summerteeth

My favorite is a can of light chunk tuna mixed with horseradish, a spoonful of soy yogurt, relish, half an avocado, adobo spice and hot paprika all mixed together. Put that over romain, grape tomatoes, cukes, etc. Definitely my favorite thing to eat when it is hot out.

Not very inspired, but super easy, tasty, and pretty darn healthy. Plus I don't have to turn the oven or stove on...

I so sympathize with you! About a year ago, my fiance, my sister and I went to a family-owned Italian restaurant here in Rockford. Been around here forever. They are the only restaurant around that offers gluten free pasta. Of course I was intrigued. So I order it. I got so sick afterwards that I couldn't leave my house because of, um... embarrassment I was not willing to go through at work, if ya catch my drift

So I called the restaurant. They gave me some BS about how busy their kitchen is, they can't actually certify it, blah blah blah... NEVER AGAIN. I give their store front a one finger salute every time I drive by now. That much pain.

I use Classico red sauce (I believe all of their sauces are gluten-free, but I would double check that statement) or Newman's Own.

I'm a rightie.

I have had very good luck with this pasta... and it is cheap to boot!

I'm a bit late to this thread, but I have a TON of kohlrabi. While I like it raw, does anyone have any tried and true recipes for it? I think kohlrabi in a stir fry would be tasty...

Also, my compost bin sprouted! Now I have either watermelon or cantelope and of course pumpkins... I love it when that happens - last year we had mystery zucchini and tomatoes from our compost.

I have a few restaurants that I know I can go to (2 Asian restaurants, 1 Mexican restaurant, 1 chain, 1 local/American-ized food) so between these restaurants we always have somewhere we can go. If for some reason we want to try something new, I try to find their menu online and then call the restaurant at a non-hectic hour (like 2 in the afternoon on a Thursday or whatever) and ask A LOT of questions (such as: are you familiar with a gluten free diet, do you have anything that can accommodate me, what kind of sauces do you use, can you make a certain dish "naked", etc). Then, I always bring my dining card and mention that I spoke to so and so previously. This usually works for me.

Yes, where do you live? If you are anywhere near a city, there must be a place that also carries a gluten free option. We have Uno's Chicago Grill and Z-Pizza here. Some others I've heard of are Mellow Mushroom (select locations), Pizza Fusion, Garlic Jims and a company called Still Riding Pizza sells gluten-free crusts to various places across the country: Open Original Shared Link

If you can't get the restaurant changed then I would just discretely take in your own food anyway. The worst that can happen is they can ask you to leave, but with such a big party I don't see that happening.

I live in Rockford, IL. - there are no gluten free pizza places here -even though we are the 2nd largest city in Illinois.

I am just going to carry a large purse with my own food in it. I honestly cannot see them saying anything.

Love B&J. The B&J store here says they do gluten free ice cream cakes. I haven't tried them yet.

gluten-free ice cream cake would be the best. I wish I had a Ben & Jerry's around here!

My mom bought me Ben & Jerry's Limited Edition Flourless Chocolate Cake ice cream yesterday. I saw the ubiquitous 'natural flavors' - I am very wary of this term! This morning I called their consumer services and was told that they will label ALL wheat, rye, barley, oats, etc. (in addition to ANY allergens).

Just a little info from me to you guys

I may ask if we can change restaurants, but I am not holding my breath. And I don't want to ruin my sister's birthday (especially since she loves pizza so much).

I think I'll probably stick a Larabar and some Ener-g pretzels or something in my purse...

I told my mom the story and she said just brown bag it - what are they going to do? Kick me out? Take my food away?

My sister's 20th birthday is Friday. So on Saturday, my grandma and one of my aunts thought it would be a good idea to celebrate Emily's (my sister) and my uncle's birthdays. They chose a pizza place.

This is fine with me. At this point, I am not livid. I understand people like pizza and twelve people don't have to have dietary restrictions because I do. I went on the restaurant's website and see that everything is glutenous. Obviously, pizza - but of course pasta, sandwiches and fried food. That is it. That is all they offer (and, honestly, if they offered anything else, I don't think I would trust it. They are primarily a pizza joint, after all).

Even this doesn't make me that angry. I figure, hey, standard American fare. So I call the restaurant with hopes that they let me bring a lunch box. This is what gets me: they actually said no. I have never, ever in two years of being gluten free gotten this response. Usually after I say "celiac" and "food allergies" and "I get really sick" they understand, sympathize, and are totally cool with me bringing in some raw veggies and a plain chicken breast.

But no. The lady I spoke to actually said that they are worried that my family and I will use my freaking lunch box to feed twelve people and just use their restaurant as a meeting point. Think about it: a Laptop Lunch used to feed twelve people. If I weren't so angry I would probably laugh at that thought.

So I actually said to the lady at the restaurant, "So you expect me to sit there for two hours and watch my family eat...?" To that she said, "Well yes. You would be breaking our policy".

/end rant.

5'6" 1/2 -- and I am the shortest in my family! My mom is 5'10", my dad is 6', and my brother is 6'4".

I did get the big feet, though...

I had horrible headaches before going gluten-free. I don't think I went more than three days without a headache from age 8 to age 20. They would get so bad I would vomit.

I still occasionally get a migraine, but less than once a month, which is much better than it was! And they don't last nearly as long as they used to (usually now less than half a day).

I definitely feel like members of my dad's side of the family (namely my ninety year old grandma and my uncle) have celiac. My grandma had intestinal cancer fifteen years ago and my uncle has had "IBS" for a very long time.

My mom approached my grandma after my diagnosis and my grandma said that their family is normal and everyone has stomach issues (constipation is normal, basically??)

Buying some products online (especially at that river-in-So.-America website) is cheaper -- at least compared to the stores I went to college near so look into that.

I agree that eating more simply is cheaper all around, though. A seasoned protein, a vegetable, a salad, and maybe rice or beans would be a good meal. Beans are super cheap, as is rice. And I always buy meat on sale. The problem I had in college was not having a lot of space to store leftovers. Maybe get a really small slow cooker (like a Little Dipper) and you can make chilli, soup, pretty much anything on the cheap, and a lot of slow cooker recipes are inherently gluten-free.

Look into the website 'a year of slowcooking' if you are interested. A lot of her recipes are super easy and can be made quite inexpensively.

Also befreeforme.com offers coupons for gluten-free foods.

Breakfasts:

-- big bowl of fruit (I have this most days)

-- stir fried veggies & a piece of meat

-- yogurt with bloobs & Enjoy Life granola

-- canned pumpkin with a banana mashed in (sometimes with another fruit, like bluberries or black berries) with cinnamon on top

Lunches:

-- leftovers (most days)

-- big salad with Walden Farms dressing, or lemon juice

-- veggies and homemade hummus

-- "taco wraps" (ground meat, seasonings like cumin & red pepper, refried beans, tomatoes, and chiles on a wrap with lettuce)

Dinners:

-- chicken & veggies & risotto

-- spaghetti squash with fresh tomatoes, garlic, spinach

-- polish sausage and sauerkraut

-- hamburgers without the bun, sweet potato fries

-- meat + veggies usually...

Snacks:

-- fruit

-- veggies

-- Larabars (I love the Coconut Creme & PB and jelly sandwich ones)

-- Enjoy Life bars (the chocolate is tasty)

-- toast (only if I am at home and can use my uncontaminated toaster, though)

-- Oskri quinoa/sesame bars (these are SO good)

I have tried the Chebe cinnamon dry mix once to disastrous results. I made them into cinnamon "breadsticks" and they were rock hard -- resulting in inedible paperweights. I think that was operator error on my part

I won a few bags a few weeks back at a celiac walk and now I want to try again! Does anyone have any suggestions on how to use this product?

Thanks!

I'm wondering what mixed alcoholic drinks are gluten-free and which aren't.

I know that anything with sweet & sour mixer may have gluten, depending on the manufacturer of the mixer. Basically any kind of mixer is the same.

I know that distilled liquor is okay, and coke is okay. A lot of drinks have juice mixed in. Are most juices okay?

I mainly just don't know what a lot of drinks have in them, so if you could just let me know some of the names of the mixed drinks you like that are gluten-free, I'd greatly appreciate it!

I stick to Maker's Mark and diet coke/pepsi. Or gin and tonic or sprite. I used to love amaretto stone sours and mai tais but have not had them since because I am hesitant with mixers also.

That is a really interesting question -- and quite subjective! I pretty much say the fewer ingredients the better. I wouldn't consider a bag of rice or a bag of beans a "processed food" although they technically have been processed. I use dried foods (that I have dried myself or bought) a lot and I don't consider them over processed.

What about spices? Obviously the ones I pick aren't processed, but what about table salt or pepper?

I second lunchinabox.net but also do a flickr search of "laptop lunches" -- there are a lot of people on there who take photos of their children's lunches (but not all are gluten-free) - I have gotten quite a few lunch ideas for myself on there.

I agree that buying bread every week would be really expensive. I put just the inside of a sandwich in my lunch quite a bit, or make wraps if I find them on sale, or sometimes wrapped in a piece of romaine lettuce. Leftovers are huge for me because there are only two of us. What about crackers (Crunchmaster brand is pretty cheap)and a topping (like cheese and/or meat).

I've been buying Udi bread fresh from Whole Foods but I recently found another bread that I love even more. Unfortunately I can't get it around the Dallas area so I have to order it online. The Katz Gluten Free bread/bakery line is excellent. The Challah has a sweet nuttiness and the slices are moist and fluffy. It doesn't break or crumble. I started off toasting it and tried it without toasting and was hooked. I've used it for sandwiches with the Daiya no dairy cheddar cheese shreds for grilled cheese sandwiches and with homemade chicken salad sandwiches - very yummy. Their buns and baked goods are delicious. This product really is even better than Udi... just not as convenient to buy.

Agreed - Katz is awesome! Their mini challahs and their cinnamon rugelich are so good!

I like Udi's a lot, too. I bought mine at Woodman's and it was in the frozen section next to Katz and Kinnikinick.

Hi all,

I didn't think gluten-free beer would taste very good, and figured that I'd just as well pass. I went out to eat this weekend though with family to a gluten-friendly place, and they were all excited about me trying the gluten-free beer. Turns out it was great!

Redbridge is a crisp lager that tastes like Red Stripe.

Green's is a stout, much like Guinness. My husband even liked it better than Guinness; it doesn't have that bitter aftertaste. I can't wait to try it again!

lucia

I was never a beer drinker before, but I love Redbridge, sauerkraut, and sausage baked together. I also use it for "beer butt" chicken. It is delicious.

I don't like chickpeas at all -- the texture gets to me -- so I always use Great Northern (white) beans as a substitution. Great in hummus and also in chana masala (both traditionally chickpea-centric).

I hear ya on the flour storage! My mom (a gluten eater) likes to make cookies for me and experiment - she has a whole cupboard filled with different kinds of flour - seriously every kind of flour you can imagine. I wish I had that much space!

I cleaned out my pantry recently and found SIX different half used bags of flour in random spots -- a little rice flour here, a little chickpea flour there...