Some Off-the-Cuff Frugal Tips for Special Diets

I just couldn't get myself to calm down enough to write this on Word first, make it pretty, then transfer it to this blog--I'm writing directly on Blogger this morning.
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My husband and I are slowly making a transition from a relatively normal low-sodium diet to one that's wheat- and gluten-free as well. Since undertaking a week of the Elimination Diet, I have discovered that I have a problem with wheat, oats, and gluten.

We've already given up salt and most dairy around here (Hubby has a cheese obsession, but I've been a good girl). I use coconut milk in place of cow's milk for baking, adding "good" fat to the mix along with the liquid.

These are some things I've found while muddling through transition to a nearly-Celiac diet--

Flours: if you aren't aware that individual flours exist to replace wheat flour (and the gluten therein), go check out your nearest health food store. For frugality's sake, check out Chinese markets for rice flour and all the rice byproducts (polish, bran, brown rice flour).

Eggs: Hubby has an egg allergy, and I've been hunting high and low for something other than chicken eggs to try on him. Duck eggs through the internet cost $44/dozen, without shipping charges, so I never pursued it. Guess what? The Chinese market saves me once again with a local source for duck eggs, and they're a darn sight cheaper than $44/dozen.

Low-sodium baking soda: I never realized just how much sodium is in baking soda and baking powder, and never cared about it. One teaspoon of this stuff will shock you into a stroke! Like a willing accomplice, I ordered some low sodium stuff from the web, and now regret it. Here's why: the jar I received says it has CALCIUM CARBONATE for the ingredient, and that's all. For frugality's sake, go get your calcium carbonate baking soda from your nearest local drug store--they carry it behind the pharmacy counter already bottled. The price I paid for this stuff compared to Drug-O-Rama is killing me!

Before making a pre-manufactured bread commitment: If you are like me and have no room for a breadmaker, much less rolling out dough, you might be looking at pre-made breads for your gluten-free diet (frozen or not). Some GF bread sites offer samples of their product (Ener-G offers a two-slice packet of every bread it makes), and it pays to order those before making a bread commitment. I ordered some of their low-sodium samples (trying to find a bread that both hubby and I could eat), and found a couple of types that taste and feel like eating the kitchen sponge! I'm just glad I didn't go ahead and order the actual bread at this point--I would've been sorely disappointed, and the birds around here would've been in for an expensive treat.

After several cake and pancake failures: GF baking is different from regular wheat-laden baking because of the lack of gluten, which makes batter rise. When my GF Gourmet book arrived yesterday, I found out what I was doing wrong and how to continue baking from the hip with these simple changes--add an additional egg, triple my baking soda/powder, watch my flour substitutions, and bake longer at slightly lower temperatures.

I'm pleased to announce that I finally have pancakes and cakes that aren't raw in the middle and/or paper-thin (or nearly so).

A word about flour shopping: don't forget the price book rules when comparing flour prices--price it out per pound, keep track of it, and go for the lowest-priced one(s). Rice flour is rice flour, soy flour is soy flour, and tapioca flour is tapioca flour. Brand doesn't matter, nor does size, and don't get caught up in Bob's Red Mill-sized bags that fit in your canister bag and all, like I did. Besides, you will learn that these kinds of flour are NOT shelf-stable and must be refrigerated or frozen--so much for fitting in my canister!

If making the transition to a GF diet like me, it pays (or saves) to go into Celiac websites and chatrooms. In my case, it also paid to know what is carried behind the pharmacy counter, ripe for the asking (I make my own cat food and use calcium carbonate powder already). While not a Celiac, I did learn a few things about how REAL people deal with their potentially life-threatening allergies and intolerances to wheat and gluten.

That's about all I can think of for now about my ongoing GF odyssey.

UPDATE: Now, I have another couple of suggestions that might help you save some money as well as time and effort when trying to support a special diet: Celiac and Autism sites, and pre-mixed flours.

A Celiac diet eliminates wheat, gluten, and wheat-like grains from recipes, and an Autism diet eliminates even MORE allergens from recipes, doing away with the mental product substitution we all do in the kitchen. The pre-mixed flours will eliminate having to buy several kinds of individual flours that will sit around in your fridge, taking up prime real estate. Besides, they cost the same as the regular alternative-grain flour bags (at least in MY health food store!). I plan to buy a case of 4 bags (22 oz. each), dump 'em in my now-empty flour canister, and put THAT in my fridge!

I spent 7 hours on the web yesterday trying to find useable wheat- and gluten-free cake recies that were just basic cake--nothing on fire, no booze-drenched recipes, no multiple layers of fruit and whipped cream, and no frosting required. Just basic sheet cake. I found about 4 that I could use. Apparently, layer cakes are all the rage in gluten-free baking--this is not good for sending to work with hubby to feed 24 hungry co-workers.

After searching using "gluten-free cakes" as my parameter, I then moved onto "allergy-free baking" and found tons of autism websites with loads of useable recipes (even sheet cake ones): no gluten or wheat, no dairy, no eggs, no salt, no peanuts, no sugar or artificial sweetners, and so on. It would seem that between hubby's problems and mine, we almost make up one autistic person without the mental side-effects. If you're into good healthy baking without added nonsense or potentially allergenic ingredients, autism baking is your world. Also, these recipes have the added benefit of being kid-approved, and most get fed to the entire family on a regular basis (or so the comments after each recipe say).

Anyway, an added tip to frugal special diet baking is this: if you seek to avoid more than just one or two allergens with a minimum of special ingredients that the whole family can enjoy, go check out autism sites and persue their recipe sections. I'm glad I did. Thank you, Google.