lpellegr

I like this one too! I also like Quaker Rice Puffs...they are very hearty tasting. I have not found a good hot cereal that I really like...any ideas?

I have learned to like grits as a hot cereal, with milk and sugar or honey or brown sugar - I suppose polenta would work, too. Takes about 10 minutes to cook so I save it for weekends. Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty hot cereal is good, too - much more interesting than the cream of rice type cereals. But I do miss McCann's Irish Oatmeal.

I know it's kind of late to be weighing in on this topic, but I found that thinking outside the box for breakfast works, especially if you don't have time or transportation to go to a restaurant. I looked for individual packages of things that don't need refrigeration and bought a big fanny pack to carry enough food for a day. For breakfast I have had individual serving containers of baked beans (unheated isn't bad), tuna, fruit or applesauce, peanut butter in tubes, soy or regular milk, juice boxes, etc. They are mostly crush-proof but some do require a spoon, so a bunch of plastic spoons go into the fanny pack as well as some napkins. Watch out for the omelets - I hear IHOP adds pancake mix to their egg mix and who knows who else might do that. I would stick to eggs that you can see are eggs, like fried or boiled in the shell.

Thanks all - for future reference if anybody searches this site, Earth Fare in Athens is a good place to shop for gluten-free frozen foods, cereals, crackers, etc. It helped that I was in a motel with a fridge and microwave. There is an Outback Steakhouse a few miles out of town, and the chocolate thunder from down under was the highlight of my trip! I'm going back there this week and got the same motel and will stop at Earth Fare. Breakfast is tough - they don't seem to have any diners or places to get eggs other than an IHOP, but I just ate non-traditional breakfast stuff - a cup of Bush baked beans and some rice crackers works for breakfast. This time I am taking bags of gluten-free granola I just made for breakfast and snacks. Thanks for the suggestions.

The Asian market I go to has rice flour in 1 pound bags, 3/$1. This is also a much finer flour than Bob's Red Mill, not at all gritty. They also have sweet rice flour, potato starch flour and tapioca equally cheap, so if you are making up the gluten-free flour mixes on a regular basis this is the way to go. From what I hear the ones from Thailand at least are considered safe, although you have to take your chances on cross-contamination possibilities since you probably can't get a statement from the manufacturer. I think I had found info out on the web discussing the safety of the Asian flours, enough to satisfy me and I've had no reaction to my baked goods.

From "The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Fast and Healthy" by Betty Hagman

Easy Pizza

1-1/2 c Betty's flour mix

1-1/2t baking powder

1t xanthan gum

1/2t salt

mix dry ingredients above and set aside.

Add 1t sugar to 7/8c warm water, stir in 1 packet of rapid-rise yeast. Wait for it to bubble slightly.

With a hand mixer, beat 1 egg, 1T oil, and the yeast water in a large bowl. Mix in half the flour mixture. Use a spoon to stir in the rest of the flour. Pour onto a greased round pizza pan and spread out to cover the pan, leaving it thicker at the edges. Let rise about 10 minutes. Spread on sauce and toppings. Bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes.

I wait until the last 5 minutes to add the cheese. This is the best gluten-free pizza crust I have found yet.

I started out avoiding maltodextrin too, but in products made/sold in the US it has to be made from corn. MSG is for flavoring and has been used safely in Asia for centuries, but there are sensitive individuals. Some mayo might be not gluten-free because of modified food starch, but I think some products could be not gluten-free because of the vinegar they use. I'm still getting conflicting information on whether "vinegar" on the ingredient list is safe - I originally learned that only distilled vinegar is okay, but now I'm hearing that any vinegar other than malt is okay even if it's not distilled. So I avoid mozzarellas with just "vinegar" on the label, but do I have to? Is everybody else safely eating food with plain "vinegar" on the label?

Speaking of quiche, the original Moosewood Cookbook has a cauliflower-cheese pie with a grated potato crust. Time-consuming to make, but the potato crust is dynamite for quiche. Grate enough potato for 2 cups, salt it and let it drain for 10 minutes. Mix with one egg and some grated onion and pat into a greased pie pan. Bake at 400 for 45 min then use as the base for your quiche. I know, this isn't what the topic was originally about, but all the quiche references made me hungry.

I got tired of hunting all over the local health food stores or going online and paying shipping charges, so I finally took the advice of Chinese friends and went to a big Asian grocery store. Rice flour, 3-1 pound packages for $1! Tapioca and potato starch flour ditto. Now I go there and stock up instead of paying the scandalous prices from the health food stores and even Whole Foods. Now there's a big Rubbermaid container in the back room labeled "Mom's gluten-free Stuff" for all the flours and I can even hide snacks there.

I recommend the Easy Pizza recipe from "The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Fast and Healthy" if you like doughy yeasty crust. Almost like normal.

I told my husband that we retired to the wrong state.  The East Coast is much better for gluten-free foods.  The problem is that we are both glad to get out of the snow and humidity.  LOL.  We have a Whole Foods about 45 minutes away and they DO NOT have a gluten-free bakery.  We will probably be one of the last areas to get one    as I think Arizona is about 20 years behind the rest of the nation in most things.  OH Well. Sigh.  I will just have to find the energy to make some.

Armetta 

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Check out www.celiacchicks.com. They review bakeries and restaurants that can do gluten-free. Here's one in Arizona:

Aspire Market

16455 N. Scottsdale Road

Suite 107

Scottsdale, AZ

480.348.9124

Check out their website and see if it's worth the trip.

Has anyone had problems with gluten-free recipes from the major cookbooks? I have the Gluten-Free Gourmet series, the Wheat-free,Gluten-free Reduced Calorie Cookbook by Connie Sarros, and

Gluten-free Baking by Rebecca Reilly. I used to make a lot of normal breads and pizza and cookies etc in the days before my diagnosis, so I am trying to make a lot of my own stuff now, stocking up on cheap rice flour etc at the Asian grocery store, but jeez, some of these recipes are just plain wrong as they are written. Betty Hagman's Swedish Hardtack makes these crunchy cookies that taste like animal crackers and last forever, but I had to add an entire extra cup of brown rice flour to turn the dough solid enough to handle. Last night I wasted a lot of effort on Cornmeal Scones - Reilly might be proud of how she can convert recipes for celiacs, but if she was one herself she'd know that "sand" is not an acceptable texture for real food. Even my kids wouldn't eat more than one bite. Some of the bread/cracker/brownie recipes have come out great, but my books are getting full of my edits to make these recipes work. My kids are about to be tested for celiac disease and I anticipate a lot more gluten-free baking, but if anyone has suggestions for recipes that really work and come out great from those books, or corrections for some of the others, I'd love to know.

Here are recipes I've tried that come out right:

Zucchini Cake - Gluten-Free Gourmet (GFG)

Quick and Easy Muffins with blueberries (GFG) - bake 5 minutes longer

Almost Pumpernickel (GFG) - lasts for days, yummy

True Yeast Bread (GFG) - also lasts, good texture

Shortbread (More from the GFG)

Light Granola (More from the GFG) - if you can track down all the ingredients

Mock Oatmeal cookies (More from the GFG)

Grated Apple Loaf (More from the GFG)

Caraway Soda Bread (More from the GFG) - like a biscuit when fresh, but can slice later

Rapid-Rise French Bread (More from the GFG) - this is awesome when right out of the oven

Easy Pizza (GFG Cooks Fast and Healthy) - most like a doughy yeast crust - very good

Onion Crackers (GFG Cooks Fast and Healthy) - great if you leave out all but 1/4t of the salt

Velvet brownies (GFG Cooks Fast and Healthy) - a little weird, but okay

Corn Muffins (Connie Sarros) - freeze well for a good breakfast

Here are ones with problems:

Melt-in-the-mouth Oil Crust (for pies) (More from the GFG) - truly gritty and nasty

Swedish Hardtack (More from the GFG) - really good, but there's way too much liquid in the recipe

Cornstarch Bread (GFG Cooks Fast and Healthy) - yes, it does make good melba toast, but it's not good for much else

Cornmeal Scones (gluten-free Baking) - like a mouthful of finely powdered sand

It's a lot of work to make this stuff and I don't mind if it's worth it, but it's a waste for something that doesn't work or just tastes bad. Can we help each other out? I plan to keep working my way through the interesting recipes to weed out the bad ones and find what my family will eat. I'm especially interested in successful cookie and pie crust recipes that don't rely on crushed cereal.

One of the posts in the foods/products section started with a question about people's 3 worst gluten-free foods ever and is full of "bests" and "worsts" and is a lot of fun to read through. Most of the opinions agree, but there are occasional people who like what everyone else hates. It might help you out. It would be good to have a ratings section with the cost of these foods. I could also use a section for recipes that ended up disgusting after all that work.

Just as another point of view, I have been using the vacuum sealer and find the bag doesn't always stay sealed over long periods in the freezer (like a month or two). I have been double sealing them to try to avoid that. The vacuum on the model I have is strong enough to crush some of the items I've tried to freeze, like homemade hamburger buns and shortbread cookies! For items like the buns you can freeze them long enough to be hard before you apply the vacuum, but the cookies were a goner - they looked great until I opened the sealed bag, then they collapsed into crumbs. The vacuum sealer and bags also cost a lot more, so you might want to plan to reuse bags - leave enough room to reseal them, and wash and dry them for later uses. I think I heard that Consumer Reports or somebody did a comparison and found the cost not worth it unless you reuse the bags.

"Vinegar" in the U.S. is the same as distilled vinegar. Malt vinegar is the only vinegar to avoid. I've yet to see a white vinegar that isn't distilled. Do you know of any?

richard

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If that's the case it would make my life easier. I try to keep up with the latest dos and don'ts but I hadn't heard this one as a definite. They don't sell undistilled white vinegar to consumers, but you never know with manufacturer's raw ingredients. There are a lot of things in ingredient lists that I can't buy at my local store. But then again, who knew you could buy xanthan gum? Thanks for the feedback.

Can some one link me ot the story?

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From a postcard I got from the Celiac Sprue Association: For FDA to define "gluten-free" they need your input to the questions below. Your letter or e-mail must address these items to be useful to FDA. Details in Federal Register Vol 70 No. 137 Tuesday July 19, 2005. Information, links, and e-mail submission at www.csaceliacs.org

1. What should "gluten-free" mean on a food label? Why?

2. How do you identify foods that do not contain gluten? Time spent identifying foods?

3. What percentage of foods and which types purchased are marked "gluten-free"?

4. Does "gluten-free" printed on a product label influence your decision to purchase products having the same ingredients? To what extent?

Only comments sent to FDA Docket #2005N-0279 become public record!

Mail:

Docket No. 2005N-0279

Division of Dockets Management

5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061

Rockville, MD 20852

Pass it on to all the celiacs you know!

Ipellegr,  Where in NJ are you?  We're in Union.

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Lpellegr for Lee Pellegrino, actually. I'm in the Trenton area. I'm getting a share of produce from a CSA organic farm, so lots of ripe tomatoes. They (the tomatoes) are asking me to make bruschetta, tomato pie, and fresh mozzarella salad, but I have to do some gluten-free baking first to get the french bread and pizza crust. Love fresh mozzarella. Trenton Farmer's Market has a great Italian store (I drool looking at the fresh mozzarella) and also has a store with a good supply of gluten-free stuff, since the owner's wife has celiac. He has a freezer full of bread, donuts, etc, some of which are hand made and shipped in from all over the place. Has a few shelves full of flours and mixes (brownies, cookies, etc) and some pastas and crackers but I find it ridiculously expensive. Since I can do my own baking, I don't buy there except once in a while - gluten-free felafel mix was a nice find and some crackers that were just like saltines. But many $$$$$. If you're ever in the Trenton area give the farmer's market a look at 960 Spruce Street. Also the Whole Foods on route 1 near Princeton has a freezer full of gluten-free baked goods - breads, pies, cakes, etc. They look good, but again I can't bring myself to pay those prices. But overall the store has a nice supply of gluten-free foods - especially good for cereals and snacks.

Also, Richard/lovegrov, undistilled vinegar is something we're supposed to avoid. White vinegar that is not distilled can have enough contaminating gluten to mess you up. If it's not distilled, the label will just say "vinegar" and I avoid that. Most blocks of mozzarella in the store have "vinegar" on the label, since that's what they use to curdle the milk. Undistilled is cheaper than distilled so that's why they use it. I don't know what the fresh mozzarella is curdled with, that's why I'm asking.

Has anyone had success or problems eating fresh mozzarella? Those lovely soft white balls of cheese in (usually murky) water that you find in the deli or salad bar. I used to love fresh mozzarella, but since these don't come with labels, I don't know whether they use vinegar to coagulate them and haven't dared to try since I went gluten-free. Let's set aside the question of whether they ever change the murky water to keep it fresh. It's tomato season in New Jersey and I would love a plate full of fresh mozzarella, sliced ripe tomatoes, fresh basil, and olive oil and wine vinegar. I have made do with Sargento or Kraft mozzarella, but it's not the same as the fresh. Frigo appears to be another brand that doesn't have vinegar in its mozzarella, but it's hard to find. Kraft is easy, but their cheeses all taste the same.

I have also noticed that the little brochure of gluten-free foods that Whole Foods has available is not 100% accurate! Use it as a guide, but make sure to read labels.

Hi, Granny! Here's what worked for me. I broke down and spent $20 for a hamburger bun pan from the King Arthur Flour website - they have all kinds of really cool pans for any type of bread you can think of. They have some silicone pans that I think would be especially good for nasty sticky gluten-free recipes. Their print catalog is like pornography for celiacs, it's so full of pictures of wheat breads and pastries. They even carry a few token gluten-free mixes. But I digress. I use the "True Yeast Bread" recipe from Betty Hagman's The Gluten-Free Gourmet (revised) and spoon it into the well-greased and rice-floured bun pan, smoothing the tops out with the spoon. Turns out there's enough dough for 8 rolls and only 6 forms in the pan, so I take two 4" rings and grease/flour them and put them on a greased/floured cookie sheet. Let rise until doubled, then bake at 400 uncovered for 10 minutes, then cover with a piece of foil and bake 15 minutes more. They are not perfect, but pretty good, especially the day they are made. I slice them before freezing. When thawed they also make good bases for what I used to call English muffin pizzas. Good luck. I have also had much more success with all my breads since borrowing a Kitchen-aid heavy duty mixer instead of doing it by hand with a wooden spoon.

Thanks, everyone. Lots of good ideas that I will keep in mind. There will always be people out there who urge the diabetic to have that piece of cake, and people who slip peanut butter to the kid with the allergy to "prove" it won't hurt them, and although I wouldn't wish a diagnosis of anything like that on them (or would I?) it would be informative for them to walk in our shoes. Since my co-workers and I are scientists I take it for granted that they can understand the implications of autoimmunity and its consequences, but looks like there's always room for more education. Thanks to all - eat safely!

This is probably unusual for most of you, but my disease symptoms are mostly silent - I was diagnosed due to anemia - and when I eat out with certain people I get no respect for my need for gluten-free food. Usual question is, "so what will happen to you if you eat this?" and the truthful answer is that I probably won't have any immediate response (I had random low-grade IBS symptoms for years that have now resolved, but I haven't challenged my guts with any gluten since 9/04 so I don't know what would happen). I've been religious about maintaining a gluten-free diet since my diagnosis because I like not being anemic and not having IBS symptoms and not having horrible poisonous gas all the time, but since I can't claim I will get violently ill from eating gluten I feel bad about making any kind of fuss in a restaurant, especially since my boss's boss is the one showing no respect for this. If it's just me and my family I don't mind telling the server what I need ("wheat allergy" gets their attention) but I could use some suggestions for how to handle people who don't take you seriously. No, it's not like the guy on our team who goes anaphylactic after a whiff of shellfish, and it's not a lifestyle choice like a vegetarian, and I'm not going to get seriously ill within 20 minutes - I probably wouldn't know even if I did eat something forbidden (I feel the pain of those of you who do) - but I need a good comeback that explains succinctly why it is IMPORTANT not to deviate from this diet in spite of the lack of "punishment" for falling off the wagon. Most of my coworkers are sympathetic and used to me passing up the birthday cakes, the cookies and pizza at meetings and lunches, the homebaked goodies, but I think it's hard to take seriously if I don't show symptoms. At least I've set a really good example of what self-control is all about. Any ideas?

Some other options: Individually wrapped cheddar cheese sticks, peanut butter in individual tubes (or a jar that you don't share with anyone), those flat packs of tuna, small cans of Bush's baked beans that you can just pop open and microwave or even eat at room temp (these are all good when you have to pack lunches because you're out on the trail). Some brands of chili are safe. Microwave popcorn for a snack. Can somebody ship you care packages midway through your stay? Before you go make a batch of gluten-free granola from one of the Gluten-Free Gourmet cookbooks and that should last you through a week or two of breakfasts.

Anybody know of any places to get gluten-free food in Athens, GA? Restaurants or food stores are okay. I need to be there for a week and am really tired of bringing my own breakfast and lunch on business travel. Thanks.