Gluten Free Ladies

For breakfast, some fresh fruit with Greek yogurt and a little bit of (wheat free) granola sprinkled on top. Easy and tastes good.

Hrf, Greek yogurt with fresh &/or dried fruit (especially cranberries), walnuts and ground flax and sometimes a handful of granola is one of my absolute favorites!  My dilemna is houseguests who are use to a typical (unhealthy) American breakfast.  I'll often offer a yogurt parfait, but rarely get any takers.  So I often (like this past weekend) end up making french toast or blueberry muffins -- my old standbys from pre-wheat-free days -- and if I even taste them, I suffer all over again and kick myself for not taking the time to figure out alternatives that everyone would enjoy.

Kaara, I wish you could remember the name of that mix.  Let me know if you figure it out.  We have several natural food markets that have gluten-free aisles, but a lot of that stuff is pretty pricey, and I've been reluctant to try the mixes without knowing how they'll taste.  It's good to know there's one you highly recommend!

Momine, I'll definitely look up that scone recipe.  

Would love to see more ideas!     Deanna

Deanna:  The next time I hit the store I'm going to buy another one, so I'll let you know.  Now if they just continue to stock it!

hrf, I like the veggie frittata idea a lot!  Do you have any special tips for doing one?  Momine, I've never tried buckwheat flour.  For some reason, I think I imagine it tasting sour or something.  I'm going to pick some up today and try it.

Last night I made a peach & blueberry cobbler using oat flour, rolled oats and coconut flour.  I used a little natural brown sugar and a bit of agave and Tupelo honey for sweetening, and it was really good!       Deanna

Deanna, no special tips for the frittata. I think there are a lot of basic recipes that will work. 

I also make my own granola. Love it with Greek yogurt, fruit and chia seeds almost every morning. My problem seems to be lunches during the work week.

Deanna, we like Pamela's mix. Probably too late on my input here.

So I'm back to grain free, as well as gluten free. Realized that my face was peeling, my stomach was still bloating, and my hip pain was killing me eating the gluten free stuff. I did like a little Udi's bread with my BLT, and Costco has some really good GF crackers. It was nice to have those things back in my diet, but obviously not worth it! 

Started making a little extra at dinner for lunches. I can eat all the cold fruit and veggies in the summer but the winter calls for something warm. Will make extra soup to use. Thanks for the ideas.

Deanna:  That was the mix that I bought at the store and forgot the name!  They were really great weren't they...you certainly would never know they were gluten free!

I am on a one woman campaign to educate the eateries in my city! Several of our favorite breakfast places offer GF toast, pancakes, even waffles. Several others offer zip, nada. But I can get extra canned fruit or pink tomatoes instead (gack). So every time I go to one of the latter, I ask if they have any GF options, explaining how easy it is to offer them. I know the server has no power, but they can certainly tell management. I give each place a couple of chances and thenmark them off our list. 

 Yeah, we like to go out to breakfast on weekends. It seems like the places that are more organic/local are more likely to offer GF choices. 

Has anyone used this website yet?  http://www.glutenfreesaver.com/  

Looks like you can sign up for daily gluten-free coupons & deals. I'm not big on packaged mixes, but today's deal on King Arthur gluten-free flours looks pretty good.     Deanna

Just thought that you all might like to check out this website and book from a fellow cancer thriver and a friend of mine:
http://www.specialeats.com/

Her cookbook is full of great ideas on how to go gluten and dairy free.

I just got back from Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg TN and ate at the Smokey Mountain Brewery.  OMG the gluten free pizza was so good.  They had a really large GF menu.

I just read this whole thread. Good stuff! I stopped eating wheat in Feb this year. I was diagnosed hypothyroid and read those with thyroid imbalance can be gluten sensitive. I found the Wheat Belly blog and gleaned a lot of info from it. I decided what the heck and just experiment eliminating wheat. I dropped 10 pounds in a couple weeks and felt so much better. It was great to eliminate the gas and bloat. I decided not to replace everything with gluten free items, as I need to keep an eye on the insulin. I think I am close to being prediabetic and I do not want to go down that path. Next I think I need to eliminate all non-GMO corn. I don't eat that much corn anyway. I still like my oats! I've cut way down on milk but I still love my Greek yogurt, goat cheese and grass fed butter. My favorite breakfast is 2 eggs, a slice of uncured bacon or Canadian bacon, half an avocado, tomatoes and goat cheese. My insatiable hunger disappeared when I eliminated wheat. I've tried various diets that included whole grain wheat but I just couldn't get beyond insatiable hunger. My family is not on board with eliminating wheat. I haven't been trying very hard, though. I get tired of everyone (including hubs) whining about eating healthy choices I prepare.

akmom, imho the surgeon did not take nearly enough biopsies. Your blood test being through the roof plus your relationship to diagnosed celiacs would be enough for some Drs to give you an official dx. The bloodtests are highly specific to celiac disease, meaning if you have a positive for celiac bloodtest it is very very unlikely that you don't have it and in the rare cases it's a false positive it just means you have something else going on that needs to be figured out.

Was the surgeon in question a gastroenterologist? If he/she was, find a different one that is up to date. There should be at least 6 samples taken from a diversity of sites in the small intestine. I'm thinking with your high bloodtest, the surgeon was being lax because he/she figured there'd be damage all over the place. If the small intestine were opened up and spread out it would cover a tennis court so imagine taking 2 little samples from that and hoping to find the exact spots where damage is happening.

Genetic testing is not foolproof either and only gives risk factors but talk to a good experienced gastroenterologist about it. Plus there are cases of celiac disease occurring in people who do not have the usual genes for it. It's another one of those unlikely things but it happens. Maybe less than 1% of celiacs in the US would not have the usual genes, probably similar in CA. In one study in South America, something like 7% of a bunch of celiac children did not have the usual genes but this was a study on indigenous kids. Lots of good info here: http://forums.glutenfree.com/topic1893.html

edit: I almost forgot. If the EMA is *at all* positive, it's been revealed only recently as a very strong predictor of subsequent celiac disease - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22654448 - regardless of intestinal villi state at the time of bloodtest.