Eating gluten free on a budget can be difficult. But here are 4 useful tips to help you stay healthy and eating well on a gluten free diet.
How to Eat Gluten Free on a Budget
The following post is a guest post by Jeanine, from Faithfully Gluten Free! Make sure you check out her fabulous blog!
Whether you’ve been diagnosed with Celiac disease, are gluten-intolerant, or are eating a gluten-free diet for your own health benefits, you will know that it is not a cheap diet to be on. I’m going to try to list some points that helped me to eat gluten-free on a budget.
Eat real foods
Vegetables, unprocessed meats, most dairy, and rice do not contain gluten. By staying away from processed foods, which may contain gluten, try to cook a meal using ingredients in their natural state. For example, use potatoes instead of frozen hash browns.
Buy your flours in bulk
By purchasing your flours in large quantities, you will get a better price per pound than if you buy the small packages of flour.
If you are in Canada, you can save money by purchasing the large, unopened bags of gluten free flours and starches at Bulk Barn. Since the bags are still sealed, you don’t have to worry about cross contamination.
To extend the shelf life, you can store the unused portion in sealed containers in the freezer or fridge. You could also team up with others that have to eat gluten free, and divide the large bags between the group, assuring that you always have fresh flours on hand.
Learn to cook & bake
When you are on a gluten-free diet, eating gluten-free is usually a life long commitment that you have to make to keep yourself feeling well. Since it is not just a phase, you might as well learn to make the best of it!
By learning how to cook and bake, you open your kitchen up to endless opportunities.
The gluten-free doughnuts, bread, granola bars and muffins that you can buy in the store may be good for convenience, but that is about it. Nothing beats home baking! With some practice, you will be able to replicate nearly all your favourite gluten-filled goodies using gluten-free flours.
You will just have to trust me on this. I have been eating and baking gluten-free for nearly 3 years now, and I am definitely not “living without”.
Plan ahead
When you go out for the day, you should take a gluten-free snack along from home. Some gluten-free crackers, nuts, and dried or fresh fruit are all some ideas. Once you are out and about, you may not be able to find a suitable snack for your diet. Having something to munch on is better than going through a drive-through for French fries.
These tips, combined with all the great menu planning and grocery shopping articles provided on Simply Frugal, will help you to eat gluten free on a budget so well, that you won’t feel like you’re missing out.
Jeanine Friesen authors Faithfully Gluten Free, a blog dedicated to recipes for those on a gluten-free diet, because she believes no one should have to go without.
Good advice! Thank you. I have been looking for resources for bulk gluten-free flour. I especially like King Arthur brand, (no xanthan gum and it gives me better results) but it is SO expensive!
Wish Jeanine from The Baking Beauties a Happy Birthday..its her birthday tomorrow :0)
If you’re in Canada try Judy’s Mixes http://www.magicmixes.com/
I use their Essential Bread Mix for my husband all the time. I can’t eat it since I can’t have eggs but he says it’s the best bread he’s eaten bar none. I have a breadmaker so it’s easy to whip up!
I completely agree on learning how to cook and bake because it’s easier to make your own gluten-free meals. Easier and cheaper!
Now that I’m on a serious budget, eating gluten-free has been a huge challenge for me. Instead of buying gluten-free pasta and desserts, I’ve just cut them out completely. The only thing I’ve allowed is gluten-free bread (we all need toast in the morning). That in itself is pricey. The cheapest I’ve been able to find is $7.00 for a loaf of gluten-free bread.
I haven’t tried baking yet.
My wife is gluten- and dairy-sensitive so we’ve started baking our own bread using a Cuisinart bread maker. It’s simple and takes only a few minutes to mix ingredients. The only issue is that you have to stick around for 3 hours, first to re-mix ingredients while the dough is kneeding (to get the dry ingredients off the side wall so that everything mixes evenly), and then to pull the bread out at the end of the bake cycle. I usually start baking when I get home from work so that it’s finished before bedtime. It gives me enough time to cool the loaf, slice it and pop it in the freezer for the next day.
There are many ready-made gluten-free bread mixes that come with yeast and only require a little oil, 2 eggs and some water. They usually cost $5.50 – $6.00 per 2 lb loaf. If you buy bulk (from a company’s website or through Amazon.com), you can get prices down to as little as $2.50 per package. If you’re so inclined, you can mix and match off-the-shelf bulk flours, starches, etc to create your own GF bread mix, and that will save you even more $$ per loaf. Plus you can bake to suit your taste – I find some pre-made mixes are very convenient but they also contain ingredients whose taste I don’t like, like caraway seeds that taste too much like licorice.
Experiment a little, have fun doing it, and enjoy the fruits (er… bread) of your labour.
I also make my own bread in a Cuisinart. Find I have to leave it in machine for extra minutes to reach 200 degrees. You say you slice your bread before freezing…do you have a bread slicer and what kind is it? Thanks.