Gluten free recipes you'll actually crave
our story
What I Wish I Knew When My Son Was Diagnosed
BEST Chicken Tacos
★★★★★ 5.0 from 118 votes
Ground Beef Taco Bowls
★★★★★ 4.9 from 61 votes
Chicken Fajita Bowl
★★★★★ 4.8 from 58 votes
Baked Teriyaki Salmon
★★★★★ 4.8 from 79 votes
Best Gluten Free Banana Bread
★★★★★ 5.0 from 198 votes
Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
★★★★★ 5.0 from 289 votes
Week one: subtract, don't substitute
The first thing you want to do is buy a gluten free version of everything. Bread, pasta, crackers, cookies. I did it. Most of it was expensive and sad, and worse, it taught my son that his food was a worse copy of everyone else's.
So we stopped. For that first week we just cooked the dinners we already made that happened to have no gluten in them — tacos on corn tortillas, rice bowls, roast chicken, salmon and potatoes. Nothing about the table changed. That turned out to matter more than anything on a shelf.
Week two: the four things hiding gluten
Soy sauce is brewed with wheat. Most stock cubes have wheat starch in them. Oats are gluten free by nature and almost always contaminated in the mill. Pre-mixed spice blends and gravy granules use wheat to stop them clumping.
Swapping those four for tamari, certified gluten free stock, certified oats and plain single spices did more than every specialty product I'd bought put together. It cost less, too.
Week three: rules simple enough to remember
We settled on four, because a rule nobody remembers protects nobody: separate toaster, separate colander, labeled butter and jam, gluten free food plated first.
For a diagnosed gluten sensitivity, a shared kitchen works fine with a bit of care. For celiac disease, talk to your clinician — the thresholds are much stricter, and nothing here is medical advice.
Week four: baking, and why it matters
Only then did we bake. Banana bread first, because it's forgiving and familiar and hard to ruin. Then chocolate chip cookies, which took four tries before the texture was right.
That's the whole method behind this site, really. Everything here has been made at least twice in this kitchen and adjusted until my son ate it without mentioning it was gluten free. He is not a generous critic, so that takes a while.
Frequently asked questions
What should I cook the first week after a gluten diagnosis?
Cook the meals you already make that have no gluten in them — tacos on corn tortillas, rice bowls, roast chicken, salmon, potatoes, chili, soups thickened with cornstarch. Replacing familiar food with gluten free packaged versions in week one almost always disappoints.
What do I need to take out of the pantry?
Wheat, barley and rye products, plus the four hidden ones: regular soy sauce, stock cubes, non-certified oats, and pre-mixed spice or gravy blends.
How do I stop cross contamination in a shared kitchen?
Separate toaster and colander, labeled butter and spreads so crumbs don't travel, and plate the gluten free food first. Wash boards and pans in between.
How do I keep a child from feeling left out at meals?
Serve everyone the same meal instead of making a separate plate, and keep the formats they know — pizza, tacos, cookies, birthday cake. Kids notice being handed a different dinner. They don't notice the flour blend.
Is gluten sensitivity the same as celiac disease?
No. Celiac disease is autoimmune, with much stricter cross contamination thresholds, and it needs clinical diagnosis and follow up. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is managed through diet. This page is our family's experience, not medical advice.
