Traveling With Team

[volleymom]

 Hi All! I'm a newbie here and hope you can help me. My extremely gluten sensitive teen daughter is a competitive volleyball player and has been chosen to play on a team in the national high performance championships 1500 miles away.She will be gone for a week and will be eating many meals served family style, etc.  I'm not too concerned about her negotiating eating out when she gets to choose her own individual meal, as she is good at choosing gluten-free items and courteously advocating for her needs with waitstaff. I'm more concerned with the other meals she'll be eating. To keep costs down the team buys ingredients and makes bag lunches and snacks for the girls or gets pizza, subs, etc. Many of the options will not be gluten free and obviously aren't going to work for her. I will of course be asking that they include gluten free options for her, but am concerned that they might not always be available (someone eats her gluten-free cold cuts by mistake, things get cc'ed, etc.) What can I pack/send with her that 1) will stay fresh without refrigeration (for travel), 2) ensure enough nutrition for a demanding play/practice schedule 3) not take up much space (only allowed 2 carry-ons) and 4) be appealing to a teen-aged girl? Thanks for any help/suggestions.

[KCG91]

Well done her! I think maybe she/you should treat the family-style meals (do you mean cooked by coaches/host families or something?) as you would do eating out - making sure those preparing it are fully aware of her needs. Maybe there is something from this site you could send in advance to help them prepare as she'll need to be eating properly to play well Is she formally diagnosed with coeliac? Might be worth mentioning if she is, just to add weight to the importance of safe food for her. 

 

I travel a fair bit for running events and my go-to is a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jam (jelly!) and rice cakes/gluten-free crackers. I also take rice/quinoa/gluten-free pasta and a sauce with me if I'll be able to cook. If she can have oats, gluten free oats can make decent porridge if you pour boiling water over them, stir and leave for two minutes (put sugar on it or something, or the peanut butter/jam mixed in). Oh and popcorn! I take tubs of that with me (ideas coming straight from my brain to the page here haha). Can she arrange to buy fresh fruit and veg daily there to supplement all these storecupboard things? Eggs? Good luck!

[Chrisz1000]

Great news and congratulations.

On google search for blueberry bliss energy bar recipe. There's a greatl recipe there for making batches of homemade energy bars. It's quite flexible so if you don't like blueberries swap for other dried fruits or use mixed berries, swap almonds for walnuts etc.

I use these as snacks between meals. They are hugely calorific and come in handy if there aren't any gluten free options available for a few hours.