My name is Claire and I live in Cheltenham, United Kingdom with my husband, my son and my two cats. I realised in January 2010 that I couldn’t eat gluten without being really ill. I don’t have a clinical diagnosis of coeliac disease because I’ve eaten a gluten-free diet for too long to be tested. The gastroenterologist advised me not to go back to it purely for the purposes of diagnosis because it makes me so ill. Luckily for me, I not only love cooking, but I also love a challenge. I refuse to be limited by the restrictions placed on my diet. At home, I make up my own gluten-free recipes and road-test those by others. If a recipe contains gluten, I just adapt it so that it doesn’t! I keep a notebook by my bed where I write down my ideas and this blog is the product of those scribblings. I would love to know if anyone tries my recipes and, if so, if they work and if you enjoy them! Please let me know. I can take criticism…
Or, how I learned to stop worrying and (tried to) love quinoa
About
32 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL
Leave a reply to vinicooksveg Cancel reply
Archives
-
Recent posts
- Gluten-free and dairy-free crusty white bread April 2, 2013
- Gluten-free apple crumble with rice and buckwheat flakes March 31, 2013
- Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies February 24, 2013
- Gluten-free, egg-free and fat-free soft flour tortillas February 15, 2013
- Gluten-free and dairy-free orange and almond biscuits February 5, 2013
-
See what’s inspiring me on Pinterest!
Tags
artichokes aubergine baking with psyllium husk banana banoffee biscotti biscuits bread broccoli brownies cake caramel cardamom celeriac cheese cheesecake chicken chickpeas chocolate Christmas baking comfort food cookies cornish crumble dairy-free dessert dinner egg-free eggs flatbread garlic gluten-free gluten-free baking gluten-free bread gluten-free Italian baking goat's cheese harissa hazelnuts lasagne lemon multiseeded mushroom mushrooms olives orange pancakes Parmesan pasta pears pesto pilaf pistachio polenta potato potatoes prunes pudding quiche ravioli recipe rice ricotta risotto roasted tomatoes salad smoked mackerel snacks soup tart tartlet thyme tomatoes vegetarian walnuts wraps
Twitter Updates
Tweets by ClaireDWilkesBlogs I Follow
- Notes from the Ledge
- The Family Tree Sleuth
- mygijourney
- gf and me
- Bunny Eats Design
- sensitive flour
- Sweet Potatoes and Social Change
- Little Gal in the City
- No wheat please, I'm allergic
- wetinkpresspublishing
- Della Cucina Povera
- afra cooking
- colour me happy kitchen
- gluten free zen
- charuyoga
- Pizzi e Fichi
- Fabulously Free From
- Detroiter in Poland
- DO NOT feed the back packer!
- Mix It Up & Make It Nice
- My Blog
- Growing Up Gluten Free
- Southerners in the Great White North
- thebeautyofthewrittenword
- How Janey Learned Russian
- travels around my kitchen
- Making myself useful
- The Foodies
- Gluten Free Gus
- An Orange Kitchen
the gluten-free notebooks 
I love your blog – it is brilliant. Would it be ok to put a link from my ( up and coming website!) to yours. There are a lot of people out there who would benefit from your recipes, me included!
Thank you so much, Louise. I’m very flattered that you think so. Of course you can put a link. I would be honoured. You must let me know when your website is up and running and send me the link. Claire x
I love your approach and your recipes. I too became gluten-sensitive and decided to see it, not as a door closed, but as an interesting challenge. Oh, and I’m a Claire as well!
Thank you so much! Seems like we have a lot in common. And thanks for following the blog! 🙂
I’ve just found this website – it’s fantastic, thank you! Would be really interested in talking to you about your experience of not having an official diagnosis. I can’t find any details to email you but if you get a minute to drop me a line I’d love to chat! x
Hi Jenny! Thank you for your kind comments. Would love to chat with you. I’ve got your email address so I’ll drop you a line within the next couple of days 🙂 Claire
Jenny – just to let you know that I’ve emailed you but you might need to check your junk mail folder! 🙂
Hey thanks for stopping by and liking my post. Really love your blog, you’re very creative – it’s not easy to adapt baked stuff to gluten-free. Do you have a suggestion for the most versatile and affordable flour substitute?
Thank you so much for your kind comments. I really love your philosophy for being a vegetarian. My family and I ate vegetarian food for several weeks to see the effect it had on our shopping budget and it certainly made a difference. But the flesh is weak and we slipped back into omnivorism… 😉
Regarding the flour substitute, I’m sure we have different brands in the UK to Canada. I use a brand called “Dove’s Farm”. I have seen a lot of mentions of Bob’s Red Mill or somesuch. Does that ring a bell?
Claire x
lol @ “flesh is weak”, at least you tried it out. Bob’s Red Mill is definitely a brand that I’ve used before, but say if I’m making cupcakes what flour substitute have you found yields the best cupcake?
I must admit that I have never made cupcakes (for shame!) but if I were to, I would just use an all-purpose flour mix off the shelf. All-purpose flours in the UK are made up of rice, buckwheat & maize flours as well as potato & tapioca starches. I find they work well for all general gluten-free baking 🙂
I love that. a/p flour in Canada is very much made out of wheat, one of the benefits of having the prairies I guess. If you do end up experimenting with cupcakes, I hope you post the recipe on your site…would love to try it out. flavour suggestion: lemon coconut?? lol don’t know why but I’ve been craving that lately 🙂
I think we’ve been talking at cross-purposes!!! 🙂 When I was referring to all-purpose flour, I meant gluten-free. Our all-purpose flour is also made from wheat!
Lemon-coconut sounds delicious. I’ll have to give them a go 🙂
haha! that makes more sense 🙂 Good luck with the cupcakes!
Thanks for stopping by my blog today and leaving such a thoughtful comment. The cake was very well received and was a big hit and the gluten free family were grateful for my efforts and didn’t mind how it looked. I appreciate your good words.
I recommended your blog to my daughter-in-law and will follow it as well so I can cook for them when I visit or we get together. Thank you
Ruth in Pittsburgh
I’m so glad that the cake was well-received. I was confident that it would be! How could it not?!?!? 🙂 Thank you so much for stopping by my blog, for following and for recommending it to your daughter-in-law. I appreciate everyone who follows and who takes an interest.
Claire xx
Hi, thanks for visiting my new little blog 🙂 From looking at some of your photos, I’ll be trying some of your recipes!
Thank you! Those patisserie photos had me salivating even though I can’t eat them!! I’ll be stopping by again. I have a fondness for France as my sister lived there for years and I’ve spent many a happy summer there 🙂
Hi Claire. Your blog is so beautiful fro layout to food pictures. Clearly written recipes. Good work!
Thank you so much. You have such beautiful pictures on your blog too. I love Indian food – and so much of it is naturally gluten-free that it’s one restaurant experience that I always enjoy without stressing that I’m going to be ill. I’ll certainly be trying some of your recipes! 🙂
Thank you for visiting my blog. I am glad that you want to try some of the recipes. I will be more than happy to help you with details.
Looking forward to trying some of your recipes! Have recently discovered wheat doesn’t agree with me (but seem to manage some other types of gluten) so are slowly trying to adapt to living wheat-free.
Thank you! Let me know which ones you try and how they turn out 🙂
great pix & stories.. Looking forward to reading more recipes on your blog..
Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have found yours!!!
Great blog! I am fine with gluten, but I love exploring alternatives (and then there is the nutrients and GI index and especially new flavours and textures)
Thank you. I hope you see some recipes that you’d like to try 🙂
I really enjoyed your blog and wondered if you were interested in submitting a post to a new event called Our Growing Edge. The event aims to compile a monthly snapshot as to what bloggers are doing in terms of new challenges with food. This monthly event aims to connect and inspire us to try new things.
A growing edge is the part of us that is still learning and experimenting. It’s the part that you regularly grow and improve, be it from real passion or a conscious effort.
I hope you can make it.
More info can be found here:
http://bunnyeatsdesign.com/our-growing-edge/
or the direct link to the link party is here:
http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=233654
Hi. Thanks for stopping by my blog! It seems we have a similar mission, although I’m trying to avoid lactose as well (with one eye closed and an arm behind my back…) I’m pleased you found me, as now I’ve found you and I’m already excited about all your recipes. 😀
Thank you, Penny. I’m really pleased that you like the look of some of my recipes. I was intrigued by your buckwheat pancakes – I’ve tried buckwheat groats and didn’t much like them but I do like a mix of buckwheat and plain flour, so I’m planning on giving them a go!
We do appear to have a lot in common! I was both gluten- and lactose-free as a nipper – then I was nothing-free until I became gluten-free again several years ago. I suspect it’s only a matter of time until I’m lactose-free again but we’ll see…
I see you’re from Berkshire – my mum’s from Reading and I grew up just over the border in Hampshire.
Claire 🙂
Hi! I’ve just nominated your blog for some awards. It’s because I think your blog is great and I’m paying forward some of the love I’ve received from other bloggers. Please don’t feel obliged to do anything other than feel all glowing in your fabulousness. If you want to know more, though, then check out this page. http://versatilebloggeraward.wordpress.com/
PS I do live in Reading! it is a small world. 😀
Thank you so much! I’m extremely flattered. I will certainly check out the link.
Claire 🙂