Going completely gluten-free can feel almost impossible, especially when you’re lazy. Between the lack of gluten-free food in restaurants, to the complex recipes you’ll find in cookbooks, it feels like starving to death is easier than attempting to be gluten-free. As a fellow lazy person, finding and making food has been a challenge. In my six years of being gluten-free, I’ve picked up some tricks that’ll (hopefully!) make the transition easier.
Shopping Tips
First step: Locate the gluten-free section in whatever store you shop at. In my town, it’s hidden within the fruit section at Walmart. Whenever you go grocery shopping, this will be your first stop. Obviously, you can buy whatever you like in this section, but here are some of my favorite brands to give you a headstart. These can be found in the frozen aisles or in the normal aisles.
- Gluten-Free Bread: Schär (probably the only brand of bread I’ve found that doesn’t taste like sad cardboard)
- Pizza, Pasta, Muffins, and other types of microwavable food: Udi’s (just don’t buy their bread, unless you like the taste of sad cardboard), Amy’s Kitchen (best burritos), and Brazi Bites (if you love Brazilian cheese bread)
- Snacks: Katz (their donuts are the best!) and YumEarth (if you’re a fan of licorice or other types of candy)
- Pasta: Barilla Gluten Free Pasta (make sure it says gluten-free! They also sell normal pasta that look the same)
Cooking Tips
Most of these recipes only require a pot, or a pan, and a spatula (or a fork if you really don’t care). These recipes are much easier than ones I’ve found online or in cookbooks, but you will need some cooking skills to make these.
Pro tip: Keep rice, corn tortillas, potatoes, and gluten-free pasta on hand!
- Easy Quesadillas
- Ingredients: corn tortilla, chicken (already cooked), cheese
- Directions: Heat a pan on low medium heat, put in a small amount of oil and salt, rub both sides of tortilla on pan, add chicken and cheese to one side, fold in half, let cook until cheese is melted and tortilla is fried
- Easy Wake-up Wrap
- Ingredients: 2 strips of bacon, 2 eggs, Tostitos Salsa con Queso, 2 corn tortillas
- Directions: Mix two eggs and a heaping spoonful of salsa con queso in a bowl; cook bacon, once bacon is cooked place on separate plate; pour half of egg mixture into pan, as you cook it, try to mold it so that it is the same size as the tortilla; once it is cooked place on tortilla with a strip of bacon and heat in pan until it is bound together; repeat for the second tortilla
- Easy Pasta
- Ingredients: pasta, butter, seasoning of choice (ex. Italian seasoning, garlic powder, etc)
- Directions: Follow directions on pasta; in the same pot, mix butter and seasoning, add pasta, stir to mix together
- “Instant” Ramen
- Ingredients: Instant rice noodles, sesame oil, bullion cubes, ground garlic, ground ginger
- Directions: boil water; in a bowl, mix half a spoonful of sesame oil, one bullion cube, and the garlic and ginger to taste (add as little or as much as you’d like; I recommend half a spoonful of each); add rice noodles, add water until it covers the noodles, let sit for a few minutes, then enjoy
- Eggs and Rice
- Ingredients: egg, rice, salt and pepper
- Directions: literally just make scrambled eggs and put it over rice, add salt and pepper to taste (personally I’m not a fan of eggs, but for some reason I can tolerate it when it’s over rice. You can add whatever seasoning you like, this is just to give an idea of a quick meal you can make)
Restaurant Tips
Yelp considers coffee, tea, and salad as “gluten-free options.” As someone who loves meat and a full meal, this is never really helpful for me. I hope these tips that I’ve learned as being the annoying customer in restaurants help save you the embarrassment of harassing the waiter.
- Avoid barbeque sauce, soy sauce, gravy, brown sauce, alfredo sauce, vodka sauce, “special” sauce, or just any kind of creamy sauce.
- Creamy soups such as broccoli cheddar, cream of chicken, or tomato soup may use wheat as a thickener, so be sure to ask beforehand
- Mashed potatoes, fried foods, and oats may have cross-contamination
- Keep an eye out for anything breaded, or filled with bread crumbs
- Plain steak and chicken are going to be your best bet
- When in doubt, ask for a gluten-free menu!