Newbie - I Feel Hopeless And Need Help With Meal Ideas

[ses1913]

Hi, I am a newbie to this list. I am in need of help. My blood work confirmed that I am negative for celiac but have a severe reaction to wheat and many other foods such as milk-Casein, sugar, high fructose corn syrup and many other grains such as oats, barley. I am going through a divorce that is entering its third year and my health is failing. When I eat the above mentioned foods, the reaction is tremendous migraine headaches with a two day delay (one reason it was so hard to determine the cause) and they last for about five days) and weight gain. When I went on a strict diet in 2005, I was able to loos over 100 lbs. Now that I have slipped back because of stress and emotional eating and lack of time to prepare food, I have gained 40 pounds back so easily

[cruelshoes]

Hi, Ses1913. Open Original Shared Linkput out by the GIG. It includes 50+ things that are easy to find/fix on the gluten-free diet. Maybe you will find it useful.

What sorts of meals do you like to eat? Most things can be converted to gluten-free pretty easily. If you point us in the direction you like to dine in, we might be able to be more helpful.

[Guest j_mommy]

I went to teh recipe section of this site and made my own binder full of recipes!!! It helped alot!

[The One]

You could eat fruit for breakfast, I'm crazy though and i will always eat fruit and an egg [or bacon] for breakfast, use corn tortillas to make wraps for lunch [such as ham/cheese/lettuce wrap, or chicken wrap], I always have a box of instant mashed potatoes at home, eat veggies too.

[BRUMI1968]

I do not eat grains or dairy or gluten or soy...and a few other things, but anyway....

1. Green salad plus protein source, such as hamburger patty, buffalo patty, just had ostrich patty yesterday, chicken meat, fish, etc. It should be about 80% salad and 20% protein source. I don't use bun or anything. For dressing I use apple cider vinegar, a bit of mustard (Eden brand), some flax oil, hemp oil, and olive oil, and salt and pepper. My salads often have pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, avocado (but not nuts/seeds AND avocado since apparently they don't combine well), cucumbers, celery, lettuce, cilantro, basil, chard/kale/etc., spinach, zucchini, green onion or red onion. I DON"T use dried fruit for the high sugar content and the fact they don't combine well with anything. This salad/protein is really good in summer with grilled salmon.

2. Poached egg over sauteed veggies...especially zucchini, asparagus (when in season), OR napa cabbage. The napa cabbage one is really good believe it or not. Also, poached egg on raw spinach salad is really good, or medium boiled egg. Rules here are sauteed things should be cooked in coconut oil, not olive oil which becomes bad when heated to high temps; use sea salt or Himalayan crystal salt. Very good. The raw spinach salad usually utilizes the same dressing as above, only I warm it up so that the spinach wilts a little bit, and doesn't leave that weird taste in your mouth.

3. Omelet. Think like above, but add cilantro, tomato, green onion or red onion, etc. I often suatee zucchini and onion, then add the whipped up egg and cilantro and tomato, and a bit of jalepeno if you have some. VERY good.

4. Snack: grapefruit slices, fennel shaved thinly, red onion shaved thinly, mint/basil/cilantro (just one), some ribboned spinach maybe, and then some dressing made from the juice of the grapefruit (whatever you can get from peeling, etc. and/or some lime juice, oil (flax, hemp, olive), salt and pepper. Let it sit for a minute to absorb flavors, then eat. You should only have to wait 45 minutes until you eat again, but since it has fruit, you should not eat anything else with it.

5. I don't know if you eat rice...but if you do, my family loves to eat those Indian foods in the pouches over rice. There are a couple brands, at least two of which are gluten free (sorry, I can't recall)...in co-ops and grocery stores. Watch for gluten free. If you don't eat rice, they end up a bit soupy. Also, they are typically based on potato or legumes, neither of which I eat, but which smell really yummy. VERY easy, just drop pouch in boiling water and wait ten minutes...like hiking food really, but tastes good.

6. Sauteed veggies and protein source.

7. Snacks: fruit (by itself); handful of nuts (by themselves, and not peanuts and make sure gluten free - RAW is best); SMALL handful of dried fruit, and only if it does not gas you up or give you sugar fits - high fiber ones are best like figs, as it makes the sugar go into your system more slowly; handful of seeds; an avocado with salt or without salt and also with or without dressing; a half melon (by itself) with or without salt.

8. Tuna, but not very often (mercury) with olive oil or mayo (gluten-free) and mustard (gluten-free, I use Eden brand), with onion, cilantro, salt/pepper, etc. on top of salad or inside the scooped out bit of an avocado.

Breakfast is still befuddling me if you don't do eggs, which I am giving up tomorrow (new years idea) to see how I feel. I have no idea what to eat for breakfast, other than Rice & Shine or buckwheat cereal, but I don't really want to go back to grains. I have to eat breakfast though. Maybe just sauteed veggies and protein source for brekkers, too.

Anyway, just some thoughts. If you wash/prep your produce when you get home from the store with it, it will be ready in your refer so you don't pick something else to avoid the salad spinner. You an make dressing and leave it out on your counter for the next salad as well. If it helps you eat salad, break up your lettuce in the bag so all you have to do is toss (by the way, iceberg is useless - you need a green leaf lettuce or red leaf lettuce or romaine - all of those have good nutrition; if you're in a hurry in the a.m., prep your omelet veggies the night before and seal up. You can freeze single servings of protein - like I put in zip locks one hamburger of buffalo patty. Then when I eat it, I get out the next days' protein source. I usually use half the burger for breakfast/lunch and the other half for dinner, though it is good to vary your protein sources as well, so you don't develop allergies.

Hope this helps. I am someone who cooks a lot (or uncooks since I eat about 70% raw), so I'm not sure how "easy" these things sound. But if you don't eat any grains, you'll likely feel better it sounds like. And I find it pretty easy to avoid them.

Oh yeah, sprouts might be good too. I've started growing my own for salads and the like. We'll see how it goes. Right now only half the seeds germinated in the jar, and the other half are still whole. It is cold, though. Take care.

[hayley3]

I can feel your pain. That sounds exactly like me.

I went thru a nasty custody issue and I know how awful that is.

I also have those awful migraines, but mine last only 3 days. I finally have got them down to a day and a half. I did find out that one cause of my migraines was the dairy queen ice creams, well at least the caramel moolatte. I still haven't figured out what is it them that gives me a migraine.

Canned fish is the easiest, fastest thing for me. I eat sardines on rice crackers if I'm starving for something. I have to cut the tails off first, and then sometimes I spread on a little mustard. They don't have the high mercury levels that tuna has. I also bake a chicken and then have it for supper and then take the rest and grind it up and use it for chicken salad. (If you put some lemons, butter, and garlic inside the bird it makes better tasting chicken) You can also just simmer some chicken breasts and do the same thing. You can roll up the chicken salad in a lettuce leaf too. And egg salad too. Yes, I eat these for breakfast.

Do look at that list, because it has great ideas!

[psipsina]

There is a brand called Amys that has gluten free dairy free frozen meals that are great to have on hand when you just can't muster the energy to cook. They have a gluten free pizza (though it does have yeast for candida people ), gluten free mac and cheese, gluten free dairy free lasagna, they have a rice and veggie bowl and they just came out with a gluten free baked ziti dish that rocks. I also keep van's waffles around for something fast. You can buy gluten free pasta (usually made with brown rice) and tomato sauce for a fast meal . . . I love grilling chicken breast and serving with pasta as a fast meal. And I always keep tons of salad mixins which can be super filling if you serve it with a protein of some sort. Wolfgang puck makes a great chicken soup with wild rice that is gluten free and fast to make. Lara bars make a gluten free snack bar that I love and I keep one in my purse so I'm not tempted if I get hungry away from home.

[dbmamaz]

When I was making kids lunches in the morning, i got in the habit of eating piece or two of cold cuts as part of breakfast - the protien helps keep off that "i'm starving' thing at lunch time. Boars head meats are all gluten free. Breakfast really is important!!

Good luck getting out of your marriage and on with your life

[aprilh]

That all sounds very hard to deal with and I hope you can get back on your feet.

Since you have candida (which can be at the root of a lot of those other conditions) I would suggest going on an anti-candida diet. Of course, eliminating gluten and dairy can be a big help for anyone with those conditions. And by elminating foods that are inflammatory.

Sometimes, we have to get back to our roots. By eating fish, organic meats, vegetables, low carb fruits, nuts and seeds (not peanuts or pastachois due to the mold content). Basically the cave man diet

This helps because you have eliminated grains and foods that are loaded with chemicals such as hot dogs, deli meat, bacon, ect. This diet is how I initially started my anti-candida program. I found it very helpful in eliminating my anxiety, weight gain, bloating, candida, and many other issues.

You could do this for about 2-4 weeks and see how you feel. Then slowly add back gluten free grains being careful not to overdo it. You might then add in a good quality probiotic. In fact, you probably should go ahead with this now. with all the other issues going on I am sure your gut flora is imbalanced.

If you want recipe ideas, I got plenty of those, but my thought was to maybe point you in getting to the "root" cause of your health issues. Not that candida is the root, but maybe *part* of the root causes.

I have seen many people with those type issues be diagnosed with lyme disease. So, if you don't improve with what you are doing, maybe that will give you somewhere to go in the future.

Hope this helps!