Gluten-Free Breakfast ideas (lunch ideas, too)

[SundayCrepes]

We've recently gone gluten free (it helped our daughter's speech.) I'm looking for ideas for breakfasts. Not too much dairy, though eggs are fine since we have our own chickens. I don't want gluten substitutes. I'm liking how healthy our whole foods diet is now. I have no desire to fill the gaps with low fiber, processed foods (so no gf bagels, muffins, etc. unless they're high in fiber and taste good.) However, breakfast and lunch selections can be kind of skimpy.

I do keep gf cereals (rice chex, gf corn flakes) on hand because we've got to have some variety. I make a smoothie every morning. We've got rice cakes, rice crackers (not pleased, but my son likes them.) Tons of fruit, but what else can I serve.

Lunch tends to be dinner leftovers, but sometimes there aren't any. Rice cakes are fall back. We also take rice cakes, nut butters, and jelly when we need a picnic lunch.

Dinner's not a problem. Lots of variety there.

I'd appreciate your help with this.

ETA: This is the vegetarian forum. In case you are coming here from the main page and didn't realize that.

Edited by SundayCrepes - 5/20/11 at 9:44pm

[motherhendoula]

Since you have eggs at the ready - you can try a frittata...its like the kitchen sink, plus eggs - cooked in the oven.    I made one tonight in fact - 8 eggs   - ground sausage  - chopped red pepper  - non dairy cheese   - you beat the eggs, add the other (cook the meat)  ingrediants  - start it like you are making an omelet  - just as the bottom  firms up - transfer to a 400 degree oven for about 15 - 20 min.    i recently bought a cast iron skillet just so i could do this! 

Another good combo - ground chicken, onion, broccoli and non- dairy cheese.

you can also add brown rice to it...really whatever you have left over.  DD is gluten /dairy free so i started making these for her...of course, she hates eggs.....but its a great 'dump' meal that DH loves.

I agree with you on the not replacing all the flour in your life with a gluten-free variety of same - but i have to give props to Namaste pizza crust...its easy to use, tastes good too...oh baby crying....

[Angelorum]

I like these http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/01/mini-ham-and-egg-cups/

[motherhendoula]

as i was saying...the Namaste pizza crust has helped us - but DD is 16 yrs old and knows what pizza is!

Also have a great fried rice recipe  - brown rice - cooked, then a few turns of olive oil into a pan, add the brown rice - "Adobo" seasoning, scallions, some non dairy butter, get all the  rice coated and the scallions wilted, make a well in the middle of the rice and stir in one or two beaten eggs - add salt and pepper to the eggs directly....mix all together - you can also add other favorites - i add onion broccoli and cooked chicken for DD.  

[m0dernist]

We have been making the GF transition as well in our house.  We did really well for a few months and I've gotten a bit lax the last few weeks and am starting to feel the effect.  Can't wait for our CSA distribution to start as that will kind of force me back into habit. But I digress:

I am sworn to my morning smoothie routine.  a recipe that I'm loving is vanilla protein powder, full-fat greek yogurt, blueberries (or other frozen fruit), generous handful of spinach, and here's where I've been cheating - sprouted grain cereal (original recipe called for fiber one and I wanted something healthier)

I also love a tofu scramble with organic/non-gmo tofu, stewed tomatoes, seasoned with pepper and cumin, sprinkled with a bit of cheese.  To lessen a dairy sensitivity I have been able to get away with raw white cheddar and not going hog wild on the cheese :-D

Chicken salad as a lettuce wrap.  I use vegannaise as a mayo sub, add slivered almonds, celery, grapes.

Pistacios for snacking.  

I am in love with Quinioa pasta.

I also highly recommend Pamela's Baking/pancake mix.  it's a bit expensive, but I find it on sale timely enough at our Kroger/King Soopers.  it's nice to have just so you can do some comfort things when you are feeling less creative (at least for our family)  She has some great ideas on her packaging as well and you can control more of what's in the product that way.  bob's red mill has a gf might tasty cereal that has a very good muffin recipe in it.  I sub the sugar w/ honey, and use equal parts pamela's for the ancillary flour types with it and you wouldn't even know that it's gluten free.  toss in some chopped almonds and fresh/frozen/dried fruit, it sure can fix a craving and they travel well for kiddos too.

her waffle recipe is oh so good.  we do pb&j waffle sandwiches for leftover snacks

Bob's red mill also has gf oats - so if you are into making your own granola (really easy if you haven't!), they work really well for that.

I also recommend Chebe products.  They have a great pizza crust as well as breadsticks and some other novelties - good adds to a chicken and rice/veggie soup night or lunch

hummus and veggies

Other pantry items that must be in stock:  Good variety of beans, brown rice, quinioa.  (Know that not all cous-cous is gf)  

Heck - we did baked beans with nitrate free turkey dogs the other night and joked about it being gluten free (which it was - just not the healthiest of meals - oops)!

I understand the desire to get away from substitutes (especially because the sugar content is so high!).  I have focused on creative whole-food replacements as much as possible.  When I'm doing really good I don't default to these quite as much.  Old habits die really hard!  Be easy on yourself and use some of these to gradually change.  I think you will find you will move away from these naturally!

Hope that helps some . . . 

[MommyMandi]

I agree with Pamela's mix. And Chebe products. Super yum! Only my husband is gf, but these are things we use for all of us. Millet is another grain that is gluten free. You can also get gf steel cut oats. We make them plain for breakfast and then everyone can add their favorite mix ins (cherry/almond/vanilla, pb/apple, cinnamon/raisin, maple/brown sugar). We do smoothies as well, with flax seed, bananas, spinach, frozen berries, vanilla soy milk or coconut milk. Yogurt and homemade granola. Lots of salads and fruit for lunches. I like to keep homemade refried beans on hand all the time for quick burritos, nachos or dip. Hummus is also good, like to serve with chips, veggies and lunch meat as a meal. 

[SundayCrepes]

Thanks for the ideas everyone.

I'm wondering if some folk saw this on the main page and didn't realize this is the vegetarian forum (lol.)

I've got some Pamela's baking mix and bread mix, but I thought they were low fiber. I'll check them out. I do know they're MUCH cheaper if you buy them off amazon.

I just looked at the Bob's Red Mill stuff. The almond flour looks good. Actually, several of their flours look good. I briefly looked at some recipes and they look great.

[babygirlie]

gluten free bisquick makes pancakes waffles etc. Rice chex cereal also comes in chocolate, honey etc. With the bisquick you could also make brocolli and cheese "pancakes" for lunch, chilli (beans are good fiber), quesadillas (microwave corn tortilla and cheese voila).. there are really good GF crackers. You might want to explore that. We use the multigrain glutino crackers. We can't do GF oats.. protein is too close to gluten. Grits.. You can buy instant grits next to instant oatmeal, if you're thinking fast. there is also rice breakfast like grits and oatmeal.  Mac n cheese. Buy the cheap stuff and toss the noodles (check the cheese ingredients, MOST are ok). Cook your own tinkyada noodles (the best yum) and then add the cheese etc. (keep hands washed of course).

none of my ideas are healthy necessarily, but fast.

As of right NOW, mt dd has 1-2 bananas for breakfast with watered down allimentum formula. She snacks on chex or crackers or string cheeseSUBMIT

Edited by babygirlie - 5/21/11 at 8:32pm

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by babygirlie 

. Cook your own tinkyada noodles (the best yum) and then add the cheese etc. (keep hands washed of course).

Yeah, that's great pasta even if it's expensive. If we ever add gluten back to our diet, we will keep the tinkyada.

[mumkimum]

Millet is a really yummy hot cereal, and we've like 'rise and shine breakfast cereal' which is brown rice grits.  Grits can be sweet or savory with cheese/herbs, even an egg ontop.

If you cook indian food (or fried rice even), I personally really like doing leftovers for breakfast with an egg on top (so rice, some bean/veg with it's sauce, fried egg on top).  Even better if you happen to make or have raita or any kind of relishes to drizzle on there too.

Egg salad, or real simple chopped hard boiled eggs with veg (like avocado, grated carrot and drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper).

Hash brown potatoes - jazzed up with peppers & onions, or simpler and maybe with side of steamed broccoli.

Lunch isn't really our strength either, I'm lucky to lay out a snacking plate and have people eat that.  Soups are good if other people eat them too (barely anyone does here).  I'm not beyond making homemade chili fries (so oven fries chili & toppings) for a meal, or 'nacho yummies' (kinda same thing, oven heated tortilla chips topped with black beans & etc).  I'm a fan of simple omelets for meals too (esp. with some potato and the steamed broccoli, yum).

[clovergirl]

Originally Posted by SundayCrepes 

I just looked at the Bob's Red Mill stuff. The almond flour looks good. Actually, several of their flours look good. I briefly looked at some recipes and they look great.

Almond flour is a new love at our house; it makes amazing gluten free baked goods- pancakes, muffins, cupcakes, etc.  That said, Bob's Red Mill almond flour is not really up to par, IMO, which is hard for me to say because I love all of their other products!  If you are going to try almond flour get good quality *blanched* almond flour, it makes a world of difference.  If you are interested in learning more about almond flour and seeing recipes, check out www.ElanasPantry.com.  Elana has two cookbooks out now that focus on almond flour but her site has a ton of recipes.  Everything I have made from the website or her books has come out amazing and while it's not all vegetarian (she does have entrees that contain meat) all of the baked goods are vegetarian and they are almost always dairy free as well (though they do contain eggs).

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by clovergirl 

Almond flour is a new love at our house; it makes amazing gluten free baked goods- pancakes, muffins, cupcakes, etc.  That said, Bob's Red Mill almond flour is not really up to par, IMO, which is hard for me to say because I love all of their other products!  If you are going to try almond flour get good quality *blanched* almond flour, it makes a world of difference.  If you are interested in learning more about almond flour and seeing recipes, check out www.ElanasPantry.com.  Elana has two cookbooks out now that focus on almond flour but her site has a ton of recipes.  Everything I have made from the website or her books has come out amazing and while it's not all vegetarian (she does have entrees that contain meat) all of the baked goods are vegetarian and they are almost always dairy free as well (though they do contain eggs).

I will definitely check this out.

And I'll look into the hot breakfast cereals. Those sound like a great idea. Though we live in Tucson so we might have to take a break as it starts to warm up here. (It's been in the 70s. How weird. It's usually near 100 here at this time of year.)

[SundayCrepes]

I looked at www.ElanasPantry.com. There's some great stuff there. I'm excited to explore that site more. First I have to go make some gf lasagna (tinkyada lasagna noodles, zucchini, spinach, homemade black beans, sauce, cheese. My family LOVES it.)

[Funny Face]

Amazing Johnny cakes:http://www.theppk.com/2011/05/fresh-corn-johnnycakes/

And a quinoa breakfast dish: http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2009/02/quick-and-healthy-gluten-free.html

The quinoa is really really good with some sweet potato and coconut oil too. Yum!

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by Funny Face 

Amazing Johnny cakes:http://www.theppk.com/2011/05/fresh-corn-johnnycakes/

And a quinoa breakfast dish: http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2009/02/quick-and-healthy-gluten-free.html

The quinoa is really really good with some sweet potato and coconut oil too. Yum!

Ooooo...those sound great. I will definitely try them.

[SundayCrepes]

I spent hours last night on the www.elanaspantry.com website. I bought 

almond flour cookbook

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158761345X

coconut flour cookbook

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0941599884

coconut flour

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0941599884

blanched almond flour

http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/blanchedalmondflour5lb.aspx

mini-muffin pans

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YKGRIW

a glass batter bowl

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000CFQ5C

and a cherry pitter because it was a buy 3 get a fourth free sale.

Can you tell I'm excited to have discovered almond and coconut flours. lol

[MiniMum]

Dairy free, gluten free here!

Almond flour is great for sweet baking.

Easy, healthy breakfast  cereal: Soak whole buckwheat overnight and serve with (rice) milk.

Zucchini "pasta" : Slice zucchinis, one medium sized for each person, a half for kids, with a cheese slicer and then cut those into thin strips (they resemble tagliatelle pasta when I do it) and serve raw with sauce. Or you can quickly steam them too but it's really not necessary. Everyone I serve this to is completely dumbfounded that there is no real pasta in it at all. 

I make our own muesli/granola: I use lots of buckwheat there too. I soak that plus more seeds and nuts, then make a "sauce" with apple juice, honey (or agave syrup or brown sugar) and spices like vanilla, cinnamon, ginger. The soaked nuts are easy to chop into smaller pieces.

Mix everything and dry in the oven at lowest setting (or in a dehydrator) and afterwards I mix in oats and chopped dried fruit. Yummy!

I really like those egg ideas. We eat tons of raw, but have some omelettes etc. So easy and fast to make at a moment's notice. Versatile too.

[SundayCrepes]

Got our coconut flour yesterday so we made the blueberry muffins off www.elanaspantry.com and the kids loved them, though I didn't like how much agave syrup they had (empty calories.) We made the blueberry pancakes (can you tell we have fresh blueberries in our house) this morning. The kids ate them with jelly and loved them.

I made almond milk this morning. I will be using the pulp to make the new wheat-free "wheat thins" off www.elanaspantry.com. I wasn't so enamored of the taste of the almond milk. However, when I made our smoothies this morning I substituted half the milk with the almond milk and no one's noticed. I will increase the almond milk ratio each day.

[clovergirl]

For what it's worth, I almost always substitute maple syrup for agave in Elana's recipes.  Works great.  I'm not a big fan of agave and feel much better about using maple syrup for sweetness.

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by clovergirl 

For what it's worth, I almost always substitute maple syrup for agave in Elana's recipes.  Works great.  I'm not a big fan of agave and feel much better about using maple syrup for sweetness.

That's a great idea. I've heard honey works well, too. Any idea which is more nutritious?