Baby steps to gluten free

[delaney]

I am wanting to slowly cut out gluten from our diets, particularly for oldest DD and me. Wow! The prices on the stuff seems unreal! I have been looking at cheaper ways to make bread and other things but the list of ingredients that you need to buy is daunting. Is there a place to get these cheaper? What staples do I need on hand? I also need crunchy snack ideas for DD. She is a salty and crunchy snack seeker.

[Snickerdoodle]

We just eat meat, vegetable & fruits, and rice for the most part.

 

Cucumbers are crunchy. So are apples, jicama and nuts.

[athena1277]

When starting a GF diet, the best thing you can do is focus on what you CAN have vs what you cannot have. Also, many people recommend staying away from all baked goods for about a month at first. This is because GF baked goods often have a slightly different taste/texture than "regular" breads. It gives your taste buds time to "forget' what normal tastes like.

 

As you learn to adjust your recipes, you will find out what you have to buy GF and what you can substitute for something from the regular grocery store. For instance, I don't buy the $5 boxes of organic GF cereal, I buy Honey Chex or Fruity Pebbles for my GF dd.

[bettyandbob]

Don't start with substitutes. Make meals that would naturally not have gluten. Stay away from packaged foods. Dinners can have roasted/grilled meat, rice/brown rice/potato/quinoa, frozen or fresh steamed vegetables and salad. Lunches can be all the stuff you'd have in a sandwich without bread (tuna, chicken salad, peanut butter, egg salad, hummus), then use carrot sticks, cucumber slices or tortilla chips to dip. Breakfast : if you like cereal go for chex rice or corn, otherwise eggs done anyway, leftover dinner or there are some hot cereals (Bob's red mill has a couple).

 

I think it was about a year before we had bread again. I learned to make.

 

Crunchy snacks: basic potato chips, basic tortilla chips, carrots, apple slices.

 

Until you learn to bake gf the substitutes to use are cake mixes to get through birthday parties. Betty Crocker now makes some cake mixes--you have to buy 2 boxes if you are doing two layers.

 

You should go to the library and start looking at gf cookbooks. I like the crockpot 365 books for dinners. I like to look at Vegetarian Times --they label recipes gluten free now and some recipes only need a simple adjustment to gf.

 

The main thing is start without using the substitutes.

[Sandra in FL]

Buy bulk whole grain (buckwheat, brown rice, etc) at the Whole Foods. You can make batter for pancakes and baked goods in a blender.

 

I also use Amazon's Subscribe and Save to buy packaged cereals/organic puffed corn/potato chips, etc. - really saves a lot compared to grocery/health food store. You can set the frequency from once every 6 months to once a month (and skip a shipment if necessary).

[Peela]

I agree not to go straight for the processed pre packaged GF foods - they really don't taste much good until you have been off all bread etc for a while.

 

We do baked vegies, salads, rice dishes/stirfries/curries/stews.

So- potatoes and rice.

 

I have a good fermented buckwheat pancake recipe that tastes good but is not instant.

 

Crunchy- we eat a lot of rice cakes instead of bread or crackers. Dh has eggs on rice cakes for breakfast most days.

 

We really eat healthier because of GF- lots of fruit and veg, some nuts, smoothies with rice protein powder. We are mostly vegetarian though- if you eat meat, that makes it easier.

[abbeyej]

Just adding my voice to others. Think about what you *can* eat and build meals around that. Don't try to make/buy substitutes for all of the grain-based foods you're used to -- try to eat other things.

 

Really, it's easier that way. Not to mention cheaper.

[Mert]

We've enjoyed the crackers and a few other things by Elana. http://www.elanaspantry.com/ My library had a couple of her cookbooks, and Trader Joes has almond meal for $3.50 per lb. It's not as "smooth" as she would suggest, but it's fine for crackers. I wouldn't attempt a cake or cookie recipe with it, but it does the job for a snack.

[Mert]

And if you must have a little bit of bread or bagel, I highly recommend the Udi and Rudy's brands. I just looked them up on Amazon, and I find them locally much cheaper than that. Don't let it scare you! And for the record, I'm not gf, my son is... So, I eat this stuff right next to regular bread and bagels, and I think it tastes fine. It's the first gf bread-type items that I've tried that really are a decent match.

[Lisa in Jax]

I am wanting to slowly cut out gluten from our diets, particularly for oldest DD and me. Wow! The prices on the stuff seems unreal! I have been looking at cheaper ways to make bread and other things but the list of ingredients that you need to buy is daunting. Is there a place to get these cheaper? What staples do I need on hand? I also need crunchy snack ideas for DD. She is a salty and crunchy snack seeker.

 

I agree with the advice to just skip the packaged bread, waffles, etc. for now. If you *really* want bread, try Udi's bread. We prefer to toast it before eating it.

 

If you want to make your own bread, send me an email (lkporter91 at gmail dot com) and I'll send you a recipe that uses only rice flour, tapioca flour, eggs, xanthan gum, butter (or olive oil), yeast and water. It makes good bread, rolls, pizza crust, cinnamon rolls, etc., and freezes well.

 

Some gluten-free crunchy or salty snacks we eat:

 

Pic-Nic potato matchsticks

Potato chips (plain)

Fritos (plain)

Chex mix (make it with gluten-free Worchestershire sauce, butter and garlic powder/salt, not the Lowry's stuff)

Nuts

GF pretzels (both Glutino brand and Snyder's brand taste like regular pretzels)

rice cakes with PB&J, hummus, etc.

carrots/cucumbers with dip

Popcorn (make it with kernels in oil -- cheap and easy)

 

As others have said, focus on what you *can* have:

 

Roasted chicken

rice

roast beef

hamburgers (no bun)

lasagna (gf noodles)

tacos in corn shells (make your own seasoning -- ask me if you need a recipe)

veggies

enchiladas (corn tortillas)

deli meat (many brands are gf - check labels)

eggs

sausage

bacon

homemade soup

asian food (make your own Chinese, Thai, Indian, etc. with wheat-free tamari soy sauce)

salads

stir-fry

spaghetti (we like Quinoa pasta from Ancient Harvest)

 

If you need more ideas, especially for a particular food/group of foods, post and let us know. Someone here will probably have an idea for a tasty alternative. :)

 

Lisa

[All4one]

While trying to go dairy free, I found this recipe for peanut butter cookies without flour or butter. It was super easy and really delicious.

 

1 egg

1 cup sugar

1 cup peanut butter

 

Beat together until well mixed. Roll 1 Tablespoon into ball. Flatten.

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes depending on how soft, chewy you want them.

 

I doubled the recipe and got between 3-4 dozen cookies.

[kokotg]

Agreeing that the easiest/cheapest thing to do is mostly skip the stuff with gluten rather than finding replacements. For lunch today my kids ate salad, deli meat (no bread; I roll them up into little cylinders, which, for some reason, makes them seem more lunchy), and yogurt. Dinners we do meat and veggies, mostly, sometimes potatoes. For breakfast they either have chex (most kinds are gluten free) or I make protein shakes (ideally we'd all eat eggs in the mornings, but we're not big on heavy breakfasts). They snack on fruit and cheese a lot. For salty stuff, tortilla chips and popcorn. When I bake, I use sunflower flour, coconut flour, sometimes some oat flour. But a lot of time when we do desserts, they either have a square of dark chocolate or ice cream. I do buy gluten free pasta and Udi's pizza crusts to have stuff on hand to make easy dinners sometimes. Breakfast for dinner is good--eggs, sausage or bacon, home fries or pancakes made from gluten free bisquick. We've only been doing it for a month or so, but I find cutting out gluten at home is pretty easy; it's only a pain when we leave the house.

[Coffeemama]

salty crunchy snack---

corn chips with salsa or guacamole

 

I agree with everyone who has said to stay away from GF bread. Getting away from eating sandwiches was certainly the most difficult thing to do at first.

[ClassicMom]

I was forced on a GF diet recently due to health issues. You are right, the prices are outrageous! I stick pretty much to healthy meats, fruits and vegetables without trying to replace the breads too much. I found that most of them don't fill my appetite for bread anyway since there is so much difference in taste and texture.

 

I do add nuts and nut chips for crunchy snacks. One thing that I found helpful was a suggestion by a friend to use Chex cereal as a replacement for a lot of cooking needs. You can crush them and add them to many things, as a coating, even eat the chocolate ones as a snack!

 

Once you get use to living without all the bread and pasta, it becomes a lifestyle and a little bit easier to live with. The thing that I find hard to acclimate to is all of the little things that have gluten in them that nobody would even suspect such as condiments, soups and ice cream.