Getting Ready for Summer Fun: Being GFCF & Other Healthy Ideas

Being GFCF & Other Healthy Ideas

It’s warming up all across the nation. The feel of summer is in the air. Summer equates with warm weather, cool foods, and traveling. Let the fun begin! Parents often complain about the high cost of pre-made foods, but it is very easy, possible and inexpensive to create your own concoctions for pennies. Kids and adults love smoothies and Popsicles to enjoy on a hot summer day or night. Here are some recipes for you to make and enjoy while keeping your family cool.

Smoothies….Popsicles…… Sorbet Homemade

Use a blender or smoothie maker to whip up something yummy for your tummy. Start by pouring a GFCF milk alternative into your appliance. Great options are: Dari-Free (potato), rice milk, coconut milk, almond milk, hemp milk or soymilk. You can also use a favorite juice of your choice instead of or in addition to these. Next, add a handful of 100% frozen fruit of your choice. Fruit with seeds tend to not work as well, as drinking the smoothie might bother some palates.  You can be creative and use several different fruits. After each small handful, turn on your appliance and let everything mix well. Add more fruit and “whirl” again. Next you can add some 100% natural sorbet.

Some good, natural GFCF brands are:

Ciao Bella, Dreyer’s/Edy’s, Ben & Jerry’s, Haagen-Dazs or Sharon’s Sorbet. Double check that the flavor you picked is indeed GFCF. Whirl everything together until your smoothie is of a drinkable consistency. You can also add powered calcium, protein powder, flax seeds (ground) or other supplements into your drink to add more nourishment. You can even add some pureed vegetables for extra fiber and healthful substance. Go online or look at smoothie shop blends to get ideas of mixtures to create.

After the smoothie is whipped up you have a few choices. You can freeze the mixture and eat it later as sorbet. You can drink it right away, or keep in the refrigerator for later (It might need to be re-mixed upon drinking, if the ingredients start to separate). You can also pour it into pre-formed Popsicle-type containers. Here are several different types of molds you can order, or perhaps find at your local store (see Experiment with water in your molds first, to see if the molds will release the finished product well, or you might want to spray a non-stick spray into the molds first.

Another option for small Popsicles is to use an ice cube tray, putting plastic wrap on top and poking dull-ended toothpicks into the middle of each cube, then freeze.

To make a rainbow-like appearance in your Popsicles, pour one flavor 1/3 of the way into your mold and freeze it. After the first 1/3 is frozen, mix another batch and add it for the next 1/3 of the way and freeze it. Then finish off with the final 1/3 of the mixture and freeze for a colorful treat.

Vacation Tips

If you are going out of town, it is a great idea to pre-print a list of stores that carry GFCF foods. Check with www.yellowpages.com to find the nearest health food store, or major chains: Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s, Wegman’s, or Sprouts. This way you will be able to stop on your road trip or find a store with the help of hotel personnel.

If you have hotel reservations, you can order foods to be sent to your hotel (check with the hotel first) to have your special foods already waiting upon your arrival. www.amazon.com under grocery or gourmet foods has one of the largest selections of specialty foods.

Because of the Americans with Disabilities Act, your hotel must provide a refrigerator at no charge to be placed into your room. Be sure to provide a doctor’s note or similar documentation for proof of your child’s allergies or intolerances.

If you are traveling by car, stock up on plenty of foods in case you are unable to find adequate snacks on the road.

Here are some suggestions:

• Glutino pretzels, bagel chips, crackers,
• breadsticks, snack bars, cereal
• Lara and Jocalat bars
• Bumble bars
• Ener-G Foods pretzels, bars, crackers, cookies, doughnuts, brownies
• Enjoy Life bars, cookies, trail mix, granola
• EnvioKidz snack bars and cereal
• Terra Chips, Lundberg Family Farms chips,
• Arico chips, bars

If you have an ice chest, you can pack perishables and later get ice from the hotel or transfer the items to your refrigerator. If you are camping, or even if you stay in a hotel, you can freeze gallon-sized plastic, empty juice containers with water and freeze ahead of time. They make great ice blocks that last a long time.

Allergy Free Restaurants

If you are looking for a restaurant that caters to dietary needs try these sites and put in your location to find allergy friendly places:

• https://www.godairyfree.org/eating-out/restaurants
• http://www.glutenfreerestaurants.org/about.php
• https://www.glutenfreeandmore.com/issues/restaurants-with-special-diet-menus/

After Memorial Day you will be surrounded by the feel of summer. Hopefully, these helpful tips and recipes will make your summer even more enjoyable!

Barrie Silberberg is the author of The Autism & ADHD Diet: A Step-by-Step Guide To Hope and Healing by Living Gluten Free and Casein Free (GFCF)  And Others Interventions. Her web site is:  www.puttingyourkidsfirst.com

Helpful Articles

• Spring Break Fun 7 Recipes to Make Together
• Cooking With Kids: Grape-sicles
• Cooking With Kids: Egg-Sicles
• Doug’s out of the Classroom “Sweet Tooth” Rules to Follow This Summer
• Cool Rules: Preventing Heat Stress In Special Needs Children

This post originally appeared on our May/June 2012 Magazine