Need Great Tasting Gluten & Dairy Free Ideas

Updated on September 23, 2009
S.R. asks from Novato, CA
17 answers

My 8 year old son it turns out is allergic to gluten and dairy products. Does anyone have any great gluten free foods their kids love? We've tried this before and everything we bought he hated. I'm dreading this! Any brands of breads, cookies, pizzas, cookbooks, etc. are appreciated!

2 moms found this helpful

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A.F.

answers from San Francisco on

I never had this problem, but I watch The View and one of the co-hosts, Elizabeth Hasselbach, has to have Gluten Free food. They even have dishes on the show that are gluten free. Anyway she wrote a book about it.

Here is the link to the ABC website: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/story?id=7492673&page=1

This is the link to the website to get some of her recipes. http://abcnews.go.com/gma/recipes/recipeSearch?searchtext...=

For more info go to www.gfreediet.com

I hope this helps.

A.P.

answers from San Francisco on

Z pizza has a gluten free pizza dough. Look them up online. Also brown rice pastas are great replacement. You should go to whole foods they have a whole section of gluten free items and they are really good about letting youtry things right inthe store. They are a little more pricy but it's worth it when you need specialty foods. Just ask any clerk and they will open the package and let you taste.

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V.W.

answers from San Francisco on

I found a great cookbook for breads, muffins, etc. Go to www.glutenfreelifestyle.com.au

1 mom found this helpful
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H.F.

answers from San Francisco on

We are gluten free (my dd has celiac) but not dairy free so I would double check my sugggestions for dairy. First remember all fruits and vegetables and raw meats with no broths or fillers added are gluten and dairy free. We like the Chebe bread mixes, not all are diary free but some are. We like the EnerG Onion Crackers, Rice Chex and Corn Chex are gluten free. For pasta our favorite brand is Tinkyada, it takes a little longer to cook but has good texture and isn't slimy, our next choice would be ancient harvest quinoa, we do not like De Boles pasta. Most spaghetti sauces are okay and pesto usually is too. We like the Glutino breadsticks (they are crunchy ones). For bread the Glutino corn bread is okay for taost but we haven't found anything we like for sandwhiches other than homemade. We love Bob's Red Mill Cornbread mix and make this with a homemade chili often. For a change with your rice cook it with coconut milk instead of water for a slighty sweeter taste. A lot of A Taste of Thai foods are gluten free if your looking for something quick. Qunioa is a nice grain substitute for side dishes. You can get gluten free soy sauce and many other asian sauces at Whole Foods and often Raleys or occasionally Safeway. Here is a link to a website of gluten free crockpot meals http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ not all will be dairy free but hopefully it will give some good ideas. I belong to a yahoo group KidswithCeliac. There are several people on the group with multiple sensitivities that might offer you more. This will get easier.

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S.K.

answers from Sacramento on

If he doesn't have celiac, you can use spelt products. Pre-made gluten free stuff isn't the greatest for adults, I know kids will have a hard time choking it down. But it is improving. I have heard that one of the major baking brands (duncan hines, or one of those) has started coming out with several box mixes that are gluten free and supposed to be really good (it's amazing what kinds of products a company will produce when one of their CEO's becomes allergic to something!). Otherwise I would suggest buying a bag of white spelt flour and making your own breads, pizza dough, and cookies. A bread maker will become your friend. You simply replace the spelt flour with regular flour in any recipe that you already have, but you will need to add a small amount of xanthum gum (usually a tsp) because the spelt products tend to fall apart without it. Hope this helps.

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A.C.

answers from Sacramento on

Chex is now Glutten free...and so much more inexpensive than the special cereals!

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K.B.

answers from San Francisco on

Hi S.-
Although I don't have any recipe ideas for you, I just wanted to throw this out to you. Amici's East Coast Pizzeria (there's on in San Rafael) has an entire gluten-free menu. The restaurant is also very kid-friendly. So, for a pasta/pizza night out with the kids, you might want to try them out. And while there, you might ask if they have any ideas for you also. You never know! Good luck.

http://www.amicis.com/locations.asp

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R.C.

answers from Sacramento on

There is a web site for kids with allergies dairy, gluten, egg, nuts, etc. it has all different recepies. It is also a magazine. it is called livingwithout.com
I love the articles when I pickup the magazine but I use the website more often, plus it is clutter free!

Hope that helps some! Good luck!

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M.S.

answers from San Francisco on

Trader Joe's has great organic brown rice pasta. My family doesn't even know the difference.

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J.B.

answers from Sacramento on

My son and I have the same food allergies and we've been eatting this way for 2+ years now.

You've already got some great advice & ideas (minus the spelt one- spelt is wheat). Many of the pre-packaged stuff does taste gross but there are many that do not. Some of the items are an aquired taste and an aquired texture you have to get used to. The best advise someone told me is to take the breads out for a month that way your taste buds kinda forget what it tasted like and then you can make breads or buy them.

Whole Foods is a great resource to start at they have so many products to choose from & they have staff that can walk you around and tell you where stuff is. I 2nd Azna gluten free bakery her stuff is so yummy but is very $$$.

Betty crocker now has gluten free mixes and they are easy to make them dairy/casein free as well. I think they even give the dairy free options on their website too. For the brownies I use oil when it called for melted butter and for the cookies I used spectrum shortening when it called for butter and they came out fine.

Walmart is another great place to shop. They are now starting to label many of their products for gluten free.
This website was so helpful for me in the begining:
http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/

As for pre-made items we like stuff from:
http://consumer.kinnikinnick.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/con...

rice pasta from tinkyada

Good luck!

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J.E.

answers from San Francisco on

www.glutenfreeclub.com has some fantastic recipes and support

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M.S.

answers from San Francisco on

S.,

Go to Whole Foods-- they have some really good breads that are gluten free. I can't remember the name, but I know that they have a section for those items. Good luck!

Molly

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M.S.

answers from San Francisco on

Hi S.,

I would recommend trying out Amy's Kitchen foods. I used to work there in marketing and part of the owner's mission is to create foods for special diets like your son's. Check out www.amys.com for a list of GF products. It's a pretty robust list with rice crust pizza, rice mac, etc. The nice thing about their products are that they are sold in the larger grocery stores as well as natural food stores. Call and ask for a coupon or two - they'll likely send you one.

Try shopping at Trader Joe's as well. They also have a gluten free list of products. My son loves Gorilla Munch Cereal by EnviroKids and it's sold in grocery stores, but is much cheaper at Trader Joe's - I just happened to notice that it was GF several months ago.

Also, I would recommend looking at Lundberg Family Farms foods. They grow rice which of course is gluten free, but they have rice chips, rice cakes, rice pasta and other convenience products that might help your son feel like he can eat "normally."

When I worked at Amy's I did a presentation to a local celiac support group. The people in the group really helped each other out - if you've not already, I'd recommend joining one. To find support groups check out the Celiac Disease Foundation website or the Celiac Sprue Association.

Best of luck.

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M.S.

answers from Sacramento on

Pamela's makes a great bread mixl--It takes time to make. But tastes WAY better (like actual bread) than the frozen rice bread that you can buy, which in my opinion tastes like styrofoam.

There is a GF bakery in Cameron Park. I have yet to get a product that tastes bad from them. They make, pizza crusts, cinnamon rolls, scones...ect.
www.aznaglutenfree.com
2647 Cameron Park Dr
Cameron Park, CA 95682-8833
###-###-####

Also, a great idea for pasta night.. Is to replace the noodles with zucchini noodles. There is a slicer "the spirooli" that cuts zucchini into noodle size. Throw some pasta sauce on top and you will be surprised at how great it tastes. My husband and I have tried it out on other guests, and we haven't had a bad review yet! :)

Oh! We found a great cookie recipe too! I hope your son can eat eggs (a lot of times they aren't included in the dairy allergy).

Chocolate Chip/PB cookies

1 Cup chunky peanut butter
1 Cup (Packed) brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Cup chocolate chips (they have gluten free CC at whole foods).

Mix ingredients together. Form into cookie balls. Arrange on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for approx. 12 min.

I know it doesn't sound like they should hold together... but they do! And they are wonderful!

Hope this helps. Feel free to email for more ideas!

Meagan

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J.C.

answers from San Francisco on

Hi! My son had to cut out gluten, diary and eggs, and he's a super fussy eater. I've tried all the glutenfree products but found that if you're trying to recreate pizza, pasta and bread without gluten for someone with a gourmet palate, you can't. It might be worth your while to invest in a good rice cooker and have rice as the staple (try white - Japanese has the best texture - and brown rice to see what he likes). Potatoes & Corn on the Cob can double up as another staple. You can prepare the mains (meat, seafood, vegetable) the way you normally prepare them without the gluten & diary. For fried stuff, substitute corn flour for wheat flour. If you go the Chinese stirfry route, be aware that soysauce, oyster sauce and Chinese rice wine contains gluten. Explore Vietnamese recipes as they seldom use soy sauce. For cakes, try the flourless chocolate cake recipe substituting soy milk for cream at http://glutenfreemommy.com/lighter-than-air-chocolate-cake/. While you're at it, check out her other recipes. Good luck.

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M.K.

answers from San Francisco on

For great recipes that taste similar or the same to "regular foods" I recommend that you get some of Bette Hagman's books. They are all variations of Gluten-free Gourmet (The Gluten Free Gourmet, The Gluten Free Gourmet bAkes Bread, etc) and are easily available on Amazon as well as in most of the larger bookstores. My son was GF-CF for several years and the recipe books were life savers for me. IF you want an easy bread mix, Bob's Red MIll makes a great gluten free mix that is available at Whole Foods. It takes some time to make, but the taste and texture are quite good.

Another website to at least look at is pecanbread.com. I haven't checked it out in some time, but they used to have all sorts of recipes and a support group.

You are welcome to message me if you want more info or need some encouragement since I know what a huge life-style change it is to eliminate gluten and casien from your diet. Best wishes.

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A.N.

answers from San Francisco on

yes, go to Whole Foods or Safeway (maybe not all locations) in the fridge section, there are many kinds of G&C free breads. My daughter has been eating rice bread with cashew nut butter as part of her lunch for years. The rice bread can be dry and crumble easily, we find that certain brand with fruit juice or pecan or almond are better and don't crumble as easily.
We keep them all in the fridge at home and we scoop a tablespoonful of the cashew nut on the bread and microwave it a little so that it is easier to spread, and then cut into small squares or triangle so that it will be easier to eat.

Cashew nut butter is tasty, not like peanut butter- my opinion!

Also in Whole Foods refridgeration section, look for RICE pizza dough; we always bring it to california Pizza Kitchen and order kids pizza with this substitute dough; they are happy to do it for us. (cheese is okay with us though!)

Also, just shredded chicken meat or sauteed sirloin steak are good protein foods; baked potatoes and fries with ketchup; and any kinds and colors of veggies...

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