New to Gluten Free - Share Your Favorite Products?

Quinoa, is gluten free.
My whole family loves all the salads I make with Quinoa.
And its super easy to make.
It is actually full of protein and is not a starch and its very healthy.
But, for many, it is a good substitute for any starch, because it looks like a "rice" but it not.

We like Udi's bread (not Rudi's!) and Schaar's rolls & pastas. Tinkyada's pastas are also good.

I love the Rudy's white sandwich bread. There is another brand called Udi's that also makes sandwich bread but I like Rudy's better. Udi's DOES make very good bagels. I have better luck buying the bread than baking it.

For GF cookies and the like I really like the flours from Namaste brand. They do nice blends. Bobs Red Mill also has several GF flour options.

Another response mentioned Glutino. For some reason I have not had much luck with Glutino brand. I haven't liked anything yet that I bought from them (though I haven't tried the pretzels so they may be good).

I like Andean Dream for pasta (quinoa). Some of the GF pastas have corn blends which I try to avoid. I also don't like the rice pasta as much - wreaks havoc with my blood sugar.

Another thing is to be careful with GF processed foods. They are still processed. When we first went GF I bought alot of it. I've moved away from that and try to eat unprocessed as much as possible. Meat, potato or rice, and veggies.

Good luck and hope you get some relief!

@Persimmon - that's funny that you like Udi's better than Rudi's. I guess it's just a matter of taste. I don't hate Udi's though. Also, I do not like Tinkyada despite hearing rave reviews from numerous people on it. Good thing we have a diverse selection with GF stuff now! :P

I second checking out the Asian stores for noodles. Rice, sweet potato starch, mung bean, all of those are easily substituted for wheat noodles. There are tofu noodles in the produce refrigerated section that my mother loves! Just make sure you research how to prep them, they don't cook the same as wheat.

I use spaghetti squash instead of pasta. it's easy to prepare, you can microwave it or bake it.

Glutino pretzels and chocolate sandwich cookies. Even our non GF family love them!

And regarding breads, I have found much more success with local GF bakers than with the bigger corporate bakers - usually those are dry and crumbly, but the local gf bakers' breads are moist and soft. Check out what's in your area.

And for pasta, I find that rather than spending a ton of money on the GF specific substitutes, I go to the Asian grocery stores and buy rice noodles - much cheaper!

I eat Tinkyada brown rice pasta a few times a week.
Rinse in cold water before mixing w/ oil oil, etc...
I love it in soups !!

Udis bread.

Hummus

I go down the organic section in the grocery store and buy a different GF cereal every few wks...If it's low in sugar. I pour organic almond milk atop.

Our favorite GF pasta is made by Pasta More, expensive but really good http://www.pastamore.com/pastamore/gluten-free-cid-46 We also use Asian rice noodles because they are cheap (at Asian food stores) and versatile.

When you use GF pastas of any type, the key is proper cooking and then much more rinsing than with wheat based pasta. Cooked the wrong way and they are just gelatinous yuck.

In general we used going GF as a reason to just cut out a lot of starch in general (use more lean proteins, fruits and vegetables) but for when you want it:

Udi's GF bread and buns toast up nicely, not so great just plain (my opinion)
Rice (white rice, brown rice, wild rice, red rice, and tons of other varieties at our co-op)
Quinoa
Mashed potatoes (or mashed sweet potatoes or mashed cauliflower)
My actual favorite GF bread is one I make in my bread maker using a recipe for Ploughman's Lunch Bread from Bette Hagman's great book listed below. It is incredibly good while still warm and great the following days toasted.

Don't buy commercial soups or gravy...they add flour. Keep cornstarch handy as a thickener for gravy and sauces. We eat a lot of stir fry so I switched to Bragg Liquid Amino which is a great substitute for soy sauce (which has wheat as a main ingredient).

I don't have recommendations on dessert baking mixes because I make all those from scratch (again using Bette Hagman's books). The few commercial mixes I tried, weren't as good as what I made and were WAY more expensive.

Snacks:
Blue Diamond Nut-Thins crackers
Shoestring potatoes
Hanover GF pretzels (better than regular pretzels!)

Breakfast:
Microwaved potato or sweet potato with broccoli and cheese
Eggs, bacon, and sauteed spinach
Make my own GF pancake mix to keep handy for easy pancakes (again from Bette Hagman's book)
Rice Chex or Corn Chex

If you do want the flexibility to whip up foods that are typically gluten laden, my most used recipe book is "The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Fast and Healthy" by, yes you guessed it, Bette Hagman. The reason this book is super handy is that she teaches you how to make a handful of basic GF flour mixtures that you can just keep in your cupboard to whip up something. It was also a good way for me to learn what foods to be wary of and how to adapt regular recipes to be GF.