Green Options

Sending your food allergic child off to school can be scary beyond belief.  What will happen to little Johnny when we aren’t there to monitor every his food intake?  I feel like we are becoming skilled at dealing with allergies in all kinds of social situations, here’s some tried and true tips from our allergic household to yours.

What we have to avoid: Gluten (wheat, barley, rye, oats and all derivitives), dairy, food additives (colors, flavors, preservatives) and chemicals.

How we do it:

At our vegetarian and gluten free homestead we’re always craving recipes that have a couple of common characteristics, namely they’re simple and new.  My significant other is a vegetarian and has Celiac disease, and is thus forced to eat gluten free.  Since I never want food boredom to set in for her, I’m always on the lookout for a new recipe.  This particular recipe came partly from a cookbook and partly from kitchen experimentation, and as always we strive for organic only items and the most local ingredients available.

This happens to be a fun recipe too since it’s for sloppy Joe’s, a food that for most people hearkens back to childhood days eating sloppy Joe’s at home or in the elementary school cafeteria. Please bear in mind though that this recipe should be much better for you than the mystery stuff that was in those sloppy Joe’s we all ate as kids.

I often write about our gluten free food finds since two of my children are on a GFCF diet (one for Celiac, one for ASD).  Recently, a box arrived on my door step containing some new breakfast and snack options to try out.  This morning, my little munchkins enjoyed Nature Path’s Organic Whole O’s and were THRILLED.

In the past, I’ve brought home other O type gluten free cereals which couldn’t pass the kids taste test. So, I was thrilled when this tasty option arrived.

The O’s are crunchy and the texture closely resembles the original O cereal we all know and love.  The ingredients include: organic brown rice flour, organic corn flour, organic evaporated cane juice, organic pomegranate juice concentrate, sea salt.

Whole O’s is certified USDA Organic, Vegetarian, Low Sodium, Trans Fat Free and Gluten Free.  A 2/3 cup serving boasts 110 calories and 1.5 grams of fat.  Our kids enjoy Whole O’s with a light drizzle of Agave and sliced bananas or berries.

The EnviroKidz/Nature’s Path story has already been told on Eco Child’s Play, but we are always thrilled to try new products and flavors.  Nature’s Path is a company devoted to producing high quality, organic foods in a sustainable method.

Our kids take packed lunches daily.  We do this for a multitude of reasons… Celiac disease which mandates a gluten free diet, dairy allergies which means no milk or milk protein. For two of our children, we end up packing wheat free/dairy free/gluten free/vegan lunches. The other two get wheat and dairy but otherwise vegetarian lunches.

Another reason we pack lunches for all our kids is to ensure they eat healthier and so that I can see what they are actually eating on a day to day basis.  The leftovers come back home, so they can become snacks.

We do spend time brainstorming lunch ideas… the kids never complain but I get bored of packing the same foods over and over.

My top priority is to ensure the safety and well being of my children. All five of them. An important part of keeping them safe is teaching them healthy eating habits. As such, we are constantly on the search for healthy, fun, tasty snack foods. We are also dealing with a great deal of health issues, such as Celiac (a gluten intolerance) and food allergies. On days when I forget to pack a snack before beginning our afternoon mayhem, we find ourselves in the organic fruit section at the grocer picking out a fresh organic apple, peach or banana. Fresh, unprocessed foods are always a wonderful, delightful and healthy choice.