Oh, I'm so sorry for your dh. I would look at Ezekiel bread as that is gluten free (it's in the freezer section) and also at vegan recipe sites. We are going on a special meal plan for the next month (starting tomorrow) that is basically vegan and I have been trying to come up with interesting recipes that do not use any diary, refined sugar, white rice and flour, high fat, any additives or preservatives and nothing artificial. It is challenging!

I would think black beans, tofu and rice with a side of fresh fruit would be the type of thing you could adapt for others -by adding chicken, cheese, tortillas, etc.

Lots of nuts if he can have them. Natural peanut butter on apple slices, dates rolled in almonds, chopped walnuts added to salads with pumpkin seeds and raw coconut. Oatmeal for breakfast with chopped apples and cinnamon, some honey or maple syrup. Grilled vegetables over rice.

You might want to try some Japanese recipes, or some other cuisine that does not rely heavily on wheat, dairy, tomatoes, and potatoes. The Japanese do use a lot of eggplant and sometimes potatoes, but those are easy enough to avoid. Just stay away from the soba noodles. You can find plenty of wheat-free noodles, including rice noodles, quinoa noodles, and bean threads. I like to make Vietnamese spring rolls, which use rice paper. I recommend shopping at a Japanese or Korean market to help get ideas, but I think you will have to be careful to avoid pepper and chilies. Did the doctor say anything about those?

I thought kasha was made from wheat.

Lars

I am sorry to hear of the diet restrictions, we are going through a very similar "readjustment" here too. I've made the following quinoa recipe several times and everyone loves it. Though it is wonderful with the peppers, if your DH cant have them, then just leave them out. It will still be quite good. Good luck and I am looking forward to more ideas for us too! Great thread idea.

QUINOA AND PEPPERS
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and drained
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1 Tbs. olive oil
1/4 cup each diced red and green bell pepper
2 green onions, chopped
2 medium carrots, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 Tbs. Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped parsley
Cook quinoa and chicken broth to boiling. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until quinoa is tender and broth has been absorbed, approx. 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Saute peppers, onions, carrots, and celery in olive oil until vegetables are soft, approx. 6 minutes. Add garlic and continue cooking 1 minute. Stir vegetable mixture into quinoa. Stir in cheese. Season with salt & pepper and sprinkle with parsley. Serve for main dish or serves 6 for side dish.

You didn't mention barley, but I have made the following barley casserole and it was well received as a starch side for meats.

BARLEY & MUSHROOM CASSEROLE (serves 4)
1 large onions, chopped
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
5 TBL butter
1 cup pearl barley
2 cups beef or chicken stock
Preheat oven to 350°. Cook the onions & mushrooms in the butter unti lonions are wilted & mushroom juices have evaporated. Add the barley & brown lightly. Pour the mixture into a buttered casserole. Pour 1 cup of the stock over the barley & cover. Bring to a boil.
Bake the casserole, covered for 25-30 minutes. Add remaining stock. Continue to cook, covered for 15 minutes or longer until the liquid is absorbed & barley is tender.

This recipe looks complicated and lengthy, but it really isn't hard. I regularly adjust the marinade to be easier and more to our taste using readily available ingredients. I am actually making it tonight (it is kinda nice out, I will fire up the grill later) so it can be quickly. And, I usually make brown rice instead o fwhite.

Alexa

Cha Cha Bowl Recipe courtesy Orlando's Caribbean BBQ

Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Medium
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
User Rating:
Pineapple and Zucchini Salsa:
1 pound zucchini, shredded
1 large carrot, shredded
1/2 pineapple, chopped
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, leaves chopped
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 ounces jalapeno peppers, chopped
3 ounces rice wine vinegar
3 ounces olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt
Black Beans:
1 cup black beans, triple-washed
1 cup water
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
Salt

White Rice:
1-ounce vegetable oil
1 cup medium-grain rice
2 cups hot water
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 tablespoon salt

Al Pastor Adobo Marinade:
4 arbol chiles
3 Guajillo chiles
3 ancho chiles
2 chipotle chiles
6 ounces white vinegar
6 ounces pineapple juice
5 ounces water
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves
1/4 piece cinnamon stick
2 teaspoons salt
4 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons chopped oregano leaves
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 pounds pork tenderloin (chicken may be substituded)

Pineapple and Zucchini Salsa:
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Season with salt, to taste. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to use. Bring to room temperature just before serving.
Black Beans:
Place beans in a saucepot. Cover with water and cook at a low simmer until tender but not mushy. Add garlic and salt, to taste.

White Rice:
Heat oil in a 4-quart pot. Add rice and cook approximately 3 minutes or until rice starts turning light brown. Then add water, garlic, and salt. Simmer until the water is absorbed, then cover and let stand for 20 minutes. Fluff just before serving.

Al Pastor Adobo Marinade:
Place chiles in a pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until softened. Transfer softened chiles to a food processor. Add all remaining ingredients, except pork or chicken, and puree until smooth. Cover pork tenderloin in marinade.

Preheat a grill. Grill pork tenderloin, turning as needed, until it reaches 150 degrees F when measured with an instant-read meat thermometer. Let rest for 10 minutes before dicing into cubes.

To serve:
In 4 or 6 serving bowls, layer rice, beans, and pork. Top with pineapple and zucchini salsa.

Episode#: BQ1A09
Copyright © 2003 Television Food Network, G.P., All Rights Reserved

Brown Rice pasta...the only key to it is...once cooked eat within 2 days...
And yes Spelt does contain gluten because it's an "ancient" wheat...however some that have "wheat" intolerance can eat spelt...but in this case..stay away.
Two of my favorite Gluten Free blogs are :
Gluten Free Girl
Karina's Kitchen
Karina has more diet restrictions than Shauna and therefor might have more useable recipes for you right now.

You may also want to do some research on Coconut Oil, Bruce Fife has some great books and has done extensive research.

Focus on what he CAN have rather than what he cannot have.
Beef
Chicken
Turkey
lamb
pork
fish and shellfish
Carrots
Peas
Squash
onions
celery
Garlic
parsley
herbs
peppers
So, you cook pretty much as usual with no cheese....but for on the side for the others, no butter, but for the others...he gets olive oil or non dairy margerine.
Make grilled meats...oven roasted, pan fried...serve with the veggies he can eat and brown rice on the side and potatoes or pasta for the rest of the family.

you will have to be inventive....remember herbs...don't forget about wine and fruits like lemon, pineapple and apples.
That Doctor has done your family a huge favor by eliminating chips, cookies, candy, dry cereal and carp like pop tarts, pizza bites and a host of other junk food from your house.
Linda C

I echo much of what Terri said. I have found both of those websites very helpful. Kasha is okay because it is buckwheat (a grass) not wheat. Quinoa pasta is really good (I like it better than the brown rice pasta, but that is pretty good too). Barley has gluten so you want to stay away from that. You can do lots of vegetable based soups and stews this time of year and if they are pureed they taste creamy without actually adding any dairy products. There are now some gluten free crackers, rice cakes with peanut butter, lettuce wraps. I too like rice paper rolls. Good luck! I will try to think of some specific recipes for you!

You guys are so sweet. Thanks for all the ideas. The Ezekial bread is a GREAT idea. Any one have a recipe for it? We make all our own bread so this could be added to the repertoire.

And the links to the two sites are also appreciated. Going to check them out asap.

If you bake your own bread, try the Bob's Red Mill GF bread mix. Honestly it was too much of a pain to make GF bread from scratch when Jim was on a GF diet. And the bread mix turned out inconsistent results. SOmetimes it was good, but other times it was a lump. And this was in a breadmaker. And by the time you add other ingredients to the 'mix', like milk, 3 or 4 eggs per batch, sugar, it was pretty costly to bake your own bread.

We would up buying fresh GF baked items at Whole Foods, their own brands. If you keep the bread in the freezer, it keeps. It is expensive, but the bread I made was so inconsistent that it was more cost-effective to buy from WF. Trader Joe's has some excellent GF items, too. The common GF bread is a rice bread and it was horrid. Jim liked GF frozen waffles, which are from Trader Joe's and even more mainstream and available in regular grocery stores.

Ezekial bread is a brand of bakery bread, found in some stores, and, far as I know, NOT GF. Sprouted grain does not mean anything WRT gluten. It's still there, unless specifically GF.

Watch out also for soy sauce, which is in a lot of other ingredients. If your DH just needs to avoid gluten, it would only be a small amount in most prepared products that contain soy sauce, But for a true GF diet, look for soy sauce without wheat. And beer can be a sneaky ingredient, too, in some products like a BBQ sauce.

We found great GF cornbread mix at TJ's, their own brand. One of Jim's favorite things.

Good luck, you gort some great resources.

Oh, and buy new eyeglasses for reading all the small print on the labels.

Ezekiel bread says on their website they are gluten free. Grainlady said somewhere that the bread is very difficult to duplicate at home because of the processes used.

Becareful with the Quinoa pasta..the one I like is corn based..Very good but...you've got to avoid corn.

Pamela's makes some great products. Pamela's

I don't like Bob's Red Mill GF flour blend or their bread mix. I can taste the Bean flour...BLECH...my family didn't seem to mind it..but I thought it was awfully strong.

My favorite Waffle recipe is Gluten Free...LOVE It..makes fluffy, almost belgium textured waffles. When I first was avoiding Wheat, corn and soy...we had breakfast for dinner atleast once a week.. using this waffle recipe, plus eggs and sausage or bacon.

Recipe Zaar, has some great recipes. GF Zaar recipes
and here's the waffle recipe Waffles~use rice or almond milk plus a bit of lemon juice instead of buttermilk

In baking...cakes, cookies and things like that..you will NOT get the same texture you are used to..It's not bad, but it's NOT the "originals" your tastebuds and brain remember.
They are tasty in their own right though.

And I definately agree with LindaC..do not focus on what you can't have..but embrace what you can..That's Shauna's message (Gluten Free Girl) Her book is worth checking out at the library too..Very good read on how to change your view of what you have to live with..Not a burden, but a new experiance.

Some of the Ezekiel products do contain gluten, but some others are GF. I remember reading every label when Jim was GF, and we couldn't use any of the Ezekiel products in his diet. Maybe it was just what our local stores carry.

But the Whole Foods bread was excellent.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gluten free products

terri - thanks for the links especially the waffle one. Any ideas on what I can use to replace the potato starch in that recipe?

Sushipup thanks for the tip on Whole Foods. We don't usually shop there as dh in particular thinks it's too expensive but for GF products we may pop in occasionally. And I do sometimes buy grain in the bulk section there as well.

If Hubby is/bordering on gluten intolerant..then you'll have to be careful about cross contamination in the the bulk foods section. As long as right now while they are just omitting things you might not have to be as careful.

hmmmm the usual sub is cornstarch..which again you can't use in his case..
maybe arrowroot or more tapioca.

Here is a link that might be useful: Celiac.com suggestions

Stay away from many salad dressings too as they contain wheat. I tend to make my own. I eat gluten but my best friend does not and since I am in the cook, i always cook for her. I had always prepared most if not all my own ingredient and condiments and she has no problems with those. I was really surprised about the soy sauce and terikayi sauces. I like the Eden Tamari which does not contain wheat.

Regarding WholeFoods. I love it and shop there and the farmers market exclusively. I used to love Trader Joes but the quality of much of their food has gone down in previous years. I find that whole foods carries such a great selection of products for people who need to be conscious about their food.

For sweetening, I use mainly Acacia honey and the organic creamed honey from Wholefoods. The Rice Syrup is also really great.

Don't forget lentils and Adzuki beans. I second the recommendation to pick up Asian inspired cookbooks (Thai, Indian, Japanese and Chinese) to find recipes that will fit your new life style. Soymilk and Almond milk are really good in smoothies. I also make a mean soymilk latte.

Sweet potatoes and yams are not in the nightshade family so those can be included in your diet.

Good luck!

I'm not eating gluten free, but following an elimination diet as a result of allergy testing. I'm avoiding all wheat, yeast, potatoes (white & sweet), onions, tuna, sesame, plums, clams, peanuts and something else minor that at this hour I can't recall.
Anyway, be careful about the gluten free products, they often sub potato starch in place of the wheat. I second the suggestion on WF and in particular am eating a bread from there that's made of rye flour and sourdough with salt.
I feel SOOO much better and the inflammation in my body is reduced dramatically. I'd love to hear more about your husband's doctor's reasons for avoiding these foods.

A few good gluten-free cookbooks from the library will help fill-in-the-blanks and help with food preparation. Making GF breads will be a whole new experience for you, and a lot of expensive ingredients you normally wouldn't use. You may want to start with commercial GF foods, then add your own homemade.

Keep food preparation simple or you'll quickly hate cooking entirely. Meat (simply prepared), veg., fruit for dessert, until you get more comfortable with food elimination.

I'd also suggest you stick to whole foods - nature's original "fast" foods. Whole foods are less likely to have hidden ingredients that are restricted. Even ingredients in some spices contain gluten.

I like lindac's recommendation - make that list of what you CAN have.

I'd also suggest GF Baking Mix from Bob's Red Mill, like terri mentioned (and other GF ingredients/mixes from them). The GF Baking Mix is great for making many of those dishes you can make with Bisquick, and is quick and easy to use. I'd even bet you could make tortillas out of it.

CAUTION: Ezekiel breads nearly always include wheat, spelt, or both. There are lots of commercial gluten-free breads, snacks, crackers, and mixes available these days.

I've been developing gluten-free recipes for years now, and there are many the whole family love, so GF foods aren't just a bad substitute - they can be delicious. I primarily use white sorghum flour in my GF cookie recipes.

If you need rice flour, I'd suggest you mill your own in a coffee/spice mill. Use long-grain rice flour for dredging meat or a thickener - NOT baked goods. Use medium- and short- grain rice for flour for baked goods. When you purchase commercial rice flour, you never know what you are getting.

You can mill a number of gluten-free grains in a coffee/spice mill. Fresh is ALWAYS best, and usually cheaper than commercial GF flours.

-Grainlady

Wow again, thanks for all the responses. Grainlady may I pick your brain some more? As stated above we've been baking all our bread for quite a while now. I have a Nutrimill and a DLX to help accomplish this as we're 6 in the house, usually more at meal times, and we go through a ton of bread. Only dh is on the diet so the rest of us will continue to eat regular bread so buying just for him shouldn't break the bank.

I can easily mill rice through the Nutrimill. Any suggestions on how to avoid cross contamination or should I just use the Grain container on my Vitamix?

Terri linked to a waffle recipe above but it has potato starch in it. Any suggestions for a substitute?

Cross contaminantion is a real problem with celiac disease, and with other true allergies. But I would not be so concerned if he gets trace amounts if he doesn't have that kind of reaction.

A true celiac patient knows that they need a separate toaster, and other kitchen implements, if the rest of the household isn't gluten-free. For example, if you are avoiding gluten, you can remove a crouton from a salad, but a celiac patient can get sick from the cross-contamination. A CD patient will ask to have restaurant foods prepared on clean griddles, or with clean cooking oil (fries at a restaurant that uses the same oil for breaded chicken, for example). Open bins at the store are a major problem, because people will use the scoops from gluten-containing products in other bins. It's enough to make a sensitive person very sick.

So there's a huge difference between avoiding gluten and being very sickened by any trace amount of it.

Yes, I'd be concerned with cross contamination as well - just as sushipup explained so well.

I use a different mill for gluten-free flours (grains/beans/seeds) to avoid cross contamination and never use gluten-containing grains in it.

I was hired to make a selection of GF cookies for Christmas for a person who has celiac disease, as a surprise from her husband. I wouldn't mill flour containing gluten in the kitchen for a week prior to making the GF foods, and throughly wiped down every surface in the kitchen before making anything GF. I use stainless steel bowls, rather than plastic to make sure there's NOTHING to cross contaminate things.

My mother (now deceased) had celiac disease and I did a lot of food prep. to stock her freezer for her BEFORE there were so many things so readily available.

There are a number of ingredients used in gluten-free baking that you're better off having than trying to substitute. These additional ingredients help to reduce dryness, increase volume and tenderness, and enhance flavor in baked goods and other foods. I was challenged to come up with cookie recipes, for a sorghum mill outside of town, that were made with "common" ingredients. WHAT, no xanthan gum, potato starch, arrow root, guar gum....??? But I did it!

Instead of potato starch or potato flour I've used dried potato flakes (used for instant mashed potatoes), BUT, I made sure I found a brand at the health food store that didn't contain a lot of questionable ingredients.

FYI - Potato FLOUR has a strong potato taste and I don't use it as much as potato starch. Potato STARCH, however, is often used in GF baking, especially in combination with other flours. I consider potato STARCH a staple ingredient for GF baking.

Combining gluten-free flours with NUT FLOURS will increase protein and help mask the gritty texture often associated with GF flours. Nut FLOURS are made AFTER the nut oil has been expressed from the nuts and is a fine flour. Nut MEALS are made from the ground nut (oil included) and are more gritty than nut flour. You'll find the names are often interchanged, so buyer beware....

Ground almond meal can replace dry milk powder in recipes as a dairy-free alternative. You can also make your own nut milk at home to use as a dairy-free alternative.

You'll find some great information and recipes at the link below.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Ener-G Foods

Peppers, including Chilis, are also members of the Nightshade family. Also, potato flakes would not be an alternative, as they are made from potatoes. But surely everyone here realizes that.
Rusty

Here is a link that might be useful: Recognizing Nightshades

Grainlady,
My dad is a biomedical engineer and was working on developing a commercial bread made from Sorghum in the 1970s. I don't have the recipe but it was the best and sweetest bread I ever ate. It had a consistency like Challah. I have to ask him for the recipe one of these days. Would love your cookie recipe for my friend as I was just baking sugar cookies today and she could not have any!
Thanks!

loves2cook,
I just looked at Karina's website..and she's got a waffle recipe with no potato or cornstarch..but you'll need xanthum gum...

Here is a link that might be useful: Pumpkin Waffles

Here's another site for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hey that tastes Good

If you access to shop at a Trader Joes they have alot of good products and the staff is very helpful