Eating out with food intolerances - Ready made snack bags

A few weeks ago I listened to a podcast by Portland Roots media called  Stronger Everyday... the  podcast was a  "Summer survival guide"...  on how to survive the summer with happy children.  One of the hints and tips shared  on the cast that I really liked (and always have the intentions of doing but never get round to) was the suggestion  of being organised .... of planning and preparing and making snacks ahead of time so that there is always something healthy to grab on the way out the door.  I was motivated to have a go this year and so today I went shopping with daughter number two for some ingredients and we made up a bunch of snack bags together.


Daughter Number Two  and The Hungry Boy are both heading out to boys and girls camp for the weekend and I wanted to send them with something that they can eat. The hungry boy has multiple food intolerances and up until now daughter number two has been eating whatever she likes! Last night the food intolerance test results were emailed to me from the lab I use and it now looks like some things are out of limits for her too!! Somewhat surprising  for us was her sensitivity to cashews nuts and Almonds.
So now we are in a scenario where one person needs to avoid Brazil nuts, another cashews and peanuts and another cashews and almonds. Life would be so much simpler if we had never had the tests! (look out for a future post on food intolerance testing) Anyhow... we have.... and so on to dealing with it.

We decided that we would buy some individual seal-able snack bags and fill up a bunch of them to take to camp and also use some over the next few weeks when hunger pangs strike.

The first packs we made had:

 Dairy free chocolate chips 

Almonds

 Cut up dried apricots, 

Hazelnuts 

Mixed seeds

Dried Cherries

 Second batch of snack bags had:

Almonds

Dried Mulberries

Chewy Banana chips

Dairy free chocolate chips

 Third batch had:

Cashew nuts, 

Dried Cranberries

Mixed seeds

Dairy free chocolate chips

Fourth batch:

Dried apricots

 Hazelnuts, 

Mixed seeds,

 Dairy free chocolate chips

Fifth batch:

Just dried banana chips and almonds

Sixth batch:

Pecan halves
Dried Apricots
Dried cherries

 The bags look really healthy and appetizing to me.... maybe not as enticing  to the children...but the addition of the dairy free chocolate chip buttons help them to be more edible and appealing to them!  They are also packed with a large nutritional punch, so even if they don't eat other good stuff this weekend at least I know they are getting something nutritious. 

 Usually I keep ingredients in my larder cupboard in little boxes  but making the bags up has saved a bunch on time. After giving each of the children their share of the booty (with their particular legal ingredients), It was quite satisfying to see the remainder of the bags lined up and ready and waiting to be thrown in to a rucksack and eaten over the weeks ahead...

 

I also intend on using the packs for breakfasts when  we go away this weekend (while the children are at camp and we have some respite for Heni) ......It will add a little extra nutrition to the granola. You could even  make up some Bircher muesli (there is a nice recipe here.... but I use coconut milk/cream or another milk substitute and Bircher is not complete for me without some apple!)

Our summer holidays have only just begun here in England but I know that elsewhere in the world you may only have a few weeks left before schools back again. These snack bags would make a great addition to any packed lunches.... and if made up now might give you a flying start to the new term.  You never know you could even get the children working with you making their own snack packs and choosing what they would like in them!? 

Jx

Did you use different ingredient? If so what did you put in your bags?.....Let me know how you got on at Henibean on Facebook

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