Food Strategies For Newbies: A Day in the Gluten-Intolerant Life

When I became a gluten-sensitive newbie a year ago, I couldn’t figure out what I’d eat on a day-by-day basis.

This hadn’t been a problem when I became lactose-intolerant because so many alternatives to cow’s milk products were in the grocery stores. Nor had it been a diet problem because my program (Weight Watchers) was not restrictive in choice, just in portion size.

But gluten-sensitivity (and also a problem with oats, alas) threw me into a complete tizzy. So many of my favorite foods were out the window. What was I going to eat at breakfast? For lunch? What about when I just wanted to grab a snack?

Oh yes, I could eat potatoes, rice cakes, rice crackers, and rice/corn cereals until I was blue in the face, but eventually I overdosed. Basically, my food choices shrank to the point that they fit in a very small box. To say I was unhappy would have been a major understatement.

Fast forward a year later: I’m no longer down in the no-gluten dumps. In fact, I have a more varied and interesting diet than I’ve ever had. Why? It’s not because stores are carrying a lot more gluten-free products. I can’t eat most of them because they contain milk and/or are too high in calories.

Rather I decided to change my mind-set and develop healthy, non-gluten food strategies. This required

• Working with alternative flours and baking methods.
• Researching gluten-free blogs to see what other folks are doing.
• Spending more time in the kitchen preparing what I wanted to eat.
• Experimenting with food and food possibilities.

 

Originally, my greatest food problem wasn’t with dinner because that meal usually has potatoes or rice. Rather, I had problems with breakfast, lunch, and snacks. Here are the food strategies I developed. (I’ve created links to my version of these foods for your convenience, but you can also search the Internet and find many others.)

Breakfast Strategies:

Eggs + Sweet Quick Breads: Quick (no-yeast) gluten-free breads, e.g., orange-apricot bread, cornbread, can easily replace bread.

Bob’s Red Mill Brown Rice Farina: If you’re like me and can’t eat oatmeal, this is a filling substitute. Add fruit, milk, or a sweetener. (Note: I have no connection to the company in any way.)

Lunch Strategies:

Sandwiches: Use corn tortillas instead of bread.

Salads: To make a salad more filling, add

• Cold, cooked quinoa grain
• Chickpeas or other beans
• Nuts and/or seeds
• Hard-boiled egg
• Canned tuna or salmon
• Cold cuts
• Baked tofu
• Apple

 

Vegetable Soups: A big pot of soup provides a number of lunches. To make a soup more filling, you can add

• Potatoes or tofu while cooking
• Cooked rice or rinsed beans at the end of cooking
• Some plain yogurt to your bowl
• Grated cheese to your bowl

 

Roasted Vegetable Medleys: A large pan provides several lunches. Think cauliflower and broccoli, onions and leeks, carrots, and parsnips, and any root vegetable.

• For carbohydrate, add potatoes to the mix.
• For protein, sprinkle a bowl of roasted vegetables with grated cheese and nuke for a few minutes.

 

Broccoli Slaw with Turkey, and Apple: This qualifies under “salads,” but I make this so often that it deserves its own space. It’s fast to make, filling, healthful, and delicious.

• 2 cups broccoli slaw
• 2 pieces sliced turkey/chicken, cut into small pieces
• 2 pickle sandwich slices, cut into small pieces
• 1 apple, unpeeled, cut into small chunks
• 1 tbsp. mayonnaise (in my case, fat-reduced)
• Mix and add salt, to taste.

 

Snack Strategies (sweet and savoury):

“Grab quickly” snacks include:

• Nuts and/or seeds
• Cheese
• Fruit
• Yogurt
• Hummus
• Raw vegetables

 

“Kitchen-time” snacks: A little preparation will widen your choices.

• Marinated, baked tofu slices
• Quick breads (see above)
• Quinoa-fruit puddings
• Vegetable fries, i.e., sweet potato, turnip, kohlrabi, etc.
• Vegetable chips, i.e., kale, beet, carrot, etc.

 

Bean Bakes: I found a recipe for “Lemon Bean Cake” in a booklet put out by the Ontario Bean Producers and haven’t looked back since. No flour, no dairy: just white navy beans, eggs, baking powder, salt, and whatever ingredient(s) I experiment with. These cinch-to-make, low-cal, nutritious bean bakes have turned out to be my favourite snack food. In fact, I’ve created The Bean Bake Blog to make a home for them.  Some examples include:

• Banana-Coconut Bean Bake
• Chocolate-Orange Bean Bake
• Cauliflower-Salsa Bean Bake
• Chocolate-Cauliflower Bean Bake (imagine that!)

 

Clearly, creating your good non-gluten day will depend on your own preferences, diet, time constraints, and so on. But think of your research and learning curve as a free education, and your time and experimentation in the kitchen, not as a chore, but as self-indulgence. The payoff is worth it!

 

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Author Information: Claire Harrison, Ottawa, Canada

By Claire Harrison: Claire writes The Food Refashionista blog about food and recipes for people who are gluten-sensitive, lactose-intolerant, and watching the weight for health reasons. (www.foodrefashionista.wordpress.com)