New to the gluten and/or dairy free world? Overwhelmed on where to start? In this post we lay out 5 easy and actionable steps you can take to get started today. We hope you find encouragement and hope through this and by the end will be empowered to begin your journey! Whether you’re doing it for health reasons or to find healthier alternatives for yourself or your family, going gluten and/or dairy free doesn’t have to be hard. You can do this!

Step 1. Meal Prep

The most overwhelming part of this journey was trying to figure out what we COULD eat! Sounds silly, but the more research we did the more I realized that gluten is hidden in so many things! Barley, rye, wheat, malt, malt vinegar, spelt, bran, flour, graham flour, farina, durum, semolina, natural flavors, Vitamin E or tocopheryls, and glucose are all either other names for gluten or are derived from wheat which contain gluten. While this isn’t an exhaustive list of all the hidden names for gluten it gives a good look into how hard it can be to find gluten free foods. Yes, great, but now what? Well now we make a clean list. This list will include easy things we know are naturally gluten free such as fruits, vegetables, and meat. (Although be careful, some meats are processed using gluten containing ingredients. More on this in a minute.) Once you have your list make out a meal schedule for the next week or two. This should include breakfast, lunches, and dinners. By doing this it buys you time to do a little research and to shop for gluten free alternatives that you can incorporate in future weeks.

Step 2. Meal Inspiration

I don’t know about you, but I definitely do better with a little inspiration! My friend and fellow gluten and dairy free warrior, Victoria, has created an amazing website full of gluten and dairy free recipes to help you get started! In each recipe she even lays out the brands of gluten and dairy free ingredient alternatives she uses and recommends so it is another way to start your list of gluten and diary free brands to look for in the store! You can find her website here: www.eatingglutenanddairyfree.com.

Step 3. Where to shop?

Depending on where you live and what stores you have available, this next step will be easier or a tad bit trickier! Not to fret though, no matter where you live there are usually pretty good options when it comes to buying gluten and dairy free alternatives these days. Big chains that have a lot of gluten and dairy free options would be places like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Since these stores are more than an hour away from us we usually stick to our local stores like Kroger and Meijer which have more and more products available each year. Another place we like, where we go to stock up and save money, is Costco. Their selection of healthier snacks for the kids has been really helpful…and who doesn’t love Costco?!

Step 4. Time to shop!

There are so many more options today for gluten free and dairy free alternatives than there were even 5 or 10 years ago with many more brands popping up each year! It’s also exciting to see more certified gluten free labels on items. While you should still do your homework and learn how to read labels, for the most part we trust these certified gluten free labels and it makes it much easier to find new foods we can have. This list is by no means exhaustive. These are just some of the everyday brands we use:

•Bob Red Mill’s gluten free flour and oats. (Their Baking 1 to 1 flour is great for making pancakes, waffles, and other baked goods.) Be careful with oats! Some may say they are gluten free but still contain traces of gluten. We trust Bob Red Mill’s oats. Overall Bob Red Mill’s is a great company and we love many of their products! Also, not all of their products are gluten free, so make sure they say gluten free on the packaging!

•Canyon Bakehouse Gluten Free Bread. We get it at Meijer but you can get it a lot cheaper at Costco.

•Speaking of Costco here are some of our favorite Costco finds: MADE GOOD Granola Minis, BOBO’s, Pure Organic layered fruit bars, That’s it fruit bars, Lotus Rice Ramen Noodles. Costco is always adding more and more products so check labels and have fun finding new treasures!

•For dairy free items we use Silk Almond Milk but there are other options too. Be careful of oat milks though. Some say gluten free but studies have shown that some still contain traces of gluten. We also use Earth balance butter, which is vegan, as our butter replacement. It comes in a spreadable container or as sticks for baking.

•Adding to our dairy free brands we also enjoy daiya products. Some of our faves from them are their dairy free Mac n cheese (yes, also gluten free!), their nacho sauce (sooo good!), and pizza!

•Again, look for the certified gluten free labels on products. This makes it much easier to know what products are actually gluten free because even if a product doesn’t have wheat on the label it could still contain it. (Ex. Maltodextrin, found in many processed foods, is often times derived from wheat.)

Step 5. You Got This!

Now that you have some gluten and dairy free alternatives it’s time to make another meal prep list. Start replacing ingredients you use in your meals such as applesauce instead of butter when baking, bone broth in mashed potatoes instead of milk, gluten free bread to make French toast. Once you find alternatives to your favorite meals add those new meals into your next week’s meal list and as you continue to find new alternatives your meal list will continue to grow. This is when things began to get a lot easier and less stressful for us!

Also, when it comes to finding gluten free alternatives I’ve found that a lot of popular foods have also added gluten free options. Our kids’ favorite example of this (although we don’t buy them often lol) would be Oreos! And can I just say that they recently came out with a mint version that tastes mighty similar to Thin Mints! With Girl Scout season among us this has been an exciting find for sure!

While there are many more things that you will learn on this journey I hope this is a starting point to help guide you to action and help give you a bit of relief. If there is something particular you’d like us to touch on in future posts let us know below. We’re here to help!

Keep growing,

Nikki and the RRC Family