Gluten free diet - what do you eat in a normal day? Is it all rice cakes and lentils???

[Nixz]

Ive searched some previous threads and there are lots of good gluten free recipies but not really many 'normal' day foods.

I know there are lots of 'free from' foods in supermarkets these days but what food can you still eat, that you ate before you were on a gluten free diet?

This blog has lots of interesting gluten free recipes.

I cook all the "normal" meals, etc. I cooked before - but with any gluten containing ingredients changed for glutenfree. So the baking is done with gf flour and gf baking powder, gravy or sauces are thickened with cornflour or potato flour, etc. Baked beans are always Heinz which are gf, etc. If you cook from scratch there is no need to go without anything you ate before (assuming you do not have other intolerances, but even those can be got round with a bit of imagination).

All the things like risotto, chips and fish (covered with gf batter), stews, roasts of pork or chicken, etc. etc. etc. can be made gf without any bother (or already glutenfree anyway). I only use one bought sauce which I cook fish in and it is glutenfree (Meridian Creamy Mushroom and White Wine Sauce).

If you have specific meals you want to convert just let us know and we'll help.

Thanks - thats really helpful

What foods do people eat which are naturally gluten free?
Snacks etc?

...

Nixz I'm interested in snacks too. One of Dd's friends is on a gluten free diet and I want to know what party food I can offer. Any nice cakes or choc biscuits? Crisps? I got some freefrom pita bread which she likes with houmous, just want to know treats if anyone can help.

Any buns, cakes, biscuits can be made glutenfree just by substituting Dove's Farm Glutenfree Plain Flour into the recipe. You then make sure that all the other ingredients are also glutenfree - the baking powder, the margarine (if you are not using butter). Children's parties are not a problem - there are gf sausages, for example.

There are lots of gf crisps - too many to list - do you want plain crisps or a certain flavour, if so we can suggest a couple. There are also things like Applesnapz apple crisps which are also glutenfree.

Equally there are loads of gf snacks - e.g. Eat Natural Bars, Barkat Pretzels, Kallo Organic Dark Chocolate Rice Cakes are lovely, and the brand No Wheat Choco Orange Bars (5 bar pack), Chocolate Apricot and Raisin Crispy 6 Bars, and Vanilla Wafers.

for me, breakfast and dinner are easy because I love the Doves Farm g-f corn flakes and cook g-f meals for dinner no problem. The biggest pain is lunch 'cos I'm never organised enough to make something (I work full-time) and when I'm out and about with work find it really hard to find stuff.

Snackts are very tricky - some crisps and there's most chocolate but I get fed up of not having choice or just being able to nip out and buy something to eat without having to put a lot of thought into it.

I tend now to have fruit for lunch - makes me feel like I'm being slightly healthy .

Thank you, that's very helpful. Any crisps at all, prob plain would be safest. I could ask her parents, but when someone else asked they said they'd send her with her party food! They weren't being funny, just helpful, but I'd like to be able to provide for her.

I really eat pretty much what I did before diagnosis - I just substitute gf flour/ingredients/pasta where appropriate.

The most telling thing is lunch, as I never have sandwiches as they are most often foul. I have salads, soups, left overs from the day before, baked potatoes, gf crackers and hummus, or hoik a gf pasty out of the freezer.

Posey - the Pom Bar teddy crisps are gluten free (says it on the front of the pack) and are very popular here (also lower salt). You can get gf jaffa cakes in Sainsburys which are really nice, or chocolate fingers in Waitrose. I like the cherry bakewells in the FF section too

how about rice cakes and peanut butter????

Yes -thats fine. I never think about rice cakes as I don't like them and only eat them in dire emergencies !

Posey - other plain crisps (apart from Pom Bar teddy crisps) include: Golden Wonder ready salted and Kettle Chips lightly salted. I think it's great you want to try to cater for her but I understand where the parents are coming from! I always sent my DS to parties with food - I matched it as closely as possible to what the others would be eating. This was because not only are the actual items of food a problem, there is also the problem of cross-contamination as it can only take a couple of non-gf crumbs to cause a reaction in a coeliac child (DS had other allergies as well which complicated the issue but I would still have sent him with food).

M&S do some nice gf cakes - their labelling is quite good and easy to understand.

Thanks for that ft. I was hoping for crisps they could all eat so that's grand. We're hopefully having a picnic-type tea, so will pack her's separately. They also aren't little, she's 11 and very sensible and knows what she can and can't have, but thanks for the advice re cross contamination.

just put my dd on gf/cf diet as she has asd and understand diet can make some differences. Finding it ok except like others lunch. Just made some lovely double chocolate chip cookies though if you want the recipe - its really easy and they taste and look delicious.

I'm going to post several links now to the stored wisdom of the coelias board as people are looking for different things.

Lots of ideas for lunches here:

coeliac.info/suppboard/viewtopic.php?t=1445&highlight=lunches

and

coeli ac.info/suppboard/viewtopic.php?t=749&highlight=lunches

Children's packed lunches here:

coeliac.info/suppboard/viewtopic.php?t=422&highlight=lunches

Some ideas for party food:

coeliac.info/suppboard/viewtopic.php?t=1225&highlight=buffet

and

coelia c.info/suppboard/viewtopic.php?t=1496&highlight=buffet

All this info is great for me as DP has just been diagnosed - flamin you must be an expert on this subject!

Gloria42 I'm no expert but I've been at this a long time! You'll find lots of help here:

members2.boardhost.com/glutenfree/

and on the attached supplementary board where information is saved (which is where I took the links from).

If your DP has just been diagnosed then, forgive me if you've already been told these things, but a couple of things which often get overlooked initially are:

You need a separate toaster (or use toaster bags).
Use a clean knife or spoon each time you use butter or jam to avoid contamination by crumbs (once the antibody levels drop on a gf diet then some coeliacs will react badly to even a few crumbs).
Do not use the same draining pan for glutenfree and gluten pasta (even after washing there can be enough gluten stuck round the holes apparently to cause a reaction if gf pasta is then drained in it). We just all converted to glutenfree pasta which can be bought in the supermarkets (though your DP will get some on prescription).
Some coeliacs cannot tolerate the gluten-reduced wheat products (called Codex Alimentarius) though most can.
Some coeliacs cannot tolerate malt flavouring - though most can.

The last two are just something to be aware of if DP doesn't improve as fast as you would expect, or you later introduce some of these products and unexpectedly get a reaction.

You'll be amazed how fast you get used to it all.