Need Help With gluten-free Bread, Muffins Etc

[glutenfreegirls]

Well, I could use some help, even after 1 1/2 years of being gluten-free! I went gluten-free/DF 4-06 and largely cut out breads and baked goods altogether, with the occasional gluten-free treat. DD2 (age 5 at the time) went gluten-free, CF, a year ago, and soy free a month ago (positive enterolab results). She transitioned without incident and will declare that being gluten-free/DF is easy.

Now, the problem. DD1 (age 7.5), who has been DF since weaning, went gluten-free about 3 weeks ago after increasing symptoms including headaches, stomachaches, leg pain, fatigue and circles under the eyes. I should get her enterolab results any day now, but I will be shocked if she is not gluten sensitive. Her celiac panel was normal.

For the most part she hates gluten-free substitutes for her usual foods. We are doing fine at home where I can cook and I have more options. The trouble is finding her something to send to school for her'bread'that isn't more like dessert than lunch. I haven't found a gluten-free bread she will eat (I have tried several, but am open to recommendations). I made her banana bread, which came out great and she loves, but it tastes more like cake than bread. I make her gluten-free rice Krispie squares, also more like dessert. Most of the gluten-free cereals she won't eat dry. I have used granola bars, but a lot of those seem like long, thin cookies to me! I feel like her sugar consumption has gone up in proportion to her gluten consumption going down!

So, does anyone have any recipies for muffins or the like that aren't super sweet? Or good bread recipies (I think she misses the squishiness of gluten bread). Or other lunch box ideas that are nutritious and also gluten-free/cf? She's also not a nut fan, so I can't do any of the granolas as she doesn't like them.

I have found transitioning my younger daughter much easier than my older daughter.

Also, any ideas for the tears when her friends eat goldfish, ritz-bitz and all of that? DD2 doesn't care what everyone else gets, DD1 has a hard time with it. That, too isn't a problem at home since we have a gluten-free house. (dh has to go out for his pizza and subs!)

Thanks,

Nancy

[gdobson]

Oh my gosh that is all so very confusing. I don't know if any of my suggestions will help, but here is what we do for school lunches:

My son (10) current favorite bread is Energ Tapioca Lite. When you FIRST open it, it seems a lot like regular bread (from what I can remember ). After that, we have to go with toasting it to hold up in lunches, but he doesn't mind. He also likes an occassional tortilla dog - hot dog rolled up in a grilled corn torilla with melted cheese.

For health sides he likes: string cheese, applesauce, peanutbutter stuffed celery, raisins, cottage cheese, Glutino pretzles, Fruitabu, vanilla yogurt maybe with some blueberries to drop on top. He keeps a stash of Laura Bars and Bumble Bars in his locker for when the teacher passes out treats to everyone else.

Missing out on treats is unfortunately inevitable. I encourage my kids to pick out new things that look like fun to try that are safe. Right now they like the Sensible Foods (I think they are cold) dehydrated fruits (and vegetables). They are labeled gluten-free on the package.

When I had difficulty getting my son to eat his lunch when he was first feeling self conscious, we decided to reward him for finishing. When he eats all of his lunch for 5 days in a row, we take him to DQ : ).

Good luck!

[goldyjlox]

Sorry I am a bit of topic but does circles under the eyes yet another symptom of Celiac in children?? And also at DQ their ice cream is safe?? What would you order??

Thanks.

[bfarnsworth0709]

I go to DQ on a weekly basis. There webiste lists a bunch of gluten-free items. My favorite is the mint m&m blizzard. Just make sure you have them clean the machine first to help with CC.

I would recommend you check out their homepage online, it is awesome for listing all of the gluten free items.

[gdobson]

Hey Goldylox,

One of the first things we see on our son when he has been glutened is the dark circles under his eyes.

In regards to the DQ, I am not brave enough to try the blizzards. I know they list them on their gluten-free menu, but I don't trust the folks that work there to understand the importance of not cross contaminating. We stick to the sundaes that they list on their website as well as the Misty Floats. We have never had a problem with those.

[celiac-mommy]

All I can say is Pamela's Pamela's Pamela's!!! We have been using the baking mix, cakes and cookie mixes for a long time, but after getting fed up paying 6$ for really good gluten-free bread, I decided to try the wheat-free bread mix-we LOVE it. I buy it by the case from amazon .com and it's MUCH cheaper, plus free shipping.

[glutenfreegirls]

Rachelle,

Thanks for the recommendation. I will try Pamela's. I have tried other mixes that we haven't liked.

I'm sorry my first post was a little confusing. I guess I am surprised that I am reeling. I have been gluten-free long enough that it felt like no big deal, but now with DD2 she is crying almost every day about being gluten-free and I feel frustrated and helpless. I didn't expect having her go gluten-free would be hard, but it has been.

Goldilox, I have read many places that dark circles under the eyes is a symptom of allergies in general (not just food allergies). I am surprised, though, that she still has circles after being gluten-free for 3 weeks. They are improved, but not gone.

Does anyone out there make muffins from scratch with a recipie that works well??

Thanks,

Nancy

[buffettbride]

We are fans of Pamela's as well, although we've only made pancakes with it. I think I'm going to try some banana bread this weekend with it since I have some overripe bananas to get rid of. DD LOVED my banana bread so it should be a real treat for her.

DD also had the dark circles. I'd say it took about a month for them to clear up...they come right back if she is glutened.

For treats lately I've been sending strawberries and apples with either a chocolate dipping sauce or a caramel dipping sauce which gets rave reviews and draws envy from other students (which is sometimes important I think).

I know another poster around here said this once, but it's really true. Put as much of the lunch onto toothpicks as you can and a kid will eat anything. DD (and my non-Celiac DS) will eat anything if it's on a toothpick so when we're going through a picky stage, I just "kabobify" everything. Go figure. Kids.

[celiac-mommy]

Put as much of the lunch onto toothpicks as you can and a kid will eat anything. DD (and my non-Celiac DS) will eat anything if it's on a toothpick so when we're going through a picky stage, I just "kabobify" everything. Go figure. Kids.

OMG this is genius!!! I will try this with my son, he is averse to eating anything that is NOT cream colored or white.

[Ridgewalker]

My son also has the dark circles under his eyes, and like buffettbride's daughter, it took a good month for them to be pretty much gone.

Also--

"For treats lately I've been sending strawberries and apples with either a chocolate dipping sauce or a caramel dipping sauce which gets rave reviews and draws envy from other students (which is sometimes important I think)." -- buffettbride

Are the dips homemade or pre-made? If pre-made, do you get them at the regular grocery store, or at Whole Foods??

Anyhoo...

Like a previous poster, I use the EnerG Light Tapioca bread for Luke's school lunches. I don't know if your daughter would dig it or not, though-- It's really not very squishy. The Pamela's bread is squishier. I personally like Pamela's mix better than anything else I've tried, but my son likes the EnerG better, so that's what I generally get.

Other things things I put in his lunch:

*Applesauce

*Carrots with peanut butter (I bought some tiny little Gladware bowls for peanut butter, applesauce, etc. They're 1/2 cup size, perfect, and easy for little hands to open.)

*Glutino pretzels

*Lay Stax chips

*Grapes

*Trix yogurt

*A couple spoonfuls of chocolate chips

*Dill pickles (Luke adores pickles. I worry that they stink up his classroom, but I haven't gotten a note from any teachers yet, lol! )

ooops, I just reread the original post and see that she is cf as well. Some of my suggestions have casein, so some of those will be out, I'm sorry!

Umm, let's see, any fruit or raw veg that she likes, no matter how unusual, would be fair game for the lunch box. If she likes mangos, start throwing cubed mango in there... Marinated fresh green beans... cherry tomatoes... kiwi...

You could try making a list of all the cold foods that she likes that you can possibly think of, and then from there try to figure out if it is/can be portable enough to take to school.

-Sarah

[buffettbride]

Here is what we use for Caramel Dip: Open Original Shared Link. I can't remember what we used for chocolate as we've been on a caramel kick lately. It was some syrupy goo from a bottle though.

If you click on product information you'll see nutrition stuff and it's very clearly marked gluten free.

[jmd3]

We have been without bread for a while now, I am not missing it, but my DD is. We make the pizzas out of chebe mix - it is very good. I make an extra pizza Sunday night, then I send it in her lunch for a couple of days, she loves it!

I also send things like chicken legs....on days like that she doesn't miss bread at all! And her classmates are usually envious of most of her lunches!!

Other things for school lunches, (or at home)...

We bought a small short stainless thermos, it holds about 1 1/2 cups and I pack soups, rice noodles w/ sauce - loves that!

lettuce wraps (I always have a cold pack in her lunch so things stay cold)

fruit (everyday)

veggies (everyday)

yogurt

occasionally -

chocolate covered sunflower seeds from trader joes

nuts

salt and pepper chips from whole foods

pirates booty

Pamelas already made cookies is a great treat she loves the peanut butter, and choc chip ones

We have also used glutino brand french rolls, and used them for hamburger buns for home - I toast them, and make double cheeseburgers for them....ahhh they love them.

Her birthday is the end of the month, and I will make her the Gluten Free Pantry angel food cake.... I also get the already made donuts by kinnink...(spelled wrong) donuts were her favorite treat on Sun morning....we don't have them often because they are soooo expensive. But every now and then it doesn't hurt.

She looks forward to eating - and she even now looks for the healthier things to eat - and she is so much more healthier now without gluten.

[Juliet]

For bread, I use the recipe highlighted in this link: Open Original Shared Link

The actual recipe is posted at Open Original Shared Link

It literally changed the way we thought of gluten free bread in our household. And it's easy to modify. For the gluten free flour mix and bean flour I actually use 1 cup of sweet sorghum flour and 1/2 brown rice flour, and we also add a bit more flax seed (1/3 to 1/2 cup) and more honey (3 tablespoons) and more yeast (2 1/2 - 3 teaspoons), but otherwise it's the same. And many others have modified it according to their taste. I use a breadmaker, and when I use rapid rise yeast, I just put it on the regular rapid rise wheat bread setting and pull out the paddle after it's all completely mixed. Before that time we alternated between Gluten Free Pantry and Pamela's Wheat Free Bread, but this honestly tastes just like regular whole grain wheat bread, like something from Orowheat but if you made it from scratch. People who eat gluten don't even know it's gluten free, they think it's just regular bread that we made.

"Does anyone out there make muffins from scratch with a recipie that works well??"

I modified a recipe from Gluten Free Girl's website (blueberry lemon zest muffins) awhile ago. I've substituted frozen raspberries for the blueberries before and it was great! I also use the batter base and change it around a bit for different ingredients (i.e., cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla extract only with apples and walnuts)

Lemon & Blueberry Muffins

10 tablespoons unsalted, soft butter

1 cup white sugar (you can also use Splenda, and I've tried using 3/4 cup sugar and it turned out fine)

2 large eggs

3/4 teaspoon lemon extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup sweet white sorghum flour

1 cup white rice flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1/3 cup ground flaxseed

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