How Do I Cope? Someone Please Tell Me

[jasonD2]

just found out i have a gluten sensitivity and am going gluten-free - 2 days and i'm already miserable. the thought of never having my favorite beer again, never being able to go back to Israel and have a falafel pita, no deli sandwiches when i go home to NYC, no Matzah ball or chicken noodle soup for the jewish holidays.

I have had digestive problems for 5 years and am already dairy free..now wheat too? i'm sure i'm probably sensitive to other foods that i will ultimately have to cut out as well. is there a happy ending to all of this? if my gut repairs itself as a result of avoiding gluten will i develop a better tolerance for other foods? This has put me into a serious depression. i dont mean to whine or sound like a child but i have already had to give up so much and now this? where will it end? I have a huge dinner party to go to tomorrow...last week i was excited as all hell and now that i know i have this problem i could care less cause i wont be able to eat all the great food thats gonna be there.

sorry for the vent, but i just dont know how to cope with this anxiety

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Hi, Jason, welcome aboard!

I know how you feel--I cried for 2 days when I found out.

The good news is, there are GENIUSES out there who have invented recipes using other flours and starches, and they taste really, really close to the original. You can use rice pasta for your chicken noodle soup. Manischevitz makes gluten-free noodles out of potato starch for Passover, you can use those, too, but I like rice pasta.

Kinnikinnick makes gluten-free bagels that taste like bagels--but even plain gluten-free bread, toasted, with a schmear and some lox works for me!

Most of gluten-free baking is kind of like Passover year-round--EXCEPT we get to use leavening! (And we can't have matzo--that's the hardest part for me so far )

Here is a recipe for matzah balls--make sure you use chicken fat, not oil:

gluten-free Matzo balls

This recipe is from someone named Sara who used to frequent the glutenfreeforum.

4 TBSP chicken fat (save a little in a tub in the freezer every time you make

soup. You can also take chicken skin and/or fat from any raw or baked

rotisserie chicken, put it in a frying pan, and cook it til the fat renders out)

4 eggs

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup of your favorite gluten-free flour blend

3/4 dried potato flakes

seasoning of your choice--I like dill, parsely, garlic powder, and onion powder,

some people like ginger and nutmeg.

1. Blend eggs and chicken fat

2 add dry ingredients, mix well

3. Cover and let sit in fridge 20-30 minutes

4. fill a large pot of water and heat to boiling

5. Take mixture out of fridge and roll into ping-pong ball-size balls (NO

LARGER--they swell up like mad)It's much easier if you grease your hands well

with shortening or olive oil.

6. Drop into boiling water

7. Use long spoon to make sure none got stuck on the bottom

8. COVER POT, reduce heat to medium to medium-low, and cook for 35-40 minutes

9. Remove with slotted spoon

To freeze for later use, transfeer to waxpaper lined cookie sheet, freze until

hard, tranfer to freezer bags.

THEY REALLY TASTE LIKE MATZO BALLS!

[loco-ladi]

I used my "cravings" to find good tasting alternatives to what I used to eat.......

for thicking my stews and soups I now use gluten-free noodles rather than flour and I even like it better!

I am not jewish so have a few different tastes than you do as I have lived a sheltered life so far but am branching out lately into the new and different, I think I may try those matzo balls as they sound simular to what my X hubby's grammie used to make only she called them potato noodles... she served them with pasta sauce.

Grammies potato noodles:

mashed potato's "to runny for table"

add gluten-free flour until consitancy is like bread dough

roll sections into "snakes"

cut snakes into pieces about 1/4 inch long

poke ya finger into the middle (donut without the hole)

boil till they float

serve warm with pasta sauce and cheese