Gluten Free the old style way

library_lass

Finefoot, did you mean polenta when you wrote semolina (which is wheat)?

Maitane

Hi Lulu,

I've gone through the same process of diagnosis for Coeliac and despite being able to get a free prescription because I live in Wales, I don't use it.

Nothing political, I follow something called Clean Eating which is a fancy way of putting having a high protein diet and not eating processed rubbish.

One of the first things to check is whether you need to cut out gluten alone or gluten and dairy. That will affect what you can have more.

Someone else mentioned not cheating and that really is important - if you ever get accidentally glutened, you will know about it.

For the mornings, I have things like big omelettes full of vegetables, chicken and broccoli or if time is short, some yoghurt and fruit or a protein shake.

Lunches are things like tuna salad, curries with rice, egg fried rice (just adapt the recipe to not have soy sauce, I sometimes use liquid aminos which are a gluten free alternative with some health benefits for muscle growth) and anything I might have for dinner.

Dinners, I just ignore anything that might have been made with pasta, breading and the like. But that still leaves things like stews, chilli, curries, anything with potatoes, polenta is also gluten free and you can get it ready made.

Things like soups, stews and the like would be great for taking to work during the cold weather and salads would be grand for warmer weather.

For treats and the like - Seabrooks crisps have the crossed grain symbol so every flavour is safe for us. Most ice cream is okay but it's so easy to make your own with condensed milk and your favourite flavouring.

borkid

Hi I'm wheat intolerant not coeliac. I was tested for coeliac's but all the tests came back normal. My GP said just to cut out anything that mentioned wheat as I can tell within 24 hours if I've eaten anything containing wheat. As others have said try cooking from scratch there is a lot you can eat which is naturally gluten free. I make my own pizza using Doves plain flour and cakes using vegetables and almond flour. Sauces are thickened using cornflour ( I've always done this so no change there). We buy gluten free pasta from amazon, prefer it to the ones the supermarkets sell.

Be aware gluten/ wheat appears in the most unlikely places.
Some crisps, some icecreams, malteasers (I know I should have realised but I had some one evening and the next day I could barely drive as I was in so much pain. that was scary as I was 15 miles from home when it hit). Also you can't have beer or lager and any spirits made from wheat.

As a big plus I'm eating more healthily, instead of sandwiches I have say cheese and salad or nuts and avacado, I have lost about a stone in weight and I have my waist back and a near flat stomach! I also have more energy and the first time in 40 years where I haven't had some pain everyday.

A word of warning though the first 3 weeks after going gluten free I was ravenous and craving biscuits/ bread/ cake and it was hard but think of it as gluten withdrawal, my acupuncturist warned me it would happen so it did make those first 3 weeks a lot easier. Now I rarely crave wheat based food.

any_name_will_suffice

I haven't been diagnosed with coeliacs, but I ate gluten free throughout my pregnancy, and am now back on gluten again for a while before I have the tests.

It was hard to begin with, but by the end I had pretty much stopped buying the GF breads etc.

I found I ate lots of jacket potatoes (with things like bolognaise as well as the obvious fillings), HM potato wedges and things like stews. Frozen potato waffles (check the packaging but the birds eye ones seems to be ok) were great with egg and bacon when OH was having a bacon and egg sarnie. We also ate lots of HM fried rice (you need to get GF soy sauce). I am not much of a baker, but I did buy some GF oats and started making flapjack- I found the ones you can buy far too sweet so making them myself meant I could adjust the recipe to taste. For breakfasts, I found the Whole Earth Organic
cornflakes much nicer than the free from ones, and my mum who has coeliacs tells me the Morrisons own brand are safe as well.

As Maitane says, the seabrook crisps are all ok, and very often on offer in supermarkets- we are still buying them even now I am back eating gluten.

lulu_92

Thanks for all of the advice and ideas

I find out today what my blood tests reveal so hopefully I will know what I can be eating!

I don't think I will use the prescription food or certificate as £104 is a lot for me to pay up front for things I might not necessarily use. I'd prefer to cut it out completely (my waistline might thank me!)

notanewuser

Maitane wrote: »

For treats and the like - Seabrooks crisps have the crossed grain symbol so every flavour is safe for us. Most ice cream is okay but it's so easy to make your own with condensed milk and your favourite flavouring.

Worth noting that "whippy" ice-cream usually isn't.

Eyeore

I would echo the advice of others. I make my own bread using GF bread flour. For work days i use a mix of own brand and Doves cereal, Doves is expensive so it makes it go further! I bake my own cakes etc. with GF flour. A recent find was Sainsbobs French fries which don't contain gluten or flour, on special for £1 and that will do 4 treat meals - hurrah! My brother paid for me to go on a GF pastry course next weekend so am hoping to finally master pastry, will let you know!

Good luck, it takes time but honestly it is fine and you will feel so much better :-)

lulu_92

Got back from the doctors yesterday and I suppose the good news is that I don't have coeliac disease or a thyroid problem!

My doctor told me that because he has tested me for pretty much everything possible he is diagnosing me with IBS. He gave me a leaflet and that's it. Not too sure what to do now as my symptoms flare up when I eat anything, regardless of what it is!

kboss2010

I've started replacing wheat flour with cornmeal (polenta) in all of my pastry. You can't roll it like normal pastry, it's too crumbly, but since I use it mostly for quiches I just press it into the bottom of the greased dish and it works just fine

flossyann

glad to hear you don't have coeliacs or thyroid problems, thats good news.

I sympathise with you so much when the doctor just diagnosed IBS and then just leaving you to it, the same thing happened to me last year.

I tried following the advice on the doctors leaflets, like eat more fruit and veg, eat more fibre, but this all made me horribly worse, so during one of my many sleepless nights I stumbled upon the low FODMAP diet, which advocates gluten free foods among other things.

Literally from the first day of eating low FODMAP i felt so much better and i also take peppermint oil before meals which i get about 80 of them on one prescription.

Please have a look at the low FODMAP diet online, all the info is available for free if you search g00gle.

best of luck