Gluten Free at Trader Joe's

Anyone who eats gluten free because of celiac disease, a wheat intolerance, or other medical condition knows how expensive it can be. Since my own diagnosis with celiac disease two years ago I've seen my own grocery bills triple because of the cost of gluten free items. Until recently, I've done most of my gluten free shopping at Whole Foods, which is known as "Whole Paycheck" for a reason and small health food stores that can't provide significant discounts on gluten free products because they don't have the clout of a big retailer.

While Trader Joe's has always been accommodating to those who need to eat gluten free, providing a list of gluten free products in the store that can be picked up from the manager's station, Trader Joe's has never had a huge selection of the prepared foods I'm often looking for, for my on the go life. This seems to have changed suddenly, and I'm delighted, as it seems like I'm suddenly paying normal prices on groceries, even gluten-free ones again.

Shopping at Trader Joe's can be difficult because of the constantly rotating product selection and the crowds that can make it hard to stop and check the labels on products to make sure they are gluten free. I still highly recommend getting the gluten free list from the manager's station, but in case you don't want to wade through all that Trader Joe's chaos, here is what I would recommend from their prepared foods.

Gone are the days you can't find any gluten free desserts at Trader Joe's other than ice cream. They now have frozen peanut butter cookie dough that's gluten free as well as a shelf-stable gluten free brownie mix. Both are great. Additionally Trader Joe's make great gluten free meringues in several flavors and has a large gluten-free candy selection.

In the bread section at Trader Joe's you can now find gluten-free English muffins, and their frozen Mexican foods area has some of the best gluten free selection including gluten free chicken and beef mini tacos (there's about four meals in each $3.99 gluten free box) and microwaveable chicken enchiladas.

Make sure to check the labels on everything though, as I've found soy sauce (one of the ultimate gluten culprits, since most soy sauces contain wheat) popping up in some unlikely places, including Trader Joe's chipotle chicken.

While Trader Joe's chipotle chicken isn't gluten free, their lemon chicken, balsamic chicken, grilled chicken and poached chicken are and at $5.99 are cheaper to comparable things offered at Whole Foods. Recently Trader Joe's has begun to stock the Envirokids line of cereals and snack bars which are also gluten free.

Whereas Trader Joe's used to be one of the last stops on my gluten free shopping rounds, it has now become my first, offering more staples and prepared foods at reasonable prices. My gluten free grocery bill has dropped and I have no experienced any cross contamination symptoms of celiac disease from Trader Joe's products although many are labeled as being made in the same facilities as or processed on the same equipment with wheat.

Hopefully this trend of more gluten free products at Trader Joe's will continue and I encourage anyone with celiac disease or other gluten problems who is able to take advantage of their growing selection to try their stuff out and send them a thank you note so they'll keep stocking even more gluten free goodies.