We eat gluten and dairy free sometimes. One of our kids has a dairy allergy and we try to limit the processed grains in our diet anyway, so many of the things I cook are gluten and dairy free.
If you cook most things from scratch, avoiding wheat and dairy is not too hard. However, it is hard and expensive to eat at restaurants and to buy packaged or processed foods that are wheat and dairy free. If you are a family that often eats bread, cheese, milk and pasta you may be in for some big changes. But there are lots of great alternatives out there!
As much as possible, stick to eating whole foods rather than looking for highly processed milk or wheat replacements.
Here are some examples of what we eat when we're avoiding gluten and dairy:
-Hot porridge made from quinoa, gluten free oatmeal or brown rice topped with some cinnamon, nuts, fruit and a bit of coconut milk - or cooked in the winter with a bit of pumpkin
-Smoothies made with berries, bananas, rice/coconut/almond/soy milk, possibly some protein powder or peanut/almond butter
-Eggs cooked with some vegetables and some ham, you could serve with some gluten free bread (worth learning how to bake this at home!)
-Stir fried meat, tofu or chicken and vegetables on rice with a yummy sauce, my favorite is with a peanut sauce made with coconut milk
-Soups - so many work without dairy and wheat: beef stew, chili, chicken tortilla soup, lentil soup, tomato, minestrone, etc.
-Indian Dahl and rice with some curried vegetables
-Any sort of grilled or roasted meat served with veggies and potatoes or a grain like rice or quinoa
-Salads (I've found my kids will eat salads if I don't give them lettuce...they like everything else like carrot, tomato, etc). Top with corn, black beans, salsa and tortilla chips?
-Mexican food like tacos made with corn tortillas instead of wheat tortillas
-Asian food - spring rolls made with rice paper or a stir fry made with rice or buckwheat noodles
-For dessert, something like baked fruit works well. There's yummy coconut milk ice cream. You could also look into "raw food" recipes for desserts. Our family enjoys a "raw" pie made out of almonds, dates, cashews, apples, cinnamon and honey.
You can definitely enjoy a wide variety of foods if you cook at home!!
Menu
