What To Do For Birthday?

[Sharon C.]

My son's birthday is coming up and he is in the process of being diagnosed with celiac. If he is to switch diets before his birthday, can anyone help me with ideas? It's coming upin a few weeks and my husband has a huge family and I will need to feed a lot of people. There will be about 15 kids and about 25-30 adults. What do you guys do?

Thanks in advance.

[Guest Lindam]

Hi Sharon,

What I have made for big family get togethers is lasagne. You can get the gluten-free noodles and I have to shred all the cheeses, but honestly noone really can taste the difference in the noodles. I would also suggest hamburgers and hot dogs and brats. That is always easy, and I have heard that there are some good buns, gluten-free of course, out there.

For cake, I have a great chocolate caake recipe as well as pineapple upside down cake and carrot cake. Let me know if you would like any of those.

Good Luck!

Linda

[ryebaby0]

When we have big bunches of people, we choose to serve buffet style, with several choices of entree (hotdogs, burgers, ziti, salad). My son/husband's food is made gluten-free and served to them separately, but it appears to be the same. Or we'll keep all the gluten food on a separate sideboard, so the celiac disease people can serve from the buffet without fear of contamination. It is important however, that you point out to grandmas and aunts that, in fact, your son is NOT eating mainstream lasagna, or next time he's at their house they'll think "well,, I saw him eating lasagna at his house, so it must be safe" not realizing that he was having gluten-free lasagna.

[sashabetty]

I like the Dowd & Rogers chestnut and rice flour chocolate or vanilla cake mixes, you can get them at several of the online gluten free sites. Or if you make something with spices or strong flavor like carrot cake you don't notice the bean flour in the gluten free baking flour mixes, I have had good luck with the Joy of Cooking carrot cake recipe and Bob's Red Mill gluten-free baking mix, though for the most part I hear it's hard to make normal recipes come out good with the gluten-free flour mixes.

As far as food goes, I usually don't feel obligated to put out too big of a spread, but you may want to do more. I do a veggie platter or green salad, a fruit platter or fruit salad, gluten-free chips and homemade dip (artichoke dip, guacamole, bean dip...) and maybe something like bbq chicken drumettes (I make bbq sauce so I know it is gluten-free, but there are brands like Annie's that say gluten-free), a gluten-free potato salad (check the mayo and the pickles), and some cheese and rice crackers... I believe that Ben & Jerry's ice cream discloses any gluten ingredients, you can check their web site, I don't know what other brands of ice cream are gluten-free.

I just try and stick with foods that are usually gluten-free so I don't have to make a bunch of expensive gluten-free labeled foods. But I also find that when I do put out gluten-free foods like the pasta and cake most people don't notice the difference (I have fed our nephews gluten-free homemade pepperoni pizza, and they are very picky, and they didn't know the difference!), just don't try and make pasta salad ahead of time because the noodles will get hard in the fridge.

Hope that helps.

[celiac3270]

I completely agree about the lasagna....there is no difference in taste at all! Hotdogs/hamburgers, already suggested, are also a good choice. Hamburger meat is gluten-free and Oscar Meyer bun length and a few other kinds of their hotdogs are gluten-free, as well. Although the buns would be different, the hotdogs/burgers themselves wouldn't be. Both are really good suggestions and you can't go wrong with either.

In August, I went bezerk and sent out 10-20 e-mails to food manufacturers. I posted all the replies I got here: Open Original Shared Link. I have the gluten-free list for Haagen-Dazs icecream on the third page, if you're interested. A lot of mainstream products, so you might want to check there for some ideas. There are three pages with tons of letters and lists.

-celiac3270

[3boyzmom]

We just had a family birthday get together today. We have 24 people when we get together...

Anyways, we did a taco bar... Had the shells, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, spanish rice and beans. People made their own tacos and we also had salad and corn chips for those who wanted a taco salad instead...

Everything is an easy fix 'cept frying the shells... but you can always buy the hard ones...

[Sharon C.]

Thank you. These are all great suggestions. I was actually contemplating the taco bar.

[gf4life]

Sharon,

We just had my son's 10th birthday party yesterday. We had about 20 guests. We served an entirely gluten-free meal to everyone, and they didn't even notice. This is our 3rd birthday party that has been completely gluten-free, but we tend to stick with the same food for them all, since we have had good luck with it:

BBQ chicken (made with Sweet Baby Ray's sauce), hot dogs (Louis Rich/Oscar Mayer label turkey franks), Lay's original potato chips, Ruffles BBQ potato chips, tortilla chips & salsa, a veggie platter with Ruffles ranch dip(the only thing that wasn't dairy free, but my kids won't eat it anyhow), a fresh fruit platter, and I made a big batch of potato salad, and a big chocolate cake!

We skip the hot dog buns all together and nobody ever seems to notice. My kids don't like the gluten-free buns and told me they would feel bad if everyone else was eating the buns in front of them and I worry about the contamination from the crumbs.

The chocolate cake is from a mix by Really Great Foods which I buy at Gluten Solutions online store. I have learned to make a lot more cake than you would normally need, because the cake is so good everyone always wants more. One package makes 24 cupcakes(so would feed @ 20 people), but I had to make 3 packages just to make sure we had a little bit leftover after the party! It is the best chocolate cake I have ever had. It is so moist and fluffy and has a wonderful chocolate taste. People are usually very surprised to find out that it doesn't have any wheat in it. I frost it with Pillsbury ready made frosting. Certain flavors of their frosting are gluten and dairy free. I like the Chocolate Fudge frosting (the best on the chocolate cake) and the Funfetti Vanilla (also the regular vanilla without the candy sprinkles), which works great drizzled on hot cinnamon rolls, too!

I hope you get your son's test results soon. I know you will be able to have a wonderful party. It will help you relax if you stick with foods you are used to eating that are already gluten-free, or just substitute simple things with their gluten-free alternative (like pasta, hot dogs, chips, etc.)

God bless,

Mariann