Student newly diagnosed with coeliac disease

[AugustaHope]

Hi all.
My daughter has been diagnosed with coeliac disease. She's 19 and at uni.
Does anyone have any children who are students and can advise on easy quick cheap options?
I'm assuming that the uni food will have gluten free options but she does enjoy cooking for herself and eating out with friends as well.
Cheap and relatively easy options (for recipes or restaurant chains) would be gratefully received. (Also - those of you with children with coeliac disease - do you keep the whole kitchen gluten free at home or just separate out food with/without gluten?)
Thanks in advance

Sainsbury's standard range (Butcher's Choice), 3rd ingredient wheat flour. Same with Tesco standard range. Same with Morrison's standard range (Butcher's Style). Presumably you shop in Asda where the standard range ordinary sausage is gluten free, but that's the exception. You absolutely do have to check. Please don't go round spreading the idea that you can take things like "oh x are always GF" for granted, because part of the coeliac learning process is that you absolutely can't.

@ClumpingBambooIsALie

Lidl's more expensive ones are gf

Yep a lot the premium ranges have gone over to GF, which I'm very glad of.

I'm coeliac and make a lot of curries and chills is with rice or corn tacos. She could do a base with tinned tomatoes and spices and then add beans, chickpeas, veg, etc (or meat if she eats it).

I don't keep the kitchen gluten free, but do use separate marg/butter to avoid breadcrumbs. Toaster bags are a good idea if she doesn't have a separate toaster, they're only a couple of pounds on Amazon and you can reuse them.

There's a good Facebook group called 'coeliacs eat out too' - if you search on there for where she lives there will be recommendations for places to eat out.

The point about checking outside the free-from sections is good, though. Often you don't need the special version — for example, own-brand tortilla chips are quite often GF, and the ones in the free-from section are only necessary if you need dairy-free too. Asda standard fresh gnocchi is GF, even(!) which is kind of funny when it's nestled among the other wheaty fresh pasta.

It is so much easier and better catered for than it was even 10 years ago. My coeliac son (diagnosed early teens) opted for self-catering in first year at University but shared a kitchen with non-coeliacs without difficulty.
Most chain restaurants have gf options but do not lose sight of the fact that most food is gluten free. There are many gf products in the supermarkets which you do not actually need unless you are dairy-free as well. The normal brands now have clear labelling e.g. Heinz beans are gf, some cheaper brands may not be.
High end restaurants tend to cook from scratch and so can easily adapt.
At home I have 2 coeliacs and except for bread, we tend to eat the same main meals. I bake gluten-free for the non-coeliacs.

Tesco, Asda and M&S all cater well for coeliacs compared to a decade ago. Fresh food is mainly gf anyway and just check the labels at point of pick up off the shelf and your DC will be fine.

Re baking (cakes, scones, biscuits), pretty much any home recipe can be rendered edible and gf by substituting gf flour and a teaspoon of Xanthan gum powder to stop it being too crumbly. There is no need to use special recipes.

M&S tortilla chips which are far nicer than Doritos are gf. Only plain Doritos are gf. Most crisps are gf but Pringles are not.
Ready Meal curries are often gf except for the naan bread but you can substitute poppadums which usually are gf. All pataks cooking sauces are gf. Mash Direct (in many chiller cabinets) are gf and their onion rings are lovely.

I have 2 children who are coeliac. We mainly keep our kitchen gluten free but are careful if we go eat gluten. No wooden utensils or chopping boards, only silicon or plastic.

Baked potatoes with gf filling is easy & quick. Birds eye potato waffles are gf. Cheaper than bread. We eat with fried egg on top or cheese. We eat lots of rice. Uncle bens packets for quickness can be ready in 2 mins in microwave. Our normal go to meals include sweet & sour chicken with rice & prawn crackers. Pasta bolognese - we like sainsburys gf pasta. Meat, potatoes & veg. Tacos. You can get sainsburys own brand & they're gf.

Lidl & Aldi do lots of gf. Aldi do Tempura chicken & fish goujons. Both do crisps. Sometimes they'll do special offer biscuits etc.

Like others have said definitely join coeliac uk. We used the barcode scanner all the time & as my 11 year old gets more independent I'm getting him to scan his own things. Good luck

Tamari is gluten free soy sauce.

Rice noodles are great.

GF bread is generally shit.

Always check oven chips - the fancier they appear, the more likely they are to contain wheat. Except McCains, which are completely out. But Aunt Bessie's are likely to be OK.

Co-op have lots of standard products with GF ingredients where other supermarkets don't - sausages, burgers, meatballs.

GF pasta is best when it has corn, rice and quinoa.

Buckwheat noodles are OK if you check they're 100% buckwheat - Clearspring do them. But always rinse them straight away or they stick together in a lump.

Heinz beans and sausages are GF and so are many of the cheapest hotdogs. If she likes mustard, she'll either need to mix colmans powder or buy French's, as most ready mix mustards contain wheat.

Watch out for barley, malt vinegar and she might also have issues with oats, even gluten free ones, as avenin proteins can be reacted to in the same way as gliadin. Lactose intolerance can also be common due to gut damage.

And she needs to lock her food up. Otherwise some other git will nick it and/or cross contaminate her stuff.

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It's become easier for DP to just eat GF as well, as that means there's no accidental cross contamination. We had his and hers slots in the toaster, separate butter and peanut butter, etc. but I definitely got caught a few times before he decided it was simpler that way.

Heck are GF. Debbie & Andrew's are GF. Jolly Hog are GF.
Lots of sausages are GF these days.

It's easy to check these days with the bolding system for allergens. The annoying things are products that should be GF but the manufacturer won't certify as such because of the possibility of cross-contamination ("made in a factory that also produces ..") for example crisps.

Lidl tortilla chips (hot ones) are gf.
Stock cubes used to catch me out as I use them a lot - knorr is my go to now.
Gf biscuits from supermarkets are v expensive but baking gf biscuits is easy but tbh unlikely that students will be interested in baking. I bake and post biscuit parcels for my daughter (who is also coeliac) every couple of weeks. She appreciates them and it makes me feel as if I am still a relevant part of her life 😁. It was a worry to begin with - my daughter was diagnosed once at university - but once she got her head round it, all was fine (your daughter will quickly find out which pubs have the best GF beer!)

All of those are premium brands, senua. You were offering sausages as an example of a cheap GF meal and saying the default sausage is GF. Telling a brand new coeliac who's trying to save money that sausages are GF by default is asking for them to pick up cheap sausages and get glutened, because almost all standard-range or value-range British-style sausages (i.e. not premium ranges or fancy brands), fresh or frozen, use a wheat-based filler. Sausages are one of the products I'd be least likely to encourage a relaxed attitude over.

@NeverDropYourMooncup I've had success looking in the Eastern European section for things like jarred mustard and horseradish.

Such great advice. Thank you all! The barcode scanner is going to be sorted this week! It's really good to know which things it's worth checking in the normal aisles.
She is a decent cook but 90% of what she cooks at uni is pasta and noodles so she's going to need to change that a bit. They have a rice cooker so that will help and I'm going to get some of the gf soy sauce this week too! She eats meat at home but barely at uni because it's cheaper not to.
It's so good to know about which stock cubes are safe etc.
Luckily it's only gluten she needs to worry about. She has DH and no other symptoms so hopefully this will sort it out...

Asda have a great gluten free range including gluten free soy sauce

Asda Yeast Extract is gf and tastes the same as Marmite which is not gf.
Tinned rice pudding (Ambrosia) and tinned fruit eg peaches make nice desserts and are gf.
most ice-cream is gf unless it is biscuit in it. Most Magnum lollies are gf. Meringue is gf.
It is not so terrible.

She can join f b group guts coeliacs under 30
www.facebook.com/groups/154345311427675/?ref=share

She needs to have her own toaster and order gluten free stickers

Look also for coeliac group on f b local to her uni
Join coeliac uk

Apart from buying gf oast bread shd czn cook naturslly gf mostly eg rice potatoes fish etc

Follow betty excell
glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/gluten-free-cookbook-quick-easy/

Heck are GF. Debbie & Andrew's are GF. Jolly Hog are GF.
Lots of sausages are GF these days.

yes, and they're all expensive for a student.

sainsburys Taste the Difference are GF as well (but again, not cheap).

do you keep the whole kitchen gluten free at home or just separate out food with/without gluten?

I have a box of GF kitchen stuff (toaster, racks, chopping board etc) for when "The Coeliac" visits and make sure there is a crumb free area in the kitchen. There is a "safe" stock of food too.

ASDA's own-brand sausages are GF, at least 80% meat and cheap.
You lot are shopping in the wrong places!

But always check the labels. As pointed out above, manufacturers can change formulations.

One of my flat mates was coeliac and she used to keep separate pans/colander etc in her bedroom so she knew nobody had drunkenly cooked pasta in it and done a half hearted attempt at washing up. Not sure what your DC’s kitchen set up is if there is also catering, but worth considering.

She needs to learn which restaurants understand cross contamination and which don’t. When she asks she should always tell them she’s allergic.

So like Pizza Express are great at this, they cook GF food on soecial black stuff and serve it on black playes and all the staff know that black means allergy don’t let wheat newr this. But my local cafe proudly told me they can do GF paninis. I asked do you have a separate toaster, they looked puzzled and said no. I’ve also been served “gluten free cake” cut with a knife they’d used on wheat cake. That made me pretty ill.

GF soy sauce is a thing, so is GF beer. Most foods are naturally GF the problem is contamination…

DD was diagnosed in 2019 and is going into third year at uni. She manages pretty well to be honest. Her diet is a bit limited but that's mainly because she tends to be a lazy cook. She has stir fry often with rice noodles and batch cooks curry. Also loves frozen GF chicken nuggets! Bread can be dire but Warburtons square soft buns have been a game changer for her.
Chain restaurants are generally good for socialising and mean she can be a bit more spontaneous which she found hard at first.
She has her own toaster and utensils but only shares with two other girls who are very aware of cross contamination. Even in her 12 person first year accommodation she didn't have any problems.
We generally eat gluten-free when she's at home except for bread, cereal and pastry goods. It's just easier.

I would also advise that she looks for local gluten-free groups on social media. I follow an eating out group on Facebook and have had loads of useful recommendations on there, including an entirely gluten-free bakery and a couple of cafes which I would never have known about.