My Celiac Blog

Recently we noticed a new brand of gluten free pasta showing up in online searches, Sam Mills. One thing that sets this brand apart is very low price. We decided to take a chance and buy a 12 pack of Sam Mills Gluten Free Conchiliette from Amazon to see what it was like.

Sam Mills pasta is made from corn in Romania. Like most gluten free pasta it is dairy free and vegan. Their pasta is made in a gluten free facility and is packaged for the USA in 16oz bags. We've had Sam Mills pasta three times now and I'm ready to say that I do like it.

Unlike most gluten free pasta the Sam Mills seems especially resilient to overcooking. The package suggests 8 to 11 minutes cooking time but we have found it requires 15 minutes unless you want it so al dente as to be nearly crunchy. The shell shape naturally holds pasta sauce, the flavor is nice, and the price per serving is phenomenal. This pasta might be a very good choice for families with young children on a gluten free diet.

I'll give it 4 stars.

	Sam Mills Gluten Free Conchiliette, 16-Ounce Bags (Pack of 12) List Price: $22.68 Sale Price: $19.57 Average Rating:

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Have you ever noticed that once the two words "gluten free" go onto a package it suddenly costs a whole lot more? Many types of gluten free pasta noodles are made from rice, but why not sidestep the gluten free food industry by finding foods that inherently contain no gluten, without being labeled as such?

In Asian cuisine there is a type of noodle called rice stick. In our experience it is gluten free, but of course you must always read the ingredients. Having once lived in an area where there were many Asian people I was lucky enough to learn a bit about Asian cooking, and using rice stick instead of gluten free spaghetti is fast, easy and less expensive.

Usually rice stick is prepared by soaking the noodles in hot water. Boiling is definitely not indicated for most varieties of rice stick. While you are reading the ingredients be sure to check the instructions for preparing your rice stick.

We quite enjoy having rice stick at our house, it comes in varying widths, but the very thin variety used in making Pad Thai is most common. Below is a list of rice stick offerings from Amazon.

	Dynasty Mai-Fan Rice Stick, 6.75-Ounce Bags (Pack of 12) List Price: $25.20 Sale Price: $18.64 Average Rating:

	Ka-Me Rice Sticks, 8-Ounce Units (Pack of 12) List Price: $33.36 Sale Price: $25.66 Average Rating:

	Thai Wide Rice Stick Noodle -14 oz pack Sale Price: $3.69

	Pad Thai Chantaboon rice stick noodles - 14 oz Sale Price: $3.69

	Ty Ling Py Mai Fun Rice Sticks, 8-Ounce Packages (Pack of 24) List Price: $57.60 Sale Price: $44.31

	Royal Elephant Brand - Rice Stick Noodles (Net Wt. 16 Oz) Sale Price: $1.89

	Roland Pad Thai Rice Stick Noodles, 14-Ounce Package (Pack of 30) Sale Price: $77.44

	Royal Blossom - Chantaboon Rice Stick (3MM) 16 Oz. Sale Price: $3.49 Average Rating:

	Rice Stick - Medium Sale Price: $2.49

	Filchoice Rice Sticks Sauce, 1.4-Ounce Units (Pack of 24) List Price: $22.15 Sale Price: $22.15

I'm sure I'm not the only person with celiac disease who really misses having pizza. Years ago we would make our own from scratch, using ordinary wheat flour for the crust.

Once I was diagnosed with celiac disease pizza seemed to be almost completely off the menu. Once in a while one of us might feel adventurous and try making a pizza crust using whatever GF flours we had on hand, but the results were often very disappointing and occasionally the crusts were so hard it brought up images of broken teeth and dental surgery. Considering the time and effort required and the often poor results I had not had a GF pizza in years.

On a recent trip to a local health fraud store we found Ener-G brand pizza shells that were 10 inch diameter and 2 to a box. We decided to give those a try.

With my husband's delicious onion and garlic rich home made pizza sauce, olives, artichokes, mushrooms and some melted soy-based imitation cheese-like substitute food product we had a pair of truly delicious gluten free, vegan pizzas.

The Ener-G crust is very much like a typical thin crust pizza. It did not get particularly soggy, it maintained a good crunch that was typical of an ordinary pizza, and it was just like eating the long ago pizza of my youth.

I was so pleased with the results that I have ordered a pack of 5 cartons of 2 shells each from Amazon. With free shipping you could round off the cost of these shells to about $5.60 per 10" pizza shell, and since Ener-G gluten free food products have a typical shelf life of nearly 5,000 years (slight exaggeration) I'm not worried they will spoil before they are used. If you have celiac teenagers in your house they obviously will be used

Pizza is back on the menu at our house. I suggest you consider giving these a try. I give them 4.5 stars.

	Ener-G Foods Rice Pizza Shells, 10 inches, 12.7-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 5) List Price: $72.60 Sale Price: $55.85 Average Rating:

Technorati Tags: gf pizza, gluten free pizza, Ener-G pizza shells, product review

Our latest website designed to help people with celiac disease is now online, and it supports users of cell phones and other mobile devices. Gluten-FreeStore.com features GF food items from the two largest retailers in the gluten free food market, glutenfree.com and Amazon.com.

The site uses Wordpress blogging software, and features listings of a number of gluten free food categories you may select. Prices are shown on the individual item pages, which are in effect each a blog post, and in addition there are pages that list top selling gluten-free items at Amazon.

If you access the site using a mobile device it detects your device type and formats the display layout to better fit your screen.

Please consider visiting http://gluten-freestore.com/ for your GF shopping needs, you can compare the deals from the two top vendors in the business in order to get the best pricing and shipping available.

Technorati Tags: Gluten-free, wap, mobi, shopping, cell phone, mobile web, 3G, celiac, celiac disease, Wordpress

Today I had my first complete success in baking GF bread, the first loaf that was completely vegan, gluten free, and did rise without collapsing during the bake cycle. There were two new factors in this loaf that I had not used before. First I used silken tofu as an egg replacer, and second I used Bob's Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour, which I will definitely be using in the future. There was no brown rice or white rice flour in this bread at all.
This mix contains Garbanzo Flour, Potato Starch, Tapioca Flour, White Sorghum Flour, and Fava Bean Flour.

I used a recipe based on "Chickpea Yeast Bread" on page 116 of The Best ever Wheat and Gluten-Free Baking Book, I substituted the Bob's Red Mill mix for the 3 cups of various flours, and I used tofu instead of eggs.

Wet Ingredients:
5 ounces silken tofu
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 and 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon Vermont maple syrup

Dry Ingredients:
3 cups Bob's Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
3 teaspoons xanthan gum
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 cup Better Than Milk Vegan Beverage Mix, Soy
1 package yeast

Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, try to break up the brown sugar clumps.
Put the silken tofu, olive oil and 1/2 cup of the water in a blender and mix thoroughly.
Put the dry ingredients in your Zojirushi or other bread machine
Pour in the tofu/oil/water blend
Pour in the remaining cup of water
Push the quick cycle (or gluten free cycle) button
Then wait about 2 hours for your delightful bread-like loaf of gluten free bread. Loveses it!

Technorati Tags: Gluten Free Recipe, gluten free bread, gf bread, wheat free, celiac diet, gluten free food, Bob's Red Mill, Bob's Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour, Zojirushi, bread maker, bread machine

There is a new website for people with celiac disease, the intended use is to provide information and news about celiac disease. Users can register free, and each user is encouraged to maintain their own blog as well as posting messages to a fairly basic forum. Users can also create polls which anyone can vote on, registered or not.

Perhaps the best feature of this new website is the Celiac-related news. It is categorized, mixed, blended and served in your choice of several ways -as just headlines in the left and right sidebars, or in more detail if you use the navigation links.

There is also a big long section of GF recipes, and links to a few GF food items.

The site designer (c'est moi) hopes to build a community of people with celiac disease, and people on a GF diet for other reasons, like autism, are certainly welcome too. There is still time for you to be among the very first people to create an account at All About Celiac. Really, visit http://allaboutceliac.org/ today! It's all free, of course.

Technorati Tags: celiac, gluten free, celiac disease, gluten free diet, gf, autism, gluten free recipe, GF videos

There now is a new option for online food shopping available to people affected by celiac disease, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and other conditions that may benefit from a gluten free diet. Gluten Free Live is now online, with more shopping options for you.

Gluten Free Live (GlutenFreeLive.com) offers gluten-free bread, bread mixes, buns, cereal, cookies, crackers and more. There is a section of this online store for gluten free and dairy free foods, as well as an area with gluten free milk substitutes in both dry and liquid form. Vegetarians who are eating gluten free will find an area just for them, and the gluten free pasta aisle is sure to be a favorite for everyone on a GF diet.Gluten Free Live uses advanced methods to find and filter online food sources so that you don’t have to wander through a web shop full of food you can not eat.

The founder of Gluten Free Live (GlutenFreeLive.com)is himself a vegetarian with celiac disease, so the site is backed up by years of personal experience eating a GF diet and designing web applications. At Gluten Free Live we want to help you be gluten-free.The book department at Gluten Free Live offers pre-configured lists of books about autism and celiac disease, as well as gluten free cookbooks. There are virtual store aisles with GF snacks, energy bars, fruit bars and our top-selling gluten free pretzels. There is also a section with gluten free meals that are ready to eat or require a minimum of preparation.

Busy cooks can find bread mixes, all kinds of gluten free flour, gluten free pizza shells, and gluten free pancake mix.Because many people on a gluten free diet rely on rice as a staple, the store (GlutenFreeLive.com) also features rice cookers, and rounding out the kitchen wares is a selection of bread machines. Gluten Free Live also offers pages with free gluten-free recipes and the latest news about celiac disease and autism. By partnering with Amazon the site is able to offer free super-saver shipping on many orders that total $25 or more. Gluten Free Live is now open for business. Shop now, shop often.

Technorati Tags: Gluten free food, gf shopping, celiac disease, gluten free shopping

One of the leading sellers among gluten free breakfast cereals is Erewhon brand Crispy Brown Rice Cereal. Recently the manufacturer has changed their packaging. On Amazon it seems to be the number one selling GF cereal.

You should be aware that Erewhon makes a number of different breakfast cereals, please be certain that the product you buy has the words Gluten Free displayed prominently on the package (if you have celiac disease). Most breakfast cereals contain barley malt flavoring, and since barley is one of the grains that people with celiac disease must avoid, that eliminates the vast majority of breakfast cereals from the gluten-free diet. In some cases malt flavoring is derived from non-barley sources like corn, which should be safe for people with celiac disease.

I like this cereal, it reminds me of another similar looking product that is known for sounds it creates in milk. I use soy milk with my breakfast cereal because I'm vegan as well as having celiac disease. You can buy this cereal at our celiac friendly food shopping site, The GF Store.

Technorati Tags: GF food, GF breakfast cereal, gluten free cereal, gf diet, celiac disease, coeliac, gf shopping, Erewhon, Crispy Brown Rice Cereal, Gluten Free, Organic

At our house, we go through gluten-free and vegan burgers as if they were candy, yum! And the best ones we have found are thankfully available in great quantity at our local Trader Joe's. These burgers have a texture and mouth feel that is very much like meat, they are more chewy than most gluten-free vegan burgers. I've seen them at Whole Foods stores too. After two of these with a little ketchup and I get what I call Happy Tummy, always a desirable state for people with celiac disease. Look for them at your local health food store, I think you'll like them too.

Technorati Tags: celiac disease, gluten free, gf, gluten-free, veggie burger, vegan and gluten free, tofu

the sensible celiac

2007-06-14 19:22:54 - For 3 years now The Sensible Celiac has been serving the celiac disease community and all those following a gluten free diet. With a discussion forum, celiac-related news, videos, recipes, and several shopping pages, The Sensible Celiac is a much used resource. Visit sensibleceliac.com to learn more about celiac disease.

The Sensible Celiac was founded by a webmaster with celiac disease whose daughter, a Registered Nurse, also suffers from the disorder. The original motivation for starting the site was to debunk false information about the gluten free diet, and to give people affected by celiac disease a place to share their experiences.

Celiac disease is a genetically mediated auto-immune disorder characterized by an intolerance for specific protein peptides found in certain widely used grains. When a person with celiac disease ingests any of these grains, even in very small amounts, their immune system reacts to these protein fragments as though they were an invading organism, and attacks the villi lining the small intestine in a misguided defense strategy.

In order to prevent triggering this self destructive immune response, persons with celiac disease must avoid certain grains for the rest of their lives. The offending grains are wheat, rye and barley.

At first this might seem like a simple thing to do, but in fact there are many foods that contain ingredients derived from wheat, barley or rye.

Celiac disease was once considered to be a rare disorder, but random blood tests in the general population for the antigens produced by a person with this autoimmune disorder suggest as many as one person in 133 suffers from celiac disease. There may be as many as 2 million undiagnosed cases of celiac disease in the US alone.

Today several hundred people are members of the discussion forum at the Sensible Celiac Sensible Celiac Discussion Forum and the site is still growing. Visit sensibleceliac.com today to learn more about celiac disease.

Technorati Tags: celiac, celiac disease, coeliac, gluten free, gluten-free, celiac support, gluten free food, gluten free diet