lpellegr

If you have been substituting a lot of rice-flour based baked goods for what you used to eat, those wear off very quickly and leave you hungry. The only way I stay full is eating as low carb as I can. Back in the day, three big bowls of Cheerios and milk (pre-diagnosis, of course) would only last until 10:30am, but having two eggs instead kept me going until 1 or later. I get the same effect from half a cup of plain yogurt with some fruit and nuts, which I wouldn't have believed would keep me going that long until I tried it. Protein and plants stays with you longer than grains.

Going to make up some kale today and put it in quiche (no crust this time, too lazy). I find that if you rip or cut the greens up before washing, then immerse in a big bowl of water and swish around it helps a lot in cleaning them up - fewer hiding places than with whole leaves. Then put them in the basket of the salad spinner, rinse again, and finally spin dry and put in a plastic bag with a paper towel to control humidity. I also once impulsively added chopped cooked kale to the meat while making burgers (might have been turkey), threw in some garlic, and was surprised how good that came out. The kids were not thrilled, but they eat like children. I actually hate veggies, so I was wondering myself how I would disguise them if not for cheese. I find that putting leafy greens in some other food (quiche, casserole, meatloaf) hides the texture, while other means are needed to disguise the taste.

If you have access to a fridge and microwave, lunches are pretty simple, but even if you don't, remember that many of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s survived an awful lot of lunches that sat in a room temperature locker all morning. Granted, a lot of it was sandwiches, but I think most lunchmeats and cheeses can survive those few hours without becoming evil and poisonous. Many is the time I forgot to put my lunch of leftovers in the fridge when I got to work and ate it safely. I recently found out that many of my Chinese coworkers who bring lunch from home don't refrigerate it, and this includes rice, veggies, and meats leftover from dinner. Chances are you'll be fine if the food you bring was safe in the first place.

I do have to say that Lebanon boloney has a unique taste after those hours in the locker that you just can't get right out of the fridge. Those of you from Pennsylvania might know what I mean!

Sounds like a pretty good mock pierogi to me. I always liked my pierogies sauteed and browned a little, but on the whole I think the filling and onions in the rice pasta would pretty much add up to the pierogi experience. Do you even need the pasta? Let us know how it comes out!

If the sugar gets mixed in with the other ingredients before you put it into the tart shell, I'd say you need to compensate by mixing it more. Rebecca Reilly's gluten-free baking book stresses how you need to cream the butter and sugar for a long time to make sure the sugar is dissolved. If you are doing everything else the same as when you used to use regular tart shells, but the lower temperature is the only difference, I'd say either try raising the temperature back up (maybe cover the edges of the tart shells with foil so they brown less) or try mixing like crazy to get the sugar better incorporated in a way that the heat used to take care of.

  irish daveyboy said:

Hi,

This is not a reccomendatition about brands, but more a note on Baking with a Gas Oven.

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If your Central Heating is also Gas and you're Baking during the Winter Months,

Gas pressure to your oven will be effected by your heating.

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Even though the Setting may be Gas Mark 4 the internal temperature will NOT be 350F.

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Something to bear in mind during the Winter.

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Best Regards,

David

Interesting. Gas Ovens in the US don't use the Gas Marks you have in the UK, but they do have (at least new ones) temperature readouts, although I know from experience that a bad thermostat can throw that off. I can always tell an overseas recipe when it tells you to preheat your oven to a "Gas Mark" rather than to a specific temperature.

Good for you! Doesn't it feel good to get something you crave? I recommend the Prarie Bread if you like seeds and nuts. I was in our Whole Foods tonight and was disappointed that they don't yet carry the gluten-free ice cream sandwiches I read about here. Maybe next time!

Sliced lunchmeat and cheese (the prepackaged kinds, like Oscar Mayer) can be rolled up and eaten with fingers or toothpicks, or wrap in corn tortillas or lettuce leaves.

I won't eat something that's labeled as processed on the same lines as gluten-containing ingredients, but as for the facility containing wheat, well so does the house where I'm going to be consuming that product, since my kids eat normally. So far it has not been a problem.

I have seen one weird instance on this forum of somebody finding gluten in butter: apparently in unsalted butter they can sometimes add other ingredients for flavoring. A perfectly good block of delicious dairy fat as Mother Nature intended, and somebody has to mess it up!

Another option would be to not bake gluten-free bread there, but find some that will work for individual servings - rolls or slices that are say, frozen in ones or twos, and those can be taken out and microwaved in a dedicated oven for gluten-free customers. I have to say though, that I won't feel safe eating anything that comes from a place where wheat bread is made because there will always be flour in the air and traces on the counters. I stay away from Panera.

Don't be afraid of distilled vinegar as an ingredient. It should be safe.

I usually find Flying Horse brand rice and glutinous rice flours. I believe they also have tapioca. Keep looking, because regular rice flour should be a staple in an Asian market. I have been using these for years with no problems. It's definitely way cheaper than any other source of these flours, and is also ground more finely.

Bette Hagman's Vinegar pastry always works for me and seems totally normal to non-gluten-free people. It makes enough for two crusts, so you can freeze the half you don't need and successfully thaw it months later, or you can roll it out and bake pieces on a cookie sheet, then spread with jam and pretend you have Pop-Tarts!

1c rice flour

3/4 c tapioca flour

3/4 c cornstarch

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

3/4 t salt

1 T sugar

Mix those together in a bowl, then cut in:

3/4 c shortening

Mix in:

1 egg, lightly beaten

1T cider vinegar

Then start adding ice water, 1 T at a time, and toss together with a fork, until all of it has been moistened enough to keep together in a ball when you squeeze it in your hand. Split it in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 min (or skip this if you're in a hurry). You can also freeze at this point. Roll out each half in whatever way works best for you to prevent sticking. I use a few drops of water sprinkled on the counter to hold a piece of wax paper, sprinkle rice flour on the wax paper, and use plenty of rice flour on the dough and rolling pin. Then I can just put the pie pan face down over the rolled dough, slip my hand under the wax paper, and flip the whole thing over to get the dough into the pan. Shape the edge, poke with a fork all over if not filling, and bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes, or follow the directions for a filled pie. Don't forget to bake and eat all the scraps you trimmed off .

My guess is that you could substitute any decent flour blend for the mix of flours above, although I haven't tried it with a bean flour mix.

Try this site. I have found these in a few specialty stores.

Open Original Shared Link

I have had good luck freezing things made with Tinkyada rice pasta. The lasagna freezes well, and I used the spaghetti-style pasta for Chicken Tetrazzini, which has a cream sauce base. I don't keep track of how long things are in the freezer, but everything has come out fine if it's sealed well. I also made a batch of Mrs. Leeper's cheeseburger macaroni (like Hamburger Helper) in individual servings and that is coming out well, with the noodles just a tad mushy. If you're going to freeze things with rice or rice pasta in them I recommend that you do it right after you cook it because if you keep it in the fridge for a few days before you decide to freeze what you can't eat, the noodles or rice will have absorbed liquid and changed texture.

In theory, you can have oats, but as the other posters have said, wait a while before you challenge your guts, and then only use certified gluten-free oats and see if you have a reaction. I can't eat them, alas, even when gluten-free, but many can.

If you're new to gluten-free bread dough, you should know that it's sticky, not kneadable, and hard to roll out in general due to said stickiness. Dust everything generously with rice flour or your gluten-free flour mix to keep it from sticking, or roll between sheets of plastic wrap. Conversely, sometimes wet hands work best for patting dough into shape. Instead of rolling and cutting you might try just plopping scoops of the dough onto the pan or even into muffin tins or glass baking cups. Don't give up if the first try doesn't come out - these are tricky doughs to master and sometimes it takes some experimentation. Good luck!

Since cheese generally has bacterial or fungal cultures added to the milk curds to create the unique flavor of whatever kind of cheese it is (cheddar, parmesan, bleu) you might be reacting to the microbes or one of their products. That would explain why you are sensitive to cheese, which is a fermentation product, and not to plain milk. Even though the microbes are probably long dead, their fermentation products would remain. Does anything else fermented bother you - yogurt, beer, wine? Some of the soft cheese are curdled with vinegar, which is another thing some people are sensitive to even though it has been distilled to remove gluten if it was made from wheat.

I've been cooking and eating gluten-free for nearly 5 years. If you can cook, you will be fine. This is hardest for those who can't cook and depend on eating out, but those of us who can cook and have the ability to make our families cooperate usually do fine. You will make some mistakes and have to find some compromises or give some things up entirely, but you'll find ways to make your favorites gluten-free and eventually you won't miss what you can't have (much!). Thinking ahead is key to always having something to eat, so think about freezing single-serving sizes of things for lunch and dinner. I eat a lot of leftovers and salads for lunch, but on days when the fridge is bare it's good to grab some homemade rice mac and cheese or casserole out of the freezer. If you can bake you will save money over ready-made gluten-free stuff - I keep corn muffins, crumpets, and breadcrumbs in the freezer and have worked out over the years a few consistently good recipes from gluten-free cookbooks. This forum is a great place to get info and have your questions answered.

Things to consider to make your kitchen safe if you share with others who are not gluten-free:

Certain things trap gluten and are hard to clean, so have your own dedicated colander and wooden spoons.

Have your own dedicated jars of anything that can be spread on bread, like margarine, peanut butter, cream cheese, jelly, etc so you don't eat anyone's bread crumbs. They mean well, but they can't help it.

Don't share drinks with gluten-eaters.

Get some stickers and code foods as "gluten-free" or "not gluten-free" to remind both you and the others what's what.

Read labels all the time, because manufacturers change ingredients. You'll also start to realize how many ingredients go into processed foods. Read the label on a bag of flavored instant mashed potatoes and consider the food chemistry that goes into something you could easily make yourself.

Get rid of things that could be cross contaminated. I used to use the same scoop for flour and sugar, so I had to give away all my sugar.

Good luck! We're here for you.

I make bread just for crumbs, since I don't have much use for slices. Bette Hagman's 4-flour bean bread recipe from The Gluten-Free Gourmet doesn't make great bread for slicing, but it makes great crumbs. I make a loaf or two, cut them into cubes, let them air-dry a day or two, and dry out in the oven at 250 for a few hours. Some go into the food processor for crumbs, which I keep in a ziploc bag in the freezer, and some get some olive oil and spices and go back into the oven to be croutons. But for summer, when I don't feel like heating up the kitchen to bake, the Chex crumbs sound like a worthy alternative in places where they won't be noticed like inside meatballs.

BTW, for crumbs in meatloaf or meatballs, a Depression-era cook told me you can substitute things like cooked rice or potatoes to add moisture and stretch the ground meat. And crushed Chex or gluten-free Rice Krispie-type cereal make an excellent breading for baked fish. Dip the fish in melted butter, shake in a bag of crumbs, pour the remaining crumbs and butter over the fish on a baking sheet and bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. Pardon me while I drool.

I tried eating Lay's chips and Fritos - the ingredient list does not contain gluten, true, but I got sick every time I tried. Must be cross-contamination from the factories.

Yes, sorry to say, you will get weevils in rice pasta, or rice flour or millet flour or cornstarch or just about anything else grain-based that you keep around. Putting the bag in a heavy duty ziploc bag seems to help prevent them. Make sure as soon as you notice them anywhere that you put out a Pantry Pest trap and throw out anything that could be harboring the little critters. I usually don't know I have 'em until the cats start chasing moths around the house.

Thanks all - it looks like I'm already using most of your tips to trick myself into eating nasssty veggies. I stir-fry, I use oil and vinegar, soy sauce, hide spinach and kale in eggs with cheese, etc. I'm a super-taster and just think most veggies have horrible bitter or "dirty" taste, and those that don't have gross texture (raw tomatoes - gak!). I was so happy when I grew up and didn't have to eat limas or stuffed peppers (taste like ear wax! Don't ask) ever again! It looks like I'm on the right path and just have to keep fooling myself into eating right. But keep passing on the recipes for me and the other vegephobes out there.

I have always hated vegetables - to me they just plain taste bad. But I force myself to eat them because they are good for me. I prefer to drown their taste in butter, cheese, sour cream, or some other fattening substance that I do like. My salads are full of meat, cheese, eggs, nuts, and anything interesting to overcome the lettuce and veggies. There are a lot of creative cooks here - what do you suggest for making veggies taste better?