It’s Christmas time! Yay! That joyful time of the year when backing, cooking and endless occasions to eat yet something more, is on the daily menu. By these occasions, I also mean binge-watching Netflix and eating whatever’s next to me.
In our house, and I assume in many houses where someone has food-related allergies, it’s also a time when extra food-related thinking begins.
- Making sure whoever is coming to your house bringing food isn’t bringing anything that will cause an anaphylactic reaction.
- Making sure that the event you’re going to won’t have any food causing same as above.
- Being mentally prepared to refuse food that anyone brings and unfortunately took time to make or buy.
- Being mentally prepared to ask your host to put certain foods away until you leave.
- Making a mountain of allergen-free food so that your kids won’t be the only ones eating their special food, at home or elsewhere.
- Making a second mountain of easy-to-bring-yet-fantastic-foods your kids -–and others– can have, for wherever you’re going.
- Making a third mountain of fun, just-in-case food to freeze, for occasions that come up.
- If you’re like me, making just a little more food –not another mountain– just to make sure there’s enough. Nothing will go to waste anyway, we’ll freeze it.
It gets a bit stressful at times, the thought of all that food around the kids. That they’ll feel like they’re not having any of the fun food. Or that there’s not enough for them. And the thought of having to always be alert and scanning, when new foods are brought in the room. Thankfully, at my home it’s fine. And at family and friends’ houses, it’s usually fine too.
Still, it’s a lot of thinking and planning. Thank the stars for holiday alcohol. The kind you can have as of 11am and no one’s judging. The best is really just to have a general plan of the food your kids will need. And raw ingredients. Plenty of them. Freeze them if you need to.
And other than holiday events, there are the pre-holiday ones at school. Like the Christmas breakfast. It’s a breakfast where every kid brings enough food for 4-5 classmates. The food is served buffet-style and each kid can pick whatever they want. It’s fun and it’s a warm atmosphere of sharing.
For our kids, it’s a little different. They can’t take part in picking what they want at the table, since a lot of the food is mixed in with food they can’t have. Cross-contamination is having its own party right there on the table.
What I do is this. I make a fun breakfast with a few different things, to make it look like an exciting selection. I still make something for the 4-5 kids, since I feel it’s important our kids have the experience of sharing their food. And whatever they’re sharing, they have it in their breakfast as well. So it’s almost as if they’re eating something from the buffet. Almost.
In the past, it’s worked out well. The kids don’t get upset, since they know how it works. I’m happy they’re OK with it. It’s the one thing I don’t stress about.
So for tomorrow, mini bacon pancakes for Nea’s classmates, and raspberry smoothies, for Noli’s. Exciting!
So if you do have food challenges ahead during the holidays, take your time and make a small food plan. It will go a long way.
Happy holidays everyone! And enjoy the food!
Yums for all 