Taking the GF/CF Plunge

[C&G'sMama]

Okay everyone. We've finally decided to take the plunge into the world of GF/CF (well DP has and I'll get there).

Looking for opinions, experience, advice etc. DP started with a trip to our local grocery store where she picked up a loaf of bread, pretzels and pasta. We are also going to go soy free.

So who likes what? Any good resources for recipes? We've started online research but we want to network with anyone who'd be willing to share.

Thanks ahead of time and we'll provide updates of our experiences.

 

[jmartinez1895]

I posted this on a differnt thread as well, but our son LOVES Gorrilla Much cereal made by Enviro kidz. It is GF and organic. It taste like Kix cereal.

 

[C&G'sMama]

PS for those that don't "know" us (myself and "koolaidmoms"). Our son is 6 and has Asperger's.

We've talked about GF/CF for awhile but have finally decided to try.

 

[cm8]

Hi!!! we go GF every now and then and I must tell you that we used to love drinking the Almond milk! My husband loved the original and I loved the chocolate and vanilla flavored, Then when they changed the way the milk was made by ADDING in soy letchin, that made me very upset! Since you are also going soy free that will not be an option for you.


For crackers, we used to eat some Mary b gone crackers and let me tell you they sucked , we tried rice crackers and some sesame crackers and then just decided to give up crackers all together.

We found this "GF trail mix like mix with dried cranberry's at earth fare and loved it!! It was something that had the name bakery in it?

We make our own GF dressing for salads, and we love it!!!!

It's not as hard as it seem, but somethings you miss a lot.
We also use rice protein to help with meal replacements and this is why I used to like the almond milk.

I dislike the fact that soy/ soy letchin is in almost EVERYTHING, and that makes me more upset since it is not even needed .

Goat cheese taste okay and will work in a salad just fine, and my husband loves goat milk, but I just can't bring myself to drink it , I'll just give up cheese and milk cold turkey when we do it .

That is all I can elaborate for now.. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.


ps forgot to mention that if you by the GF bread, make sure its the one with the juice in it, it actually taste great toasted FYI, just don't try to eat a sandwich with it!!! It is too hard and dense!!!! Almond butter taste good on it as well, YUM!

 

[1stluvispooh]

Congratulations!!!! I have to admit going GF/CF has been the single thing that has done the most for my DD.

I have to say finding GF/CF food is trial and error. You have to find what you like. Do you or your partner like to cook?? If one of you does this will help tremendously. Quinoa past is the best IMO. You might also want to get a subscription to the magazine Living Without. http://www.livingwithout.com/topics/recipes.html The have a lot of GF recipes and several GF/CF every month. I find if it is already GF it is easy to make CF as well.

 

[C&G'sMama]

I dislike the fact that soy/ soy letchin is in almost EVERYTHING, and that makes me more upset since it is not even needed .

Goat cheese taste okay and will work in a salad just fine, and my husband loves goat milk, but I just can't bring myself to drink it , I'll just give up cheese and milk cold turkey when we do it .

That is all I can elaborate for now.. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.


ps forgot to mention that if you by the GF bread, make sure its the one with the juice in it, it actually taste great toasted FYI, just don't try to eat a sandwich with it!!! It is too hard and dense!!!! Almond butter taste good on it as well, YUM!

Thanks for the tip on the Soy Letchin. I went on the Rice Dream/Almond Dream website and it's not a listed ingredient but they do list "other natural flavors" so I wrote to them and asked if they include soy or not, I haven't heard back yet.

Forturnately DS likes a lot of things plain including tuna fish and salad. But he loves Catsup so we're going to try to find an alternative there.

As for the bread. We bought him a loaf of something and I finally tried it, you're right, it's nasty when it's not toasted. He hated it in his sandwich but did like it toasted with peanut butter and honey. We have a couple of bakeries that do GF around here and they sell sandwich breads and rolls so I'll check into those but I'll have to ask about the soy.

Right now we're just putting DS on GF/CF/SF (as opposed to the whole family). I do think it will benefit all of us as we will all be eating fewer processed foods, a direction we've already started in. He likes lots of different foods including fruits and vegetables so that helps. The other night this could be heard in our kitchen from mommy to children "Would you two please stop eating all of the raw parsnips, there won't be enough left to roast". As it turns out he didn't like them roasted, too sweet, so they can have them raw. I'll take mine roasted.

 

[C&G'sMama]

Congratulations!!!! I have to admit going GF/CF has been the single thing that has done the most for my DD.

I have to say finding GF/CF food is trial and error. You have to find what you like. Do you or your partner like to cook?? If one of you does this will help tremendously. Quinoa past is the best IMO. You might also want to get a subscription to the magazine Living Without. http://www.livingwithout.com/topics/recipes.html The have a lot of GF recipes and several GF/CF every month. I find if it is already GF it is easy to make CF as well.

Thank you, we're hoping this helps him. He's been having a lot of problems with frustration and anger, mostly at home.

DP loves to cook and is quite good at it. At the beginning of this year we started a project where we spent minimal money for 2 months and ate out of our cupboards and didn't go out to eat. It has forced us to do more things from scratch. So now that the cupboards have been cleansed we have more raw ingredients.

We discovered Quinoa last summer and love it, so we'll definitely be doing a lot with that.

Are you also soy free? We are trying that but as another poster said it's hard to find certain things w/o the soy.

Again, thanks to all for your help and we'll give updates on progress.

 

[cm8]

, you are most welcome, I will have to find some parsnips to roast, that sounds scrumptious!!!, You are most welcomed about the milk, I am so sad that it has it in it. I hope that you do find what works for your ds!!!

 

[1stluvispooh]

Thank you, we're hoping this helps him. He's been having a lot of problems with frustration and anger, mostly at home.

DP loves to cook and is quite good at it. At the beginning of this year we started a project where we spent minimal money for 2 months and ate out of our cupboards and didn't go out to eat. It has forced us to do more things from scratch. So now that the cupboards have been cleansed we have more raw ingredients.

We discovered Quinoa last summer and love it, so we'll definitely be doing a lot with that.

Are you also soy free? We are trying that but as another poster said it's hard to find certain things w/o the soy.

Again, thanks to all for your help and we'll give updates on progress.

You are most welcome! No we are not soy free but we don't eat a lot of soy to begin with. Soy yogurt quit frankly looks gross. As for the Ketchup Heinz is GF/CF but it does say "natural flavors" so I don't know if it has soy in it. My DD puts ketchup on everything as well. In fact I have a little baggie of Heinz packets in my purse. Once when I was out of town DH was taking the kids out to dinner and couldn't find the baggie with the ketchup and called me. Yep it was still in my purse.

 

[koolaidmoms]

As the other half of C&G's Mama, Thank you!

I feel like I spend an hour in the grocery store now and come out with 2 things. He likes that we call it the Cave Man diet as we tell him he can eat most meats and all the fruits and vegetables he wants. I thank God he is not allergic to nuts.

For those that went GF/CF how long was it before you really noticed a behavioral change in your child? He is generally angry right now because he feels we are taking away all the foods he likes. So we really haven't noticed a huge change yet.

He can not also have food coloring - red, blue and yellow (this was in place previously) so that limited his processed foods to begin with and now that he can not have things like Ginger ale he is having a fit. I am hoping to find all natural version because as he says it does not need caramel coloring!

Thanks again!

 

[1stluvispooh]

As the other half of C&G's Mama, Thank you!

I feel like I spend an hour in the grocery store now and come out with 2 things. He likes that we call it the Cave Man diet as we tell him he can eat most meats and all the fruits and vegetables he wants. I thank God he is not allergic to nuts.

For those that went GF/CF how long was it before you really noticed a behavioral change in your child? He is generally angry right now because he feels we are taking away all the foods he likes. So we really haven't noticed a huge change yet.

He can not also have food coloring - red, blue and yellow (this was in place previously) so that limited his processed foods to begin with and now that he can not have things like Ginger ale he is having a fit. I am hoping to find all natural version because as he says it does not need caramel coloring!

Thanks again!

As for how soon we saw a change. My story is the first day that I started to take away G&C DH came home for work and after dinner asked if I could tell a difference! It wasn't a big difference at first but over time it has worked beautifully for her. But this does not mean she didn't have a full fledged major meltdown because I wouldn't let her have yogurt that afternoon. It was so bad and my head was ready to explode so I called DH at work and left him a voice mail of her screaming!

Hang in there things will get easier.

 

[C&G'sMama]

You know after DP posted yesterday I talked to our neighbor. She and DP trade weeks taking the kids to and from school. I mentioned we started DS on the GF/CF earlier in the week. She didn't know this. She said you know I was thinking that all of the sudden he seemed more mature, that he turned around on Friday morning and said "thank you" for taking them to school. the other night he told DP "I love you" for the first time ever without being prompted. So maybe it is starting to work already.

And like 1stluvispooh said, he still has melt downs. Yesterday's was over us going in the house while he was still in the car (the door is 2 feet from the car, it's not like we left him a mile away). He is slow as molasses sometimes and I had my hands full.

 

[Beccabunny]

Rice Chex is gluten free and doesn't taste too bad. It was actually the only cereal DD would eat when we tried the diet.
Many people find the bread mixes you use in a bread maker are pretty good, definitely better than the store-bought bread. I don't have a bread maker, but I've heard Pamela's mixes are the best.
Whole Foods carries yogurt and icecream that is made with coconut milk.

 

[C&G'sMama]

Rice Chex is gluten free and doesn't taste too bad. It was actually the only cereal DD would eat when we tried the diet.
Many people find the bread mixes you use in a bread maker are pretty good, definitely better than the store-bought bread. I don't have a bread maker, but I've heard Pamela's mixes are the best.
Whole Foods carries yogurt and icecream that is made with coconut milk.

We do have a bread maker so we'll look for the Pamela Mixes. We don't have Whole Foods in our area but we do have a couple of good local places so I'll look and see what they carry.

Thanks

 

[1stluvispooh]

You know after DP posted yesterday I talked to our neighbor. She and DP trade weeks taking the kids to and from school. I mentioned we started DS on the GF/CF earlier in the week. She didn't know this. She said you know I was thinking that all of the sudden he seemed more mature, that he turned around on Friday morning and said "thank you" for taking them to school. the other night he told DP "I love you" for the first time ever without being prompted. So maybe it is starting to work already.

And like 1stluvispooh said, he still has melt downs. Yesterday's was over us going in the house while he was still in the car (the door is 2 feet from the car, it's not like we left him a mile away). He is slow as molasses sometimes and I had my hands full.

C&G's Mama I have tears in my eyes reading this! I Know how big this is for him and you and the fact that someone outside of the family notices!!! Hold that in your heart when things get rough!

 

[pudge the fish]

snacky ideas

www.Chex.com/glutenfree

and I am have been looking at this site

http://www.gluten-freesimplicity.com/?tag=rice-chex
not too sure about Rice chex pizza tho

as far as drinks go how about seltzer water? I buy this so my DD doesnt drink soda ( empty Calories) we have mixed the plain kind with apple juice- makes bubbly apple juice, grape juice, orange juice
and some brands have lemon lime and cherry flavors all natural.

I find many items on Amazon for GF

http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/gluten-free-baking-mixes

I don't know if these are CF or not but there are recipes in there for Dairy free banana bread-

 

[C&G'sMama]

snacky ideas

www.Chex.com/glutenfree

and I am have been looking at this site

http://www.gluten-freesimplicity.com/?tag=rice-chex
not too sure about Rice chex pizza tho

as far as drinks go how about seltzer water? I buy this so my DD doesnt drink soda ( empty Calories) we have mixed the plain kind with apple juice- makes bubbly apple juice, grape juice, orange juice
and some brands have lemon lime and cherry flavors all natural.

I find many items on Amazon for GF

http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/gluten-free-baking-mixes

I don't know if these are CF or not but there are recipes in there for Dairy free banana bread-

Thanks Pudge, those are some great ideas.

 

[GraceLuvsWDW]

dd is a pasta lover and we finally found GF/CF pasta that isn't disgusting. It is Tinkyada Brown Rice Penne Pasta.

 

[C&G'sMama]

dd is a pasta lover and we finally found GF/CF pasta that isn't disgusting. It is Tinkyada Brown Rice Penne Pasta.

We'll have to check it out. DS would eat pasta every day and nothing else if we let him. So far he's been okay with the couple we've gotten for him.

So it's been a little over a week and so far, so good. I need to get myself in gear and start experimenting with baking. We have picked up a couple of the Bob's mixes, just haven't used them yet. But I also want to work with baking from scratch. I did go across town yesterday to a GF bakery and picked up a couple of things for him including 2 dinner rolls and a muffin for him to eat on Sunday. Plus a loaf of bread. I tried a piece and I thought it was good. There's another bakery that's GF and vegan that I want to try. And then there's an Italian deli that has a line of GF products. The nice thing about the Italian place is that it's also a pizza place. We are doing CF too but we can let him get all the veggies he wants on it.

But again, I want to start baking too.

As for differences in behavior, I don't know, I'm thinking after 2 or 3 months of doing this that we should take him off it to see if there's a marked difference, but we'll see what koolaid moms thinks. But really one of the best things is it's making all of us eat better as we get back to less process foods.

 

[persimmondeb]

I wasn't able to figure out how to quote it out, but one of the previous posters mentioned goat cheese/milk. These items are NOT casein-free, although they should be soy and gluten-free.