First, a big round of applause for the delicious Diane Eblin for hosting this fun series, 30 Days
of Gluten-free Eating. If you don’t know Diane, you should! She’s always hosting neat events that bring people, information, passion and resources together. She was even kind enough to make me her “Food Rock Star” a few days ago, which was quite an honor.
The posts in the 30 days series have been great info–so far, grocery shopping tips, getting started, smoothies, and I’m planning to make yesterday’s Cherry and Almond Power Bars ASAP! And of course, the key to gluten-free blogging is that through sharing our combined interests, passions, ideas, experiences, friendship and of course, recipes, we make it easier for anyone with Celiac or gluten-intolerance to live well.
Easy meals are key. They’re vital when you’re just getting started, but I’m a strong believer that everyone should have a few meals they can whip up in 5-10 min or less just in case–because life happens, we do occasionally burn something, have something go bad, drop dinner, find the cat lovingly licking the salmon, whatever. We’re talking meals that fall into the category of assembly rather than “cooking” per se.
Just an example–we’re selling our house and thus cleaning out the freezer and pantry, so I have less on hand than usual. I went to make dinner on Friday and the broccoli was brown and icky. Grrr. So plan B. No frozen broccoli. OK, plan C. Make a vat of greens and make Coconut Curried Greens. And as I admired the luscious smelling pot, the sauce was too thin, so I thought I’d thicken with some coconut flour. Long story short, instead I added brown rice flour, which I’m allergic to. Believe it or not, I’ve not done that before in 7 years.
And there I sat, looking at this glorious pot of greens which was totally off-limits, and knowing that I didn’t have something quick in the freezer to thaw.
OK, woman on a mission! On to plan D, AKA the pantry. Cannellini beans, tuna in olive oil, drained canned diced tomatoes (I love Eden brand–BPA free), a few Kalamata olives and a few fresh basil leaves. Super quick, super easy, and very, very yummy. Massive feline approval, too, which is not always a plus. Cheryl does the happy dance, and even has enough for leftovers the next day.
So what is on your list of simple easy pantry staples? Here’s a list of 50+ ideas I give clients to get thoughts moving:Basic GF Meals 2011 Now, I have clients ranging from ardent carnivores to hardcore vegans, and I do have a dairy-free list too, but the point of the list is that anyone and everyone can find a few things that either fit, or inspire other thoughts. Everything on the list is SIMPLE, accessible, and contains very few specialty items, because many folks aren’t huge cooks beforehand and are looking forward to survival. And I figure if you can get the point of a recipe across in 2-3 lines, it’s pretty easy.
And the most ironic part? Shirley of GFE has a list of 50 easy gluten-free meals on her site, too, and we have very few overlaps, so that puts you at about 100.
What are your favorite quick and easy fall-backs? Let me know in the comments section.
And stay tuned for the rest of days of the series at the HQTRS on Diane’s site.
I’ve been meaning to adopt Carrie, the Ginger Lemon Girl for a long time, and yet somehow between the house showings and movings and chaos, I missed the deadline last month, so here’s my chance!
Stumble It!
