Three celiacs under one roof for a week at the beach requires a huge amount of food preparation. I wrote this post before I left on vacation, but didn’t quite master the technology of storing it to post while I was away. I went back and reworked it a little bit, my writing had the stressed out edge of a working mother of four packing for vacation.
In hindsight, with my sun-kissed skin and still-in-vacation mentality, the edge is gone and I know that all the racing around and baking was worth it.
Suffice it to say, I had three shopping bags of gluten free food. I didn’t plan out all the meals, but planned in terms of “what if.” What if we decide to have pizza, what if there is a great bakery for breakfast goodies, what if I need to dredge something in flour….so that leads to tons of “what if” gluten free foods going on vacation with us.
For breakfast the celiacs had banana bread and blueberry muffins and some frozen waffles from the local Stop and Shop. My Dad loves to find a local bakery for daily breakfast treats, but he used to feel bad about those of us who couldn’t eat them. The celiacs had their own baked goodies, so everyone was happy.
The beach bag was filled with gluten free snacks thanks to so many vendors now individually packaging their cookies, bars, brownies and pretzels. Those individual packages are the best when dealing with sand. What do you do with a full bag of chips after a really sandy hand has plunged into the bag for a handful? There is nothing more disgusting than crunching through sandy potato chips.
The concession stand on the beach served frozen lemonade which was really refreshing and entirely safe. Speaking of refreshing, buried in ice in the cooler was a cold gluten-free beer to be popped open as the day turned to evening to savor the end of a beach day.
Our dinners were really delicious—sweet young lobster, little neck clams, local filets of fish….I had packed gluten free flour and bread crumbs in case we needed it, but melted butter and tartar sauce were the condiments of choice. The local produce was in peak season and we ate tons of corn on the cob and tomatoes. One night we had hot dogs with mac n’cheese as a side dish. I had packed gluten-free spaghetti noodles, which was odd with the cheese sauce, but tasted great after a full day of riding the waves.
The gluten-free bread was gone after Friday’s lunch, but when Saturday morning rolled around we improvised. My Mom had eggs for breakfast and my son had cereal. I had the last two huge, sugary, ginger cookies that I warmed up in the microwave and dunked in coffee. It was vacation, it was our last meal in the beach house and cookies for breakfast seemed perfect.
Kendall Egan
