VW Celiacs Unite!
Posted by caison on Apr 23, 2010 · Member since Feb 2010 · 143 posts
After a long bout of some serious pain, I was recently diagnosed with Celiac disease, and man is my world turned upside down.
I'm your typical Italian-American...pasta, pasta, bread, more pasta and I am pretty lost on what to eat.
I eat a lot of fruit and veg already, but other than that I have no clue. A typical meal would consist of a veggie, some pasta or a bread, or even a veggie burger (all of the premade ones seem to contain gluten, and I have yet to find an easy, yummy one to make myself)
What do all my gluten free buds eat? I am especially looking for a "meaty" veggie burger like Boca/Morningstar type thing now that I can't have them :(
I don't have celiac, but for a while we thought my daugter might have it. Gluten-free pasta is decent. I'm not too impressed with the bread. There are a lot of gluten free vegan and vegetarian cookbooks out there. I got a really nice vegetarian one from the library, but I can't find it to give you the title. I'll look next time I go. Most of the recipes were easy to veganize. Most gluten-free books are heavy on meat and will be of little to no help. I got a lot of support at vegiac.com. As far as veggie burgers, I like Sunshine Burgers which are gluten free. They aren't really what I would call meaty though. At least around here, being a vegan with celiac at home would be fine, but being a vegan with celiac at a restaurant would be close to impossible. GF options on most menus seem to be slaps of plain meat and maybe steamed veggies. I know there are a few more GF people here who will have better advice to offer.
After a long bout of some serious pain, I was recently diagnosed with Celiac disease, and man is my world turned upside down.
I'm your typical Italian-American...pasta, pasta, bread, more pasta and I am pretty lost on what to eat.
I eat a lot of fruit and veg already, but other than that I have no clue. A typical meal would consist of a veggie, some pasta or a bread, or even a veggie burger (all of the premade ones seem to contain gluten, and I have yet to find an easy, yummy one to make myself)
What do all my gluten free buds eat? I am especially looking for a "meaty" veggie burger like Boca/Morningstar type thing now that I can't have them :(
Hi Caison! Im sorry your feeling so fustrated but im glad you know whats been casuing you misery and the upside is that all you have to do is avoid and your cured lol! Sorry i know that probably not so amusing to you right now i remember what it was like the first few months an none of it was funny. I havent been diagnised with celiac but gluten really exacerbates my health issues so i avoid it completely.
One word you will come to adore as a pasta lover is Tinkyada :). Great, tasty, easy, and near fool proof rice pasta (especially when you cook it with the energy aver dierections ont he package). The only mass market bread ive found that i like is Ener-G White Rice Flax but i also cannot have egg or milk so depending on how strict you are there are alot of other options out there. As for veggie burger i had the same problem, i posted on and got soooo much great help. I ended up making mine out of a base of lentils and gluten free oats, next time i will do lentils/kidney beans/oats which i think will give me the texture i want. I put in all kind of mixed veggies (carrot, broccolli stalk, shallots, zucchini, mushrooms, spinach powder, ect..) and seasoned like i would a meat burger and they turned out quite good :) so there is hope. Oh an i also found that at leat with lentils the texture got evenbetter after freezing them.
I wrote a gluten free quick quide for a friend who's neice was diagnosed i will go look for that. In the mean time you can check out the websites of the major G-Free producers like ener-g, amy's, bobs red mill, and a few other i cant spell lol. Good luck and i will post back as i find that info :). Once you get past the first 6 weeks or so its gets very easy, reading labels is the hardest part.
I've recently been diagnosed with IBS, but before I spent the thousands of dollars on all the tests I tried cutting out different common trigger foods from my diet. I went 3 months gluten-free, and it's definitely tough at first, but then I really got used to it. I used brown rice flour in just about everything, including baking, and I had no problems with that. I did a lot of rice in general, with beans or stir-frys. I love tofu, so we would have baked tofu, veggie, salad, and perhaps rice for dinner.
We did occasionally have the gluten-free pasta, and it was certainly palatable. It did feel quite extravagant, especially after going so long without regular pasta! I even bought some gluten-free bread made out of brown rice flour, and it was pretty darn good too. Expensive, though.
Stick with whole foods, and you should be fine. Make your own veggie burgers--there are lots of good ones of VW. Find the ones that work for you. The Smoky Tofu Red Bean burgers are good, and I think they're GF or can be made so easily. Stock up on fruits, veggies, tofu and tempeh, and you should be fine. It's just about breaking old habits and making new ones.
Good luck!
get the book "Allergy Survival Guide" by Jo Stepaniak. It has been a lifesaver!!!
Karina's website is great, she often eats vegan so her bread recipes are good. I like bob's red mill mixes when I am low on time. Baking conversions from wheat based to GF and then from GF to vegan are tough. It takes time and practice, I am just starting to get really good and I have been doing this for 18+ years. Muffins, scones, pancakes are the most forgiving at first.
http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/
Living without magazine is good too, a bit pricey to buy, but informative.
http://www.livingwithout.com/.
I also recommend finding a local support group, they are probably not vegan, but can still be a great support for a new celiac, and they have all been through it and can give lots of shortcuts to great foods. Many people with celiac are also sensitive to eggs and milk, so you may find many who also bake vegan even if they don't call it that.
I recommend that you do an intense purge of your kitchen, as many vegan products can have gluten in them. Soy sauce, worsteshire sauce, dressings, cereals, granola bars, everything. Oats are GF but I suggest buying certified GF oats as most oats are heavily contaminated with gluten in the harvesting and processing process.
And check any medications or beauty products you use. Meds, vitamins and lip balms, etc can all have gluten in them!
Fat free vegan is great about labelling GF recipes. Quinoa is my substitute for anything that calls for couscous - it just takes a bit longer to cook. I'd honestly love to write a GF vegan cookbook...