Still Sick; Korean Market?

[musikate]

I've been gluten-free for 3 weeks now, and I'm still sick. My belly is huge and painful, my face is puffy, and I sleep 15 hours and still feel tired. There's some diarrhea, but I take Lotronex, so it's not that frequent. My 5-yr-old with Celiac also had diarrhea today. I was better for a while, but that just lasted about a week.

I've been shopping at our Korean market, and I like their noodles and snacks. I check the ingredients carefully. The noodles I had yesterday said they had "sweet potato starch, water." Could it be they have left out a comma, and it should read, "sweet potato, starch, water?" I dunno. I just feel like crap.

As far as the cross-contamination issue, can I really get symptoms from using the same toaster oven we used before going gluten-free? I can't afford a new one right now!

I would shop exclusively at Whole Foods or online, but we need to save money. I lost my job because of this illness, and now I have severe financial difficulties; and this diet's expensive! Plus, I should be going job-hunting now, but I'm too sick.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Kate

[Guest nini]

Kate, do you have a Wal Mart near you?

Yes the Korean Market foods could be mislabeled

Yes your old toaster would be a source of contamination, sorry, and they are very difficult to clean... buy a new one at Dollar General for $10...

Wal Mart is starting to label which foods of their Great Value brand are gluten-free... Stick with foods in their most simplest forms at first, rice, potatoes, fruits, vegetables, meats... it is cheaper that way... become a vigilant label reader.

[musikate]

Thanks for the advice. I just went to Whole Foods for some gluten-free foods, plus I got rid of all my old unsafe food. Unfortunately, the food at Whole Foods is costly. I don't go to Wal-Mart because of their union-busting activities. I guess it's the price I pay for an overactive conscience.

Thanks again, Nini.

[Guest nini]

Union busting activities????

[tarnalberry]

Yep, you need a dedicated toaster.

An easy way to save money is to base the bulk of the calories in your diet on naturally gluten-free, inexpensive items. Beans/lentils/rice are cheap, easily rinsed before cooking, and naturally gluten-free. The first two, in particular, are nutritious as well. Keeping the rest of your foods as naturally gluten-free as possible also helps, and you can make a very wide variety of things just by shopping in the produce section, the bean aisle, and the meat counter. (And the dairy case if you can have dairy.) It does take a little more time, but can be quite cheap.

(For instance, I made a chicken and rice casserole like dish tonight. It was a pound and a half of chicken (you could probably get that for as little as, what, $2 if you skin/debone yourself and don't use white meat), a cup and a half of rice (say, $0.75), three carrots (maybe $0.75), two zucchini (another $0.75), five celery stalks (maybe $0.50), a bell pepper (another $0.75), and boullion ($0.50) and spices (average $0.50 maybe?). That's $6.50 for enough dinner for about six people, and it'll work as leftovers for lunch. Just over a buck for each dinner isn't bad. ;-) I suppose I did add some raw broccoli and cauliflower for more veggies on my plate, so my dinner would have been closer to $1.75 or so.) (I'll note, however, that I'm assuming finding sale prices, not buying organic items, and not using expensive stock over boullion, in order to make it as cheap as possible. You do those things, and you may well triple the cost of the per-person meal to closer to $3.50.) (I'm also excluding electricity in the cost calculation here. That may well add another $0.25 per person, since it does take an hour in the oven.)

(Hey, this is fun... what about chili - a pound of ground beef is (I have no idea - I buy ground turkey - is $2 unreasonable on sale?), two cans of tomatoes is $1 (sale), two cans of beans is $1 (sale), a can of tomato paste is $0.50, an onion maybe $0.50, and spices maybe another $0.25. That's $5.25 for four to six people - again, around a buck a pop. And is great as leftovers for lunch, even cold!)

(Ooo.. breakfast... three rice cakes ($.50) and two tablespoons of peanut butter ($0.50) provides a $1.00, 450 calorie breakfast.)

(Ok, I guess I'll stop with the cost analysis AND parentheticals now... that means I have to stop procrastinating from getting some work done... ;-) )

[Rachel--24]

  I don't go to Wal-Mart because of their union-busting activities.  I guess it's the price I pay for an overactive conscience. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good for you!!!!

[Rachel--24]

Yep, you need a dedicated toaster.

An easy way to save money is to base the bulk of the calories in your diet on naturally gluten-free, inexpensive items.  Beans/lentils/rice are cheap, easily rinsed before cooking, and naturally gluten-free.  The first two, in particular, are nutritious as well.  Keeping the rest of your foods as naturally gluten-free as possible also helps, and you can make a very wide variety of things just by shopping in the produce section, the bean aisle, and the meat counter.  (And the dairy case if you can have dairy.)  It does take a little more time, but can be quite cheap. 

(For instance, I made a chicken and rice casserole like dish tonight.  It was a pound and a half of chicken (you could probably get that for as little as, what, $2 if you skin/debone yourself and don't use white meat), a cup and a half of rice (say, $0.75), three carrots (maybe $0.75), two zucchini (another $0.75), five celery stalks (maybe $0.50), a bell pepper (another $0.75), and boullion ($0.50) and spices (average $0.50 maybe?).  That's $6.50 for enough dinner for about six people, and it'll work as leftovers for lunch.  Just over a buck for each dinner isn't bad. ;-)  I suppose I did add some raw broccoli and cauliflower for more veggies on my plate, so my dinner would have been closer to $1.75 or so.)  (I'll note, however, that I'm assuming finding sale prices, not buying organic items, and not using expensive stock over boullion, in order to make it as cheap as possible.  You do those things, and you may well triple the cost of the per-person meal to closer to $3.50.) (I'm also excluding electricity in the cost calculation here.  That may well add another $0.25 per person, since it does take an hour in the oven.)

(Hey, this is fun... what about chili - a pound of ground beef is (I have no idea - I buy ground turkey - is $2 unreasonable on sale?), two cans of tomatoes is $1 (sale), two cans of beans is $1 (sale), a can of tomato paste is $0.50, an onion maybe $0.50, and spices maybe another $0.25.  That's $5.25 for four to six people - again, around a buck a pop.  And is great as leftovers for lunch, even cold!)

(Ooo.. breakfast... three rice cakes ($.50) and two tablespoons of peanut butter ($0.50) provides a $1.00, 450 calorie breakfast.)

(Ok, I guess I'll stop with the cost analysis AND parentheticals now... that means I have to stop procrastinating from getting some work done... ;-) )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

LOL Tiffany...can I take you shopping with me? Apparantly I'm doing everything wrong cuz my meals are *never* that cheap.

[tarnalberry]

LOL Tiffany...can I take you shopping with me? Apparantly I'm doing everything wrong cuz my meals are *never* that cheap. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

hehehe... I think the key is in my laziness. My meals often go something along the lines of "what all can I throw into one pot?"

And I'll admit that, because we're not on a tight budget, and because we specifically budgeted for plenty of money for food (at the expense of other things, because I'm a food snob about my ingredients), I don't often go that cheaply. (I'll buy the organic, boneless/skinless chicken that makes that first recipe three times the price sometimes.) But I used to ages ago when my dad would be out of work for six months at a time. And those are the cheapest ones I can think of, too.

When you start adding fruit... prices go up a lot!

But one summer, when I was in college and had to suddenly figure out how to pay for my private, $30k/year school myself (I later discovered the only real answer: a mountain of loans), I was working as a student researcher over the summer and feeling abysmally broke. So I made myself a $25/week budget for food. Oh, that wasn't fun. Lots of eggs for protein, and pasta (which I'd now substitute with rice), and the cheap, over ripe fruit that was discounted, and whatever vegetable was on sale. I did certainly get creative!

[grantschoep]

If your lazy like I am, I still do like prepared/canned foods. Fortunatly, some of my favorites are gluten-free. To save on cost, I usually wait until Safeway is doing the 10 for 10 deals or something, one dollar a can.

So what are my canned goods.

Hormel Chili is gluten-free

Dinty Moore beef stew is gluten-free

Some Progresso soups are gluten-free, I get the "Chicken and Wild Rice". Note, the "White Chicken and Rice" is not gluten-free last I checked.

All 3 of those end up being on sale for about a dollar or 1.50 every once in awhile. When they go on sale, I buy a load of them. Last week, they Dinty Moore Beef Stew, normally like 2.50 a can was on sale for a buck. I bought about 40 cans of it. :>

[misskris]

For the first six months of our marriage, hubby and I lived on beans and rice. Wal-Mart has pinto beans for $.50 a can - cook those on low with a piece of bacon for an hour and it tastes like my mom's beans that she would slow cook all day long! But it gets old...FAST.

I think that was my motivation to learn to get creative with my shopping/cooking. Now we only have beans and rice when we want 'em! There are other options.