So, as Ashton has so kindly shared with many shop checkout assistants and strangers over the last months, in December, we are going from a family of 4 to a family of 5 (humans, that is, we don’t count our pets anymore or i might just pack my bags and bugger off somewhere less crowded!)
While i’d love to say this is for all you out there who are expecting a new baby soon, this is also aimed at hopefully helping my family and friends overcome the barriers and worries of supporting me and my family, with dietary restrictions and allergies for 3 out of the 4 food-eating family members! Though i’m not totally selfish – Hopefully, it can fulfill its purpose and also help some others out too – a resource to direct well meaning friends and family members to, if you find yourself with a new baby and a family to feed with allergy requirements.
Myself and the boys avoid dairy, soy and wheat / gluten (this includes oats, barley & rye for Felix and I). We try to eat real food – food that doesn’t come with an ingredients list, with added colors, flavors, sugars or preservatives. I don’t eat refined sugar as it makes me feel terrible, and it sends Ashton bouncing off the walls! I absolutely cannot eat any gluten, it makes me really sick, and very minimal dairy. Felix is also very strictly dairy / soy and gluten free while we continue to let his gut heal from his extreme allergies he suffered in his fist 18 months of life, to pretty much all foods.
Because of the boys’ allergies, and how they presented from birth, to foods in my diet while i was breastfeeding them, i have opted to remove dairy, soy, gluten / wheat, nuts and eggs from my diet 5 weeks before my due date, to ensure that, when baby is born, there is no trace of this in my breastmilk. Because having a newborn baby is hard enough, without adding in the harrowing experience of a baby reacting to it’s only food source. If i opted to ‘wait and see’, by the time we recognize there is a reaction, after eliminating the offending foods, the proteins are not completely clear from my system for up to 6 weeks! So i’m getting ahead and doing it backwards, if all is well, then when baby is 6 weeks old i will introduce these back to my diet one by one, to carefully check for any signs of reaction, and hopefully, there wont be!
So while i manage to feed us breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, day in and day out, no problems, to an outsider with no allergies, this sounds pretty bloody daunting! I know, because i once was an allergy outsider! And when you don’t live the life every day, its hard to comprehend and remember!
So – how on earth to you turn up to visit a new Mum and baby with something they can eat!? Here are some of my suggestions that comply with my family’s needs (free from – gluten, dairy, soy, eggs & nuts).
I’ve divided it into categories of time, location and expense (because, if you are buying allergy friendly packaged goods, they are going to be more expensive than their not so friendly counterparts!)
So you can choose from:
QUICK AND EASY MEAL PREP – make at home with minimal cooking & prep
QUICK PICKS FROM THE SUPERMARKET – pick up from the supermarket on the way over
ONLINE PRODUCTS – more specialty items to buy online and have it delivered straight to us (please count this as a gift for us or baby!)
HOMEMADE – or go the whole hog and bake or cook something (recipes included!)
(**disclaimer** this post is in no way sponsored or any of that jazz by the food companies I recommend, they have never even sent me free shit! It purely based on my own personal experience and overall satisfaction with these particular products, and how they fit into our lifestyle, that i recommend them).
Quick Easy Meal Prep
ROAST VEGETABLES:
We eat all veggies, chop them up, roast them in olive oil, coconut oil, rice-bran oil, avocado oil – or give me a text to check if your oil might be ok (‘vegetable oil’ generally isn’t as it can contain soy). We love to snack on roast veggies, make them into soups, put them in smoothies even! Or serve them with meat for an easy tea. Roast some veggies, you are on to a winner, bonus is, its pretty easy and fuss free!
CHOP UP SOME VEGGIES:
Don’t even cook them! Just chop up or prep a whole bunch of veggies that we can cook or use in salads. Capsicum, lettuce, cucumber, carrots for salads or snacking or root veggies for roasting, even mushrooms, courgette, cabbage, spinach, celery will get used. I spend a lot of time cutting and preparing veggies, it is such a big help to have this done for us.
CHOP UP SOME FRUIT
Baby is due in dec, there should be some yummy fruits around by then – make us a fresh fruit salad, the boys will be stoked and it will save me cutting up fruit snacks for them for a day at least! Or just bring fruit, whole, in all its glorious naturalness.
COLD COOKED MEAT
Throw some chicken breasts, in the oven with salt and pepper, cool then slice – this is an awesome protein rich snack for everyone in the family. Even a small roast, or some steak cooked and sliced would be very well received.
QUICK PICKS FROM THE SUPERMARKET
I really should ask proper crisps if we can partner up haha, I am a fantastic source of free advertising for them! Any flavour, we love them all! Grab them from the supermarket on your way over, easy as that!
ROTISSERIE CHICKEN & SALAD BAG
Pick up a hot cooked chicken (preferably one with no stuffing please 🙂 ) and a bag of coleslaw or salad. Meal done!
DIPS
Turkish Kitchen garlic hummus or ‘Kumara & Lentil with roasted Pumpkin’ dip.
‘Lisa’s’ hummus from the supermarket are gluten free – just a quick double check of the label to make sure it’s a flavour with no dairy, soy or nuts.
COCONUT YOGHURT
Raglan Coconut Yogurt, Cathedral Cove, and Zenzo are all brands that we can eat.
COCONUT ICE-CREAM!
Little island coconut ice-cream – a delicious summer treat – any flavour – we are not fussy!
LITTLE ISLAND COCONUT MILK
Again a delicious treat, especially the chocolate coconut milk, we might not share though!
CATHEDRAL COVE CEREAL
They have one specific cereal that does not contain nuts – great for sprinkling on coconut yoghurt and an easy snack for mum and kids. This is it here:
Online products
Not all the sausages on the site are suitable for us .. but these ones are ok for all:
Pork, Apple & Cranberry, Pork & smoked parprika, Chicken & French Tarragon, German Bratworst, chicken & pork Chipolatas, chicken, mango & coconut, plus the mince meat selection .
The nut free baking mix is the only one I can eat, but the boys can have everything on the site! I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t mind if Mum could quickly whip them up some baking that they didn’t have to share 🙂
They have a store on Katere Rd, New Plymouth, full of beefy goodness. Beef and Beetroot meatballs or patties!! Yum, this would save us so much time, and the boys would be over the moon – especially Ashton, who asks for meatballs for dinner every night!
The gluten free my food bag is ok for my family – 5 meals picked out and chosen with recipes, and all the ingredients delivered! I think we could manage that! Some of the ingredients contain dairy but it’s easy enough to leave out or only include for dairy eating family members. However, you would need to make sure they can deliver to your town (we would need this delivered to someone in New Plymouth, as they don’t currently deliver to Stratford). They also do vouchers, so you could order a bag on a week that would help the most. Lots of options.
all the ingredients for 5 days of fruit & veg smoothies delivered to your door – all you have to do is throw them into the blender with some liquid – yes please!
From their website:
“Can I order a smoothie box as a gift?
For sure! Our smoothie kits make the perfect gift! To order a Craft Smoothie box as a gift, just email hello@craftsmoothie.co.nz with the name and delivery address of the recipient, and we’ll send you the payment details and confirm the delivery date. We will also add a personalised gift card in the box for that someone special 😊”
homemade
Have some extra time and want to attempt to make us something? Good on you – here are some recipes you cant go wrong with!
Just make sure you swap the almonds for seeds 🙂
Also i will hopefully have recipes up by the end of the month for:
Spag bowl mince
super simple curry
Taco / burrito / mexican meat and chopped salad
Roast Meat & veggies
Moroccan chicken salad
And maybe some links to other online recipes we use!
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