lonewolf

Thanks for a good idea. I was looking for the Namaste cake mix, but none of the stores here carry it. My son just had his 11th birthday a few days ago and I made cupcakes out of the Gluten Free Pantry cake and cookie mix. I used melted coconut oil for the oil and rice milk. They were great! I frosted the cupcakes with chocolate frosting using a recipe in Betty Crocker. I had raspberry sorbet for my son (Trader Joe's was out of coconut) and my friend brought regular ice cream (our boys shared a party). A bag of gluten-free potato chips and some juice and all the boys were happy.

My biggest baking loss so far has been roll out cookies, I used to make and decorate for all the holidays. Had so much fun with that, ahven't done it as much since #4 son was born 2 yrs ago, but stilll.......I will figure it out eventually.

Have you tried following your old recipe and just substituting gluten-free flour? I made delicious heart-shaped cookies at Valentine's Day by following a regular recipe. They did dry out more quickly, but my kids loved them and so did the friends at school they shared with. (I did use an egg, since I thought flax seed would look kind of yucky in white sugar cookies. But the brown rice flour still looked white.)

What depressed me is that I had to go out of my way to make it gluten-free, and I think it just depressed me about everything else I'll have to go out of my way to make gluten-free. I have had about two baking failures in my life, and I know that the road ahead will have many, many more going gluten free

I really can relate. I love baking and was famous in the family for all my fancy yeast breads. When I had to give up wheat/gluten, eggs, soy and dairy 10 years ago I thought I'd never figure out baking again. (I didn't have internet and couldn't find any books with usable recipes.) I had 7 years of failures. In the past 3 years I have learned to make almost everything again, except the yeast breads.

I have the best success with mixing up my own flour (br. rice, potato, tapioca, xanthan gum) and putting it in the refrigerator. I usually make a gallon-sized container at a time. That way, when I want to bake, which I do several times a week between pancakes, waffles, cookies, etc., all I have to do is get out the flour and use it like regular flour. The only real modification I make is to sift the flour before measuring and measure scantly so I don't have to add more liquid. And I've found that liquid sweeteners (honey, maple syrup) work well with rice flour, since it's somewhat dry. (And I usually use an egg substitute, but that's not something everyone has to do.)

Get adventurous and experiment! You might have some failures, but who knows what you'll come up with! I'm back to serving baked goods to company and teenagers (that's a tough crowd) and don't even tell anyone it's gluten-free and no one notices. You'll get the hang of it and soon you'll be baking everything again without a second thought.

Thanks Cheri! I'm going to have to try these. I really miss bread. I'm trying to get all my kids gluten-free and I need something to make sandwiches with.

I second the motion to have gluten-free snacks for all your kids. Mine are older (9-14), but adapted well to gluten-free snacks. I'm slowly trying to get them all gluten-free. Only one is gluten-free right now - the others only eat gluten in bread for sandwiches. We all like the Ener-G pretzels and crackers, Mi-Del animal crackers, sesame rice crackers from Trader Joe's, popcorn, "chex" mix from gluten-free cereal and the Envirokidz cereal bars. It's more expensive, but it's worth it - and it might make your little one a lot more cooperative if everyone is eating the same thing.

My question is what is the purpose of buying all those flours yourself? It is cheaper that way? I know it would not be for me as I only make pumpkin bread about twice a year and don't bake besides that. But for those of you buying all these flours, are you just baking alot so your stuff doesn't go bad? I'm just curious.

I bake several times a week, between pancakes, muffins, waffles, cookies and occasionally bread. For me, it's way cheaper to buy my 3 main flours in bulk (br. rice, potato and tapioca), and since my family loves the results, I've decided to stick with my success. If I baked infrequently, I would buy a tried and true packaged gluten-free flour mix.

I agree that you have to use a mixture of flours. I had more baking disasters than I can remember when I tried using just rice flour. I've also discovered that brown rice flour works better in the mix. Add at least 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum per cup of gluten-free flour or baked goods will be really crumbly.

Thanks lonewolf. I just started that probiotic Culterelle but I'm not sure it's doing anything. Guess I stick with it for a while and see what happens. I'd rather give up gluten than cheese any day so if I have this skin thing forever, so be it. They will have to put me in a straight jacket to keep me away from my beloved cheese.

I hope it goes away with the gluten-free diet for you. I agree that cheese is waaaay harder to give up than gluten. I try to limit myself to a small amount of goat cheese once in a while on a pizza or tacos, but I do miss it.

I also use Dovonex with no problems. I have psoriasis on my arms, knees, some spots on my torso, scalp and inside my ears. I find it gets worse if I eat any dairy (even my beloved goat cheese) or eggs. gluten-free didn't clear it for me at all. In fact, the only times in my adult life when it's been clear have been when I was on large doses of prednisone (would NOT recommend this) and when I ate only fish, rice, sunflower seeds, most vegetables and some fruits for a whole year. I'm thinking about trying the SCD just to see if it would help. It also gets a little better when I am diligent about taking probiotics and avoiding sugar.

I haven't officially been diagnosed with Celiac Disease, but am definitely gluten intolerant.

When I was growing up I was very healthy. Good thing, because I wasn't allowed to go to the doctor because of some strange religious beliefs of my parents. I had more cavities than I can remember (and wasn't allowed to have novocaine when they were filled) and off and on would have troubles with a "sensitive stomach". When I hit my mid-college years my stomach got really sensitive and I was diagnosed with colitis and IBS, told to eat a "low residue diet" and take antacids. After that I got mono, developed psoriasis and my stomach troubles got worse. I never lost much weight though - it was always the opposite. I played basketball all the way through college and became a PE teacher and basketball coach, so the stomach problems didn't slow me down too much. I bought Tums at Costco in giant tubs.

Fast forward to age 32, when my 3rd child was about 6 months old. I started to get extreme fatigue and joint pain, which developed into debilitating psoriatic arthritis. The prognosis was that I would be in and out of a wheel chair for life. I was told to take Methotrexate and Plaquinil. (2 horrible medications). I asked the doctor (2 actually) about changing my diet and was told, "Anyone who tells you that your diet affects how you feel is a quack." I went to a naturopath anyway, because I really didn't want to take those medications and had food allergy tests done (ELISA panel from Great Smokies). I reacted to over half the foods, with the highest being to wheat/gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, peanuts and several types of beans. For a year I lived on fish, rice, sunflower seeds, most vegetables and fruit. I had never heard of "gluten-free" before, but I'm sure I didn't ingest more than a crumb of gluten in that first year. I was so fanatical that I bordered on an eating disorder and lost over 50 pounds. BUT, I got better. After two years I was able to go back to teaching PE, play in a women's basketball league and started doing triathlons. Oh, and when I went back to the rheumatologist, he told me, "You'll be back here begging me for these medications. Any relief you THINK you're getting will not last."

I slowly starting trying to add foods back to my diet. I still avoided wheat, eggs, milk and soy, but didn't stick to gluten-free. My naturopath was sure that I would be able to add all these foods back. I knew I would never go back to wheat or milk, so I never tried adding those in, but I did start trying barley and oats in small amounts off and on. After a few years I thought I could handle spelt. After a while on that I started to develop joint pain again and then (this is a very condensed version that really spanned a couple of years) I was diagnosed with a kidney disease called Minimal Change Disease. I'm not sure if anyone could understand how frustrated I felt being hit with another huge disease. My naturopath wouldn't even try to help me, since she felt it was so out of her league. My regular MD and nephrologist wouldn't even consider that diet had anything to do with it. I had to take HUGE doses of prednisone to get the disease into remission. I gained a ton of weight (still can't get it all off). I discovered on my own that when I tried eating spelt, the kidney disease would start to relapse. So I figured it was gluten. I went gluten-free to the best of my knowledge and my kidneys did fine. I experimented a couple of times to "test" my theory and was convinced that gluten was the problem. I found this website when I was trying to find some gluten-free recipes for Thanksgiving last November and discovered the whole world of Celiac and Gluten Intolerance. I have learned a lot here and wish I would have found it 10 years ago! My kidney disease is still in remission - going on 2 years now. My nephrologist once told me that he had a patient who stayed in remission for a year once and that was the best he'd ever seen an adult do with this disease. I haven't even had to go see him for over a year. Most days I don't even think about my kidneys, since I believe I've found the answer to keeping healthy. I'm not totally without problems - sometimes I don't have the energy I would like to have, although I do keep up with 4 kids (we adopted one somewhere in there), teach PE part-time and coach middle school girls' basketball. I also still have the psoriasis, which upsets me, but overall I feel good.

Okay, so that was a mini novel. You said you wanted details!

I definitely freeze. We bought an upright deep freeze a year ago--love it. I freeze muffins, lots of cookies, lots of soups, veggies from the garden, sloppy joes, lasagna, sauces, gravy,

I used to use freezer bags, and suck the extra air out with a straw

Jen,

What kind of flour did you use in your gravy? I would love to get mine to freeze well, but both times I tried it changed consistency and became inedible.

I thought I was the only one who sucked the air out of a plastic bag with a straw!

I'll try to keep all my opinions about soy to myself, but if you try any soy milks, don't give them to your cute little guy. The phytoestrogens in soy are not good for developing little boys. (There's a book called "The Crazy Makers" or somthing like that about this and there's a lot of soy information at www.westonaprice.org).

I haven't ever used it, so I don't know where it's available, but I did find their website:

www.vancesfoods.com

I tried freezing a casserole that had gravy thickened with rice flour. It didn't freeze well at all - the gravy separated when it thawed and was gross. So I wouldn't recommend trying anything like that. I freeze spaghetti sauce, meatballs (sometimes raw, sometimes cooked), raw meatloaf, "porcupine" meatballs and sloppy joe mix.

It's really okay to have those times of feeling sorry for yourself, as long as you take a deep breath and move on after a while. I've been on a restricted diet for 10 years and I still get hit with waves of self-pity once in a while. Earlier this evening we were at my sister in law's house for dinner (most of which I couldn't eat) and she asked me to get the ice cream out for her. My son and I are allergic to milk, and she even had Rice Dream for us, so I thought it would be fine, but when I grabbed the carton and saw "Cherry Chunk" I started to choke up. Then I got out the Rice Dream she had bought me and realized it wasn't gluten-free, so I couldn't have any. It took a few deep breaths to not start to lose it. I felt quite a bit of self pity for a little bit, and all over a meal and ice cream. It was a nice party too, but sometimes it would be so nice to just be able to eat what everyone else does and not have to explain for the thousandth time why I'm not eating something that everyone else thinks should be safe for me.

Okay, I guess I've vented too, now I feel all the way better. Hope you're doing better too.

Hi,

I have noticed when i baked waffles, muffins and cake that everytime, the batter seems really dry and thick. I am not leaving out any ingredients and am not using the same brand. Does anyone else have this problem? I tried adding applesauce and that seemed to help. Any suggestions?

Jennifer

Did you sift the flour before measuring? That will help. I usually measure very "scant" cups of gluten-free flour and sometimes still have to add a little extra liquid. My pancake recipe calls for 2 cups of flour and I usually put in about 1-3/4. Make sure you're not putting in too much xanthan gum, if you use it. I've noticed that flour mixes with lots of brown rice flour tend to be dry and soak up moisture, so plan to measure scantly rather than add too much extra liquid.

That's so GREAT! I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day. If you lived closer to me I'd bring over one of my huge gluten-free heart-shaped cookies with pink icing that I'm getting ready to deliver to my kids at school. Once you have the right flour you can make almost everything again. I'm sure you'll get the hang of cooking gluten-free really quickly - especially with all the cool stuff your husband gave you!

What about postponing your dinner until tomorrow? The restaurant would be less crowded and you'd have a better chance of getting extra help from your server and the chef.

The Greek restaurant we go to has a delicious chicken souvlaki salad. They marinate the chicken in olive oil, lemon juice and garlic and don't put wheat in anything. Of course, you'd have to ask at the restaurant you're going to, but it's a good place to start. Make sure they don't put the pita bread on your salad when they serve it.

Gluten Free Pantry also makes a fajita seasoning mix that's yummy. When I make tacos I sprinkle in dark chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Sometimes I add powdered tomato sauce too. I do it all to taste, so I couldn't tell you amounts.

Cheri,

I just got back from the store and looked at the Bob's Red Mill gluten-free Pancake Mix. It had Potato starch, sorghum flour, tapioca starch and corn flour or starch. I'm pretty sure it was dairy and soy free too. But I thought of you because it didn't list rice. So maybe you CAN use sorghum to replace the rice flour. I haven't tried it, so I can't tell you how it tastes, but at least it might be something you can buy and try to duplicate the recipe yourself.

Liz ~ what were the proportions of your flour blend again? I wish I could use brown rice flour.

Wonder if I could try your recipes subbing w/sorghum?

I use 2 C Brown Rice Flour, 2/3 C Potato Starch, 1/3 C Tapioca Starch and 2 tsp. Xanthan gum. Sift at least 3 times. I usually make up 3-4 batches at a time and store in the refrigerator.

I don't know if it would work with sorghum flour, but I'm curious! If you have any luck, let me know. Will your daughter be off rice forever or for just a short time? My doctor said it's very rare to be sensitive to rice. I hope you'll be able to add that back for her sometime to make your lives a little more convenient.

I mix up my own flour using brown rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch with some xanthan gum. I use it cup for cup for all-purpose flour. It doesn't seem to be too popular here and I can't figure out why. I serve cookies, quick breads, waffles and pancakes made from this flour to my kids' friends at slumber parties and baseball games and they slurp them right up - kids who have never had gluten-free food in their lives. All of my baking is gluten-free and even my picky in-laws have to admit that my cookies taste great, finally. It took a lot of failures with rice flour to figure out that a mix was better. I found out about this mix from a Bette Hagman book about 3 years ago and my baking has been great since then. Sometmes I will buy a little bag of Bob's Red Mill gluten-free Flour mix, but at $3.69 per bag (about 1-1/2 lbs) it's too expensive to use exclusively. I mix about 1 C of it with 2 C of my flour mix for a change sometimes and it works in pancakes (not well in waffles) and cookies. I haven't tried all-bean flour because I've been sensitive to beans in the past and don't want to overdo them.

Do you have a crock pot? Does your oven have time bake? If so, 10 minutes of work in the morning will give you a great meal after work. Some of my favorites are:

Chicken, carrots, onions and potatoes baked for 1-1/2 hours at 350 (season with salt and garlic)

Chicken pieces covered with enchilada sauce - in crock pot (all day on med) or oven-1 hour at 375

Rice can be baked in a greased casserole dish (add the salt and oil) for 1 hour at 375 too

Chicken or beef smothered with barbecue sauce in the crock pot all day on medium

Pot roast in the crock pot

Also, I get boneless, skinless chicken breasts from Trader Joe's, cut the whole package into bite sized pieces and cook in a large skillet with salt and garlic powder, sometimes gluten-free Caesar dressing. When they're cooled, I put individual servings into ziploc sandwich bags and freeze them. Then I have easy cooked chicken for salads. I have also done the same thing with bigger pieces and then had them for an easy sandwich later.

I keep almonds handy for snacks and also enjoy almond butter on apple slices.

Good luck!

The only time I've eaten at the Outback (WA) I got sick - woke up at 2:00 am with horrible stomach cramps and was doubled over for most of the next day. The waiter had been really nice, told me he was familiar with gluten-free and I made sure to point out I was ordering from the gluten-free menu and then double checked when my food came. No matter how careful you and the people helping you try to be, eating out is risky.