Gluten Free food on prescription

Hi everyone,

Since being diagnosed as a coeliac 5 years ago, I have been able to order various foods on prescription. I started out with a huge variety of different items on there, from flours to pastry mixes, biscuits to lasagne sheets, fusilli to penne, sliced white bread to dinner rolls, and then there were these weird things a bit like sponge fingers…

Over time I refined the list down to the things which I actually ate - surprisingly, turns out I don’t use a pre-packaged pastry mix very often, partly because I don’t often make pastry and partly because the mix already contains an unspecified amount of sugar, making it impossible to use in any normal recipe – and got things down to a pretty select list, which I would then choose a few things from every couple of months.

I generally order a large quantity of items at once, because I am too disorganised to go more frequently. Once a month?! What with the wait for prescriptions, ferrying between doctor and pharmacy, lead time for items to come in, finding the time to fetch items within normal working hours, I’d be constantly managing one part of the process. Which as a disorganised person, is too much. Does anyone have a failsafe way of managing their repeat prescription ordering? I’m considering some kind of Kanban system for low stock and a rolling reminder for the next stage of the process, using average lag time data from previous cycles… (Can you tell what type of work I do?!)

Back to the point. I have recently moved doctors, and my new doctor has fiercely cut back on the products on my repeat prescription. I now have:

• 6 loaves of Newburn Bakehouse (Warburton’s) brown sliced*
• 6 bags of Bialimenta penne pasta
• 2 boxes of Juvela lasagne. I’m not quite sure why this is on here, as I so seldom make lasagne. But never mind, it’s at least making me come up with new and inventive uses for lasagne sheets!

According to the doctor, she recommends an annual review of the items on my prescription and the opportunity to add or subtract items, as well as a general health check. This sounds fairly sensible although the thought of a year with the same few products on the list is a little daunting. I’m thoroughly sick of my 3 items, as good as they are (in particular I would recommend the Newburn bread, if you’re not already eating it by the freezerful).

I’m eagerly awaiting the latest Coeliac UK book for a list of all the products available on prescription before I book my appointment with the doctor. Then I can go armed and ready, and hopefully emerge with a couple of different things to try.

Does anyone have any recommendations for items they get on prescription and particularly enjoy?

*I’ve just read that these will soon be delivered in boxes of 4, according to Warburtons this is for greater flexibility and for those of us with smaller freezers. Any thoughts? I think this means more trips to the pharmacy for me…

-Rachel

My Favourite Supermarkets for Gluten Free Food

Evening all,

Now I know how we all feel about supermarkets- we love to loathe them, and it's a favoured Great British pastime (after discussing the weather) to complain loudly and publicly about them at any given moment. However, the reality is that most of us still do the vast majority of our shopping in them regardless. If know if I could do all my shopping at local co-ops and farmers markets I would, but sadly my resources do not stretch to such luxuries. 

I am however afforded the dubious honour of having a variety of supermarkets within striking distance of my home. Having formed an opinion of their provision of gluten free foods over the past few years, I have a definite ranking system in my mind of those which I prefer to visit. It goes something like this:

1. Sainsbury's - has the most extensive selection of gluten free wares in their aisles. In the bigger stores they have a wide variety of items from cereal to fresh bread, including frozen foods. My recommendation(s): everyday items, frozen margherita pizzas.
2. Marks and Spencer - carries the most deluxe selection of gluten free products. Sadly, this is reflected in the price, and they mix the gluten free items inamongst all the other food which can be a little frustrating. Stock is also highly variable per store. But it's worth the hunt - it's all so tasty! My recommendation(s): party food selection, seeded brown rolls.
3. Waitrose - has an interesting selection of products, mostly at the higher end. You'll find things here that you can't get anywhere else. Also most likely to have interesting chef-type ingredients. Again, you pay the price for this, but it's generally worth it. My recommendation(s): tamari (gluten free soy sauce), fresh sliced loaves.
4. Tesco - expanding as we speak, now stocking Amy's Kitchen and Udi's, as well as some of the usual suspects. Variable selection, even in the bigger supermarkets, but they do tend to carry something in most stores. My recommendation(s): Bonta D'Italia frozen salami pizza, Udi's bagels.
5. Aldi - no dedicated gluten free line as such, but a lot of their products are naturally gluten free and marked as such, which most other supermarkets don't. Everything is such good value that you could eat the best value gluten free meals from here, hands down. My recommendation(s): new milled linseed with goji berries, sunflower and sesame seeds (a sort of cereal or cereal topper), any meal cooked from scratch using good value ingredients
6. Co-op - a small range of gluten free items, and their own brand is fairly decent. But it's by no means comprehensive and it's quite expensive. My recommendation(s): ciabatta rolls, white or brown, porridge oats.
7. Asda - do carry a range of gluten free items, and in the past have introduced some interesting products like gluten free wraps, but the selection is usually small and inconsistent. My recommendation(s): BFree Multigrain Wraps.
8. Morrisons - even in the most giant hangar-sized Morrisons, there never seem to be the actual items on my shopping list, which I can't understand. I invariably end up having to go somewhere else. Their gluten free selection is patchy and contains a lot of biscuits. As much as I like sweet things, man cannot live by biscuits alone. My recommendation(s): leaving and going to Aldi instead.

I should add that I get my bread and pasta on prescription (more on that here) so I'm covered for the basics if all else fails. This does enable me to do the vast majority of my shopping in Aldi, and then top up at one of the higher-priced supermarkets for any special items not carried by my favourite low cost retailer. 

What is your favourite supermarket for buying gluten free foods?

-Rachel