Gluten free Thanksgiving

[lunabee34]

My mom has been sick for awhile, and she had a colonoscopy/endoscopy last week. They took biopsies, and she has celiac disease.

I will do my own research, but I want to do some crowd-sourcing from you guys because I know several of you have extensive knowledge.

Do you have any recipe, product, websites, cookbook recs I can pass along?

We are hosting Thanksgiving, and I want to show her that gluten free can be good, tasty, and easy.

Gluten comes from wheat, right? So gluten free foods include meats and vegetables, right? (I am so ignorant about this issue; I feel like I'm asking stupidly dumbass questions)

Mom is really upset, and I suspect that part of it is because she's worried that my dad won't be supportive and she'll be stuck having to cook/be around a lot of food she can't eat. :/

Gonna go call her now; she sent out a mass email to the family.

Anything you can tell me is appreciated.

ETA: I have totally sold my dad short. He has actually been super supportive and told mom that the whole household would be gluten free and that they were doing it together. I kind of feel like an ass for assuming he'd be an ass about it, but past behavior seemed to indicate that he would. Whew!

Comments

[monanotlisa]

Urgh, that's not a great fate -- but it's great that she knows and hopefully gets support! If your father is not supportive, depending on your level of meanness, send him news about people dying of colon cancer and all the other diseases scientifically proven to be results of not or of badly managed Celiac's.

...wow, that escalated fast. Sorry. I may have some issues with a certain parent endangering the health of family members and being an ass about it.

Anything you can tell me is appreciated.

The comment above is helpful: Wheat, rye, and barley are the culprits, and I'd focus on them. The bad, that stuff's in a lot of foods -- but the good is, less so in the United States! Everything here is corn-based, which has its own downsides but generally doesn't trigger many people.

General Info on GF Eating:

Pretty handy primer: http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/MEND/Celiac.pdf

https://celiac.org/live-gluten-free/glutenfreediet/food-options/

http://www.celiaccentral.org/Gluten-Free-Food/the-gluten-free-diet/

Food blogs I follow, because they have gf options or good tips:

http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/periscope/10-tips-for-gluten-free-baking/

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/category/gluten-free/

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/ is a little too crunchy for me, but eh, I've baked some of her stuff with modifications

And, advanced, for going out, I use this:

http://www.findmeglutenfree.com/

[monanotlisa]

And, oh, THIS IS WHAT SHE NEEDS FOR THANKSGIVING:

http://www.bobsredmill.com/gluten-free-pie-crust-mix.html

It makes GREAT pies. Trust me. :) (The other flours don't work as well -- their properties are very different.)

http://monanotlisa.dreamwidth.org/tag/gf
or
http://monanotlisa.dreamwidth.org/tag/gluten-free

[lunabee34]

I've got some amaranth from that company so I know at least some of their products are sold at our local Kroger. Yay!

[cathexys]

I love the Internets. I was just gonna come in her and tell lunabee to check out your journal for great recipes, info, and support. But of course you already know each other.

waves at both of you!

[lunabee34]

Heeeeeeeee. I know all the best people, dahling, present company included.

[lunabee34]

See my ETA to the post about my dad; he is apparently being really supportive, and I am an asshole for doubting him. I'm so sorry someone in your family is not supportive. That sucks so hard.

Thank you so much for these links. They are really, really helpful.