I'm a planner. Everyone knows that I plan everything that I can! So, needless to say I plan a monthly menu. It started a few years ago as an effort to save money. It helps in so many ways! First of all, we don't buy food we don't need so there is less waste, and it helps avoid the trap of "what do you want for dinner.... I don't know... ehhh.. lets just pick something up."
This is the first month I've made a menu gluten-free. Some foods we already eat are naturally gluten free - like tacos. Other foods are most definitely not gluten-free - like spaghetti. Then there are the foods that are surprising NOT gluten-free. Many recipes have "Cream of Chicken" soup as an ingredient - that is not gluten-free. I've done some research and found there are gf versions, so the question is - can I find those in the store? And if I can - how expensive is it and does it taste good?
For this month when I picked out foods for dinner I decreased the number of obviously glutenous foods, and tried to pick recipes that were naturally gluten-free or that could be converted easily. As an experiment we're going to try to find gluten-free cream of chicken soup and try our favorite recipe - Chicken Chalupas with it. More info on that experiment later!
Here are some examples from this month's menu:
- BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs (no buns) (and yes... we BBQ in November)
- Chicken Quesadillas (corn tortillas)
- Mexican Pumpkin Lasagna (corn tortillas)
- Turkey Cornbread casserole (domata and cornmeal)
- Broccoli, Ham & Cheese Quiche (hashbrowns for the crust)
- Thai Shrimp Pasta (rice noodles)
When we go to the grocery store this week we'll be reading a ton of labels to check for hidden sources of gluten. I'm nervous about what I might find - I'm afraid some of my favorite foods are going to turn out to contain gluten. I'll just have to wait and see what we find.
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