Wheat Free?

[ML]

Is anyone here traveling "Wheat Free"?

I have read individuals have successfully reduced their blood pressure just by eliminating wheat from their diet. Some have substituted with corn products which is also a GMO (genetically modified product) others have used rice or bean products.

What are some of your wheat free recipes or substitutes?

[oldmattb]

We have found the rice-based pastas are usually the best. You might try pasta sauces over broccoli or cauliflower instead. Our local grocery has 10 bags of frozen veggies for $10.

I have a serious chocolate craving, but avoid sugar. I have found the unsweetened bakers' chocolate very satisfying. The flavor reminds me of a good cup of coffee without additives. My wife does not consider it food, like eating bark or the caked mud from the RV underside!

Matt B

dcason wrote:
Because of slowly oncoming digestive issues, that finally smacked me in the head with a duh! testings... Still no diagnosis but I decided to go gluten free as it can take 6 - 8 week for gluten to clear your tissues and 6 - 8 weeks for your body to heal. I have not yet hit the
4 months....

I will remain gluten free, oat free (violent reactions from my elimination diet on this one), refined sugar free, and mostly vegan...until at least September...too see what plays out.

There are a lot of naturally gluten free products out there. I've tried a few pastas and quite frankly at this point they taste like cardboard. My tastebuds have changed as I used to LOVE pasta...now I'm a quinoa and brown rice girl. I aim for naturally gluten free items and when I return home, I will experiment with making breads as those grocery store breads are horrible. I want a good artisan loaf of bread!

I will have to let you know how my blood work goes at the end of april...which is also when my 4 month gluten free trial ends. My weight...I exercised 10 pounds off in florida last year. I "ate"
15 lbs. off my body...from going gluten, dairy, vegan, sugar free the
weight REALLY just fell off. I can say I am ecstatic about that; now I look how I want to look at 58.

I used to crave sugar or really chocolate. My cravings have pretty much dropped as my body gets what it needs from food. When I want something sweet I make a wicked Chocolate pudding that has maple syrup, dates, avocados, almond milk, etc in it...we scoff that down quickly:B

I do more cooking now...something I never thought I would want to do but since I have no choice....

If you go for naturally gluten free items it won't cost you...but if you want to sub in gluten free pasta...prepare to pay through the nose. Oh, and look up the laws for deducting the extra costs of those but you need a doctors confirmation on that.

There are many gluten intolerant folks out there that just don't know it.

[ML]

Though pricey as one of the previous posters mentioned I recently tried Quinoa pasta http://ancientharvest.com/ We found it to be quite good.

We are trying to avoid foods with wheat in them but after 1/2 a century eating wheat (especially lots of pasta) we need to ease out of it. We have been pleasantly surprised by the couple of pounds that we have lost just by changing our eating habits since January.

[dcason]

Because of slowly oncoming digestive issues, that finally smacked me in the head with a duh! testings... Still no diagnosis but I decided to go gluten free as it can take 6 - 8 week for gluten to clear your tissues and 6 - 8 weeks for your body to heal. I have not yet hit the
4 months....

I will remain gluten free, oat free (violent reactions from my elimination diet on this one), refined sugar free, and mostly vegan...until at least September...too see what plays out.

There are a lot of naturally gluten free products out there. I've tried a few pastas and quite frankly at this point they taste like cardboard. My tastebuds have changed as I used to LOVE pasta...now I'm a quinoa and brown rice girl. I aim for naturally gluten free items and when I return home, I will experiment with making breads as those grocery store breads are horrible. I want a good artisan loaf of bread!

I will have to let you know how my blood work goes at the end of april...which is also when my 4 month gluten free trial ends. My weight...I exercised 10 pounds off in florida last year. I "ate"
15 lbs. off my body...from going gluten, dairy, vegan, sugar free the
weight REALLY just fell off. I can say I am ecstatic about that; now I look how I want to look at 58.

I used to crave sugar or really chocolate. My cravings have pretty much dropped as my body gets what it needs from food. When I want something sweet I make a wicked Chocolate pudding that has maple syrup, dates, avocados, almond milk, etc in it...we scoff that down quickly:B

I do more cooking now...something I never thought I would want to do but since I have no choice....

If you go for naturally gluten free items it won't cost you...but if you want to sub in gluten free pasta...prepare to pay through the nose. Oh, and look up the laws for deducting the extra costs of those but you need a doctors confirmation on that.

There are many gluten intolerant folks out there that just don't know it.

[ML]

emzee wrote:
Thanks ML I am going to try this recipe, it sounds really good.

My favorite cookie is Oatmeal and I don't like really sweet things. Saw this 2 ingredient recipe for oatmeal cookies and I tried it. I liked it VERY EASY.
2 Ingredient Oatmeal Banana Cookie Recipe

Haven't tried this one yet but it sounded good:
No Bake Energy Bars

[emzee]

Thanks ML I am going to try this recipe, it sounds really good.

[ML]

emzee wrote:
My son was watching his gluten for a while because the doctor doesn't quite know what is going on with his system. They thought he had celiac sprue but now they don't think so. In any case I would have loved to know about the oatmeal-flour pancakes.

I use the batter for waffles and I think they taste great. I add a banana and chopped walnuts. I have been substituting the ground oats for wheat in more and more things that need flour. You can buy other flours but I always have oatmeal on hand so it is easy to pop it in the food processor to make it flour as I need it.

[emzee]

My son was watching his gluten for a while because the doctor doesn't quite know what is going on with his system. They thought he had celiac sprue but now they don't think so. In any case I would have loved to know about the oatmeal-flour pancakes.

[ML]

I am trying to come up with other foods to replace wheat products in general but we love pasta so thought I would try an alternative to wheat pasta. We like Quinoa so tried Ancient Harvest Gluten Free Penna Pasta made from Quinoa http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Harvest-Gluten-Pasta-Penne/dp/B00FLYVXJ2/ref=sr_1_2?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&... It is pricey in the store but will look for alternative sources. I use to buy Fiber Gourmet Pastas thru Amazon vs health food stores and there was a much better selection as well as free shipping so saved money on the product as well as the drive to the health food store which is usually on the opposite end of town that we are on.

We gave the Quinoa Pasta a thumbs up.

[down_home]

Diabetes etc here. I've noticed that wheat, especially some breads really affect my sugar levels and direaha etc. Mc Donalds buns and especially Wendy's raise my sugar and make it difficult to bring down sometimes. Over twenty something years I've came to this conclusion. our formerly and still, sometimes, hectic schedules make for a lot of junk food.
Some bread mixes for the bread machine, cause fewer digestive problems and don't affect sugar as bad. Some other mixes for quick made loaves are simply terrible. Loaf bread really is bad, for me. The potato breads are less os but still negatively affect sugar etc.
Cutting the crust off helps a lot. i suspect the preservatives and especially the anti mold etc spray they put on bread, whether from Juniper berries or what, cause a lot of digestive problems, and other things. No such thing as fresh bread in stores now.
scratch made corn bread not from GMO corn, pinto beans and just plain food affects sugar and digestion a lot less, or at least I'm forming that opinion form what I'm experiencing.
For travel, we're taking tea bags, and thermos and other glass lined vessels. Note, read the back of your salt box. Iodineized salt has dextrose and aluminum etc in it. None of the preservatives etc are good for our systems. I understand most salt has some of this stuff, including sea salt. So read the boxes.

[suse1023]

I use miracle noodles and they are ok. not great, not bad, but ok.
they don't absorb any flavor or moisture, and there is a knack to preparing them, but overall I like them well enough.

here's the secret to preparing them--rinse several times in cold water, yes they stink when you open the package but don't let that scare you off! rinse and repeat, cook as directed. after draining the noodles, put them back into the hot pot and gently cook the excess moisture off over a medium flame. cooking that moisture off really helps the texture to be like what we expect from al dente wheat pasta.


yesterday I made tuna noodle salad with miracle noodle ziti that was pretty good. I am curious to try it today and see if the noodles picked up any flavor after sitting with the tuna all night.
spaghetti squash is also good and a bit different. I keep meaning to try zucchini noodles but haven't gotten around to it yet.

[ML]

I have made these pancakes (waffles) a couple of times.


Oat Pancakes (Wheat Free)
I like it because I always have oatmeal on hand and just have to put it in the food processor to make fresh flour. I add a small banana and some chopped walnuts to the batter.

It makes enough batter for 2 waffles. I only eat one but put the batter in the frig and it makes up beautifully the next day.

I have also used the oat flour as breading for fish and DH can't tell the difference.

[Emptypockets]

bigdogger wrote:
Gluten free is basically a scam if you do not have an allergy to gluten. Do a little research and you will find that many gluten free products substitute higher calorie ingredients for wheat, hence becoming gluten free and yet higher in calories. Other products trumpet "gluten free" when they never would have had gluten in the first place. Jelly beans, ice cream and chocolate bars are all gluten free, yet don't constitute a healthy diet. For the majority of people, you can get all the benefits of a gluten free diet by simply cutting way down on the amount of bread you eat. Bread is a major source of empty calories in the average American's diet. It is also very tasty, so I personally prefer the have my occasional burger and pizza and exercise it off.

Gluten intolerance may seem like a scam to you however, if you suffer from the disease you won't think it is a scam. The sad thing is a lot of the things that one would think was gluten free aren't - if the label says modified wheat starch we have two daughters that has to stay away from it. Boy have we ever had to learn how to read label's.

[ML]

Scottiemom wrote:
We full time and I'm gluten free. Not really a big problem because I was never a big bread eater. I miss my favorite breakfast cereals. . . get tired of eating rice and corn chex. Found some cream of rice, yeah! Eat eggs in the morning. . . miss my morning toast. . . really don't care for the GF breads on the market. Make my own breads. . . still experimenting with those. I don't eat a lot of pasta, but have found corn spaghetti to be a great substitute that my DH enjoys as well. Down here in Texas, the H.E.B. grocery store chain has it's own label of corn pasta. . . other styles besides spaghetti. It is delicious and my favorite.

Van's makes GF cheese crackers. . . close to Cheezits. REally good. Pamela's makes good baking mixes. . . the pancake mixes you cannot tell from wheat. Pamela's also makes great cookies. Glutino makes a table cracker similar to a saltine that's decent. Sam's Club has a flaxseed cracker that is great. Comes two packs to a box called "Multigrain" I think. They are great with dips, etc. Crunchy.

My DH has severe heart problems and has to eat salt free. That is by far a bigger challenge because it's almost impossible to eat out and stay under his 500 mg requirement for meals. We do most of our eating right in our own place. . . pitchins are the WORST for salt. After our Thanksgiving meal in our park, DH gained 4 lbs. . . same at Christmas. Probably won't do those again, it takes him too long to get the fluid off.

GF is getting easier to find. We are in northern Indiana a lot in the summer and even the Amish stores are starting to stock GF flours. And their Xantham Gum is a fraction of the cost of other places. That is an ingredient you use in GF baking to take the place of gluten. The Rise and Shine Bakery near Shipshewana has some GF baked items.

I enjoyed reading the responses because I got a lot of good ideas.

No different adjusting to the GF diet as there is with a diabetic diet or salt free. Just change your thinking and embrace it. I was diagnosed by a doctor with a "questionable new testing procedure," but decided it might help me lose some weight. Surprisingly, it was my digestive tract that has reaped the biggest benefit with few of the problems I had before.

Dale

Thank you for the suggestions, much appreciated.

[Scottiemom]

We full time and I'm gluten free. Not really a big problem because I was never a big bread eater. I miss my favorite breakfast cereals. . . get tired of eating rice and corn chex. Found some cream of rice, yeah! Eat eggs in the morning. . . miss my morning toast. . . really don't care for the GF breads on the market. Make my own breads. . . still experimenting with those. I don't eat a lot of pasta, but have found corn spaghetti to be a great substitute that my DH enjoys as well. Down here in Texas, the H.E.B. grocery store chain has it's own label of corn pasta. . . other styles besides spaghetti. It is delicious and my favorite.

Van's makes GF cheese crackers. . . close to Cheezits. REally good. Pamela's makes good baking mixes. . . the pancake mixes you cannot tell from wheat. Pamela's also makes great cookies. Glutino makes a table cracker similar to a saltine that's decent. Sam's Club has a flaxseed cracker that is great. Comes two packs to a box called "Multigrain" I think. They are great with dips, etc. Crunchy.

My DH has severe heart problems and has to eat salt free. That is by far a bigger challenge because it's almost impossible to eat out and stay under his 500 mg requirement for meals. We do most of our eating right in our own place. . . pitchins are the WORST for salt. After our Thanksgiving meal in our park, DH gained 4 lbs. . . same at Christmas. Probably won't do those again, it takes him too long to get the fluid off.

GF is getting easier to find. We are in northern Indiana a lot in the summer and even the Amish stores are starting to stock GF flours. And their Xantham Gum is a fraction of the cost of other places. That is an ingredient you use in GF baking to take the place of gluten. The Rise and Shine Bakery near Shipshewana has some GF baked items.

I enjoyed reading the responses because I got a lot of good ideas.

No different adjusting to the GF diet as there is with a diabetic diet or salt free. Just change your thinking and embrace it. I was diagnosed by a doctor with a "questionable new testing procedure," but decided it might help me lose some weight. Surprisingly, it was my digestive tract that has reaped the biggest benefit with few of the problems I had before.

Dale