Would anyone be up for a coeliac chat thread?

[Squirrel125]

Umm...that's it, really! I was thinking a thread for people with coeliac or a coeliac sufferer in the household where we could share recipe ideas and any other questions might be helpful. I did briefly follow something like this on FB but found it a bit intense, as FB groups tend to be!

My DD (12) has coeliac, diagnosed last year. Still getting to grips with some food alternatives but we have quickly found specific favourites (all in different supermarkets, of course!)

So my first question is...any ideas to make GF couscous a bit more flavoursome?!?

I don’t think the lentils have changed. What’s Changed is the advice from coeliac uk. They used to say dry lentils were ok if rinsed well. Now they say don’t use.

we still do and dd is ok. But I guess it’s a risk. Think Holland barret sell some safe ones at 3x the price 🙈

Not sure - they have a "changed allergens" sticker on them now. So hard to know what to do as my dc tends to be largely asymptomatic. But thanks for the H&B advice.

I use green lentils from a tin, are these still ok? I don’t know if you can get tinned red ones.

I believe tinned ones are fine but they're not as nice in our lentil soup! I am not usually this particular about ingredients, much less about lentils, honest 😉 But I like the dried ones in that recipe! And my dcs will eat it which is a win as they're fussy as anything.

Can someone advise me how I can get the most up to date gluten free book for food shopping? I see the coeliac uk produce one but am confused about which membership I need. Can I just buy it online as a book.
Sorry if I sound a bit stupid but we have only just started this journey 😩🤦‍♀️
Only realised today that play doh has gluten ! So that’s gone in the bin .

You can make your own playdoh, I imagine it would work gluten free.

Partner is diagnosed coeliac, lost a lot of weight before diagnosis. But he can easily tolerate a tiny bit so we don't worry too much about cross contamination, use the same toaster etc. So might this apply to others, which could make life a little easier especially eating out.
Usually makes wraps using yoghurt and gf flour, rather than getting gf bread, but best made fairly fresh, I think it was a Becky Excell recipe.

@Upthejunctionandroundthebend have your DP’s medical team said he is OK with cross contamination. I have a friend who doesn’t get symptoms, she was diagnosed after her sister’s diagnosis. She is very careful, she doesn’t get symptoms when glutened but the doctor said she was raising her risk of bowel cancer despite that.

Thank you. Have just been out and bought the ingredients..should be fun activity when she is here tomorrow afternoon.

@Upthejunctionandroundthebend i don’t suppose you can link or post the recipe. The Becky excell one that comes up on google doesn’t have yoghurt in. I make a flat bread with equal parts gf flour and yoghurt so I probably just need to roll it thinner for a wrap.

I can't remember the levels of membership but I took out a family one that means that we could all download the app on our phones (I think you said your dgd/ dd is only little, right? Mine is of an age to go and buy stuff at the shops with her mates, so it was worth thr family membership for that). I think it was about £30 for the year.

The app is pretty handy although a bit temperamental depending on how good the signal is in any given supermarket! I rarely use the book unless I am.hunting for something specific.

Of course the book is only correct at time of writing. As we have seen upthread, previously safe foods get revised without warning.

Yep - that's the good thing about having the app.

Highly recommend the app, I also have family membership of coeliac UK so my DS & DH can have it on their phones.

In other news I tried the M&S GF Victoria Sponge today, had really low expectations as it looked dry and not that nice, but it was the nicest GF cake I’ve eaten so far!!

The Tesco free from quiche lorraine is absolutely delicious!

Thank you @Squirrel125 . I have now got the family membership with coeliac uk. X

The fact that he doesn't get symptoms with cross-contamination doesn't mean he should not be careful. He could still damage his gut without knowing and this could lead to serious issues in the future. The advice for coeliacs is clear, avoid cross-contamination... 😔 (and it's the hardest part imo). This means a separate toaster, fryer, separate spread (butter, jam, Nutella etc.)... It sucks especially when eating out or at someone's house but it's the only way to really heal and avoid future heart issues.

The M&S coffee and walnut cake is amazing too and last week I discovered it was even more gorgeous from the fridge!

Yes, 100% this. My dc is completely asymptomatic - coeliac was picked up as part of a screening for a different health condition. Almost makes it harder in some ways as you don't know when you've slipped up.

I always forget to use the scanner on the coeliac uk.app but we check packaging of everything that DD is going to eat.
The cross contamination is a right pain, I got a new air fryer for Christmas with 2 drawers so one is totally gluten free, have a separate chopping board, only get mayo out of the jar with a spoon which then can't go back in if it touches bread. It's such a faff!

@ChimChimeny - could you get her a separate squeeze mayo that no one else uses?

We have before, but we got a job lot.of delicious mayo in jars from the company shop. Once that's gone we'll get a squeezy bottle

Have you seen the news about heinz beans and sausages? 😭 And the trawlers catch in skegness? Options seem to be dwindling lately.

Slightly random question but has anyone had any issues with paper straws? My DS is glutened again and I think this is either from cross contamination in a blender used for a smoothie or the straws it came with. I’ve done some online research and there is quite a bit of anecdotal chat about straws using wheat glue but this is mostly from Americans, and some people seem fine but DS is incredibly sensitive.

There is a previous incident that I think may also have been straw related, but not sure if I’m actually now just going out of my mind because I just can’t seem to keep him fully GF. The only gluten we have in the house is cereal for my other sons - this is kept separately from the GF food. He has is own toaster, I changed baking trays, replaced wooden spoons etc. All condiments spreads etc are spoons only, he has his own butter as that’s the biggest risk as there is some gluten bread for pack lunches.

I just don’t know what else I can do.

With the gluten bread and pack lunches these are made after I’ve made his lunch and usually when he’s left the house. Other than cereal there was no gluten consumed in the house over the weekend.