Food For Conferences?

[Jestgar]

Hi everyone,

I just spent most of the day at a conference for which breakfast (breads and grapes), snacks (pretzels) and lunch (pizza and two salads with croutons pre-mixed in) was served.

As I sat there eating my plates full of grapes (which make you have to pee a lot, btw) I started wondering what would be good gluten-free food to have at conferences.

The group I work with is very understanding, and the women who organize these things I'm sure would be willing to bring different stuff, if I knew what to tell them.

Does anyone have any suggestions? The snack stuff they usually get from Costco and the lunch part is catered.

Thanks

J

[4getgluten]

I had to go to an off-site work retreat last year for 3 days. Luckily I'm good friends with one of the people on the planning committee, so she did her best to make sure I had gluten-free food to eat. Of course, I did run the risk of cross-contamination, but it worked out fine. I didn't get sick.

Breakfast:

lots of fruit

orange juice

milk

hard boiled eggs

Yoplait yogurt (Yoplait will list all ingredients in plain English, they will clearly list wheat, rye, barley and oats on the package.)

Snacks:

Individual bags of peanut or regular M&M's (ok not very healthy, but yummy)

Veggie platter

Individual bags of Lays classic potato chips

nuts (not sure, but I think Planters are gluten-free)

Lunch:

Deli tray - pick up some cheese, lettuce, tomato & onion and make a no-bread sandwich

Salad w/ only veggies, no croutons

more M&M's and Lays potato chips

Bring-with-you's:

I brought gluten-free bars (Larabars) and bottles of Ensure with me. This helped fill in the gaps, when I couldn't figure out what to eat.

[gfp]

given the last two avatars I'm tempted to suggest a light bite of live dormice for breakfast... soft on the outside and crunchy on the inside and a more substantial lunch of assorted small birds. Dinner is often problematic so many cat's nowadays have busy schedules and eat prepacked food but i prefer the exersize and going out and catching assorted rodents (mmmm) washed down with a nice lactose free milk and a nibble on some grass to get rid of the furballs.

Oops.. sorry

Breakfast .. I like to take fruits, bananas seem to keep you full longer and you can buy a mixed bunch were some or less ripe. You can take some gluten-free muesli and add some fresh fruits too or even "packaged ones" and use natural yogourt. Sweeteners if you like try and find the individual honey things...like you get individual jello in. Makes for much easier...

Snacks... I guess any gluten-free bars or someone listed a make your own quinoa energy bar I wanna try and sounded delicious... if you can use the minibar fridge then even rice cakes and smoked salmon etc.

Lunch/Dinners ... yeah a cold cuts type plate is usually best, it looks like your eating real food that way...

I usually pack stuff like cans of tuna and sweetcorn for emergencies.. gluten-free crackers so you can take advantage of cheeses etc.

[Jestgar]

Thanks guys. I don't know why I was having such a mental block on this.

Bringing stuff is easy enough, and I did eat before I went, but I also like to educate people and since about half the group is MDs that may as well realize that a gluten free diet isn't a hardship, I'd rather they try to accomodate me. (Although they're all lung doctors...still, education is a good thing).

gfp,

We prefer the frozen, chocolate dipped mice. As long as the tail is straight you can eat them just like a popsicle. Of course we'd have to get the extra expensive ones that haven't been eating any wheat.

Speaking of stuffed stomachs, I now have another excuse for not eating Haggis next time I go to Scotland.

[gfp]

How about gluten-free alveoli and tomato sauce?

[4getgluten]

  gfp said:

given the last two avatars I'm tempted to suggest a light bite of live dormice for breakfast... soft on the outside and crunchy on the inside and a more substantial lunch of assorted small birds. Dinner is often problematic so many cat's nowadays have busy schedules and eat prepacked food but i prefer the exersize and going out and catching assorted rodents (mmmm) washed down with a nice lactose free milk and a nibble on some grass to get rid of the furballs.

Oh yes, a cat's life is hard. Unfortunately I'm not allowed outside to chase birds, and my owners don't allow mice in the house. But I get plenty to eat; my pre-packaged food is tasty and gluten-free! Get this.. I have to get my exercise by chasing fake mice... so insulting.