Gluten Free Shopping Question

[MilanzMom]

I posted this on the Special Diets thread, but should have probably posted it here instead. Any suggestions or comments are appreciated. Thanks!

We live in NW Indiana. Does anyone know of any store that sells gluten free items at a discount? I'm finding quite a selection of gluten free items in the stores where we live, but they are so gosh darned expensive! I'm having sticker shock when I buy! Bottom line, I will buy what I need to for my son's diet, but if anyone has any suggestions on where to shop, it would be greatly appreciated! Also, I'd love to hear any of your stories about transitioning from a "gluten kitchen" to a "gluten free kitchen" and how you did it! Thanks

[Elisa72]

We buy most of our GF items over the internet. http://www.kinnikinnick.com/ and http://www.glutenfreemall.com/catalog/index.php are ones we have used, but there are others.

As for transforming to a GF kitchen...well, we're only partly gluten free, as the only celiac in the family lives with us only part time. However, I started by learning how to read ingredients labels to identify foods that may contain gluten. I also used a lot of the mixes and the few items in the grocery stores marked "gluten free." I also stayed away from flour-based foods and packaged foods that aren't labeled gluten free, and stuck with safe foods such as meats, veggies and fruits.

The one thing that made it all much easier was learning about GF flours. I now have a favorite mix recipe #149852 that I use as an all-purpose flour. When a recipe calls for flour as a thickener, such as most gravies, I usually substitute corn starch. For everything else (except baked goods) where the flour is more than just a thickener I use the all purpose flour mix. I've had great results with it, and have found it works well in quick breads. I've never tried it with yeast breads, cakes or anything else that requires exact measurements and specific chemical reactions. I've found that it's best to use recipes that are formulated to be gluten-free for those items.

The one ingredient that causes me the most grief in packaged products is "modified food starch." It may or may not be derived from a gluten-containing food, but we can't take the chance. This is where label reading is important - I usually find that, if that is the only suspect ingredient, if I read through the labels of the various brands I will eventually find one that says "modified corn starch," which is safe.

I only converted to GF cooking a couple of years ago, so I'm really still on the learning curve. I'd be happy to answer any more specific questions you may have, but I'm sure that those with more experience will come along.

[Sheynath]

Do you have any ethnic food stores in your area? I also suffered sticker shock when I first had to go GF, but I started going to an Asian foods market and the have tons of items that are naturally GF and are much cheaper than what I find at grocery stores and the natural food store I go to.

The Asian food store of course has items for Asian cooking - but they have all kinds of rice noodles, including "ramen" type noodle soups, tapioca noodles (which make great soup noodles and even OK spagetti), rice flours, potato flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, etc. As well as a range of snacks that are ready to eat - although some of them may take some getting used to if you aren't accustomed to eating Asian foods.

Anything you can make from scratch is going to be cheaper than storebought, and it probably going to taste better as well.

I buy several different flours and combine them for best results, then use that mix to make most kinds of baked goods.

Then I only buy those things I can't or dont want to make - like I do not care for making homemade pasta, so I buy that, but cookies, bread and crackers are so much better when homemade that I eagerly do those.

[LARavenscroft]

I originally posted this in the special diets section since I read that forum first......so here's my response in this forum as well.
You might also want to check with your local healthfood store about buying products by the case. Most of the healthfood stores in the area where I live will give you a 10% discount for buying a full case. I buy my GF pasta this way all the time. It usually works out to buying 5 and getting 1 free. I've not done this with any of the flours yet because I don't think they would be shelf stable for that long, but anywhere I can save some money it helps. As Bearhouse5 mentioned, every meal that I cook at home is GF (I'm not celiac, but have a wheat and barley allergy so I've just gone GF because I feel much better). It's just much easier to cook one meal and since my daughter was allergic to wheat when she was very little (she's 18 now), a little bit of prevention never hurt. Good luck with your son.

P.S. I also live in Northern Indiana just east of South Bend.

[MilanzMom]

Elisa72: Thanks for the links! I will certainly check them out. Thanks also for the GF tips. I'm still at the beginning of learning this whole new lifestyle, and the Zaar responses I have received so far have been so very helpful. I appreciate all of you for taking the time!

[MilanzMom]

Sheynath: Thanks for your multiple responses on my questions! I appreciate it!