Hi Heather. First let me say, GOOD FOR YOU! You're right, it can't hurt, and I would never have guessed how much it would change William's health, sense of well being, speech, socialization, happiness, etc. It's nothing short of a miracle.
So, for foods to buy, here's what we get (at Wild Oats). All of this stuff is SO delicious. I won't buy or recommend things unless they are very good tasting and satisfying:
-Diestel and Applegate Farm lunch meats (expensive, but you can freeze individual slices to make them last longer. You can ask for samples too at the counter.) You can make yummy sandwiches with these and a little avocado on rice crackers or gf/cf bread.
-Hog Wild brand pork breakfast sausage links
-Hog Wild hickory smoked bacon (I think it's now sold under the Wild Oats label).
-fresh meats like hamburger, pork chops, roasts, chicken (I buy chicken at Safeway, otherwise everything else comes from Wild Oats.)
Purity Farms organic ghee. It costs $4.99 for 8 oz, which is very expensive. But a little bit goes a very long way. Great on top of popcorn (you can't tell the difference between this and butter unless you taste them side by side.) Also great for gf/cf baking. Ghee is clarified butter (milk solids removed), and is very strictly tested to make sure it's cf.
Dry goods:
-bulk organic popcorn (you can buy non-organic too at regular store). I pop in the air popper and put ghee on top.
-Edward and Sons rice crackers
-Gluten free cereals by Arrowhead Mills (buckwheat frosted flakes ROCK!) and Envirokidz (Gorilla Munch is a lot like Captain Crunch).
-Gluten free mixes by Bob's Red Mil, Gluten Free Pantry, and Pamela's:
- Bob's Red Mill GF pancake mix, delicious!! I make my recipe slightly differently then they do, I add a little sugar, vanilla, and a bit more oil than called for.
-Pamela's Ultimate brownie mix. OMG, these are SOO Good! Don't overbake.
-Gluten free pantry's Yankee Cornbread mix, Cookie and cake mix (makes delicious cupcakes), and muffin mix.
I've had less luck with the Arrowhead Mills mixes, I don't like them but many others do.
Fresh veggies and fruits (again, you don't have to buy organic but they're nice if you can afford...esp. apples and broccoli.)
Misc:
Pacific Foods rice milk in vanilla and plain (you can add chocolate syrup like Ah-laska brand to this to make choc. milk or hot chocolate). Don't buy Rice Dream brand, it has gluten in the barley malt.
Bearitos spicy refried beans are the best!
Heather, you should look into getting or borrowing some cookbooks from the library. I recommend these to start with:
Special Diets for Special Kids I and II, by Lisa Lewis. Has lots of great recipes, very kid friendly. Things like Sheperd's Pie, casseroles. She explains why diet is important too.
The Gluten Free Gourmet books. There are a bunch of these. The first one is great, and absolutely invaluable is The Gluten Free Gourmet bakes bread. TONS of great recipes.
The flours I've had best luck using for baking with are white rice and sweet white rice, sorghum, tapioca and potato starch. These books will explain the ratios, and how to's. Gluten free baking is different than baking with wheat, it takes a bit of getting used to. But once you get used to it, it's not bad at all and you can turn out some really delicious baked goods (so yummy that people can't taste the difference...that good!)
I have several wonderful recipes, I will post them here if you'd like. A chocolate chip cookie recipe, a couple of soup recipes, and a killer waffle recipe that tastes just like wheat. Take a look back at the last few pages of threads here, there are tons of great recipes listed.
A couple of other tips:
try using a small George Foreman grill to cook meats. It makes the best hamburgers, bacon, and grilled chicken breasts. You don't need a lot of extras because the meat tastes so good already.
For dinners, we eat pretty simply because my ds has such a limited palate of what he'll eat (we're working on this.) So we might have burgers. Ds will eat hamburger plain, I put a tiny bit of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper on it and stick in the Foreman grill for a couple of minutes. Cut up and serve with french fries. We make baked chicken using brown rice bread crumbs and some Mrs. Dash garlic and herb seasoning. I would start with sort of a modified Atkins: meat entree, but have potatoes, corn or rice on the side. For potatoes, you can have baked, mashed (with rice milk and ghee, delicious), smashed in a pan with oil, ghee and salt, hash browns, etc. Rice can be wild, white, brown, there are lots of ways. Fried rice would be good too, but watch that soy sauce.
I gotta go, but will say that gluten is found in:
wheat
spelt
triticale
rye
barley
oatmeal that is produced in the U.S. (you can use Irish oats that are produced in Ireland, McCann's is the brand which is available at Wild Oats.)
Gluten is hidden EVERYWHERE! Check out
www.gfcfdiet.com for terms to look for like modified food starch, natural flavorings, etc that are often hidden gluten. Try to take the diet slowly though. I would get off the casein first, it's easier. This is a process, don't try to do it all in one day and get discouraged and give up because you couldn't do it all at once. That's not the idea. You have to help your kids to retrain their palates and bodies to get along without foods that are poisoning their bodies and brains. Sometimes there is withdrawal as they get off these foods. It may not be easy, but I hope you'll find it is worth it. : )
Let us know what else we can answer mama, good luck!