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[mh-and-celiac]

It seems people in other parts of the world have a very different view of coeliac disease than Australia & Aotearoa (NZ).

Just wanted to say that if you are in the rest of the world & are still having reactions indicative of gluten exposure, despite eating gluten free, consider foods that may contain <20ppm (parts per million) of gluten. Your gluten free foods only have to be below 20ppm. Also maybe consider oats, but that’s a different conversation. In Australia & Aotearoa products are tested to ‘no detectable gluten’, which can be as low as 3ppm on these machines. Products that are not tested to this limit are not allowed to say they’re gluten free.

For example, Schar apparently sells croissants that contain wheat starch. It’s technically ‘gluten free’ to your standards. It’s tested to 20ppm. But that’s still enough to make some people with coeliac disease sick. Especially if you’re eating a lot of them, or have multiple sources of gluten exposure throughout the day. That one small source of <20ppm may be safe, but if you’re eating a lot of it, or multiple things with 20ppm, you’re going to react at some point. Your body will notice the gluten coming in. Serving sizes are small. We tend to eat more than a serving size. We also have to consider damage being done to our intestines even if we don’t have a reaction.

Don’t black list Schar because of this either. We have Schar products in Australia that meet our standards of no detectable gluten. Just check the ingredients list & if they list the ppm.

I don’t claim to know everything. You know your body best. We eat foods that aren’t labeled gluten free & could have cross contamination. But I saw a whole bunch of people being told that it was impossible for someone with coeliac disease to react to <20ppm, that it was ‘100% safe’ & if someone did react, it wasn’t from the gluten. That feels incredibly gaslight-y. You deserve to be heard. Coeliacs deserve to be supported in our community. While it may be overly cautious to some & annoyingly restrictive to find suitable food, the regulations around what is Coeliac safe should consider the most sensitive person with Coeliac disease.

[mh-and-celiac]

Thanks everyone! Hope you enjoy ☺️

Recipe adapted from the one on the Donna Hay website

Ingredients

500g Cauliflower florets (or half & half with cauliflower & broccoli)

2 Cloves of crushed garlic

Dried basil to taste

Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt & cracked pepper

Béchamel sauce

20g unsalted butter

1 tablespoon of corn flour

2/3 cup (160ml) milk

1/4 cup (60ml) cream

1/2 cup (50g) grated mozzarella

1/2 cup (50g) grated Parmesan

(Or 1 cup of pizza mix, grated cheese)

Gluten free puff pastry (simply wize is available in the freezer isle of most supermarkets in Australia).

——

Method

Cauliflower & broccoli steps

1. Mix cauliflower (& broccoli if used) in a mixing bowl with garlic, basil & olive oil.

2. Cook in air frier at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes (or oven that has been preheated). Flip half way to limit edges crisping.

Puff pastry steps

3. Roll out gluten free puff pastry to approximately 1.5 original size.

4. Cut 4 bases & 4 tops of a suitable size for your tins or pie maker.

Pastry can be gently stuck together to create more space for top & bases to be cut from. If frugal with sheets, it will take 2-3 sheets for all pieces. Keep cool while doing last steps.

Béchamel sauce steps

5. In a medium saucepan on medium heat, melt butter & add corn flour, mix til smooth.

6. Slowly add milk & cream while stirring. Stir continuously for 3-4 minutes.

7. Remove from heat & add cheese, mix until melted.

8. When thick sauce forms, mix through cauliflower (& broccoli, if used).

Pie construction & cooking stage

9. Using a pie maker or small pie pans, add base pieces of puff pastry.

10. Scoop in approximately 1/2 cup of filling to each pie.

11. Add tops, these don’t necessarily need to be crimped together if it’s too difficult. They seem to join well enough regardless.

12. Apply egg wash if desired (I did not).

13. Cook for 20 minutes or until golden brown in pie maker or 25-30 minutes in oven

So excited by this. I made gluten free cauliflower & cheese pies. I’m really not much of a cook & a lot of things I make, turn out rubbish. But these worked really well 👏🏻. Before coeliac, there would be no reason for me to learn to make something like this. There is a bakery 5 minutes from my places that does delicious ones. But the closest place that does gluten free cauliflower & cheese pies to me, is an hour away. Let me know if you want the recipe, I’ll add it as a reblog if there’s any interest.

[mh-and-celiac]

So excited by this. I made gluten free cauliflower & cheese pies. I’m really not much of a cook & a lot of things I make, turn out rubbish. But these worked really well 👏🏻. Before coeliac, there would be no reason for me to learn to make something like this. There is a bakery 5 minutes from my places that does delicious ones. But the closest place that does gluten free cauliflower & cheese pies to me, is an hour away. Let me know if you want the recipe, I’ll add it as a reblog if there’s any interest.

[mh-and-celiac]

I’ve suddenly had a resurgence in symptoms of my coeliac without any known source. I’m considering something a friend made me (I trust them to have done everything they could to minimise cross contamination, unlikely but possible) or some skincare, because I do stupid things like put moisturiser on my hands & then go eat with my hands. The possible source in the skin care is maltodextrin but that’s only possibly a wheat source. There’s no oats in anything that I’d keep on my hands.

It’s a little bit scary because if it’s not gluten exposure, I’m not sure where to start considering another cause. I’ve had a serology test because my last results were so low that it will almost certainly show up if I’ve been exposed.

It’s also just really crappy to be feeling so awful. Even days that I’m not actively sick, I feel nauseous & my lower intestines feel yuck too. The pain associated with the upset stomach & the nausea is for me an indication that it is likely gluten. But obviously those aren’t specifically gluten. It’s just because I almost never feel nauseous. It’s only leading up to my diagnosis that I started to feel nauseous. I also don’t remember upset stomach’s being painful like this, before coeliac. That’s why I doubt it’s a different food intolerance causing a reaction. It also seems to have come out of no where if it was a different food intolerance. Honestly I don’t know what I’d do if I had any other restrictions. This has been hard enough.

Feeling like I don’t want to eat because I’m scared of making myself sicker. Not knowing the source of the sickness. I don’t eat foods with a ‘may contain’ label. We have really good labelling laws here. I check all the labels.

Anyways. Thats the current situation. If I find a source of the problem I’ll update just incase it helps someone else out there.

[mh-and-celiac]

When you need to check that you did actually get the gluten free ones because they taste so good! Savoys weren’t my favourite crackers before, I preferred clix or ritz but these a really good. Not too hard either; crispy & light. Arnotts are really on the ball with this new GF factory!

[mh-and-celiac]

Easter really hits different with coeliac disease. Almost all the chocolate is gluten free & no may contains, unless it actually has gluten in it. Eating cadburys chocolate has never tasted so good 🤤.

All regular milk chocolate cadburys except the flakes & twirls, have a may contain statement here.

[mh-and-celiac]

This probably sounds ridiculous but maybe someone can relate. I miss gluten food like biscuits (sweet biscuits) & crackers & things like that, that go all yummy & doughy when they’re chewed. I’m thinking about arnotts teddy bear biscuits in particular & shapes. We know arnotts are working on shapes, but I don’t know that they’ll have that same texture. It’s the doughy texture I’m missing right now. Maybe I’m not being sweet, there’s a better flour base for them that would have that similar texture but I’m not convinced.

[mh-and-celiac]

My recommendations for GF staples in Australia (likely available in NZ/Aotearoa & some are global brands).

I wrote this out the other day for a GF group I’m in but thought it’d help to share here too. After a year of trail & error, these are most of my favourite gluten free staples for main meals. I really wanted a list like this when I started out gluten free, so hope it helps someone else.

Pasta- San Remo, I really couldn’t stomach anything else. Look for pastas with corn/maize as a main ingredient & rice low in ingredients or not there.

Latina fresh is almost imperceptibly different to gluten too. Thats a fresh pasta. When I was struggling the most with the transition, Latina fresh helped when trying to make a meal made me cry.

Gnocchi- Simply wize.

Bread- buy from your local gluten free bakery. We try to convince ourselves that supermarket bread is fine when it’s not. The fact that no one will eat it not toasted says enough. It’s also safer to freeze as supermarket bread arrives to them frozen & it’s defrosted on the shelves. It also means they risk mould. So you save money that way.

Pizza base - Senza for proper pizza. Bfree mini pita for pita bread bases.

Tortillas- Old El Paso. These are the softest, most flexible & most resilient to tears. They tear less than gluten ones in my experience. They do have the weird gluten free/tapioca smell but when they’re piled with filling you won’t notice. If you’ve tried them before & didn’t like them, try them again. They’ve change their formula in the last year or so apparently.

Noodles- Mr. Chens vermicelli rice noodles, but I’m sure any rice noodle would be fine as they’re naturally gf. If you’re adventurous & want to make your own 2 minute noodles, these would be perfect too because they’re divided up into 5 ‘chunks’ in the packet.

Other bits & pieces;

Crackers - Orgran quinoa wafers. The Ob ones are great too but harder than the orgran ones & I get so fed up with gluten free food being so hard. Simply wise do lots of crackers.

Crumpets - liberate. Check for mould, the supermarket defrosting on the shelf is BS. But these can be refrozen. If you like soft, squishy crumpets with the the back a little crunchy, these are your crumpets. The genius ones as disgusting & hard & crumble. Some people like them, I don’t think we ate the same gluten ones tbh 😂.

Arnotts Tim tams couldn’t have turned out much more perfectly.

Choc chip biscuits is from the ultimate brand at Coles. Also the Coles ‘I’m free from’ bars.

Master foods sweat chilli sauce, the kids one in the orange squeeze bottle.

Aldi do gluten free wedges & bubble & squeak.

V2 meat alternatives are gluten free & great.

Everything from yumi (falafels, veggie balls, veggie burgers (though they need extra sauce, bit dry), dip) is gluten free & great.

Fry family meat free nuggets are gf & good, but nothing else from that brand is gf.

Cc’s & most corn chips (not Doritos), Cheezels, skittles, twirls & flakes are all GF & no ‘may contains’.

My biggest tip starting out is to use the Woolies app. They have a really good filter for gluten free foods. It makes shopping less overwhelming knowing things you can get without scouring every packet in the store. The coles app is rubbish for this, so even if you shop there, try the Woolies app. Each store stocks things the other doesn’t, but it’s a starting point.

Also trust labels. You don’t need to know what all the weird flavours, colours & preservatives are. They will state beside them, if they contain a gluten source. Keep an eye out for barley malt.

[mh-and-celiac]

Every other year the release of Easter chocolate in January seems ridiculous. This year I cannot wait. I’m so desperate for chocolate lately & cadbury is pretty much the only thing I want. Easter Cadbury has no ‘may contain’ warnings for gluten like most of their other stuff. In the mean time I’m waiting for twirls to go on special again.

[mh-and-celiac]

I went to the local GF bakery today to get some bread before they close up til late Jan. As I was leaving, a mum & their kid were going in. You could see the excitement of the kid. It made me smile. Gf bakeries are great for us as adults, but I think it’s even better for the little ones. They miss out on so much & emotional toll on their little minds must be big. It can be hard enough to deal with the disappointment & the feelings of missing out, as an adult with adult emotional regulation & understanding. At least there’s places where they don’t have to miss out.

[mh-and-celiac]

I know all gluten free bakeries are their own small businesses & and lot of businesses close down over Christmas & new year, a few weeks into Jan. which is all really understandable.

It also kinda really sucks. It’s only the coeliacs, gluten intolerant & wheat allergy people who can’t get bread for 3-4 weeks a year. The rest of the population can get delicious bakery bread all year.

I’m debating if I should go get another loaf & put in my freezer on Friday before they shut til mid Jan. Supermarket bread is disgusting tapioca smelling/tasting shit & I’m not subjecting myself to that anymore. I found the bakery when they first started back this past Jan & I’ve never thought about going back to supermarket gf bread again.

[mh-and-celiac]

With a generally sensitive stomach on top of celiac, I feel like I’m constantly like ‘wtf did I eat?’

With pretty bad eczema, particularly on my hands, I feel like I’m constantly asking ‘wtf did I touch?’

Both to cause whatever reaction is happening. Woke up with itchy fingers on my ‘better hand’ & idk wtf I did.

(When I say bad eczema on my hands, I just realised I have not had my skin open, particularly in the joints of my hands, in years & that is a lovely realisation to come to. I really put that down to moogoo & having a big bottle of their msm cream beside my bed & beside the couch & a little bottle in my bag).

[mh-and-celiac]

Honestly, all the places that do gluten free fruit cake, Christmas pudding & mince (fruit, sultanas/raisins) pies, makes me wish I liked any of the above. I’m on board with raisin bread, I’m on board with hot cross buns but Christmas takes that concept & takes it to the extreme. 99% dried fruit, .9% miscellaneous spices & .1% dough. I just can’t do it. At least the woolies ginger bread people are delicious & pavlova is always gluten free ☺️

[mh-and-celiac]

What a year to be diagnosed with celiac. Tim tams came out within a year of when I was diagnosed.

I’ve been craving them for a few days & kept forgetting to go get one from the cupboard. Well it’s a crappy time & it’s almost 3am. I was very hungry. So Tim tams as a night time snack ☺️

Monday will be one year since I went gluten free. I feel like I need to mark the occasion with some yummy gluten free bakery goods. Though most gf bakeries are closed Mondays.

[mh-and-celiac]

I’m super nauseous & worried that I’ve been exposed to gluten. A friend of mine made me cheesecake & I know she did her best. But I also know that something could have been overlooked. At the end of the day, it wouldn’t matter that much, but I need to take my dog to the vet that’s over an hour away in a few hours for a dental. I need to be out all day. I can’t sleep feeling this ill & my worst symptoms are yet to come if I have been exposed.

[mh-and-celiac]

What I would do for a Cadbury boost bar at the moment 🤤. Trying to remind myself that the severe pain in my intestines isn’t worth it.

[mh-and-celiac]

I’m curious. Any celiacs out there specially missing rye? I don’t know if I ever ate rye. Possibly. All I know of is bread. Is it in much else? But not as something I was aware of, nor is there anything that contains it, that I miss.

Wheat & barley on the other hand. I would have never imagined how important barley was to me if it was never taken away. Lindt. Milo. Twisties. So many things with barley malt.

Obviously we know how sad it is to be without wheat. That’s obviously.

& sadly for us aussies & NZ-ers oats. Who else is salty about Katz cinnamon buns. Discontinue the donuts & replace with cinnamon buns most of us can’t eat because of oat flour. I don’t think I’d ever be willing to do the ‘oat challenge’. Too much unnecessary medical stuff for my traumatised brain. Maybe if they find an easier way to identify who can eat them & who can’t.