Camping With Celiac

[Mizzo]

This is our first summer with celiac disease in the family. I usually go camping(at a family camp park) with the friends and family every summer. We have ability to cook on stove top but it is a shared option with 3 other families none of which have celiac disease or any allergies . Any suggestions for making this happen at least somewhat smoothly.

Thanks.

[skigirlchar]

Be upfront w/ everyone now. Give them some basic info and let them know that you need to bring your own cooking utensils and foods for certain meals covering those foods.

A new cooler clearly marked in some manner and mark the pots/utensils the same way (if the ceilac diagnose is a child, maybe let them do the decorating.) for those foods

Take your own cleaning bucket too because camp cleaning could cause cross contamination too....

use paper plates when possible / disposable so fear of not fully cleaning plates / cross contamination is less of an issue

take pre-packaged what every you can in the way of snack items that are not fresh fruits/veggies - if the person w/ ceilac is a child, remind all who dole out snacks where those items are / what they are before outings.

as i think of other ideas i'll come back and add them.....

GOOD LUCK & remember to have fun!

[summerteeth]

Adding to the already great ideas --

* make your meals a head of time and wrap them in foil - that way you can just heat them when you are ready. I did this last summer with fried potatoes, peppers, onions, and cut up kielbasa. My gluten eating friends even wanted some!

* Kinnickinick makes gluten-free "graham crackers" called Smore-a-bles - gotta have s'mores when you are camping

* fresh fruit & veggies are easy - you can cut them before hand and put them in tupperware for a snack

* I always bring my own dip and put a BIG label on the lid and the side that says DO NOT CONTAMINATE so no one dips their glutened crackers in it

I pretty much just bring my own of everything, even items like potato chips, condiments (peanut butter especially), and snacks -- just to be safe.

Have fun!

[DownWithGluten]

I agree...make and pre-package some stuff.

I camped for the first time in my life a few weeks ago. And I'm sure I was a bit obnoxious, standing over the grill with my death stare of doom if anyone went near my burger slab with the "contaminated" spatula that had touched the gluten-filled boca burgers and buns. I'd be all "omg watch watch it!" if the spatula got near, or if the tainted burgers got near mine.

Thankfully people minded me, they used different foil than the Boca burgers, etc. But next time I would be a little better prepared. Bring my own spatula (so I wouldn't have to turn my burger slab with plastic forks), etc. I might pre-make the burger too because it took forever to cook, especially without a spatula to press it with.

I did bring my own snacks...Glutino breakfast bars, chips n' salsa, etc. The s'mores...I hated s'mores even when I could eat them so I was fine just eating a Hershey bar.

It worked. And thank God. It was pretty damn cold when I went...it would have been absolutely wretched to be having one of my 'gluten attacks' during the night...

Anyway, it can be done. Bring your own snacks. And prepare your meat, and bring your own utensils for cooking. If you want eggs or something in the morning, I'd advice bringing your own pan too. In case the others unthinkingly stick a bread-y spatula in the pan of eggs, etc.

And we put foil on our girl. So I didn't have to worry about any leftover burnt bread residue that coulda been on the grill itself. Dunno, the foil didn't burn or anything so I guess that was fine.

Also, someone else brought corn. Wrapped it in foil and stuck it on the grill. That worked, too, b/c of course we can eat corn.

eDIT: Oh and...it might not be totally fun, but I'd say you have to stand guard by the grill the entire time your slab of meat is on it. Since your grill is shared with 3 families...if it were me, I wouldn't turn my back for 1 second. All it could take is someone innocently turning yours with their spatula that has already touched bread, etc. Again -- I'm sure I was mildly a drag to my friends with my grill watching-like-a-hawk...and getting all flustered and flailing if the spatula got near my burger...but hey...better than dealing with me sick and miserable...

[buffettbride]

We camp a bit and do the pre-made stuff when we are co-camping.

We bring taco salad (premake the beef) and bring chips, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, etc. We always bring and wash our utensils and pans seperately from anyone we may be camping with.

Hot dogs over the fire are also a good meal that is not easily contaminated. Same with Jiffy Pop over the fire popcorn. Kinnickinnick makes a gluten-free graham cracker for Smores.

We bring sammich fixins with gluten-free bread. Breakfast is usually cereal or muffins (UDI's).

We also bring our own mini-Weber grill for our own steaks and burgers. We bring everything pre-marinated in Ziploc bags for easy use.

[skigirlchar]

i actually had the pleasure of meeting anna from anna's breads @ a month ago at an autism conference (i'm a service provider) and today she posted this link:

Open Original Shared Link

i hope it doesn't get nixed...

anyway, it has a great list that the author used when she went to a family get together. i though it might be helpful