Have you ever wondered how to navigate the aisles to make your Gluten Free shopping easier?

To know how to shop "off" the free from aisles

Have an easy way to remember how to check the ingredients labels?

In this podcast, I share how I shop Gluten free, mainly "off" the Free From aisles in a way that ensures I don't make mistakes and accidently pick something up that contains gluten?

Have a listen to this podcast and you will see how I (and many others) navigate the Free From aisles so easily.

Make sure to follow my podcast, so you never miss and episode

How to shop when you are gluten-free.

Have just gone gluten-free or have a gluten-free person coming to visit.

This is Angela from Gluten-Free, Angela, and I'm gonna share how I make the

shopping expedition a little bit easier.

So have you got somebody to visit who can't tolerate gluten?

Allergic to gluten, you're really scared.

Have you just been diagnosed or just been advised to stop eating gluten?

Hey, whatever the reason, it can be quite a challenge when you

are out in those shops, those supermarkets, those farm shops.

And let's face it, normally what you do is you walk into a supermarket, a

farm shop, a a corner shop, a beautiful Green Grocers, a beautiful,, artisan

place, and you can choose anything off the shelves as long as you like

it, cut out gluten and suddenly.

It becomes so difficult you walk to that free from aisle, that will be probably

one 20th, one 25th of the shelf space.

That's probably the most it would ever be at any shop unless it's a hundred

percent dedicated to being gluten free.

And this is a real challenge.

So you'll walk up to that free from section.

So, so limited in terms of ready meals and let's face it, ready meals.

You know, in normal life we would always prefer a home cooked meal

to something out of a packet.

When we look at the, the pastas, the biscuits, you know, it's great,

but I want to reassure you that this is not your only shopping option.

Okay?

Now this is the easiest thing what you, if you can remember

this acronym, write it down.

It will help you so much and we can get you shopping in other aisles.

In other shelves around that farmer's market, you know,

the, the farm shops, et cetera.

And this is BROWS.

And what you're looking for is what's in the ingredients

on the ingredients, labels.

So this is where it takes us a little bit more time, but we can

be reassured whether something is safe to eat and the free from isles.

That's where we're gonna be able to get our pasta.

That's where we're gonna be able to get our bread.

That's where we're gonna be able to get, um, the biscuits, et cetera.

Because the biggest thing that contains gluten is wheat.

And wheat is in so many things.

So that's where we need to go for things that are gluten-free.

There will be exceptions to the rule, and as long as you

stick to this, you'll be fine.

So we are talk, we call it BROWS, and you can get gluten in anything which

falls into one of these categories.

That's B for bran, R for rye, O for oats, W for wheat, and S for spelt.

I'll just say those again.

This is BROWS B for bran.

R for Rye, O for Oats, W for wheat and S for spelt, and it's really

interesting that if you just write that down, the labeling it is certainly in

the uk, certainly in Europe and and I would imagine further afield as well.

The labeling has to show.

What it contains in case there's anything in there that could cause somebody to have

a reaction, an allergic reaction to it.

, I will talk about some of the exceptions to the rules in there, but.

Most cereals on the cereals , you can imagine there's nothing on

there for us in, because there will be brown or there'll be oats

or, , you know, wheat in there.

And we're talking about the bread section.

All of those lovely breads that we love.

You know, ripe bread, spelt in bread, wheat, that means that, everything

is out on that, on that aisle.

And we have to look elsewhere for that.

And then the other thing is when we think about sauces, thickeners, you

know, gravies, et cetera, there is always something used to thicken.

So that's why Ready Meals, you know, jars of whether that's a, a curry

sauce, whether that's a, you know, a Chinese flavored sauce, et cetera.

If you are making them at home, your go-to thickener, maybe

something like a a, a cornflour.

But when we're looking in commercial cooking and food production, often

wheat will be used as a thickener.

So that's why if once we start to look at our labeling on the back,

you'd be surprised at how many things on the normal aisles are okay.

Now, don't I, I'm just gonna put a caveat in there.

Please don't start looking at pizzas.

Just no point.

All right.

Pizzas in the free from section, not pizzas in the normal section.

They, they just won't be.

But when we start to look at jars, When we start to look at certain ready

meals or you know, burgers, sausages, things like that, start to look at

the back and you will be able to see if there's anything on the back that

is bran rye, oats, wheat, or spelt.

And.

Once you get into that habit, you will find that there are some amazing

little products that you can have.

And I remember even well, eight, nine years ago when I had to give up gluten.

I remember trying to find sausages was so difficult.

Now, so many sausages out there are gluten-free.

In fact, most of them.

Are some of the cheaper ones aren't.

And, and this is because when you are bulking a product out, when it

hasn't got a, a high meat density, let's, let's talk about sausages.

You need to bulk that out.

And wheat is a natural thing to start bulking things out and

oats, et cetera, and all of those different types of, um, cereals.

Whereas when there is a really, really high meat content, then

they're pushing into the premium brand anyway, and it's quite easy to

put some, something else in there.

Um, something else, you know, I, I used to see all of these meals, you know,

for 10 or 20 pounds where there's the main course and, , the sides, et cetera.

And for years and years and years, I never, ever bothered to

look at them because, I may see something there and think, oh,

that, that meal would be lovely.

It's interesting to see how certainly some of the, shops, the waitroses,

the Marks, and Spencers, et cetera.

When I've looked at some of their meals, I would've been able

to pick up one of those meals.

I wouldn't have had all of the choice, but I certainly know the latest one.

In Easter, I could have had some of their meals, and I remember at

Christmas I had actually bought the big.

Well, we were getting a chicken because there were only three of us.

I didn't want a Turkey, didn't want to have to transport it cause we're

only in one location for 24 hours.

Um, and I went up and I saw that there was a, a Turkey joint with

bacon on it, with some stuffing on it and with some, um, gravy in it.

And it was all gluten free.

It's all free of gluten.

So really start to look at the packaging, the ingredients

list, and then you'll be fine.

Now, I said there's a couple of things that we just need to

consider when we talk about oats.

, there are gluten-free oats, however, speak to the person who can't have gluten first.

Some people cannot tolerate gluten-free oats, and without being too technical,

gluten, gluten, there are lots of different types of gluten and.

Sometimes people are, have an allergy or an intolerance to wheat, gluten.

The gluten found wheat, but they're fine with, , you know, , the

gluten-free oats, but some people just can't tolerate them at all.

So just double check with them, first of all.

, and say, the other thing that I would say as well is when you're looking at the

ingredients list it, it can say something like, , not suitable for see Coeliacs

or people with, you know, , allergies.

And sometimes this will be, you think, let me give you an

example of some like cornflakes.

And you may think corn, there's no wheat in corn, . No gluten in corn.

I'm fine with that.

However, we have to think about the manufacturing plant.

It may be that they process several different, cereals that they

process Bran flakes, cornflakes.

Wheat flakes, all of those different things in that same manufacturing plant.

So they have to say that for people who are extremely allergic and, and we are

talking about anaphylactic shocks, that's why it has to give that, , that warning on

there not suitable for or may contain it.

I think this is.

Um, very, very prevalent, certainly, in schools or at parties when we're trying

to make sure that we meet everybody's needs and we can look at the back of that

label and think, yeah, there's none of the brand, right, oat suite or spell in there.

But there's this little sign on the bottom that says, may contain, and

the levels that it may contain can still put that person into shock.

Or they can still be ill for two weeks afterwards, and everybody is different.

Some people that I know will be rushed into hospital very quickly.

Some people have a delayed anaphylactic shock and they can find that they just get

worse and worse and worse gradually, and their body is then in shock and it can.

It can leave them in hospital for quite some time.

So that's why we always have to understand that person.

Even in a particular family, we may have somebody who can tolerate, some may

contain, and some people who just can't.

So just ask the question, and get to understand each other.

Some people may have had a, a lifestyle that because of they

don't enjoy cooking, they're used to grabbing lots of, um, ready meals.

And going gluten-free is a real challenge.

If you want ready meals and the ready meals there aren't too good, but just

start to look in the normal aisles, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

And I, I know that, , when it comes to Christmas, I was talking to a, a fabulous.

Gluten-free friend who has to be extremely careful because she is extremely allergic

to, um, any form of gluten and other things, as she said, yeah, at Christmas

time, marks and Spencers always have these little chicken Kyevs and they're great.

Made totally different to any other time of the year.

What's on the outside is a gluten free crumb.

Um, it's amazing how many times you will be able to go in somewhere and get

chicken strips with a gluten free crumb.

And that's in some of the more expensive supermarkets than those

more money friendly supermarkets too.

So have a look around.

It's all about the labeling and just checking the labeling.

Um, some hidden, hidden products where, you know, do you actually

look at the back of, of crisps?

So if we have a, if you're putting a buffet out, Or if there's a buffet

check, because it's amazing if we, you know, in our household we enjoy,

, ready salted crisps and it's amazing.

I will go and I'll get some of the more hand cut ones, some of the small

bag ones and some of the large bag ones, and we, you know, we'll have a

variety, but even from the same shop or the same brand, it's amazing that.

One won't have any gluten in it and others will.

So look at the back of crisps, look on nuts.

Um, all of these things that you wouldn't ever think they were in.

But what I want to say to you as well is just get used to looking on the back

because it may be the main brand you can't have, but you can have that own brand.

And I think this is one of the revelations from I love

having brown sauce with things.

There's nothing better than having something like, um, a sausage roll with

brown sauce, and I never thought I'd be able to have one of those again.

But Marks and Spencers do.

As cl they're okay.

They're not like good old fashioned, um, sausage rolls, but you know, for a treat.

They're fine and I love them either with a a, a, a great Polish mayonnaise on there.

Or some brown sauce on there.

And I never thought I could have.

Brown sauce again, and I couldn't with a lot of the main brands, but when I go to

different supermarkets and look at the their own version, wow, it's amazing.

When I go to some of those supermarkets that I don't normally go to, I can

pick up a bottle of Brown Sauce because their own brand is fine.

So just start to go to different supermarkets.

It's not about going for all of your food there.

Okay?

It, it's about going for, for certain condiments, certain additions,

certain pickles, you name it.

Just have a look through.

But the Marks & Spencers, gluten-free sausage rolls in the chiller cabinet.

Are as close to normal sausage rolls as I've ever had.

The skill, the trick with those is just don't have the oven on as lo as high as it

says because if you do, a lot of the fat comes out of it and it goes a bit strange.

So warm them up on a much lower temperature and you'll find that

the overall crispiness and lightness of that pastry is much better.

Um, I, I, I have not found.

A flaky pastry on the market that I would, I would eat.

I've tried them, they're in the bin.

Um, so that's just my personal preference.

But yeah, that's what I do and I, that's what I have as a, as a treat.

So I do use things on the free from aisle, you know, they will do lovely.

Quiches in there as well, and, and Marks and Spencer's is my go-to place.

I don't have the ready meals.

I've just never eaten ready meals.

Um, again, my body can't contain a lot of the chemical equivalent, so I can't

have a chemical substitution for sugar.

I, I, a lot of e numbers, I have a reaction within my body, so that's

why I've got to be, uh, a little bit careful with what I eat as well.

But a lot of the, you know, the, the fish there in breadcrumbs is fine.

You can make your own anyway and you can get , fillets of fish,

you know, buy the fresh fish and, and, and put it in a nice batter.

But just have a look around and, you know, when I started to notice that,

wow, I can get normal sausages like, Really nice sausages from Marks and

I can put them in toad in the hole now and, and, and not relying on the

gluten-free ones, that used to be there.

And I think that's great and I will see that as an absolute plus

that, that gluten-free range.

Of products is quite small in certain stores because I can buy so many

items as I walk around the store now.

I'd always buy my, make my own lasagna.

I've never eaten like a a ready made lasagna.

That's just me.

There's a, you know, I've always made my own curries and things like that, so,

Um, for me it's not that difficult, um, to make, but I, I appreciate if you are

used to using the jars, then there may be a certain brand that you really like,

but there's added wheat in there, so it, it's finding some and do you know what,

by the time you've bought some of those, Uh, so some of those jars, you are better

making it from scratch because then you can put in, you know, as a thickener, if

you want to put ma put mashed potatoes in there to, to start to thicken things.

I use cornflower a lot.

Again, just make sure that on the back it says that there's, you know,

there's no, uh, may container not suitable for coeliacs, or, people with

allergies and, and the ones I get, I, I've never seen that on the back.

Um, something you might want to check as well.

I'm telling you to go off the, the normal aisles.

I had a conversation with a very good friend and she was talking about, um,

uh, um, an instant yeast, how good it was and how cheap it was from this, this

very competitively priced supermarket.

And the next time I was in there, I had to look and it was just

like, yeah, it's full of wheat.

So, you know, even little things like buying.

Yeast, we have to check.

Everything.

And also things will change, recipes will change, ingredients will change.

Um, so every time we go and buy them, we have to check.

And I know I go to a certain, um, supermarket and this is a ready meal that

we have in Well, are these Yeah, they are, they are a ready meal, frozen chips,

because sometimes I can't be bothered to make my own chips and I do make my own

triple cook chips in the traditional way.

But it does take a long time.

Um, and it's a total treat.

So I buy triple cooked.

Chips, frozen chips from certain stores and I have to check on the back because

in some of them they have rice flour in certain ones they have wheat flour.

Um, so just check again, something I saw, this is quite a recent change.

I believe those boxes with the, you know, the chunky chips or the

little fries, they've always had wheat flour on and the, I just.

Every so often I will turn over the packet and just see, and I saw there

were some sweet potato fries that didn't have, um, any wheat flour on it.

And there were some of the skinny chips as well.

Sometimes they can change the recipe and because there's a revolt,

they go back to the old recipe.

Sometimes it's because it's, it's more expensive to use certain

products than others and um, it has to be competitively priced.

But hey, I got some chips in a box that I could just put in the oven

and we could have those with our meal, rather than me having to do

triple cook chips from scratch.

Where you first boil your chips, then you fry them and, oh yeah.

Hey, it, it's, it's a long process, but it's worth it in the end.

So keep looking around the normal aisles and just because I'm gonna

name some names here just because in, um, a a a a supermarket that doesn't

have a great selection of frozen chips for me is Marks and Spencer's.

Um, Most of them have something on there that we can't eat, and the ones that

are okay, don't have enough salt on for me that I find them a bit tasteless.

So I will go to other supermarkets and, and buy, um, frozen chips from there.

And, and in my head I've sort of got used to right.

That's the supermarket that I go to and buy all of those, that's the supermarket

that I go to and buy all of those.

I get those from this farm shop.

Those from that farm shop.

The biscuits are amazing in that farm shop.

And, and it's as if on my travels every month I, I pop into different places to

get, uh, you know, it may be that I love those little crackers for cheese and.

And, you know, sometimes I can't be bothered to make things from scratch.

And just because I can, it doesn't mean that I have to.

Sometimes we just like something that someone else has made or baked or, or,

you know, something out of a packet.

Um, so do start to look around.

And sometimes when we go to these farm shops, we'll look, and, and, and

some of them have a great gluten-free.

Selection.

Uh, you will also find that pricing varies.

I, I, there's a, a certain brand of biscuits that I go to.

One, um, farm shop.

They're a pound cheaper than the other farm shop, so, hey ho.

But I will, I will keep on going around to buy different things, , I

think in gluten-free world as well.

, Something that I've got used to, and probably in the normal world as well,

is we will keep seeing new and improved recipe or new and improved packaging.

Um, double check that they haven't tweaked anything in the recipe.

Double check that there's nothing, there's no disclaimer there now.

, and that's what does happen and.

I think one of the most recent things that I've heard is there was a certain

brand of honey Cornflakes in the gluten-free worlds that a lot of people

had and they've now made them Honey nut.

And some people are loving that because they've always missed honey nut.

Flakes.

But for a lot of people who can't tolerate nuts cuz they have a nut allergy,

, that's meant that there's a huge, huge proportion of the gluten-free market

that can now no longer have those flakes.

And we have to say, um, you know, please listen to us.

Big businesses, please listen to us.

Cuz if we, for some people it's not a choice whether they can have nuts or not.

For some people it's not a choice whether there's a gluten-free product

that it says make, can contain soya, or nuts that they are allergic to those

things so they can't buy them anymore.

, so we do have to keep changing.

, and that's the only thing that I can say.

We will have to keep changing, but just every time you buy.

, does the BROWS acronym still apply to this product?

And, you know, I have amazing, um, oven, chips that I just stick in the freezer.

I, there is no better meal for us in our house and some great.

This is, um, I, I make some beautiful sausages.

So there's these lovely sausages that we get from Marxs.

I make a, a creamy sauce for them that has mango cider in as

well, and a few little apples.

Honestly, it will blow your mind.

I can't remember the exact recipe, but it's a bit of onion.

Um, You know, you could put anything in here.

Chop up some apples, chop up some mushrooms, et cetera.

You put the cream in so it goes all nice and, and, and creamy.

The one thing that you're doing is you're making this sauce in the pan

that you've cooked your sausages in.

So all on the bottom of that.

Um, pan where you've got those beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

crunchy bits from the sausages.

What you want to do is deglaze that pan.

Either put a little bit of cider in or a little bit of

water in whichever you prefer.

Um, and I use, uh, a beautiful mango cider.

It's actually from a local, um, stocked in the local brewery, tring brewery.

, but it's a, a pure mango cider and it, the, the taste is just amazing.

Then just add cream and let it boil so it starts to thicken up and that's it.

And we have triple cooked oven chips.

Some lovely sausages and this mango cider and cream sauce.

And honestly, that is one of the quickest meals.

I can get that done in half an hour, and I just think half an hour to have

something that, you know, everybody's just, wow, what's in this sauce?

Every time I make it, people say, wow, what's in the sauce?

And it's just this mango cider.

Um, and sometimes I can't get mango cider.

Sometimes it's mango and rhubarb.

Sometimes it's just a plain cider.

Uh, and every time I change it slightly, everyone says what's in the sauce.

So that's really good.

That's really good.

I will try and get the actual recipe and just share it as well on me.

I'll, uh, on my website, my blog underneath this podcast as well.

But I think, you know, with a ready meal sometimes it's a case

of you can stick it in the oven.

Leave it there for 25 or 35 minutes while you, you go off and do something else

and then you come back to it for me.

Um, I've got no issue if I can rustle something up in 30

minutes or less, that's great.

And that is one of those meals that I've got.

Limited time.

The other meal that I will have, and sorry if you're, if you're a dairy

free, but you can do it anyway as well with, um, cheese on Toast and I

just make some toast under the grill.

And then I, I will chop up some onion and put onion on there.

Then I put the cheese on top, put it onto the grill, turn the grill

down so that cheese starts to melt at a much, much, um, lower level.

So it, it, it starts to melt rather than just getting hot and burning.

And we will have that, you know, you can do cheese on

toast in 10 minutes, can't you?

Under the grill?

If you haven't got the grill.

I'm so sorry.

I dunno what you could use, you could put it in the oven.

I suppose.

I have done it in an oven, when the grill wasn't working.

, but yeah, all of these sort of things are great and these are our total

gluten-free products that we can have and they make that gluten-free bread.

Almost acceptable.

Not all gluten-free bread, cuz there's some gr some, there's some really

good gluten-free bread out there.

Uh, but I always say gluten-free bread will never be the same as

that bread that we got used to.

So anyway, I have shared a little bit, uh, we just have to

stay out of the aisles of the.

You know, the most of the desserts, uh, for me, a dessert is not a macaron.

A macaron is something that goes at the side of a dessert.

So have a look around, um, Join Bake Club and learn how to

make fantastic cakes yourself.

You can do.

That's gluten free angela uh.com/bake club, and you can always join there

and find out how to make delicious, beautiful cakes that no one would.

Ever know we're gluten free because of what I do, I tweak them.

But just get into the normal aisles and start to have a look around.

And it's amazing how many of those sauce you can have because

there isn't wheat flour in there.

, it's amazing how many of those custards, those beautiful, fresh custards you can

have, and just pour them on a beautiful piece of cake that you've made yourself.

Have a look.

Get my, , coconut tart recipe, uh, because that's amazing with custard

and, , Yeah, there's just so much in the normal aisles that we can now have.

I cannot believe the difference in eight short years of having to give

up gluten and now thinking there are options out there and you know what?

I don't have to make, have everything off the gluten-free aisle.

So I hope that's helped you.

As I said, just understand the person that you are cooking for,

or if that's yourself, then getting used to that BROWS acronym, bran,

rye, oats, wheat, and spelt.

And also understanding if that person can tolerate gluten-free oats or not.

They will know whether they can tolerate it or not, I'm fine with gluten free

oats, but many of my friends aren't.

So, , this is gluten free, Angela, and this was just a whistle stop

tour of how to shop gluten free.

With ease, with so much more ease as long as you know what you are looking for.

Check every ingredient.

, whether that's chocolate, whether that's crisps, whether that's sweets, whether

that's ready meals, whether that's packet things, whether that's jars of things,

whether that's meats with a certain rub on them, where that's fish with a few.

Um, Shall we say spices on whether that's frozen spices, whether that's

frozen chips, whether that's frozen, ah, the list goes on and on and on.

Hopefully I've helped.

And if you know somebody who may be new to being gluten-free, why don't

you share this podcast with them?

Because I know if I'd have known this when I had to go group gluten-free.

I would've had such an easier time of it.

It's really hard when all you do is you look at this tiny little section, the

free from aisle, and you think that is your world now, and it's not at all.

We can have a, we can still eat beautiful food, beautiful cakes, and beautiful

snacks, even when we're gluten-free.

So I will see you again soon.

This is gluten-free, Angela, you take care.