Cutting down on gluten - on a budget (and a time budget!)

[bitesize]

I've decided I want to cut down a bit on gluten in my diet - it would be nice to eliminate it altogether but I'd never manage! I eat a lot of it and would like to see if reducing it for a while will make me feel a bit better overall.

The only problem is - I live with my parents and don't buy my own food so am mostly limited to whatever food is in the kitchen. I can't really afford my own food right now as I'm in between jobs. I'm also quite busy and don't like to put a lot of time into making food.

A lot of the tips I've looked up online involve nice-looking but complicated and time-consuming recipes. I tend to eat several small meals during the day of small portions (I am a small person) so I'd be looking at more snack-sized situations.

Any coeliacs out there or other people who have successfully made gluten a smaller part of their life??

[maer995]

hey the first thing that comes to my head is why don't you sit down with your parents and explain them your needs? maybe they will understand you and they will probably think it's a good thing to do for the whole family. in the end cutting down on gluten means to eliminate pasta and bread (mainly) so start from there.. ask them to buy rice instead of pasta and rice cakes instead of bread, they are healthier options and they are not that much more expensive than what your parents would buy anyway.

2 years ago I had problems with my diet, whenever I ate something I'd get stomachaches and cramps so I went to the doctors and got an allergy test. turns out I'm allergic/intolerant to like everything and when I came home, I explained it to my parents and they supported me, now my allergies have basically gone away but we still eat kamut pasta and we get this flour 00 or something bread (don't really remember what'sit called I'll ask my parents!).

idk if you live in the UK but here I find these really nice rice cakes salt and vinegar taste which are actually really yummy snacks you can just keep in your bag. obviously chocolate is gluten free (yee) and crisps as well.. if you want something more healthy you bring an apple or a banana with you, for lunch I used to buy sandwiches and eat them without the bread (in costa and many more coffee chains you can just ask for a dish and a fork!) it sounds a bit gross but it's seriously not that bad!

message me if you need anything else
x

[bitesize]

Thanks very much, that's great! To be honest I don't have the most communicative relationship with my parents and they hate breaking their routines so I'm not sure I'll have much of a say in the weekly shop, but I can ask them to pick up rice cakes and stuff I'm sure.

I don't live in the UK but there's a chance Ireland will have interestingly-flavoured rice cakes so I'll have a look

And trying to load up on the fruit and veg... I think it's just when I'm hungry or bored I'd reach for the toast or the pasta so I'll probably need to try and get out of those habits!

[Eternal]

I was gluten free for a whole year, and now because I'm living at college and it's harder to afford not eating gluten, I just restrict the best I can. I'm not sure about in Ireland, but here in the US we have flour you can buy in most grocery stores that is gluten free by Pamela's. If you don't have that where you live, try and find rice or potato flour. You can pretty much just substitute it for real flour in most recipes, however it may make your food come out a little dryer.
As for snacks, an easy way to reduce gluten is to eat more fruits and vegetables. I also recommend checking labels because it can be surprising how many foods have gluten in it. For example I had gyoza sauce that had wheat in it.
This website may help as well, it has a lot of good recipes: http://allrecipes.com/recipes/health...ee/appetizers/

[Kintsukuroi.]

I'm gluten free and vegan, it's not easy but yeah. I'd suggest talking to your parents to see if they would be willing to purchase more foods or even try to make a few gluten free meals during the week.
You could always prepare some soups/chilies/pasta dishes with rice noodles/gluten free muffins, you can even make burritos with corn tortillas on the weekend and freeze them so all you would have to do is thaw them out.
Here's a few sites with some recipes: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.ca/ , http://www.food.com/recipes/gluten-free
Good luck!!