Level Of Replacement

[IronedOut]

How much of the general wheat products have you replaced in your diet with comparable tolerated items vs just given up completely on that type of food? I'm really new at this gluten-free stuff since I was confirmed only yesterday but have been 'on the diet' for about a month. I'm finding it very hard to adjust to the loss of breads, cereals and pasta in my life after 40 years of no restrictions (nevermind having to read every label of every item I want to use).

I'm finding this forum VERY helpful as I try to stay positive and move forward. Thanks for all and any responses.

[Mango04]

I've been on the gluten-free diet for over two years and replacements have become more and more rare for me. I definitely find it healthier, easier and cheaper to stick to naturally gluten-free foods (I mostly just eat fruits, veggies, meat, eggs, rice, quinoa...etc). I shop at Whole Foods and can surprisingly keep my grocery bill pretty low when sticking to natural, simple foods, instead of packaged stuff. You'll probably find that the longer you stay gluten-free, the less you'll actually want to eat bread and other gluten containing foods or even their replacements.

Before going gluten free I craved bread and ate it all day and had no idea how I would live without it...but now that I've adjusted I have no desire to eat those kinds of foods. gluten-free cookies, bread etc. are fun on occasion though. Good luck - you'll definitey adjust...and if you really really want pasta, cereals etc. there are some awesome gluten-free versions out there. But remember that more dietary restrictions will come to mean more health and freedom in so many other areas of your life.

[jerseyangel]

I've been on the gluten-free diet for over two years and replacements have become more and more rare for me. I definitely find it healthier, easier and cheaper to stick to naturally gluten-free foods (I mostly just eat fruits, veggies, meat, eggs, rice, quinoa...etc). I shop at Whole Foods and can surprisingly keep my grocery bill pretty low when sticking to natural, simple foods, instead of packaged stuff. You'll probably find that the longer you stay gluten-free, the less you'll actually want to eat bread and other gluten containing foods or even their replacements.

Before going gluten free I craved bread and ate it all day and had no idea how I would live without it...but now that I've adjusted I have no desire to eat those kinds of foods. gluten-free cookies, bread etc. are fun on occasion though. Good luck - you'll definitey adjust...and if you really really want pasta, cereals etc. there are some awesome gluten-free versions out there. But remember that more dietary restrictions will come to mean more health and freedom in so many other areas of your life.

This has been my experience, also, regarding the gluten-free replacements. I find that I feel better, have begun to lose a little weight (for me, a good thing!) and am spending less on groceries than when I first went gluten-free.

[tarnalberry]

Replaced versus given up?

Bread, I've mostly given up on. The sort of bread I want (homemade crunchy french bread, or fresh chewy foccacia) is the sort of thing that needs the chemical properties of gluten to make, and I'm not sufficiently happy with the alternatives. They aren't *bad* necessarily, just not what I'm looking for, so no need to bother.

Pasta, I've replaced wheat based with Tinkyada. My in-laws (half italian) could hardly notice the difference. I also use traditional rice noodles in asian cooking - no need to modify the recipe for those!

Cereals - there are a few good tasting gluten-free cereals out there, and I tend to have Crispy Rice, Nutty Rice, Rice Crunch 'Ems, or hot cereals like millet grits, cream of rice, cream of buckwheat, or quinoa flakes. But mostly I've expanded my breakfast choices so I'm not always eating the same thing - cold cereal - for breakfast every day. So now I have rice cakes with peanut butter, leftover waffles (made with Namaste mix, because my non-gluten-free husband will eat them), omlettes, and smoothies regularly as well.

Most of the rest of it wasn't much of an adjustment at all. I cook most of my own food, so the few recipes I had to modify had very little modification. Even muffins and quick breads, which were the primary baked items I'd ever make and eat, were fairly easily adjusted. I haven't been able to make cinnamon rolls my husband likes yet, but I haven't put too much effort into it either. ;-)

The hardest thing to "replace" has been energy bars - a must to carry with me if I'm having hypoglycemic tendencies, which I usually do. But I've found a number of options there as well.

[loraleena]

How much of the general wheat products have you replaced in your diet with comparable tolerated items vs just given up completely on that type of food? I'm really new at this gluten-free stuff since I was confirmed only yesterday but have been 'on the diet' for about a month. I'm finding it very hard to adjust to the loss of breads, cereals and pasta in my life after 40 years of no restrictions (nevermind having to read every label of every item I want to use).

I'm finding this forum VERY helpful as I try to stay positive and move forward. Thanks for all and any responses.

There are lots of great gluten free pastas. My favorite is a corn and quinoa blend named Ancient Harvest. Also lots of good brown rice pastas out there. I like Manna from Anna bread. It is a healthy mix that is soft enough to make a sandwich with. Also I love Food for Life bread. It is small, but good toasted with various toppings. Ewhorn makes a few good brown rice cereals. Only some are gluten free and it is marked on the front. Also nutty rice and nutty sorghum cereal by Perky's is good. You can find these at Whole Foods and other natural food stores.

Replaced versus given up?

Bread, I've mostly given up on. The sort of bread I want (homemade crunchy french bread, or fresh chewy foccacia) is the sort of thing that needs the chemical properties of gluten to make, and I'm not sufficiently happy with the alternatives. They aren't *bad* necessarily, just not what I'm looking for, so no need to bother.

Pasta, I've replaced wheat based with Tinkyada. My in-laws (half italian) could hardly notice the difference. I also use traditional rice noodles in asian cooking - no need to modify the recipe for those!

Cereals - there are a few good tasting gluten-free cereals out there, and I tend to have Crispy Rice, Nutty Rice, Rice Crunch 'Ems, or hot cereals like millet grits, cream of rice, cream of buckwheat, or quinoa flakes. But mostly I've expanded my breakfast choices so I'm not always eating the same thing - cold cereal - for breakfast every day. So now I have rice cakes with peanut butter, leftover waffles (made with Namaste mix, because my non-gluten-free husband will eat them), omlettes, and smoothies regularly as well.

Most of the rest of it wasn't much of an adjustment at all. I cook most of my own food, so the few recipes I had to modify had very little modification. Even muffins and quick breads, which were the primary baked items I'd ever make and eat, were fairly easily adjusted. I haven't been able to make cinnamon rolls my husband likes yet, but I haven't put too much effort into it either. ;-)

The hardest thing to "replace" has been energy bars - a must to carry with me if I'm having hypoglycemic tendencies, which I usually do. But I've found a number of options there as well.

Tiffany- Hi I am hypoglycemic to. Try Lara bars. They are gluten free raw and made from nuts and dates and are yummy. They even have a chocolate one. No crap in these at all!!

[jerseyangel]

Replaced versus given up?

The hardest thing to "replace" has been energy bars - a must to carry with me if I'm having hypoglycemic tendencies, which I usually do. But I've found a number of options there as well.

Tiffany--What bars have you found that are good? I don't use soy, so I have a hard time finding one. I just like to have something in my purse when I go out.

[Nancym]

I've been following a low carb diet for years. Low carb means, no sugar and starchy grains or starchy veggies, but definitely lots of non-starchy veggies and berries. However low carb breads and baking things started to creep into my diet. And they're all heavy in gluten because it is the protein part of wheat. Thus I got sick and sicker. So giving up gluten was actually easy for me. I just had to give up the baked goods I was eating before.

So my typical low carb diet would be egg or milk products for breakfast, maybe some chicken sausage. Lunch was a huge salad with added meat, maybe cheese and some nuts. Dinner was something like meat and veggies.

Unfortunately now I have to give up milk too.

But once you adapt to not having a grain based diet it isn't that tough. I no longer suffer from hypoglycemia since giving up the starches and sugars.

[tarnalberry]

Tiffany--What bars have you found that are good? I don't use soy, so I have a hard time finding one. I just like to have something in my purse when I go out.

I'll have Open Original Shared Link occasionally, but I've gotten tired of them, and don't like the low amount of protein they tend to have.

I do enjoy Open Original Shared Link, and they have more protein than the Larabars.

I also like the Open Original Shared Link, though those are also just fruit and nuts.

I've also recently found Open Original Shared Link, which I've enjoyed so far.

There's also Open Original Shared Link, though two of the flavors are not gluten-free, but I've also gotten tired of those.

There's also Open Original Shared Link that makes a number of gluten-free bar type foods.

For something a bit sweeter, I like Oskri Sesame Bars, on occasion.

(These are all dairy free, and I think soy free.)

[jerseyangel]

Some great ideas there Thanks!

[jenvan]

Patti-

Some of the "bars" I eat are Alpsnack--really yummy snack and Kettle Valley all fruit bars. Love those two.

Ironed Out-

I don't eat bread very much, a handful of times a month. I eat Kinnikinnick's italian white tapioca for that primarily. For pasta I also use Tinkyada--really like that, have that 2x a month maybe, 3 at the most. Cookies--Midel, Enjoylife--those are probably what I've "replaced" most of all. Things like chicken stocks, tv dinners that had more "filler" type gluten I've replaced...

[jerseyangel]

Thanks Jen--I'm going to make a note of all these bars and look for them. BTW--I found Badger lip balm (and other of their things) at Whole Foods last weekend. I bought 2 of them--Cinnamon & Ginger. They are really good and no worries! Thanks for suggesting them

[jenvan]

ooo--happy for the badger! good stuff...i got their sore muscle rub for christmas too--glad you found them!

[Idahogirl]

Tinkyada pasta is the best-you can't tell the difference at all. I've made lasagna, spaghetti, mac & cheese (elbow pasta with Velveeta-better than the real boxed kind!), and pasta alfredo.

Some decent chocolate chip cookies are Pamela's in the box. I tried baking my own with a flour mix & a little xantham gum, following the Nestle recipe, and they were okay, but not great. They spread out and got hard fast. Also, I haven't found a good substitute for hamburger buns. I got english muffin rings and used Kinnikwik's bread and bun mix, but they tasted funny and were too gooey. Anyone had any luck in this area?

For sandwich bread, the best I've found so far is using Kinnikwik's frozen break, and microwaving it first (toasting might be good, too). It soften's up the bread, and is thin (but small and expensive, too!). It also works good for cinnamon toast.

I've found that for grilled cheese sandwiches, if you grill both sides of your bread, it tastes much more like the real thing. Otherwise, the bread is too thick and it only tastes grilled on the outside, but bready up against the cheese. Plus, if you don't grill both sides, it's hard to get the cheese to melt without burning the bread. For the tomato soup, Pacific Natural Foods Organic Creamy Tomato tastes just like Campbell's. I tried some other kinds, and they had a funny taste.

For cream of mushroom, you can use Progresso Creamy Mushroom and thicken it with corn starch if you need condensed-type soup.

If you like brownies, you have to try The Gluten Free Pantry's chocolate truffle brownie mix. It tastes exactly like Betty Crocker, and is easy to make. No one ever knows the difference. Also, there are pretzels that taste just like the real thing (can't remember brand).

Cereal-I eat the Malt-o-Meal chocolate rice krispies (they changed their ingredients this summer, so the old bags will soon be gone, but I've still been able to find them-the packaging is a darker brown). After they run out, I'll switch to Cocoa Pebbles. Cereal is a tough one for me. I have it almost every morning, so it's hard to justify spending a lot on the specialty brands. Fred Meyer usually has a wheat free section, and they should have cereal options.

Those are all the substitutions I can think of for now. I haven't been doing this very long, so there's still a lot out there I haven't tried yet. Good luck!

Lisa

[jenvan]

few more things...fav multipurpose type mix is Pamela's--makes good cookies (has dairy in it though).

Also--good baking mixes are Namaste--blondies mix is great--you can add choc chips, nuts etc.

[lgleeson]

I'll have Open Original Shared Link occasionally, but I've gotten tired of them, and don't like the low amount of protein they tend to have.

I do enjoy Open Original Shared Link, and they have more protein than the Larabars.

I also like the Open Original Shared Link, though those are also just fruit and nuts.

I've also recently found Open Original Shared Link, which I've enjoyed so far.

There's also Open Original Shared Link, though two of the flavors are not gluten-free, but I've also gotten tired of those.

There's also Open Original Shared Link that makes a number of gluten-free bar type foods.

For something a bit sweeter, I like Oskri Sesame Bars, on occasion.

(These are all dairy free, and I think soy free.)

I'll have Open Original Shared Link occasionally, but I've gotten tired of them, and don't like the low amount of protein they tend to have.

I do enjoy Open Original Shared Link, and they have more protein than the Larabars.

I also like the Open Original Shared Link, though those are also just fruit and nuts.

I've also recently found Open Original Shared Link, which I've enjoyed so far.

There's also Open Original Shared Link, though two of the flavors are not gluten-free, but I've also gotten tired of those.

There's also Open Original Shared Link that makes a number of gluten-free bar type foods.

For something a bit sweeter, I like Oskri Sesame Bars, on occasion.

(These are all dairy free, and I think soy free.)

I found that some of the Zone bars are gluten-free. I called the company and they said my favorite, Fudge Graham, is gluten-free. It is odd because I know that we can't have graham, but they assured me there was no graham in it. There were several others that were gluten-free as well.

[Becky6]

I actually found that several things I ate were gluten free! I really don't replace very many things for me but I do for my daughter. she is already underweight and if I didn't replace she wouldn't eat much!

[stef-the-kicking-cuty]

I pretty much replaced everything I know of, that I ate before, that had gluten. But one thing, that I couldn't replace yet (and that I was crazy for before) was KitKat, the chocolate wafer. Oooh! Ummm! Didn't find anything, that came close to it so far and I really really miss it...

Oh, and french bread. The long stick of bread, if you know what I mean. There is a ready made glutenfree mix for such a bread, that actually tastes pretty good. But I'm picky, I would like to have it in stick form, like I had it before . And everytime, I try to form it, the dough just doesn't stay in the stick shape, that I form. It keeps flowing all over the stone. It really sucks after a while . Any advise here maybe?

[Ursa Major]

I find that the things I liked are irreplacable. I have always hated Canadian bread, and ate only German rye bread all these years. I have never liked eating any bread where you can take it and squish the whole loaf into a little ball. I've always felt that you might as well eat cardboard. Obviously, there are absolutely no replacements that would be in the least like rye bread, so, why bother?

I have never really liked pasta and wouldn't eat it more than once a month anyway. I can still do that with Tinkyada pasta. Today I made some biscuits from a mix, wasn't really keen on them and my family ate most of them. I tried a few different kinds of cookies, didn't like them. I've never been one for baking cookies, and don't do it more often now than ever (once a year?).

I would rarely eat any cereal for breakfast. When I first came to Canada, I didn't understand why my husband would eat 'baby food' for breakfast (porridge). In Germany people would usually eat fresh rolls (I would have rye rolls) with sliced meat and cheese for breakfast, or with a soft boiled egg (sometimes with butter and honey or jam). Now the kids eat cereal, because they want to be 'cool', like Americans (and just as sick and fat).

So, my answer is, I haven't really replaced anything. I guess I was keeping myself sick because I loved my rye bread and ate quite a lot of it. Since there is no replacement for it, I have given up bread altogether.

[IronedOut]

Thanks Idahogirl for the tip on the mushroom soup and to everyone who has contributed thoughts to this.

I am experiencing pretty bad withdrawl depression right now. As my husband and I go through the pantry removing all the 'offensive' (and soon to be missed) items, I find myself in tears. Good thing my husband is super supportive. He is looking forward to the challenge of making all the recipes we have always had, just gluten free.

It's good to know that there are substitutes out there and that I can come here to find the answers.