Planning a gluten-free week!

Let's peek at the weekly ads and make a plan.

A subscriber said that they’d like to see me plan some gluten-free meals, so I decided to do a full gluten-free week on a budget. My upper limit for spending is $57.10 per week or $247.50 per month, in alignment with the USDA thrifty food plan guideline. Technically, I’m supposed to add 20% as a single householder, but I don’t because veganism means my food costs are lower on average anyway. Here’s what my process is like for planning what I’m going to eat in a week.

So first, let’s peep the weekly ad and coupons at my preferred budget grocery, Food Lion. One thing I like about using the online weekly ad at Food Lion is that they show when there’s a paired coupon for an item that’s already on sale. For example, this week asparaus is pretty well on sale at $1.99/lb instead of $3.69/lb, plus there’s an $0.80 off coupon for it.

• 5 lb. bags of russet potatoes are on sale for $2

• Strawberries are on sale for $2 per pound

• Hellmann’s/Best Foods vegan mayo has a $3 off coupon

• Store brand brown sugar has a $0.75 off coupon

• Store brand frozen vegetables are both on sale for $1.75 each plus $0.90 off coupon if you buy two

• Celery and onion are both on sale, plus I want to make a stew that uses carrots. Normally, I’m hesitant to buy a whole celery head but given the trio are cheap this week, I’ll just make some freezer mirepoix for anything left over.

• Breyer’s nondairy ice cream is on sale for BOGO free, plus there’s a coupon for $2 off if you buy two, plus it’s worth 2,000 points on Fetch (referral code QUA2JF) which brings the price down to $1.40 each (usually $6.49) if you buy two. Unfortunately, I cannot fit two of them in my freezer right now. I hope this is helpful information for my readers anyway.

I also check Ibotta (referral code njwbrvm), which is an app that you can connect to your Food Lion account to automatically get cash back for your purchases. The referral code is also good, it gets you $5 bonus when you sign up. Anyway, here are some things worth checking out:

• Silk Kids Protein Oatmilk blend STILL has a $3 back offer, so I’m still stocking up if there’s any with a best buy date later than my current stock

• Country Crock plant butter as $0.25 back, which isn’t great, but there’s an additional $1.25 coupon at Food Lion. I don’t need any, but maybe you do.

• Canyon Bakehouse has a $1.75 back offer, which is a gluten-free brand. These are quite expensive, so I’ll check to see if anything else makes more sense in terms of a gluten-free breakfast bread option when I’m there. If not, I might get it.

Okay, now let’s plan recipes!

1. I have a hankering for meatloaf, and fortunately my favorite recipe from Vegan Richa is already gluten-free! I’ll have some roasted russet potatoes and asparagus on the side.

2. I saw this miso red wine stew from Rachel Ama fly by on Instagram and it looked great. I have just a bit left of a bottle of (dealcoholized) red wine that I need to use. I’ll make several substitutions to save money: mashed russet potatoes instead of parsnip butter bean mask, dry French green lentils instead of canned beluga lentils, and white mushrooms instead of oyster mushrooms.

3. I’m going to make Rainbow Plant Life’s Chickpea Curry with rice. I have most of the ingredients on hand, I just need fresh herbs, greens, and serrano peppers. Like I usually do out of season (and on a budget), I’ll substitute the fresh tomatoes with canned ones.

4. I’ll make some fried rice using tofu and frozen veggies. I might even throw a chickpea flour egg scramble in there.

5. To bring to my weekly friends potluck on Tuesday, I’ll make The Banana Diaries blondies using gluten-free flour. I’ll also need to buy some chocolate chips.

6. I’ll also use the gluten-free flour to make my weekly Sunday pancake, which I think will be a blueberry lemon pancake using frozen blueberries I already have, topped with some lemon pudding mix + yogurt.

7. Other gluten-free breakfast options will be yogurt, fruit, and (if any of mine are gluten-free) cereal bowls, porridge/oatmeal, maybe a GF toast or bagel if the cost is OK, and smoothies!

With all that, here’s the grocery list for the week:

• Strawberries, maybe

• Carrots

• Celery

• Asparagus

• 5 serrano peppers

• Greens (spinach, chard, kale, whatever seems best for a comfy price)

• White mushrooms

• Cilantro

• Fresh rosemary

• Russet potato sack

• Gluten-free flour

• Brown sugar

• Chocolate chips

• Ketchup

• Canned crushed tomato

• Canyon Bakehouse GF bread/bagels or another option, maybe

• 2 bags of frozen vegetables on sale

• Silk Kids Protein Oatmilk Blend (if best by date is good)

Note, I’ve already got chickpeas, lentils, and tofu on hand, so don’t be alarmed by the lack of protein. I get plenty.

I hope this helps!