[chevy974]

I just found out I n eed to be gluten free. UGGH I am so discouraged about this. I think I just n eed help finding substitutes. can you help me with some substitutes for
tortilla
crackers
This is so new to me and over whelming. I want to start using rice flour but real confused about it. If any of you would be so kind to list some of the replacements you use It would be great

thank you so much
amy

 

[puffingirl]

We have been gluten-free in our house for about a year now. I remember the first couple of months being very confusing, but I promise it gets easier. The easiest thing to do for now is to buy some stuff that is already mixed (our local health food store carries several gluten-free all-purpose baking mixes). For tortillas, use corn ones. For crackers, buy gluten-free ones off the shelf. The ones by Glutino are really quite good. These easy measures will make it simpler as you get up to speed on everything. There are several great gluten-free cookbooks out there that will really spell out how to make everything you could ever want (we've made Belgian waffles, crepes, cakes, you name it) and how to eat well gluten-free. Use the recipes in the books to cook with until you get really familiar with how all the gluten-free flours work and then later you can work on adapting old recipes that have gluten in them to be gluten-free. Just my 2 cents and what worked for us. I tried to skip to the last part right at the beginning (try to adapt old recipes to gluten-free) and it just frustrated me. It's not a problem now after getting the hang of it all. Some of our fave resources are:
The Gluten Free Vegetarian Kitchen by Donna Klein
Gluten Free Baking by Chef Copperedge
Book of Yum website
blogs: glutenfreemommy, glutenfreegirl

DD is up from nap but I hope this helps. Good luck and eat well.

 

[cocobean]

Like the last post suggested go to your local health food store. Ours offers so many alternatives to gluten you won't even notice it's gone. We're gluten free as well. Not for any other reason than we feel it is the healthiest option for our family. We have tried so many new veggies that we never would have even considered before. I don't feel like I am missing anything because we've replaced our bad eating habits with good ones. I get so many recipes from www.marksdailyapple.com. It's a wonderful resource! I have tried so many recipes from there and everyone has been amazing!! We have made a primal pizz which is a pizza dough made out of almond flour with a homemade sauce and veggies and cheese. The dough is just a different texture but it's really good! I got this recipe and others from www.sonofgrok.com. Hope these help!

 

[kjbrown92]

www.buckwheatpete.com has good recipes (there's a small fee, but worth it in my opinion). I use his pita recipe for our pizza crust and it's delicious. We're dairy free, soy free, gluten free, corn free. My DS can't have rice either, so I don't use a lot of rice flour. And he can't have potato, so we can't do most gluten-free mixes.

You usually need a couple of flours mixed together. And you need a binder to replace the "glue" of gluten (in most mixes, that's xanthan gum, which we can't have because it's corn, so I use Wilton's Gum-Tex which is made of karaya gum).

I've been making popovers most mornings that are delicious - with sorghum flour and tapioca starch. The eggs bind it. We've been making tortillas out of sorghum flour, tapioca flour, sweet potato starch, and karaya gum. Again, delicious. We make gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. Buckwheat waffles/pancakes (they freeze well too, to pop in the toaster). We make chickpea fritters out of chickpea flour (besan and gram are other names for it) and zucchinis, that are a good side dish (DS likes to dip them in spaghetti sauce).

The texture is not quite the same in a lot of recipes, so you may have to adjust your palate a little. For gravy, I've found that a mixture of sorghum flour and sweet potato starch works the best.

My blog www.kathysrecipebox.com has many gluten free recipes on it.

We purchase rice crackers for DD2. She likes to dip them in hummus.

www.allergygrocer.com also has some good mixes by Miss Robens. I bought a soft pretzel mix but haven't tried it yet. They also have ingredients.

And www.naturalcandystore.com has gluten free candies for holidays/special treats.

 

[chevy974]

thank you thank you thank you