Discover essential gluten free tips for dining out safely and confidently, even when you’re not in your own kitchen.
Essential Advice for Dining Out Safely on a Gluten-Free Diet
When you first start eating gluten free, the thought of eating out at a restaurant or a friend’s house can be daunting. After 30 years of experience, I have learned some valuable tips that can help make eating outside of your own kitchen a lot easier. These tips can help you navigate social situations and ensure that you stay safe while still enjoying your meal.
One important tip is to always communicate your dietary needs clearly to your server or host. By being upfront about your gluten intolerance or allergy, you can help to avoid any potential issues. It’s also a good idea to do some research ahead of time and choose a restaurant that offers gluten-free options or can accommodate your needs.
Additionally, it’s important to be vigilant about cross-contamination when eating out. Even a small amount of gluten can cause a reaction, so make sure to ask about preparation methods and ingredients. By taking these precautions and being proactive about your needs, you can enjoy dining out with confidence and peace of mind.
Navigating the Gluten-Free Dining Scene: Expert Tips for Eating Out Without Worry
hey there it’s Stephanie with the ranchers Homestead welcome to the new kitchen this is where all the videos are going to be taking place now I know I said last video that um the new the my new video would be in the new kitchen and here we are we’re still getting settled in um but we are happy to be.
Here I haven’t got my cast cing on the wall yet but that’s okay um this week I was going to do a talking video so it’ll be not really howto but a little bit more on my gluten-free journey and just tips in getting started gluten-free cooking from scratch tips on what to do when you go to a restaurant which restaurants that I know of that have.
Things that are gluten-free and some tips on when you go to somebody’s house how do you um especially somebody new that don’t doesn’t necessarily know that you’re gluten-free or if it’s a new diet change that you’ve had to do recently and the people that you do know don’t know yet so what do you do in those instances and so I’m going to kind of.
Give you my background and a little bit of experience on how it’s worked for me so when I was 5 years years old I was diagnosed with Celiac and actually at the time uh gluten-free was not even a thing Celiac was not even a thing they did know about it um but when my mom brought it up to them that my aunt her sister had Celiac the doctors had told.
Her that there is absolutely no way that I would have that that um it’s not hereditary it’s very uncommon and they didn’t know a lot about it lo and behold um I think I have officially got diagnosed with a blood test and then I ended up doing the genetic testing as well just a couple years ago as an adult um and I have I carried the gene my.
Blood test came back positive all of the things but here is one thing less than 1% of people are true genetic celiacs so um that is something that I think is getting misdiagnosed now I mean back when I was diagnosed it wasn’t even a thing now I feel like everybody has Celiac and there is I have my own opinions on that um I know a lot of.
People have some opinions on that one of them being just what’s in our Foods now um now nowadays what’s in our flour the what they’ve done to our flour all of that if you are interested in whole grains and what that does for our body and if you need to be glutenfree or don’t need to be gluten- free my friend Andrea and I over at deark 23.
We put out a course on whole grains whole grains that are gluten-free because those are beneficial and then there’s also we also did modules on just whole grains in general what they do for your body the the history behind it and all of that so if you’re interested in that I’ll drop that in the description but back when I was diagnosed it wasn’t.
Even a thing you couldn’t go to a restaurant and ask for a gluten-free menu you could barely go to a health food store and find gluten-free options they just wasn’t there and um my mom did a really great job of not having me miss out on things I really she would make things from scratch even when there wasn’t anything to make from scratch.
Really I mean she couldn’t just go bu an allpurpose gluten-free flour blend she had to make her own so they would I we could go to the house food store and you could get a rice flour a tapioca starch um that kind of stuff but you had to build it yourself they didn’t have these Blends yet next now we fast forward to now and you can go anywhere and I feel.
Like gluten-free is everywhere so my first tips for you would be eating out so if you want to eat out then there are some tricks that you need to know about and one of them is is most restaurants now have either a little GF next to them or they will have on their menu things that are gluten-free they’ll some way let you know that they’re gluten-free.
There are also restaurants where you can just go and ask do you have a gluten-free menu and um that is something that I learned many many many years ago is even if they don’t readily offer it to you A lot of times they have an allergy menu a whole separate menu so when they bring you to your table and seat you and give you your menu always.
Ask do you have a gluten-free menu and a lot of times they will say yes and they’ll go get one for you or they’ll say no but here’s what the ones that are gluten-free on the menu because it’s such a big thing always ask for a gluten-free menu places like um Red Robin you don’t necessarily see it on their menu but they have a gluten-free.
Bun so you just have to ask and they will keep it very clean and safe um so my children love to go to Red Robins because they’re fries are glutenfree and they have gluten-free BNS so you can get a burger just like everybody else um there there’s different here in Missouri there’s different fast food places like Culver’s and I’m thinking if there’s.
Anything else um Chick-fil-A which is everywhere they also have gluten-free buns so if you’re looking for something fast food wise we don’t do a lot of that stuff but um if we do then those are places good to know like I said Culver out here has gluten-free buns and they have good food um that you can put onto the glutenfree bun too so that and.
They’ll do it safe I’m not sure in Cal when we lived in California Togos was a thing I haven’t seen one out here but they have a gluten-free wrap so if you go to a sandwich shop like Togos um ask for the gluten-free wrap they will ask you if it’s an allergy or if it’s a preference just say it’s an allergy they will completely clean and change out.
Their cutting boards knives gloves everything so that they can make you a gluten-free sandwich wrap so those are just some options when you go out and about and if you choose to eat out and how you can um do that safely and know that you are getting a good product okay so what do you do if you’re heading off to a friend’s house and they’re cooking.
You a meal so this is something that I’ve had to grow into because a lot of times um you don’t want to be a bother I never wanted to be a bother I never wanted to tell somebody oh I can’t have that but I think what’s worse is if you don’t say anything and you show up at their house and they’ve made all this food that you can’t eat and then you say.
I can’t eat that and now they’ve went through all this work and you can’t even enjoy what they’ve done for you and so I don’t feel it’s rude to tell somebody that you have to be gluten-free now here’s what I always always tell them is we have to eat glutenfree but don’t stress about it because a lot of times people are like I don’t want to cook.
Glutenfree and that’s okay I always will say well what are you making and I can bring the substitute I’ll bring whatever it is that’s not or you can ask me anything so a lot of times say they’re making some kind of meat and um they’ll send me text messages of the ingredients for like the spices that they use and a lot of them are gluten-free so it’s okay.
And then I’ll say well why don’t I just provide a side then I know we have a dish that we can eat I usually always always without even asking bring some form of a dessert for my girls so I’ll make a batch of cookies and I’ll bring like three cookies or I’ll bring a whole batch of cookies because my gluten-free cookies you can’t even tell they’re.
Gluten-free I’ll drop them in the description I’ll make a whole batch of cookies and I’ll bring them to share with everybody whether they ask me to bring a dessert or not I bring them and then my kids can eat them and they everyone can eat them and they’re delicious and I know that we have a dessert um the other thing is a.
Lot of times I’ll invite them to my house I’ll do the cooking or um if you’re going to an event that you’re not really sure what they’re serving and it’s not necessarily somebody or a good friend’s house that you’re going to or even just somebody that you just met and you’re going over there you became just became friends and they don’t really.
Know how you eat and all that um if you’re going to an event like a wedding um a fundraiser dinner or anything like that I always eat beforehand I never go to those events hungry because when you do then and you can’t eat anything there that makes it really difficult so I always eat something ahead of time I know my belly is full if there is.
Something that I can have then I’ll just give myself a little smaller plate not a super big play but that’s when I’m at an event like a public event or a wedding or something where I don’t know what they’re serving but a lot of times if I’m just going to somebody’s house then I will you know just communicate with them let them know and a lot of times.
People are very accommodating okay so this is all fine in Dandy but what happens when you are just getting started how do you even know how to cook gluten-free and um I do have a video out on my top 10 tips for getting that’s a tongue twister top 10 tips um getting started with cooking from scratch gluten-free but a good place to start is.
There and I’ll drop that video in the description but another good place to start with is to get your pantry stocked if you have the right things in your pantry then you can pretty much essentially make anything find a really good gluten-free flour blend which I have one and I make it homemade and I can link that in the description um it’s.
In my digital cookbook which I’ll link um if you’re going to buy one from the store I recommend cup for cup or Better Batter and I can link those in the description having that on your shelf you can essentially change out any recipe and make it gluten-free your favorite brownie mix your favorite cookie mix your favorite cake mix all of.
That and then you can switch it by just changing the flour so um definitely start there get your pantry stocked with good gluten-free Just Flowers in general like brown rice flower white rice flour tapioca starch um get some gluten-free oats get some corn starch all of those things which you will see in my video on my top 10 tips for getting started that.
I always keep in bulk on hand because you can use them in so many things in your Breads and in all kinds of stuff I do have bread recipes on the blog which will be very helpful if you are um looking to get started on it and a lot of my recipes are very simple they’re a norm normal recipe and you just change out one ingredient to make it.
Gluten-free so um my best tip for you is to get your pantry stocked so that when you when creativity strikes you are ready to go and you can get it going so don’t stress about it take it one day at a time and start one thing at a time learn how to make something and experiment there’s going to be so many failed attempts and that’s okay because.
I feel still to this day in the kitchen and you just bounce back you learn from it and you try again um so I hope these tips were helpful for you I hope that you got some ideas on what to do when you go out to a restaurant when you go to a friend’s house um and all of that and I hope that you just learned on giving you the confidence to just get.
Started get to try it because gluten-free is a journey and if you were newly diagnosed it’s not as scary as you think it’s going to be and it’s not as hard as you think there can be tricky things um Sometimes It’s tricky sometimes there just flops for no explanation whatsoever but for the most part it is something that you can learn.
To do and the food can taste good I serve I would say 80% of what I cook is gluten-free to my husband who is not gluten-free and to our hired guy who eats two meals a day with us who is not gluten-free and they don’t even know they don’t even taste the difference I do make make them their own bread and a lot of times I make them their own pasta.
But even the pasta a lot of times I cook regular pasta um having a good brand of gluten-free pasta makes up all of the difference so I hope these tips were helpful for you make sure to like And subscribe to the video I send out one new video every single week jump on over to the blog and put in your email over there I send out an email a week with.
All different kinds of recipes and different things over there and welcome to my new kitchen and we have a lot of videos coming up with some good things in store so I hope this video was helpful and we’ll see you next time take care
