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There have been many posts lately discussing the "bland" gluten-free diet,
and the possibilities of tax help to pay for expensive gluten-free foods.
My mother-in-law's best friend loves it when I visit my in-laws so she can
gripe with me about the gf diet, as I am the only other celiac she knows.  I
realize that for those of you who for some reason must consume institutional
food all the time, it must be difficult to come up with interesting, safe,
gf food.  However, I cannot understand how someone can possibly refer to our
diet as "bland", especially if one cooks for oneself  (and for those who
don't cook, I'd suggest that it is never too early to learn!).
 
The people I know who like traditional American food tend to be wary when
they eat at my house, since they always suspect that I will introduce them to
something a bit more tasty than they are used to.  My husband and I (as well
as our two and a half year old) all prefer highly spiced, flavorful foods.
As I am the cook and also celiac, everything I make (barring the occasional
commercial product, usually purchased for guests) is gluten-free.  In
addition to the usual gf constraints, I cannot tolerate whole grain corn
(maize), and my daughter has at times had to eat dairy (casein) free, so I
really do know that one can cook fun, interesting, cheap food while
maintaining a restrictive diet.  Here is how I manage to eat fun and
flavorful food on a budget:
 
1) Cook the real thing, rather than substitutes.  Though I sometimes buy rice
pasta (the 99 cents/pound stuff from the Chinese market, not the $3.50/pound
Pastariso, Ener-G, etc.), I prefer serving the things that one might serve
over pasta over rice instead.  Even the most expensive varieties of exotic
brown rice are usually less than one third the price of name brand gf pasta
substitutes, and the cheap, generic rice in 20 lb.  bags (we eat a lot of
rice, so I buy in bulk for convenience) go for about 35 cents (US
Dollars)/pound here.  And we enjoy the flavor of "real" rice!  For more zip,
try adding a splash of olive oil and some garlic to your rice before
cooking--this is a Peruvian trick that subtly flavors the rice.  By avoiding
the processed foods and cooking real rice rather than some mix, there is no
chance of gluten contamination.
 
2) Use herbs and spices liberally.  If you are leery of trusting major
brands like McCormick saying that their spices are gf, then use whole leaf
spices only.  If you don't like dried spices, then use fresh, either grown
yourself in pots on the windowsill or in the garden, or bought in the store.
There seems to be a terrible misconception that just because the word
"spices" on a list of ingredients for a commercial sauce may be suspect for
us, that we need to avoid all spices in our own cooking.  This isn't true!
 
3) Use flavorful vegetables, fruits, and condiments to enhance your meals.
I love using peppers of all kinds, onions, various homemade and (gf)
commercial relishes,etc  either to add to sauces or just to eat along with a
main dish.  The other day I served Peruvian-style chicken with peanut sauce
(made from gf peanut butter, hot peppers, onions, garlic) served over
potatoes.  I dare anyone to call this dish "bland".
 
4) Try ethnic foods.  Before going gf, I had never really eaten Indian food,
and now the Indian food aisle is one of the places I stop with regularity.
Our supermarket has a dizzying array of jars of gf Indian sauce
concentrates, a spoonful of which mixed with some yogurt or coconut milk and
poured over chicken, lamb, fish, or vegetables makes a very tasty meal when
served with rice.  Tomato-based "italian"-style sauces are quick, easy, and
cheap, and can easily be made dairy free.  Start with a can of pureed
tomatoes and add your favorite flavorings (meat, mushrooms, peppers, garlic,
olives, etc).  Try eating cajun flavored foods, or chinese (with gf soy
sauce, of course), or greek--the possibilities are endless!  If you need
inspiration, check out the cookbook section of your local library.  Good
ethnic cookbooks won't use lots of prepackaged, gluten-containing foods, and
even if your arabic cookbook tells you to serve some dish with couscous, try
using rice instead and you still have something new and interesting (and
safe!) to try.
 
5) Look up old traditonal American favorites.  Though my family is always
suspicious that I'm going to slip them something exotic, my friends think
that I am odd for bringing things like tapioca or rice pudding to a potluck.
I don't know anybody else my age who makes rice pudding on a regular basis,
but there is a reason  why this dessert has been popular for years!  It can
be made deliciously dairy free by using coconut milk instead of regular
milk, or lactaid milk if lactose is a concern.  Most people view me as
eccentric for whipping my own cream instead of using the frozen stuff, but
not only do I not have to worry about hiddden gluten, it tastes much better
and is cheaper to boot!
 
Recent research here at Cornell University has indicated that a rice-based
diet appears to lower both serum triglicerides and cholesterol levels, and
both have continued to drop for me as well as for my non-celiac husband, even
though we eat red meat and other foods that are not on the heart smart lists.
I won't use anything marketed as a "diet" product--most aren't gf anyway--and
it appears that one can consume things like eggs (omelettes are great fast
cheap gf food) and not have one's cholesterol atomatically skyrocket.
 
About baked goods--OK, here I think it is unavoidable that we pay more than
someone who isn't on a gf diet.  This isn't true, though, if you compare the
cost of homemade gf muffins, breads, pancakes, etc. with commercial
gluten-containing baked goods.  I buy my xanthan gum through Miss Roben's
(cheapest source I've found), my tapioca starch and pototato starch flour
at the Chinese market, and my rice flour in the Indian food aisle.  I save
at least 50% over the cost of mail ordering from someplace like Ener-G.  I
don't use commercial gf mixes (Bette Hagman's books are a great source of
basic recipes).  My food bills are lower than most people's (eating regular
gluten diets) because I am not tempted to use mixes or convenience foods.
If you cook from scratch it doesn't really take much more time (mufffins
from a mix preparation time can't be much less than the 5 minutes it takes
to whip up a batch from scratch), you can control the ingredients, things
taste better/fresher, and they cost less!
 
I hope that some of these hints help some of you out there in cyberspace to
broaden your diets and bring joy to mealtimes again.
 
Laura (who's mouth is watering at the prospect of grilling the cheap
$1.49/pound chuck steak that has been marinating in a homemade Italian-style
dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, and herbs for the past day or so as
soon as she gets home!)
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Ithaca, NY, USA