Tag: featured

Our family likes–no that’s the wrong word, LOVES to travel.  We are all about the car trips, in particular trips that take us to anything Disney, or Comic Book related.  While these sound like relatively similar types of trips they aren’t and it all has to do with the food!  As someone who has to eat gluten-free it seems like so much of life revolves around food always planning ahead for every situation, making sure I can eat or where I am going to eat.  As you can imagine and have probably experienced yourself, traveling presents a whole new series of complications.  When you stay at home it is much easier to eat something you or a loved one has prepared or even go out to eat. At home you most likely have a list of local favorite restaurants that you know are safe.  But when you travel, even if you’ve been there before, in the time that has passed since your last visit things could have changed.  Or perhaps you are adventurous and going somewhere new, no matter what you do the issue of; what, when and where to eat is a present and constant annoyance.

Now if you are gluten intolerant, or avoiding gluten for your own personal reasons it may not be as big of a concern.  For those of you that are facing Celiac Disease or a severe allergy it can be a huge weight to carry on a trip-sometimes literally.  As you ponder what the easiest way to figure out how to feed yourself on your trip is, it may become apparent that taking your own food is the simplest option.  So then there’s the whole issue about what to pack that would be easy to eat–you get the idea.

My husband and I love Disneyland.  We loved it before we got married, but once we got married we visited for our honeymoon and the rest is history.  A few kids later and now we’ve been with both sides of our family a few times.  Once I got diagnosed with celiac disease we feared traveling to Disney parks would be more difficult and close to impossible to make work-thankfully we were wrong.  One of my new favorite things about Disney-there is a multitude of options for me.  Every chef/cook/wait staff person that I have talked to has known exactly how to help me, or who I needed to talk to get help.  One of my favorite parts-I can have BREAKFAST!! My favorite meal, and the hardest if you happen to enjoy baked goods at all, but not at Disney parks!  I love getting to go somewhere and eat with my family without worrying about cross-contamination or someone preparing food that doesn’t understand how meticulous they need to be.  In fact it’s been so amazing we have visited Disneyland more than anywhere else over the last few years and are actually leaving for another visit in a few days!  I’m so excited to be able to share pictures and hacks!! (The featured images is actually of one of the fabulous gluten-free meals I’ve had at Disneyland!)

Now while traveling to Disneyland is somewhat simple the other half of traveling that we enjoy to comic conventions is rather impossible.  If there is food it is almost always without a doubt unsafe for gluten-free people.  So the only way to get through an entire day at a convention relies entirely on you and what you can pack ahead of time.  I have some hacks for how I’ve survived different conventions that I’ll happily share in a future post.  (I’m pretty sure these hacks can apply to other situations-not just comic related.)

I have had so many friends and acquaintances ask how we travel and avoid cross-contamination.  After sharing these hacks with various people, it was recommended that we compile them-so here they come!  If they help even one person, it will be worth it!  Comment below if there is a certain question you have.  I’d love the chance to be able to find the Gluten-Free Life Hack for you!