Gluten Free and Kid Friendly

Check out this blog: www.cybelepascal.com. She is a chef and mom to food allergic children and she's written a couple of really good cookbooks. HTH :-)

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The book Special Diets for Special Kids by Lisa Lewis is helpful. TACAnow.org has some good information. TACA is an autism organization. Most of our (autistic) kids do better on a gluten and casein free diet. There is also a yahoo group GFCF kids.

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I don't really have any recipes but I know that I see them on one of my favorite sites.. www.allrecipes.com I think I just saw some on www.kraftfoods.com yesterday.
Good luck.
Jen

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Well I'm not a peppers fan myself and find I can substitute for something I do like, I just try to make sure the size/shape/consistency matches the dishes intent. There are many, many gluten free options to replace everyday foods, a good favourite is making mac and cheese with gluten free/corn pasta and making the cheese sauce with a gluten free flour (arrowroot is nice). Foodnetwork.com has some delicious recipes, as an aside Alton Brown has one of the best gluten free cookie recipes I've ever tried.

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Check out the blog for the Ginger Lemon Girl (http://gingerlemongirl.blogspot.com/).

Also, the magazine Living Without is all about living and eating gluten free and they have free on-line recipes and articles that you can check out (www.livingwithout.com).

The last time I checked, all of McCormick & Schmick's single spices (as opposed to their spice blends) are gluten free. And if you have a Whole Foods Market near you, they do have some spice packets for things like beef straganoff, tacos, meat loaf, that are GF as well.

And, for things that you don't often make or don't mind paying a little extra for, there's an on-line store called GF Meals (www.gfmeals.com) that have the yummiest cupcakes and bread. Like I said, it's not cheap but they do offer promotionals quite frequently so if you get on their e-mail list, you may be able to take advantage of that when and if you decide to place an order.

I'm sure if you check, you will find one or two Yahoo groups that is specifically for parents of children who are gluten free. One I know about for sure is GFCF Kids but most of the members are parents who have children on the autism spectrum. Even if your child's issue is celiac, you probably can still join up and benefit from all of the product recommendations and recipes that are posted, but you just have to know that you'll also have to sift through all of the autism-related posts.

Hope this gives you some inspiration.

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My 2 year old is gluten intolerant. I pretty much cook exactly the same way I always--have meat, veggies and pastas (we now use gluten free pastas) fruits, gluten free bread. She likes her foods simple so I don't usually use recipes--dinner tonight was a hamburger (no bun for her), cucumber tomato salad and sweet pot. french fries. Lunch would be something like a peanut butter sandwich on gluten free bread with apple slices, carrot sticks, avocado cubes. She also likes rice pasta mac and cheese.

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We switched to brown rice pasta last year and found it to be the best substitute. We also found a wonderful mung bean pasta that's wheat free at the Asian market. Have you tried experimenting with quinoa? It cooks up similar to a couscous, but has a nuttier flavor and can be substituted in tabouli recipes. Makes a nice meal in the summer because it's served cold.

I'm not a big fan of peppers either, so just omit them from recipes.

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You can make anything gluten-free as long as you use gluten-free products. My mom will make gluten-free mac and cheese using rice flour and gluten-free pasta. When she grills chicken, she uses spices (that don't have gluten in them) or occassionally can even find a gluten-free bbq sauce to use. I have made brownies with rice flour for her that were pretty close to the "real deal", and the breads I have made with it also seemed to go over well. I just suggest going to your local grocery store or all-natural store and look over all of the gluten free products they have. I think you will be pleasantly surprised! Good luck!

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I am gluten intolerant, so we eat gluten free pasta a lot. Quinoa pasta, is the best I've found. It's also super healthy and my 13 month old loves it. I get recipes from www.weelicious.com They aren't all specifically gluten free, but it's simple to substitute those that aren't.

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Hi Melody's mommy. Thank you so much for asking this question. I have been wanting to ask for the same information. We are trying to decide whether to try the gluten-free/casein-free diet for my three year old son with apraxia of speech. He acts crazy after he eats cheese, craves string cheese and cottage cheese, has bad eczema most of the year and spit up so bad as a baby. we had him tested for all allergies, twice for gluten, casein, and dairy in general and he was fine. But others tell me that he could just have a sensitivity which could cause some stemming, bad behavior, and trouble focusing and learning. It is a big change and we have walked around whole foods lost a few times. All I hear about it what he cannot eat anymore - this is a three year who lives on pizza, mac and cheese, ice cream.. and he has two siblings who love their dairy as well. We tried the silk milk and almond milk and noone would drink it.. I would love to learn about what other moms actually feed their children, for snacks and breakfast, not just dinnertime.
I think that I have been putting it off because I was thinking that it had to be an all or nothing approach and then another mom told me something that made since - why not just switch out some things like snacks in the diaper bag and what you put in the sippy cup and take it one step at a time.
I will keep a close eye on this discussion. Thank you so much in advance to anyone who leaves information.

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We started eating gluten free 4 years ago when our youngest was 9. Most of our meals were about the same except we used things like gluten free pasta (Tinkyada is the best) and corn tortillas for taco's instead of flour. We tried things like gluten free hamburger buns/bread store bought but never found any we liked, so I made my own bread.

Some websites I found for kids were:
http://www.celiac.com/categories/Gluten%252dFree-Recipes/...

Wheat Free, Gluten Free for Kids and Busy Adults--http://www.amazon.com/Wheat-Free-Gluten-Free-Cookbook-Kid...

A Year of Crockpotting--http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ This woman challenged herself to make homecooked meals every day for 1 year using her crock pot. She put them on this website & they are gluten free. Great recipes there.

A flour I have found that was the best cup for cup substitute is Better Batter Flour---http://betterbatter.org/ We used it to have a completely gluten free wedding for our daughter in 2009. No mixing of flours, no xanthan gum to add, it's all in there & I have to tell you a quick story. First time I got this, I used Better Homes & Gardens Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe & I cried when they came out of the oven. They were round and beautiful & they didn't fall in when they cooled. They stayed soft & were delicious!!

Check you local library and see if they have cookbooks that might can help you broaden your horizons!!

Best of luck.

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