Dietary restrictions

My wife is avoiding gluten, and now the doc says my youngest is allergic to wheat and/or gluten. Does anyone here avoid gluten or have any other dietary restrictions (besides the obvious stuff to keep from dying from being fat). My wife is a good cook, but man, this stuff she makes is very ungood. She made pancakes this morning and they were dry and gritty. Her pancakes used to be stellar, I mean amazing. So, I'd love to hear tips and tricks from folks on here that have figured out how to avoid wheat, gluten, or anything specific and how to make it edible. If things don't improve, I'm going to get a job at White Castle for the employee discount so I can enjoy a meal again.

In my experience, it's either good or good for you.

They might not be mutually exclusive, but they don't hang out together very often.

Occasionally, I have to make a really good meal and just count on it shaving a couple of hours off my life. It's worth it.

You just need to look aroud more and find better recipes, and she'll hopefully get better at cooking them. The GF's sister-in-law and their kids have gluten allergies and most of the food the future-mother-in-law made for us while we were visiting over the Fourth of July was gluten-free so the brother's family could eat it too, and many things I'd not have realized it if they'd not told me so.

Only thing I've directly had to deal with is my lactose intolerance. That sucked a lot in the mid-90's when there wasn't much good available in dairy alternatives, but got a lot better as it gained more exposure and companies stepped up to make some really good fake dairy goods. Of course, these days I largely don't worry about it thanks to having found something that lets me eat pretty much whatever I want- but unfortunately nothing similar exists for gluten issues AFAIK.

Bummer. I only avoid breads and gluten like the plague most days, but after a whole turkey is cooked and leftovers...Just means 2 pieces of bread, jar of mayo with those leftovers.

I've got two glutards in the family (yes...we use the term affectionately).

Basically, what it boils down to is you're going to have to find other foods to eat that aren't pancakes. That's my experience.

Gluten is apparently a wonder-agent when it comes to texture in food.

We eat a lot of rice. Not so much bread now. My fiance makes a mean batch of GF brownies that are REALLY good...glutenites eat them and don't even know.

Honestly, that's about the only kind of baked good (breads, pastries, etc) that's worth a darn.

She also found an acceptable pizza dough recipe.

In our house, the two that eat gluten do...because it's expensive to buy the special gluten free stuff. We've changed our cooking habbits, however. We don't go out and look for gluten-free substitutes for foods that inherently include gluten. Instead, we look at options that are inherently gluten free.

Hit me up by PM if you want and I can get with her to help share the recipes that work for us (brownies, pizza dough).

Thanks,
Clem

My dad is allergic to gluten and I was when I was younger so I have experience eating gluten-free, not so much cooking it.

The premade mixes from Red Mill are good stuff. There are some gluten free recipes that are very good but it still isn't the same as what you would be used to.

Waffles with almond flour are good, never tried it with pancakes.

Clem, you have a PM, and I'll try the almond flour Evan. That sounds pretty good actually.

SWMBO tried gluten-free for the last 3 months due to some allergy issues. By the end things got pretty decent again (turns out it wasn't it). I'll pester her for the recipes. Having a Vitamix to mix the stuff up before baking helped a lot.

Also, there's gluten or more than just wheat (corn was the #2 IIRC), so really try and find out if it's wheat or gluten that's causing the issues. If it's just wheat, you can easily remake the original recipes with alternative flours that have gluten.

My wife took us down the gluten free path for a while. This was my best friend:

Unfortunately that only works for lunch and dinner. Luckily I've been using coffee as breakfast for years so it worked out.

My B-I-L is on the no gluten team.
For sandwiches he uses small corn tortias.
Corona beer!

slefain wrote: My wife took us down the gluten free path for a while. This was my best friend: Unfortunately that only works for lunch and dinner. Luckily I've been using coffee as breakfast for years so it worked out.

Great on eggs too!

I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease a couple of years ago. so no gluten. It took awhile to adjust, reading labels etc. Really not that difficult. Now that I have it under control, I can slip once in awhile. There are more and more gluten free products coming out. There are web sites with all kinds of information and recipes.

"Udi's" is the good no-gluten bread, by the way. You'll realize when you get the total at the checkout why those of us who eat gluten don't eat the gluten free bread.

Maybe instead of relying on food substitutes, you could look towards cultures that do not rely on foods containing gluten for their everyday meals.

If i bece a vegetarian tomorrow, I would eat predominately Indian food. So many of the dishes are well-balanced without meat, that it does not feel like anything is missing. Example: today's lunch was lentils and rice, a pita, and an apple.

Maybe there is a cuisine out there that does the same with gluten-free foods.

Gluten is the stuff that binds together wheat products and makes they chewy or allows the bread to be cohesive enough to rise. The longer you mix wheat flower, the more chewy it gets and the more it can rise without defalting/falling apart.

As you can guess, it is pretty critical in any leavened product for structure and texture.

...and don't eat the sugar free gummy bears....

Gearheadotaku wrote: ...and don't eat the sugar free gummy bears....

I'd expand that to pretty much any of the 'Sugar Free!' versions of cookies and candy that exist out there. A ways back I did the whole Atkins Diet thing. Once out of the initial phase (or almost nothing carb/sugar related), I tried a number of the 'Sugar Free!' things out there. Not quite the 'waiting for liftoff' that the gummy bears apparently induce, but still way too much time spent on the can for losing a few calories of carbs...

Mitchell wrote: Maybe instead of relying on food substitutes, you could look towards cultures that do not rely on foods containing gluten for their everyday meals. If i bece a vegetarian tomorrow, I would eat predominately Indian food. So many of the dishes are well-balanced without meat, that it does not feel like anything is missing. Example: today's lunch was lentils and rice, a pita, and an apple. Maybe there is a cuisine out there that does the same with gluten-free foods.

Chinese cooking sounds like it would fit the bill, provided you avoid the noodles.

Mitchell wrote: ... Maybe there is a cuisine out there that does the same with gluten-free foods.

Look to Asia for inspiration. (note, however, that typical Soy Sauce has wheat, Tamari does not)

[Edit: I hadn't seen MadScientistMatt's post before I hit submit on this. And I'll add that the Asian rice noodles are used a lot in our house.]

Mitchell wrote: Maybe instead of relying on food substitutes, you could look towards cultures that do not rely on foods containing gluten for their everyday meals. If i bece a vegetarian tomorrow, I would eat predominately Indian food. So many of the dishes are well-balanced without meat, that it does not feel like anything is missing. Example: today's lunch was lentils and rice, a pita, and an apple.

Came to say this. When I was on the veggie train a while back, we didn't do the silly veggie-substitute things ($5 imitation hamburger patties??), we just ate inherently vegetarian foods. Lots of Indian, Chinese, Mexican.

To this day it irks me when I get a chicken dish from the local Chinese joint and it's a pound of chicken and two pieces of broccoli.

I'm not trying to be ignorant with this statement, but...

This whole "gluten free"/"allergic to gluten" thing seems to be WAY overblown and a catchall. When I was growing up (I'm only 25), this was simply NOT a thing. Now everybody apparently has it, including my sister.

It just seems to be the same thing as diagnosing everyone with ADD. I dunno, just kind of irritating. At the end of the day, even the best gluten free food tastes like garbage (its no different then people saying tofu can taste exactly the same as the real thing).

HiTempguy wrote: I'm not trying to be ignorant with this statement, but... This whole "gluten free"/"allergic to gluten" thing seems to be WAY overblown and a catchall. When I was growing up (I'm only 25), this was simply NOT a thing. Now everybody apparently has it, including my sister. It just seems to be the same thing as diagnosing everyone with ADD. I dunno, just kind of irritating. At the end of the day, even the best gluten free food tastes like garbage (its no different then people saying tofu can taste exactly the same as the real thing).

I don't think it's "ignorant", but maybe missing the mark. It is two fold different problem nowadays with better allergy testing and a lack of "just living with it". Add in the chemists brewing up substitutes to everything that have no business being in our diets....

I will probably end up with Celiac Disease sooner or later. I've been taunting my gluten free friends/family for a long time now.

My GF is has a gluten sensitivity. As far as pasta goes the corn/rice/quinoa stuff is pretty good. All the breads suck IMO. We tend to eat Thai/Vietnamese most often. Most major restaurants have GF options. Add a buck to get the Gluten Free bun and whatnot.

One of the unfortunate things is that we have a Jack Sprat issue going on for any of the most popular non pasta options. She can eat no gluten and I cannot process Xanthan Gum which is the primary gluten replacement. We have to order two pizzas or whatever.

I do love rice pasta from asian supermarkets. I actually prefer it to wheat past most of the time.