Diagnosed with celiac (can't eat wheat)

[KnottedYet]

OOOOOOHHH!!!! I *want* that beer!

I drink beer anyway, willing to pay the price. Microbrews seem to go easier on my tummy than the big brands (the bigt brands sometimes add gluten to make the beer foamy)

Searched around the gluten-free section of my favorite *expensive* but good selection natural foodstore today but didn't see any GF graham crackers. Saw some spiffy arrowroot cookies and gingersnaps and vanilla wafers that would all probably make nice S'Mores, though.

OTG, I dunno if I've mentioned it before, but The Cravings Place makes really really REALLY good cookie and brownie mixes. www.thecravingsplace.com I just bought some of their pancake/baking mix to try, even though I adore Pamela's pancake/baking mix. (mainly because the store was charging 2x what I felt like paying for a big bag of mix) T.C.P. brownie and choc chip cookie mixes are my favorites, so I have high hopes for their general mix. Usually you can just substitute your favorite general mix for flour in any of your favorite NON-KNEADED recipes.

I also checked out the frozen GF bread and rolls section. Kinnikinnik and Wheatless In Seattle make a lot of nice breads and rolls. I have no interest in them, but you can probably google them and order some. En-R-Gy breads and rolls are really yucky, in my opinion. I'd stay away from them unless that's all you can get.

Oh, yeah, and Pamela's sells pre-made cookies and such as well as mixes. The cookies are ok (for pre-made). A little dry, generally. (The Cravings Place are my all-time favorites, so I'm really biased.)

OTG, you just gotta come to Seattle! We've got GF restaurants and darn near every grocery store has a GF section, even if it's a little one.

[Offthegrid]

Wow, so much updating on here !!!

First, for my own update. I'm definitely still lactose intolerant. Got a GF milkshake the other day while I was sick with a cold, and man did it ever make me sick. I *hope* *hope* *hope* that when my small intestine heals I can have milk again.

OTG, you just gotta come to Seattle! We've got GF restaurants and darn near every grocery store has a GF section, even if it's a little one.

I'll be visiting Seattle for a day sometime around the first week of August. Maybe you can show me around! (I'm actually going to visit a friend in Portland, but we're going to take a day trip.)

Wegmans has a decent selection that I'm going to mainly live off for week to week things. They have GF frozen waffles that are absolutely delicious. They also have some frozen pizza dough (and a complete frozen pizza for $7) that isn't good, but it's convenient.

AND Wegmans puts little seals on ALL of its brand name products that say if they are gluten free, lactose free, etc., so I can get Wegmans pancake syrup and Wegmans spaghetti sauce and not have to spend a fortune for the peace of mind to know that it's safe.

No GF soups, though. Do you make a GF soup? I'll have to look in the recipe book that I have, but if you can't use a commercially available broth or boullion, that is probably way too much work for me.

I'll definitely have to try those brownie mixes you were talking about.

But Wegmans doesn't have some of the mixes (Pamela's for instance), which I probably will continue to order online. There is a Trader Joe's near Philadelphia (about an hour drive each way) that I'm going to visit at some point to see what kind of selection they have.

There is a specialty store in Amish country that has a bunch of the specialty flours, but that store was a good hour's drive, too. I tried a banana bread that actually turned out OK (needs a lot more sugar)!!! Who knew I could actually *make* a bread?! Wow.

I want to make some regular bread sometime soon, though. If there's no kneading, then perhaps I can do it myself.

The Ener-G hamburger bun I tried was tolerable. But I want to try corn tortillas with hamburgers next.

Thanks for the B12 tip. I'll have to check it out because I'm almost out of the $15 ones (for 30-pack) from the health store.

[KnottedYet]

I make soups, and since they never had any gluten in the first place, they end up gluten free. (toss cubed steak, chopped potatoes, carrots, celery, garlic, and water into crockpot = GF soup!)

I buy some soups, but since it's so much cheaper to make my own now that I have a crock-pot I mostly do that.

Gotta be careful with soups. Quite a lot of them have wheat or "vegetable protein" or such. "modified food starch" can be a booger. Read the labels, and if it isn't clearly identified I assume it's got some wheat in it. Lots of GF soups in the world, but since they never had gluten they aren't labeled GF.

Yeah, the lactose can be a problem. Generally if my gut is in a bad mood I stay away from milk. If I want a fake milk, I use Rice Milk. Haven't bothered to try Lactaid cow's milk, cuz the rice milk is so cheap and tastes fine.

Wegman's sounds like a good store!