I may have mentioned here, once or twice, how my husband decided to eliminate gluten from his diet about a year and a half ago. This has, ever since, all but ruined my happy culinary existence. Boo! Hiss!!
He did it for digestive reasons, and as a bonus, his blemish-prone skin cleared up, and he now looks like a baby. Yay for him. And fortunately, he seems to only have a sensitivity – he doesn’t have Celiac disease – but he completely avoids any foods containing gluten. Naturally, these include everything delicious you can think of, like breads, pastas, pastries, beer… it’s scandalous, really.
Yes, there are MANY alternatives out there. And there are more and more products entering the market all the time – which is wonderful, as with time, it should bring the prices down on many of these products. They are often pricey indeed.
I love food. I used to love to cook. From fancy fare to budget-beating menus, I can usually whip up something delicious out of not a whole lot. Enter The Gluten-Free Thing, and I’m floundering. There is NO WAY to rock my awesomeness.
Well, I’ll just take that chicken and dredge it in some flour… oh… no. Um, well, I’ll just cut that up and put it between the bread and dip it… oh, wait. No. *blink* What if I…? Riiiiiiight. So. Um… eggs is then!
And what would monsieur have on the side of his eggs? A handful of sesame rice crackers. BON APPETITE, DUDE!!
I’ve been experimenting with pastas for the last eighteen months, and though I’m a firm believer that pasta should be made with semolina AND made in Italy, I have to say my favourite substitute is a corn pasta by Le Veneziane.
For starters, the colour works for me – it cooks up a bit more yellowish than many of the rice ones we’ve tried, which are often an unappealing greyish pallor. And there’s no grittiness, which I haven’t found to be the case with many of the others. I mean, some of them seem sandy when you bite into them. No thanks.The downsides? Because gluten gives elasticity to foods that contain it, without it, pastas like spaghetti tend to break when you try to twirl them. And, it begins to fall apart with too much heat after it’s cooked… that’s sad news for your cannelonis.
And while pasta used to be the excellent budget-conscious solution for many a dinner, a package of gluten-free variety is decidedly more expensive. A box of standard spaghetti might cost about $1.50 (depending on the brand) for about 450 grams. The best price I’ve found for this corn pasta is $3 for 250 grams. That’s right, brainiacs – twice the price, for nearly half as much. Ack. (But, at least it’s relatively good tasting.)
This waffle by Natures Path is another good substitute for breakfast (or dinner) and when you throw one in the toaster, your whole kitchen will smell like a pastry shop from heaven. All vanilla-y and whatnot. Light, crispy, delicious. Also pricey though – $4.69 for six. I’m a bit sad we had to lego our Eggos which cost easily half as much for eight waffles. Gah!
But one product that has changed EVERYTHING for me has been these babies: bread crumbs by Paneriso:
I admit, when I first opened the bag, there was a waft of staleness that couldn’t be denied… but weirdly, they tasted absolutely fine. And I’ve never eaten a crunchier bread crumb in my life. Before this, I was grinding gluten-free rice cereal in a little food mill, but that puffed rice wasn’t crisp enough – it was like trying to grind up styrofoam chips. And a lot of it would end up almost as powder. Not my favourite. These new bread crumbs have allowed me to put back a bunch of recipes in our meal roster, which is terrific, since I’m always trying to make just the ONE dinner each night, rather than two. I mean, really.
Sadly, Martin has given up on bread entirely. Everything he’s tried ranged from not very good to downright awful, and though I’ll spend what it takes to get the foods we want, I am loathe to shell out six bucks for a crappy loaf of bread that had no redeeming qualities. Like tasting good.
I’m not gonna lie though… I miss sitting side by side on the couch, mowing down on warm meatball sammiches, on toasted ciabatta buns with melted havarti… le sigh. You should feel sorry for me. (And please pass the wine.)
PS – I have so much love and respect for Urban Moms own Christine, who mostly struggles around food issues with her son… that is eminently more work. I bow to you, woman!!
If you’re diet is gluten-free, what are your go-to products? Tell me – I’m still investigating!
Anyone for Pizza? Yes, you can have your Pizza and eat it too! I’ve tasted a lot of crusts on the market and frankly, couldn’t understand why there wasn’t any really good crusts out there. Until now!
Spice Market has a crust and flatbread that’s Gluten, egg and dairy free and very tasty. Available at most health and natural food stores in Montreal, Kingston, Toronto and soon to be in Ottawa and Vancouver. You can also buy from the online store.
If anyone wants more info, they can contact me or go to spice market.ca!
BTW, Rossana, I’m with you. I really like the Enjoy Life Brand, too!
David
You’re so right about there being so many sites/links/recipes out there… and yes, the learning curve can be pretty steep!
We’re not very “crunchy” in our diet. I cook from scratch every day, but I’d say for the most part, we eat a lot of French cuisine, along with Italian-esque pastas and things. We’ve tried a few quinoa pastas, but didn’t like any of them (though quinoa as a side dish or salad work for my husband just fine) and I’m really not much of a baker – we don’t eat a lot of baked goods normally anyway, but I think he misses a good baguette or bagel. The ones we’ve tried so far have been hugely bad. (But we’re spoiled Montrealers, living in Bread City…)
Thanks so much for reading, lady! And you’re not the first person to mention Udi’s breads to me – I’ll watch for it!!
We have been a GF/Dairy Free/ Soy Free house for over a year now and have to say it was a STEEP learning curve (our first nine months we were egg free to). We eat really well now, but at first our house was eating a pretty bleak dinner menu, someone like yours only not packaged LOL. We LOVE the quinoa and corn mix pasta (one of our things we love is pastas that are a mix – but I also love any pasta with protein in it 🙂
We make our own bread for the most part but also LOVE Udi’s bread, it is a huge treat in our house, it is way out of my budget, I can make a loaf for half the cost, and make what we want ie pumpin, banana, almond and honey ect ect we eat well. We eat allot of muffins because they travel well (my bread only really tastes “right” toasted” with lots of topping on it) and we are a busy homeschooling family, we eat on the road alot so muffins and fruit it is. I also make our own cookies for the most part. Also when I make them I can add fibre and protein with the flours and I can add flax (love that myself)
Good luck to you, there are so many blogs out there now – with links to other blogs with amazing recipies. just start searching. A good brand is namaste, though some of the baked goods are way to sweet for our family, they are a huge seller where I live. Good luck!
Thanks for the link, Rossana!! I don’t do much of my shopping at Metro, only because it’s off my beaten track (and I’m a walker) but we should probably make time to go there at weekends sometimes… loathe as I am to do grocery shopping at that time of the week – ACK!! I’m sure they’ve got a bunch of great products available. I’ll have a look at the bread you mentioned, thanks!
I’m glad you’re feeling better since going gluten-free!!
Tracey,
My daughter and I have been gluten free for over 2 yrs and we were huge bread [all around carb queens] fans!
A great new bread that my daughter loves is the new Glutino brand Genius Bread – their multigrain is very good!
I wrote a post on some great products I found at Metro [formerly A&P]
http://www.beingglutenfree.ca/gluten-free-finds/
I also really like the Enjoy Life brand of products – their entire line is fabulous and they have a great new granola that is amazing-Double Chocolate crunch – should be in most stores by now. 🙂
Okay, I’m coming for dinner…
I wish we were closer!!
I’d give you a little bit of everything I have to try before buying! I’d give you half a loaf of bread. Make you some pancakes. My homemade nuggets…
As far as the pancakes – we are a huge pancake family!
Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. We eat them whenever!
Yes, the crumbs are so excellent, I feel like I could salt them and just eat them by the crunchy handful. But that would be weird.
I have to say I don’t like that Tinkyada brand pasta. It’s one of the gritty ones I was talking about, and I hate the colour of it. I’ve tried is a bunch of times… just can’t enjoy that one. The corn one tastes the least suspicious of them all to me. *snickers* But, you’ve been at this for so long, I’ll bet you know how to make everything taste delicious, Christine! (And I’m so glad all your issues are over since going GF yourself!)
Good to know how much you like the Kinnickinnik pancake mix. I keep eyeing it, but we’re not WAY into pancakes for breakfast over here, so if they weren’t delish, then I’d likely just dump the box. That’s a sad demise for seven bucks. I haven’t seen Udi’s anywhere… though, to be fair, I’ve just stopped looking at the breads altogether. Martin doesn’t seem to mind not eating them anymore… but it would be great to have an alternative that is truly good-tasting. NOTHING we’ve tried have been good so far. NONE. But on your say-so, I’ll keep my eyes peeled for Udi’s. Thanks for the tip!!
And YES it would be awesome to have the price come down on these products – the cots are amazing. (In a bad way.)
Thanks for the props friend!
I went gluten free in the fall and it’s changed my life. I haven’t had any “episodes” since I switched.
Paneriso crumbs are the bomb! For fish and for nuggets! For meatloaf and meatballs! I add some flaxmeal and seasoning and YUM!
My fave pasta is a tie between PC Organics brown rice pasta and Tinkyada brand.
Honestly Tracey – we don’t even buy reg. pasta anymore. The texture of these 2 brands is good. Not firm or crunchy if undercooked and not gloppy and thick if overcooked. We swirl our spaghetti with the best of them!!
I have never heard of Le Veneziane but I will be sure to look out for it now and give it a try.
We also buy Natures Path waffles – my guys like the buckwheat. Vans are delicious as well..
Our hands down fave pancake mix is Kinnickinnik.
The bread – have you tried Udi’s yet? It’s good. The best GF bread I’ve had in 7yrs. Definitely not your regular bread but it’s toasts amazing and I make grilled cheese with it. We did a slow cooker pulled pork on Sunday and the Udi’s hamburger buns were deelish!
Last night I threw the bottom of a bun in the toaster oven with a slice of havarti. YUM!
Udi’s make hot dog buns – not the same but you could probably make your own variation of a meatball sammie.
We all love the Glutino lemon wafer biscuits – so good with a cuppa tea.
Kinnickinnick make a version of the oreo which is a great treat for Cuyler.
I think in another decade or so gluten free will be mainstream – once people realize how much better they feel. The quality and taste of the food now is SOOO much better than it was even 7 years ago. Hopefully more and more people will switch and the prices will come down. Wouldn’t that be great?