How Good Is The Food?

[Mongoose]

I've read various comments that gluten-free food isn't particularly healthy, and doesn't taste as good ... I was just curious how many people here experimented with different flours until they came up with a flour blend they like that is relatively healthy? My own blend doesn't use a lot of rice flour or starch, and substitutes cup for cup for all-purpose wheat flour so I can keep using my same old recipes. Then I make my own biscuit mix, etc. Haven't tried making cake mix yet but I intend to try that eventually. Is anyone else doing this? I also got my own flour mill so I don't have to worry about CC and can make flours hard to obtain otherwise, like wild rice flour. Maybe I'm just hardcore and spending way too much time at this? I cooked and baked before going gluten-free, and still do. Just wondered what other people do?

[debmidge]

My concern over the gluten-free flours is that, with the exception of the bean flours, they are low in fiber. Even the small amount of brown rice flour doesn't compare with the grams of fiber one would get when you used to eat whole wheat bread.

when making home made gluten-free bread, I add extra rice bran to give more fiber and a lot of the pre-made breads a low in fiber too.

[lorka150]

i constantly bake and cook.

add flax for fiber. use buckwheat and amaranth.

[GreySaber]

I take a fiber suppliment. Or I try to, I keep forgetting....

Hmm... I better go do that now.

[Felidae]

I've read various comments that gluten-free food isn't particularly healthy, and doesn't taste as good ... I was just curious how many people here experimented with different flours until they came up with a flour blend they like that is relatively healthy? My own blend doesn't use a lot of rice flour or starch, and substitutes cup for cup for all-purpose wheat flour so I can keep using my same old recipes. Then I make my own biscuit mix, etc. Haven't tried making cake mix yet but I intend to try that eventually. Is anyone else doing this? I also got my own flour mill so I don't have to worry about CC and can make flours hard to obtain otherwise, like wild rice flour. Maybe I'm just hardcore and spending way too much time at this? I cooked and baked before going gluten-free, and still do. Just wondered what other people do?

That is really great. I would love to do the same, but I just haven't had the time. And I don't think I would really know where to start. I used to be an avid baker before being Gluten-free Casein-free. I've lost my passion for it, so now my passion is cooking. Food has always been one of my favourite things in life and I hope I get creative like you have in baking again.

[flagbabyds]

I wish i had the time to do this, but don't. my mom makes a flour blend w/ amaranth, soy, buckwheat, sourgum, sweet rice, and brown rice. Very healthy, no starcy flours, or white rice.

[GreySaber]

That is really great. I would love to do the same, but I just haven't had the time. And I don't think I would really know where to start. I used to be an avid baker before being Gluten-free Casein-free. I've lost my passion for it, so now my passion is cooking. Food has always been one of my favourite things in life and I hope I get creative like you have in baking again.

I'm not much of a cook, but my family helps. The current progect is the perfect home made gluten-free breaded chicken strip. When I get it 'just right' I'll be sure to make some noise.

[Laura]

I don't make regular bread, and the bread I buy is the Glutino flax seed bread - so it has a decent amount of fiber at least. Similarly, I try to keep in my freezer things like homemade pumpkin bread, where the pumpkin has some fiber and a ton of vitamin A and good bit of potassium, plus I include things like walnuts and dried cranberries. Or the bran flax muffins that there's a recipe for on the Bob's Red Mill flax meal bag - flax, bran, apple, carrot, walnuts (I use gluten-free flour, obviously, and reduce the oat bran, which is McCann's, of course). And I try to eat my veggies.

I'm definitely no saint - I eat more than my share of desserts, and I use commercial gluten-free mixes for those a lot of the time. But the truth is, I think my diet is better balanced than it was pre-diagnosis. Because when I got diagnosed, I read about how you had to worry about getting enough fiber and so on, and so I started making an effort to eat all that stuff. But who am I kidding? I never ate whole wheat bread before!

Edited to add: I do still do some experimenting. But honestly, my initial period of hard-core experimenting yielded enough good recipes that I feel like enough already! I don't want to be obese because I learned such good gluten-free cooking! Still, every now and then I try something new. And I don't feel like I've perfected cake-baking. Just a plain cake, that is. I have some good things like rum cake, but where the focus is on the cake itself, I feel like mine are a little lacking.

[rma451]

I'm not much of a cook, but my family helps. The current progect is the perfect home made gluten-free breaded chicken strip. When I get it 'just right' I'll be sure to make some noise.

hi, hope this may help. I have 2 grandchildren 5 ,8 who love chicken nuggets , my home is gluten-free was too sick to even want to see a wheat crumb .

I take all my crusts from my made breads any failures ect, then freeze. when i have enough I put in food processor till consistancy I want then add some parsley flakes , fresh is best , a little garlic , either mccormicks or a few fresh cloves , about 1/2 cup of fresh grated parm cheese and pulse a few times .

I bag this up and freeze and use as I need for meatballs chicken nuggets ect.

adjust spices to your taste and when I get short I just add enough of the energ crumbs to finish whatever Im going to do . then start over. lol good luck

rosie

[Mongoose]

I'm not much of a cook, but my family helps. The current progect is the perfect home made gluten-free breaded chicken strip. When I get it 'just right' I'll be sure to make some noise.

There's a recipe for Magnificent Milo Breading Mix at this web site (Open Original Shared Link) that we like a lot. I keep some of that made up all the time. Milo is another name for sorghum.

Please do post if you find one you like! Sometimes I just mix up some herbs and use them as a rub.

[Matilda]

..

[chrissy]

so........what's the blend? i bought a grain mill, but haven't used it yet-----i'd love any pointers you have to share.

molly-----please tell us your mom's blend----by the way, i love your name----my 11 year old celiac is named molly, too.

christine

[lonewolf]

The food I make tastes great. I do a lot of naturally gluten-free foods - soups, stews, salads, casseroles, meats and vegetables, tacos, fajitas, etc., so there's no problems with bad taste or lack of fiber. For baking, I use the Bette Hagman basic flour mix (Br. rice, potato starch, tapioca starch), but usually add golden flax meal and Montina flour for fiber. I cook and bake using regular recipes, just substitute for gluten, eggs, dairy and soy. (Sometimes that's not so easy.) I suppose if you got all premade gluten-free foods it would be unhealthy (and really expensive) but it's easy to eat healthy if you want to.

[Mongoose]

so........what's the blend? i bought a grain mill, but haven't used it yet-----i'd love any pointers you have to share.

molly-----please tell us your mom's blend----by the way, i love your name----my 11 year old celiac is named molly, too.

christine

I'd like to know Molly's mother's blend too

This one works well for me:

1 cup finely milled white sweet rice flour

1 cup finely milled brown sweet rice flour

2 cups quinoa flour

2 cups sorghum flour

2 cups white bean flour (buy from Bob's Red Mill or mill your own)

Seems to substitute cup for cup for wheat flour almost all the time. When it doesn't work it makes me wonder if it would have worked with wheat. Sometimes recipes are wrong.