21 Gluten Free Life Hacks To Make Your Life Easier
My gluten free life hacks are divided into 4 sections – carbs, eating out, making it cheaper and other bits! I reaaallly hope these gluten free tips make your gluten free life easier, tastier and cheaper!!!
Most of these have come from my weird old brain but some have come from my lovely followers – so thank you! If you’ve got any more to add, send them my way 🙂
CARBS!!!!
(1) Freeze your bread – Don’t ask me why but if you toast if from frozen, it holds together so much better!
(2) Double your pasta water – if you use double the amount of water as you would with “normal” pasta. It stops it going gloopy and annoying haha
(3) Buy toaster bags – toasters are a cross contamination nightmare. Use toaster bags!
(4) Warm up your wraps – they taste way less carboardy and seem to be bendier once warmed in the microwave for 5-10 seconds.
(5) Butter your bread with a spoon – don’t ask how I know this but if you use the back of a spoon, it falls apart less
(6) Turn the ends of bread into breadcrumbs – the ends of gf bread are often pretty poor. Blitz them in a blender/smoothie maker and put into the freezer for when you want breaded chicken or my scotch eggs!
EATING OUT
(7) McDonald’s veggie dippers & chips are gluten free – in the UK, you can have this meal without the faff of asking for no bun etc.
(8) Use hash browns instead of the burger bun for your Mcdonalds brekkie – yep, sandwich that egg mcmuffin with hash browns!!
(9) Send this letter to whoever is cooking for you – gives them all the basic rules without you having to remember everything and have that awkward conversation! Letter to someone who’s cooking for you
(10) Use allergy translation cards if you’re going abroad – you can easily find them on the internet (just little cards explaining what coeliac disease is and what you can’t eat in the local language)
(11) Buy a hot pot for lunches – bit like a flask for your coffee, you can now buy ones for your lunch. Perfect if you’re going somewhere and you’re not sure if you’ll be able to get something to eat but don’t want to settle for a banana and a bag of crisps!
(12) Serve yourself first at a buffet – simple one but saves the cross contamination nightmare. Make sure you take loadssss haha.
MAKE IT CHEAPER
(13) Read my money saving blog post – click here
(14) Get out the free from aisle – loads of it is there because its vegan, milk free, nut free, or something else… nothing to do with gluten. Save your pennies and buy normal aisle where you can. List here.
(15) Buy free from yellow stickers – have a chat with your local supermarket and find out when they’re most likely to add yellow discount stickers to products. Bread and wraps are a popular one! Both can be shoved in the freezer… yes, wraps too!
OTHER BITS
(16) Get the Coeliac U.K. app – you can scan barcodes and easily check if something is gluten free. Here’s my guide for how to use it. Or find more info on the Coeliac UK website here.
(17) Uni students, get a different colour for your pans/plates/cutlery etc – make sure they stand out!
(18) Join Insta – there is so much help out there! Check out the hashtags #glutenfreeblogger to find 100’s of us
(19) Xantham gum – cakes too crumbly? Add a tiny bit of this to your cake mix. You can get it in the free from aisle of most major supermarkets.
(20) Stock up on coop party food at Christmas – most of their range is gf and its all stuff you can’t normally get your hands on, from samosas to spring rolls. Buy loads to keep you going well past Christmas. Its a must haha.
(21) BROWS and BALS – two ways of remembering what you can’t have. BROWS – barlery, rye, oats (unless gf) , wheat and spelt. BALS – beer, ale, lager and stout. More alcohol info here.
Gluten free life can be tricky, can’t it? Want some help?
- Hidden Gluten – 18 places you might not expect it
- Gluten Free Food in the Normal Aisle – this is for Aldi and Lidl but there’s links at the top of the post to all of the other supermarkets.
And tons more here in my “gluten free help” section!!
