Gluten-Free Grocery Shopping and Meal Prepping Tips From a Pro

Advice from Kayla Cappiello, food writer and recipe developer

One of the best parts of being on Substack is the community. I’ve connected with so many gluten-free Substackers, and one of my favorites, hands-down, is

Kayla Cappiello

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Kayla is the food writer and recipe developer behind the Weekly Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Weeknight Meal Plan newsletter, which is chock full of easy and delicious recipes. She’s also the author of the cookbook Easy Allergy-Free Cooking and host of the podcast Cooking With Kayla.

I was thrilled when Kayla, who has celiac disease and other dietary restrictions, agreed to a Q&A with me for my newsletter! Below, learn about Kayla’s path to celiac diagnosis, how she navigates multiple dietary restrictions, and her best tips for gluten-free grocery shopping and meal prepping.

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Q: Tell me about your dietary restrictions.

A: I am celiac, lactose intolerant, and allergic to some tree nuts. I specifically am allergic to pistachios, hazelnuts, walnuts, and almonds. It was after college when I started working in corporate America that I started to feel sick.

Specifically, I noticed that after lunch, I would always have two to three hours where I would feel like I couldn’t continue at work. It was often directly after eating lunch—plus, I noticed I was having a lot of sandwiches for lunch. 

Around this time, my dad also ended up in the hospital and was diagnosed with celiac disease. We were comparing a lot of our symptoms. They were very similar, so it led me to see a doctor.

I talked to the doctor about how sick I was feeling at work and that it was always after lunch or after eating. After explaining my symptoms, my doctor decided to do a genetic test to see if I had the celiac gene from my dad—which I did end up having.

I had to do a pretty intense elimination diet and keep a food journal after that and was eventually diagnosed with celiac disease based on my symptoms, my food journal and an elimination diet, and having the celiac gene.

At the same time, I was also diagnosed with lactose intolerance, which is a pretty intense test where you drink straight lactose and breathe into a tube in intervals over a period of time. They are able to test the exhaling and see if you are lactose intolerant or not, and I was.

It felt different being diagnosed as an adult because I had been diagnosed with my nut allergy as a teenager and always knew how to eat a diet that avoided those nuts. But this felt like a huge deal because it was affecting what I was eating on a daily basis on such a large scale.

Q: How do you balance having multiple dietary restrictions at home and in social settings?

A: Once I was diagnosed, the first thing I did was try to find a one-to-one substitute for things I was eating a lot of at home. For example, gluten-free pizza crust, gluten-free waffles, gluten-free bread, and gluten-free pasta.

I tried out a bunch of different brands but was able to quickly figure out which ones I liked the best, which obviously made my life a bit easier. I feel like 10 years ago, there were fewer options, so I had less to choose from.

My skills were really slim at that point, so this really forced me to learn how to make better recipes and better food at home because it felt like a safer space. Really good at cooking at home—my life depended on it.

Social settings are still really hard for me to this day. I’m a really big advocate of researching restaurants before making plans. My friends and family are really accommodating, but I feel like if I have restaurant suggestions that I have researched readily available, it makes being social easier.

Going to someone’s house for a get-together or a holiday is always tough, but I felt like it got a lot easier when I started blogging and people were able to more easily associate me with my allergies.

In the beginning, I was a little bit embarrassed and didn’t want any host to have to do extra work for me so I would keep my allergies to myself. But then there would never be anything I could eat and people would ask me why I wasn’t eating and it was embarrassing. I felt like there had to be a better option.

So now when I go places and people know about my allergies, they’re very willing to accommodate me because I’m so vocal in my life about what my allergies are. I also always always offer to bring something that I know I can eat, so at the end of the day if I can’t eat anyone else’s dish, at least I can eat my own.

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Q: When did you start creating recipes, and what inspired you to do so?

A: When I first found out about my allergies and dietary restrictions, I searched online for other bloggers that had multiple allergies and I felt like I couldn’t find any.

Any gluten-free bloggers at the time who had gluten-free recipes didn’t have any dairy-free recipes. Or, a lot of gluten-free recipes I saw also included almonds, which I couldn’t eat, so it felt really frustrating.

I started posting my recipes that accommodated multiple allergies on my Instagram kind of just as a reminder to myself of how to make this specific dish I like to accommodate all of my allergies. I almost used Instagram as a food journal.

But then I started connecting with other people who had multiple allergies and that’s sort of how my community got started. I think a lot of people started cooking during COVID, and that’s when I started gaining a bigger following.

Q: What are your top 3 tips for gluten-free grocery shopping?

A: My top tip for gluten-free grocery shopping is to plan your meals in advance. That way you can save money by not buying expensive gluten-free items for a meal you don’t plan on making. For example, gluten-free pasta is more expensive than regular, so I’m only going to buy gluten-free pasta if I know I’m going to make a pasta meal.

Another tip I have is to be adventurous. Having an allergy often pigeonholes you into buying the same brand or the same food over and over. But if I see a new brand or a new product from a brand that is certified gluten-free, I almost always try it—because if it’s good, at least I have another product to add to my list of favorites!

My third tip is to incorporate meals into your week that are naturally gluten-free. Gluten-free products are so expensive, especially the breads and flours. I like to make a lot of rice dishes because the price of rice is pretty affordable and you’re really paying the same that even non-gluten-free people are paying. It’s just something I do to keep my bill in check!

Q: What are your top 3 tips for putting together a weekly gluten-free meal plan?

A: My top tip for putting together a weekly meal plan is to think about what days you actually have time to cook and what days you need a super simple meal. That way, I know if I have time to cook on Sunday, I can make a huge batch of rice and a huge batch of grilled chicken that will make Monday and Tuesday meals even easier.

I also like to use a lot of the same components. I’ll make a batch of rice and a batch of chicken on Sunday to use for Monday’s and Tuesday’s recipes, from Monday’s recipes.

I’ll just add salsa and peppers and onions and make it a Mexican theme. But then maybe add coconut and broccoli to make an Asian theme. My biggest pet peeve is eating the same meal over and over. A meal plan doesn’t have to be the same food over and over. It can have similar ingredients, but all the meals can feel different.

My last tip is to look around your kitchen to see what you already have in stock and use that as a base for what you want to make that week. For example, if I know I have a lot of pasta in the pantry, I’ll add a pasta meal to the plan knowing I already bought some of the ingredients.

It helps me be creative and work around what I already have instead of buying specifically for every single time—kind of like playing Chopped in my own kitchen.

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Q: Why did you launch your newsletter, and what type of content can readers expect to receive when they subscribe?

A: My newsletter came about because I was doing this meal prep for myself and not sharing it with anyone, and I started seeing people on Facebook with similar plans. I always plan my week ahead of time in a way that makes sense based on what groceries I have and how much time I have to cook dinner each night.

And I was just doing a meal plan naturally to make my life easier. I’m part of a lot of gluten-free groups, and I saw a lot of people struggling with how to save time or what to make for dinner and I felt like I had this knowledge—so it was a no-brainer to just start sharing it.

I love helping people, so this was an amazing way to help people with something I was just creating naturally in the course of my own week.

Q: What kitchen gadgets have helped make gluten-free cooking easier for you?

A: Something in the kitchen that made my life a lot easier was when I got an air fryer. It helped cut down the cooking time for a lot of meals for me. Me and my husband also eat fully gluten-free at home, so I didn’t have to worry about a contaminated air fryer. But I use it to make everything from chicken to vegetables to casseroles!

Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

A: I just really love sharing the food I make. I love sharing videos of it on Instagram. I love sharing my meal plan on Substack, and I love talking about my meals on my podcast.

I feel like there are a lot of people out there who are frustrated with an allergy diagnosis, and I’m here to show them that at the end of the day, you can really live with delicious food and not let that allergy completely isolate you.

Want gluten-free recipes? Make sure to follow Kayla on Instagram, subscribe to her newsletter, and check out her website!