Gluten free lunches

[OnlyTheBravest]

Looking for some fab ideas from fellow Mumsnetters for cheap and quick to make gluten free lunches whilst working from home.

Not really a fan of gluten free bread or ultra processed foods, so I usually rotate between jacket potatoes, salads and an occassional omelette but with vegetables/salads in short supply I am feeling the need to expand my normal menu.

I always struggle with lunch ideas, so all recommendations gratefully received.

Do you eat meat / fish? Do you like rice or rice noodles? Is there anything you particularly dislike?

I agree with you that gluten free bread is a bit grim! (And stupidly expensive.)

I suppose potato waffles in the toaster count as ultra-processed…

What are your feelings on oatcakes? I think I'm singlehandedly keeping the Nairn's GF division afloat. Also tortilla chips are mostly GF and good dipped in stuff, if a little salty for your main carb. Hard-boiled eggs always useful to do a batch of at the beginning of the week and eat as is or make into egg mayo, and edible with a range of crackers or salad.

Egg and chips?

Gf pasta? Make a batch at the beginning of the week and it'll last a few days.

Rice. Buy the microwave packets and it's done in two mins and then you can add veg/fish/meat/egg as appropriate. I usually go veg and prawns.

Oatcakes with houmous or cheese.

Soup.

Microwave rice is also excellent for cultivating mushroom spores into a mycelial mass.

Lots of different soups with beans, lentils, pearl barley, cheese.......

NOT pearl barley.

I make soup a lot easy to have some batches of.
Rice noodles are good either in soup, salad or in a stir fry and cheap
Polenta is mega quick to make add some grated cheese and have with whatever you fancy. I quite like doing fried mushrooms with cream cheese with it

Some great suggestions.

@Hooklander I prefer white meats and fish. I try to save rice for dinner. I can eat rice noodles, so maybe I could find a nice sauce to go with salmon and rice noodles.

@Scottishskifun I have not heard of polenta before. Can it be used as a substitute carb like mash?

@JarByTheDoor I have just discovered the Nairn's oat biscuits (blueberry & raspberry) but I have not tried the oatcakes, which ones do recommend.

I find GF substitutes are expensive and are hit and miss when it comes to flavour. I have just ordered a pack of Warburtons fruity buns, fingers crossed they taste as good as they look.

I just get the plain Nairn's GF oatcakes (in the Freefrom section in similar packaging to their standard rough oatcakes, higher price obvs) — they're about halfway in texture between a rough oatcake and a fine one, which I don't like as much as a standard rough oatcake, but obviously they taste pretty much like normal oatcakes. I prefer a fairly neutral taste rather than getting something like cheese flavour, so that it'll go well with houmous, guacamole, nut butter, pate, egg mayonnaise, butter and chunks of chicken breast meat, etc. I also don't like cheese, so there's that

Fruity buns is a good shout; haven't tried those ones but the spiced fruit loaf is the only product in the Genius range I like (much prefer Promise and Warburton's — tho not the toastie — if I have to have GF bread, or BFree for wraps and pittas, and nobody's GF crumpets are acceptable IMO).

Oh except I do like cream cheese. Oatcakes and cream cheese with lots of pepper on is a go-to quick lunch for me, though it's not stellar on the veg front I suppose. I do like a slice of cucumber on my oatcakes with pate so there's hope for me yet.

I think I'm singlehandedly keeping the Nairn's GF division afloat.

You and me both. I like the cheese ones just to eat as a packet of biscuits on their own.

Gf bread isn't great 'raw' but it's not so bad toasted. One of my fave lunches is toast (Genius seeded) spread with butter, a lot of houmous and topped with chopped fresh tomatoes with a light sprinkling of salt.

Also cheese toasties in the toastie maker. Cheese, tomato ketchup and chopped fresh basil. A pizza toastie!

@OnlyTheBravest yes also found in the world food Isle as cornmeal it's made from ground corn. Its pretty versatile so you can have it creamy like mash or thicker and set it then fry it. It doesn't have much flavour on its own so need to add it with cheese or stock etc. It cooks in about 3 mins though!
Also amazing at making things crispy so homemade rolled fish etc.

Fritata
I make a simple potato salad using fat free yoghurt in place of mayo (doesn't feel as heavy) with red onion, apple, celery. Serve with protein of choice.
Thai chicken and rice noodle salad.
Tuna Niçoise (salad but you can use whatever leaves etc you can get your hands on.)
It sounds like you have a bit of time to pull something together, so maybe a sort of cooked breakfast, eggs, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, beans, avocado