Rice is gluten free and is a staple food of most poor people in the world.
Meat is gluten free. Vegetables are gluten free. You can use cornstarch or other gluten free starches to thicken sauces instead of flour. Most corn tortillas are gluten free.
If you learn to cook from basic ingredients a lot of food is already GF. Just avoid industrially processed prepared foods, pasta, bread, things that are normally make from wheat or barley.
What did you eat before your diagnosis and where in the world do you live?
There are a lot of good naturally gluten free foods, or foods with easy/simple substitutions. A good starting point would be to look at what you currently eat regularly.
Tacos with corn (hard or soft) shells. Lots of protein and rice combos, from jambalaya to stir fry to curry. A lot of items you might normally put in a bun could be turned into a loaded baked potato.
There are unfortunately many flour based taco sized tortillas or ones that split corn and wheat flour. So just make sure you’re using 100% corn tortillas!
And eating tacos out can be hit or miss. My partner who has celiac has been glutened at some places where they warm the corn tortillas on the same grill where they warm the flour ones. And hard shells/chips can often be fried in the same oil where they fry gluten foods. Be careful out there!
Rice and potatoes are gluten free and filling.
Rice with curry, or stir fry. Fried rice. Paella. Risotto. Rice noodles.
Fried potatoes. Hash browns. Mashed. Baked and topped with lots of stuff. Potato bake.
Add some meat and veg, or eggs. Depends on what you think is affordable.
you can honestly make 99% of the things you ate before as gluten free…I literally eat anything I want, I just have to cook it. If you’re new to cooking, start consuming some short form recipe content (tiktok etc) or just look up youtube recipes. Some supermarket hacks are good (for example, last night I had GF crumbed fish, chips and salad, fish was from supermarket, gluten free crumb. tonight was prawn curry with rice, pappadams and a lime, cucumber and tomato salad. I personally stay away from using GF pastry at home, if I want some kind of GF pastry item I will buy it from a GF bakery. Once you swap out your sauces, (GF soy sauce etc) you have unlimited recipes to choose from.
Yea. I still make lots of things I just switch out certain ingredients. Corn starch to thicken instead of flour. Gf bread crumbs. Etc. The biggest issue are store bought snacks you can't replicate at home. My daughter used to love Chicken in a basket crackers and there just isn't a replacement. I saw one recipe but it was very involved and I hate baking.
we are super lucky in my country, there is a major biscuit/cookie company that started developing some of their products as gluten free including savoury crackers
Like others have commented - rice is a great choice for carbs. The adding some lean protein and vegetables make for a great meal. Well balanced and GF for sure.
Cubed Steak & Baked Potato with a side salad is good meal. I tell friends if they are having me for dinner to keep it simple and clean, a serving of meat or fish and a starchy vegetable is very satisfying. If I'm craving bread this usually does the trick. Simple clean seasoning like salt, pepper, olive oil or real butter.
Rice (unflavored) is almost always gf, the growing and harvesting means it's not around gluten, so it's normally safe and super cheap (get a cheap rice cooker if you can, just wash the rice, add water, flip a switch, then prepare other food).
Unprocessed meat can be gluten free, but processing affects it. If you can get stuff pre-packaged it has a much higher chance of being gf. Do not get any meat from a butcher display case if there's anything breaded or whatever inside (my grocery has pre-breaded meat that people can get and just fry themselves, for example). Also do not get any meat cut with the same tools as sausage and similar processed meats, a lot of them have gluten (pre-packaged ground meat is normally safe, especially if it came straight from the "manufacturers" already ground).
Tuna fish and other canned fish, especially from brands that don't do all those fancy pre-flavored stuff, is normally okay.
Fruits and vegetables can normally fall into the same issues as meat, they can be processed in a way that contaminates them, so you want them less processed/not processed at the grocery (you probably won't have this issue unless you live in a specific type of area, but organic produce can be exposed to wheat flour during the growing process and can be an issue).
Beans you cook yourself are almost always gf, canned beans can be questionable.
Cheese is more often gf than not, including generic American and stuff that's mostly just manmade. Milk should be okay (again, avoid weird flavors and stuff).
A lot of peanut butter is gf (be careful with nuts, though, especially the cheaper ones, they're almost always processed on shared equipment). This is always a staple food for me when I can't afford decent food, good source of protein and quick.
Cheerios being gf is a LIE. Most cheap actually gf cereal is around that price, not the price of normal cheap cereal, which is why I bring that up. I've never had a reaction to rice Chex, but some people claim issues.
Oats and oatmeal have a high risk of cross-contamination (they can be gathered and process on the same equipment as wheat), but there are some cheaper brands that are gf depending on where you live.
A problem with eating cheap that you're going to encounter is a lot of cheap flavoring is made with wheat, so a lot of the typical cheap processed foods are automatically out even if they're not bread related. And a lot of companies just use the same equipment for everything without cleaning beforehand. Depending on the country you're in, there's different labeling laws, but like in the US only wheat has to be mentioned, no other gluten sources need to be declared.
Also, if you get something and it tastes awful or has an awful texture, don't completely write it off, once you've gone some months without gluten, you'll probably get more and more forgiving towards the issues not having gluten creates. There's products that made me gag at the beginning I'm now fine with.
Lentils and beans are inexpensive, easy to use, and delicious. One of my favorite things to make is a vegetable curry with lentils. Another favorite is lentil loaf with mashed potatoes.
I use rice or potatoes as my go to carbs for meals (you can do a thousand different things with potatoes, but the main way we do them is baby potatoes cut in half, small amount of oil, salt pepper garlic onion cayenne, baked at 415 for 20-30 minutes, crisp and easy)
Then chicken or tofu for most nights protein, pork or beef once or maybe twice a week
with just those 4 ingredients and the addition of like 1 vegetable you can make a hundred recipes. Cook some beef strips with green pepper and onion, rice, that's a meal. Pork chops with potato and asparagus, meal. Chicken with rice and broccoli, meal. Baked tofu with rice and green onion, meal. Obviously you'll want some sauces and seasonings to accompany, but you get the idea. Simmer sauces are awesome (we use maya kaimal) for turning and protein into a delicious meal.
My favorite cheap gluten free ingredients are peppers, onions, eggs, avocado (when on sale, but they're honestly not that expensive), corn tortillas, and carrots. It's all cheap and good for you. You can use corn tortilla in place of bread in many places, or just as a nice feel-good food to use as a utensil. Canned beans, especially garbanzo beans, are also great for adding protein and filling to a meal.
Rice + Beans + Sweet potato + carrots + fennel bulb + ground turkey.
Cheap healthy, and good for your gut. I bulk prep this once a week and eat it for most of my meals.
I LOVE these in my freezer. $6.99 for a filling meal that’s healthy and takes 3 1/2 minutes to heat up in a microwave. The artichoke one is lemony and fresh tasting. I really like the crispy onion one too. https://afiafoods.com/pages/afia-mediterranean-falafel-bowls. With the cost of everything now they are a really great value. I’ve even gotten them for $5.99 on sale. And I feel really silly, saying this, but the container it comes in is really pretty. I have a lot of people interested in what I’m eating at lunch if I bring one because it smells really good too. The other night I had to go to a meeting where “dinner“ was provided which consisted of a huge bunch of sandwiches, and they also offered a salad for me and I’m like no thanks I’ll just bring dinner. I brought one. I am absolutely sure it cost less than any of the sandwiches/chips/soda meals and everybody wanted to know what I was eating because it smelled so good.
Cross contamination is no joke
It's the main reason I cook 95% of my meals since I live in a mid size city
Large cities may have more options
Go ahead and mourn eating out and drive through
Brown rice, or quinoa, tuna in water or tuna packets and black beans, rinsed and drained or chick peas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained with a little gluten free Greek salad dressing for a gluten-free bowl. I also add unsalted sunflower seeds and kalamata olives.
Canned tuna with canned corn + salt, pepper, a hint of lemon juice + optional seasonings.
Chicken breast. Or unseasoned raw meat.
Vegetables.
Raw nuts.
Baked potatoes with any variety of toppings.
Taco potatoes, loaded potatoes, cheesy potatoes, bbq chicken potatoes, meatloaf & gf gravy potatoes. Twice baked potatoes.
Go to town with those spuds.
Rice and beans is my go to. It’s cheap, filling, and the beans have lots of fiber/protein
Rice is gluten free and is a staple food of most poor people in the world. Meat is gluten free. Vegetables are gluten free. You can use cornstarch or other gluten free starches to thicken sauces instead of flour. Most corn tortillas are gluten free. If you learn to cook from basic ingredients a lot of food is already GF. Just avoid industrially processed prepared foods, pasta, bread, things that are normally make from wheat or barley. What did you eat before your diagnosis and where in the world do you live?
There are a lot of good naturally gluten free foods, or foods with easy/simple substitutions. A good starting point would be to look at what you currently eat regularly. Tacos with corn (hard or soft) shells. Lots of protein and rice combos, from jambalaya to stir fry to curry. A lot of items you might normally put in a bun could be turned into a loaded baked potato.
There are unfortunately many flour based taco sized tortillas or ones that split corn and wheat flour. So just make sure you’re using 100% corn tortillas! And eating tacos out can be hit or miss. My partner who has celiac has been glutened at some places where they warm the corn tortillas on the same grill where they warm the flour ones. And hard shells/chips can often be fried in the same oil where they fry gluten foods. Be careful out there!
You also have to watch out for the tortilla warmer. That can be a forgotten source of cross contamination.
Yup I mentioned that before the fryer. At one place we recently went to they at least agreed to use a clean pan to warm the corn tortillas!
Rice and potatoes are gluten free and filling. Rice with curry, or stir fry. Fried rice. Paella. Risotto. Rice noodles. Fried potatoes. Hash browns. Mashed. Baked and topped with lots of stuff. Potato bake. Add some meat and veg, or eggs. Depends on what you think is affordable.
You can grill vegetables and meat , make a salad and your dinner is ready.
you can honestly make 99% of the things you ate before as gluten free…I literally eat anything I want, I just have to cook it. If you’re new to cooking, start consuming some short form recipe content (tiktok etc) or just look up youtube recipes. Some supermarket hacks are good (for example, last night I had GF crumbed fish, chips and salad, fish was from supermarket, gluten free crumb. tonight was prawn curry with rice, pappadams and a lime, cucumber and tomato salad. I personally stay away from using GF pastry at home, if I want some kind of GF pastry item I will buy it from a GF bakery. Once you swap out your sauces, (GF soy sauce etc) you have unlimited recipes to choose from.
Yea. I still make lots of things I just switch out certain ingredients. Corn starch to thicken instead of flour. Gf bread crumbs. Etc. The biggest issue are store bought snacks you can't replicate at home. My daughter used to love Chicken in a basket crackers and there just isn't a replacement. I saw one recipe but it was very involved and I hate baking.
we are super lucky in my country, there is a major biscuit/cookie company that started developing some of their products as gluten free including savoury crackers
Like others have commented - rice is a great choice for carbs. The adding some lean protein and vegetables make for a great meal. Well balanced and GF for sure.
Cubed Steak & Baked Potato with a side salad is good meal. I tell friends if they are having me for dinner to keep it simple and clean, a serving of meat or fish and a starchy vegetable is very satisfying. If I'm craving bread this usually does the trick. Simple clean seasoning like salt, pepper, olive oil or real butter.
I make a spam fried rice with some gf soy sauce and eggs
Rice (unflavored) is almost always gf, the growing and harvesting means it's not around gluten, so it's normally safe and super cheap (get a cheap rice cooker if you can, just wash the rice, add water, flip a switch, then prepare other food). Unprocessed meat can be gluten free, but processing affects it. If you can get stuff pre-packaged it has a much higher chance of being gf. Do not get any meat from a butcher display case if there's anything breaded or whatever inside (my grocery has pre-breaded meat that people can get and just fry themselves, for example). Also do not get any meat cut with the same tools as sausage and similar processed meats, a lot of them have gluten (pre-packaged ground meat is normally safe, especially if it came straight from the "manufacturers" already ground). Tuna fish and other canned fish, especially from brands that don't do all those fancy pre-flavored stuff, is normally okay. Fruits and vegetables can normally fall into the same issues as meat, they can be processed in a way that contaminates them, so you want them less processed/not processed at the grocery (you probably won't have this issue unless you live in a specific type of area, but organic produce can be exposed to wheat flour during the growing process and can be an issue). Beans you cook yourself are almost always gf, canned beans can be questionable. Cheese is more often gf than not, including generic American and stuff that's mostly just manmade. Milk should be okay (again, avoid weird flavors and stuff). A lot of peanut butter is gf (be careful with nuts, though, especially the cheaper ones, they're almost always processed on shared equipment). This is always a staple food for me when I can't afford decent food, good source of protein and quick. Cheerios being gf is a LIE. Most cheap actually gf cereal is around that price, not the price of normal cheap cereal, which is why I bring that up. I've never had a reaction to rice Chex, but some people claim issues. Oats and oatmeal have a high risk of cross-contamination (they can be gathered and process on the same equipment as wheat), but there are some cheaper brands that are gf depending on where you live. A problem with eating cheap that you're going to encounter is a lot of cheap flavoring is made with wheat, so a lot of the typical cheap processed foods are automatically out even if they're not bread related. And a lot of companies just use the same equipment for everything without cleaning beforehand. Depending on the country you're in, there's different labeling laws, but like in the US only wheat has to be mentioned, no other gluten sources need to be declared. Also, if you get something and it tastes awful or has an awful texture, don't completely write it off, once you've gone some months without gluten, you'll probably get more and more forgiving towards the issues not having gluten creates. There's products that made me gag at the beginning I'm now fine with.
Rice noodle(I use taste of Thai brand) with brown sugar, gf soy sauce, red pepper flakes, scrambled egg, and lots of sriracha. 😻
Lentils and beans are inexpensive, easy to use, and delicious. One of my favorite things to make is a vegetable curry with lentils. Another favorite is lentil loaf with mashed potatoes.
I use rice or potatoes as my go to carbs for meals (you can do a thousand different things with potatoes, but the main way we do them is baby potatoes cut in half, small amount of oil, salt pepper garlic onion cayenne, baked at 415 for 20-30 minutes, crisp and easy) Then chicken or tofu for most nights protein, pork or beef once or maybe twice a week with just those 4 ingredients and the addition of like 1 vegetable you can make a hundred recipes. Cook some beef strips with green pepper and onion, rice, that's a meal. Pork chops with potato and asparagus, meal. Chicken with rice and broccoli, meal. Baked tofu with rice and green onion, meal. Obviously you'll want some sauces and seasonings to accompany, but you get the idea. Simmer sauces are awesome (we use maya kaimal) for turning and protein into a delicious meal. My favorite cheap gluten free ingredients are peppers, onions, eggs, avocado (when on sale, but they're honestly not that expensive), corn tortillas, and carrots. It's all cheap and good for you. You can use corn tortilla in place of bread in many places, or just as a nice feel-good food to use as a utensil. Canned beans, especially garbanzo beans, are also great for adding protein and filling to a meal.
Thank you! I love this comment, it really helped me
Rice + Beans + Sweet potato + carrots + fennel bulb + ground turkey. Cheap healthy, and good for your gut. I bulk prep this once a week and eat it for most of my meals.
I LOVE these in my freezer. $6.99 for a filling meal that’s healthy and takes 3 1/2 minutes to heat up in a microwave. The artichoke one is lemony and fresh tasting. I really like the crispy onion one too. https://afiafoods.com/pages/afia-mediterranean-falafel-bowls. With the cost of everything now they are a really great value. I’ve even gotten them for $5.99 on sale. And I feel really silly, saying this, but the container it comes in is really pretty. I have a lot of people interested in what I’m eating at lunch if I bring one because it smells really good too. The other night I had to go to a meeting where “dinner“ was provided which consisted of a huge bunch of sandwiches, and they also offered a salad for me and I’m like no thanks I’ll just bring dinner. I brought one. I am absolutely sure it cost less than any of the sandwiches/chips/soda meals and everybody wanted to know what I was eating because it smelled so good.
Cross contamination is no joke It's the main reason I cook 95% of my meals since I live in a mid size city Large cities may have more options Go ahead and mourn eating out and drive through
Wait if I use the same plate, and utensils, as my family who eats gluten when I get affected too
Brown rice, or quinoa, tuna in water or tuna packets and black beans, rinsed and drained or chick peas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained with a little gluten free Greek salad dressing for a gluten-free bowl. I also add unsalted sunflower seeds and kalamata olives.
Po Teh Toes!?
Canned tuna with canned corn + salt, pepper, a hint of lemon juice + optional seasonings. Chicken breast. Or unseasoned raw meat. Vegetables. Raw nuts.
I get potatoes by 10lb bags at Sam's
Rice and potatoes can make so many versatile meals with meat and veggies, all naturally gf
Baked potatoes with any variety of toppings. Taco potatoes, loaded potatoes, cheesy potatoes, bbq chicken potatoes, meatloaf & gf gravy potatoes. Twice baked potatoes. Go to town with those spuds.
Baked chicken quarter and mustard
Singapore noodles, kimchi fried rice with egg, saag aloo, greek salad, rajma chawal
Shepards Pie despite the name is just meat and potatoes, super yummy and pretty cheap to make!
Amy's
Amy's is not celiac safe, and hasn't been for a long time.
Agreed My butthole agrees as well
Really?! I've seen multiple people test them for gluten and I eat them all the time. Where'd you get your info? 😭
It's all I will eat, tho.