gluten free guest - what to buy/make?

[Anonymous]

Please give me some suggestions on what to buy or meals to cook. We are having a gluten free house guest stay with us for a few days.

[Anonymous]

The easiest would be

1. Meat and pototoes - think roast chicken, fish, steak, etc. with potatoes and vegetables. Avoid breading and soy sauce.

2. Tacos - corn tortillas, meat, sour cream, salsa, etc.

3. Rice - most things with a rice base are naturally gluten free as long as you watch the sauces. Shrimp, indian food, jambalaya, risotto

[Anonymous]

For dinners, any dish that uses rice/potatoes instead of pasta/bread. Instead of spaghetti with sauce, do beef stew with potatoes (skip the flour for thickening). Instead of pizza, do curried chicken and rice. Etc.

[Anonymous]

For lunches, tuna salad or other vegetable based salads are good. Avoid pasta, crackers and croutons.

[Anonymous]

I've been eating gluten-free for a few months now. Simply prepared is easiest.

Do read the labels of anything you buy. It is amazing how many products are not exactly what you think they are.

Breakfast: Greek yogurt and berries is quick and easy. Bacon and eggs is more filling and almost as easy. Rudi's GF raisin bread is pretty good to the point of my DC eating all of it before I got a chance to eat it.

Immaculate Kitchen's GF chocolate brownie cookies are fabulous.

Be aware that oats do not contain gluten, but are often contaminated in processing facilities, so either stay away from those or look for ones that are certified.

[Anonymous]

Avoid pastas and be careful of condiments, breading, etc. Check labels.

For breakfast - Bob's GF oats are good for oatmeal. Udi's bread and Van's waffles are good - but if your guest is Celiacs they may not be able to share your toaster (or any shared surfaces). Chex has a whole line of GF cereals.

For dessert King Arthur's GF brownie and cake mixes are awesome.

[Anonymous]

also, if you still want pasta-ish dishes, my GF friend introduced me to spaghetti squash- don't know how I went this long without ever trying it!

You could also buy some french macarons as a treat, very popular now and trader joes has some decent and affordable ones in their freezer section!

[Anonymous]

Op here. This is all so helpful!!! I'm learning a lot! Didn't realize how much I did not know about GF eating.

[Anonymous]

If you live near Bethesda, you can pick up some gluten free treats - cake, cupcakes, etc. for your guest from Café Lilit.

[Anonymous]

You can also make meringue cookies and mousse is safe.

[Anonymous]

Sweet Frog is a good place to go for a treat - better than most ice cream places where cones are used.

[Anonymous]

Check the bacon package--some, like TJ Black Forest bacon, has gluten in it.

My favorite gluten free crackers are the Blue Diamond Almond Thins--good with cheese.

Rice noodles are fine, if you can cook Pho or Thai dishes.

I like to use julienned zucchini in place of noodles for pasta, and make meatballs with almond flour as the binder.

This cake is fantastic! http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/clementine-cake-2559


Happy Tart in Alexandria is an awesome GF bakery.

[Anonymous]

pamela's cookies, glutino pretzels, vans frozen waffles--all readily available even at grocery stores like safeway & giant

Trader Joe's, MOMs, & WF do a good job of labeling their GF sections if you're not into doing a lot of reading labels. (fyi, avoid anything with "modified cornstarch" on the label)

[Anonymous]

How long is your guest staying and how sensitive is he/she? We don't feed DD gluten because avoiding it helps her avoid intestinal discomfort, but the contamination of sharing a toaster with wheat bread for a few days wouldn't impact her, but for someone with celiac, that would be an issue.

As someone said: breakfast eggs/bacon or GF sausage, GF oatmeal, yogurt and fruit, cheese and fruit

Lunch: salads with homemade dressing (so I know what's in it), sandwiches with Gf bread, chicken, tuna, or egg salad in GF wraps

Dinner: meat and potatoes, fish and rice, spaghetti squash for "noodles." I have a great recipe for lasagna using sliced eggplant in lieu of pasta.

[Anonymous]

Almost anything you regularly make can be done Gf with the right ingredients, ex swapping in Gf pasta, using GF soy sauce (or bragg's, etc.)

We've found breakfast to be toughest, but as PP's have said eggs are always a good option - you can always add corn tortillas for breakfast tacos.

Regular cornbread mixes have gluten, but the gf mixes are delicious, so that's an easy bread side.

And really anything relatively simple cooked from whole foods is pretty easy: grilled meats, roasted veggies and potatoes, etc.