Gluten Free Engineer - Making Gluten Free Easy

Easy Gluten-Free Meals and Snacks to Help You Feel Full and Nourished

• Carrie Saunders • Episode 21

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After going gluten-free, one of the most common questions I hear is—what do I even eat now?

If you’ve ever stared at your pantry or felt totally overwhelmed at mealtime, you’re not alone. Today, I’m walking you through exactly what to eat when you're new to gluten-free living—sharing real-life meals, snacks, and simple tips that will help you feel nourished, satisfied, and confident in your kitchen again.


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Wanting some gluten-free meal and snack ideas? Download our Simple Gluten-Free Meals & Snacks Guide for some delicious inspiration!


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Carrie Saunders:

Quick reminder before we get started on this episode. This podcast is based on my personal experiences and isn't medical advice. After going gluten-free, one of the most common questions I hear is what do I even eat now? If you've ever stared at your pantry or felt totally overwhelmed at mealtime, you're not alone. Today, I'm walking you through exactly what to eat when you're new to gluten-free living, sharing some real-life meals, snacks and simple tips that will help you feel nourished, satisfied and confident in your kitchen again. And if you're a seasoned gluten-free person, then maybe this episode will also give you some additional ideas of what you can add into your rotation so that you don't feel deprived and you feel very satisfied. So let's dive in. Welcome to the Gluten-Free Engineer Podcast. I'm your host, k Saunders.

Carrie Saunders:

In 2011, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, a moment that changed everything, but I was determined not to let it hold me back. With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer the gluten-free lifestyle, breaking down recipes, safety tips, travel hacks and everything in between to rebuild a life I love. Whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance or simply choose to live gluten-free, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we simplify the gluten-free lifestyle, make it fun and prove that you don't have to miss out on anything. Welcome back to the show.

Carrie Saunders:

Today we're talking about what do we really eat whenever we go gluten-free. What are some meals, some snacks and items that we can eat that helps us make us feel satisfied mentally, physically and from a taste and enjoyment perspective, because we want to make sure we're still enjoying our food when we're eating. So, when we have the gluten-free food shift, whether you're celiac gluten eating, so when we have the gluten-free food shift, whether you're celiac gluten intolerant or choose to be gluten-free for another reason, we're not just swapping out bread, pasta and the common things. As I'm sure you've guessed, your whole mindset around meals must feel, they might feel shaken and they must change. So how do we help our brains deal with that and we've talked, touched on this some on the episode is that it can, you know, really cause a toll on our mental energy, our mental stability and things like that. When we're really shaken and you know, we basically toss the cookies in the air, virtual cookies in the air, you know. And so we're going to really be changing our meals, if you haven't already.

Carrie Saunders:

So many people fall into one of two traps that I have typically found. They only eat ultra processed, gluten free replacement foods which, like we've alluded to on the podcast, is great and nice for a treat and it can be convenient, but it's not something you should like fully, wholeheartedly go into because it's not that healthy for you. Any kind of processed foods really's not that healthy for you. Any kind of processed foods really isn't that healthy for you, or you might be in the category where you're overly restricting and feeling deprived. That's one of the reasons why I created the Gluten-Free Engineer website and our podcast and the recipes that I keep uploading every week is I want to help you not feel deprived. So let's break that cycle with satisfying, real food options, because we deserve to eat food that makes us feel good physically and emotionally.

Carrie Saunders:

So let's first go into a day, a simple day, of eating gluten-free meals. What could that be? So for me personally, I love to eat a local. In our local store there's chicken sausage and I absolutely love it. It's low in fat, not that I'm saying like low in fat is like the thing to do, but I would rather not eat pork sausage all the time and I eat a bowl of strawberries and sometimes I might have gluten-free toast with butter or peanut butter on it, so that can be a great option for you. That's got not only some protein for you, it has some carbs too, as well as some fruit and some healthy fats in a peanut butter. I personally like Jif brand no sugar added. Once you get used to the no sugar added, you're going to feel better not eating all the sugars in the peanut butter. It takes a little bit to get used to that it did take me and there are other great. You know that's obviously a mainstream brand, but there are other, even better brands of peanut butter. It's just one I stock too.

Carrie Saunders:

So another example for a breakfast idea could be scrambled eggs, sauteed spinach and fresh fruit. I know a lot of people like something like that. You can also do gluten-free certified gluten-free oats with chia, almond milk and berries, and then you can do that like as an overnight oats and prepare that the previous night If you tolerate oats. Some gluten-free people do not tolerate oats, so I do want to note that. So you may not. That may not be very good on your tummy. And then other people really like gluten-free toast with peanut butter, which is like what I said, but with a banana. So that's another example. I personally can't eat bananas either, so I don't do with a banana. I do love the taste of bananas, but I can't do that. So those are some gluten-free options that can be pretty standard and stable.

Carrie Saunders:

Now, if you do want to go on a little bit more processed obviously the bread's a bit processed. But if you want to do a little bit more process for a treat, there are some really great gluten-free baking mixes, like Bisquick. Bisquick makes a certified gluten-free baking mix where you can make pancakes and waffles. There's other really good ones, like Birch Tree, I believe it's called, or Birch Bender. You can find some really good certified gluten-free pancake mix. I have not found one yet that was terrible or disgusting and that's a really great option.

Carrie Saunders:

Sometimes we do that. We do that as breakfast, for dinner, and we'll make pancakes or waffles and then we'll make typical pork sausage that's gluten-free. We might make some eggs. We might make some hash browns. All those things are usually naturally gluten-free. Double-check the sausage, of course. Double-check all your labels, of course, but that's another great option if you really want to go into the comfort food realm of breakfast, and there's nothing wrong with doing that occasionally. It's just something you know. We obviously shouldn't be eating processed foods, which are basically man-made foods, all the time.

Carrie Saunders:

And then for lunch. So what could we do for lunch? A lot of people like to do a rice bowl with grilled chicken. You could do avocado if you like that. You could add salsa if you tolerate tomatoes. You can make up any really rice bowl you like. I love doing leftovers for dinner. So let's say we make a gluten-free chicken stir fry. I'll just warm that up. For lunch, we might make maybe smoked ribs, we might make smoked pork, we might make smoked brisket occasionally. We do love to do smoked brisket occasionally. So any leftovers like that and leftover sides are really great for lunch.

Carrie Saunders:

Another thing I do like to work in there and especially I'm trying to do this a lot more lately is get back on the salad kick, because salads can be very good for us, and so I like to do a big salad with some protein on it. You can look towards eggs, tuna, leftover meat I typically put like ham or chicken on mine I'm not a tuna person and I can't tolerate eggs very well and then you could do like gluten-free crackers on the side if you need some starch to go with it. I will note the Tessame brand as well as Primal Kitchen brand. I know Primal Kitchen's all gluten-free. I'm pretty sure all of Tessame's products are gluten-free as well, and both of them are dairy-free, which is a bonus because many people with celiac or gluten intolerance cannot tolerate dairy. And the Tessame Ranch if you love ranch, I will vouch for that one. That is the best tasting ranch. It tastes like you made it from scratch. It's delicious, and they both don't use some of the scary seed oils out there too, if you're looking to avoid that.

Carrie Saunders:

So pick a favorite dressing that's certified gluten-free that you love and use that on your salads, and you can really mix up your salads. You can toss in carrots or green peppers or cucumbers or you know whatever type of vegetable sprouts, bean sprouts, whatever type of toppings you like, and so you can really make a boring salad pretty darn interesting and you can rotate those toppings around, and then it makes it different each time. And then for dinner what can we do for dinner so they're always a go-to is grilled protein, roasted vegetables and potatoes or rice Like. That is a very simple one. You can mix up what your protein is, what your vegetables are, and then whether you have potato or rice with it. So that sounds kind of boring and bland, but you can really kick this up a notch by your seasonings. So how do you want to grill your protein? Do you want to just use salt and pepper? Do you want to add a spice seasoning to it that you might have that's gluten-free? How do you want to make your protein nice?

Carrie Saunders:

You can also fry your proteins too. There's nothing wrong with occasionally doing some fried foods. I don't think, because it makes us mentally happy, brain-wise. And you can easily do that with some gluten-free flour, some gluten-free panko crumbs, something like that, and so you can fry things, just like you did whenever you didn't know you couldn't eat gluten. You can pan fry, you can fry in a deep fryer, you can air fry to make a little bit less oil. You can also oven fry. I've done that so many times, and let me tell you, when you make homemade french fries too, let's just go on that fry route, homemade french fries, even if you do them in the oven, so they're a bit healthier for you. They are so delicious and so much better than what you get out in the store.

Carrie Saunders:

We also like to rotate through gluten-free tacos or fajitas. Those are always fun. I love the Siete brand. I mentioned that several times on this podcast. They have a delicious grain-free corn style there's no corn in it, though, because it's grain-free Hard shell tacos as well as they make several different varieties of soft tacos. One has almond flour, another one has cassava flour in case you have a nut problem, and their brand is great. They also have really great taco seasoning mix.

Carrie Saunders:

I used to make my taco seasoning from scratch until I found their brand and it's just so delicious I don't even bother making it from scratch and usually I'm a from-scratch person. It from scratch, and usually I'm a from scratch person. You can also do like baked fish if you love salmon or tilapia or catfish, and you can do like with green beans If you tolerate quinoa. You can do like quinoa If you want to have a grain in there. I've been actually lately avoiding grains again because I just feel better on no grains. So those are some options you can do there, and I did mention like on the lunch part you could do a stir fry and I love doing stir fry. For dinners. We sometimes do shrimp stir fry, chicken stir fry, and we use coconut aminos instead of traditional soy sauce. If you do tolerate soy, you could use the tamari sauce, which is gluten-free double-checked that it's gluten-free. So those are some dinner and breakfast and lunch options that you can do and mix them up, play with them. It's a really good starting point if you're not sure what to do and it could be a good refresher if you're already gluten-free. On some other ideas you might want to work back into your menu.

Carrie Saunders:

Now, as far as snacks and treats, if you tolerate grains, you can do popcorn with some olive oil and sea salt. I have always found that when we pop popcorn not in a microwave, back is so much better. I just simply got one of those popcorn makers from Pampered Chef. I'm pretty sure you can probably find it on line two in other places and they really do a good job and it's so much cheaper than buying the microwave popcorn. You don't have all that crap honestly in it in the microwave popcorn that they use to like butter it and all the different weird oils that they put in there. So just make your own popcorn. It's much healthier for you, safer for you and you can just put a little olive oil or butter and some sea salt on it or whatever type of toppings you'd like that are gluten-free.

Carrie Saunders:

I also love to get gluten-free granola bars or protein bars whenever I need a snack and I'm in a pinch. Annie's Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars are so good, but you do need to be able to tolerate oats with that one, because that one does have oats in it. So look for some really good gluten-free granola bars or protein bars that you might like, and those are great for snacks. Yogurt with fruit and nuts is also great, and I will tell you if you're lactose intolerant or have a dairy problem. Silk brand has a coconut milk Greek style yogurt and it is so good. I've even had people who've tried it say it was better than the dairy version, and they have like a strawberry flavor, lemon flavor and, I think, a vanilla flavor, at least in our stores. So the Silk Brand Coconut Milk Greek Style Yogurt is divine and great for a snack if you like to get your probiotics that way but you don't want to have the dairy.

Carrie Saunders:

If you tolerate chickpeas, hummus is great with baby carrots or rice crackers, or maybe your favorite siete chips, like I would do. I love using their dipper chips in hummus. I absolutely love that. It's so good. You could also do hard boiled eggs, gluten-free trail mix and cheese cubes.

Carrie Saunders:

Now note, on the trail mix I want you to make sure that it doesn't say processed in a facility that also processes wheat or doesn't trail mix. I want you to make sure that it doesn't say processed in a facility that also processes wheat or it doesn't. You know we also want to make sure it doesn't contain wheat and that it's certified gluten free. A lot of trail mixes the nuts are processed in the same facility with wheat or with other add-ins that would have gluten in it whenever they make a trail mix. So just be very careful if you do look for a trail mix that is certified gluten-free.

Carrie Saunders:

There are some out there. And then obviously, the cheese cubes that I mentioned. I absolutely personally love cheese and thankfully it doesn't bother my stomach, especially if I go for the grass-fed style of cheese and dairy. Then my stomach doesn't get bothered, which might be a hint for you. If you do have some dairy issues and you'd like to try a grass fed to see if it makes a difference, it might make a difference for you. It creates different fats in the products of the cows whenever it is grass fed, or you might also want to look for a two cows and cheese, milk and dairy. It's only from A2 cows. That can be a lot easier on our tummies.

Carrie Saunders:

And then you could go for your favorite gluten-free desserts, like the strawberry cake we have. On our website. We have a link for a strawberry cake recipe or a chocolate cake or a vanilla cake. You could also, if you don't want to make something from scratch, jolly Llama has some delicious hopefully it's in your stores near you some delicious ice cream sandwiches and they're actually dairy-free too. My favorite is the mint chocolate chip. I absolutely love it. It's actually one of my freezer right now. I might go down after recording this podcast and have one.

Carrie Saunders:

And I want you to keep a go-to snack shelf in your pantry so the gluten-free options are always on hand. You know we've had actually recently, as of this recording, some family emergencies lately and we've had to leave the house pretty quickly. We were able to just go in our pantry, grab some gluten-free stuff, some protein stuff, some granola type things, some fruit strips that are gluten-free, and just take off and go and take care of family and not really have to worry about going to the store and finding something safe and we can bring something safe with us, so it's a really good idea. It's great for when you're going to your kid's soccer game or something. You're like oh, we forgot to eat dinner, we didn't leave enough time for dinner. You can grab one of those snacks and take it with you.

Carrie Saunders:

So having a go-to snack shelf is really important, especially when you're celiac or gluten tolerant and can't have gluten. And then we want to make sure we stay nourished and full without overcomplicating it. When we focus on real whole foods, single ingredient foods, they are naturally gluten free and they're going to make you fuller for longer. That's one of the reasons why I encourage you not to eat too much processed foods that are gluten free. Now, yes, they can be good on our mind and in our soul, but we don't want to be eating them too much because we will be getting a lot of empty calories. So we want to focus on the whole foods apples, bananas, berries you know cucumbers, carrots.

Carrie Saunders:

Pure protein you know protein that's not really been modified at all and that's going to really help you feel fuller longer and you're going to be more satisfied and you'll actually start to really love it. Say that's not your normal. Say that's not your normal to eat single ingredient foods. Once you get in the habit of it, you're actually going to find that, you're going to love it and you're going to find that you just feel much better. And I can say that from experience because we used to eat a lot, a lot more processed foods till we had to be forced not to, till we found out I was celiac and then later on, our kids. And, believe me, you will feel better once you start doing that long-term and make sure that we always are including a protein, a healthy fat and potentially a carb for longer lasting energy.

Carrie Saunders:

And we want to make sure we're not skipping meals. This is something that I find people do a lot. Many times going gluten-free, they just skip a meal and we don't want to eat less. We need to make sure we're nourishing our bodies with enough calories. And then another thing you can do is batch cook or prepare one thing at the start of the week, say roast, vegetables, cooked rice, a grilled protein, and then you can mix it up with different other things. So you can batch cook on a Saturday or Sunday or whatever day of the week. That really helps you be able to do that and you have the time for it, and then it makes the whole rest of your week a lot easier. And even meal prepping is a really good idea, or meal planning is a good idea, maybe right before you go to the grocery store, so you have things planned out, so you don't feel flustered at the store. You have a plan, you have an action and you can just execute it and you don't have to think as much.

Carrie Saunders:

It's really good to find ways to not over exhaust our brain, especially when you're newer to gluten free or whenever there's some stressors in your life. So just note that you don't have to eat perfectly, just eat what works for you. Like I said, if you want to mix in some of those processed gluten-free foods, go right ahead. You know it's healthy for us to be happy mentally too. But, like I said, also make sure that you're working on a lot of those whole foods too, so you feel full, satisfied and they're getting the nutrients that you need. And make meal planning easier, as it's going to just be easier as you discover your go-tos. You know we have, you know, typical meals and we all we all fall in that route of. You know we go through the same meals about every other week or so. So note that that's okay and just mix in a little bit of variety, as you have the time and capacity to it, and give yourself permission to enjoy food again.

Carrie Saunders:

The goal isn't just avoiding gluten. It's creating meals that help you feel good while you are enjoying gluten or enjoying no gluten. So we want to make sure that we're not just avoiding gluten. Let me say that again, since I flubbed that one up the goal is not to just avoid gluten. It's to create meals that help you feel good while being gluten-free, while staying off the gluten because it's not healthy for you. So I want you to keep meals simple protein, vegetables, a gluten-free grain If you choose to do grains, it's an easy formula to do. You can add fruit in there too as well and build a short list of your meals and your snacks that you love. That way, whenever you're exhausted it's been a long week at work, lots of activities with the kids If you have kids you can just look at that list of your favorite meals and snacks that you love and you can use that for your meal planning and go right off to the grocery store and get what you need to make sure that your life is easier, simpler and more enjoyable while you are gluten-free.

Carrie Saunders:

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Gluten-Free Engineer. If you found value in this story, please share it with someone who might need encouragement on their own gluten-free journey. For more tips, recipes, resources and even links to my YouTube channel, head on over to theglutenfreeengineercom. It's your one-stop hub to make gluten-free living simple, fun and full of flavor. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on an episode, and we will see you next week. The Gluten-Free Engineer podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. I share my personal experiences and stories about living with celiac disease and navigating a gluten-free lifestyle. This podcast does not provide a medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional for medical questions, concerns or advice specific to your health.

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