If you have to go gluten free, fear not. Just because you can’t have wheat, rye, barley, and oats anymore does not mean you’re going to starve and/or live off of gross-tasting foods for the rest of your life. Plenty of the foods I ate before I found out I was allergic to gluten were already gluten free. And the ones I did eat had really good GF substitutes. I was fine. In fact, I was better off. And if a picky eater like myself can be fine on such a strict diet, then anyone can. Believe me.
Here are 10 of my favorite GF snacks/lunch pieces to eat during the day:
Celery & Laughing Cow’s Light Creamy Swiss Cheese: This was my favorite snack back in college and I recently just got back into it. It’s quick to ‘make,’ healthy to eat, and the cheese is incredibly good. Celery basically has no calories (okay – just a very small amount) and one wedge of Laughing Cow’s Light Creamy Swiss Cheese has 35 calories in it. I usually have 3 celery sticks with 2 cheese wedges every day with lunch or for a snack.
Grapes: Grapes are a classic snack. Just make sure you portion them out so you don’t eat 100 grapes at once. Not that I’ve ever done that…
Nectarines: This is the perfect Summer snack. At only 50/60 calories, you’re getting full on a tiny piece of juicy goodness.
Strawberries: I debated putting strawberries on this list because I have a unhealthy issue with them. But for those of you who can control yourselves and not eat an entire box while washing them, strawberries are like the best snack ever. Put them in greek yogurt and it’s even better.
Chobani yogurt with Udi’s GF Granola: This is a little more than a snack, but I had to include it because I eat it every day as part of my lunch. Fruit and yogurt parfaits were the bane of my existence in college. Every day, I would either have that or a strawberry banana smoothie for lunch. After going gluten free I couldn’t add my beloved granola to the mix anymore… That is until Udi’s game out with GF granola. My favorite flavors are vanilla and original. It tastes amazing!
Veggie Straws: If you know me, you know I am severely addicted to veggie straws. Whether they are in the form of chips or sticks, I don’t care. I buy the big box of 130 calorie packs from BJ’s (not Costco because that box includes ranch and I hate that flavor) and when in doubt (aka when hungry and lacking time to make healthy foods), I eat bag after bag after bag of veggie straws. I could literally live off these things. I’m surprised I haven’t gotten sick of them yet. This is my longest standing love affair with a snack yet.
Popcorners Chips: No, not Pop Chips. Popcorners are triangular popcorn chips. Yes, popcorn chips. Does it get any better than that? My favorite flavors are sea salt and buttered popcorn… Of course there are others. I just ignore the unfamiliar.
Trader Joe’s Reduced Guilt Spinach & Kale Greek Yogurt Dip: Forget humus. Forget spinach and artichoke. Forget french onion. This is the best. dip. ever. Not to mention it’s healthy and low (like really low) calorie. I eat it with Food Should Taste Good multigrain chips, but I’m sure it tastes good with anything.
Food Should Taste Good Multigrain Chips: As I said above, these chips are necessary when craving TJ’s spinach & kale dip. You can’t eat that dip without a spoon. This isn’t Nutella people.
Nutella: All you need is a spoon. 🙂
What are your favorite GF snacks? Lunches? And if you’re not gluten free, would you eat most of these things anyway? Yeah… that’s what I thought.
3 Comments
Not gluten free, but I love that Trader Joe’s dip. I eat it on my sandwiches, it’s really good on them instead of mayo. TJ’s has a lot of awesome gluten free items too.
That dip has been my life the past three weeks! Using it on sandwiches is a great idea.
Nutella is good with a spoon, but great with Snyder’s of Hanover GF pretzels dipped into it. YUM!