Beginner's guide to being coeliac - GLUTEN-FREE cookery, food advice, hints and tips

[Fauve]

My ds (12) is under investigation for coeliac disease - although one blood test was negative, he is to have a further blood test to see if he has inherited the coeliac gene from his (definitely coeliac) dad, and then if necessary a biopsy. He is a bit daunted by the notion of not being able to eat gluten if he turns out to be coeliac, and I will have to get my act together more than I have to date - at the moment I only cater for a coeliac dh, not a coeliac adolescent boy!
Also another MNer was recently diagnosed as coeliac, and I've promised to post my own recipes (such as they are ). As a start-off, I've been trawling through the archives, and these threads are particularly useful to me:
This one could change my life with its revelation that you can take gf pizza bases to Pizza Hut, and they will cook a pizza for you.
This one's good on baking.
And so is this one.
This one has lots of basic info, and some links.
I'm really grateful to all the people who posted on those threads. Hopefully we can put some recipes together here, as well. I'm going to go away and type some of mine up in Word, so they don't all disappear when something goes wrong with my posting Also I'll keep trawling through the archive threads in my usual obsessive way...

Yeah, I'm not fussed either way for Xmas pud, cake or mince pies but we're hosting Xmas dinner at ours this year so need to at least attempt to put on a festive spread!

3frenchHenniePennies, I recommend Juvela Fresh bread. It comes on prescription in packs of 8 loaves, which we freeze.

Hi, my dd is wheat allergic and I have just made a batch of gluten free mince pies and they are gorgeous! I made them with Doves Farm gluten free flour in a mini muffin pan and put half a glace cherry on top and dusted each with icing sugar and called them 'snowy rudloph pies'!

It doesn't take much to get my dcs excited about christmas!

Was very sad yesterday at ds1's birthday party when i'd temporarily forgotten about being gf and was looking forward to a slice of his birthday cake, then realised just in time I couldn't have any...

In case anybody here doesn't know about it yet.

Dietary Specials do a nice Bluberry Muffin mix and Chocolate Cake flour mix.

There is also a very nice Ready Mix Bread Flour by Orgran which makes a nice spongey bread.

Orgran also does a vanilla sponge cake flour, I have just bought one but never made a cake with it before. Will report back once I use it

As for dinind in restaurants with small gf children, we always carry a small tupperware with raw gf pasta for "emergencies" (if we stop at a restaurant we just ask the chef to prepare DS's pasta with the regular tomato/blognese sauce of the house.

Chandra - that's a really good idea re: the pasta - wouldn't have thought of doing that - thanks!

only read half the thread yet but just wanted to jump in and say if you can get your hands on orgran pasta it's really quite nice. they do several variation; rice and millet, rice and veg, buckwheat, corn, etc and they cook very well without sticking and they pass the dd test

a nice suace to do with it is to fry some garlic, onions and finely chopped mushrooms in a pan with olive oil and butter, add some lightly boiled spinich chopped up. add another dollop of butter and some cream ( i use goats milk as dd is dairy intolerant too but thats not necessary if you can take dairy) and simmer til it reachesa good saucy consistancy. it's very tasty and quite quick and easy. substituing leeks for the onions, spinich and mushrooms is another very tasty variation

Oooh DD loves the orgran past (rice and millet), also have found GF lasagne sheets which she likes, made a lasagne yesterday (made her a seperate one and frozen half)used GF flour for the bechemel sauce which passed everybodies test in the house!

Still on the lookout for a decent bread- have invested in a bread making machine will let you know the results after Ihave made some Gf bread.

i haven't braved lasagneyet but will be giving it a go tomorrow as i made proper ragu bolognese the other day and froze half.

one other thing i've found is if your brave enough to try yeast baking you can use g-f flours and add xanthum gum as a gluten substitute to make it rise. it's a bit of trial and error at first but i've had a few very tasty sucesses that dd has wolfed down, and you can use the bread to make breadcrumbs for stuffing too that's actually very tasty

i have a dd she 8 and was diagnosed when she 3 it was hard ar first but it a way of life now ,we have the most trouble with bread, she not eat it unless it toasted or warmed making sandwhiches imposible my dad tried to make some in his bread maker but it turned out to make a gret door stop lol even the birds wouldnt eat itmy inlaws went to canada and found a great bakery but they dont take orders over here any ideas as tried ALL doctors bread with same results YUK I NOT EATING THAT is reply we get lol

Bumping for secondhandrose

Found it, thanks.

Favue, Thanks for starting this thread. My ds1 (aged 9) has had coeliac since he was 6. He also has diabetes and luckily the coeliac was picked up during a routine screen as the two conditions are closely linked. My Dad also has it, I have been tested and don't (yet). Ds likes the same old things - juvela sweet biscuits; juvela brown bread; glutafin "fresh" bread - does not fall to bits in lunchboxes but needs to be pre-ordered and comes in packs of 8; glutafin pasta, so it's good to find out about other things.

I use the Darina Allen "Healthy Gluten Free Eating" recipe book for muffins and cakes (there's a yummy lemon cake made with polenta and ground almonds). The selection of things in the supermarket has improved loads even over the 3 years we have been GF and I confess I bake far less than I used to.

Caffe Nero do a great GF Chocolate Brownie for when you are out and about and need a snack . M&S also do GF cakes in their in-store cafes.

Gourmet Burget Kitchen have just confirmed to me that their burgers (without the bun) and chips are GF. You have to check on the sauces (or avoid them).

Bumping

Take a look at www.coeliac.co.uk too

Thanks SHR - I had a look on coeliac.co.uk but it looks like you can only get sent the list if you are a member. I rang the helpline at about 4pm but it was shut!