luvs2eat

Some of McMinnimon's (sp?) pubs offer a gluten-free burger bun that is ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS... not crumbly or tasting like sawdust. I had the best (and first) burger there last month. I don't know who their vendor is, but I'd find out if I were you!

I don't know what your weight issues are... but I was on Protonix for a few years for reflux disease. It got so bad that I was about to go to my doctor and ask for Nexium when I decided that I might take it into my own hands. I lost 20 lbs (mostly cutting out the carbs I'm so addicted to) and ... VOILA... my heartburn vanished.

I was diagnosed in 2002, or thereabouts. All three of my daughters have been diagnosed in the last five years. NONE of my siblings have been diagosed, even tho they all can not deny how much better they feel lowering or doing away w/ gluten. I get it... my sister lives in France. I'd ignore celiac as long as I could to be able to eat REAL French bread, but no second-degree relatives are owning up to gluten issues.

I can't give up cheese, no matter how much it makes my stomach hurt or how much my mom badgers me. I'm not a shining example, sorry xD

I'm SOOO with you. By comparison, giving up gluten was way easier then giving up cheese... and butter. I can give up all the other dairy... but not cheese and butter... period.

Apparently my blood test was SO positive that my doctor told me biopsy wasn't necessary! I ended up having one several years later for heartburn/GERD issues and there were celiac indications in there, but as it turned out, the biopsy really wasn't necessary. The blood tests told me what I needed to know... NO MORE GLUTEN FOR ME!!

I just google gluten free anything (puff pastry, wonton skins, etc) and find lots of recipes. There are lots of awesome blogs w/ tons of good recipes. I love the reviews w/ suggestions.

I make Buckeyes every year. They're so easy and everyone loves them!

Buckeyes

1 pound softened butter

2 pounds peanut butter

3 pounds sifted confec. sugar

Mix well and make about a MILLION balls. They don't really "roll" so you kind of have to push them into a ball shape and your hands are kind of like claws when you're finally done.

Melt chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler and dip the ball into the chocolate so that a little of the peanut butter shows at the top (hence the buckeye name. They look like a buckeye nut). Refrigerate the cookie tray with dipped balls. When firm, they can be put into containers or zip lock bags and frozen. I keep 'em in the fridge till I package them up and give them away.

This year I dipped the balls completely because I didn't like the tiny hole left in the buckeye by the dipping toothpick. Then I sprinkled a little crushed toffee on top.

The good thing about the recipe is that it can be halved or even quartered so it doesn't take all day!

OK...we'll start the count now. That's 1 person who gets it! Only about 10 million more needed and we may be home free!

You should not post the menu without sharing, though! Sounds delicious. And I am happy and thrilled you lived to tell us about it.

That's exactly what I was thinking when I wrote it. So many people don't get it and can and do make our lives miserable. When someone does get it, we need to give them kudos!!

We went to a cocktail party w/ nibbles last night and our neighbor, who made all the food, was happy to tell me that everything was gluten free... AND IT WAS!! She's a really good cook and "gets" the gluten-free and cross contamination issue so I wasn't at all skeptical about eating everything. She served spicy cold shrimp, a delicious artichoke salad w/ white beans in it, and veggie and salmon sushi rolls that she made sure were gluten-free and had no soy sauce in them. I couldn't eat the cheesecake or gingerbread, but could eat some yummy peanut brittle. What a joy to be able to eat (almost) everything and not worry at all. It just illustrated to me, once again, how many delicious foods are available to us!!

I tell people very simply and politely, "If I don't make it, I can't eat it." Period. No one gets insulted. I always tell people not to even try to accommodate me... I'm JUST FINE. If they ask more questions I tell them what they need to know, but again... "If I don't make it, I can't eat it."

Welcome Lindsay! This is an awesome place to ask any question and find any answer. Many of the peeps here have been dealing w/ celiac for many years and seem to have seen and done it all!

If it's any consolation, my daughter's doctor told her she was actually lucky to be diagnosed at 25... I said, isn't that like saying it's good luck if it rains on your wedding day? What are you gonna say? Sucks to be you?? Anyhow, when she said that to him he told her that being diagnosed at a younger age will help her avoid lots of health problems later in life, like osteoporosis and stuff like that.

Anyhow... welcome! Maybe your culinary arts training will benefit US when you post awesome recipes!

If you bake (or even if you don't) you owe it to yourself to try a loaf of Pamela's wheat free bread. It only needs eggs, oil, and water (and a heavy mixer) and makes the best bread I've had in my 10 years and about 25 different bread recipe attempts. I toast the bread for sandwiches, but very light toasting keeps the bread soft and pliable. I make a loaf, or swirl round "blops" on my Silpat to make burger rolls (which I also lightly toast). It's the best, in my opinion. I finally splurged on the 25-pound bag of bread mix (to which you have to add yeast. The single bag of bread mix comes w/ yeast).

I feel your pain. Baking beautiful loaves of crust country bread or shiny braided challah bread and cookies and cakes used to be my passion. I can't recreate... so I don't bake much anymore.

But try Pamela's. I think you'll really like it.

Wow... thanks a pantload for this post. I'd forgotten all about those and they were all I could think about after reading this thread. I bought some today and just finished them for supper. They were delish! I'm doomed.

Mine sort of totally changed. I used to love to bake, but haven't been able to recreate a chocolate chip cookie that tastes good to me and many other baked things ... so I don't bake much anymore. If I'm looking for a snack/treat, I'm usually looking for salty and crispy rather than sweet and chewy.

I make hundreds of "buckeyes"... peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate... at this time of year and if I eat 2... that's a lot. I give 'em all away.

I went to a holiday pot luck last week and took a huge portion of the yummy salad I brought and a few deviled eggs. People sitting around me were trying to "help" me and told me of other things that "probably" were safe. For example, someone brought a yummy smelling chicken curry that she put on cute little brioche rolls. There was some extra curry in a container. "Why don't you take that?" my friends asked. "Because," I told them "She undoubtedly scooped out the curry to put on the brioche rolls and then stuck that spoon/scoop back into the curry contaminating it."

They looked at me like I had two heads. "It's THAT bad? You're THAT sensitive??"

I never, ever pull a "woe is me" in public... I just smiled and said, "I'm just fine w/ the yummy food I have, but thanks for thinking of me."

Thank goodness I have HERE to pull the occasional "woe is me."

Very few for me, but my youngest daughter lived on antibiotics for chronic ear infections till she was 6 years old. She was even on prophylactic Ceclor (one dose a day) for the better part of a year to try and stave off the one-after-another ear infections. She had two sets of "tubes" and nothing helped!

The antibiotic use affected her teeth. Her second molars crumbled when the orthodontist took her braces off and they let her wisdom teeth come in to act as her second molars. And she, of my 3 diagnosed daughters, had the worst time w/ celiac. She was ultra sensitive to EVERYTHING and was tested for things like interstitial cystitis and refractory celiac. She's just recently been able to bring a few more foods into her diet.

I wouldn't say I had an irrational fear... but I do know that I'll fight vomiting till I can't fight it anymore. The last time I felt like I was going to barf I had the worst heartburn ever. I successfully fought it, but then sat on the bathroom floor in such pain that I said to myself that if I feel like I have to barf again, I'm gonna let it come because that would have been better than the pain... but I never did barf. I just had to sit up all night till the pain subsided.

I call myself a "sympathy" vomiter... in that when someone else barfs, it's all I can do to keep from barfing myself. It was a real downside to being a nurse... hahaha.

I wouldn't think it would do damage, but you never know about inflammation. The villi are damaged so they aren't able to produce lactase enzyme to digest dairy. When the villi heal many can eat dairy again, but not all. It's complicated unfortunately.

If you are newly gluten free, I would say going off dairy would help you heal and hopefully you can eat it again in the future.

I am SO not newly gluten-free. I've been gluten-free for TEN years. It's only in the last year that dairy doesn't seem to like me anymore. And I completely agree. Going gluten-free was way easier than going DF.

Gluten damages. But does dairy? It doesn't like me but there are some times when I'm willing to put up w/ the gas, belly noises, and bathroom issues for a good piece of cheese. Am I damaging anything other than my toilet/septic system?

That you cannot eat gluten...c'mon...this was obvious.

I'm w/ you Chad. It's a no brainer.

How simple my life was before celiac and there are some foods and activities I miss so terribly...

My mom's thanksgiving stuffing

My love of baking

Eating out w/o difficulty

etc, etc, etc.

Wow... I've just come upon this thread too and all I want to do is give you and your boy and your husband a huge hug. What an amazingly messed up ordeal you've been through... and you must be absolutely terrified. I sure would be. Your composure and willingness/need to follow up w/ his school, cafeteria, art room are so admirable to me, especially given all the other stuff you're worried about/seeking answers for.

I don't have any other advice aside from what others have said. I just wanted you to know that I'm pulling for you and your son and have the utmost admiration for you and your boy is lucky to have such a persistent and interested mom.

(((((huge hugs))))

While my youngest daughter tested (by endoscopy) positive for celiac, her symptoms were so extreme they began testing her for things like interstitial cystitis and refractory celiac. Those tests were negative, so her extreme symptoms were simply ignored and she found doctors and nurses almost hostile to her pleas for answers and help. She tells me she learned a really good lesson in all that. She's been able to find her own answers (like avoiding all dairy and citrus and slowly bringing very low oxylate veggies back into her diet) and her gut is slowly healing.

It doesn't matter if everyone else thinks you're nuts. If YOU feel better eating gluten free... tell them to go suck an egg.

I cooked so it was easy to have everything gluten-free... from the crackers w/ the cheese to the pies to the stuffing. That said... I made the 10th new stuffing/dressing recipe in my 10-year celiac journey and it was ... okay.

I made a loaf of Pamela's bread, cubed it, dried the cubes, and followed a slow cooker recipe that every reviewer RAVED about. No stuffing/dressing recipe has ever come remotely close to the Pepperidge Farm stuffing I grew up on and miss terribly.

I know it's not a huge deal in the life scheme of things, but Thanksgiving used to be one of my fave holidays and it's just not anymore because I can't get that stuffing recipe close... and I never will because it's the danged gluten that made it what it was.

Ugh... sorry for my whine. I have much to be thankful for and have to get that stupid stuffing/dressing out of my brain.

There's no place to get gluten-free pizza where I live... in very rural northern Arkansas. I buy Namaste pizza crust mix and make about 5 crusts (it's supposed to make 2 large ones) and freeze them after baking. That way I can let one defrost, top it, and have my very own yummy pizza. White sauce, pepperoni, peppers, cheese, and chopped pineapple is my fave!

How awfully frustrating to feel so crappy and have doctors ignore you or tell you it's in your head!

My poor youngest daughter was diagnosed w/ celiac (I have it and middle daughter has it... oldest daughter was diagnosed last year), went gluten free... she was very well versed in the process having been around me for years... and proceeded to get worse and worse and worse!! She ended up eating essentially white rice, eggs, apples, and cauliflower for more than a year! She went to her GI once with some research she'd done and he put his hands on his hips and said, "Oh great... you've been on the internet. Why don't YOU tell ME what's wrong with you?" Good thing I wasn't there... I'd have gone for his throat. The poor kid burst into tears and said, "I'm just trying to figure out WHAT'S WRONG!!!"

Peeps here are not only incredibly knowledgeable... they've also seen and experienced it all. This is a good place for support and answers. Please keep us posted.