Lesson one: know the difference between gluten-free and cooking without wheat. If your friend want's to keep a regular grocery budget, she will just need to learn to eat different things rather than working hard to substitute what is normal to the diets of those around her. Choose rice and potatoes, rather than gluten-free pasta or bread. Sometimes I enjoy gluten-free bread, yet it is a treat or delicacy rather than a staple.
Lesson two: there is no gluten-free flour that is a straight shot substitute for baking without wheat. Even bleached baking flour and wheat flour hold pastries together differently because the varied gluten levels. Cooking with just rice flour will make your product very crumbly. Buying the gluten-free baking mixes can also be spendy. I suggest looking at the ingredients and making your own. It is less expensive to buy rice and grind it in a clean wheat grinder or Vita-mixer rather than buying pre-ground flour. I mix my own flour (something like half rice, quarter millet, and bit of potato and tapioca flours). When you cook with different ingredients, your product will turn out different--so don't expect it to taste the same (It may still taste good, but it will be different.)
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