Gluten free newbie

[Goingtobeawesome]

I'm waiting for confirmation but it is looking very likely that I will have to follow a gluten free diet. My lovely pharmacist printed me off some information so I have a long list of what I can and can't eat but I'm just back from a trip to the shop and came away a bit fed up as all they had in their GF section was bread, cakes, chicken kievs, nuggets and a few other bits I didn't fancy.

I'm hoping it will become easier and second nature but right now I just see a long list of food I can't eat which of course my house is full of and no one else wants.

I would be very grateful for any helpful tips. Thank you.

A lot of foods are naturally gluten free so you wouldn't need to always use the free from section

So I need to actually understand what gluten is and then I'll be okay?

Thank you.

What kind of food do you like to eat? I can't think of much that doesn't have a gluten free alternative.

I was diagnosed with Coeliac disease about 8 years ago and therefore eat gluten free. Its a tricky transition to make and took me a long time before I felt confident with it but you'll get there

I like most things but I've recently been trying to lose weight and after following a one week in four plan I've discovered I like certain combinations and they work well. Breakfast has been eggs on the days I eat it, lunch is hit and miss but I like soups and salads, cous cous, pasta, potato or leaf related. Dinner has become meat/fish with salad and occasionally baby potatoes. I need to eat more fruit but I've been watching portion size and drinking more water but GF has thrown me a bit. I love cauliflower cheese and macaroni cheese and both are on the not allowed list.

Sorry, forgetting my manners. Thank you, I feel less stressed now.

i follow a gluten free diet - I found joining coelic uk helpful.

I have their gluten checker app which is useful in the supermarket for scanning and checking whether jars and packets contain gluten. I have given up bread and pasta as I have found the gluten free alternatives revolting.

Ocado have a gluten free filter that you can apply for online shopping.

The most difficult thing I have found is eating out although most restaurants have things that are ok to eat.

You can get gluten free pasta and you can make cheese sauce with corn flour to make it gluten free. Means cauliflower cheese and macaroni cheese are ok

Looking at your list I think you'll be fine!

They do make GF cous cous but to be honest it's not very nice. Everything else that you like to eat is either already gluten free (like eggs, meat, potatoes!) or has gluten free versions. Gluten free pasta these days is really good.

The bit with gluten in cauliflower cheese is normally the white sauce, so if you make it yourself you can just use a gluten free flour.

How confident are you with cooking from scratch? It can be really intimidating looking at your list of things you can't have, but almost everything can be modified in some way if you're a reasonably confident cook.

My dear , this is not BAD news ie oh no I can never eat any more nice food .

It is GOOD news ie hooray I have found out what is making me ill after all these months / years and now I know a simple way to keep well and symptom free.

And it's easier for you as you are non coeliac gluten intolerant ( I assume ) so you don't need to worry so much about contamination.

You can eat all meat, fish, dairy, fruit and vegetables, pulses and some grains.

You can eat processed food as long as you check the label.

You can buy GF bread and bread products or you can make them yourself. GF pasta is easy to find and quite tolerable with a sauce or flavouring.

Honestly it's absolutely fine. You will end up much healthier anyway - if your house of full of gluten containing products i assume they are biscuits , smacks, cakes and ready meals.

Sorry don't see your latest posts

Of course you can have mac chhese and califlowers cheese. Just make the sauce with GF flour .

Instead of cous cous you can have rice or quinoa. Or even better, copped up cauliflower rice ( you can buy it in tubs if you like for convenience) .

All soups are fine as long as you check the label or make yourself. Usual culprits are stock cubes and pasta in minestrone.

Chinese soy sauce isn't GF but Japanese is ( can't remember what it's called) .

I love cooking and cook mostly from scratch and as I've got more confident I'm less phased but this has confused me as I'm not very bright and understanding the science of food. I've been ill for about 18 months but with what I had going on it took a long time to get to this point so I can see the positives. I was just upset that I didn't know what to buy.

The app sounds great and I'll get that immediately. We rarely eat out so that's not a worry.

I never buy cakes but do bake muffins for the kids. I buy maybe one pack of biscuits every couple of months and I don't buy snacks food other than crisps.

I would never have known I could make a sauce for cauli cheese with corn flour. That's where I am stuck. Months ago I made bread in the machine with gluten flour and it was very stodgy but as I normally make a focaccia by hand I wasn't sure if I did something wrong or if gluten free bread is more heavy. Yesterday I bought a seeded gluten free loaf and it was very nice.

I'm feeling rather thick and embarrassed now. I'm supposed to be bright but I guess if you don't know you don't know.

Thank you everyone. This has all be very reassuring and helpful. I'm going to download the app now.

Don't feel embarrassed. I only know some of these things as a neighbour has a daughter who has coeliac disease and we have bought her alternative foods/cakes when she has come to birthday parties

If you want to do some baking, this gluten lemon drizzle is delicious despite containing mashed potato.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5870/glutenfree-lemon-drizzle-cake

I cut it up into portions and freeze so I can have the occasional treat.

With making your own GFbread you need to actually look for a Gf recipe as opposed to just using gf flour in place of usual flour. Also if you do want to use ready made sauces lots of the ones in the 'normal' shelves are GF and a lot cheaper and better than the actual gf ones . Marks and Spencer have a good gf range , Tesco finest stuff ( sausages / meatballs etc ) are gf , bisto best gravy is gf .

Some nights I cook twice and I've told dh I'm not cooking three times so he's going to have what I have for dinner and do what he wants for the other two meals. The kids will carry on as they are but it seems like even if they have the odd GF meal it will be okay.

Cake looks good. Thank you. Yum.

So pleased you are feeling better about it. As you are a keen cook, you shouldn't have to much trouble and might even find you like some of the alternatives better too as well as feeling better yourself. DH is gluten free and DS has to avoid dairy and soya, plus I'm veggie and people always think it must be a nightmare but actually we have lots of meals we can all eat and they are pretty normal. A nice example is that I always disliked the texture of pasta but DH liked it and missed it so I looked into making some at home with different floors and we all like the chickpea flour pasta better than the regular kind. It's the same with buckwheat pancakes, although you may have to be careful with that flour as the easiest brand to get is the doves farm one and their packets of buckwheat flour are not GF, only the little jars are. Some of these other flours are really tasty, black millet flour for example, if you can find a definitely GF one.

If you like experimenting, perhaps try buying lots of different flours and looking for recipes online. The Tarla Dalal cookery website has great recipes for different types of flour, often Indian but not all.

The only thing that has proved to be tricky for us is eating out at independent restaurants. It's often with a call in advance to discuss what you can eat and how it's made.

I've never really bought ready made sauces but I will have a look, thank you.

I've seen it when things are labelled GF but I assume that not everything is marked GF that is? When DD decided she wanted to be vegetarian I sometimes struggled as I know some things aren't obvious.

I was so looking forward to M&S's Wimbledon Colin the caterpillar sweets but I think they aren't allowed.

I definitely want to be able to carry on making flat breads but ones I can have too as well as the kids!

You are not at all thick ! aim glad to hear that you are a confident cook, this is going to be a breeze for you.

There are lots of recipes for GF muffins which you can make with your kids. Try Pinterest or just google.

Some crisps are GF just check the packet. Don't assume that anything pre packaged is GF until you have checked.

I've got a little notebook and I'm making lots of notes.

Going to feel an idiot if the blood tests come back nor coeliac! TBH the week I followed the meat, fish, salad, fruit, egg and only two slices of bread plan I felt so much better and no bloat, wind, loose bowels I can't help but think I would be best served to eat as if I am. I've been poorly with various things since two years ago nearly that I have to feel I can try something and feel better.

If I did make things with GF flour could the kids eat them?

Check the sweets as it will state on the label as to whether there is gluten. A lot of jelly sweets should be fine

Pom beats are gluten free!

It's perfectly ok for non coeliac / gf people to eat gf food , they are not missing anything vital and in a house where there is a coeliac it's often easier to avoid contamination .

I live in a gluten free household although I personally am not gluten free.

We eat normal food basically, but substitute gluten free pasta for normal pasta and make sure sausages etc are gluten free (an awful lot are these days) .The person who is coeliac refuses to eat any of the gluten free breads, but I believe the M&S one is pretty good. For white sauces I just use gf flour. Knorr stock pots are also Gf.

Breakfast is generally yoghurt, fruits, fried egg and bacon if gluten free cereals (nestle go free range are the favourite here)

Lunches are leftovers, omelettes, quinoa salads, salady salads, potato salad, frittata, crisps etc.

A typical weekly evening menu for us would be:

Mon: lasagne/ spag Bol made as normal but with gf pasta
Tue: sausage casserole / sausage and mash
Wed: fish and potatoes
Thur: chicken Thai green curry and rice
Fri: steak and chips
Sat: stew/ hotpot
Sun: roast dinner, I will sometimes bother with gf Yorkies and stuffing, other times I won't.

I occassionally make gf biscuits and cakes but they the supermarkets have a wide selection. Gluten free hobnobs are expensive but taste the same as the normal ones.