lpellegr

You might be able to use some Crisco, lightly. You'd have to pack some in a portable container and hope it wouldn't melt in your pocket. Maybe melt it with some beeswax first. You could try taking 500 mg of lysine daily - this fights both herpesviruses and weak connective tissue. I was getting flaking skin around my mouth and cracks in the corners, and if I use the lysine every day it doesn't happen, but it does come back if I skip it for a few days.

Same here - I bought gluten-free oats to test it out, and I reacted. So now I avoid oats, which irritates me when I read some label that says their product is gluten-free, but turns out to be oat based. I guess that's Karma for eating 3 bowls of Cheerios a day for 30 years.

I gave up eating anything from Frito-Lay. I always had a reaction to Fritos, Lays chips, or any of their other products, so even though the ingredients are not gluten-containing, I have to assume that there is significant cross-contamination on their lines. And I used to love Fritos.

Homemade Chex mix! Make with Rice Chex only, gluten free pretzels, and nuts. Salty, crunchy. Other options are Rice Chips from Lundberg and Pirate Booty - you can usually find those in the chip aisle, although you might have to search the bottom shelves. Crap, now I gave myself a craving.

I meant Is this Rice GLUTEN-FREE (not organic--I can;t edit the subject line and I made a mistake in my tired state--sheesh!)

I like this rice: Brand is by Rice Select; Kasmati variety--it is like Basmati): Open Original Shared Link

How would I know if this is Gluten Free? It does NOT state Gluten Free on the package. Thank you for any insight.

Read the ingredient list. If it is nothing but rice, then you're fine. If it is a mix with other ingredients, then you need to check whether each ingredient could harbor gluten. We could help you better if you post all the ingredients here.

Keebler has new nut crackers out called Wheatables Nut Crisps, which are not gluten-free, but their packaging looks very similar to Blue Diamond's Nut Thins. If you eat Nut Thins, make sure you don't get fooled by these new crackers.

One of my grandmother's recipes that came out great! I had to share. These are very chewy fudgy cookies.

Chocolate Drop Cookies

2 c brown sugar

1/2 c shortening (Crisco)

1 t vanilla

1 egg yolk

1/2 c "sour" milk - put 2 t vinegar in a measuring cup and fill to 1/2 c with milk

2-1/2 c your choice of flour - I used Bette Hagman's original blend

1/2 c cocoa (or 1/2 c melted baking chocolate)

pinch of salt

1 t baking soda

2 -1/2 t xanthan gum

Preheat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheets.

Cream shortening and brown sugar. Add vanilla, egg yolk, and sour milk.

Combine dry ingredients and gradually add to wet ingredients until completely combined.

Use two forks to drop blobs of dough onto cookie sheets. Make blobs the size of a ping-pong ball, more or less. Bake 9 - 10 minutes. Remove to paper towels on counter to cool.

When these first come out they might seem underdone, but as they cool they will get charmingly wrinkled and become nice and chewy. They kept well for a couple of days, although I had to hide them from myself to get them to last that long.

Devilled eggs?

IMHO the Enjoy Life cookies are the nastiest of all the gluten-free cookies out there, so I'm not surprised their cookbook cookies aren't good. Thanks for warning the rest of us to stay away. Sorry you had all that trouble - it really stinks when you put all that work into it and end up with a plate full of disappointment.

You could probably replace the egg replacer with ground flax seed, like you can replace real eggs with ground flax and water - look online. You might also want to experiment with a recipe or two to see if leaving out the egg replacer matters. If it doesn't work, you can always break the bread down into crumbs and try again. Bette Hagman's recipes are okay, but they were some of the earlier recipes out there and some of the newer cookbooks might have some better ideas. Her recipes mostly work for me, sometimes not, and a few have mistakes in them, but I found a few gems that have become my standards.

The original dump cake recipes call for a standard box of cake mix, but since the results is just basically to turn the cake mix, butter, and nuts into a kind of crumb topping, the amount probably isn't crucial. You could reduce the amount of fruit filling you use to account for the (probably) smaller amount of cake mix in the gluten-free version. It will still make you drool.

It's around, but apparently it's the ugly stepsister of Cream of Wheat - small boxes, and only a few among all its wheaty brothers. I'm not even sure if every store has it. No idea whether it's safe from cc.

This works well for me in a cookie press, although I use disks that produce a long "snake" of dough and then curl it into O shapes or make a long ribbon of dough to cut into bars - I'm not sure how it would work for the flower and tree shapes. I always have trouble with those shapes no matter what dough I use - they don't want to stick to the pan! These are shortbread.

Spritz cookies

1 c soft room temp butter

2/3 c sugar

3 egg yolks (don't use any whites or the cookies will puff up and not be like shortbread)

1 t almond or vanilla flavoring

2-1/2 cups of flour - I use 2 c brown rice flour and 1/2 c sweet rice flour.

pinch of salt

Cream the butter and sugar well. Add in the egg yolks and vanilla. Gradually add the flour - you may need a little more or a little less, depending on how sticky the dough is. You want it not sticky, but not dry, just a stiff dough that can be spooned into the cookie press. Press your cookies onto the ungreased pan and decorate with colored sugar or sprinkles. Bake at 400 for 7 - 10 minutes - they should be just lightly browned at the edges. Let cool on paper towels.

If you substitute margarine, I can't be held accountable for how they come out. Cholesterol rules here!

Heinz tomato soup tastes just like Campbell's but is made with rice flour instead of wheat flour. I can't remember if it's condensed, but it's good!

Bette Hagman's Vinegar Crust recipe comes out like regular pie dough, and you could substitute that, but seeing as how this is a savory pie, might I suggest something different? For quiche I often use a grated potato crust, which comes from the original Moosewood Cookbook:

for a 9" pie:

2c grated raw potato (I think you could also substitute frozen hash brown shreds) - grate them into a bowl of water to keep from turning dark

1/2 t salt

1 egg, beaten

1/4 c grated onion (or substitute some onion powder)

Put the grated potato in a colander, salt it, and let it drain for 10 min. Squeeze out excess moisture and combine with the egg and onion. Pat it into oiled pie pans and bake at 400 until browned (about 40 min, but maybe less).

Make these, then add your filling and bake as usual.

As to the recipe you posted, I would think any gluten-free baking mix would work with a little xanthan gum, especially as you have egg yolks to help hold it together. For most pie crust you want to cut the butter into the flour with a pastry blender and not let the pieces get too small, then only mix it at the end until it holds together, without kneading. I suspect you will just have to experiment the first time.

Bette Hagman's Easy Pizza recipe is good if you want to make your own. If the toppings are more important to the whole idea of pizza than the crust, try putting the toppings on polenta slices or hash-brown patties.

Boil a pot of water, throw in the rice pasta, open a jar of sauce. Throw in leftover meat if you have it. Salad if you have lettuce. Bingo, dinner.

Scramble up a bunch of eggs, brown and serve sausage. Add cheese to the eggs if you want. Thawed frozen spinach, too, if you're feeling virtuous and people will eat it.

Open a can of tuna, mix with mayo/fixings, serve with crackers and strips of carrot or pepper.

Microwave baking potatoes until done. Top with whatever is hanging around - leftover meat and veggies, cheese, cheese, cheese, sour cream, bacon. And cheese.

Waffles from the freezer. Top with butter and syrup, or cream cheese, or peanut butter, or jelly. Serve with fruit if you want more nutrition.

Hummus with crackers and veggies.

Bell and Evans breaded gluten-free chicken nuggets or strips from the freezer, with any quick sides you have.

It helps to put a few quick and easy things in your freezer or pantry ahead of time for just such occasions. Because you just know there are going to be those days when you just don't wanna.

Safest way to start out is to stick to unprocessed foods - things with very few ingredients, like meat, fruits and veggies, eggs, cheese, potatoes, rice. Don't hurry out and buy gluten-free crackers, bread, etc. Add those in later when whatever symptoms you have are under control. This website is a good place to find basics, like cereal (Rice Chex and Corn Chex, Pebbles cereal, etc) and snacks. To start, avoid foods that are processed on the same equipment as wheat - those have the highest chance of cross-contamination. Food processed in a facility that also uses wheat can be cross-contaminated but are less likely. Avoid both until the whole-food diet has eased symptoms, then try adding those in one at a time.

Thanks for all the creative thought going into this! Some very intriguing ideas, and I'm impressed that some of you are even testing them out! Many thanks.

I think a lot of the chewy, springy texture of the traditional Quaker off-the-box oatmeal cookie recipe comes from the brown sugar along with the oats. I'll keep all the usual ingredients and just see what subs for the oats. I hadn't thought of coconut - I hate the usual flaked sweetened coconut, but coconut right out of the shell is good, so that might work. Maybe finely chopped dates or apricots. Maybe a touch of molasses to supplement that in the brown sugar. Maybe finely chopped walnuts? I think I will combine some or all of these and see how it works. Add some xanthan gum and maybe try it as bar cookies. No matter what, it has to be better than the Enjoy Life No-Oats oatmeal cookies - those are seriously disgusting. Thank you all for the brainstorming and I'll let you know how it comes out.

Before I was diagnosed, my insides seemed to move verrrry slowly. Since my biggest symptom was horrible gas, it was the absence of gas one summer that clued me in: I was eating tons of salads because I had a share in a CSA farm, and everything seemed to move much faster. Even though I was still eating normal amounts of gluten (why wouldn't I, I didn't know any better), the addition of all that roughage seemed to really help my intestinal function and reduce the gas. I thought of it as the bulky lettuce pushing things through so they didn't have time to sit and rot and ferment. It was the closest I got to normal gut function before I went gluten-free. Try a big salad for lunch every day for a week and see if it helps.

I can't eat oats. I'd like to replicate the chewiness they give to oatmeal cookies by substituting something else. I've heard people here suggest quinoa flakes, but I'm not shelling out that kind of money without trying them out first. I've been thinking along the lines of making something that resembles the chewy liquid-holding properties of rolled oats - soaked rice, white or brown? Partially cooked rice? Chopped dried fruit like dates or apricots (granted, that would change the flavor quite a bit)? Cooked or raw or partially cooked tapioca pearls? Grits? Buckwheat/kasha? Crushed uncooked rice pasta? Crudely mashed potatoes? Chipped dried beef? Okay, that's a little weird, but what do all you creative people out there suggest? I'm thinking of how each individual rolled oat kernel goes into the mix dry and soaks up moisture while being mixed and baked, leaving them chewy. I have a mock oatmeal cookie recipe using sliced almonds, and it's just not any kind of comparison.

This is an article from the Daily Kos website from 9/19/09. At least one person out there has had her insurance cancelled when her insurance company found out she had celiac disease. How ironic, since once you figure it out you have one of the cheapest diseases to treat from a medical point of view.

Open Original Shared Link

Other ways to cross-contaminate: I used to dip the measuring cup from the flour into the sugar. My first year gluten-free I tried to make regular Christmas cookies for everyone else and gluten-free ones for me, and I ended up giving away 5 pounds of sugar that I had contaminated by that old habit. The margarine/butter they use can be contaminated with crumbs from previous use. Flour stays in the air for at least 24 hrs after use, and settles on everything. They love you and they mean well, but you take a risk every time you eat someone else's home cooking. If she wants to do that again, she should make the gluten-free food first (and you should come over and supervise, if Mom will tolerate that).

I substitute cooked millet for couscous and it seems to work well. The only place I have seen a recipe for phyllo (she spells it "filo") is Rebecca Reilly's "Gluten-Free Baking" cookbook. She is a professional chef, so it might be easy for her, but here's her recipe:

1-3/4 c rice flour

1/4 c sweet rice flour

4 t xanthan gum

1 t unflavored gelatin

1 egg

1/4 to 1/2 cup milk

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

1 T honey

Mix together dry ingredients. Make a well in the dry ingredients large enough to hold the liquids. Lightly beat the egg with 1/4 c of the milk plus the butter and the honey. You may need to stir in more milk (she doesn't say what you are looking for here, but probably just enough to moisten all the dry stuff and get it to hold together in a ball). Wrap the dough in plastic wrap until you are ready to use it. Refrigerate if not using right away.

She uses it for baklava by doing this:

Cut the dough into 6 pieces, keeping all but the one you are working with wrapped in plastic. Roll out one piece at a time between 2 sheets of plastic wrap about 16 inches long, rolling as thin as possible. Remove the top piece of plastic and flip the dough over into the pan. Continue to roll and layer, and I would think you would work this like regular phyllo, brushing with butter and keeping it from drying out. Obviously, remove the plastic wrap in between layers.

Another option for a phyllo substitution is rice paper wrappers from an asian store. You generally have to dunk or soak them in water to make them pliable, but it could work for spanakopita. You might have to experiment to get them to crisp up just right.

I have used frozen hash-brown potato patties to make very satisfactory mini-pizzas.