My Favorite Gluten Free Meal And Snack Is . . .

[Debbie48]

I would so appreciate any responses to this. Just starting this process and feeling overwhelmed! If the meals and snacks are quick and easy . . . even better! I'm so grateful for this forum.

Debbie

[pondy]

Udi's bread (toasted) with almond butter

Oskri brand bars (cashew & cranberry)

Lara bars

Hard boiled eggs

Sliced chicken breast (NOT processed, but what I cooked up the night before)

Boiled or roasted little red potatoes with parsley

Fruit

Baby carrots

Cut up cauliflower & broccoli

Those are my favorite snacks/quick meals to have when I'm on the go.

I would stick to whole, natural foods - and not rely so much on gluten free snacks because they are often high in sodium & fats... There's LOTS that you can eat!! Maybe check out the recipe section of the forum?

Best to you

[Ellie84]

These are the things I eat as snacks or on-the-go:

Eat Natural's gluten-free nut&fruit bars, especially before a heavy weightlifting exercise. Wouldn't use it as a daily snack because they contain quite a lot of sugars.

Hardboiled eggs (you can store them in the fridge up to 4 days)

A small helping of unprocessed nuts (10-15 nuts, might seem a little portion but they're very nutricious. Good for your unsaturated fats too )

Fruit or raw veg

And here comes the junk:

On special occasions something from the Schär brand. Do you have it in the USA? It's a company which is very popular in Europe, their products are widely available and very tasty. They have a wide assortment of gluten&wheat-free, some products are also lactose, egg or soy-free. My favourite snacks are the Twinny mini candy bars, the Pausa snack cake and the Nocciole wafers. These are sold in seperate small packages, so you can occasionally enjoy a sweet treat without eating a lot.

Plain salted crisps are sometimes available in single-serving packages.

You'll find that it's easy to find gluten-free junk food, but that healthy foods like "full-wheat" bread and un-sweetened cereals are more difficult to find.

These are some of my favourite combinations for breakfast:

Knäckebröd from buckwheat flour with unsweetened European peanut butter (peanuts, a little oil and a pinch of salt). Combined with a bowl of unsweetened quark with fresh fruit.

Gluten-free oat flakes with seeds and dried fruits, accompanied by an egg and a glass of milk.

Pancakes from a whole grain like teff, buckwheat or quinoa.

For lunch:

Dinner leftovers

Stirfry of rice, vegetables and anything I can find in the fridge/freezer.

Home-made soups (cheap, easy and you can add less salt)

Salads from leftovers

Bread is often expensive or takes a long time to make, so I rarely eat it. When I do I usually eat bake-off bread from Schär or the Dutch brand Mam's Mikske. They have produced a bread from pure oats, very tasty and nutricious.

[birdie22]

Wine, reese's peanut butter cups, gluten-free ice cream. Oh wait, you are probably looking for something more nutritious than that. Just wanted to point out that some of my favorites are still "safe."

Fruit smoothie with greek yogurt

quesadilla on corn tortilla

Nut Thin crackers with cheddar

Mixed nuts

Go Picnic meals (like a luncheable...most are gluten-free, but not all) are great for car/plane trips.

Udi's bagel with cream cheese, pb, or laughing cow cheese

tuna salad

egg salad

[Korwyn]

Meal: Steak and potatoes.

Snack: home made trail mix. Almonds, cashews, gluten-free chocolate chips, craisins, pine nuts, raisins.

[Celtic Queen]

Snacks:

Carrots & hummus

Apples

Lays Stax (not healthy, I know)

Skittles (Ditto)

Meals:

My dinners haven't changed that much. Meat or fish with 2 veggies or a veggie & a salad on the side. On weekends I'll make lots of soup and freeze some. For lunch I usually do leftovers.

[aeraen]

All of our family dinners are gluten-free, and I have found it very easy to adapt what wasn't "naturally" gluten-free, so I can't say that I have a favorite gluten-free meal.

However, for easy snacks, I love the Fung Sui brand of rice crackers that I find in the Asian aisle of my local grocery store. I use them for everything from crackers and peanut butter, to replacement for bread in sandwiches. I especially like the wasabi flavored crackers w/ egg salad. And, at a buck a box, I they are much cheaper than anything specifically made for a gluten-free diet.

[pricklypear1971]

I've become a huge fan of corn chips (Tostitis has one labeled gluten-free) and salsas. Most salsas are gluten-free. I live in the southwest so there are generally a zillion to taste.

I also found a tamale restaurant that is gluten-free and I buy them and freeze them and pop them out all the time.

I am a fruit and nut snacker, maybe rice crackers. I also munch in gluten-free lunch meat slices like Hormel's natural one (labeled gluten-free) and Boars Head. I also will snack on carrots and bell peppers.

I keep some Kind+ bars in my purse for emergencies.

If I want junk food I stick with Junior Mints. Nutella is great, too. Straight off the spoon.

After my episode with hypoglycemia i try not to snack because "forced snacking" was exhausting. Bad memories.

[Celtic Queen]

Nutella is great, too. Straight off the spoon.

Yes, Nutella is divine. I also like it on sliced apples. Yum!

[Skylark]

Snacks:

Fruit and/or nuts

Larabars

Simple meal:

Roast chicken

baked potato (put it in the oven while the chicken is cooking)

salad w/gluten-free dressing

cooked veggie

[JonnyD]

I love Mike&Ikes candy.

[Poppi]

So many things!

Breakfast:

Protein shake/smoothies

Udi's or Glutino Genius bread toasted with nutella or an egg

Gluten Free Honey Nut Chex

Bob's Red Mill gluten-free Oats or Steel Cut Oats (if you can tolerate oats)

and of course my daily morning milky chai.

Lunch:

Throw a corn tortilla in a lightly oiled cast iron pan, top with leftover chicken or turkey, avocados/guacamole, tomatoes and cheese and eat with salsa.

Leftovers, I never used to like leftovers but I'm a big fan now.

Salad. I've gotten very creative with salads now. Goat cheese, pomegranate arils, Sahale candied pecans, grated apples or beets, spinach, peppers, lettuce, grape tomatoes, mandarin segments... the options and combinations are endless. Plus I invested in a few bottles of flavoured balsamic vinegar so I can add flavour that way. My favourite is the blackberry ginger balsamic.

Fruit and cheese plate with rice crackers. A nice honeycrisp apple, a chunk of good brie and some crunchmaster crackers is a nice lunch.

Dinner

We eat pretty much the same dinners as before:

Spaghetti, pizza, pancakes and pot pies are all still on the menu just with different ingredients.

Fritata

Sushi

Soups and stews

Anything from the Make it fast, Cook it slow book (Crockpot book that is gluten free)

One of our quick options is a salad and baked potatoes with chili, sour cream and grated cheese on top. You can make a batch of chili and freeze it or buy tinned chili.

I could go on and on. There is a huge learning curve but you'll get there.

I still bake a lot so we always have cookies, muffins, cakes, breads and the like to snack on or have for dessert.

[silk]

Wine, reese's peanut butter cups, gluten-free ice cream. Oh wait, you are probably looking for something more nutritious than that. Just wanted to point out that some of my favorites are still "safe."

Fruit smoothie with greek yogurt

quesadilla on corn tortilla

Nut Thin crackers with cheddar

Mixed nuts

Go Picnic meals (like a luncheable...most are gluten-free, but not all) are great for car/plane trips.

Udi's bagel with cream cheese, pb, or laughing cow cheese

tuna salad

egg salad

Udi's bagel w/ gluten-free pizza sauce, pepperoni and mozarella! Mmmmmm.

[Kate79]

Tacos... buy corm tortillas, fill w/any combo of meat and veggies. Eat. Works for breakfast w/eggs, too.

[Debbie48]

Tacos... buy corm tortillas, fill w/any combo of meat and veggies. Eat. Works for breakfast w/eggs, too.

Thank you so much for all the great ideas, everyone! I really like corn tortillas. For the breakfast burritos, I assume you mean the soft ones. I bought Mission Corn Tortillas.

Right now I'm hungry and frustrated because I'm second guessing everything I'm eating. Still very hopeful though. I purchased some of the Udi's bagels. Someone had it in his/her list and I wanted to try them. I also bought some Hy-Vee strawberry cream cheese. When I got home and checked the Hy-Vee site, it didn't have the stawberry cream cheese listed as gluten free, just the regular cream cheeses, so I ended up just using butter, but I can't imagine why the stawberry would be different. Couldn't toast it because I haven't gotten my own toaster yet. Got to work on getting the kitchen in order! By the way, the cinnamon raisin bagels ARE very good!

Making a roast for dinner with carrots cooked in the meat juices. One of my favorites. However, I used to use Lipton onion soup mix and worcestershire sauce for seasoning, but I see the onion soup mix has barley in it. Not sure what it will be like with just the worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Perhaps someone knows a good seasoning for a roast? I assume all spices are safe, unless in a mix or something.

I'm not much of a cook so this is going to be really tough! Wish I could afford my own chef . . . wouldn't that be nice? I'm worried about the cost of getting my kitchen in order . . . and all this at Christmas time.

Debbie

[kareng]

Look at this thread about using your old toaster. Jestgar has a link to making your own bag with parchment paper.

[pricklypear1971]

I'd stay away from soup mixes and stuff. I know there are a few "regular" brands out there that are gluten-free but quite frankly it's just too much trouble IMO, to screen all of the ingredients.

I season roasts with fresh diced onion, garlic, salt, pepper, perhaps some thyme and oregano, red wine for liquid. Roasts are great if you brown them in a skillet and then stick them in the crock pot.

Ask for gift cards for YOUR Christmas gifts and go shopping for new kitchen stuff. Most stuff can be cleaned well enough except pourus things like wooden spoons or scratched plastic storage, or cutting boards.

I also make one where I stuff it with garlic cloves (slits all over and use a whole head if garlic), brown and cook in a pot for hours.

[Sake Rooskie]

I'm only 3 months into being gluten free and the first two months I spent buying gluten-free snacks and crackers and cakes and cookies.... then I realized I was gaining weight eating all that junk food!

For me now, snacks are fresh raw veggies, really nice cheeses (no squirt can, LOL), a handfull of organic tortilla chips (my splurge) with fresh home made Pico de Gallo sauce.

My favorite gluten free Saturday night "special" dinner is a small grilled rib eye steak, baked potato with butter and a salad with lemon mustard vinaigrette. During the week my dinner is usually something quick like sauted shrimp over quinoa. Last night I made artichoke cheese squares, using Hodgson Mill gluten-free flour mix to replace the wheat flour in the recipe. They turned out great and my husband gobbled them up like crazy!

Thinking back to when I started being gluten-free, the main thing I did wrong was to feel sorry for myself and indulge in every possible commercial gluten free product I could find! I literally spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars searching out the "best" of the gluten-free products in my markets. What I didn't realize, was that I was pounding my body with overly processed foods and thinking I was doing "GOOD" because they were all gluten-free, LOL.

So far, my favorite commercial bread is Udi's Whole Grain Bread, but I hope to start making my own here at home.

Now I am detoxing from all the processed foods, not that I don't eat rice crackers now and then, but just not an entire box in a day!

Best of wishes for you as you begin your gluten free adventure! And thanks to all who chimed in to this post with their responses. I now have a lot of new gluten-free adventures ahead of me, too!

Sake Rooskie/AKA Marlene

[silk]

Wine.......

[Mom of Boys]

A really easy meal I make alot, that hasn't even changed since I went gluten free:

Either use cooked brown rice or use instant brown rice. Put that on the bottom of a baking pan. Of course you'll need to add enough water if you are using instant rice. I use better than bullion and a little orange juice in my water to season the rice but just water works too.

Add chicken breasts on top of the rice.

Add whatever veggies you like. I usually use green beans, onions or leeks, and bell pepper. I use frozen veggies, it's easy and quick!

Kosher salt and black pepper to season.

Cover with aluminum foil.

Cook for about an hour and a half at 325 degrees.

This is gluten, soy, and dairy free and tastes yummy. Best of all it's way easy!

[Juliebove]

I love to do my roasts with red wine. I buy the little single serve bottles because I don't really drink. I also LOVE onions. I cut up a big onion, then use the bottle of wine, salt, pepper and some parsley. If you want to make a gravy, take whatever pan juices remain and thicken it with a slurry of sweet rice flour and water. If there is not enough liquid you can add canned or boxed beef broth. Do check it first because some brands contain gluten.

If I want to mix it up a bit I will use a can of tomato sauce instead of the wine. To this I will add even more onions, chunks of celery, green pepper and some mushrooms.

I also love making soup. I like pretty much all kinds and they are easy to make gluten-free. I have recreated one that is very similar in taste to Campbell's chicken and noodle. My daughter loves it! I use canned or boxed broth, canned chicken, some carrots, celery and onion, chopped. Peas could be added but daughter is allergic to them. Cook until the veggies are tender. Meanwhile, break some Tinkyada rice pasta into pieces. I break each noodle into 3 or 4 pieces. Cook in boiling salted water until just al dente then add to the soup.

For snacks we love pan popped popcorn. And the Synder's gluten-free pretzels are good as well. We also like nachos made with real cheese or cheese sauce, or bean dip and chips.

[MikeTambo]

Any ideas on how to flavor a corn tortilla? I just ate one as-is with some roast beef inside and it had little taste....

[Jestgar]

Any ideas on how to flavor a corn tortilla? I just ate one as-is with some roast beef inside and it had little taste....

What would you have put in a roast beef sandwich? Try that.

[pricklypear1971]

Any ideas on how to flavor a corn tortilla? I just ate one as-is with some roast beef inside and it had little taste....

Individual brands vary? Seriously.

A fresh corn tortilla tastes unbelievably different from one purchased in a store.

That said, heat it up before using and season the heck out of whatever is inside.

[squirmingitch]

Debbie48, For pot roast I use 2 beef bouillon cubes (gluten-free) & Lawry's Seasoned Salt.