A look inside: Are you looking for easy gluten free dairy free dinners your entire family can eat? Do you feel like you are stuck in a rut making the same few meals over and over? In this post you will find several simple gf df dinner ideas that families with food allergies will absolutely love, as well as some of our favorite gluten and dairy free products!
These meals are family favorites. They can be enjoyed any time of year. And, it’s so nice to have a meal planned out ahead of time! It allows less stress in the evenings and more time with family.
Whether you’re new to eating gluten free dairy free, or just want to add some new meals into the rotation, I’m sure you’ll find something you like here!
What are you waiting for? Let’s get into these yummy gf df dinner ideas!
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Gluten Free Dairy Free Dinners
Gluten Free Spaghetti Recipe
I know what you are thinking. Gluten free spaghetti is going to be mushy and gross. It can be, but it can also be great!
My mom made some gluten free spaghetti for a family gathering and it was so delicious. We loved it and fought over the leftovers. Well, I’m pretty sure I just finished them off when the boys were at school. (Winning!)
I do have some favorite noodles I purchase at Aldi made of rice and quinoa. They are a staple at our house and we use them in goulash, pasta salad, and soups (more on those noodles later).
If I am craving a nice, hearty spaghetti I love these brown rice noodles made by Tinkyada. They don’t get mushy and break apart as you try to take that delicious bite from your plate to your mouth. It’s amazing!
Tinkyada pasta is available on Amazon but seems to be more affordable on Thrive Market and our local Jewel grocery store.
This is how we love our spaghetti:
- Cook your pasta according to the directions on the package and drain
- Saute ½ a red onion in olive oil in a large skillet
- Add your meat (we love ground beef for spaghetti)
- Combine your drained cooked pasta, 1 jar of your favorite sauce, and your meat
It is so simple but the texture of the noodles and the flavor of the meat sauce make a meal that everybody loves!
Gluten Free Sheet Pan Dinners
I absolutely love the 1 pan meals. You can cook your veggies and meat on the same pan, add some fruit on the side, and call it a meal!
>>Crockpot meals are another easy favorite! Check out these delicious Easy Weeknight Crockpot Dinners!
The options are endless when it comes to sheet pan meals.
We like to use some sort of sausage, potatoes, veggies, and onion. Last time I used some fresh asparagus and it was delicious!
- Cut up your meats and veggies
- Toss them in olive oil and seasoning (we love the Primal Palate Ranch packets)
- Bake on foil-lined pans until meat is cooked and veggies are tender
I usually bake 2 sheets full for our family of 5!
Chili
This easy gluten free dairy free dinner requires little time and is very filling! Even in the summer, chili is tasty on cooler, rainy days.
When I think of chili, I usually think of tomato juice. This recipe is different in that it is thicker and not so juicy! It’s less like a soup.
I love to make it in my big copper skillet! I was given this nonstick ceramic copper skillet as a gift and I use it almost every day. If not for my main course, I use it to cook my veggies.
>>My skillet is amazing! Check out more favorites in Best Items On Amazon For Homemakers!
Making the Chili is simple, it just takes a little extra time cutting up the sweet potatoes.
- Saute onion in olive oil.
- Add a couple pounds of meat. (Usually a ground beef and a ground turkey). Cook until browned.
- Add a can of tomatoes and chilis, a can of fire roasted tomatoes, 2 sweet potatoes, and a can of black beans (drained).
- Season to taste: we love chili powder, salt, pepper, garlic. I also like to add a bit of cinnamon and cacao powder to give it a sweeter taste.
Gluten Free Pork Chops and Potato Wedges
I got a great deal on a pork loin the other day. I cut it into pork chops, a couple loins, and kept the smaller pieces on the ends for pork stew and pork tacos. It was a bargain and we got several meals out of that piece of meat!
>>If you would like more ideas for saving money on groceries, check out How to be Frugal with Groceries
I also realized that I need to get some better knives to cut up my bigger pieces of meat. Any suggestions for me?
The pork chops with a couple sides make an easy gluten free dairy free meal. I like to pair the chops with potato wedges and a green veggie.
I usually do one pan for my pork chops and one pan for my potato wedges.
- Drizzle pork chops with olive oil, sprinkle with my favorite ranch seasoning packet, and bake at 350.
- Toss the cut potato wedges in olive oil and bake with the chops.
Make sure to keep an eye on your chops so they don’t over cook. I think my thick chops and potato wedges are usually done in around 45 minutes.
Tacos (On Gluten Free Corn Taco Shells)
I love tacos so much. The combination of the shell, the meat, the fresh toppings. They get me every time. We usually eat tacos a couple times a month. At least.
We love to use ground beef (venison if we have some) and toss in a can of black beans. The black beans help the meat go a lot further and they give the same great taco taste.
I like to brown the meat, drain it, then add the beans, cumin, chili powder, italian seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic, and a little cinnamon.
We love these El Milagro corn tortillas (from Aldi for .42) It’s a great price. After warming them in the skillet they taste amazing and usually only fall apart if we load them up too much. I usually eat several small tacos.
The toppings are up to you! We love lettuce, tomato, dairy free cheese, and a drizzle of ranch.
Having the right cheese and ranch make or break the taco. We have found this Earth Grown Vegan cheese at Aldi for about $3.50 and use it pretty consistently.
We also love the Sir Kensington Classic Ranch. This is also available on Thrive Market, Walmart, and most grocery stores. We love it because it doesn’t use soybean oil as a base.
Dairy Free Taco Salad
Hang on to that extra taco meat and beans! It makes an incredible taco salad!
Warmer weather usually makes me want to eat more salads! I love when I have extra taco meat to toss on top.
Again, the toppings make all the difference. Sir Kinsington makes several different salad dressing and condiments and I haven’t tried one that doesn’t taste great!
Gluten Free Dairy Free Frittata
We have 12 backyard chickens and I love to find meals that I can use the eggs the girls are working hard to lay. We have grown to love frittatas! Which is just a fancy name for an Italian dish made with eggs and veggies.
None of our frittatas are created with the same ingredients. It usually depends on what meat and veggies I have in the house.
Frittatas are very simple to make! They work best for us in our cast iron skillet.
- Cook your meat of choice. I usually do a pound of breakfast sausage and chopped up bacon. If you are left with a lot of grease from your meat, you are going to want to drain some of that. A little is fine and gives your veggies great flavor.
- Add in your veggies and some olive oil. I use whatever I have on hand. A couple bags of frozen veggies, leftover corn from last night, mushrooms. You get the picture. You know what your family likes! I love it when it has some great colors.
- Crack your eggs (we use about 10) into a glass pyrex dish and add about a half cup of dairy free milk. We always have almond milk on hand. Whisk that all together then add about 1cup of dairy free cheese.
- Pour your egg/milk/cheese mixture over your meat and veggies. Use a spatula to spread it out evenly. Top with a little dairy free cheese and bake your frittata in the oven until your eggs look puffy and cooked. Ours takes about 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
Grill Out
I know this is a pretty simple idea but I cannot tell you how much we love to grill out! My husband loves to grill and he does a mighty fine job! We love to grab meat in the markdown bins and toss them in the freezer until we have a night we can use them.
We usually grill burgers, turkey dogs, chicken, whatever steak we find on sale, bratwurst, pork chops. All at the same time! We grill a ton and then we eat it for leftovers the next couple days. It is seriously amazing and I wish we had started doing this years ago.
I am usually making potato salad/pasta salad and sauteing veggies inside while my husband grills all the meat.
The kids never grow tired of these meals. They love the variety and it helps cut down on meal prep time when we can eat the leftovers for a couple nights after.
Gluten Free General Tso’s Chicken on Rice
What about those nights when you really crave fast food or carry out? I get it! One of my favorite finds at Aldi is a gluten free dairy free General Tso’s Chicken meal.
Obviously, it’s not enough for that little bag of chicken to feed our family, so we doctor it up a little bit. We like to get a couple bags of frozen broccoli and some red onion and add that to our chicken. It helps the meal go farther and it tastes more like take out to me! We serve it over a bed of rice.
I will say, this sauce is delicious but it does have a kick to it, so if you have someone in your family who doesn’t like spicy things, you can hold back a little chicken and broccoli before adding the sauce packets.
Eggs and Bacon
We love to have breakfast for supper. How about you?
One of my go-to meals is eggs and bacon/sausage and some fruit. I love that it only takes a couple ingredients to make this meal and it’s budget friendly! I also love that I don’t have to set out any meat to thaw!
I have grown to love baking my bacon on a rimmed cookie sheet lined with foil in the oven. It cooks so well and I don’t have to clean my stove top afterwards. We cook ours on 400 for about 10-15 minutes. Keep an eye on it because different kinds of bacon cook in different amounts of time!
The smell of the bacon cooking usually has the boys ready for dinner pretty quickly.
Gluten Free Sloppy Joe’s on Tortilla Chips
It’s no secret that we love Sloppy Joe’s at our house. Our youngest laughs every time we eat this meal and wants to know who Joe is and why he is so sloppy!
This meal just requires a few ingredients and can be thrown together in just a few minutes.
- Brown your meat and drain. I like to use 2 pounds of ground beef.
- Add 1 can of tomato paste, ketchup, mustard, a little brown sugar, chili powder, and garlic, salt, and pepper (to taste) and there you have it!
- Serve on your favorite tortilla chips or gluten free bread
Gluten Free Dairy Free Pasta Salad
On those days when you just don’t feel like making a big meal, pasta salad works great! It also provides lots of opportunity to use ingredients you have in the house.
We love to make pasta with the Live G free Organic Brown Rice and Quinoa noodles from Aldi.
I recently discovered that Hellman’s makes a dairy free/gluten free vegan mayonnaise that is also soy free and it works great! It is made with sunflower oil rather than soybean oil. This mayonnaise is perfect for pastas and dips!
We love to use cucumbers and tomatoes in our pasta! It’s also fun to add in some of your favorite salami to get a little more protein.
This is how I make my pasta salad:
- Cook and drain noodles according to directions on the package.
- Spoon desired mayo into the bowl and sprinkle with our favorite ranch seasoning packet. (a little goes a long way) and stir.
- Let the mayo and seasoning sit while cutting up any veggies or meat.
- Add the drained pasta to the seasoned mayo and stir until coated. If you need to add a little more mayo and seasoning it’s no problem!
- Add in fresh veggies/meat.
There you have a simple, light meal with grains, veggies, and extra protein if you add the meat!
Country Crock Plant Butter
I cannot conclude this post about easy gf df dinner ideas without talking about one of my favorite products in the world. It is a dairy free butter made by Country Crock. I use it ALL the time!
I bake with it! I use it for my veggies! I do all the things with it and it tastes amazing!
I purchase mine at Wal-mart and they carry the Country Crock Plant Based Butter with Olive Oil as well as the Country Crock Plant Based Butter with Avocado Oil. I use them both and don’t have a preference of one over the other.
If you are looking for a great plant based butter for those sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving or have been missing butter made with cow’s milk, I encourage you to give this a chance! Please leave a comment and tell me if you have tried this butter before and what you thought of it!
Wrapping Up GF DF Dinner Ideas
Hopefully this post gave you some fresh ideas for easy gluten free dairy free dinners! Cooking for your family should be enjoyable and sometimes just finding the products that work best make all the difference!
What other simple gf df dinner ideas do you have to share with me?
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