We are gluten-free at our house, too (and soy-free and cow-dairy-free and beef-free - sigh). One thing I do not recommend is going off and buying a lot of specialty ingredients in the hope of being able to produce substitute homemade baked goods. Not only do gluten-free recipes require a a whole different set of baking supplies, but those supplies act very differently from the flour/sugar/leavening you might be used to. Since I am/was kind of proud about my ability to churn out waffles, cookies, bread, whatever, going back to rely on pre-made or boxed items was a blow to my ego. Saved my sanity, though!
Betty Crocker's gluten-free line is decent (and the only one sold in the regular baking aisle, as far as I can tell - everything else is in "health food"). I made the chocolate chip cheesecake - with even more substitutions - from the back of the cookie box and it was...o.k. My husband and daughter, who are starved for "regular" desserts, fell right on it, but I'm not sure I'd serve it to company. The brownie mix is good enough, too. I've also had good results with Bob's Red Mill brownie and cake mixes. If you have ever made that "milk fudge" at the holidays - chocolate and condensed milk, etc. that is also gluten-free and is something I like to keep on hand for sweet fixes.
Experiment, too, with frozen hot dog and hamburger buns. There's a line of them - the name escapes me at the moment, but I'll check and post later - of each that gets a thumbs up here. I keep two or three bags of each in the freezer (BTW, flour-free items go bad quickly at room temp!) for easy sandwiches. Take one or two out in the morning and by lunch they're thawed and ready to use. Be warned: a lot of lunch meat and deli items have gluten. We do a lot of tuna or egg salad for sandwiches now, glammed up with roasted red peppers, fresh herbs, etc.
For snacks, popcorn is always a good one. It can be varied with different topics and flavors. I also use a brand of fries that's gluten- and soy-free and will make those up for snacks with different dipping sauces (like pesto or mango chutney or whatever). Gluten-free tortilla chips are readily available and with salsa make a nice snack (or can be used for nachos with a can of beans and a sprinkling of grated cheese). Sometimes I'll make up a snack tray of several selections from the "olive bar" at my grocery. That always goes over well with a side of cracked pepper crackers from the Mary's Gone Crackers brand.
O.K. I've gone on long enough, but you can see that I've made a study of this topic! My approach, summed up, is to try to avoid finding exact substitutes of things my husband and daughter will miss and instead to drown them in wonderful flavors and creative approaches. I wish you luck! It's an interesting path to follow.
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