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What is a typical gluten free meal?

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There’s a lot of confusion about gluten free diets and meals, and some might be asking:  What is a “typical” gluten free meal?

Well first of all, just because one can’t eat wheat doesn’t mean there aren’t still thousands of other ingredients and combinations available!  In that sense, it could be almost impossible to declare a typical or normal meal, but I can at least show you what kind of dinner is fairly typical for myself when I don’t particularly feel like cooking anything that takes effort.

A gluten free meal of steak, fried potato, and steamed vegetables

Nothing too fancy here, just the basics:  A small piece of flat iron steak, a few steak fries (Ore Ida), and a carrot steamed with a head of broccoli.  There’s a pretty nice slice of butter sitting on the vegetables, a bit of Cattleman’s Classic BBQ sauce (also gluten free), as well as a little salt and a whole lot of freshly cracked pepper on top of everything.

As you can see, this isn’t terrible different from a typical meal for anyone, whether or not they’re intolerant of wheat protein.

Cooking a gluten free meal can be easy

For this meal, there really aren’t that many steps.  First of all, peel and slice the carrots then break up a head of broccoli in to the steamer pot with them.  Wash it up, cover the lid, and then just let it sit on a low to medium heat while the other stuff cooks.

Carrots and broccoli in a steaming pot

For the steak and fries, just lightly cover the surface of a frying pan with some peanut oil, then cook for about 10 to 15 minutes on each side at a medium temperature.

A flat iron steak and steak fries in a frying pan

Once it is cooked, season and enjoy!  The vegetables are great with just a bit of butter and salt, and as you can see from the first picture I just love to put black pepper on everything!

Total prep time is about 5 minutes or less, and total cooking time is about 30 minutes or just a little bit less.

So next time you find yourself trying to cook a gluten free meal, don’t despair!  Just make sure the cooking surfaces are clean from any potential cross contamination, and try a recipe that doesn’t stray too far from fresh ingredients.

Food

Gluten Free Beef and Veggie Roast in a Crock Pot

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Oh boy, I just cooked up a monster of a meal and now I can’t stop thinking about it.  Its delicious, healthy, and a good value – but unfortunately its going to take a few hours to fully cook.

In the meantime, let me tell you what goes into this feast.

  • 2 pounds eye of round roast ($6.70)
  • 1 medium onion ($.50)
  • 1 medium tomato ($.75)
  • 6 potatoes*** ($1.50)
  • 3 stalks celery ($.50)
  • 1 can green peas ($.50)
  • 1 pound carrots ($1.60)
  • 1 pinch thyme
  • Black pepper
  • 3 shakes oregeno
  • 1/2 tsp. olive oil

Its about $12 and its pounds and pounds of fresh food and naturally savory flavors.  The best news is the prep takes almost no time if you’re using a crockpot.

Place the beef in the bottom of the pan, and cover it with chopped onions.  They don’t need to be chopped too finely, the moist heat will turn the whole thing into something close to a soup.  Six potatos go next to the beef, and this forms your bottom layer since they require the most cooking.  (The bottom layer is closest to the heatsource and touching the water, so it should cook a tiny bit quicker.)

Next, I got about a pound of baby carrots in a small bag.  This was under $2 at Walmart and its ready to eat, so just dump ’em on top of the beef & potato layer.

Now a little more chopping:  the celery and the tomato.  I end up cutting them a little long and a thin:  I want the flavors to get mixed up real good.

Then I just pop open a can of peas…  Normally I wouldn’t use canned food, but this recipe does call for water and some salt.  The celery will provide a tiny bit of salt, but the can of peas just happened to be a convenient fit.  If you’ve got dried peas, you might want to soak them before cooking even though the heat inside the crockpot is humid.

Finally, a pinch of thyme, a dozen cranks on the pepper grinder, and a few shakes of oregeno make the perfect seasoning.  Cover up the crock pot and find some way to distract yourself from how long it will take to cook.  The good news is, the only step after being patient is enjoying dinner.

***This recipe fills up a pretty big crockpot, and its going to cook slower than usual due to the amount of food stuffed inside.  Its also going to make enough meals for a family + leftovers, or a week’s worth of bachelor grub.