Traveling With Food Allergies, Part 1
Part one will be covering all of the planning, and things that happened before departure.
Welcome to the very long write-up about how and your loved ones CAN go on a vacation. 10 years ago, I don’t know that this would be possible. 20 years ago, depending on the allergy, don’t even think about it. However, we live in a country that’s packed full of Whole Foods Markets, and few other big names (and little ones too) that have made it possible for people with food allergies to travel. Well, that and the internet. That last bit is important because putting in the time to research where you’re going is a big part of all of this. Traveling when you’re dealing a lot of people can be difficult. Traveling with people with multiple severe food allergies can seem near impossible. However, there’s hope. Here’s how we managed to pull it all off.
The Overall Setup
The Papa’s brother has an RV that we can borrow, and that’s how we are able to pull this off. I personally can’t be in the RV due to the chemical allergy, so we also take my car, and of course, the mask and plenty of extra filters. The kids LOVE traveling in the RV. This time, Grandma wanted to tag along, and she’s cool with eating food that we prepare. Plus, you can save a lot of money if you don’t have to eat every meal at a Whole Foods.
The trip was a total of 7 days. Yup, S-E-V-E-N. That’s the longest we’ve ever tried to travel for with all of these food issues. Here are all of the meal plans for the week:
Wednesday Dinner: Honey Mustard Chicken and Vegetables
Thursday Breakfast: milk, cereal, fruit
Thursday Lunch: Pineapple Pork Balls + Scallion Rice
Thursday Dinner: Dinner at Whole Foods with family we’re going to visit with
Friday Breakfast: Paleo Dessert Cups, Vegetables, snack bars if needed
Friday Lunch: Kid Two: Curry Fried Rice, Everyone else: sandwiches + snacks and fruit
Friday Dinner: Prearranged sit-down dinner at Disneyland. They are UH-Maze-ing at accommodating, but it’s expensive with 8 people.
Saturday Breakfast: Chili + corn-free cornbread
Saturday Lunch: Taco boxes
Saturday Dinner: Prearranged sit-down dinner at Disneyland.
Sunday Breakfast: Fruit, Yogurt, Cereal, Milk
Sunday Lunch: Sweet Curry Chicken Fried Rice
Sunday Dinner:Kid Two: Pizza. Everyone else: dinner out in the area with friends
Monday Breakfast: Frozen Waffles, Fruit, Paleo Dessert Cups
Monday Lunch: Sandwiches, Fruit, Snack Bars
Monday Dinner: Whole Foods
Tuesday Breakfast: Fruit, Vegetables, Paleo Dessert Cups (or choice of leftovers)
Tuesday Lunch: Stringbean Dish
Tuesday Dinner: Whole Foods with family members in the area
Wednesday Breakfast:
Wednesday Lunch & Dinner: Good luck. You’re on your own because the food that was prepped at home will all be gone by now. Have fun at Whole Foods on the way home!
My meals were a lot different. I had a cooler in the back of my car with fresh sheep cheese, Inna Organic Peach Jam, and rootbeer from The Kefiry (it’s water kefir drink with seasonings). I also had Sunbud Bakery Cookies, Dried Mango, and well, that’s it. Not a lot to go on, but we knew that safety was important. I couldn’t take anything questionable. I wouldn’t have anywhere to take a nap if needed, and no bathrooms if I were to be sick suddenly.
The Week Before Departure
We called Disney to find out more about the deep cleaning process that I had been told about previously, and we booked the reservation, and set up the meal plan for the two dinners. We were on the phone for well over an hour, as I wanted to keep making sure that really understood the severity of the allergy I was showing up with. We also reserved motorized scooters for Grandma and I, since we knew walking around all day would be very taxing.
The Day Before Departure
This is when I did all of the finalization of the meal planning. Normally, I never wait this late, but there were a lot of people giving input. I had to shop, and boy was I ready to drop. I wasn’t feeling well, at all, from something I had eaten. The Papa had to drive me to the stores, and we took Kid Three with us to help with all of the heavy lifting. We spent about $800 on food and necessary items. Although it seems high, there were leftovers that we used after the trip, and some of the items were a cooler for my car, new backpacks for the kids, water guns, etc. The planning and shopping took about 8 hours.
I also took the time after shopping to prep the vegetables I would be cooking the next day. This is a really important step. Without it, I don’t think there’s a way to leave on time. I can’t stress this enough, the prep was instrumental in getting out the door on time.
Before bed, I took the time to make a list of the order I would be cooking food in. I also had to account for laundry and dishes. If you’re traveling with children, you know how it is. You always have to do another load before you go to make sure they each have all of their favorite clothes to wear.
The Day of Departure
So, the original plan for this trip was a quick three day get away, two of those days would be spent driving. That’s when I said, rather than force ourselves to be back by Wednesday (The Papa had a work item that evening where he was covering for someone else), let’s just leave Wednesday night when you’re done. Then we won’t have to worry about hitting traffic, and you being late. He really liked the idea, so we shifted everything.
Since I knew it was going to be a late night departure, and there wasn’t a ton of room in our fridge at the time, I spent most of the day cooking. I got up early, put on some music, and didn’t stop until about 1:30pm. Then I made a trip over to Emeryville to pick up some Inna Jam. Yes, I took an extra 2 hours out of my already packed day to go buy jam. Sounds silly when I say it out loud. It’s just that, they aren’t releasing the peach to any retailers, and we wouldn’t have time to have it shipped before the trip.
When I got back to the house, I kept preparing food, and got everything packed up. I had the kids help me with cleaning, and I checked that they had packed enough items. They were also gathering toys and books for the trip. Time for pictures!
Here are the pictures I remembered to take to share with you 🙂 I will say that the images are a bit misleading, as I was constantly doing several things at once, but I’ve arranged the photos by item, not an actual reflection of sequence.
Treats
I made a special Paleo ice cream for Kid Three, and a Dairy Free for Kid Two.
I made cupcakes for the kids to have in the theme parks, as well as in the RV, for rewards, and to give to family and friends that we saw in the area.
Taco Boxes
Making the beans. Kid Three loves beans…
This stack brought me so much joy. It was the first meal to be 100% complete.
Sweet Curry Chicken Fried Rice
We made 3 batches of rice. In fact, it was the first thing I started with when I got up early. Rice will be used for Curry Fried Rice, Stringbean Dish, and Scallion Rice for the Pineapple Pork Balls.
Chicken cooking, soaking up all the juices.
Sweet Curry Chicken Fried Rice, done.
Chili and Corn-Free Corn Bread
Dear readers, please forgive me. I forgot to take progress pictures of this meal. Signed, The Allergy Chef.
I still struggle with these. They’re not corn bread The Papa. They’re white cake!!
Stringbean Dish
Haircot Verts going into the oven. Sometimes it’s faster to bake them, rather than steam.
Organic Ground Turkey cooking. We get the best deals at Costco. Seriously. If you live near one, GO BUY STUFF! 🙂
Stringbean Dish done, and ready to be loaded into bags.
Pineapple Pork Balls
Ingredients: Pork, Maple Sugar, Seasonings, and Elbow Grease. Yes, you have to really get into it to make sure everything is mixed well.
There were a few trays like this because Kid Three simply goes WILD for Pineapple Pork Balls.
Treasure Cooked.
Cooked and seasoned onions that will be mixed into the rice… you know… from the rice cooker I showed you earlier.
It wouldn’t be Pineapple Pork Balls without the organic pineapple cubes.
Snacks
This is the start of Oat Mix. It will be portioned out and labeled with each person’s name. Kid Three always gets less than everyone else, unless it’s his alternative version of the mix that I make for him.
Oat Mix. It’s this random thing that I threw together a couple of years ago, and the kids simply love it. You’d think I were offering candy when they see Oat Mix listed on the meal plan.
Had an organic watermelon in the fridge that I didn’t want to go bad, so I cubed it up and sent it along.
Loading Up at The Front Door
Ignore the tools. Thanks. Oh, and the red backpack, that’s one of the new ones.
Kid Three had Zevia soda in his bags, and he found out, he was so happy. I really try to make sure that no one “suffers” or misses out because of their needs.
Each person had a bag for each day of the trip. The bags had items based on the needs of each person. Kid Two loves Reed’s soda, so I got those for him as a special treat.
Loading The RV
So many items…. It never ceases to amaze me how much takes to feed the kids for a week.
Back seat, full of stuff.
Had to drive nice and slow over to the RV to make sure everything made it safely, especially the cupcakes.
Fulllllyyyy Loaded!
The door of the fridge, yup, more planning. I almost didn’t think we were going to make it. Oh, and the sodas that I sent along for Kid Three couldn’t be loaded in. They had to go in a drawer.
This is the freezer in the RV. It’s not very big, so careful planning had to take place, and waffles had to be removed from the boxes.