Easy and fast everyday gluten-free meal ideas needed please for newly diagnosed teenage dd with coeliac disease

[tigerchair]

Hi, dd has just been diagnosed with coeliac disease. A lot of our day to day meals tend to be based around pasta and other wheat containing foods eg pizza, bread. It would be great to get some ideas for other meals sop that I can start doing a new meal planner.

Thanks

Doves farm gf pasta tastes the same as normal pasta. I eat more pasta now im gf than i did before .

Gf pizza bases arent quite the same but you get used to them.
It is very hard at first. I have a tefal actifry and ate a lot of chips while i figured it out

Marks and spencers do gf breaded chicken, crispbakes and fishcakes that are nice and quick and they do a chocolate loaf thing which is the only shop bought gf cake iv had that tastes like normal cake!!

I do a lot more cooking now and eat more healthily but it does take some getting used to.

You can buy gluten free pasta so many of your dishes may well still be ok (just make sure to get gluten free stock cubes). Otherwise rice based meals are probably the way to go for easy mid-week one pots.

Things that spring to mind are risottos (chicken or salmon with any veg you have around (pea and leek is probably my favourite combo)), egg-fried rice with any meat/veg you have around, biryani style (meat + veg + curry powder) or stir-fries served on rice.

Thanks Piffyonarockbun and Squigglepigs. Do the supermarkets stock Dove's farm pasta? I have found their flour in local Tesco but not the pasta. They had their own brand and Heinz gluten free penne.

I'll have to write out a list of suitable meals. I also have 2 other dcs who are not coeliac but I would prefer to feed us all mostly gluten free meals so that it's easier to make one meal and also so that dd doesn't feel she's missing out on anything!!

The Heinz gf pasta is pretty good imo. I often have rice noodles as an alternative to gluten pasta, and those are cheap enough for everyone to have.
Pizza bases, you can make a few at a time and freeze. My preffered method is with Isabels mix - either the actual pizza base mix or the cheesebread one (which I have to hide from dh as he loves it).
The only things that don't work well are pies (a quiche is ok, but two layers get heavy), and meals where bread is a major thing. So sarnies with genius bread are ok, but where you might look forward to a crusty roll or chunk of bread, gf doesn't quite work. I would do a savoury muffin to go with soup for instance if thats a major dish, or new pots with a salad.

I've been gf for 15 years now, and I never feel deprived at home. Pintrest has taught me many new gf recipes for baking, which has sorted my cookie issues

You should be able to get pizzas bases, pasta flour etc on prescription.

Thanks CMOTdibbler and PearlyWhites. I'll check out the Isabel's website for some mixes. Will also start researching some cake/biscuit recipes to use the gf flour.

How do you manage eating out? Do you find most restaurants are able to offer a variety of gf meal choices. I noticed Pizza Express have started to offer gf pizza and desserts, has anyone tried these? Any advice on the best type of restaurants or restaurant chains.

Thanks

Pizza Hut do gf pizza bases also.

That's great, it does seem that food manufacturers and restaurants seem to be more aware now of the need to label foods and menu items. Hopefully dd will be able to change her diet without too many problems. I keep reminding her that she can still have chocolate

Dominos also do GF and they're OK.

Best GF pizzas we've found are DS Salami which we get from Tesco at £3.30 each (see pic). We've decided these are nicer than Domino.

Have you got prescriptions sorted yet?

And GF pasta bakes work well too - it's a favourite of ours.

Old el paso do GF Taco trays too (now I'm just playing with pictures...)

The biggest issue we've found is just being out and about and wanting to stop and grab lunch somewhere. Although McDonalds will put the ingredients of a Big Mac (minus the bun) into a tray if you ask...

Presto and Pizza Express both do gluten free pizzas now, bot nice and better than Pizza Hut I'd say.

Oops meant to be Prezzo!

I haven't tried Pizza Express yet (as the service in our local one is dire), but Pizza Hut gf pizza is great.
Zizzis, Carluccios, Wagamamas, Wetherspoons, Harvester, Beefeater, TGI Fridays and Cafe Rouge all have allergy listings you can ask for and which are on their websites. Starbucks have a gf cake and sandwich, Costa have gf cake and cherry bakewells and I think cafe Nero do a gf brownie.

The worst places to eat imo are chinese and american italian type places. Chinese due to the soy sauce in everything, and the american italian as its all pizza and pasta.

Gluten free on the go has ok listings round the country, and theres a gf fish and chips FB group. Generally, googling an area and gluten free will bring up recommendations - I've found all sorts of hidden treasures that way

Have to second the M and S chocolate cake. It is great. Our local Asda also does a good gf range - wraps, pizza bases and biscuits and buns. DD was g free for a year and its easier than I expected.

Thai food is often gluten free. Indian is too if you avoid the naans. We've got a Chinese takeaway that has gf options and meals that can be made gf on request (swapping out the non-gf soy sauce)
Quinoa is similar in texture to cous-cous
Buckwheat flour makes excellent pancakes
Contact the gluten free providers like Juvela and Glutafun and they'll send out a trial pack. It's good to try as many different breads as you can to see which one your dd likes best and get what you can on prescription (flour, pizza bases, pasta etc.)
Macdonalds burgers are gf and you can bring your own bun to put it in - an option if your dd was used to going there with her mates.

There are some good online sites which sell 'specialist' food and ingredients eg 'Goodness Direct'.

I do a lot of rice dishes (I have coeliacs but cant cope with potatoes either) but it also depends on how fussy your teenager is. I love vegetables both raw and cooked, fish, curries, chillies (I dont eat meat), cheese and fruit. Breakfast tends to be eggs. Lunch is salad/fish/fruit and tea would be curries, with or without rice.
I dont eat the gluten free stuff as most of it has potato flour in.
One tip is to look up Ocado online and type in gluten free, write down the stuff they list then go look for the products cheaper as it lists also sorts of products not in the GF range but are also gluten free anyway.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions and recommendations (and pics )

Re: the prescriptions, I'm not sure whether GP hasn't prescribed these yet so I will have to check with surgery. Due to another medical issue, dd's intestinal biopsy wasn't able to take place on the day as planned. Her GP has very recently advised that she should commence gluten free diet in meantime as her blood test showed such a high level of antibodies which would imply that it is extremely likely that she has coeliac disease despite this not having been formally confirmed by the biopsy. Can the prescriptions only be given if a biopsy has taken place, anyone know?

Sorry that might not be clear, the GP didn't mention prescriptions so not sure if I can request these for dd yet given that biopsy still not done.

For DP he needed to have had the biopsy, got the results then been seen by a dietician. The advice from NHS also said not to commence GF until the biopsy was done as they need to see what the colon is like when gluten is present.

Please wait until after you've had the biopsy.

Sorry - just re read that. I have no medical training. But this is what we were told by the specialists. So check with them.

Hi anotherworld, we had kept gluten in her diet up until now so that biopsy could detect if changes present. However on the day of biopsy, it could not take place due to another medical issue which is under investigation. DD wasn't seen by gastroenterology clinic prior to day procedure appt for biopsy. GP thinks this is because her blood antibody levels were so high that there was no need to wait and retest bloods, eg in the case of a borderline result, and therefore a biopsy would have been indicated automatically.

The other medical issue will probably not be fully investigated for several months so GP has advised to take her off gluten in meantime. She will have to reintroduce gluten for several weeks prior to biopsy when this is suitable to take place.

Ah ha. That makes sense.

So perhaps a chat with your GP will get the prescriptions sorted beforehand.

I'll contact the surgery to discuss, I completely forgot to ask during the appointment if she qualifies for presciptions in meantime prior to biopsy.

How did your dp find the biopsy, was it straightforward and able to give confirmation of the diagnosis on the day?

I'll be honest. I wasn't there but he said it was dreadful. He does have a strong gag reflex anyway. They couldn't tell him anything on the day so he had to wait for the diagnosis letter.