A lot of people wonder what we do eat now that we are gluten free. The truth is, we actually eat a lot of really great foods. We typically eat a lot of whole foods (chicken, beef, fish, fruit, vegetables, and nuts). There were some snacks and staples that we needed to replace, though, and it took us a while of trying out every brand until we agreed as a family on the best ones.
The hardest part is that the girls and I love to bake and gluten free baked goods are hard to get just right. In the beginning I bought all the fancy flours and xanthum gum and guar gum. I must have spent $100 on random flours that were supposed to replicate gluten-filled recipes. The truth? Not one of them did. They were grainy and the texture was never right. And then I found Nicole and her blog Gluten Free on a Shoestring. Her blog and books were life changing for us. Every recipe from her has been amazing.
The best part is that she introduced us to Better Batter. Better Batter is an amazing product and company (They’re very philanthropic too, which I love.). Their flour is the perfect blend of different kind of flours and you use it as a replacement. It’s recommended that you weigh your flour instead of measuring it with a dry measure scoop. 70g of Better Batter = 1/2 c of flour in a recipe. That formula has worked out perfectly for us. I still bake often and not one person has been able to tell my recipes are gluten free.
We have certain foods that are staples in our pantry, whether they’re for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, or baking. Here’s a list of the things we ALWAYS have in our house. (I’m including the Amazon affiliate link for each item, however, most grocery stores will have the same items and sell them separately. A lot of these Amazon listings are for multiple items in a pack. But at least it will give you a visual of what the product looks like.)
Breakfast
For breakfast we love using:
- Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Oatmeal
- Bisquick
- EnviroKidz Corn Puffs Gorilla Munch Cereal
- Rice Krispies (Gluten Free)
- Kind Oats and Honey Granola
- Better Batter
- Cheerios
- Chex Cinnamon Cereal
Sandwiches
For sandwiches we love:
- Udi’s bread but we also like Rudi’s bread (Typically we buy bread at Costco where the gluten free loaf of Udi’s is twice the size as the same bread at the grocery store. I buy about 4 or 5 loaves a month and store them in the freezer until we need them. They’re also much cheaper at Costco than anywhere else I’ve found.)
Dessert
For dessert we love:
- Let’s Do Gluten Free Sugar Cones
- all kinds of Schar Cookies (I use the graham cracker cookies for my Pumpkin Fluff recipe and the vanilla sandwich cookies for my Ghosts in the Graveyard recipe.)
Snacks
We are big fans of snacks in our house and are even known to do Snacky Meals. We love:
- Snyder’s Gluten Free Pretzels
- Nature’s Path Dark Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
- Kind Granola Bars (Oats & Honey and Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate)
- Blue Diamond Nut Thins
- Nabisco Rice Thins
- K-Kritters animal cookies
- Pirate’s Booty
- Pop Corners.
Baking
For baking we love:
Our favorite grocery store to shop at right now is Wegmans. We always buy their gluten free pasta – the girls love it!
We’re still missing great bagels, homemade pizza dough, crusty bread, and flour tortillas, but everything else has been easily replaced.
I hope this list has been helpful!
xoxo
–k
Click to read how I discovered our daughter and I both had Celiac disease
Click to read how we survived our first year of being gluten free
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