I'm back again to try and ease the pressure and stress of gluten-free and dairy-free dieting.
And hopefully I can make the journey easier on not only your body, but on your pocket as well.
Frustratingly, the cost of switching to alternative health options can put an unfair dent in your pocket - especially when you are shopping for a family.
Budget-friendly shopping
It took me a little while - and I'm still learning to be honest - to ‘beat the system….kinda’ and to find more cost-effective ways to shop for my child.
Being honest, this involved more making and baking than buying.
Of course there are certain products that are naturally more costly, but hopefully this article can help in making GF & DF shopping a bit more pocket-friendly.
Tasty alternatives
I also hope to show you how to make this 'free' diet exciting and tasty despite the limitations and restrictions.
The good thing is that most of the dishes and ways you already cook can easily become dairy or gluten free.
Then you can make swap-outs like:
- Rice pasta instead of wheat pasta
- Almond/cashew milk (closer consistency to full cream dairy milk) instead of cows milk
- Bobs Red Mill GF Pancake Mix
- GF Oats instead of Regular Oats
- GF All Purpose Flour
Be careful
Note: There are products that may be organic or healthy and may claim on the label to be gluten and dairy free, but I have learned the hard way that sometimes that is not the case.
Be sure to read the ingredients at the back to avoid wastage or gluten and dairy ‘contamination’.
The Celiac Disease Foundation website has an excellent break down of ‘Gluten-Containing Grains and their Derivatives’ as well as common foods that contain gluten.
Online resources
Finding recipes on the internet for gluten free and dairy free dieting is easy.
But most times the particular ingredients are either not available, too expense or generally are just unique to us Caribbean folk.
So when I came across Charla, who had an entire website and index recipe dedicated to Caribbean cooking but adapted to make it GF & DF, I felt like I hit the jackpot.
Other great pages for Trini or West Inidian-style dishes that are gluten free, are:
Home cooking
A lot of my snacks and ready-made GF & DF products I noticed were all things that could be made at home and would also work out to be a third of the cost of the store-bought version.
It's less convenient and sometimes can be hit or miss, but it is significantly kinder on your pocket.
I hope these suggested food alternatives, swaps and recipes will help and make this change in diet less daunting and a lot easier to navigate.