N3TR: GF girls, please come in

theholmanherd

So, I talked in the weight loss check-in that I wanted to go gluten-free, but I love baking. Plus, sometimes recipes call for flour as a thickener. And I've never had a good store-bought GF bread (or an affordable one).

Please AW your favorite all-purpose GF flours! I'm looking for something affordable, and either USDA organic or Non-GMO Project Verified. I'm not a fan of Bob's Red Mill. I've tried their coconut and almond flours and was very disappointed, so I don't want to waste money on another of their products.

Also, I would love to hear your favorite recipes for bread or recommendations for blogs or cookbooks. I'm so new to this and it's overwhelming. I commend those of you that have been doing this for a while.

Thank you so much in advance!

EDIT: details

southernyankeegirl

**** Grad / Ticker Warning ****

We have been low-gluten for a long time (3+ years), so many of our recipes are gluten free. Hope you don't mind me sticking my nose in here!

You can find a lot of great Paleo and Primal recipes that you can modify to suit your tastes and restrictions. Marks Daily Apple is a Paleo website that has some fabulous recipes, and I will find some others tomorrow on my computer.

I will say, I don't think there's a good all purpose gluten free flour substitute that is one size fit all. It depends on what you're making to try to mimic the purpose (flavor, consistency, etc.). Baking is obv harder than cooking. For almond flour, we make our own and it's way tastier than pre-packaged. We like the nutty flavor so we don't blanch them - we just throw tons of almonds into the food processor and blend until as fine as desired. For breading (like chicken parm), we leave some chunks for crunch, which is wayyyyyy yummier than breadcrumbs.

For baking breads (I will gladly share some winners when I am on a computer tomorrow because there's a lot of losers out there in this category) I would make it extra fine, and you do often do best mixing almond and coconut flours in breads. Except with banana bread, when I leave some chunks for texture.

To thicken, it depends on the recipe. Unfortunately there isn't really a good soup thickener that I have found. Tomato paste and cream seem to be the best options. Avocados work for salad dressings. We don't do gluten free to lose weight, and all of our dairy is full-fat organic, so we don't mind cream but I can see why that might not be preferred.

Let me dig up some recipes tomorrow and update this post...

ETA:

Some favorite recipes/websites:

https://elanaspantry.com/paleo-bread/

https://slimpalate.com/banana-bread-paleo-grain-free-gluten-free/

https://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-paleo-recipes/#axzz3Guios0wv

https://nomnompaleo.com/recipeindex

ronniesgirl1981

I am about to be a buzzkill. I went GF for weight loss and it worked very well for me. I literally cannot imagine eating wheat ever again. Most GF flour is super high in carbs and will spike your blood sugar and make you hungry again. I will admit to making GF brownies every now and then. Nut based flours are best, but I haven't had much success. The Wheat Belly cookbook does have low carb GF baking recipes, though.

theholmanherd

@southernyankeegirl‌, Thank you so much! We only use full fat organic dairy as well. I used to use almond flour, and I loved it for the recipes I found for it. However, I could never find a good bread recipe, so I would appreciate any you have. I think you're right on the coconut flour being mixed with it for some stuff.

A few follow up questions: since you make your own, how much would you say you end up spending per pound of flour yielded? How many pounds of almonds do you need? How do you buy them? I get a pound of raw almonds for $10, which seems steep, but the only time I bought almond flour for less than $8/lb (it ended up being $4/lb), I had to buy 25lbs in bulk directly from an almond farm in CA. 

Anyway, thanks for your help!

theholmanherd

ronniesgirl1981 said:

I am about to be a buzzkill. I went GF for weight loss and it worked very well for me. I literally cannot imagine eating wheat ever again. Most GF flour is super high in carbs and will spike your blood sugar and make you hungry again. I will admit to making GF brownies every now and then. Nut based flours are best, but I haven't had much success. The Wheat Belly cookbook does have low carb GF baking recipes, though.

I don't think that's a buzzkill LOL. I appreciate the honesty. I bought the Wheat Belly book, but I will look into the cookbook. Thanks! Have you read Grain Brain?

meredithcarole

As a chef with knowledge of nutrition, gluten free is not "healthier" or better for weight loss. If you look, for instance, at the nutritional information on GF pasta (brown rice) vs whole wheat pasta you will find that the whole wheat has less calories, less fat, and more protein. Cutting refined carbs will help, but often GF (much like sugar-free and other trends before it) often means either adding chemicals or fats or other counter-productive measures to improve flavor. If you are celiac that is certainly a medically necessary reason to remove gluten. Otherwise I would suggest upping veggie intake and watching calories (myfitnesspal is great).

southernyankeegirl

@theholmanherd‌ - honestly, the more you cook GF, the less reliant on flour substitutes you get. You realize how few meals need it. We use spaghetti squash instead of pasta, minced cauliflower instead of rice, and otherwise probably use a flour substitute once a week, if that. Bread (even GF) isn't something we need regularly.

We buy almonds at Sams Club in bulk, I can't remember the weight and poundage at the moment. But making your own will yield more flour than a bag of similar weight - I find bagged almond flour too dense and flavorless, and my own is light and fluffy and nutty. You can also make nut flour out of any kind of nut you want - blending almonds and walnuts makes for a delicious breading on chicken or pork! We had a Wiener schnitzel the other day that was to die for!

ETA: Oooooh! I did remember what we use to thicken soups!!! Rice flour. You can find it at Asian markets. However, it's high glycemic compared to the other higher protein flours. But thickens sauces beautifully.

I suggest you read "The Zone" diet on regulating glycemic levels, not for the specific diet but to be aware of which foods will peak and stabilize your sugars. This helps limit hunger between meals and controls portion sizes. For weight loss and health maintenance, definitely the best thing we have read.


**** Grad / ticker Warning ****

theholmanherd

meredithcarole said:

As a chef with knowledge of nutrition, gluten free is not "healthier" or better for weight loss. If you look, for instance, at the nutritional information on GF pasta (brown rice) vs whole wheat pasta you will find that the whole wheat has less calories, less fat, and more protein. Cutting refined carbs will help, but often GF (much like sugar-free and other trends before it) often means either adding chemicals or fats or other counter-productive measures to improve flavor. If you are celiac that is certainly a medically necessary reason to remove gluten. Otherwise I would suggest upping veggie intake and watching calories (myfitnesspal is great).

I appreciate your insight. I don't plan to use breads/pastas/etc much, but I would like a substitute when I want it. I only buy things that don't have chemicals or junk in them. For instance, instead of a muffin, I got these trio bars that are just dried fruit, seeds, and nuts. I was Paleo for a while, but it's  too expensive for us right now. I'm not doing it as a trend, really. I have been without gluten before and I always feel better. It pushes me to eat better overall.

I don't count calories anymore, as I'm a recovered anorexic, but I love tracking my walks on myfitnesspal! I use fitbit now, though.

meredithcarole

theholmanherd said:

meredithcarole said:

As a chef with knowledge of nutrition, gluten free is not "healthier" or better for weight loss. If you look, for instance, at the nutritional information on GF pasta (brown rice) vs whole wheat pasta you will find that the whole wheat has less calories, less fat, and more protein. Cutting refined carbs will help, but often GF (much like sugar-free and other trends before it) often means either adding chemicals or fats or other counter-productive measures to improve flavor. If you are celiac that is certainly a medically necessary reason to remove gluten. Otherwise I would suggest upping veggie intake and watching calories (myfitnesspal is great).

I appreciate your insight. I don't plan to use breads/pastas/etc much, but I would like a substitute when I want it. I only buy things that don't have chemicals or junk in them. For instance, instead of a muffin, I got these trio bars that are just dried fruit, seeds, and nuts. I was Paleo for a while, but it's  too expensive for us right now. I'm not doing it as a trend, really. I have been without gluten before and I always feel better. It pushes me to eat better overall.

I don't count calories anymore, as I'm a recovered anorexic, but I love tracking my walks on myfitnesspal! I use fitbit now, though.

That makes sense. I am all for healthier living. It is just insanely frustrating to see people who don't have a clue about food jump on a band wagon (and then proceed to do things like order GF pasta with a regular fried chicken parmesan breast - WTF?) simply because Dr. Oz or Hollywood mentioned it. I am glad you are doing it for good reasons.

theholmanherd

@meredithcarole, LOL at the bandwagon comment. I know a couple of those. When I worked at a restaurant, people would do that all the time. I only ever had two people that were truly allergic or had severe celiac and needed to make sure things weren't cross-contaminated.

Shauntee

I am not GF, but most of my church is so I try to find GF recipes. If you want to indulge, I have the easiest cookie recipe, mix 1cup Peanut Butter, 1cup sugar, and and egg together. Drop by spoonfuls on a baking sheet and bake at 350. If you want, place a chocolate chip in the top and then bake. They are really yummy.

theholmanherd

Thanks, everyone! I'm glad to see there are so many others on the board. I knew there were some, but there's a lot of you/us! Does anyone plan their meals for the next day ahead of time? I know I used to do that when I counted calories. I'm not planning to count the calories, but I wanted to try and set aside the food ahead of time so I'm not tempted to cheat in the heat of the moment.

Rachaeleigh

@theholmanherd‌ sorry if I missed this, but have you tried Rudis bread? I buy it from Costco, in freezer section. Its delicious toasted.
I went GF for a year, but have since stopped, and still onnly buy that bread

theholmanherd

laurensc927 said:

I try to limit my gluten as well for health reasons. I find I feel immensely better when I watch how much I'm eating. I don't have any flour recommendations because I tend to get mine from Trader Joe's b/c they are cheap. I do suggest the wheat belly cookbook, here are bunch of paleo cookbooks out there, I keep borrowing them from the library until I find one I like.


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Check out this website for good recipes and tips, the warning is because she was pregnant recently and gave birth to a baby girl that passed soon after. I don't want anyone to be surprised if they come across the story on her site.

https://againstallgrain.com/

Oh no! I used to read her blogs a couple years ago. I feel sorry for her Thanks for the info and warning.

Radiantly

I've been totally GF for 5 years and never going back because it changed my life. I was so sick, was handicapped for 7 years with DeQuervains tendinitis and adrenal fatigue... Going GF started me healing and I became very hyper aware of how awful I feel immediately after accidentally having it in my mouth.

Anyway that's just my intro to say I'm not doing it as a fad but for life an for my health. I am a HUGE FAN of WESTON A PRICE diet wisdom check it out. Full fat grass fed butter and some dairy (I am in a food club to get raw dairy), organ meats, bone broths, fermented veggies.... I don't get processed food much but when I do here are my favorites--

Pamela's brand pancake and baking mix. I use it for pancakes and also as a substitute flour for muffins. It has a lot of almond meal which is good protein.

Marys gone crackers

Quinoa/corn pasta (the brand in the blue box)

Stay away from Udi's brand it is highly processed

Baking bread is hard but there are better brands coming out as people learn.

Gluten free girl as the chef, I just donated to her kick starter for making flour mixes. Hope she gets it. She's been perfecting GF for years and is prolific writer.

Good luck!

theholmanherd

@Radiantly, I found the gluten-free girl blog! I loved her writing. Thanks for all the info! I'm hoping it helps me, too. I get a lot of inflammation and aches, difficulty losing weight, and lots of other things. I was told it may be my thyroid, but I want to try and rectify it naturally before going on meds my whole life. I really don't think it's my thyroid. I think I have a gluten issue. The symptoms can be similar, at least according to what I've read.

meld42

I've been really MIA, so sorry to bud in, 

But I try to eat gluten-free most of them time, because I really feel the effects of the inflammation when I eat gluten as well as some grains. I'm completely aware that there's been studies saying gluten sensitivity isn't real and won't help unless you're celiac, but honestly I feel way better when I don't eat gluten. 

Anyways, I agree with a lot of what PP are writing. The reason gluten-free living seems to equate to a weight loss is because products that contain gluten are pretty processed. Sadly, a lot of the expensive (and poor tasting) gluten-free breads and all-purpose flours are still pretty processed, but they'll help you stay on track for your GF goals. Homemade baking with the unprocessed ingredients is what helps me with my sweet tooth.

Coconut flour and blanched almond flour (works best in baking in my experience) is what I use for baked treats, as they seem to be filled with the most nutrition and least processed.

Resources I like: 

Mark's Daily Apple (lots of information on ingredients and recipes)

PaleOMG (Good desserts recipes, gluten free) 

BEST WEBSITE FOR NUTS, COCONUT FLOUR, ALMOND FLOUR: 

nuts.com 

meld42

Also want to add: I do try to plan my meals/food for the entire day. I grocery shop once a week, and it has helped SO MUCH to plan the entire week and buy only those foods and not step foot into the store for the rest of the week (unless a food emergency of some sort) 

It helps to stay on track food-wise as well as budget-wise. I'm upset at myself for the amount I waste when I fail to plan