Staples To Have In Your Kitchen

[Jennifer2]

I'll be doing the great kitchen cleanout this weekend.

What staples should I buy to replace the old staples? Can I get most of this stuff at a normal grocery store (I have a Smiths/Kroger in my town), or do I need to make the trek to Whole foods or Trader Joes.

Is there a certain type of flour that works well as a replacement for the general purpose flour?

That sort of thing.

What are your staples that you keep in your pantry, freezer, fridge?

Luckily it's just me, so I can go ahead and make it a 100% gluten-free household easily!

Things like toasters, do I need to replace them or just clean them out well?

Thanks, everyone has been so helpful!

Jennifer

[tarnalberry]

New toasters, wooden spoons, cutting boards if they're wooden, colanders, pans if they're cast iron or not pristine teflon, and anything else that can't be scrubbed down adequately to remove any gluten sticking to it. (So, for instance, a pasta maker. )

I don't really have much I consider a "gluten-free" staple, it's just staples. Gluten free soy sauce, of course. But other than that, I've always used cornstarch to thicken things, though I do now use rice flour for that purpose depending on the food. Olive and canola oil and spices are the only other things I regularly use in my cooking. 'Cause eating whole, naturally gluten-free foods really is the easiest way to go, especially at first, to keep contamination risks down as low as possible. If I do baking, I've been using a combination of many flours - rice, sorgum, quinoa, and coconut, mostly.

[MaryJones2]

Here is Kroger's Gluten-Free List. I make a trek to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods every now and then to stock up on the things I can't get at my local groceries!

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[daphniela]

You can't just purchase one type of flour to replace your wheat flour. You will either need to buy a variety of flours and make your own blend or buy a mix. I just buy different flours and mix them as I make items. You need a rice flour. (you can use other types, I just prefer rice flour.) I usually go with brown rice flour as it is more nutritious. You also need a starch. Potato starch (not flour), tapioca (flour and starch are the same), and/or cornstarch (the cheapest). You also need a binder. You can use guar gum, xanthan gum, or knox gelatin (thats what I use.)

[daphniela]

I forgot to add, you also need gluten free pasta. I always have that on hand when I want something quick and easy.

[TiffLuvsBread]

Orgran Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour. Use it IN PLACE OF regular flour. You just use the one flour - it is everything you need to substitute directly for reg. flour. It's the only flour I've found like that.

Brown Rice Pasta. You can find more than just penne now, I always stock spaghetti and penne. Add olive oil to the boiling water, monitor closely, and stir often. Or you end up with one big clump of pasta!

Edamame or Rice Crackers. DEE-licious with cheese or plain. I find edamame crackers at Trader Joe's, they are just like rice crackers which are also yummy and good for people who cannot have soy.

Quinoa! Make it like rice and put in it what you would put on rice. It's the easiest way to experiment with it then you will learn how it can add to your diet (not just having rice all the time). It can make a yummy and fluffy couscous or tabbouleh too.

Gluten-Free Bread. For sandwiches or for morning toast. You may have to try many before you find one you like - they are all different. Gluten-free bread is not all created equal like other bread!

San-J Tamari. Or another wheat-free soy sauce. Keep tamari in the fridge as it has no preservatives like regular soy sauce does.

Fage Yogurt, Yoplait Yo-Plus Yogurt, etc.. Find a gluten-free yogurt and keep it stocked up. I ALWAYS have Fage plain yogurt, the big one, in my fridge and add it to smoothies or have it with berries for breakfast, or have it plain with honey for a snack.

You might want to try Kefir. It has TONS of probiotics and live/active cultures (more than regular yogurt) and is really good for your belly. Might take having it a few times to get used to it in terms of taste (try mixing it with other things) and in terms of your belly (might grumble a bit while getting used to extra probiotics) but eventually it will make you feel better

And remember, if you want a sandwich or a burger you don't always need the bread. They are great as lettuce wraps or piled high on top of greens! Be sure you are getting enough fiber.

[lizard00]

My baking supplies: sorghum flour, tapioca starch, and potato starch, xanthan gum, egg replacer, and yeast. Those I try to never run out of... other than that, I'm not much into the other specialty products. Everything else is what I ate to begin with; fresh fruits, veggies, and meat.

[Takala]

Try to find a health food store, they will have a lot of specialty items that may be cheaper than Whole Paycheck.

The closest WF store near me (about 22 miles and 2 traffic jams) is so bad on layout, having scattered my desired items all over randomly, I prefer the smaller stores anyway except for a few items- the one further away is not as bad, but still, they have the gluten-free scattered out all over and no gluten-free baked goods except frozen ones.... and they are always out of some things.... apparently my genotype of fellow gluten-free shoppers lives closer to where I do, as even my local grocer has a better layout and a decent selection for its size.

If you're the manager of the Roseville store, in the state of California, that comment was directed at you. Yes, there is a "gluten free" aisle.... why don't you put the gluten free items on it ? The rice crackers are lonely and would like company. Why must this be Vision Quest ? I'm not trying to have a three day fast before I find my dinner and harvest it out thru the checkout line.

I buy nuts from the farm produce wholesale markets in big bags and keep a blender dedicated to grinding them for nutmeals.

My staples are nuts, eggs, amaranth, sorghum, what ever other flours I feel like, sunflower seeds, whole millet seeds to steam, apple cider vinegar (MUST HAVE) olive oil, baking powder, honey, molasses. I can do just about anything with that combo. If I use my trusty small cast iron I don't even need zanthan gum.

Other staples, gluten free peanut butter, lundberg rice cakes, corn tortillas, San J tamari, balsamic vinegar, gluten free mustard. Dried fruit, chocolate, dark, and chips, raisins, hemp milk, Imagine gluten-free chicken broth. Oh, and rice chex or other gluten-free cereal for my spouse, he's the big cereal eater and he's gone to gluten-free on that.

Fruits, veggies, meats. gluten-free turkey lunchmeat, tuna. Maybe some plain yogurt, had to switch brands on that and still experimenting, fage seems to be okay.

Classico tomato sauce for spaghetti and lundberg rice pasta.

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Large and small dedicated cast iron skillets.

one 4 x 8" baking loaf pan made in germany, which has never made a bad loaf of bread for me. I hate the ones where the coating starts to flake off. Yech.

one old and beloved pyrex casserole dish. another set of 3 of them.

Pie plate.

Cake pan, round, square. one rectangular baking pan.

toaster.

Colander.

Paper towels. I always put them down on everything. I have ancient tiled countertops.

[Jennifer2]

Thanks everyone!

I stopped at the store on the way home tonight and was plesantly surprised by the size of the Gluten Free section in my local store-I've been shopping there for 3 years and had NO idea! I stocked up on some of the pamela mixes, pasta, gluten-free cereal (yeah Chex!) and snacky things like crackers. I grabbed a box of cookies-not that I ever buy cookies but just so I can find out if I like them and have ammunition ready before girl scout season rolls around again One good thing about celiac, I now have a built in excuse to not buy those single serving boxes of yummy goodness from them and not feel guilty!

Luckily I tend to cook a lot already so as long as I have substitutions on hand it shouldn't be that much of an inconvenience making the change. Good thing too, because if I had to buy everything pre-made I'd go broke!!!

[Juliebove]

At first I went overboard. Bought every kind of flour and additive I could find. Most of the stuff, I didn't use.

For flour, I use Bette Hagman's Four Flour Bean Blend, white or brown rice flour (whatever my recipe calls for), sweet rice flour (for thickening), and glutinous rice flour (one kind of quick bread). I buy occasional mixes for things like the new Betty Crocker mixes.

We do have additional allergies so a lot of the specialty things I buy pertain only to use.

Basically I always keep these things in the house: Rice (brown, white, wild and Risotto), rice and corn/quinoa pasta, gluten-free broth (chicken, beef, turkey, vegetable), dried mushrooms, canned vegetables, canned turkey, chicken, beef, tuna, gluten-free bread, crackers and cookies, gluten-free beef jerkey and pepperoni, gluten-free lunch meats, real maple syrup, sugar (brown, white and powdered), Hormel chili and tamales, fresh meat, vegetables and fruit. I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting about.

We don't have a Whole Foods here. I've never shopped there. Never found much at Trader Joe's. I can get some stuff at our local grocery stores, a lot of it at our local health food store (owner is celiac) and I do mail order some stuff.

[happy2bme]

We use garbonzo bean flour, but it is very strong and has its own taste. I recommend it when breading meat and veggies and frying them.

[CeliacAlli]

For flour we use Betty Hagmans Four Bean Flour:

1 Garfava bean flour (2/3 part)... 2cups ... 2 2/3c

1 Sorghum flour (1/3 part) ... 1cup ... 1 1/3cups

1 Tapioca flour (1 parts) ... 3cups ... 4cups

1 Cornstarch (1 part) ... 3cups ... 4cups

I would also get some bread, or glutino bagels, food for life brown rice wraps(whole foods), plenty of fruits and veggies, quinoa, and some things to munch on.

[ang1e0251]

I do have a lot of the alternative flours but have not used them in awhile as I've been eating low carb. I did try the Betty Crocker brownies and like those a lot.

I usually keep on hand:

eggs, corn tortillas, Tinkyada pasta, cream cheese, butter, Hormel Naturals ham, Constant Comment tea, Koolaid, pineapple, green beans, green chilis, green chili enchilada sauce, grapes, mild cheddar cheese, soy milk, stevia sweetener, Lowry's Seasoned Salt, chopped green chilis and tomatoes, onion, tomato, rice, potatoes, peanut butter, peanuts, chocolate, coconut milk, rice noodles, meats, Arepa Harina, pasta sauce, alfredo sauce