DawnS

I have a trip tomorrow to see my surgeon and found out there is a whole foods store there ( 2 hour drive to Dr) -I am very excited about going to the whole foods store that I maybe overwhelmed when I get there - I hear everyone speak so highly of this store and thought perhaps you could list your favorites so I know where to start! So please list your favorite items that whole foods carry.

Also, should I take a cooler?

thanks!

My Whole Foods store just explanded their gluten free section. The Enjoy Life chocolate chips are fantastic (no dairy or soy either). Friday at my regular trip I found some Pamela's ginger cookies. YUM YUM YUM. I haven't been able to find many store bought sweets because of no eggs, dairy or vanilla. Even the dairy free and egg free sweets usually have vanilla. These dont. They're soft and they don't fall apart. Tastes like old fashion ginger bread. If you don't have sensitivities besides gluten, they have a good selection of breakfast bars and sweet items. If your local store doesn't have Tinkyada brown rice pasta, that's great too. They have a great selection of flours too. They have a good size freezer section with gluten free waffles, breads, desserts...I haven't tried most because of other ingredients, so I cant recommend any particular ones, but definitely take the time to look and yes, you'd need a cooler for these. Their butcher shop has lots of hormone free meat too. If this one is like mine, feel free to ask the staff at Whole Foods for help...they are great :-)

I don't think that it's very easy to convert gluten breads to gluten free, unless maybe it's something like cornbread. I too use the gluten free flax bread on the recipezaar site. I could never get bread to turn out right until I got a bread machine. The bread would always not rise enough and then sink in on the sides. I had to send my son to daycare with 3 inch tall bread. One thing that I found was that I needed to add extra yeast. In the recipe I mentioned above calls for 2 tsp yeast, but I add 3 tsp. It also calls for 2 TBSP honey, but I use 3 TBSP sugar instead. I also substitute almond meal/flour for the flax, but that's just personal preference. Another thing is that if you use too many heavy flours your bread may have a hard time rising. I really like amaranth flour too, but you should maybe try mixing it with a bit of rice or sorghum flour to lighten it up a bit.

I thought I'd replied to this already, but I don't see it...so if it shows up twice...sorry!

I will definitely try replacing the amaranth with sorghum and save the amaranth for flat bread. And the tip on the increase of yeast and sugar sounds fantastic.

I have a question about the bread machine though. I've decided I'm going to get one. I'm the only one in my household that's gluten free. I've seen that some people have mentioned a "dedicated" bread machine. But I share all other kitchen utensils and pots/pans. I just clean them really well before I use them if they've touched something I'm sensitive to. I haven't seemed to have any big problems following this pattern. If I wash the pan from the bread machine and clean out the machine would it be ok to share with gluten-bread baking? Or is there something different about baking bread that would make this more "dangerous" than regular cooking.

Maybe if we were all required to post a picture of our rear ends every time we gained weight we'd all be more compliant

lol I think I'd have to adjust and do a picture of my tummy. No matter how much weight I gain, I still have no rear end!

Wow! This thread is a great idea. I've been kind of at a stand still for a while as far as weight goes. I'm hoping to get back to the gym and back to spinning soon (I can't handle a full length class but do it on my own after one-on-one instruction from the gym's spinning teacher). As most of us, I've been dealing with one thing after the other for months. I had injured my foot and now I've been getting dizzy spells for months and am a little afraid of going to workout. The spells are much

better and I think I'm ready to start back, but I thought if I put it in writing and you are reading it, I'd be more likely to do it!

I'm not in any huge hurry to lose the weight as long as am feeling healthy and my bloodwork is good. Of course, it's more fun to do it fast, but I've been overweight all my life, so at this point...what's the hurry? I don't want to "diet" cause i've done that ad nauseum, but I am interested in eating good, healthy, "safe" foods. I know when I do that AND exercise I lose weight (the thyroid pill helps too ;-))

That sounds like a great recipe. Thanks for sharing :-) I love pocket bread. Anybody know of a good substitute for the gelatin?

I avoid eggs and soy, also. AndreaB posted several yummy recipes for cheeses and mayo made with cashews. They are all good. I make the cashew mayo all the time - I could eat it with a spoon it's so good.

Open Original Shared Link

I saw those a while back, but alas...no cashews either! Do you think almonds would work? I did see a recipe somewhere the other day for an almond "cream cheese" that I think I'm going to try.

I've found that sometimes it's not really something I just ate either. It could just be coincidental.

I might be totally wrong on this, but my understanding is that toxins are held in our fat cells...for us that includes gluten. When we stop eating gluten, or exercise, or are dieting, or whenever it pleases ;-) our bodies release these toxins. They have to get out somehow for us to eventually have excellent health. Supposedly our bodies release these toxins "when we can handle it" But this doesn't always take into affect when we can handle it EMOTIONALLY. But each time we have a reaction to a toxin release, we should feel better after than we did before it.

I found for some things I use alot of I can buy cases at amazon .com and save over local prices, not that my local(60 miles one way) is very knowledgable or helpful when I ask about certain things they "could" carry, is it a bad thing I am concidering opening a very local store as I am also finding out there are at least 6 of us in this town alone! Heard about #6 just yesterday, its a child of a fellow engineer and since many know of my situation (I have been very vocal, lol) they told him to look me up, lol left him a note in his mailbox with my number on it!

I think your own store is a great idea. I've often thought of offering a few of my favorite products through my personal website just so I can buy them wholesale!

I've bought a couple things on amazon too by the case...even better if you can find a friend to split cases.

My dr. recently suggested doing my cooking on Saturday for the week. Make 3 large meals...Freeze 1/2 of each meal for later in the week. For the first couple days eat lunch and dinner from what's been refrigerated. Then when those are gone thaw/reheat what's in the freezer for the end of the week. This was my 3rd week doing it and I eat a lot better as well as save money. Instead of looking for quick convenience foods, I have good less expensive food ready. My dr suggested doing "1 pan" meals...a carb (like rice, quinoa, sweet potatos, white potato if you can eat them) w/ a meat and covering with water and slow cooking in the oven on a low temp. If your oven is big enough you can cook all three meals at once. Then with each meal make a salad or cook a fresh/frozen vegetable. I don't do all of mine "one pan" because I like to cook and come up with new things. But the idea behind it is making my life easier and my trips to the grocery store less painful.

One of my favorites has been a beef macaroni dish. I used the Tinkyada macaroni and cooked according to directions. Then I browned a pound of hamburger meat. Mixed it into the cooked/drained pasta. Then I put a sloppy joe type sauce (I make my own out of tomato sauce, agave nectar, salt, pepper, celery salt, and a bit of dijon mustard) and stirred it all together. (If you can eat onions, I'd chop one and cook it with the hamburger meat and probably skip the celery salt.) It froze and reheated great. It took me about 1/2 hour to prepare and probably cost about $7. I got about 5 or 6 meals plus some others ate off it a couple times.

As I come up with others that y'all might enjoy, I'll try to post in the cooking board.

After a couple of days I got back full pain-free movement :-) Must have been glutened (or something else) when I ate at that Mexican restaurant! Still get the occasional sharp pain in the wrist, but all else is back to normal. Thanks for the responses and encouragement that it could just be a food issue.

Dawn - since you can't have rice or potato flour, you might be interested in this bread reciipe. Reminds you a lot of whole wheat, is light in texture and it is so yummy. (I have some cooling on the counter right now and can't wait until its cool enough to slice)

The name of it is Sesame Bean Bread, which I didn't think sounded that great; but when Betty Hagman said it was one of her favorites, I thought if she likes it then I have to try it. I've tried a ton of different recipes and always keep coming back to this one.

Dry Ingredients

3 1/4 Cups gluten-free Flour (equal parks of tapioca flour, corn starch and bean flour)

2 1/2 t Xanthan Gum

1 t Salt

1 t Gelatin

1 t Egg Replacer

3 T Sugar 2 T Sesame Seeds

1 T Yeast

Wet Ingredients

3 Eggs

1t Vinegar

1/4 cup melted butter

1 1/2 C water

Mix all dry ingredients in the bowl of stand mixer, add wet ingredients and beat for 3 minutes. Spoon into pan and let rise to top of pan. (I use fast rise yeast and put in 200 degree oven turned off to rise and it usualy takes about 35 minutes)

Bake in 350 degree oven about 50 minutes, covering with foil after first 10 minutes.

Try it, you'll like it.

Sounds like it tastes pretty good :-) I'll have to check out the book for subs because there are still a few ingredients I don't use. Thanks for the suggestion (and for taking the time to type all that out!)

dawn, my husband loves tomatoe sandwiches! have you seen bette hagman's book "the gluten free gourmet bakes bread"? it has a lot of recipes in it that allow for various intolerances. she gives directions for what to substitute for different allergies.

I've heard of it, but not seen it. I've been frustrated with most of the books I've seen that are gluten-free because they don't take into account the other intolerances and end up being just as hard as traditional books. But if she give substitution directions...that's a different story. Thanks. I'll look through it at the book store or library.

We've been buying falafel patties at our local Central Market. Nothing in them that we're allergic to. We also buy tomato slices and make sandwiches using the tomatoes on the outside and the falafel on the inside.

Yum...that sounds good. I've made a big batch of homemade falafel (no garlic for me and most premade has that) and got bored with them before they were gone. Of course, I guess I could just make a smaller batch But that sounds like a great thing to do with it.

Thanks to everybody for the tips...I'll keep trying.

It was a traditional recipe as a lot of gluten-free recipes that I've found call for rice/potato flours. I'm sensitive to potato and mildly sensitive to rice, so I try to keep my rice intake to yummy saffron rice or spanish rice w/black beans (well, and the occasional cookie!). I'll definitely check for the flax bread recipe 'cause I love whole wheat bread too. I'm the only one gluten free in my family too, but if I come up with something good, they'll help me eat it.

by the way, what is in a tomato sandwich?

It's really just two pieces of bread (I like mine toasted but some people like them soft), a BIG slice of tomato, a little salt and ideally some mayo. I'm also sensitive to eggs and soy so I haven't found a good mayo replacement. The last one I tried to make didn't thicken.

Here in NC people that raise their own tomatos get overrun and give them to anybody that will take them. I grew up on tomato sandwiches and somebody gave us 2 bags of tomatos on Sunday...yum yum!

My Dr. uses Diagnos-techs. It tested for gluten, dairy, soy, egg, a few bacteria and yeast. I don't know anything about how it compares to others, but you can look at their site and see what all they test for.

I'm craving a tomato sandwich, so I finally decided to try to bake bread. The flavor was great, but it didn't rise right which made it really heavy and not very tall and a little gooey)

I used a combination of several different gluten free flours (quinoa, almond meal, amaranth, milllet, tapioca starch, chickpea) for a total of 3 cups. And 3 tsp of guar gum to replace the gluten.

The link I found somewhere on this message board said not to knead it, just to mix it together. And also not to let rise more than about 20 minutes. The original glutened recipe said to knead for 10 minutes and let rise until doubled. Then put in the pan and let rise some more. But I followed the gluten-free site's advice.

Another thing that may have affected is that I used agave nectar instead of white sugar. The yeast seemed to proof ok with it though.

So, any experts have an idea? Let it rise longer? use regular sugar? Mix it longer? Give up ;-)?

It tastes SO good after not having bread in months that I really want to try it again!

I don't know what your budget is like, but if she likes to travel maybe a giftcard toward her favorite airline.

Or if that's not a possibility, pick a place she hasn't been and research it. Then have her over for a day and "explore" the place together over the internet or you could have pictures/info printed out for her...or check out books with great pictures from the library about the place (no money if you check out the books from the library...or you could buy her a great book) Then play music and prepare her a dinner from that place. Or maybe make a gift basket of items that represent a certain place.

Or another thing I love to do is go on a day-long "vacation" in my own or a nearby city. Go to museums, take tours, whatever you'd do out of town and have probably never done at home. (with a little research you can probably find lots of cool free stuff and then just pay for one major item)

Good luck finding the perfect gift.

Thanks for the info. I'm not so concerned about it now. I am generally gluten free (since February) but do have other intolerances/allergies too. Eating out is always a gamble, so I probably just got a "surprise"

I woke up Wednesday morning with a pain in my wrist and my fingers like I had slept on my hand funny. I assumed it would just get better throughout the day, but it didn't. This morning, it was still hurting, but my fingers were a bit swollen and I couldn't straighten them. Ice helped with the swelling, but moving my wrist and fingers still causes quite a bit of pain.

Anybody ever have this from gluten or other offending foods? I've had pain in shoulders and feet before from it, but nothing with visible swelling or quite so constant /strong (of course it is my dominant hand which sitting at a desk gets used a lot more than my shoulders or feet). BTW, it doesn't act like carpal tunnel syndrome...it was sudden, is in all fingers and on the side of my wrist rather than in the center.

I did go out to eat on Sunday and wasn't 100% sure of ingredients in some foods.

Have a beautiful day :-)

I used to take B12 1000mcg monthly by injection, but decided to skip it last month in hopes that I didn't need it anymore. Well, I think I do. The exhaustion finally hit me yesterday. I would like to try the pill form before going back to the shots. I've been doing the shots since 2004. Anyway, I remember a thread about B12, and wonder if the folks who take it can pass on the brand and possibly dosage they are taking.

Thanks

I take B12 plus Folic Acid from www.bevkovitamins.com My doctor is the "bev" of bevko. She developed her own line of supplements. This is a chewable lozenge form (kind of like a tums or rolaids) so it is really easy to take. Per my dr's instructions I take 1 per day...not sure of the dosage right off hand

I've never been a runner, but I used to have a problem with dehydration/resulting migraines when working out. I am diabetic, so I was better off not using Gatorade...I did a lot of research for something beyond water that I could drink. I used Ultima Replenisher. Their site doesn't say if they are dairy free, but I would think so...it does say it's gluten free. It's a powder, so you'd have to pre-mix, but it's available at running stores and at my local WFM.

Dawn,

I have been hypo for 13 years and I KNOW something isn't right. I have for a long time. But my tests always come back normal. Argh!!!! I am thinking that I am on the very LOW end of normal, but this whole T3 thing could make sense, too. Is your T3 supplement specifically adjusted for you, I would imagine?

-Courtney

Thanks all. That gives me a good place to start :-)

Our local food shuttle is doing a "backpack buddy" program where they provide food for children on the free lunch program to take home over the weekend. They fill up backpacks with healthy foods that are pre-packaged, no refrigeration needed, no stove top use, etc. My family has been talking about donating regularly and today I was talking to one of the food shuttle reps. They have not yet had any requests for gluten-free (and/or other allergen-free) backpacks, but with the prevalance of these issues, I'm sure it's coming. Since it's something I have to deal with, I would like to donate these specialty items for a hungry child. (the rep said go ahead and donate it and they would start a new category in their storage area! How cool is that?) But I cook most stuff and I'm not a parent and don't know what pre-packaged stuff might be out there that kids would like. Any suggestions of what I could donate?

Thanks

Carolina Hurricanes Hockey!! (even if it is referred to as Redneck Hockey by the rest of the NHL) First season game is next week

I too must admit to enjoying the cheerleading competitions. I guess that's why I have this terrible habit of stopping on whatever channel is showing the movie "Bring it On" ;-)

My favorite to play growing up was softball. It's been years, but I'm working towards being able to play again. I'm hoping next summer to join the church league.