Hi all - I'm embarking on trying Gluten Free eating, and most of it I can handle just fine. But I'm having problems with breakfast. I've always been someone who had a bread product in the morning - toast, bagel, english muffin or whatever. Usually with some kind of protein.
I'm working my way through the GF breads at the store, and most of them are not good enough to eat on their own. Some are ok as part of a sandwich, but need to get creative about thinking about breakfast.
I'm starting to do oatmeal, and it's ok, but I could use other ideas.
I can't really do eggs, or most dairy.
Looking forward to your ideas.
Potatoes are a good breakfast substitute for bready things. I microwave a couple of new potatoes for a few mins and then brown them in a frying pan. Sometimes, I cook some chicken sausage with them. It's pretty quick since the potatoes are already cooked.
Gluten free pancakes are good. Gluten free baked goods (muffins, etc.) Glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com has a lot of good GF ideas for breakfast that are pretty mainstream.
I try to use veggies to substitute for gluten/starchy things, so with a chicken sausage, I might add baby spinach and diced apple. or mushrooms and dried tomatoes. Or a breakfast smoothie with fruits, spinach, flaxseeds, and protein powder. Hot GF cereal (Bob's Red Mill makes a good one) with hazelnut milk and bananas and golden raisins. Maybe rice cakes with peanut butter (or almond or sunflower butter) and sliced bananas or apples.
A lot of the GF food blogs also have breakfast ideas.
Good luck!
I am looking for ideas for any meal. I have been gluten free for a year and then I went and got allergy tested and I am allergic to eggs, milk and nuts, not sure on gluten but don't want to put it back in right now. Just in time for Easter. Vans makes a frozen waffle that is gf, ef and df. I eat chex cereal with fruit and soy milk. That is about it. Scared to try oatmeal yet. I am really having a difficult time cooking for everyone else and not being able to eat any of it. GF bread is terrible. I have not found any that is eggless yet.
Winnie
One of the big things about gluten free food is that if you buy them they tend to be spendy.
There are 2 types of bread that are good enough to eat in a sandwich and taste almost like regular bread. One is UDI's and the other is Rudi's ( I hope that is right).
I make up buttermilk pancakes or waffles with the gluten free flour. I will double the batch and then freeze them so that they can be popped in the microwave. Put some peanut butter and syryp on them. Yummy.
Another thing is hard boiled eggs cooked up ahead of time. There is a gluten free Rice Krispies now that my hubby is enjoying a whole lot. It is cheaper at Walmart I think.
Another thing that is really good is making up pizza ahead of time, baking and then cutting into pieces and freezing. Costco carries a large batch of premade gluten free Energee brand pizza crusts. There are 6-10 Inch pizza crusts and 9-6 inch pizza crusts that are individually wrapped. I think they are about 25$ for this plus shipping. You can always find another person who needs to order the same thing and split the UPS charge.
I accidently found this last week when checking out Costcos and their bulk and special foods.
Another thing that is good in the morning is grilled cheese sandwiches. There is no law that we have to eat the eggs/cereal route. Anything that fills us up and lasts is good. Irish ;D
I use quinoa a lot in the morning - it is a higher protein grain and cooks up very fast. If you cook it with more water you can eat it like oatmeal and if you cook it with less water you can eat it like a pilaf. One of my favorites is to saute shredded carrots and onions with cinnamon and then toss it with pre-cooked quinoa. I add raisins and toasted almonds as well, but you can leave out the nuts. It's also good with onions, sweet peppers, and chile powder in it.
Genko
I agree with Irish, Udi's bread is good & Udi's makes a great bagel too. Scharr is my new favorite cracker and noodle but I like their bread too.
I also use corn tortillas in the morning to put sausage and peppers and onions in. I add eggs but I see you don't eat eggs.
Udi's also makes good muffins if you like a carb. breakfast.
Carie
Yeah, I found I spent a lot of money at first to only compost most of it. But, through trial and error, I've found brands I like. I find I have to make my own bread. I like banana bread with some chocolate chips (you can get gluten, dairy, and nut free chips that actually taste like chocolate). Same goes for pancake mixes. Some mixes are awesome, some stink! I sometimes use vanilla almond milk as a sub. in pancake mixes and that is good. My girl loves it! Glutino (I think that is spelled right) is a good brand too. They even make gluten free pretzels (and chocolate covered ones too). I often eat some trail mix that I make with organic dried fruit, nuts, etc. I'll think out what else I eat for breakfast. I think most of it has been mentioned already...protein shakes.
My baby was on a gluten free, egg free, dairy free, soy free diet for 6 months starting when she was 9 months old (immature digestive system). I remember being overwhelmed at first with the prices and nasty taste of the gluten free foods. Then I did some research after the dust settled and realized there are a lot of gf foods out there that are naturally gf. All meats, fruits and veggies are naturally gf. You have to watch out for things like sausage though, because they can have gluten things added to them.
Egg replacer is great for when you need to add eggs to different dishes. Most of my gf df ef sf baked goods were preferred over the regular ones 8) but I can't take the credit. The recipes came from the pancake mix and baking mix bags :P. I forget the name, but they are yellowish with purple writing. They make excellent everything! I'd make a loaf of bread, cut it into tiny half slices (gf, ef bread doesn't really rise) and leave enough in the fridge for a few days worth of sandwiches. The rest I'd freeze.
Also, we never stuck to normal breakfast foods. She'd eat fruit. Sometimes I'd cook meats like bacon or ham, ground beef and potatoes, and heating up last night's leftovers were always a hit too. And her favorite breakfast was (and still is even though she isn't gf ef df sf anymore) peanut butter and jelly. All three of my kids love pb&j for breakfast :P
I thought oatmeal had gluten? We could never let her have it. Make sure the kind you are eating is gf :)
There are actually websites and forums dedicated to allergies and recipes that you can type in "gluten, egg, dairy free" and a ton of recipes will come up that don't include those ingredients. Can't for the life of me remember where, but it was 4 years ago, so they should still be around somewhere...
Oatmeal should not contain gluten. A lot of the oatmeal one buys has a lot of "dust" in it and this can be gluten from machinery that has not been washed off good between grinding of grains.
There are good steel cut oatmeal out there but you have to be very careful and read labels. Try doing a search on the web cause you will find them. Bob's Red Mill has several kinds and my DIL is using the steel cut for her 4 year old with good luck.My hubby can't eat oatmeal at all nor can he eat quinoa.
Oatmeal doesn't have the gluten that is found in the wheat, rye, barley.
You can buy powdered butternilk for making your pancakes/waffles, etc and it is more cost effective, I think. I use a little less than the product says and it still works great.
Also, the banana bread and pumpkin bread made gluten free are awesome and can really make a good addition to breakfast. Try putting peanut butter on the banana bread or make eggs to eat with it. We get so hung up on eating certain foods for breakfast that we don't think outside the box until we are forced to.
I have finally learned to make home made tomato soup that is gluten free and I wish I had known how years ago. I have had tomato soup for breakfast also with cheese and crackers and it is yummy. Irish ;D
How do you thicken the tomato soup?
Thanks... so many good ideas.
I hadn't thought about soups for breakfast, but why not? I like warm food in the AM, and looooove tomatoes, so something like a tomato soup would be awesome.
About the question of thickening things - cornstarch is fine for GF, and I use it a lot in other situation where you might use flour. So, that's a possibility.
I usse a little cornstarch plus I put shredded cheese in the soup. Buy the chunk cheese and shred it yourself. Add the cheese and stir well. You can stand and watch the soup thicken up.
I like to cook up sliced carrots and sliced onions and add them to the soup right at the beginning. My hubby doesn't like this but I think that it add something. I would think that frying the onions would also "kick it up a notch" so I will try that next time.
I like using the provolone cheese in my soup and then shredding some for on top before serving. Another thing that is very good for thickening gluten free foods is sweet rice flour. It has a nice flavor and thickens up nicely--just make sure not to use too much. Irish ;D
Oohhh, tomato soup sounds great Irish!
I use potato starch for thickening gravy, do you think it would work in soups too? I like it because it doesn't have a strong "floury" taste.
Carie
I think the potato starch would work really well. Just be certain to not use too much cause when you add the cheese it thickens up even more. The way it thickens with the shredded cheese really surprised me. Irish
Tomato is a soup made with beef stock and tomatoes. Don't know how to do it homemade however. Sorry. Your soups are mostly "stock" based.
When I saw Gluten free I wondered about making your own bread too. My cousin had fibro and she makes ALL her own bread - never gets store bought. Maybe someone here would know about some receipes for the bread maker?
I make my tomato soup with canned tomato sauce, sometimes canned gluten free soup stock like Swansons broth or the bouillion powder that is gluten free.
I heat the tomato base up and then add some warm milk to it. I also cut up carrots and onions and cook them in the microwave and add to the soup. Add the spices that you want, the shredded cheese, etc. I might have to add some water at the beginning to thin it down some when I first start heating it up.
I just looked up some recipes that were gluten free on the web and then sort of figured out how I wanted to do it. You can do it any old way that you want to. Oh, I also add some sugar as it cuts the bitterness of the tomato and mellows out the flavor. I also add some water to the cornstarch and thicken the soup before I add the cheese. Sort of a learn as you go project. Irish ;D