One of the more challenging things to confront when dealing with food intolerance and sensitivities are the moments when your caught unprepared hungry. (You know that feeling when you just have to eat something or you’ll pass out?) This occurrence is pretty common and sad to say, this is also when we’re more susceptible to ingesting gluten, because there simply isn’t time to be picky!
Avoiding this can be done with sufficient meal planning, and always having your go-to food item in your fridge, or in your bag, prepared wherever you may be. Here are some terrific ideas you can try so that the next time your stomach grumbles, you’re covered.
- Food Wraps
This is terrifically easy to make in advance. Make 4 to 5 wraps, put them in a lunch pack, or a zip lock bag, and save them in your fridge for later. Lettuce wraps, with seasoned and sauteed meat, and seafood, with a little gluten-free dressing, is a convenient option.
Here’s a great recipe from Eating Well that you can try out: Gluten-Free Peanut-Chicken Cabbage Wraps.
- Sandwiches
Gluten-free sliced bread is heaven sent for these food grubbing moments. If you have gluten-free spreads on hand, just slather it on your bread and you’re good to go. There are a lot of excellent gluten-free spreads options around, more common are are peanut butter, gluten-free chocolate spreads.
A great selection of gluten-free breads and spreads ise available here.
- Gluten-free bite-sized cookies and muffins
Bite-sized snacks are great to take with you wherever you go. You don’t have to worry about them spoiling even days at a time in your bag. Put a jar of cookies on your desk at work, or a bag of muffins in your gym bag. Rice cakes or breads made with almond flour or sorghum flour instead of wheat are great. Delicious for nibbling, and guaranteed won’t make you sick because they are already tried and tested.
- Naturally Gluten-free snacks
If you want to minimize processed food, it is a smart thing to go with naturally gluten-free food so that you also don’t consume way more sugar, salt or additives that aren’t really necessary, just to address your hunger pangs. Have a piece of fruit handy in your bag, those that pack easily in your bag like an orange of a piece of apple. Try also bags of unseasoned nuts or seeds.
- Meal Plan
If you know exactly what you are having daily for the next few days, and already have them prepared during the weekend, then you can definitely minimize the risk of untimely hunger. Having complete sets of meals for the day already planned out: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks in between, will make sure you’re complete satiated for the rest of the day.
The Celiac Disease Foundation has on their site a 7-day gluten-free meal plan that you can use as guide for your own planning.
Excellent! So next time you are feeling hungry, save yourself from another episode of enduring effects of gluten ingestion.
Was this list helpful? If you have your own suggestion from experience of how to safely coast through the day gluten-free, give us a shout out in the comments! 🙂 Have a great weekend, everyone!
Gluten-Free Philippines 