All the boys, dil and gf’s are coming for dinner. I am making meatloaf. Because of the one gf who is gluten free, I Googled “Paleo meatloaf” and found almond flour mentioned most often as an alternate filler. One small bag of that stuff cost $12.99!!! OMG, I don’t know how they can afford this diet! I hope it turns out tasty.
I used crushed Ritz crackers in the regular meatloaf or half those and half oatmeal.
Costco is your friend. Almond flour is just ground up almonds. They are not cheap to begin with.
Is it cheaper to grind up one’s own almonds?
I wonder if you could have just given some oatmeal a whir in the food processor and used that as the binder in the gluten free oatmeal? Or gluten free bread?
$12.99 per pound for a binder that serves as a meal stretcher seems costly!
I know this may be shocking, but you can actually make pretty good meatloaf without the filler. The egg is the binder. I eat low-carb, so lots of meat and eggs. Yes, grinding your own Almonds is cheaper. I would have just left out the almond flour altogether. The texture will not be the same as bread crumbs or similar filler anyway.
If you insist on a traditional filler, just buy gluten free bread and make your bread crumbs from that.
Paleo- and gluten-free aren’t at all the same diet. You could have left the binder out, or bought gf crumbs for $4.
But yes, gluten free processed food is expensive. Only for those who are medically indicated, not the gf hobbyists 
My Mom was diagnosed with celiac at 80 years old. And you know what? the GF products and labeling are probably a hundred times better than they used to be, partly because of the “hobbyists”. Not to mention that there’s more credence being given to the idea of sensitivity, because of changes in bread in the industrial age, and because I don’t think that people are ALL deluded idiots, that some might really be experiencing reactions of a non-celiac sort…
Anyhoo, carry on.
I like oatmeal. I think you get a more meatloaf-y texture than not using any carb at all. My mother’s meatloaf also callls for a some ground up vegetables (Whatever is leftover, but usually I use carrots, red peppers and greenbeans - between that and whatever I’ve used for the cheese (usually cottage cheese, but cream cheese and sour cream all work too), I probably don’t need breadcrumbs or oatmeal.
I would have thought that paleo people wouldn’t eat grains including oatmeal.
I would have thought that paleo people wouldn’t eat grains including oatmeal. >>>>
She doesn’t. I put oatmeal/Ritz crackers in my regular one. Hers got almond flour.
Agree with. 5 and 6. My D needs to eat gluten-free and her food costs are higher. We do help her out by buying a couple Udi’s loaves at Whole Foods whenever we see her, or some of the specialty gf cupcakes or brownies as a treat.
Meatloaf has cheese?
My meatloaf does not have cheese.
I’ve always used only oatmeal in my meatloaf. It’s great. No cheese. The reciepe used to be (maybe still is) on back of the oatmeal box.
The recipe on the back of the Quaker Oats oatmeal container is the one I grew up with. It is great. And nobody in my family ever had any dietary restrictions.
My meatloaf has the kitchen sink in it. It’s my grandmother’s recipe - and it’s not really a recipe - since the whole point of it is to get rid of leftovers. I really like what a bit of cottage cheese does to it.
We had a wonderful meatloaf at a wine dinner at a local bistro. His meatloaf (beef only) had an egg and onions. It was wrapped around provolone and sundried tomatoes and was served with a Bearnaise sauce that was garnished with tiny diced peppers. It was delicious.
Some people who are celiac and gluten-free don’t do oatmeal, especially Quaker Oats, since the cross-contamination factor is high. DH and S2 were diagnosed back in the dark ages @garland references, when you had to call 800 numbers to get ingredient information.
Yes, once the problem was availability. Now, the problem is definition. All sorts of items are “gluten free” but that may not make them gluten-free for people who are reacting to the processing or preparation or lack of oversight in defining gluten-free. Dominos “gluten free” pizza doesn’t have gluten in it – but it’s made in a pizza place, for cryin out loud. “Not suitable for celiacs” is printed right on the box. But I digress
@mathmom, that meatloaf sounds divine! OP, you could use the leftover almond flour to make crackers – you just need the almond flour, spice (paprika, garlic, etc.) an egg and maybe parmesean if you like. Tasty and easy and you won’t feel the pain of that pricey bag as much
You can also make macarons for dessert with your leftover almond flour! I have a couple bags of almond flour sitting in the freezer from a brief episode of macaron mania last summer. Sooooo good. But I had to cease and desist due to excessive self-inflicted gorging.
Anyway, D had to go gluten-free for a little while last summer. IIRC it’s really just flour / grains that have gluten. The easiest thing to do was just not eat anything made with flour, e.g. bread and pasta.
^If someone has celiac, they have to be careful that nothing they eat has been contaminated with gluten, even if not actually made with it. As greenbutton says, sometimes that’s hard to discern. But in any case, a home cook has to be aware of that.
I followed a recipe for low carb cheesecake once that was really good. Instead of the graham cracker crust, you use almond meal. I had to double the amount to really make a good crust, but you would probably not notice the crust was different unless I told you. No one in my family did, anyway.
What garland said. A bread crumb here and a dusting of flour there is not going to mean much for someone who is simply sensitive, but for a celiac sufferer even a minuscule amount of gluten would cause problems. When in doubt, ask, then check ingredients carefully and purge flour out of your kitchen prior to cooking for someone with celiac. If someone in my house were diagnosed, I would make sure there would be no gluten in my house for all of us.