Newbie Seeking Advice

[SWofKY]

Greetings to all. This is my first post. Have been reading on the site quite a bit and found lots of great advice and recipes. It seems gluten-free foods to substitute grains are so expensive. We've been in financial distress since spring, after closing our business in December and moving home to Kentucky from Texas where we'd worked almost 11 years. Lately I've been experimenting with gluten-free Bisquick and can now do quite a bit with that (biscuits, cornbread, popovers, pancakes, even use it for breading sometimes), but haven't figured out a way to do cakes or many other desserts. Do most of you live on fruits, veggies, and meats alone or do you spend the money for breads, cookies, etc.? Thanks!

Blessings,

Sharon

[LauraB0927]

Greetings to all. This is my first post. Have been reading on the site quite a bit and found lots of great advice and recipes. It seems gluten-free foods to substitute grains are so expensive. We've been in financial distress since spring, after closing our business in December and moving home to Kentucky from Texas where we'd worked almost 11 years. Lately I've been experimenting with gluten-free Bisquick and can now do quite a bit with that (biscuits, cornbread, popovers, pancakes, even use it for breading sometimes), but haven't figured out a way to do cakes or many other desserts. Do most of you live on fruits, veggies, and meats alone or do you spend the money for breads, cookies, etc.? Thanks!

Blessings,

Sharon

Welcome to the forum!!! Glad to hear that you've been finding it helpful already. I don't buy a lot of gluten free replacement foods not only for the price, but for the fact that most of them are more loaded with carbs and calories and I'm trying to keep the weight off that the Celiac put on before my diagnosis. I will go to the gluten free bakery near my house before an event (wedding, bridal shower, birthday party, etc) and buy a crumb cake or brownie so I can take with me and not have to skip out on dessert. More recently I've found that my gut isn't too fond of loading up on the replacement foods and when I eat whole foods it seems more appreciative.

You said you're pretty new to being gluten free right? If you keep reading around you can see the consensus on here is that sticking to more whole foods (meats, veggies, fruits, nuts, dairy - if you can handle it) is the way to go when starting out gluten free. The replacement foods can be harsher on our guts as they are trying to heal and you do have more of a risk of cross contamination.

It does seem overwhelming but my suggestion would be to stick to whole foods and only have a small amount of the gluten free replacement foods. It will go easier on your wallet and your gut!! Best wishes to you...

[Persei V.]

Oh, I have a few recipes of desserts and cakes with whole foods only so I might as well post a few that worked for you to see them here... Not many ingredients and easy to make.

Well, the advice is to keep with whole foods for the most part, although it might be hard at first. I can't purchase processed gluten free substitutes due to where I live, but they do look yummy, especially when one knows gluten is off the list for a looong time.

Welcome to the forums and good luck!

[shadowicewolf]

Eating a lot of whole foods will decrease that bill quite a bit.

I "splerg" only on my pasta, chex, and maaaaaybe some breadish item. But this is rare.

[tarnalberry]

Greetings to all. This is my first post. Have been reading on the site quite a bit and found lots of great advice and recipes. It seems gluten-free foods to substitute grains are so expensive. We've been in financial distress since spring, after closing our business in December and moving home to Kentucky from Texas where we'd worked almost 11 years. Lately I've been experimenting with gluten-free Bisquick and can now do quite a bit with that (biscuits, cornbread, popovers, pancakes, even use it for breading sometimes), but haven't figured out a way to do cakes or many other desserts. Do most of you live on fruits, veggies, and meats alone or do you spend the money for breads, cookies, etc.? Thanks!

Blessings,

Sharon

Fruits, veggies, meats, gluten-free grains (corn, rice, quinoa), beans, nuts/seeds...

We mostly skip the packaged foods.

[ciamarie]

For my occasional baking I've recently just been using rice flour, blanched almond flour and some tapioca flour rather than buying the mixes. Then again I rarely used mixes when I was eating gluten either. For rice noodles, I get the Asian rice noodles in the Asian food aisle of the grocery store, it costs less! Also I found the bulk area of my local Winco has some brown rice spaghetti and white rice elbows and I think a couple of other items available at a good price.

Otherwise, I'm pretty much like the others and just eat whole foods (chicken, natural beef, vege's, some fruit and beans). I do splurge on Pamela's ginger snap cookies every couple of weeks maybe. I think they're really yummy.

[peacefirst]

The more fresh simple foods you eat, the less expensive it will be. I do buy Tinkyada pasta and purple rice toast crackers. I buy them at iherb or vitacost, so it is a bit cheaper.

[kittty]

Whole foods are best, and like ciamarie I buy a lot of Asian options because they're cheaper (specialty Asian stores are MUCH cheaper than the Asian section of a regular grocery store, if you have that option).

I also check out sales on gluten free specialty items, and buy them when they're a good deal. Kroger often has deals. A few weeks ago they had cans of Wolfgang Puck's gluten free soups for 50% off - they're all organic and delicious!

And on Friday I had the surprise of my life when they had Amy's gluten free pizzas on clearance for $1.99 each!!! They're usually $9 a piece. I bought their whole stock of course

[NorthernElf]

I agree- packaged gluten-free foods are treats!

Rice (I eat ALOT of rice), quinoa, potatoes, yams, beans if you can handle them, gluten-free pasta as a treat - those are our staples.

It took a bit of a shift but no longer relying on bread type products helps. If I eat a gluten-free hotdog (Costco) I put ketchup & mustard & ketchup on a plate and dip it. If I make hamburgers I put my toppings on the patty on my plate and cut it & eat it. For my work lunches I make egg salad, tuna salad, salmon salad and dip gluten-free crackers into it.

And I agree....gluten-free baked goods are dynamite calorie wise - very dense. They are also not very substantial - quickly digested as they don't have much fiber (hi glycemic), so they don't keep you full too long.

[GFinDC]

I do mostly whole foods, no bread, but some corn tortillas sometimes. I buy sweet potato chips and prefer the Food Should Taste Good brand. Fruits, nuts, veggie and meats are for me.

[Jestgar]

And here's a recipe for "Bisquick" that will cut down on the cost for you.

[Takala]

We eat mostly whole foods at home, meat & veg & fruit, + I bake with stuff I mix up myself. "Fruit" or gelato = dessert.