lonewolf

Welcome! Wow, what a story. Sorry you've had so much to go through, but I'm sure glad you finally found the answer. Please ask lots of questions and let everyone here help you. Most people here are very helpful and you'll get a lot of good info.

Liz--does that come in any other flavors? I can't eat cocoanut . It sounds really good, and I have a TJ's nearby. Thanks

It comes in Raspberry, Passion Fruit and one other flavor that we don't ever get. The Passion Fruit is really good mixed with Vanilla Rice Dream. Okay, now I'm salivating and it's only 10 am here. And I've been doing so well on my diet (lost 4 pound, 21 to go!).

Thanks Jen,

You are amazing with all the links and information you have!

I am so glad I found this post I am looking for dairy free (not just lactose) and gluten free ice cream? Any help out there?

The best, absolutely best, ice cream substitute is Sharon's Coconut Sorbet, found at Trader Joe's and maybe elsewhere. It's white, rich and creamy. My kids will gladly pass up regular ice cream for it, but it's a little spendy. Just thinking about it makes me want to break my diet...

Have you been taking probiotics (acidophilus,etc)? This is VERY important after you have taken any antibiotics.

He said that eventually, I could cheat once in a while,

There's a little girl at my school (I'm a PE teacher) who has Celiac. Her mom told me a couple of months ago that her doctor had told her that she was doing so well that it would be okay to cheat sometimes. I was a little surprised, but since I'm not an expert, didn't want to contradict the doctor and act like a "know it all". I saw the little girl getting a school lunch last week with chinese noodles and regular soy sauce and asked if she was supposed to eat that and she just shrugged her shoulders. The kitchen lady said it wasn't our business and I should let it go-the mom had ordered the lunch. Sad to think that a doctor would tell this to a 9 year old.

This has been an informative thread. I have had elevated liver enzymes in the past and no one could figure out what it was. The doctor finally said it was related to a kidney problem I have. When I figured out that gluten made my kidney disease relapse, the liver enzymes went back to normal too. But what's interesting is that although I have had almost all the symptoms of Celiac (basically everything but chronic D and weight loss) I don't have either of the main genes for it. I've been off wheat for 10 years and gluten lite for that whole time, so no other tests would be accurate. Interesting to know that there is a connection with liver enzymes-just one more confirmation to me that I finally found the right "problem" and "cure", by myself, of course.

thank you but i need to make something from scratch as i have to take the recipe.

Here's my chocolate chip cookie recipe that I make almost once a week for my whole family. Never had a complaint yet about them tasting yucky or different than "normal"

1 C Margarine or Butter, softened

3/4 C Brown sugar

3/4 C Granulated sugar

1 Egg (or substitute)

1/3 C Almond butter

1 tsp Vanilla

2-1/4 C gluten-free Flour (I use Bette Hagman's recipe w/ 2 tsp. xanthan gum)

1 tsp baking soda

1 package chocolate chips

Heat overn to 375. Mix butter, sugar, egg, almond butter and vanilla. Stir in flour and baking soda. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonful about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until light brown, about 10 minutes. Cool until cookies are set, then remove from cookie sheet. DON'T try to take them off too soon!

Good luck!

While thats great to hear, its kind of bad news in this case cause I still cant find the gluten!

Are you sure it was gluten and not a reaction to all that milk?

Hi everyone,

I have my first support group meeting on wensday, and we need to take a dessert or snack. as anyone any simple ideas for me? Thanks

Bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Just follow the recipe on the bag of chips and substitute gluten-free flour. (Make sure you know you have a good flour mix.) Or make a batch of brownies using Pamela's mix. Look in the recipes section here - there are lots of good desserts.

My wrappers are plain foil - no writing at all on the berry flavored bars. This was new as of last month, I think. Last time we had the chocolate bars they had writing on the wrappers. Maybe we have the new 2006 model and the rest of you have last year's wrappers?

I might be about to be diagnosed with Celiac disease. My doctor ordered the tests because I had iron deficiency anemia. My Gliadin IgG and IgA are high, TTG IgG is normal. I have a few very minor GI symptoms - mild lactose intolerance and more frequent than average stools, but nothing that bothers me. Reading about the diet, I can't imagine being on that for the rest of my life. How many of y'all choose to just monitor your calcium/iron, etc and skip the diet? Yes, I know I'd have increased risk of lymphoma, but a 1% risk of lymphoma is better than a 100% risk of being miserable.

Thoughts?

SusanRachel

You won't be "miserable" on the diet unless you choose to be. I'm glad you're not horribly sick or in terrible pain now. It's better to prevent some of the problems that many of us have endured by following the diet now, rather than trying to get better after you've had a complete breakdown of your health. If you don't have Celiac, then you might be fine, but if you do have it and don't eliminate gluten it's just a matter of time until you'll have more health problems than you would ever want to deal with.

Liz ~

Thanks.. it's nice to run into someone that understands the additional stuff too!! I would *love* a tried and true recipe w/o those things!! I haven't baked w/arrowroot yet.

I read your signature too... have you tried any margarines? - we use Crystal Farms for Carleigh's butter and baking.

Cheri,

I hope she can eat almonds. Here's the recipe. (BTW-2 of my kids liked them, 2 didn't, I thought they were okay.)

Almond Cookies

1-1/2 C Almonds

1/2 C Butter or Coconut oil (softened)

1 C Arrowroot

1/2 C Brown sugar

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond extract

18-20 whole almonds

Place almonds in food procesor and process until finely ground. Mix all ingredients in a food processor, process until well blended. Form dough into walnut-sized balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Press an almond into each. Bake at 300 for 17-20 minutes. After 5 minutes in the oven, press cookies down lightly with a fork. Let cool completely before removing from cookie sheet. Store tightly covered in refrigerator.

Here's another one from the same book. I haven't tried it yet.

Ginger Snaps

1-1/2 C Almonds

1/2 C Butter or Coconut oil (softened)

1 C Arrowroot

1/2 C Brown sugar (or Sucanat)

1 Tbs water

1-1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp gr. cloves

1/2 tsp salt

Place almonds in food procesor and process until finely ground. Mix all ingredients in a food processor, process until well blended. Form dough into walnut-sized balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 300 for 17-20 minutes. After 5 minutes in the oven, press cookies down lightly with a fork. Let cool completely before removing from cookie sheet. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

I haven't heard of Crystal Farms margarine. Where do you get it? I haven't found one yet without soy and I react worse to soy than to small amounts of butter. Coconut oil also works in some recipes.

I haven't experimented with making my own flour mix yet, but would like to b/c this is gonna get $$ to keep buying the mix. I just made chocolate chip cookies yesterday with Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour mix and they turned out very close to my non gluten-free cookies. Th gluten-free ones are a little chewier, but still very tasty!

Would you mind sharing your flour mix?

Thanks!

Kim

I have been using the Bette Hagman recipe from her Gluten Free Gourmet books, but use brown rice instead of white rice flour. I usually add xanthan gum when I mix it up, although the recipe doesn't call for it.

2 C Brown Rice Flour

2/3 C Potato Starch

1/3 C Tapioca Starch

2 tsp. Xanthan Gum

Sift it all together 3 times and keep in the refrigerator. Use cup for cup for all-purpose flour. I usually make 3-4 batches at a time and put it in a gallon sized container with a tight lid.

I buy Lundberg brown rice flour in 25 lb sacks from Azure Standard (based in Oregon) and I've been getting Potato Starch and Tapioca starch in the bulk section at our local health food store. Next time I do an Azure order I'm going to see if I can get everything in bulk for cheaper. Since I cook/bake almost everything from scratch and have 4 kids and a husband with a big appetite, I go through a lot of flour. (They all eat gluten-free at home, except for an occasional sandwich or french toast.)

My mom bought me a package of Bob's Red Mill gluten-free Flour and I have had great results using 2/3 of my flour mix and 1/3 of the packaged stuff in cookies and pancakes. I am planning to sift it all together the next time I mix up some flour.

Ah, just read that. Have you tried Open Original Shared Link sticks?

I thought Earth Balance had soybean oil in it?

Do you know what part of Seattle she will be going to? If you let me know I would be happy to do some research for you. There are Fred Meyer stores all over the area that carry a fairly decent assortment of gluten-free foods. It's all in one section in their health food area. Some Freddies carry Chebe. They have gluten-free Pantry, Envirokidz cereals and bars, Namaste and some pastas along with several other items. There are 2 Whole Foods in the area, but I've never been there. Trader Joe's, also in several places, has pasta that I suspect might be Tinkyada in different packaging. They only have Penne and Spaghetti, but it's much cheaper than at any other store. The health food store in Federal Way (30 min. south of Seattle) has a good assortment of Tinkyada in most of the shapes they make.

Could it have been a grain of rice?

I'm not sure what would make me more concerned though - a grain of wheat or a rat dropping. That's a tough call LOL.

The way I might look at it is this: in the entire 25 pounds, what are the chances that the handful you used would have the one and only piece of contamination? Due to differences in size and weight, would that piece be more likely to settle to the bottom of the bag, or rise to the top?

It really didn't look like rice. Believe me, after 10 years wheat-free I know my rice. (Which reminds me, I like your screen name - I toyed with the idea of "Rice Girl", since my sister in law used to call me that.) I was actually happy that it wasn't a rat dropping because I would have thrown the whole thing out immediately.

The one (if it's only one) kernel would have "sunk" to the bottom, when we turned the bag upside down to put it in the bucket the kernel was at the top. It's a brand new bag of popcorn and we had only used it twice before.

I think I will carefully monitor each popcorn kernel that goes into the pan now.

Liz,

I have read every bread label in the store and she can't have any of them due to the additional allergies.

Cheri,

I just read your whole signature. I can't imagine how hard it would be to cook and bake without rice. I can't have most of the same things your daughter is allergic to, so I know how hard it can be to bake. I have a recipe somewhere for cookies made with arrowroot flour. Would you be interested in the recipe? Also, have you looked into Chebe bread mix? It's all tapioca flour and there are directions for making it without eggs on their website. I haven't tried the mix, but I tried making it from scratch and it was at least edible. My boys loved them (they bake in muffin tins) and ate over half the batch between the two of them.

Due to her allergies, I also cannot use eggs so I sub 1 1/2T canola oil, 1 1/2T water and 1 tsp. baking powder mixed together for each egg needed.

Can you get yeast breads to turn out well with the egg substitute? Quick breads always work out great, but I just can't seem to get yeast breads to work right. I laugh sometimes when I try a new type of gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, egg-free bread costing $5+ a loaf and it's worse than what I make myself. Apparently I'm not the only one who struggles with this. It's discouraging, because I've been getting great results with bread made with eggs (for my son).

I'm hoping this was a once in a million occurance. I was cleaning up the big popcorn bowl (we popped our own) and saw what looked like a rat dropping in with the "old maids". I decided to check into it, since I was a little concerned that the bag of popcorn might be contaminated. Well, it wasn't a rat dropping (thankfully), but it was a slightly burned kernel of wheat, or possibly barley. Now I'm wondering if I need to be concerned about the whole 25 pound bag being cross-contaminated. Has anyone else had this happen? Should I just let the rest of my family eat the popcorn or consider that it was an errant kernel?

I was almost crippled with arthritis about 10 years ago. I eliminated gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, beans, beef, nightshade vegetable, peanut butter and more. Actually, all I ate for a year was fish, rice, some vegetables, some fruits and sunflower seeds. I'm really not kidding. I started to get better almost immediately, but it took almost a year to get completely joint-pain free. I now teach PE and run triathlons in the summer. I still avoid gluten, eggs, dairy and soy and it isn't a bad trade-off at all.

Have you tried acipdophilus or another type of pro-biotics? You might also have a problem with the balance of bacteria in your intestinal tract or a yeast overgrowth. It's one of those things that can't possibly hurt to try.

Liz

I am trying to tell myself the upside. that I"ll feel better in a few weeks with this diet....if I don't starve to death! I have read all of your comments, and I am just dumbfounded to find myself in this other-worldly situation. How long does it take to feel NORMAL, or do we ever??

I can so totally relate to being "dumbfounded". I found out one day (almost 10 years ago now) that I couldn't have wheat, as well as several other foods and literally had nothing in my house that I could eat for dinner. I cried. It took a while to figure it all out and I didn't have any resources - no internet or anyone I knew that had any food restrictions. I hope you learn all you can about Celiac from this website and post lots of questions- everyone here is really nice and happy to help.

As far as easy to make food goes, try chicken, fish or steak with baked potatoes or rice. Buy gluten-free pasta and sauce. Salads are great too. It won't take long before you figure out how to make most of your favorites gluten-free. Do a search for "Lunches" and I'm sure you'll find a couple of threads that give lots of great ideas about what to take for lunch. I take lots of salads (Chicken Caesar, Taco, etc.) and sandwiches on gluten-free bread.

Good luck and hang in there. It really will get easier.

Liz

oops, almost forgot to ask...will they work without the butter?

If you can't have butter or margarine, try coconut oil. It's available at health food stores.

Liz

I'm in Federal Way. One of my children is gluten-free too. Just went to Kaili's kitchen in Edmonds today. It was a little, let's say, informal, but sure was nice to have fish and chips for the first time in 10 years.

Liz