Wheat free menu plan help required please

trulymadlydeeply_indebt! · 27 January 2008 at 4:30PM

Hi all - just wondering if there is anybody else out there who is on a tight budget and yet needs to eat wheat free food which can be quite costly? How do you do it and still come in at a reasonable budget.

I'm about to do a menu plan and I'm very good at getting things to stretch for days on end however, a bit of inspiration from you guys would be great. I also have 2 young children who eat just about anything (no food issues there) unless I give them salad too often and then they tend to push it around a bit.

We love meat but it would be nice to have a few veggie meals in the week too. I've already started halving my meat consumption by popping tins of chick peas into the pot to bulk out with a cheaper protein.

Look forward to hearing from thoughts. Apologies in advance if I don't thank you right away as I'm off to work for my nightshift shortly, but I will look at all replies tomorrow.

TMD x

Seakay · 27 January 2008 at 4:51PM

I'm not on a wheat free diet myself, so don't have any experience to share, but it did occour to me that oats and oatmeal are quite cheap and can be used for quite a few things, eg
porriage
oat biscuits
crumble topping for fruit crumble or without sugar (optional cheese) for the top of veggies
I also found this thread which might have a few more ideas for you
http://uktv.co.uk/food/thread/threadid/6817

trulymadlydeeply_indebt! · 27 January 2008 at 5:02PM

Thank you Seakay.

I love porridge (or so I tell myself!) and love making flapjacks for the children when they come in from school starving. I'd never thought to make them into a savoury crumble with veggies so that's something new to try.

Cheers X

D&DD · 27 January 2008 at 5:23PM

I'm just in the middle of cooking the dinner but will pop back later with some ideas which may help

Is there anything you don't like?? EG wheat free pasta??

lil_me · 27 January 2008 at 5:32PM

There is loads of books in our local library with recipes, would be a good idea to try there before buying them

(just incase you haven't seen the Admin on the site will be deleting long signatures next month, if you need the info saved in yours I would write it down ASAP or you will loose it)

trulymadlydeeply_indebt! · 27 January 2008 at 5:37PM

Only the cost ha ha!

We eat pretty much anything and everything. I had a go at stretching a chicken dinner into a chicken pie made with wheat free flour but the consistency of the pastry looked a bit dubious to say the least - tasted kinda okay though.

I'm trying to avoid having to buy specialist, wheat-free pasta, spaghetti, flour etc., if I can (purely for financial reasons) but I find that approach tends to make my meals a bit same-y i.e. meat with roasties, veg and gravy or meat with baked potatoes/HM chips/HM Coleslaw and salad.

The family aren't too whoopy-do about sweet potatoes, although this week I made HM sweet potato wedges which worked well. Simply put olive oil into a roasting pan, then add a pinch of cumin, turmeric, paprika, sugar, salt and pepper and fully coat the wedges with the mixture using a pastry brush and bung into the oven for an hour ish. They doubled up as a savoury snack later that night in front of the TV watching a DVD.

Thanks for responding - I'm off to work now - BYE

trulymadlydeeply_indebt! · 27 January 2008 at 5:39PM

lil_me wrote: »

There is loads of books in our local library with recipes, would be a good idea to try there before buying them

(just incase you haven't seen the Admin on the site will be deleting long signatures next month, if you need the info saved in yours I would write it down ASAP or you will loose it)

Yeah, I spotted that post the other day - I wouldn't mind but it took mey ages to get it into a format I liked LOL!

D&DD · 27 January 2008 at 7:35PM

Its only my youngest who actually HAS to go Gluten free but many of our meals are still GF/CF anyway as it saves me from doing 2 of everything/cross contamination...Not that he eats much besides strawberries but I live in hope!!!
If you are going completely wheat free you must read the labels on everything..for example did you know many chips are coated in wheatflour to stop them sticking together?Its in things like tomato sauce(and many other things) as a thickener.It is in sausages and burgers too.
If you snack on crisps many of these contain wheat!It takes a bit of getting used to and even then the manufacturers do us no favours by constantly changing recipes :rolleyes:

Our typical meals are:-

Breakfasts
Doves farm Choccie stars
Gorilla munch
GF toast
Scrambled Egg on GF toast
Eggy bread

Dinners
GF Sausage Toad,mash and veg
HM GF Pizza
Shepherds Pie *check gravy*
Jacket potatoes with chilli * if using a mix check for wheatflour*
HM Chicken Dippers and HM chips(Mccains are ok)
GF Sausages and mash or chips and veg
GF Fish fingers with mash and beans
Roast chicken dinner
Lamb Curry *again check ingredients in powder and sauces*
Chicken curry
Sausage and bean casserole
HM Turkey fingers
Vegetable chilli
Spag bol
GF Chicken tortilla wraps HM wedges

Snacks/Puds
Hummous and veg crisps
Kettle chips
GF Waffles
GF Pancakes
GF Doughnuts
GF Muffins
Meringues

Thats all I can think of off the top of my head but hopefully it'll give you some ideas

Don't bother with any cookbooks all you could ever want and more is posted on the internet for free

Sites to check out are www.juvela.co.uk www.wheat-free.org
www.glutafin.co.uk Also do a search for gluten free recipes as well as wheat free which will give you loads more stuff HTH Dee

squeaky · 28 January 2008 at 9:56AM

lil_me wrote: »

(just incase you haven't seen the Admin on the site will be deleting long signatures next month, if you need the info saved in yours I would write it down ASAP or you will loose it)

Hiya, no need to panic

You won't actually lose anything if your signature is too long - the site will not chop it in half or anything.

What will happen though, is that when you next update the information in your signature and then hit the save button, the software will tell you something like - "Sorry - your signature is too long to save, please continue to edit it until it is shorter"

So you'll then get the opportunity to change it some more until it fits within the new guidelines.

Please note: Not every signature is too long

Seakay · 28 January 2008 at 1:40PM

http://www.fitnessandfreebies.com/wheatfree/

Not all cheap ingredients, but a lot of ideas - if you live in an area with access to Indian/specialist shops then you may find it cheaper to buy gram flour from them than soy flour from a wholefood shop. (eg for soy muffins)

Found this info:

"18. PASTRY

Wholemeal pastry can be made from a variety of flours with or instead of wheat. The best gluten free alternative to wheat is buckwheat flour, which makes delicious, if heavy pastry. All wholemeal pastry tends to be heavier than white flour pastry. Pastry can be made using potato (grated) 50/50 with flour.

Make your pastry in the normal manner but remember it doesn’t bind as well as white wheat pastry. If you roll it, do so between two pieces of greaseproof paper and manipulate it into position, peeling off the paper before baking as appropriate. The simplest method of handling this pastry is to place it in its tray or dish and spread it out with your fingers. "

on this site:
http://www.bodyandmindshop.com/product/WholefoodRecipes.html

I would try finely ground oatmeal as an alternative to buckwheat flour in the first instance, as it is a more familiar and less intrusive flavour.

I find it easier to mix cooked mashed potaton with flour to make potato cakes, and assume that this would also apply if you were attempting a kind of pastry.

trulymadlydeeply_indebt! · 29 January 2008 at 12:38AM

D&DD wrote: »

Its only my youngest who actually HAS to go Gluten free but many of our meals are still GF/CF anyway as it saves me from doing 2 of everything/cross contamination...Not that he eats much besides strawberries but I live in hope!!!
If you are going completely wheat free you must read the labels on everything..for example did you know many chips are coated in wheatflour to stop them sticking together?Its in things like tomato sauce(and many other things) as a thickener.It is in sausages and burgers too.
If you snack on crisps many of these contain wheat!It takes a bit of getting used to and even then the manufacturers do us no favours by constantly changing recipes :rolleyes:

Our typical meals are:-

Breakfasts
Doves farm Choccie stars
Gorilla munch
GF toast
Scrambled Egg on GF toast
Eggy bread

Dinners
GF Sausage Toad,mash and veg
HM GF Pizza
Shepherds Pie *check gravy*
Jacket potatoes with chilli * if using a mix check for wheatflour*
HM Chicken Dippers and HM chips(Mccains are ok)
GF Sausages and mash or chips and veg
GF Fish fingers with mash and beans
Roast chicken dinner
Lamb Curry *again check ingredients in powder and sauces*
Chicken curry
Sausage and bean casserole
HM Turkey fingers
Vegetable chilli
Spag bol
GF Chicken tortilla wraps HM wedges

Snacks/Puds
Hummous and veg crisps
Kettle chips
GF Waffles
GF Pancakes
GF Doughnuts
GF Muffins
Meringues

Thats all I can think of off the top of my head but hopefully it'll give you some ideas
Don't bother with any cookbooks all you could ever want and more is posted on the internet for free
Sites to check out are www.juvela.co.uk www.wheat-free.org
www.glutafin.co.uk Also do a search for gluten free recipes as well as wheat free which will give you loads more stuff HTH Dee

Cheers D&DD - I cannot believe that I've just come in from work and been looking at the threads and spotted your diary for the first time only 10 minutes ago. I've just got up to page 3 (oo-eer missus!) and added it to my favourites and then I logged onto mine to see you've replied to mine. How bizarre.

Thank you for all your suggestions which I will certainly give a go. I caved in and bought 2 pks of Orgran Corn pasta today but baulked at the price - £1.69 a bag!!!!! but at least the kids can get plenty of omega 3's in their fishy pasta for a couple of dinners.

I'm also glad you suggested not buying cookbooks as I keep buying them but the meals often seem centred on fresh tuna steaks with salad-type meals - yeah right - like the budget will stretch to that LOL!

Can I also say that you are a true inspiration and I'm thinking that I shouldn't have covered my bog-garden with slate last year (oops).

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Wheat free menu plan help required please

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free