The Lazy Lunch Survival Guide

Here be some handy meals I came up with for very quick meals on the go specifically designed for glutards. Most of them can be made in one pot and in bulk on Sunday, then packaged to feed you through the week! 


1. Poor-itos
This is a very simple, stripped down version of burritos. Poor-itos are named as such because they were primarily what I ate when I was finishing my dissertation and wasn't getting paid. I could only afford the most essential groceries, so no gluten free versions of regular carbs. Buy the "Latino-sized" package of corn taco tortillas -- there are probably 50 of them in there and the not-marketed-to-White-people tortillas don't tend to contain weird fillers. They are also very cheap... so fantastically, amazingly affordable! Then buy a bag of dried black beans. Also very cheap. Soak beans per the package directions, then cook with cumin, lime, cilantro, salt, pepper, and chipotle tabasco sauce. Warm the corn tortillas, plop some beans in, sprinkle with cheese and salsa, and then you have lunch. Microwave acceptable for nearly every step! To quote Emeril, "Bam!" Cheap and easy (assuming you had the foresight to soak your beans)!


2. Stir fry
When you don't have the foresight to soak your beans a day in advance, you can easily make a quick stir fry to sustain you for the week. I like brown rice because it is heartier than white rice and people tell me it is healthier. There are some gluten free soy sauces out there (GF Tamari is the best, but La Choy is usually gluten free, too), so you can mix soy sauce with ginger, sugar, and garlic and use that to sautee veggies and tofu/meat. If you want to thicken the sauce, use corn starch. Frozen veggie combination bags make for thought-less cooking!


3. Glutard spaghetti (well... elbows or pagodas if you're going to be a stickler)
I have a carb-crush on quinoa pasta. I have never actually checked the label, but I'm assuming it is full of protein and fiber. I like to buy quinoa pasta and dump a jar of spaghetti sauce on it. To quote Shaq, "Shazam!" Now you can be just as lazy as you were pre-gluten allergy... it is just more expensive. 


4. La Fiesta
This is a lazy variation of the poor-itos in which the burrito fillings are placed atop of a bed of rice. If you don't feel like making your own Fiesta, you can always be ultra-lazy and go to Chipotle, where pretty much everything is gluten free (including the corn tortillas) except for the flour tortillas, obviously. 


5. Indian food packets
Many of the packets of Indian food at the grocery store or Trader Joe's are gluten free and pair well with brown rice. Ya know, you can even buy pre-cooked brown rice that you just need to microwave. La-zy.


6. Rice cake sandwich
I'm almost embarrassed to admit this one... 
When g-free bread was really bad in the early days, I stopped bothering with it entirely. Maybe it is better now, I don't really know or care. But if you make a turkey sandwich/PB&J/etc on plain rice cakes in the morning and let it sit until lunch, the rice cakes get a little soggy and no longer shatter all over you. This is my preferred vehicle for relish these days, since I can take or leave meat, but it is really hard to justify just eating spoonfuls of relish straight from the jar.


Very quick and simple meals for gluten intolerant folks! FIguring this out was critical because I developed my gluten allergy while in grad school pursuing my PhD and didn't have a lot of time to cook, but could no longer exist on sandwiches, frozen pizza, and macaroni & cheese. These options are far healthier and tastier than what I used to eat while being about as simple. Bon appetit!