If you have reached this page without reading the previous page, then be sure to go back and read it. You will find essential information, that you need to know, to keep your food safely gluten free. The
Gluten Free Cooking Page
is the beginning to this quick start guide and menu plan.
The gluten free breakfast, lunch and dinner menu is set up for two weeks. You can just do a week if you prefer, or keep repeating it for as long as you like. If you are not a big beef eater, you can substitute a turkey or turkey breast for Roast Beef and Steak dinners. Ground turkey can be used in the Fried rice recipe as well, if you prefer.
Sweet potatoes or yams can be used in place of regular potatoes, as a side dish, if you want some variety. Avoid any form of wheat, barley, rye or oats. Certified gluten free oats might be an option once you have completely healed.
This plan is a Sample Menu. You are free to substitute or rearrange items as you wish. If you are avoiding dairy, and don't want a dairy substitute, you can use other lunch meats instead. Just try to keep a good balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fats.
You are free to add a dessert recipe to dinner whenever you have the time and/or the inclination. For starting the diet the cherry cobbler, ginger snaps, and coffee or carrot cake are probably the easiest to digest. You can subsitute any pie filling you want for the cherry cobbler recipe.
Two Week Menu for Gluten Free Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
WEEK 1
BREAKFAST
LUNCH
Dinner
Saturday
Egg Omelet and Rice Cakes with fruit
Nut Butter and Jelly on Rice Cakes
Quick Chicken Soup
Sunday
Scrambled Eggs and Mild Sausage Patties
Quick Chicken Soup (leftover)
Beef Stew
Monday
Gluten Free Cereal and Milk/Milk Substitute
Beef Stew (leftover) or Dinty Moore
Chicken Stir Fry
Tuesday
Rice Cakes or Toast with Nut Butter and Jelly
Turkey Sandwich with mayo and lettuce, potato chips or baby carrots
Fried Rice Recipe
Wednesday
Ham and Cheese Omelet
Rice Cakes with Nut Butter and Jelly
Baked Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Vegetable
Thursday
Hot Creamy Rice Farina with raisins or fruit
Baked Chicken Chunks in Green Salad with Italian Dressing
Roast Beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetable
Friday
Gluten Free Cereal with Milk/Milk Substitute
Egg Salad or Egg Salad Sandwich and grapes
Baked Salmon or fish of choice, Zatarains Yellow Rice Mix, Green Salad
WEEK 2
BREAKFAST
LUNCH
DINNER
Saturday
Bacon and Eggs, gf toast optional
Rice Cakes with Cream Cheese and Jelly
Chicken and Rice, green beans
Sunday
Scrambled Eggs and Mild Sausage Links
Roast Beef Sandwich and small green salad
Beef Stew
Monday
Gluten Free Cereal and Milk/Milk Substitute
Chicken and Rice (leftover)
Quick Chicken Soup
Tuesday
Hot Creamy Rice Farina, raisins or fruit
Beef Stew (leftover)
Beef Stir Fry
Wednesday
Rice Cakes with Cream Cheese and Jelly or berries
Ham/Ham and Cheese Sandwich, applesauce
Baked Chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetable
Thursday
Ham and Cheese Omelet
Rice Cakes with Nut Butter and Jelly, Banana
Steak, baked potato, broccoli
Friday
Gluten Free Cereal and Milk/Milk Substitute
Tuna Salad with Corn Chips and grapes
Zatarain's Garden Vegetable Rice Mix and chicken or pork chops,vegetable
You can find the recipes for most of the meals in the menu and some desserts on the
Gluten Free Recipes Page.
Shopping List
The amounts will depend on the size of your family, and how often you plan to go shopping. Go through the menu and decide how much you need to make the suggested meals for a week, then buy the amounts you will use.
Some items, like produce, should not be bought too far ahead, but if you see a good price on meat, for example, you can freeze the extra for later. So for frozen and canned foods space is the limiting factor. Certain items, like gluten free bread and rice cakes may only be needed for one person.
If you find you have difficulty with dairy products, use the nut butter in place of cream cheese, and have some fruit with it. Lactaid versions of milk and cottage cheese are available also. Or you can use soy cream cheese and soy or rice cheese for the recipes that call for cheese.
When buying yogurt, look for those with live active cultures to help restore the proper balance in your intestinal flora. This will help you digest your food better and also increase the nutrients in your system.
Remember not to use the same peanut butter or cream cheese on gluten free bread as that used for breads that contain gluten. Sometimes it's easier to use two different brands to help others to remember not to use the gluten free designated one.
Spices you will use or need regularly are listed to make sure that you can safely season your foods. Dessert recipes listed for cobbler and cookies use cinnamon, ground cloves, confectioner's sugar, molasses, and pie filling. If you don't plan to use those recipes, you can omit those items. Ginger is used in stir fries as well as cookies, so you will need that one. McCormick is the safest vanilla extract.
The minced onions, onion powder and celery seeds are needed to make a Lipton Onion Soup coypcat recipe used in the Chicken and Rice Recipe. The chicken broth is to use for making the Quick Chicken Soup, so buy what you will need to make a small pot of soup.
Read all labels in case of another allergen you need to avoid.
Product
Acceptable Brands
Soy Sauce
La Choy is gluten free
Bean Sprouts
La Choy Brand is good
Oyster Sauce
Choy Sun Oyster Flavored Sauce made by Lee Kum Kee, they also make Panda Brand Green Label Oyster Sauce, it's MSG free
Bamboo Shoots
Dynasty Brand
Water Chestnuts
Dynasty Brand
Mayonnaise
Best Foods or Hellmans Mayo, or Miracle whip
Ketchup
Del Monte, Heinz, Great Value
Mustard
French's, Great Value
Bouillon
Herb Ox
Salad Dressing
Kraft: Zesty Italian, Creamy Italian, Creamy French, Thousand Island, Ranch
Chicken Broth
Swanson Original Aseptic Carton or Can (Not the Organic!)
Tea
Lipton Regular, Green, Black
Coffee
Folgers, All Blends or Great Value 100% Columbian
Coffee Creamer
Cremora, Coffeemate
Instant Coffee
Nescafe Classic, Taster's Choice both Flavored and Non-flavored
Applesauce
Eden Foods Organic, Great Value Regular and Unsweetened
Pie Filling
Comstock All Flavors, Great Value Apple, Cherry, Blueberry
Molasses
Grandma's Molasses, Regular or Robust
Vanilla Extract
McCormick
Ground Ginger
Durkee, McCormick
Cinnamon
Durkee, McCormick
Ground Cloves
Durkee, McCormick
Garlic Salt
Durkee, McCormick
Onion Powder
Durkee, McCormick
Celery Seed
Durkee, McCormick
Instant Minced Onion
Durkee, McCormick
Shortening
Crisco, Great Value
Confectioner's Powdered Sugar
C & H, Great Value
Sugar
Dominoes, C & H, Great Value
Black Pepper, Peppercorns,Cloves
Durkee, McCormick
Salt
Moreton, Great Value
Raisins
Eden Foods, Newman's Own, Great Value California Sun Dried
Gluten Free Bisquick
General Mills Gluten Free Version Bisquick
Butter
Borden, Land O Lakes, Great Value
Margarine
Country Crock, Earth Balance
Sour Cream
Great Value Sour Cream or Light Sour Cream
Cream Cheese
Philadelphia Regular, Original, Light
Cottage Cheese
Lactaid Lowfat, Great Value: 2% Lowfat, 2% small curd, 4% small curd, 4% large curd
Kellogg's ONLY, there are 2 versions, box must say gluten free
Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Pebbles
Post Brand only
Instant Mashed Potatoes
Great Value, Idahoan, Potato buds
Instant Rice
Great Value Enriched Long Grain, Minute Rice Premium
Garden Vegetable, Yellow Rice Mixes
Zatarain's only
Gluten Free Cake or Brownie Mix
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Mixes Only
Baking Powder
Clabber Girl Double Acting
*Yoplait will declare wheat, barley, rye or oats on the ingredient label, so you can have other flavors as long as they don't contain any of those four grains or things derived from them.
Non-Brand Items
Produce
lettuce
tomatoes
cucumbers
radishes
broccoli
carrots
potatoes
onions
celery
baby carrots
berries
grapes
apples
bananas
Canned or Frozen vegetables
Your choice, plus Canned Mushrooms sliced, Canned Peaches.Del Monte or Great Value are fine.
Raw Meat
Beef Roast (Rump, Sirloin Tip, or Cross Rib)
Stew Beef
Pot roast beef (Chuck Roast)
Ground Beef
Stir Fry Beef (Flank or London Broil, cut it across the grain)
Steak (Sirloin, T-bone, etc) your favorite
Pork Chops
Chicken for Baking (Whole, Leg quarters, Breasts, your choice)
Chicken Breast or Boneless Thighs for Stir Fry, and for Soup
Gluten Free Bread
Gluten Free Bread, Gravy Mixes, Milk Substitutes, Flour Mixes and other items are available from online grocers.
Sandwhich Bread, White or Whole Grain
Lundberg Rice Cakes if not available at other store
Pacific Unflavored Rice Milk (if needed)
Rice Cheese (if needed)
SunButter or Arrowhead Mills Nut Butter if avoiding peanut butter
Bob's Red Mill Creamy Rice Brown Rice Farina
Gluten Free Muffins or other baked snack
Gluten Free pretzels, crackers, fruit bars or cereals for kids like EnviroKidz Gorilla Munch
Gluten Free Flour Mix (stick with rice flour mixes for the first 2 months, others are hard to digest)
Gluten Free Featherlight Flour Mix
EnerG Sweet Rice Flour
Bob's Red Mill Potato Flour (not starch)
GlutenFreely.com has these harder to find items available online. You can order them at your convenience and have them delivered to your door. Shopping will be much easier this way, than trying to find all these items, especially in the beginning. They have some convenience foods you might find helpful as well.
In the interests of disclosure I want to mention that I am affiliated with GlutenFreely.com, who have many gluten free items, both mainstream like Betty Crocker, and flours like Bob's Red Mill.
If you make a purchase through the above link, this site may receive a small commission that helps to support the site, at no cost to you. Thank you in advance for your support.
You can also make your own flour mixes with the recipe blends on this website, using Bob's Red Mill brand of white rice flour, corn starch, and potato starch. "Let's Do Organic" makes tapioca starch as well as Bob's Red Mill.
You will use these flour mixes to make desserts. The sweet rice flour and potato flour are needed for white sauces and roux for Beef Stew and other recipes.
This is the end of the Quick Start Guide. Hopefully this menu plan and shopping list will help you get set up to start, while you learn more about the diet. The Kitchen Prep and Healing Sections have more information, including a list of
Foods to Avoid
, under the Healing Section.
If something is not clear, or you have a question, you can reach me through the Contact Us page on the Navigation bar at the left.
