1. Cook Gluten Free
Cooking is your most significant way to save money eating gluten free and cooking gluten free has never been easier with all the gluten free recipes, products and flours available. You can easily make homemade, gluten free meals that are delicious and taste like the original. Gluten Free the Way To Be has a collection of hearty and delicious gluten free recipes you will love and can help you stay in your budget.
An easy way to create a simple gluten free meal is from these 3 basic food groups: Meat/Protein, Starch, and vegetables. The gluten free meal starts with a meat like beef, chicken/turkey, pork or fish, potatoes or rice, and a vegetable. This simple formula has endless combinations. It is a good way to start eating gluten free and is inexpensive depending upon which cuts of meat you choose. Less expensive protein options are beef hamburger, beef chuck roasts, beef tri-tip steak, beef flank steak, all chicken but especially whole chicken, thighs and drumsticks, turkey burger, whole turkeys and turkey breasts, pork shoulder and loin, and cod, tilapia and canned tuna. Vegetables prices change with the seasons. Buy a variety of vegetables and whatever is on sale and in season.
A couple of examples illustrate how easy this formula is.
Meat/Protein Starch Vegetable
Beef Chuck Roast Roasted Potatoes Chunked Steamed Broccoli
Roasted Whole Chicken Baked Potatoes Roasted Green Beans
(Buy from Costco)
Grill Cod Rice Stir Fried Vegetables
As you move onto baking gluten free on a budget there are many gluten free flours that help you substitute one to one with regular wheat flour into your recipes. This is an excellent way to start baking gluten free with recipes you are already familiar with and know how to make. Favorite gluten free flours are Bob’s Red Mill 1:1, Cup4Cup, King Arthur’s Measure for Measure, Namaste Gluten Free Perfect Flour Blend, Domata Gluten Free Recipe Ready Flour, Pamela’s Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Mix, Baking Mix and Bread Mix.
From muffins, pancakes, cookies, cakes, and breads to all foods you desire and crave, can be made gluten free. This is the very best way to eat gluten free on a budget. Gluten Free the Way To Be has a 90 Day Gluten Free Meal Plan that has over 150 gluten free recipes for you to get started cooking gluten free. It is a great resource to help you on your gluten free journey.
2. Use Rice as a Gluten Free Staple
Rice is super filling and your go to gluten free food. Always keep rice in your gluten free pantry. White rice is the least expensive, while brown rice may be a little more, but is more nutritious, and wild rice is more expensive of them all. You can eat rice plain and add a little butter or olive oil for it to be a stand-alone accompaniment to any meal. You can also make a multitude of dishes with rice: soups, casseroles, curries, fried rice, Asian dishes, Mexican Dishes, Polanyian Dishes, African Dishes and more.
Another option for using rice is to grind your own rice flour. Using a grain grinder, you can grind your own rice into rice flour. You can make a gluten free flour mix yourself by using ground white rice flour and xanthan gum. To enhance your gluten free flour mix, you can add potato starch flour, tapioca starch, and sorghum. By making your own mix, you can then use this in your recipes substituting it one for one. This is a huge savings when baking gluten free. Here is a general gluten free flour recipe but you can experiment yourself and find what consistency you like best.
1 cup ground white flour
Tapioca starch flour
Potato starch flour
Sorghum
Xantham gum
3. Cook With Potatoes
Potatoes are an excellent way to eat gluten free on a budget due to their low cost and versatility. You can cook, fry, broil, bake, air fry and boil a potato to name a few. Here are just a few things you could make with a potato: baked potato with endless topping options, hashbrowns, roasted chunked potatoes in the oven, roasted little potatoes in the oven, French fries broiled in the oven or deep fried, sliced potatoes deep fried for potato chips, potatoes in casseroles or dishes, boiled potatoes with gluten free gravy on them, potatoes in pasta for gnocchi and potatoes in pancakes. Potatoes are nutritious and filling and should be a staple in your gluten free pantry.
4. Pack a Gluten Free Lunch
This is going to be a game changer in your gluten free life. If you will pack gluten free food with you everywhere you go, you will give yourself peace and empowerment because you have control over your food. You are not dependent on anyone providing it for you and you will not have to stress about being hungry and not having anything to eat. A BONUS is that it is so much more inexpensive than eating out at restaurants, food trucks or fast food and it will be tremendously healthier.
A very simple plan for making gluten free lunches is cooking a gluten free meal at night and bringing the leftovers as your lunch. Add a fruit to your lunch and now you have a complete gluten free lunch. Let’s take the ease of this one step further. When you are cleaning up your gluten free meal at night, portion off leftovers into glass containers and put these in the refrigerator. Now all you need to do is grab and go in the morning when you are packing your lunch. So, when you cook a gluten free meal, go big. Double the recipe and make a large batch so you will have gluten free leftovers for your lunches.
Here is another easy and inexpensive gluten free lunch idea. Make a gluten free salad in a glass jar. Pack your jar with your meat/protein in the bottom. Layer it up with your desired vegies, fruits, lettuce, cheeses, nuts/seeds and then pour your gluten free dressing on top of it all. When you go to eat your lunch, simply dump out your salad from the jar onto a plate and there you have it; a delicious, gluten free salad as a meal.
5. Take Advantage of 3 Naturally Gluten Free Super Foods
There are some gluten free super foods that are inexpensive, nutritious and filling. They will satisfy your hunger pangs and are easy to cook and prepare. Knowing what these gluten free super foods are will ease your mind recognizing you always have your go to gluten free foods.
Eggs are your first gluten free super food. There is a multiplicity of ways to cook them however you like fried, over easy, poached, scrambled and hard boiled. Hard boiled eggs are great by themselves or in salads or fried rice. You can fry these up in minutes and have a satisfying, warm meal. They work great for a classic breakfast but can be incorporated into fried rice, burritos, breakfast casseroles and omelets. They pack a lot of punch with 6-7 grams of protein.
Beans are your second gluten free super food. Beans are also adaptable in an array of dishes. They can be added to soups, bowls, salads or tacos. Add beans to cut up lettuce, chunked avocado, sunflower seeds and gluten free salad dressing and you have a quick dish that will fill you up and take the edge off of your hunger. Beans contain fiber, an average of 8 grams of protein and vitamins.
Quinoa is your third gluten free super food. Quinoa has 8 grams of protein and is super filling and has more nutrients than rice. In fact, you can replace rice with quinoa in almost all dishes. There are many different colors of quinoa that you can try. Red quinoa has an excellent taste. Boil the quinoa, strain it and then leave it in an airtight container in your refrigerator and always have it on hand to eat immediately when you are hungry. Quinoa goes well in any dish and pairs well in salads, soups, and an accompaniment to meat and vegetables. Quinoa for breakfast? Try it in this warm granola bowl recipe.
6. Buy your Gluten Free Bread and Gluten Free Flours at Warehouse Clubs and Online
Costco, Sam’s Club, and US Foods CHEF’STORE are warehouse club stores that enable you to buy food in bulk. They sell gluten free breads and gluten free flour mixes in large quantities that always equate to a lower price for you. These are huge savings and will help you get better deals than at your local grocery store. This also enables you to have a large quantity of gluten free bread and gluten free flour on hand. Freeze the gluten free bread and use as needed. The gluten free flours can be stored for a long time. You need to be prepared and always have gluten free food in your pantry so stock up on gluten free food. You are responsible for taking care of yourself and your family. Buying in bulk and having some extra will give you great peace of mind and ensure you and your family members never go hungry.
Pamela’s mixes buy online in bulk
7. Eat Popcorn as a Gluten Free Snack
Popcorn is a fabulous, gluten free food snack. It is inexpensive, easy to make, stores extremely well, tastes delicious and is very versatile with what you can make with it. The caveat here is that you need to buy the popcorn whole and then pop the corn yourself via an air popper, popcorn maker or on the stove. Buying popcorn already popped will not save you any money.
Traditionally, popcorn has melted butter and salt on it. This is always a delicious option and it never gets old. Almost everyone likes it too. But you can add a variety of different toppings and seasonings to change it up.
Want to make it into a dessert? You can easily do this by making kettle corn, popcorn bars with melted marshmallows, caramel popcorn, and melted chocolate and nuts on popcorn. These are just a few ideas but the options are endless.
Popcorn is filling and an excellent gluten free snack everyone should have in their gluten free pantry.
8 Buy Taco Chips and Corn Tortillas in Bulk
So along with popcorn being a great gluten free snack are taco chips. These are almost always gluten free but each time read your ingredient label before buying or eating them. Taco chips have a lot to offer you for snacking inexpensively. Large bags of taco chips are sold at warehouse club stores making them a very economical snack. Pair these taco chips with gluten free salsa like Gourmet Salsa or melt cheese on them for an elevated, warm snack. Add them to a soup, salad or casserole. Make ultimate nachos with all the toppings or homemade dips from scratch and pair with taco chips.
There are many brands and varieties of taco chips. Try many of them because they all have a slightly different taste and texture which give them even more versatility.
One warning with taco chips. In restaurants, many times taco chips are made in house. Most of the time they will not have a dedicated fryer and are contaminated with gluten. You will always need to ask your server if the taco chips are gluten free when eating at a restaurant. The rest of the time, read your labels on your taco bag chips before consuming.
Gluten Free Corn tortillas are equally all-around gluten free food choice. Tacos, nachos, burritos, casseroles, desserts, the choices are endless with how you want to fill the corn shells. They enable you to have a quick gluten free meal in minutes. So keep shelf stable, corn tortillas shelf in your gluten free pantry.
9. Buy Produce on Sale, in Bulk, from Farms and Farmer’s Markets
Fruits and vegetables are excellent, nutritious sources of gluten free foods. You can eat them raw, cooked, broiled, blended, frozen, dried, boiled; the ways you can eat fruits and vegetables are endless. They are so necessary for a healthy body. They need to be taken very seriously especially as you are eating gluten free. You need all the nutrition, the vitamins and minerals, in order to have a healthy body. Fruits and vegetables are an absolute must. Eat a wide variety to get all your nutrients.
The best value on fruits and vegetables is to watch the sales in the stores and compare prices at the warehouse clubs like Costco, Sam’s Club and US Foods CHEF’STORE. Eat fruits and vegetables in season because there are usually sales on these items.
Seek out road side stands and farmer’s markets. If you are able, find farms around you and they may offer seasonal picking or even gleaning after their harvests. Gleaning tree fruits from orchards and potatoes, corn and vegetables from fields are excellent options. Potatoes store well in dark, cold places like a basement or an insulated room in your garage. Fresh corn, beans, peas and carrots can be canned or frozen along with fruits and berries.
10. Grow a Garden
An even greater way to save money with fruits and vegetables is to grow them yourself. You do not need a lot of space to yield a large number of fruits and vegetables. One or two fruit trees will yield all the fruit you will need. In fact, you will need to preserve what you can’t eat you will have so much. A small plot of soil will yield many vegetables. If you don’t have a section of soil, container gardening is super effective and will give you many vegetables. Seeds are super inexpensive. A little water, fertilizer and sunlight and you are on your way to a plethora of fruits and vegies.
If you are serious about having fresh vegetables, you may want to build a green house so you can extend the time you have them.