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Author Topic: Living gluten-free  (Read 6917 times)
arizona
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« Reply #15 on: February 15, 2012, 10:25:49 AM »

We have a severe wheat allergy in our house (not celiac, but a true, anaphylactic allergy), so we're very well versed in the world of gluten-free products. For breads, my best recommendation is to get a bread maker with a gluten-free setting and make your own. It's pretty quick and simple, and even if you use a mix, the bread still comes out better than anything pre-made. There are also a number of good gluten-free bread machine cookbooks out there, and they often include recipes for things beyond basic bread.

As for flours, we like the Whole Foods brand all-purpose gluten-free and Gluten-Free Pantry all-purpose. We can't use Bob's Red Mill because of nut allergy (they process on shared equipment with nuts).

Tinkyada brown rice pasta is by FAR the best gluten-free pasta I've found. As a bonus, it's whole grain but doesn't have any of the mealiness of whole wheat pasta. 
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zuzu_
Frakking
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« Reply #16 on: February 15, 2012, 10:36:16 AM »

I thought of this thread when I saw this NPR article today. It does have recipes, but it talks quite a bit about baking "chemistry" issues.

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/14/146872166/baking-without-flour-brings-sweet-results
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corny
maizetastic
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« Reply #17 on: February 15, 2012, 11:58:11 AM »

I don't have celiac, but I do seem to have a sensitivity to gluten that produces symptoms (relatively mild but still uncomfortable) if I eat too *much* of it. This leads to a lot of fine-line-toeing in my diet - I do end up eating pasta or bread or cookies a few times a week, since I love it and the SO does too (and he's got no gluten problem), but try not to go much more than that.

(And for the record, this started for me about seven years ago - at which time I was surprised to encounter the words "gluten" and "celiac disease" for the first time while trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I too have been surprised by the surge of interest in GF foods since then, which seems to me to be a combination of what others had said - *both* increased diagosis of previously undiagnosed celiac, *and* a weird new diet trend, even among those for whom wheat might not actually be problematic, fed by the fact that many companies have discovered a new marketing opportunity.)

Anyway. It's been relatively easy for me to cut out toast (though I second the Udi's recommendation if you do want some GF toast - it's kind of dry for sandwiches but makes DELICIOUS toast) and switch to oatmeal or oat and rice cereals at breakfast. (I'm currently on a Cinnamon Puffins kick.) I eat rice cakes or corn chips at lunch, along with some meat & cheese or lentils or whatever, instead of sandwiches. Tinkyada does indeed make delicious GF pasta. There's also a mostly corn-based one I've just encountered - made in Italy, but I can't remember the brand - that is quite good. Gluten Free Pantry makes a delicious GF brownie mix - you add a ridiculous amount of butter to it, and they are very, very good.

AND I just last night made, for the first time, a chocolate soufflé - from a recipe with no flour in it! (Apparently you usually use a tiny bit of flour, but not for this one - just eggs and chocolate and sugar. Mmm.)

The problem I had initially was that a lot of GF baked goods rely on corn and white rice and other sorts of simple carbohydrates - so switching from whole wheat bread to  GF bread reduced the fiber and other wholesome stuff I had been getting from the whole wheat. I've since branched out into other whole grains - brown rice, quinoa (which is an awesome GF substitute for couscous, btw), millet. Buckwheat (not technically a grain) - I've got a great recipe for buckwheat crepes that doesn't use any wheat flour. Oh, and teff, which is what Ethiopian injera bread is made with - I have tried and failed a few times to make my own injera. Sigh.

I guess in general I've been happier just shifting the kinds of things I eat, rather than trying to find GF substitutes for all the baked goods I used to consume. On the other hand, I do have the luxury (or bad habit) of still eating a *real* sandwich or slice of cake once in a while. So. Take that for what it's worth.
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spectacle
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« Reply #18 on: May 19, 2012, 10:22:58 AM »

Add me to the list. I don't have Celiac and I haven't been diagnosed with an allergy or intolerance, but I feel about 900,000 times better when I'm not eating wheat (or "bad carbs" in general).  I figured this out when I started playing around with the South Beach Diet a few years back, but recently my reactions have been more severe. I had a beer the other night and it made me horribly sick.

Anyway, I've been finding that a lot of my favorite recipe websites (like Epicurious) have an advanced search option that allows you to search for wheat/gluten-free.  Since I'm also trying to cut down on my meat intake, I've been poking around on wheatless and meatless, too.
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