Budget gluten free meal plan

Going gluten free means avoiding cereals including wheat, barley and rye and foods in which gluten-containing extracts have been included in processing.

But fortunately, many foods are naturally gluten free, although care must be taken to check for surprise ingredients. In their wholefood form, dairy, eggs, meats, poultry, fish, nuts, plus all fresh fruit and vegetables are naturally gluten free. Plenty of vegetarian sources of protein are also naturally gluten free, including all beans and legumes, and tofu, which is made with soy beans.

Once you hone your knowledge and label-checking skills to skip around gluten traps, you will find that most of the items in the grocery store are gluten free. It is possible to largely avoid expensive pre-made mixes and combine wholefoods to create a complete meal plan.

Some gluten free grains might also be too expensive, but there are cheap staples out there, such as good old rice and oats – although care must be taken to source gluten free oats to avoid the very real risk of cross-contamination.

You might learn that making your own gluten free bread is not so difficult with the many gluten free flours available, such as buckwheat or amaranth. Spices, which are all gluten free in their pure form, make cooking with simple grains and wholefoods much more fun and brings tastier results.

Gluten free meal preparation on a budget can be done, but it requires a little bit of thought and planning. Making a weekly meal plan is an excellent way of ensuring you have everything under control and will not need to make pricey last-minute improvisations.

• Plan all meals and the amounts of ingredients needed.
• Some dishes lend themselves to batch cooking, where you make more than you need for one sitting and preserve the rest for another day.
• Keep it simple by picking recipes that overlap on some ingredients so you don’t have to buy dozens of items. This will help to avoid wastage.
• Switch to cheaper gluten free staples, which may be potatoes, rice or corn, rather than more expensive grains such as millet or quinoa. Which products are cheaper will vary between geographic regions, so study the market.
• Fresh and especially seasonal produce is cheaper, more nutritious and can have a lower carbon footprint if it is produced locally.
• Check out alternative places to buy your food; a traditional local market may offer better value for money than a big-name grocery or health food store.