What Can I (or do I) Eat on Gluten-Free Lifestyle

[Joyce Paige]

What Can I (or do I) Eat on Gluten-Free Lifestyle

People ask me all the time what can I (or do I) eat if living a gluten-free lifestyle. I stay away from processed foods and microwavable foods (pre-packaged). I eat things I make from scratch so that I know what is and isn’t in them. I found it was a lot easier to make my own foods than it was to try to read all the ingredients on food labels! Some manufacturers seem to go to great lengths to hide what is actually in their products.

I make large batches of the food and freeze part of it so that I am not cooking from scratch every meal. That's why I make so much amaranth and chili.

For breakfast I eat: amaranth (recipe on forum), an egg, and fresh fruit. The only thing that varies is which fruit I will eat. This is not 100% of the time, but pretty close. I eat the amaranth because I read somewhere that a serving of amaranth has almost 50% of the RDA of iron. Since I am anemic, this is an important ingredient in my diet (read lifestyle – I hate the way diet has become synonymous with losing weight).

For lunch I eat protein (chicken, turkey, salmon, tilapia, shrimp, eggs), vegetable (broccoli, carrots, green beans, medley, cauliflower, corn, lettuce w veggies salad) and a grain (brown rice, amaranth, quinoa, millet). Sometimes I replace the grain with either mashed sweet potatoes or spicy pumpkin (recipe in forum).

Another option is my homemade chili which is more like a stew. I make it with black beans, ground turkey and lots of vegetables. Sometimes I use the chili as a topping on my gluten-free pasta or on my brown rice. Sometimes I use it as a topping on my salad. Everyone likes my chili and tells me I should sell it. (That is why the recipe is not in the forum.)

Dinner is pretty much a repeat of lunch just switching up the elements. Maybe chicken for lunch and shrimp for dinner.

For snacks, sometimes I eat some dark chocolate, a fruit and nut mix that I make, or fruit with peanut butter. Other times I eat some Nut Thins or Crunchmaster Multi-Grain Crackers. I will add other things as I think of them.

If you notice, there are not many processed foods in my list. I do eat some, but not many. I write about them in the discussion forum and rate them for your benefit.

I did write about the Chex cereals in one blog because I was so excited about having mainstream cereals that were gluten-free that I had to try them and tell you about them.

Please do not misunderstand me, there are other things you can eat. This is just a simple list (menu) to help you get started. I hope this helps some of you with your quest to find what you can eat now that gluten is no longer an option.

[Gini Johnson]

I have a hard time finding things for me to eat since I can't have pasturized dairy products, or any grain but rice and I can't have anything with soy in it.  There are only a handful of vegetables that I can eat raw, most vegetables have to be completely cooked before I can digest them.  I am diabetic so carbs cause a problem for me as well.  This means I can only eat one carb a day.  I have to choose which one that will be, either rice, rice pasta, or a baked potato or oven fries.  I can have raw cheese and raw milk, but it is against the law to sell raw milk in stores in Oregon.  I usually drink almond milk for breakfast.  Once in a great while I fix Swedish Pancakes made with sweet rice flour.  I eat a lot of fish and chicken and lots of stir fry.  I eat lots of eggs.  I always keep fresh fruit in the freezer and make fruit smoothies using no dairy and a little aritificial sweetener.  I also snack on nuts and dried fruit.  I find Tinkyada rice pasta to be the best.  You can buy SO coconut yogurt and coconut and almond milk ice cream.  Now if only someone would come up with a non soy and dairy free sour cream I would be set.  You can make cashew cream and if you don't add too much water it has the texture of sour cream, but not the taste.   You can use cashew cream as a substitute for cream in recipes and it works very well.  I can have real butter so I can at least enjoy that luxury. 

[Jools Schmidt]

I usually have a smoothie for breakfast; Aldi's and Trader Joes have frozen fruit ridiculously cheap year round, and that's my favorite thing to have when I get up in the morning.  Lunch is usually a salad for me, unless we have leftovers from dinner the  night before.  Dinner is  a protein, healthy grains, and vegetables.  If we don't have grains, then we might have a sweet potato or rutabagas, turnips, or celery root.  Snacks are usually dried fruits or nuts.  We very rarely have desserts, except for special occasions.  Even so I find one piece of cake or pie is my limit, and my husband has to finish the rest of it over the next several days.  Occasionally we have half a gluten free bagel for breakfast, but in general, we don't eat a lot of carbohydrates like that.  Just recently I started using tofu again, and I have a ton of recipes for that.  Funny how you get away from things and then go back to them, only to wonder why you ever stopped eating them to begin with.  We are eating more vegetarian options these days, and quite often we might have something as simple as eggs and salad for dinner.  As we get older, we find that we eat less, and are more content with simpler foods.  I have to avoid dairy as well, and that can be a bigger challenge almost, than being gluten free!  If people are confused about gluten free, dairy free can totally astonish them!  People are so used to hearing that dairy and cereals are good for them, and don't understand why we don't eat them. They just don't understand that it isn't a choice, but a necessity.

[Joy OHare]

Sounds like a well rounded healthy menu. I would probably lose weight on it too! a second plus.