Looking For Shopping Tips

[tj's mom]

HELP!

My son might have celiac, so we have decided to try the diet as our diagnostic means. I am trying to make our family of four gluten free for at least a week. I was horrified when I went to our local whole food store to find a small loaf of rice bread was over $5. Rice noodles, breakfast cereal, tortillas and other staples are very costly aswell. I am used to buying store brands at our supermarket. I always buy the day old and marked down perishables when I have the chance which is a great savings. I we need to remain on this diet for my son I have no idea how we are going to make ends meet as our grocery budget has been more than trippled. To make matters worse I have been off work for over a month due to my sons illness. Please let me know if you have any thrifty ways to save on gluten free meals. Does walmart offer any gluten free varieties in their store brand. Also, does anyone prepare a meal for their family and seperate for their gluten fre child? Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

Sarah

I am also wondering how long it takes for the diet to "work" for diagnostics? Is one week enough on a general basis? Thanks Again

[MaryJones2]

Wal-Mart is one of the best places to buy gluten-free items. Many Great Value brand items are clearly labeled gluten-free. A lot of their stores carry Gluten Free Pantry and Bob's Red Mill.

[GlutenGalAZ]

I agree WalMarts Great Value brand is really nice. We get their shredded cheese and some other items all say gluten free on the back. I also get Hormel Natural Choice says gluten free right on the box (deli meat).

For bread I make sandwich rolls from The Gluten Free Kitchen by Roben Ryberg. I have tried a couple of the Gluten Free Pantry bread mixes and they are good. Some cookbooks have recipes where it makes two loaves such as The Incredible Edible Gluten-Free Food for Kids by Sheri L. Sanderson. I don't really care for the texture of store bought bread so I started making mine a while ago in the oven. WalMart has a nice Wilton 2 set pan for bread/meat loaf.

Edit: Uncle Ben Rice makes Whole Grain Gluten Free Brown Rice that is really good (says gluten free on the back). Chicken, vegetables (watch out if frozen for the season ones), fruits, Velveeta block (unless no dairy) spaghetti with gluten free noodles and Classico Sauce, Tacos with Mission White Corn torillas or shells, Enchiladas with gltuen free sauce...

There are a lot of dinners that you just need to change a couple or even 1 item to make glute free or are naturally gluten free. Dinty Moore Beef Stew is gluten free and Progresso has a lot of gluten free soups but you have to read the ingredients label.

Good Luck. Hope your son starts to feel better.

[missy'smom]

Rice Chex cereal is gluten-free and you can process it in the blender or food processor to make crumbs for meatballs and meatloaf. We switched to alot of simple, old-fashiond homemade meals with a few natural ingredients and no so many processed ingredients that offsets the cost of the specialty items. We eat alot of rice and potatoes and only occasionally eat pasta. Lots of fruit and fruit based snacks and popcorn and only occasionally baked goodies.

[ang1e0251]

My DH still has his bread and crackers and pasta. Other than that our kitchen is gluten-free. I don't eat the breads. Most taste bad to me and are expensive. I can make my own that tastes better but I prefer the corn tortillas used as a sub for any of my bread needs, I like them toasted. At Walmart they are 100 for under $4. I also buy the Deboles pasta there and it's not very expensive. I don't eat it as often as I used to. We eat mostly rice and meats with layered salads for lunch and dinner. DH is Colombian and he would be happy to have rice at every meal!!

If you eat simply till you can get back to work, that will be fine for him and everybody else. Dana Korn says her son needed to eat in a mixed household so he could learn to deal with the world outside their home. That makes sense to me. You have to decide for yourself what you can afford and manage.

[tj's mom]

You Guys Rock!

Thank you so much for the awesome tips. You all know this can be very overwhelming. I would have NEVER thought of crushing rice chex for meatloaf. Thank you all so much.

[shayesmom]

I'd also suggest shopping on line for some items. Places like v.i.t.a.c.o.s.t. and supplement warehouse or even a.m.a.z.o.n. are great when you're on a budget. The prices are often half of what they'd be in a health food store and you don't have to drive 3 hours to get there and back (this was especially helpful when gas prices were up and places like Whole Foods were out of stock on gluten-free items that we truly needed). I usually split my orders between the first two places mentioned. I order every 2-3 months, spending about $200 total. When I've compared costs between what I'd normally spend, I usually have saved about $80. The first place mentioned above has a flat shipping rate. The second, the shipping is tricky.....your best bet is to place a large order to make sure the savings offset the shipping. The third....well, if you know what you like and you can buy in bulk, then it works. But I hate buying a case of something only to find out that it's nasty. lol!!

You can also look around to see if there's a local food co-op near you. These groups buy in bulk to save money for their members. You can get great bargains on gluten-free items this way.

And to add a bit of variety to your gluten-free menu (without breaking the bank): another suggestion for meatloaf would be to throw in 1/4 cup of the Pocono cream of buckwheat in the mix instead of a "bread" item.

I also will use a combo of Rice Chex, a handful of gluten-free pretzels and a small handful of raw cashews along with some black pepper, parsley and garlic salt to make "breading" for baked chicken. Just throw all of the ingredients in a ziplock bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Place your raw chicken in a casserole, coat evenly with olive oil and then sprinkle on the breading so it coats the chicken evenly. Then bake at 375 until the chicken is done.

[Cheri A]

Mmm, that sounds good. I couldn't use the cashews, though.

I also buy from a.m.a.z.o.n. I get Glutino crackers shipped once/month. It is cheaper than our local co-op. I also used to get Bob's Red Mill chocolate chip cookie mix. Free shipping if you sign up for a recurring order.

I don't have a WalMart very close to me, so I just serve naturally gluten-free stuff to my family or easily modified, like she has rice pasta and we have whole wheat pasta. We have a lot of rice and potatoes. Corn tortillas are a great sub for bread. If you decide that you are going to stick with the diet, then you can head to the baking thread or the recipe section of the site to find LOTS of great recipes. I make bread about every 4 days for her, and lots of other things.

Good luck!

[ang1e0251]

For all breading and meatloafs and meatballs, I use instant potato flakes. It makes delicious chicken nuggets and breaded pork chops. Inexpensive and good flavor.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

My supermarket sells corn tortillas in a big bag of 100 tortillas for $4.99. They make great wraps, pizza crusts, egg rolls, samosas, and even calzones--but you have to heat them up individually first. For egg rolls, and calzones make a kind of paste with gluten-free flour and water to glue them shut before frying/baking.

Many of us bake our own gluten-free breads, as the premade loaves taste like styrofoam. and you already noticed the ridiculous price. There are great recipes at www.betterbatter.org that work great in bread machines, and their flour is actually quite reasonably priced if you order large amounts (though it's cheaper to mix your own)

It doesn't cost much more to bake your own gluten-free bread than to bake gluten bread, especially if you know where to get the flours.

Rice flour, tapioca starch (same as tapioca flour), corn starch, and potato starch (NOT the same as potato flour) are all sold at Asian foodstores for 89 cents/pound--about 1/4 of what you'd pay at a grocery store, and 1/5 of what you'd pay at a health food store. Sorghum flour is also good for baking bread, and is sold at Indian grocery stores (which also sell rice flour, and bean flours). Bean flours are great for breads, but they smell REALLY weird and beany when raw. They taste just fine once baked, though, so don't be put off by the strange smell when you open it up.

The Asian stores are also good places to buy rice noodles--much cheaper, but they cook a lot faster for some reason. Make sure you use LOTS of water in the pot, and stir a LOT in the first five minutes. That prevents clumping.

A lot of people like Kinnikinnick bread, which you can order frozen in bulk.

I just use corn meal in place of bread crumbs--it works great, is less work than crushing cereal, and is cheap. You can also use mashed potato flakes, which make a nice breading for fish sticks.

[TiredofTums]

This article was very useful for me also! I was worried about some of my recipes that I make at home and never thought about Corn Chex or Tortillas as using for Meatballs and Meat Loaf and I make them alot! And fried chicken! Great using the potato flakes! Thanks for sharing this! I too even learned something about certain foods that I can eat now for dinners!

Hope you son gets better soon! Me! Still waiting for the Endoscopy. Can't wait to find out what that tells me!

Good luck!

Linda

My supermarket sells corn tortillas in a big bag of 100 tortillas for $4.99. They make great wraps, pizza crusts, egg rolls, samosas, and even calzones--but you have to heat them up individually first. For egg rolls, and calzones make a kind of paste with gluten-free flour and water to glue them shut before frying/baking.

Many of us bake our own gluten-free breads, as the premade loaves taste like styrofoam. and you already noticed the ridiculous price. There are great recipes at www.betterbatter.org that work great in bread machines, and their flour is actually quite reasonably priced if you order large amounts (though it's cheaper to mix your own)

It doesn't cost much more to bake your own gluten-free bread than to bake gluten bread, especially if you know where to get the flours.

Rice flour, tapioca starch (same as tapioca flour), corn starch, and potato starch (NOT the same as potato flour) are all sold at Asian foodstores for 89 cents/pound--about 1/4 of what you'd pay at a grocery store, and 1/5 of what you'd pay at a health food store. Sorghum flour is also good for baking bread, and is sold at Indian grocery stores (which also sell rice flour, and bean flours). Bean flours are great for breads, but they smell REALLY weird and beany when raw. They taste just fine once baked, though, so don't be put off by the strange smell when you open it up.

The Asian stores are also good places to buy rice noodles--much cheaper, but they cook a lot faster for some reason. Make sure you use LOTS of water in the pot, and stir a LOT in the first five minutes. That prevents clumping.

A lot of people like Kinnikinnick bread, which you can order frozen in bulk.

I just use corn meal in place of bread crumbs--it works great, is less work than crushing cereal, and is cheap. You can also use mashed potato flakes, which make a nice breading for fish sticks.

[tj's mom]

Wow!

You guys really are GREAT! I have so many ideas now. I think this will make me a better mom/wife, as I am NOT a baker. I NEVER make cookies or cake or bread for them. Thank you all for the enchoragement.

~Sarah

[celiac-mommy]

I mix my own flours, I buy 25# bags from Bob's Red Mill and it ends up to be about 80-95 cents per pound. I wasn't much of a bread baker before, but I am now!! I figured out the cost per loaf to bake and it's under $1.50!!!!! We also use pancakes as bread when I'm out of "regular" bread.