Gluten free diet?
 

Anyone here on a gluten free diet?

I was advised a good number of years ago to go onto a gluten free diet, being the way I am, I never did, but now I am going to as the health issues have gotten worse, and the doctor has convinced me its in my best interest to do so.

I am waiting on some cook books, but wondering if anyone here is on a gluten free diet who can share the kinds of things they eat.

I have so far been eating pretty much gluten free cereal and chicken since those were the easiest but I gotta try and vary the diet a bit more, I dislike vegetables so I am having issues trying to like them...They don't taste good at all, yucky.:p but there must be a way to make them taste better.

Because gluten free anything in a box costs way too much, I am attempting to eat foods of a more natural form.

Not good at cooking, but can make almost anything in a slow cooker.

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

I don't have gluten issues, but I suspect that my gluten intake is relatively low, and would drop much lower still if I dropped the toast or cereal for breakfast. I like vegetables myself, so I think you might work on making those more palatable. I find that many restaurants, and I think people at home, overcook their vegetables, which ruins, the taste, texture, and nutritional content. :(

If you're not a big vegetable eater, you may have missed out on many of the choices of vegetables that are an improvement over the run of the mill varieties. Fresh peas and beans in season are much better than most frozen ones, not because the frozen ones are bad, but things like snow peas, and other beans are different from the varieties that get frozen, and just taste better. Some vegetables, such as broccoli and cauliflower also taste good raw, with salad cream, or other salad dressing.

If potatoes don't excite you much either, try looking for "fingerling potatoes" they're smaller than other varieties but longer and thinner, and have a dense waxy flesh. They are good roasted, or boiled, and if boiled can be left to eat cold with a salad.

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

J, I am not actually on a gluten-free diet myself, but I have been low-carbing. I notice that recipes suitable for low-carbers are normally free of gluten-containing ingredients by default because they usually omit high-carb grains, and therefore contain no wheat, rye, barley, or derived products, including "vital wheat gluten" because it still contains some starch, or malt because it is sweet. They also omit many ingredients that are safe for gluten-free diets such as corn, rice, potatoes, and sugar, but you will notice where the recipe makes substitutions and can un-substitute where necessary.

I made a gluten-free authentic chili for a friend using cornmeal to thicken it, but your starch options are not really limited, except for wheat/rye/barley. For Chinese food I use wheat-free tamari anyway instead of wheat-containing regular soy sauce because I like its flavor better. Instead of suspect stock cubes and powders I make my own stock, or if I need a shortcut I use light or dark miso; a good stock wakes up your cooking tremendously and miso, a seasoning paste made from soy, contains natural flavor enhancers.

If you tend to neglect vegetables, try to eat a great deal of fresh, bright fruit, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes, and scour the ethnic-oriented markets for new veggies you might not be aware of but find you love (in my case, I grew to love tindora, bitter melon, snow pea leaves, gai lan, opo squash, and the countless dals and beans). If you dislike greens generally I recommend you try a big Chinese market for snow pea leaves in particular; they are mild and sweet just like mangetouts and can be sauteed simply in a neutral oil with a sprinkle of salt.

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

I had to go on a GF diet permanently about 4 years ago. I have celiac disease, so it's not an allergy or some desire to follow a fad, it's a medical necessity. My mum had it too, so I had an idea of what foods were going to be off limits. The worse thing is I can't drink regular beer anymore (it has barley which contains gluten) although there are now a few good GF beers. The main impact on me these days, now I've figured out all the products/foods I can consume, is mainly a social one. Going out to eat or drink, or to parties or whatever is always an issue. Quite a few restaurants now have GF menus though, especially in larger cities. Not sure how sensitive you are - cross contamination can be an issue in restaurants who don't really understand that just having the ingredients GF isn't always the only requirement.

If you don't cook now, you soon will be. Which is good because you will eat less processed food, and veggies. But you don't have to spend hours in the kitchen. Typical evening meals for me are pizza (buy a frozen GF base and then add toppings to it) or pasta (rice pasta - actually nicer than wheat pasta to me), tacos with corn tortillas, thai curry, lots of stir fries using GF soy sauce or other GF stir fry sauces, make a pot of chilli and eat with rice or corn bread. You'll have to try all the different GF breads out there for sandwiches and figure out which one you prefer most. Around here, most are in the freezer section but some just on the shelf.

In the US there are the Triumph guides that list products that are GF in supermarkets - google them for their website which has a blog too. In the Uk the coeliac (dif. spelling) society that produces a book that lists all the GF products you can buy. of course, there are tons of other GF websites and blogs out there for info.

Good luck!

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

On the vegetable front - try spaghetti squash.
Properly cooked and served with a good pasta sauce and I (almost) prefer it to the real thing!

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

Quite a lot of foodie blogs you could look up.

Have a look at the milk alternatives like Soy Silk and the Almond one, as they usually have decent recipes on them.

Most gluten free pizza from grocery stores taste like vomit and you can just as easily make your own with alternative flours like rice.

Plenty of decent gluten pasta options there.

Don't over look veg, some are good protein alternatives. Key is to not over cook them, a lot grill quite nicely or steam well but need to be seasoned well. Stick to what's seasonal if you can as they tend to taste better and you get a better variety through the year and farmers markets are good if they're a option.

Wegmans have a great gluten free section and well labelled foods. Trader Joes are also fairly good and on the expensive front, Whole Foods. But it is a good place to browse and get some ideas for meals just looking through the gluten free oven meal section :)

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

FIFY :)

(The OP is in Canada.)

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

Do you have a good hot oven? Many unappealing vegetables taste great cut up in even-sized pieces, tossed in olive oil & sea salt, and roasted till tender (and maybe a little black at the edges) in a hot oven.

Or--as Bob mentioned--grill them, but I like oven-roasting at this time of year. Sprinkle on a bit of spice if you like a more robust flavour, cayenne pepper's good for that.

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

I never thought of the oven...Good idea to try..

Thanks for the advice and suggestions, its all new to me still and doctor only convinced me to go gluten free last week, so I am just starting the research phase and slowly looking for new ways to eat and explore food.....

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

Second that on the roasting....also makes prep and cleanup a whole lot easier. Cauliflower used to last forever in our house, because I was the only one eating it. I started tossing it in little olive oil, garlic, roasting with sometimes a sprinkle of Parmesan, and now there are never leftovers...I've had to start doing 2 large heads at a time because it's even good cold the next day!

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

Oooh, sooooooo trying this.

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

Lizzy Q - ref your karma - let me know how the broccoli goes....I can never get it right - the ends go crispy/dry before the stalks get done...:(

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

Tin foil over the head while you roast it half way, then take it off and it'll crisp up, other wise it'll steam.

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

Yeah, that works. Or if you cut up the broccoli, you can roast the florets in one pan (& pull that one out of the oven earlier) and the stalk pieces in another that you roast longer.

The more equal & overall homogenous you can make the pieces in each pan, the more successful the roasting will be.

Re: Gluten free diet?
 

It is, unfortunately, very easy to tell whether or not you need to be gluten free. If eating two slices of pizza will have you spending more than 1 out of the next 12 hours in the bathroom then you will need to be gluten free for the rest of your life :(

A gluten-free way of life is a major pain. But it beats being in daily distress. Casual eating out becomes a memory and you have to learn how to cook at home.

Restaurant supply stores such as GFS (Gordon Food Service) will sell you things like a 50lb sack of rice flour without charging an arm and a leg. Though often such things are kept in the back room as sales are limited and you need to have a conversation with the store manager. It helps to have a chest freezer and make thing like huge pots of soup.

When it comes to "is this product safe or not?" the internet is your friend.