My brother is Gluten Free (GF) and has stayed with me for a week, so clearly I now know everything about this topic. The first thing I noticed is that nearly all GF food is terrible to your eyes, stomach or wallet. The second is that one must not simply replace delicious bread-yy goodness with GF atrocities, but rather reinvent one’s pantry. Here’s how we did it:
Pasta? Pfft, what about a rice bake? Cut lots of veges (broccoli, carrot, peas, corn) small, toss in the pan with a bit of olive oil, add any soup (favourite is spiced pumpkin. A bit of spice is good). Boil up some rice, mix together (if very runny consider adding egg, but it shouldn’t need it), cheese on top and bake till the cheese melts.
Gluten free pancake mix is a must, because it makes fantastic muffins (and apparently biscuits, but I haven’t tried this). Make it according to directions on the pack and add any yummy muffin ingredients you have. Our favourite is Whittaker’s Dark Ghana chocolate with berries. Pour into muffin tins and bake for about 20 mins at 180 degrees.
Oven bake chips are a good thing to have on hand for snacks, especially in winter when craving warm, starchy foods.
When the naturally solid GF bread is inedible, make it into bread and butter pudding. For about 8 slices, cut into triangles and laid around a greased baking tin, whisk 3 eggs, a cup of milk, ½ cup sugar, a handful of raisins/frozen berries/chocolate. Pour mixture over each layer of bread as you go and bake at 180 degrees until there are no runny bits! You could also put stale bread into a blender and use breadcrumbs as a base for apple crumble.
Learn to enjoy a wide variety of fruit, so your fruitbowl is full and you can one day say the words, “I am craving an apple and a handful of almonds”. Smoothies and milkshakes are another good snacky food to enjoy.
Mexican food is awesome. Many tacos and nachos are made from corn and you might get lucky with burritos.
Pizza bases can be pretty good. Keep them in the freezer and if you make more than needed for that meal, pizza slices make good snacks or lunch food.
Don’t try to change out gluten-based ingredients with GF ingredients. Just don’t. Use GF recipes if you need recipes. Avoid trying to make food which is naturally bready- with a few exceptions, you will just be disappointed.
Good luck!