Quick and Easy Shopping

When we first started the GFCF diet we were overwhelmed with the whole shopping experience.  We struggled with where to find the foods we needed as well as planning quick and easy or last minute meals.  Having done this for a year now we have been able to figure out which stores have what we need, what items are an absolute must to have in our house at all times, and when in need (which is often with 2 kids, crazy schedules, and a growing belly) the places to find items for last minute meals. 

At first, after starting the GFCF diet believe that every type of food we needed for our son would have to come from a specialty food store.  We were almost certain we had never seen any gluten free or casein free items in our local grocery stores, but we had never had to notice them before as well.  In the beginning we did shop at ONLY the specialty food stores, such as Trader Joes and Lil's Dietary Specialty Shop located in Chicago.  Both are fabulous stores that we continue to shop at still today, but both also proved to be obstacles on occasion.  Trader Joes is located in Orland Park, which is about a 25 minute ride and Lil's has earlier hours than we sometimes need.  We definitely need to work on being more organized and scheduled but that is another story, lol!  So, we learned to stock up big time and probably over-shopped for quite some time.  Eventually, as schedules got rearranged and life happened and babies came along, this was not so easy to do.  We began to do some research and check out products at the local grocery store.  They definitely did not have many options to choose from, (which is getting better with time) but they did carry more items than we had thought.  For instance our Jewel branch has a whole gluten free section, so we just make sure to cross reference each item for casein.  We also discovered that Target carries Vans waffles, taco seasonings, Annie's natural fruit snacks, and others.  There is a local grocery store nearby as well, County Fair, that carries all different kinds of safe meat, pastas, breakfast sausages, muffins, and other snacks.  It is our go-to grocer most of the time.  Eventually we started to look beyond just the items that were labeled GFCF and start checking into items that used to be part of our everyday meals.  That is when we stumbled upon the website GFCFdiet.com.  It has and still is an amazing resource for us, they list products by category that are safe to have.  They do make you aware that you should always check with the companies that manufacture these products in case something changes.  We found a ton of items on their list that we never even knew were safe for our son, it truly has been a huge help to us when we have last minute shopping or our planning a meal later in the day when our only option of a store is our local grocer.  So check GFCFdiet.com, you can also find them on Facebook.  I am also going to include a list of items that we find helpful to have in the house at all times, most if not all, should be able to be found at your local grocer, so happy shopping :)

Sweet Baby Ray's Honey BBQ Sauce
McCormick Onion Powder
McCormick Garlic Powder
McCormick Vanilla
Hunt's Ketchup
Hellmann's Mayonnaise
Tamari  Sauce (found in the oriental aisle)
Fritos
Tostitos
Snyders Gluten free pretzels
A1 Steak Sauce
Mission yellow corn tortillas
Newman's Own Mild Salsa
Wish-Bone Italian Dressing
Brianna's The New American Dressing
Welchs Concord Grape Jelly
Hershey's Syrup Original
V8 Splash Juice (we stick to the Tropical Blend to avoid red dyes)
Simply Orange Juice
Enjoy Life Chocolate
Earth Balance Buttery Spread
Skippy Natural Creamy Peanut Butter
Rice Chex
Nature Valley Roasted Nut Crunch granola bars
Betty Crocker Gluten free mixes
couscous
quinoa
Cape Cod Kettle Cooked Chips
Pepsi/Sprite (which we only use for special occasions)
Mug Root Beer
Annie's Fruit Snacks
Olive oil
Sesame oil
 Rice Milk
Almond Milk

Along with these, other safe items include:  eggs, fruit, veggies, and filler-free meats!  Happy eating :)