Need Glueten Free Recipes

[Deb2of9]

I am having enough trouble because I need to learn to do "real" cooking. I can't even remember how I used to make spaghetti sauce because I have been cooking from cans for so long. I don't remember how to do almost anything from scratch. I know I need to learn and that I can put up canned foods that I am used ot but for any real storage I will really need bulk staples. Which means I have to learn how to use them. My daughter has 6 children ( expecting number 7 in February)and I know that she will not prepare much herself. Her idea of being prepared is to keep a months groceries ahead. So if we really need to live on what we have put up, I will probably have her family to feed as well.The challenge is two of my grandchildren. They both are celiacs which means absolutely no glueten in their diet. That means for starters no wheat or Rye. It is actually more complicated than that, because you can't even use things that were prepared in the same place as glueten products. So some oats are okay, where others were put up in a plant that also does wheat. So what I need is recipes for meals not using glueten that I can get for them. I would love to have a recipe for glueten free bread. I want to learn to make bread and those kids have not had a sandwich for over a year since they were diagnosied. They make lettuce sandwiches. I wlll be very greatful for any help. I usually make a big pot of pasta dishes, but not for them as noodles are made with wheat flour. I look at all of the lists and they talk about putting up things that I may not know how to prepare. I am going to give a try making things that I would use out of bulk stores. Not only will I learn how to make them before I need them, we will get them fitted in our diet. After I move, there will be no fast food, so I might as well fill it in with stuff that is good for me. But even a stew gets thicken and even some cornstarch isn't safe for the kids that have to stay glueten free. So help will be appreciated. I want to be prepared for all of my family. ( Oh, they now suspect that both of these two children may also be diabetic. Not a surprise as my ex's whole family are diabetic. So diets good for diabetics is another thing I will need to figure out.)

[Leah]

Try this site...

http://www.cs.unc.edu/~kupstas/FAQ_recipes.html

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The first section is Wheat/Gluten Free.

[Deb2of9]

Thanks that will be a help.

[goatherder]

For thickening soups use instant potato flakes or just some leftover mashed potatoes.

[Mt_Rider]

This is a site with some newletters that can be downloaded. Happens to be done by an aquaintance of mine from long ago. Google 'Celiac Sprue' and tons of stuff comes up. Surely no need to re-invent the wheel since learning all that will be hard enough.

 

http://qcceliacs.home.mchsi.com/quad-city-celiac-news.html

 

Here's a product line of GF foods:

 

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/b..._bakehouse.html

 

 

And here is a listing of celiac support groups for Ohio....they must have some info on some of this....???

 

http://www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/groups/grpus-oh.html

 

Good luck. Food and other allergies can make anyone's life miserable and tedious. But it's so hard on kids to have such restrictions. But far worse for them to have illness due to not knowing how to avoid them. Good Grandma points for taking this so seriously.

 

 

Tapioca is a thickener too...is it GF?

 

 

MtRider

[Mt_Rider]

And Welcome to MrsS!

 

 

 

MtRider

[Becca_Anne]

I was looking into GFCF (gluten free/casien free) diets awhile ago since many kids on the autism spectrum are gluten intolerant if not outright celiac. My kids are so verbal and high functioning I didn't persue it since it is a huge adjustment and they are so hard to feed as it is. Another mom who has her son on the diet and she made banana bread from it that I tried and it tasted totally like regular banana bread! I can't remember the name of the cookbook, but doing a search for gluten free cookbook on Amazon you pull up quite a number of cookbooks that have high ratings.

 

For preps, I think you are right to stick with home canned items and whole ingredients you can put in buckets yourself. It's just one of those things you can't put a price on the peace of mind for

[Snowmom]

The Dr. put me on a Gluten Free diet one time and it wasn't the problem at all, it was one of the meds I was taking. So, I stopped the medication and everything turned out fine.

 

Oh, I bought a loaf of the Gluten free bread and it was Nasty.

 

Right now I eat the 12 grain bread and am doing fine.

[Deb2of9]

Originally Posted By: goatherder

For thickening soups use instant potato flakes or just some leftover mashed potatoes.

Thanks. I should have thought of that since that is how I thicken my potato/broccali soup. I think I tend to look at the big picture of what they can't have, and forget that there are a lot of things that they can. As it is allergies are not unusual for our family. Just between my daughter's family and me, we have at least one person allergic to almonds, cherries, mushrooms, strawberries, peas, wheat, lactose, protien intolerance and shellfish. No one ever eats at a family gathering without finding out what is in the food. We even have to watch out for Latex, which causes problems with everything from toys to health care. I guess it was just glueten seemed to leave out a lot of my favorite foods, since I love pasta dishes and sandwiches. The kids seem to be doing okay with it. Charlie does steal bread which is a problem, but Mary is okay most of the time. ( She tends to go for the cookies, but we keep mostly glueten free around for her.) I think I might have said the ages wrong earlier. Getting two grandkids mixed up. Mary is 5 and her problem seems to be at school. She has to have special lunches. Charlie is 2 and with a 3 year old and an 8 month old, it is easy for him to slip pass my daughter to sneak stuff. Of course, the other kids are very quick to tattle, for their own good of course. They certainly aren't trying to get their brother or sister into trouble.

[nmchick]

For baking soda based baked goods, we use a "flour" mix of 4 cups brown rice flour, 2 cups sweet rice flour, and 2 tablespoons xanthum gum. Use about 3/4 cups of this mix for every cup of wheat flour called for in a regular recipe. This works well in pancakes and quick breads, but you need to increase cooking times because you are really just cooking rice. It helps let your batter sit for a while to let the liquids soak in to the rice. And no, I haven't been able to make any decent biscuits yet, but I'll let you know when that happens.

 

This mix also works really well as a substitute in recipes that don't call for much wheat flour, i.e., oatmeal cookies and corn bread.

 

You can get sweet rice flour (or sweet rice) at Asian grocery stores. It's also at health food stores sometimes, but for about 4 times the money! Sweet rice is also called glutenous rice or sticky rice, but don't worry, it doesn't contain gluten.

 

Xanthum gum can be found at health food stores. It's pricey, but you don't need a lot.

 

Don't know if you are any where near a Trader Joes, but they sell a nice rice bread for $2.69 a loaf. It's in a pink wrapper.

 

I'd also like to mention rice paper. It stores really well and you can make a nice turkey sandwich roll up or a spring roll, which is what you're supposed to do with it. Kids love the stuff. Just give them each their own bowl of tepid water and a stack of rice paper to soak. They chomp it down. Now, it's made from white rice so it's not the ideal nutrition, but it does qualify as food.

[nmchick]

Oh, forget to tell you to make sure to read the rice paper ingredients. They put wheat in some of it.

 

Best wishes,

 

nmchick

[Melissa]

There is also a yahoo group called vegan ans gluten free. It is good for those who need GFCF even if you add meat and eggs to the recipes. There are a lot of whole foods recipes. I;ve seen a lot of GF recipes that were full of sugar and other junk.

[Deb2of9]

nmchick Thank you for your suggestion. I will have to try that. i bett she would like the rice paper idea. She liked roll ups before but she made them with torteas(sp?) that they used for tacos as well. Now she can't eat them because they are made from wheat. She does get to eat hard taco shells as they are made with corn.

 

I will have to check that group out Melissa. Thank you.

[Mother]

There are a lot of good ideas on this thread. I, too, am on a gluten free 'lifestyle'. That means that I'm even sensitive to the wheat germ in shampoos and lotions, etc. I have difficulties just going into the bakery section of the grocery store and have to be exceptionally careful of cross contamination here at home. Hidden gluten is so hard to discover so I have to be extra diligent to read labels. I bought corn chips that had no wheat in them that I could tell from the ingredients list but below that there was an allergy statement that said,,,,'contains: wheat'. On top of that, wheat free does not mean gluten free.

 

You can't go wrong with some of Bette Hagman's gluten free recipes, especially the new ones. She has several books out. There is one book devoted to baked goods that is very good. She gives several flour mixes that can be used for different products.

 

You can buy rice and corn pasta in a variety of shapes that are very tasty and can be used almost any way regular wheat pasta is used. Rice cakes are a great substitute for bread. Bob's Red Mill has a great gluten free yeast bread mix that can also be used with baking powder to make great biscuits. Kinikinik brand foods has a great variety of frozen baked goods including dinner rolls, maple and chocolate covered donuts, cinnamon rolls and breads. They contain an incredible amount of ingredients that I can't have but are wonderful for most people. You can get gluten free frozen toaster waffles and pizza crusts. There are cereals, pancake and waffle mixes and cake and bread mixes. The variety is amazing. One problem is their cost. They are pricey. Our HyVee store here has been wonderful about bringing in gluten free products to their health food market section. If I find something somewhere that is especially good they will try to get it. It seems that there are a lot of gluten intolerant people out there who are looking for these products.

 

Living gluten free does not have to be difficult or expensive. I use many different varieties of flour mixes to make my own products. If you are inovative you can make up mixes to help make baking easier and faster. I often use the small toaster oven to quickly bake up a few biscuits to use fresh or a couple of muffins for breakfast. If you don't use a dough conditioner such as the xanthum gum (it can cause diarrhea in some people), gluten free baked products tend to dry out fast and their texture can be gritty if you do not use very finely ground flours. I use fruit sauces in my baked goods where possible to help keep them moist and bake only a small amount at a time. Some of the bean flours make great texture and taste in baked products and also help keep them moist but can cause the same gas that eating the cooked beans can cause. I store brown rice, and various non-gluten flours (most of them can be used as thickeners, by the way) like most people store wheat berries but gluten free does not mean only rice. I've found if I don't like one recipe there's lots of others to try. The web is full of them.

 

If the children have been diagnosed as having diabetes you will want to remember that baked goods made from white anything will be more likely to cause problem than whole grain products. And they might be better off without them. There is no law that says baked goods are imperative for a nutritious diet. We've just been conditioned to believe we can't live without them. It's much harder for children exposed to peer pressure though and often takes some real work to foster a good attitude in them about themselves before they have to deal with it. That and making sure that they have something similar in their lunches. LOL It's really not that difficult.

 

Believe me, Deb2of9, your family is not alone in the variety of allergies and intolerances. Not even the latex one. Our family is much the same. We've come to look forward to family gatherings as we each try to bring something as natural as possible and which doesn't contain the known allergens or sugars or whatever. We don't look at it as a problem but as a challenge and as entertainment in it's own right. Recipe exchanges are the norm. Our meals have not gotten boring with only fresh fruits and vegetables. We often have wonderful cakes or cookies, fancy salads and appetizers. I have recently been experimenting with rice ice cream and am finding that I like it better than store bought expensive non-dairy frozen deserts. One thing I do know, our meals are much more healthy than 90% of most families. And that's how we look at it. Not as a negative, but as a positive.

 

Good luck with your experiments and let us know how they are turning out.

 

(((( )))

[nmchick]

Deb2of9, today the kids folded their rice paper into wedges and bit holes to make rice paper "snowflakes". Oh, what fun. Plus a nice lesson on symmetry!

 

Mother, thank you for a very informative post. I've never seen gluten free donuts before and now have a lead on hunting them down.

DS went gluten free when he was three, but he still remembers donuts.

 

Also, would you consider posting your rice milk ice cream recipe?

 

 

 

[Mother]

I'd be glad to give you my recipe, nmchick. It seems a bit involved at first reading but it's not really difficult to make. I use a quart sized Donvier Ice Cream maker with a double walled pail. In between the walls is a gel that gets cold when you put the pail in the freezer. It takes the place of the ice and salt used in the older ice cream makers and makes this a breeze to make. I store the pail in the freezer between batches so it's always ready when I want to make ice cream. You should be able to make it in a regular ice cream freezer or even in a flat container placed in the freezer and stirred well periodically. It won't be quite as creamy that way but still good.

 

I usually make mine from the puree left after making rice milk but I have made it with just plain soft cooked rice simmered with water or juice for ten minutes before cooling and pureeing. I use medium or short grained brown rice as the texture is much creamier and smooth. You can use long grain but the product is not nearly as nice and takes a lot more pureeing. For a fancier product use sticky rice or arborio rice.

 

To make my rice milk I use two cups of med. grain brown rice covered with six and a half cups of water in a six quart or bigger pan and bring it to a boil. I lower the heat to a very low simmer, cover it tightly and let it simmer for 35 or 40 minutes without uncovering.

 

When the time is up I stir the rice into the liquid and let it set for another ten minutes. After it cools a bit I blend batches of it in the blender, adding water if needed. I pour the batches into a container and let them set until the rice settles a bit, and then pour the more liquid part through a strainer to use as rice milk. There are other ways to make rice milk but I like the thicker and smoother product I get this way and I can water it down a bit if it's too thick. I like to add a bit of salt to give it some flavor as rice milk is otherwise fairly bland. I put vanilla in it if I'm using it for cereal or drinking but plain for gravies, casseroles and etc.

 

The thicker leftover puree is what I use for making the rice cream. There's usually about three cups or a bit more of puree left and I put it in a pan with maple syrup (or sweetener of choice) to taste and two tablespoons corn starch (Mix it with a bit of water before adding and use more or less corn starch depending on the amount of puree left as it will be different depending on how much water the rice has absorbed) For those allergic to corn you can use arrow root starch, rice flour will work too, or potato starch. Cook the puree over medium heat stirring continuously until it comes to a boil and starts to thicken. Remove it from the heat and add flavoring of your choice. I usually add vanilla. Basically what you have made is a cooked pudding and can be used as such if you aren't making rice cream. Cool this mixture completely before putting it in the ice cream maker.

 

My Donvier is very simple to use. I just pour the pudding into the cold pail, add whatever I want to it like fruit, nuts, etc?, and put the pail in the holder. Add the paddles and churn it several time before letting it set for a minute or two. I alternate churning and letting it set and it's done within fifteen or twenty minutes. Thick, creamy and edible as is or you can store it in a tight container in the freezer for at least a couple weeks. Not sure if it will keep well longer without getting icy as we always use ours before then.

 

Another variation is to add coconut milk to soft cooked rice in a pan, add sweetening ( I like agave syrup in this recipe) and bring it to a simmer, cook ten minutes and then cool before pureeing. Simmering the two together makes the puree more smooth than if you just add it cold together in the blender. You follow the rest of the recipe for making the pudding and add chopped mangos before freezing it. Great taste treat.

 

I also make an avocado/banana ice cream with my small one cup Donvier. You would have to double or triple this recipe for making larger batches. I puree 1 avocado and 2 banana together, add whatever flavor I want and put it in the Donvier to churn/freeze it. I love this mixed with mint flavoring, carob powder is good too, but have tried lots of different ones. I've made it by pureeing berries and other fruit along with the avocado and banana but it's those two that give it the texture and smoothness. Avocado does not add much for taste to the product, just smoothness and nutrition and bulk. I use no sugar in this but you can easily add whatever you want to taste.

 

I hope these recipes give you some ideas to invent your own. Often times when preparing foods for special needs it takes engenuity and perserverance. I've come up with some pretty good flops before perfecting some recipe. I like to take a regular recipe and ask myself what I can use for substitutes. It's amazing what a person can come up with. Let me know how these go over at your house.

 

(((( ))))

[Abigail]

 

Hi Deb2of9;

 

So I don't know how this thing with bumping threads works, other than to just post; if I don't hear back from you I'll pm you. One of my daughters is Celiac and it's the hardest thing to adjust to this diet. A lot of attempts at adapting recipes went right down the garbage disposal!

 

Run, don't walk, and order Bette Hagman's Cookbooks; they don't call her "The Gluten Free Gourmet" for nothing! Here's an Amazon listing to get you started; I can't tell if it's all of her books or not. Highly recommended

 

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&search-typ...20Hagman&page=1

 

Hope these work as well for you as they did for me.

 

[Deb2of9]

Thanks...I will have to do that. I found out from my daughter that she gives the kids spagheti complete with meatballs....only puts it over rice insead of pasta and they love it. She says she hates most of the glueten free flours, but does use some because she can't avoid it. She even sumbitted a glueten free pizza recipe to Family Circle ( I think) that didn't make it for the contest, but they wanted to put it in the magazine...they are talking about doing an article on glueten free recipes.

 

By the way I have to get that recipe from her. She says the kids love it.

[Mother]

Deb, I can second Abigail's suggestion to get some of Hagman's books. She has some excellent recipes and some of the flour mixes in there are much better than just single gluten free flours alone.

 

((( )))

[Snowmom]

I just did a google search on Gluten Free Recipes and this is just a few of them.

 

http://www.csaceliacs.org/recipes.php

 

http://www.celiac.com/st_main.html?p_catid=20

 

http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Healthy-Livi...-Free/Main.aspx

 

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~coeliac/

 

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~coeliac/det.html

 

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/gluten-free

 

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/

 

 

[KimMC]

oht,nak

 

I only have a sec but here is a link to a recipe on my blog. Its a grate!

http://www.homesteadblogger.com/HomesteadA...ench+Bread.html

 

 

[Deb2of9]

Thank you for posting. I know she loved french bread before she couldn't have it anymore....and my granson just loves bread..or come to think of it any type of food. Today I was watching them and I needed them to get their nap in before lunch. Well, a heard of elephants would have been quieter than the two of them taking a nap. I went up to find out what was going on and the room...and their sisters room was trashed. I told them they better get to taking their nap and that there would be no lunch until the nap was done and the room cleaned up. You should have seen them move. No lunch!!!! They immediately ran through the room cleaning up and then layed down and pretended to sleep. Can't threaten them with waiting on food.LOL....

I am sure my grand daughter and grand son will love this recipe.

[JCK88]

HI there, I just discovered this thread...I am not celiac, but I am allergic to wheat and corn....

 

Have you tried Tinkyada pastas made from brown rice? They are the best! I thought I would never find a good tasting non-wheat pasta...and I hafta have my Italian fix!

 

To make meatballs, use potato flakes for the bread crumbs..works fine. Potato flakes make great breading for fish, eggplant, and other items. Just spice as usual. You can rub them through your fingers for a finer texture or you can run them through the blender.

 

I have had great success with Bette Hagman's recipes--except for the ones that use cornstarch...(allergic to that!)

 

Another thing that can be done is to take a regular recipe and substitute Bette Hagman flour mix for the regular flour, add some xanthan gum so the thing won't fall apart, and experiment until you get a good product. That's what I have been doing.

 

Bette Hagman's books have recpies for pizza dough that tastes great...!! I thought I'd have to live without pizza.

 

I used to freelance for a magazine called Sully's Living Without which started out for celiacs but also includes other allergies. (Wrote an huge piece about corn allergies for them some years back)

 

http://www.livingwithout.com/welcome.htm

 

 

[Abigail]

Judy, that brand of pasta is absolutely the best; we've found a lot of the white rice ones were very "grainy."

 

I just heard thru a Celiac group I joined because of my daugher's being celiac that, sadly, Bette Hagman recently passed away; I hated to hear that; her books were of help to so many; they were, without a doubt, the best source out there for adapting the specialty flours into acceptable breads, among other things. She'll certainly be missed.

 

You must really have a challenge with corn being a problem along with wheat; my daughter relied heavily upon both potato and corn.

[Mother]

I'm really sorry to hear that Bette Hagman is gone too. Her books have been a blessing to me.

 

Judy didn't mention that she posted a GF pie crust recipe a few threads down. Be sure to check that out too. It looks like one I could live with and I'll be trying it soon.

 

((( ))))