New to no-gluten, no-yeast, no-barley... that leaves oats and rice! Help! (wine, beer)

[jenlion]

Short story: Been feeling crappy for a long time and finally went beyond the MD to a naturopathic dr. Giving the results of the IgG test a try -- not expecting a magic bullet, but why not upend everything for a month and try eliminating things they "think" I am reacting to?

The list of don't-eats includes yeast, gluten, barley, malt, peanuts, milk, soy, tomatoes, chicken, black pepper, and a few other things (and chocolate, of course). Oats, bran, corn, rice, and rye did not react, so I'm good with those.

So, I'm going to be making some substitutions as I give up my beer and wine for awhile. Looks like I'm going to be learning how to use rice flour, oats, etc in place of regular flour or breadcrumbs.

I've never cooked with oats but I am thinking I could probably use them in meatloaf. Anyone have any tips for that? I'm getting steel-cut oats but have never used them before (or even SEEN them before!). I think they might need to be cooked some first, but how much?

Some subs will be easy -- rice milk on corn flakes instead of soy milk on raisin bran -- and I'm lactose intolerant so no-milk is something I've already done for years. But I'm really kind of stumped on finding meals my husband, 2.5-year-old, and I can all eat. I've got some great veggie-based stuff that I like, like a black bean soup, but everything else I always have with tomato! Spaghetti squash with tomato sauce, for example. I like spaghetti squash, but I don't like it with oil and parmesan cheese. :-)

I do need to eat more beef -- was quite low on ferrite and lowish on B12 -- I naturally "tend" to eat more vegetable-based meals than meat-based meals, but I don't object to meat. I just grind it myself, after being grossed out by the stories of how they make ground beef commercially and not liking to wait at the store for MAYBE someone to come grind it for me.

I don't normally shop at whole foods -- a bit pricey -- but for the sake of figuring it out, I can for a couple months. And, I've spent the last year really ramping up my cooking skills and eliminating as many pre-processed foods as I can, so I'm comfortable baking from-scratch. But everything has been very wheat-and-soy based to this point, so I'm kind of at a loss.

If anyone knows how to go yeast-wheat-soy free for a small family, or at least with a variety of recipes, I would LOVE some pointers.

Thanks!

[ReturningWest]

I'm also a wheat, dairy, gluten, sugar ...yahdah yahdah free. It's hard really hard to do this, you will spend hours in the grocery store reading labels.

I'm fortunate that I can tolerate goats milk. Rice will be come your friend and learn about all the varieties of rice there are.

I'm surprised with the no chicken, but you can replace a big portion of your protein needs with fish and beans.

A lot of what your saying is the yeast issue and that can really drag you down...good luck.

[Wicked Felina]

Tons and tons of easy replacements are out there. Even Safeway stores have joined in, marking their cereals as gluten-free, if so.

Milk-substitute products: Hemp milk, almond milk, coconut milk, gluten-free grains milk. All of which are available at Trader Joe's - a lot cheaper than Whole Foods. They're very good at product marking.

Gluten Free - Bob's Red Mill
Maybe this site can give you an idea of what's available to you. I think their products are carried in Whole Foods. Some of their meal, oats and bean soup mixtures are carried by Trader Joe's and Safeway, as well.

Yeah, that's kind of odd about the no-chicken thing.

[Fontucky]

Maybe grind your own beef?

As far as oats in meatloaf go, that's the kind of meatloaf I was raised on. You could start with the Quaker Oats meatloaf recipe (available via web search) and riff on that to tweak it to your liking. I quadruple the onion and bell pepper from what they call for, but I'm all about those two vegetables.

[jenlion]

Ah! See, I didn't even know there WAS a quaker oats meatloaf recipe. Perfect! Have to leave out the tomatoes but that's OK, I'm good with meatloaf. That's the kind of help I need.

ReturningWest, I did spend forever in the grocery store this morning reading labels. Turns out there's soy lecithin in EVERYTHING. Between that and hydrolyzed yeast extract (wtf?!), even though I've been SLOWLY moving towards make-stuff-myself, I didn't realize what I was eating. I thought at least basic broths were pretty simple... but they're not.

Felina, Bob's Red Mill looks promising. Thank you!!

And now I've learned that while Tully's (a coffee chain in western washington) makes rice lattes, Starbucks does NOT. And that there's chicken and tomato in a TON of things I like to eat. And that flavored chips have way more ingredients with weird names than I ever thought they would. This is going to be very good for me. I hope.

[Wicked Felina]

Originally Posted by jenlion

...I did spend forever in the grocery store this morning reading labels. Turns out there's soy lecithin in EVERYTHING. Between that and hydrolyzed yeast extract (wtf?!), even though I've been SLOWLY moving towards make-stuff-myself, I didn't realize what I was eating. I thought at least basic broths were pretty simple... but they're not. This is going to be very good for me. I hope.

FYI, it really does get a lot easier. Truly, it does ~ Once you get over the initial shock of actually learning what's in a lot of commercial foods, that is.

I mention Trader Joe's only because they've always been consistent & honest about truth-in-labeling. And they make it very obvious, so you don't need to scour the labels. Up in Seattle area, you must have a number of places to get foods you are looking for.

Steel cut oats. Guaranteed you will fall in love! Tasty stuff! They're not instant-type. They keep well for a day or so in the fridge...so can be micro'd.

Yup, it will be wonderful for you. Promise ~