I stock up when they go on sale. Van's blueberry are my favorite the buckwheat are good too. Kinnikinnik's are good as well, they smell like sugar cones.

There was a place called good juju bakery (changed names but should be searchable by that name) that I tried a year after diagnosis after reading a review on how "it nearly brought tears to my eyes" it tasted so much like the real thing in talking about their dinner rolls. The rolls are amazing, the cookies taste totally real as does the banana bread. But it is pricy and I wouldn't go out and buy it at the beginning. They mail it to you frozen and its thawed when you get it but it is dang good.

Diamond said...

Our first go to site for recipes has been eatingglutenfree.com
We have branched out to different blogs since then, but still go there first.

Ginger Lemon Girl is one of those blogs.

And, since I haven't figured out bread that doesn't fall flat, my best tip is to use waffles as sandwich bread. We make a double batch of the eatingglutenfree recipe and freeze them. For lunch at school we just make the sandwich on the frozen waffles. For lunch at home we toast the frozen waffle.

Unknown said...

I was self-diagnosed but confirmed later starting in June 09. I have been pretty lucky to find foods that I like.

Some staples I love which are Pop-Weaver popcorn (GF manufacturing facility), Cape Cod potato chips, Annie Chuns sticky rice, and reeses peanut butter cups!

Learning to stop living to eat or think about the things I can't have anymore was tough. My new motto is Eat to Live not Live to Eat!

I love Glutino and Gluten Free Pantry products and most Bob's Red Mill things are easy to find. I shop and buy what I can at the main food stores and then get the specialty items at health food stores.

Tinkyada pasta is MY FAVORITE!! With a little sauce and some Aidells GF sausage yum!

The best tools in my arsenals are:

1. the celiac forums for support and weird questions (celiac.com).
2. Grocery shopping I have to have my Gluten Free Grocery guide from (Ceceliasmarketplace.com) it tells products by brand that are GF but always check the labels some things do change.
3. My Triumphs Dining Restaurant Registry (Triumphdining.com). It is a handy guide for traveling with GF menus in the back.
4. My last item is a binder that I made myself of printed out sheets from online websites of restaurants and grocery stores of GF products and allergen information. Do the research ahead of time and you will stay well!

You have to be the one that is educated and don't feel sorry about asking for special attention! I love eating out but I have to make sure they know what I need. I do not depend on the waiter to be informed, I inform them and ask again when they bring me the food. With my arsenal I have only been glutened 1 time in 6 months and we eat out often!!

My sister and mother who are Celiac as well swear by Jules products. You buy the Jules all purpose flour and use her cookbooks and the food is FABULOUS! It is the "Nearly Normal." Simple and easy! (Julesglutenfree.com)

RonaldJ said...

One book I'd highly recommend is Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic by Dr. Peter H. R. Green and Rory Jones. It's packed with lots of good information.

Kudos to all those blog/food suggestions above!

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