tips and recommendations

[BirdieH]

Hi, I am a grandmother whose grandson was just diagnosed with Celiac Disease at almost 14 years of age.  I homeschool him, so I am in charge of feeding him breakfast and lunch during the week.  He loves my spaghetti and goulash and was wondering if there are brands of gluten free pasta that are better than others.  I am willing to make him spaghetti squash (which is healthier) but would like to have the option when all my grandkids are here for him to eat like they are, but with gluten free noodles.  I bought Bob's Red Mill all purpose flour and made him pancakes today with my recipe except the flour difference and he was pretty thrilled with that.  He was relieved that his favorite syrup was gluten free and that didn't have to change.  This was my first day feeding him after his endoscopy and diagnosis.  Last night was the first day for him to be gluten free after his scope.  We are all researching pinterest, your website (which is extremely helpful) and reading labels.  This is all new to us.  Any tips, recommendations for brands on breads, pasta, pizza crust etc?  I am very willing to make, bake or cook and to help him learn the processes for himself as well.  Thank you for any advice in advance.

[kareng]

9 minutes ago, BirdieH said:

Hi, I am a grandmother whose grandson was just diagnosed with Celiac Disease at almost 14 years of age.  I homeschool him, so I am in charge of feeding him breakfast and lunch during the week.  He loves my spaghetti and goulash and was wondering if there are brands of gluten free pasta that are better than others.  I am willing to make him spaghetti squash (which is healthier) but would like to have the option when all my grandkids are here for him to eat like they are, but with gluten free noodles.  I bought Bob's Red Mill all purpose flour and made him pancakes today with my recipe except the flour difference and he was pretty thrilled with that.  He was relieved that his favorite syrup was gluten free and that didn't have to change.  This was my first day feeding him after his endoscopy and diagnosis.  Last night was the first day for him to be gluten free after his scope.  We are all researching pinterest, your website (which is extremely helpful) and reading labels.  This is all new to us.  Any tips, recommendations for brands on breads, pasta, pizza crust etc?  I am very willing to make, bake or cook and to help him learn the processes for himself as well.  Thank you for any advice in advance.

Barilla makes a gluten-free pasta that is corn and rice - we find that holds up well and would taste good with the goulash.    I find the Tinkyada pasta to be a bit too soft - but its good if you like soft.  Jovial makes good pastas.  gluten-free spaghetti seems to stick - so stir while cooking.  

I like to make the Chebe brand crust - it is a Brazilian cheese bread mix and any of thier mixes works for pizza crust (I don't add the cheese to the crust).  You might just experoment a little to see what you like and how much trouble you want to go to.  You can make a decent crust with the Bob's.

Chex cereals are gluten-free.  Van's makes great toaster waffles.  You might skip bread for a few weeks - kind of helps you forget what gluten bread is like.  If you live in a big enough city, you should be able to find things to try.  Some cities even have gluten-free bakeries.  

Annies makes a gluten-free mac and cheese that is similar to the good old Kraft mac and cheese.  

We have a grocery chain here in KC, HyVee, that carries a lot of gluten-free items.  Sometimes they have a gluten-free "fair" with samples of different things.  I think Whole Foods and Natural Grocers have done that too.  So keep an eye out for that.

 

 

[kareng]

Have you read this section yet? 

 

You will want to get a new gluten-free only toaster and colander. Maybe get a different color and have that be the color of gluten-free in your house.   don't rinse fruit in your old colander if you used it for gluten pasta. Of course, he will need his own PB or butter tubs - you know there are always crumbs in them.  Get some duct tape in the color (Walmart has lots of colors) of the gluten-free toaster ( I use red because that seems to be a color you can find).  then put a piece of the tape on the lid of the PB so you will notice it if you grab it for a gluten sandwich.  

 

The point is that colanders and toasters are too hard to clean out every little hole of gluteny crumbs or pasta slime.  

[Ennis-TX]

Did a bit of a list here but we normally suggest a whole foods only diet at first with as few ingredients as you can to boost healing. Many benefit from removing dairy for a few weeks to a few months. The damage to the villi in the intestines inhibits the utilization and production of the enzymes to break it down.
>.< When I first went gluten free years ago we made noodles out of deli meat cut into ribbons and zucchini noodles, and bean sprouts. But small town and lack of gluten free noddles back then. Bean sprout and deli meat noodles in a goulash sounds great....been years since I had some. I use a brand called Miracle Noodle for pasta, ziti, rice, angel hair, etc. it is a very low carb, grain free one you just rinse, boil 2 mins, rinse dry. I have carb issues so it works best for me.
https://www.celiac.com/forums/topic/121148-gluten-free-food-alternative-list-2018-q2/
PS Ideas for cheaper replacement of gluten free dedicated cookware. Those plastic disposable crockpot liners for doing crockpot stews, soups, roast etc. And Nordicware makes steamers, rice cookers, grill plates with covers, and omelette makers. And they are cheap to replace if you gluten them. Butcher paper makes a great dedicated clean prep surface and makes clean up super easy. Foil line baking sheets, baking dishes, etc. Again safe cook area and you just toss the foil for easy clean up.

[tessa25]

Here's my current list of favorites:

Note: insert the words "gluten free" in every item mentioned as some of the companies also sell non gluten free stuff. It's tedious to write that phrase all the time.

Bread:
  - Canyon bakehouse without question is the most realistic tasting bread. They have white, fake rye, multigrain and bagels (the bagels are fantastic).
  - Schar baguettes are decent.
  - Katz makes an English muffin that, after toasted, reminds me of a real one provided it has stuff on it like butter. I think that's the brand.
  - Etalia has a good boule if you prefer artisan bread. (Colorado)

Pizza crust:
    - Schar makes a good thick and chewy crust.
    - Udis makes a good thin and crispy crust.
    - Etalia makes a great New York crust. (Colorado)

Pasta:
    - Barilla makes the best pasta. Tastes like normal pasta. Spaghetti cooks the best.
    
Flour:
    - Pamelas all-purpose flour is great for making gravy and batter for fried foods.

Cereal:
    - Envirokidz Gorilla Munch cereal is a yummy equivalent to corn Pops.

Cookies:
    - Goodie Girl mint slims - fantastic girl scout mint cookie equivalent
    - Kinnikinnik makes a decent Oreo equivalent.
    - Kinnikinnik makes a good nilla wafer
    - Mi Del makes a great ginger snap.

Cake:
    - Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix tastes the same, but you have to get the cooking time exactly right. It is a very small window of time. Too long and it's too dry.

Frozen meals:
    - Udi's Chicken Florentine is addictive and Broccoli Kale lasagna is a good white lasagna.

Restaurants (not from personal experience, just from research)
    - Chinese – PF Changs. Employees are supposedly trained in gluten free.
    - Burgers – In N Out. The only thing here that is not gluten free are the buns so it is very easy for them to do gluten free. They are also trained in it. They are only out west. Road Trip!
    - Outback steakhouse. Employees are supposedly trained in gluten free. How good they are depends on where you live.

 

 

 

[gilligan]

You've received a lot of good info from other posters.  A few of my favorites, including those already mentioned, are:

Glutino English Muffins - my niece discovered them! Yum!

Ronzoni, Barilla, and Jovial pasta - Jovial egg noodles are great!

Pamelas pancake mix

Glutino or Kinnikkinick sandwich cookies (very similar to Oreos)

Snyders pretzels - especially honey mustard

Freschetta and California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizzas

Udi's muffins

Udi's or Aldi's brand snickerdoodle cookies

Kinnikkinick vanilla wafers

Pocono Cream of Buckwheat hot cereal

Kind bars - the chocolate cherry is my favorite

Straw Propellar Instant Oatmeal or Muesli cups - pricey, but very yummy and quick.  I keep them on hand for a quick meal, eating on the go, and traveling.

Bread was the hardest thing for me to get used to.  Toasting it is a game changer. 

*Canyon Bakehouse bread was already mentioned, but they also make very good bagels.  They just came out with "Sweet Bread", similar to Hawaiian rolls.  I haven't been able to find it yet.

 

I've had great luck dining out at Outback, Chipotle, Jane Dough Deli, and Chic-Fi-La (grilled chicken sandwich, grilled chicken nuggets, and waffle fries). They always call it out and change gloves.  The bun comes sealed and is served that way so only you touch it.  When traveling, I always look for truck stops as they usually have individually packaged boiled eggs, sausage, cheese, fresh fruit cups, potato chips, and Kind bars.

 

[squirmingitch]

Careful on the gluten-free pastas when cooking because they cook a whole lot faster than gluten pasta does. You can overcook gluten-free pasta in a heartbeat!

Everyone has given some great suggestions. 

We adore this spice cake mix & you can also turn it into a carrot cake

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Pizza & other goodies:

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BROWNIES!!!!! BROWNIES!!!!!! BROWNIES!!!!

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We like the Kinnickinnick Donuts too:

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[Nikki2777]

I won't repeat most of these great suggestions, but I echo those about getting dedicated colander, cutting boards and toaster/toaster oven.  I don't have one color, but basically any item that has a color in my kitchen is gluten free.  Because knives double dip in them, get separate jars of mayo/jam/etc. and mark them, and butter - I keep a separate gluten-free butter dish.  I also put down parchment paper on the cookie sheets when I bake, as my husband bakes 'regular' cookies on them and there's just no way to keep them really clean.

Trader Joe's gluten-free bread (green packaging) is my favorite.  For dried pasta, I go for anything corn-based, but my favorites are Le Veneziane and Bionatura or something like that (orange and yellow packaging) - there are a couple of good 'fresh' pastas too if you want them, but can be hard to find.  The Snyders pretzels marked gluten free are very good.  I don't use jarred marinara sauce generally (I use olive oil and garlic), but when I do I check to make sure they're not sweetened with barley malt.

And keep a sharpie on hand to hand write on tape or packaging to tell people to keep their gluteny hands off and out of the gluten-free items.

Good luck!  It's great that you're treating this seriously.  It took a lot of convincing to get my mother to see that I wasn't just whining and she needed to be careful if I were to eat in her house.

 

 

 

[LilyR]

I have trouble with corn and brown rice flour and so far the only gluten-free pasta I can handle is Taste of Thai rice noodles.  They are made with white rice. They are pretty tasty.  They seem to get starchy though.  I make them and rinse in cold water. Then drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil on them and then reheat them when I am ready to use them.  I don't like the super skinny ones as much - they break up easily. I tend to only like those when adding to a stir fry. But the wider, flat ones are great.  I use them for spaghetti sauces, but have also cut them up to use in soups.  They sell them at my local grocery store in the Asian section with all the canned waterchestnuts, sprouts, soy sauces, etc. but you can find them online too 

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