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.

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.

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.

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.