Most people when they hear that I eat a gluten free, mostly grain free, dairy free, sugar free and mostly starch free diet (pretty much a paleo diet) ask, "Yikes, well what do you actually eat?!?" There are TONS of different foods out there safe for your body that do not contain gluten! The easiest way to ensure success in the process of going gluten free is thinking of the foods that you think you cannot live without. When I went gluten free 5 years ago, I thought I couldn't live without pizza, ice cream, and cakes/doughnuts, so those were the very first foods I learned to make or where to buy them. I scoured the internet over different brand name ice creams, and researched/tried many different gluten free products. (Please keep in mind that the information below was before I went low carb/dairy/sugar free.) Below are the results I found:
Pizza - I like making my own crust.
- Pamela's all purpose, gluten free baking mix is a great source for all baking/cooking needs requiring flour. Their chewy pizza crust however is nothing short of amazing.
- I have also recently discovered Chebe, and they are great for hand-held pizzas.
- If you are looking for a pizza already frozen, I HIGHLY recommend choosing Garlic Jim's. They are a chain that make gluten free pizzas onsite and now sell them frozen. We add extra meat to our pre-frozen pizzas because we find them lacking. However, aside from the meat issue, we love Garlic Jim's veggie pizza that has artichokes, onions, pesto and many other goodies. - And last but certainly not least, we like the frozen, pre-made, Kinnikinnick brand. They are great crusts, and make fabulous garlic toast :) http://consumer.kinnikinnick.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/consumer.home.html
With pizza now covered, I moved on to the next thing...ICECREAM!
This is a personal area. See my favorite to boot is Tillamook's Peanut Butter Chocolate icecream...and it's gluten free!!! A lot of brands will say on their website what things to look for if their icecream is not gluten free. It is however becoming more common for them to start labeling their icecreams in case you can't remember what that specific brand said. PLUS, homemade icecream is AMAZING! I highly recommend making your own if you can.
Next was doughnuts! Doughnuts were something I didn't have for years. Kinnikinnick has the best in my opinion and my favorite are the chocolate covered ones :) They are very cakey, and are so yummy. I like them straight out of the freezer. Another idea is to use the Pamela's baking mix and make your own doughnut holes following their instructions. (They have a lot of great recipes on their site all using their flour.)
Once I had some of my favorite foods in stock, I didn't feel like I couldn't make it. Everyone is different in their food choices, but the point is to find the things you think you can't live without, and figure out how to have them gluten free first.
A few other notes on my personal preferences:
Noodles: Tinkyada brown rice noodles are great. Buy them in bulk on Amazon.com for a better discount than you will get in the store. They have spaghetti, spiral, lasagna, elbow, etc. Quinoa noodles are good also, but I would recommend going with the Tinkyada noodles first while you get adjusted to the differences of life without gluten.
Bread: I prefer Udi's bread. It is the best in my opinion, of all the gluten free, pre-made breads. They also make some delicious bagels, muffins, and pizza crusts.
Box mixes: My husband and I like the Pamela's. But we LOVE the gluten free Betty Crocker mixes that you can now find at most, if not all, grocery stores. They are in yellow boxes, say "Gluten Free" on the front, and have chocolate chip cookies, brownies, yellow cake, and chocolate cake. My husband prefers the Betty Crocker over any mixes we have tried to date.
Also, check your local Co-op. Ours makes a bunch of gluten free items such as lemon cloud cake, tiramisu, peanut butter bars, pies, etc.
Just remember, anything that you can make that has gluten, you can make gluten free. :) Life without gluten is possible and can still be just as delicious!
Pizza - I like making my own crust.
- Pamela's all purpose, gluten free baking mix is a great source for all baking/cooking needs requiring flour. Their chewy pizza crust however is nothing short of amazing.
- I have also recently discovered Chebe, and they are great for hand-held pizzas.
- If you are looking for a pizza already frozen, I HIGHLY recommend choosing Garlic Jim's. They are a chain that make gluten free pizzas onsite and now sell them frozen. We add extra meat to our pre-frozen pizzas because we find them lacking. However, aside from the meat issue, we love Garlic Jim's veggie pizza that has artichokes, onions, pesto and many other goodies. - And last but certainly not least, we like the frozen, pre-made, Kinnikinnick brand. They are great crusts, and make fabulous garlic toast :) http://consumer.kinnikinnick.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/consumer.home.html
With pizza now covered, I moved on to the next thing...ICECREAM!
This is a personal area. See my favorite to boot is Tillamook's Peanut Butter Chocolate icecream...and it's gluten free!!! A lot of brands will say on their website what things to look for if their icecream is not gluten free. It is however becoming more common for them to start labeling their icecreams in case you can't remember what that specific brand said. PLUS, homemade icecream is AMAZING! I highly recommend making your own if you can.
Next was doughnuts! Doughnuts were something I didn't have for years. Kinnikinnick has the best in my opinion and my favorite are the chocolate covered ones :) They are very cakey, and are so yummy. I like them straight out of the freezer. Another idea is to use the Pamela's baking mix and make your own doughnut holes following their instructions. (They have a lot of great recipes on their site all using their flour.)
Once I had some of my favorite foods in stock, I didn't feel like I couldn't make it. Everyone is different in their food choices, but the point is to find the things you think you can't live without, and figure out how to have them gluten free first.
A few other notes on my personal preferences:
Noodles: Tinkyada brown rice noodles are great. Buy them in bulk on Amazon.com for a better discount than you will get in the store. They have spaghetti, spiral, lasagna, elbow, etc. Quinoa noodles are good also, but I would recommend going with the Tinkyada noodles first while you get adjusted to the differences of life without gluten.
Bread: I prefer Udi's bread. It is the best in my opinion, of all the gluten free, pre-made breads. They also make some delicious bagels, muffins, and pizza crusts.
Box mixes: My husband and I like the Pamela's. But we LOVE the gluten free Betty Crocker mixes that you can now find at most, if not all, grocery stores. They are in yellow boxes, say "Gluten Free" on the front, and have chocolate chip cookies, brownies, yellow cake, and chocolate cake. My husband prefers the Betty Crocker over any mixes we have tried to date.
Also, check your local Co-op. Ours makes a bunch of gluten free items such as lemon cloud cake, tiramisu, peanut butter bars, pies, etc.
Just remember, anything that you can make that has gluten, you can make gluten free. :) Life without gluten is possible and can still be just as delicious!