vegetarians and trying wheat free

I'm wheat free and eat rice, potato or rice noodles. Eat things like corn/rice cakes in place of bread. I make most meals from scratch as it's easier to avoid things like wheat being hidden.

I do eat meat though so can't help there. Add me if you want to see what I eat in my food diary.

I would say, whilst there is a lot of 'free from' foods out there it's often easier (and a lot cheaper) to find alternatives yourself rather than buying everything the same as you normally eat just wheat free.

I'm *supposed* to be wheat/gluten free and on a vegan diet. I haven't been sticking to it the last few weeks, but when I was I ate a lot of variety. I think that's the key. When I first started a wheat-free vegan diet I only knew a few recipes but as you experiment and find new things it becomes quite exciting and your tastes really change. I *love* just plain, roasted or steamed vegetables, but I'd have got really sick of them pretty quickly so I started making things like ratatouille, vegetable Thai curries, thick/chunky soups, vegetable lasagne with wheat-free pasta etc. You can make it different every time by changing the vegetables you use and trying a new ingredient every time to keep it interesting.

If you struggle to cut out bread there's a company called Genius that make wheat, gluten and dairy-free varieties that are the most similar to ordinary bread that I've found so far. They do a nice fruit loaf as well which is great when you fancy a little treat or something sweet and bready - it tastes just like a tea cake!

There's also a really good chocolate brownie (I think the company is called "Free From" but I'll have to check that) which none of my friends had any idea was wheat/gluten/dairy free. So far everyone I've given it to has said it's the best brownie they've ever had - definitely worth a look in desperate times if you need a wheat-free cake type substitute!

Good luck!!

Natalie x

I am vegetarian, and trying to drastically cut down on dairy too - after watching things like Food Inc, Forks over knives and Fat, Sick and Nearly dead, its harder to eat them

Anyway, after a lifetime of being vegetarian (brought up that way), the key thing is variety. Its as easy to be an unhealthy vegetarian as an unhealthy meat eater.

That said, my recent forays into reading Detox and Raw books have been pretty helpful.

If you're missing meat, you can obviously try some meat substitutes, I personally avoid them as I don't like them, and they're highly processed, but each to their own.

Also, there are some great books out there. When I had to cut out wheat, dairy, salt, sugar, mushrooms, onions, citrus, tomatoes etc for a while as I was diagnosed with IBS I thought I would die of boredom eating the same foods all the time. However, these books really helped me:
Cooking Without by Barbara Cousins
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegetarian-Cooking-Without-products-saturated/dp/0722538979/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1334912859&sr=8-3

However, in the new world of the internet there is a wealth of choice. Try www.jointhereboot.com for Juices and healthy recipes, likewise the forksoverknives website. There are also many many vegetarian and caeliac websites, try ones like: http://www.savvyvegetarian.com

I also stumbled across a great Quinoa website the other day - cookingquinoa, which would give you a bit of variety, and I often use Dedemed as I love mediterranean food (hummus, baba ganoush nom nom nom)

A typical day for me would be either a smoothie (dairy free, made with soy, almond milk or a green smoothie), followed by a salad for lunch or maybe couscous - i.e. something quick, and then some soup or (because I live in India) different currys!

Hearty food can be easy to cook, boil up some root veggies with some bouillon powder / stock cube, blend for soup and then add coconut milk for depth; throw some veggies and lentils in a slow cooker and leave it whilst you go to work.

Its not impossible to do, you just need to spend a little bit of time at the front end thinking about what you might want to eat and then get on it.

Good luck

B