What Gluten Free Products Do You Buy At The Regular Grocery Store?

[elaine33]

I've been to local health food store and Whole Foods, but now I'm going regular shopping and hoping to save a lot more money getting as much regular stuff I can at the supermarket. What regular kid-friendly foods can you buy. Rice cakes okay there or do you have to go to the health food store? How about rice crispy treats? Rice cereals?

[Cheri A]

Dora Cinnamon Stars is the only cereal I buy at the regular grocery store due to her other allergies. Others will have more input there.

I also buy fritos, plain potato chips, mini-marshmallows, applesauce, canned fruit, frozen veggies, frozen fruit for smoothies, OJ, dairyfree margarine.

Tapioca Starch is much cheaper there so I get that there. I also buy Cascadian Farms french fries, spud puppies (tator tots), Alexia fries, "cheese", if not on sale at the HFS.

I think that's most of it.

[Matilda]

...

[tarnalberry]

Fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, rice, and beans. And oils and spices.

That's the vast majority of what I buy, so...

But you probably mean something that's not naturally gluten free and is pre-packaged?

Cereals - mostly not. Most rice cereals that aren't specially gluten-free have barley malt, making them out for us. I've picked up Cream of Rice from a regular grocery store, and that's about it. (Ditto for the rice crispy treats.)

Rice Cakes - mine grocery store carries Lundberg, so I can get those there, but I wouldn't trust the store brand or Quaker (who tells customers NOT to depend on their rice cakes being gluten free).

Kid-friendly - I don't have kids, but I get sorbet on occasion (it'd be ice cream if I could have dairy) from the regular grocery store. And VitaminWater, because that stuff is tasty and good for long hikes. I'll occasionally have some of my husband's Tostitos.

There actually are a lot of other options, but any preprocessed food item you get runs some risk of contamination, albeit many times a very very very very small one. Hence, I try to encourage people to stick to whole, naturally gluten-free foods as much as possible. It really isn't as big of a time suck as some people I've talked to in my life have thought it was, once you get past the learning curve. But, I know it's not for everyone, and the most useful list I've seen of prepackaged, mainstream items, is the file that's available on the Delphi celiac forums (you can google for that to get there, I don't have the link saved).

[Guest ~jules~]

I mostly buy the naturallly gluten free foods also...I'm sure there are great products out there that are sold gluten free, however my experience thus far, most of them don't taste very good. I just prefer to figure out how to make things on my own. I make special trips to our health food store to buy the flours I need to make my bread, gluten free pastas when I want pasta, and thats about it. 'When I was first diagnosed I was buying all this gluten free stuff, I spent quite a bit of money on all of the experimenting, and nothing was that great...Thats only my opinion though, like I said I'm sure there are things out there that taste okay....Happy hunting....

[StrongerToday]

I buy the majority of my food at main stream groceries. Meats and veggies of course. I don't eat cereal (never cared for it) so that's not a problem. I buy corn tortillas, taco shells and Tostido's and make tacos or nachos. Eggs, bacon and Alexia hashbrowns, yum.

I do go to Trader Joe's once every 4 - 6 weeks, but mostly to stock up on cashew or almond butter - it's half the cost then at the regular grocery store.

[Nic]

Besides the Dora Cereal, I also buy Cocoa and Fruity Pebbles. For snacks I buy fresh fruit, the cups of Mandarin Oranges or peaches. Betty Crocker fruit snacks are gluten free. Meats and veggies are usually safe unless the veggies are frozen in a sauce (always read the ingredients). I also get Orida frozen fries. Jello pudding cups are safe as are Hunts. We also get yogurt. The only things I need to get outside of the regular supermarket are the pastas, baked goods, or breadcrumbs. You will see, it really gets easier with experience.

Nicole

[elaine33]

Thanks so much for all the wonderful suggestions. I should have mentioned that we have milk problems as well. I did buy Alexias potato wedges to make with steak for dinner tomorrow night.

Are all Ore-Ida fries gluten free because we love Crispers but it wasn't on the list that I downloaded from someone's signature in this forum? (I"m sorry, I can't remember whose it was but thanks so much for it).

[TCA]

There is a link in my sig line to a list on how to get started gluten free. One of the things is a list of companies that always list gluten ingredients. I tend to stick with these companies. Hope that helps!

[TCA]

My son is sooooo picky, but here is a list of gluten-free foods he will eat. Hope that's helpful!

ALWAYS double check ingredients since they can change from time to time.

• Delimex Taquitos - double check ingredients since some have wheat

• Oscar Mayer Hot dogs and bologna

• Hormel microwave bacon

• Kraft Cheese – singles, mozzarella, and cheddar

• Mission Corn tortillas

He likes these made into quesadillas and pizzas. To make the pizzas, put one tortilla down, sprinkle lightly with cheese and place a 2nd tortilla on top. Top that tortilla with pizza sauce, cheese and pepperoni. I put it in the toaster oven, but the oven is fine. Just cook it until the cheese melts.

• Ragu or Sam’s Choice pasta and pizza sauce

• Hormel Pepperoni

• Nerds, Sweet Tarts, Runts, Laffy Taffy, jolly rancher jelly beans, skittles, starburst

• Reese’s Cups, Hershey’s kisses, Reese’s pieces, M&M’s

• Member’s Mark (Sam’s) Gummies

• Breadless Coating brand Chicken Tenders. They say Gluten Free on the bag. (found at Publix

• Gluten free biscuits. (Cause You’re so Special is a good Brand)

• Peanut Butter and Jelly

• Gluten free pancakes – Bob’s Red Mill is good from Kroger. Golden Eagle syrup, Real Maple syrup, jelly, and honey are good toppers. Pamela’s brand is excellent!

• Kraft regular and light Mayo

• Heinz Ketchup

• Hunt’s Snack cups – jello and pudding

• Jello brand jello.

• Vann’s gluten free waffles (found at Target, Publix and Health Food stores). Blueberry and Chocolate chip are his favorites.

• Amy’s Frozen Rice Crust Cheese Pizza (found at Target and Health food stores).

• Black Forrest Hormel Ham (I buy this at Sam’s). If getting deli meats cut, make sure they clean the slicer first since gluten meats and cheeses may have been cut on it.

• Frito Lay chips – fritos, stax, cheetos, ruffles, plain

• UTZ potato chips

• Popcorn – I usually pop the real stuff. I need to check on Microwave types.

• Ore Ida French fries (most) and tater tots(all) – check ingredients

• Gluten free cornbread – make sure the mix does not contain flour (most do). Don’t cook it in a cast iron skillet where gluten breads have been cooked. The porous material holds gluten.

• Fruit – he loves grapes, apples (especially with peanut butter), bananas, oranges

• Real butter, country crock - a lot are ok, but be careful! Cross contamination is a big issue.

• Pillsbury or Betty Crocker Icing – cream cheese is his favorite

• Veggies are good, but good luck getting him to eat them! ; )

• Crystal Light – orange is his favorite

• Coke and Pepsi brand soft drinks are gluten-free, but I don’t give him many.

• Popsicles – Popsicle brand and Kool Aid brand are good. There are MANY others.

• Raisins

[Nic]

Thanks so much for all the wonderful suggestions. I should have mentioned that we have milk problems as well. I did buy Alexias potato wedges to make with steak for dinner tomorrow night.

Are all Ore-Ida fries gluten free because we love Crispers but it wasn't on the list that I downloaded from someone's signature in this forum? (I"m sorry, I can't remember whose it was but thanks so much for it).

I think that some of the ore-Ida fries might not be safe (I believe it would be the extra crispy ones). But the good thing with them is that on the bottom of the ingredient list there is an allergy warning in bold print. I believe it says that it contain soy. Double check though.

Nicole

[Izak's Mom]

Elaine, what state are you in? Some regular supermarket chains have much better 'natural'/'health' food sections than others.

[grapegrace]

my son is gluten sensitive and lactose intolerent. he loves the philly swirl popsickes and italian ice cups ( i thinks thats what they are called) i get them at wal-mart. he also loves the hunts pudding and marshmellows. he's not a big cereal eater, but he seems to enjoy the occasional bowl of honeycomb (it does have oat flour, so depending on how sensitive the person is, this may not be a good choice).