Going Crazy And Becoming Bored Of Gluten Free Food

[Guest celiacsher]

Does anyone just give in and have a huge plate of pasta or pizza not gluten free? Thats what I feel like doing. Help any remedies for my withdraws?

[Lymetoo]

I"m new here too. I feel for ya! I haven't gone completely gluten free yet. I had a known "wheat allergy" since 1975, but never understood about going completely gluten free. I did stay away from wheat for a VERY long time however. [then started cheating around 1990....it's been downhill ever since!]

You can make yourself a gluten free pizza. Someone had a recipe for one that they said was delicious!

welcome!!

[tarnalberry]

Does anyone just give in and have a huge plate of pasta or pizza not gluten free? Thats what I feel like doing. Help any remedies for my withdraws?

Make a big plate of tinkyada pasta - you won't even notice it's not gluten-free.

You can make virtually ANYTHING gluten free (about the only things that are really really hard are pastries - like croissants).

[Sarah8793]

Make a big plate of tinkyada pasta - you won't even notice it's not gluten-free.

I LOVE Tinkyada pasta. She's right, you can't tell the difference. I don't feel like I'm missing out when it comes to spaghetti.

[Shannon27]

I just want to say what a blessing this site is. Had it not been for you all, I would have thought I was stuck with mushy rice pasta. Every single review I have read says that Tinkyada is awesome. Now I just have to figure out where to find it. I am almost in tears, I am so happy that I don't have to give up lasagna or tuna pasta. Literally, tears. (I just started on a gluten-free diet Monday after a positive stool test, so I'm already a bit emotional to begin with! ).

Shannon

[Luvs to Scrap]

I am new to this gluten free thing too--my son and husband have celiac and we are going to get my daughter and myself tested. Since my three year old loves pizza and we can't go out for it anymore I made it for him. I used Jill's Quick and Easy Pizza crust from Bette Hagman's Gluten Free Gourmet. It was a little different then regular pizza crust--sort of more like bisquick when I first tasted it 2 weeks ago. Last night was the 3rd time I've made it in two weeks and its weird but I am used to it already and think it tastes like pizza--thin and crispy style. The important thing is my guys like it. (Our whole family eats gluten-free for meals at home because I can't handle making 2 meals all of the time) I am visiting in laws right now but can email recipe if you like when I get home Sat night. It is actually quicker to mix up than normal crust--a first for me in gluten free baking!

I totally agree about Tinkyada pasta too. Our family loves pasta and every other rice pasta we tried as gross and turned into mush before we could finish our meal. Tinkyada hold up awesome even in casseroles and I have doubled batches of casseroles and froze and then heated and it still wasn't gross. I felt so much better after we discovered that. Our little health food store special orders it for me so one in your area might too.

I wish you the best as you adjust. Find a good gluten free substitute for pizza, etc and pig out!!

Kendra

[evie]

[i wish you the best as you adjust. Find a good gluten free substitute for pizza, etc and pig out!!

[dionnek]

I've only been doing this for 2 months, but when i'm feeling depressed about what I CAN'T eat, I eat something "normal" that is actually gluten free, like Cheetos That makes me feel like a normal person (even though I never ate Cheetos before being dx, but my husband did all the time)

[Vladimir Gluten]

Since I'm a pasta fanatic and I just recently went gluten-free, let me clue you in to something: Trader Joe's brown rice pasta. It will only get mushy if you fail to follow the directions (i.e. overcook it).

I eat it every day and it works just fine. As for pizza, well that's another story. I'm still perfecting what crust I use.

There are plenty of things you can have that are gluten-free. You just have to figure out what you like.

[queenofhearts]

Make a big plate of tinkyada pasta - you won't even notice it's not gluten-free.

You can make virtually ANYTHING gluten free (about the only things that are really really hard are pastries - like croissants).

Just curious-- do you mean they are harder to make gluten-free than the wheat kind, or just hard in general? I haven't tried gluten-free puff pastry yet, but I have made the traditional kind-- is it just not worth the effort to try gluten-free?

By the way I did make some gluten-free creampuffs & they were fine-- didn't keep as well as the wheat kind, though.

Leah

[eKatherine]

Just curious-- do you mean they are harder to make gluten-free than the wheat kind, or just hard in general? I haven't tried gluten-free puff pastry yet, but I have made the traditional kind-- is it just not worth the effort to try gluten-free?

By the way I did make some gluten-free creampuffs & they were fine-- didn't keep as well as the wheat kind, though.

Leah

You just can't make dough with the same handling characteristics as gluten dough, so those flaky layers won't happen.

[tarnalberry]

You just can't make dough with the same handling characteristics as gluten dough, so those flaky layers won't happen.

Yep, that's what I meant. There are some recipes that are *highly* dependent on the chemical properties of gluten that can't really be duplicated by gums or other proteins. Anything with very light layers that comes apart on it's own through the baking is going to be really hard to do gluten-free. (Not saying it's impossible, of course.) Light and fluffy isn't the issue, light and flaky is. :-)

[amybeth]

My Acme supermarket recently started carrying Tinkyada! I was shocked to see it there on the shelf! - I usually bought it at a health food store....Acme even has it on "special" right now -- (the spaghetti style) -- so it's not too $$$$. Maybe your grocery store might start carrying it. At most stores you can submit requests to customer service and they'll start carrying items. In fact, I'm going to submit some at Acme later this week.........GOOD LUCK!

[TCA]

For pizza we use Chebe. It's sooo good for a thin crispy crust. We make it for company and they love it too. For quick fixes for my son I get the kinnikinnik frozen crusts. They are really good. We've also used corn tortillas for pizza and it works ok in a tight.

Tinkyada Rocks!!!!

[taz sharratt]

Does anyone just give in and have a huge plate of pasta or pizza not gluten free? Thats what I feel like doing. Help any remedies for my withdraws?

man do i wanna some days, espaecailly when the kids havent finished all thier food on the plate and its chicken nuggets or sauage, nuts and sweets do it for me, i find if i feel like im giveing in a get some sweets.

[eKatherine]

I buy white rice pasta in an Asian market. There are a number of types sold under a variety of different names. I am looking at three different bags I have in front of me:

• Rice vermicelli (laifen) bun bo hue xanh (hieu bong lua) - cooks up like regular spaghetti
  
• Guilin rice vermicelli, bun bo hue soi lon - cooks up like thin spaghetti or vermicelli
  
• Rice sticks, banh canh kho ong - cooks up like Italian long macaroni
  

You need to look at the product in the package. They should be translucent, not white, and should contain nothing but rice. These cost $1.49 to $1.79 in 14 ounce packages.

To cook, soak in lukewarm water until flexible, then boil for a few minutes, or til done as you like pasta.

[queenofhearts]

You just can't make dough with the same handling characteristics as gluten dough, so those flaky layers won't happen.

Rats! I was afraid of that. Oh well...

[chgomom]

Does anyone just give in and have a huge plate of pasta or pizza not gluten free? Thats what I feel like doing. Help any remedies for my withdraws?

Hey there!

I am in your same boat. I am newly diagnosed, without a biopsie...blood tests were all off the charts but I am trying diet first.

So anyway.....first couple of weeks....I said screw this....had a bite...and whammy crappy for a few days.

I made the decision I did nto want to feel like that anymore.

Can I suggest....rice pasta, rice bread, with natural chick, gluten-free sauce and other stuff like that?

There are a coupel of products I have gone crazy for you can get at health food stores...or online...

One of them is called LARA BAR...I live on them Open Original Shared Link

(they are all raw foods,,,,allergen free...unless you can't have nuts) but they are the best...

The other is called ENJOY LIFE (all allergen free products, all gluten free....they have a RYE LESS bread, "cereals" awesome double fudge cookies....must be some kind of magic because I am a sweets person and I can't tell...Open Original Shared Link

Don't cave in because every little bit of damage hurst, not helps...

try those things...there are lots of snacks that keep it interesting.

The other thing you could try are THAI KITCHEN Pad Thai noodles instant...as long as you're not hyper sensitive....they are yummy.....I just can't take them because I am...and they are gluten free

[loraleena]

Food for life makes great rice wraps that you can make burritos with or wraps. Yum. Just heat them first.

Also there is a great pizza crust at whole Foods that is made by there gluten free bake house. YUm.

Amy's rice crust pizza is decent also. There is another great pasta out there. Quinoa and corn. Ancient harvest I think.

[KCMISSINBREAD]

Does anyone just give in and have a huge plate of pasta or pizza not gluten free? Thats what I feel like doing. Help any remedies for my withdraws?

DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! TRIED IT WITH BURGER ON BUN AND ONION RINGS AND PAID DEARLY FOR TWO WEEKS. EXCESSIVE BLOATING AND UNBLIEVABLE GUT PAIN. I MISS IT THOUGH

[GFBetsy]

Does anyone just give in and have a huge plate of pasta or pizza not gluten free? Thats what I feel like doing. Help any remedies for my withdraws?

Recently I've realized that depression feels like hunger . . . you just feel sort of empty inside and you go questing for something - anything! - to "fill" that hole. I read. And read and read and read. It distracts me from the empty feeling. But I also (for some reason) always want to eat popcorn. That's just my "comfort food". You don't want to know how much of that stuff I can eat at one time. LOL. The thing is, I don't really feel any fuller when I'm done. And that's because it's the depression I'm trying to fill, and popcorn doesn't really work for that!

Anyway, what I'm saying is, you might want to consider that the desire for the gluteny pasta/pizza could be depression talking to you, and not really hunger. And if it IS depression, gluten-free substitutes probably won't work. Then again, gluten-filled pasta and pizza won't work either . . . AND they'll make you sick. So don't let depression talk you into eating something that will NOT help you feel better. Especially because breaking your diet won't make the diagnosis go away, it'll just make the road to recovery longer. Just some "food" for thought.

On the other hand, if you are simply looking for good gluten-free foods, I would second the Tinkinyada pasta suggestion. It really is a fabulous product. The cookbook "Saving Dinner" has a lot of wonderful, "naturally" gluten-free recipes (meaning that they don't call for gluten in the first place). It's not technically a gluten-free cookbook, but I use it ALL the time, and very seldom have to make creative substitutions. And Open Original Shared Link has a pizza crust recipe that is easy to make, and tastes great. All my non-celiac relatives eat it quite happily.

By the way, it helps to find someone to cook with ... then trying new gluten-free things becomes fun, and not so much a chore that you've got to complete to survive.

Good luck!

[zip2play]

Tinkyada

I love this stuff. My entire family will eat it too! I mean, no one can tell!

I keep hearing about Chebe crust for pizza, I must get some of it!

Just get inventive with your foods. Like most have stated, almost anything can be made gluten free!

I get mine at our local health food store!

Monica

[jabberwife]

Seriously, try that crust from Whole Foods. It's frozen in their bakery, and all you have to do is thaw it and put toppings on and pop it in the oven. It's great! It's not even heavy like so many other gluten free breads.

I made brownies from this Bob's Red Mill Brownie Mix last night....and let me tell you, they're pretty darn awesome! They're even better if you throw chocolate chips in the mix. YUMYUM.