I’m joining Diane and 30 gluten-free blogging friends sharing a month of easy gluten-free living tips. Since I’ve been feeding two celiac teens for the past 5 years and we added a celiac exchange student last year, I’m sharing my tips for feeding gluten-free teens in a hurry.
First some basic tips on feeding kids in general and then the fast part:
- Start where you are. If you have been eating a mainstream diet of white bread and fast food and suddenly need to go on a gluten-free diet, don’t start trying to shovel in whole grains and large quantities of vegetables all at once. Those kids may just run screaming from the table. My eldest had turned into quite the picky eater the two years before his diagnosis and was eating lots of bread and some meat and tiny amounts of veggies and fruit. He was getting an almost drug-like, addicting effect from the gluten and I was just making sure it was whole wheat bread. Yep, I was slowly allowing him to bleed internally with all that wheat. The good news is, the hospital stay and blood transfusions had a ‘scared straight’ effect and when he came home he ate everything I put in front of him–no questions asked. Most teens don’t get to death’s door before diagnosis and there may be a slower learning curve for the tastebuds. I recommend starting with a diet similar to the one you left behind using your teen’s favorite foods, but made gluten-free. We used a few packaged gluten-free products that made it easier to pack lunches or after school snacks when we had two teens in high school.
- Get teens involved in cooking. It makes it safer for them when they are away from home if they understand basic cooking skills and how recipes are made. They will know where gluten lurks in restaurant food and at a friend’s dinner table when they know how to cook. Let’s face it, cooking is a critical life skill for those living gluten free.
- Going to a cooking class together is a great way to spend time with your teen and learn new skills.
- My teens love small appliances and cool kitchen gadgets. If you have uncontaminated appliances in your cupboards, drag them out and use them. Ice cream makers, blenders, cool baking pans and even using a kitchen scale to weigh gluten-free flours all inspire kids to get into the kitchen.
- Waffles irons are your best friends for getting good gluten-free grains into kids. Use them for hash browns like Silvana Nardone in her book Cooking for Isaiah or make fun jalapeno popper waffles like she does. Savory waffles make great sandwiches like my fake rye waffles or an Italian seasoned waffle from the Gluten-Free Goddess. Freezing waffles and pancakes make it easy to have quick snacks.
- Gradually adjust and increase the nutritional profile of the gluten-free grains in your baked goods. Also be aware and be ready to accept that not all celiacs can tolerate those healthy, fiber-filled gluten-free whole grains. One of my kids can eat them in great quantities and the other not at all.
- Add their favorite vegetables into everything.
- We used stir fries and fried rice with their favorite vegetables.
- Savory fish cakes, rice or risotto cakes and even potato cakes or buckwheat cakes with added veggies increase nutrition.
- Find a favorite pizza crust and use pizzas as the delivery system for added veggies. Make extra crusts and store in the freezer for quick snacks and meals. We also kept Kinnickkinnik crusts stashed in the freezer for emergencies.
- Smoothies get lots of fruit into a teen in a hurry. Nicola, the G-free Mom has a month of smoothie recipes.
- The way to make this fast is to plan ahead and have ingredients ready to go.
- Prep veggies and have them ready to into stir fries, salads, or omelets or to top pizzas.
- Bags of frozen stir fry veggies work when time is short.
- Chop extra onions and green pepper and freeze.
- Cooking extra batches of rice and having some ready to go in the refrigerator or freezer makes fried rice fast. Or copycat Chipotle rice bowls or copycat Asian bowls.
- My first blog posts were about quick gluten-free meals in a bowl.
- Make use of leftovers. Plan for more than just one meal when grilling meats or making a baked pasta dish.
- Use a slowcooker not only for hassle-free dinners, but for meats that form the base of quick meals. Leftover pork from Stephanie O’Dea’s carnitas can make quick tacos, quesadillas or Mexican rice bowls as after school snacks or quick dinners. Her Asian Shredded Beef recipe can top rice and leftover vegetables for a quick Asian bowl. The General Tso’s Chicken and her list of other fake take-out foods can add veggies and favorite flavors without the gluten or the cost.
- Sometimes it’s easier for teens to stay on the healthy eating path when they have really good gluten-free desserts to look forward to after a meal. Carol Kicinski’s Simply Gluten-Free Desserts combines the very best of decadent gluten-free classics combined with some healthier, but delicious choices. I like a balance of high nutrition meals with occasional fabulous desserts and Carol’s book helps with that approach.
- Savory muffins like the ones in Elana Amsterdam’s new Gluten-Free Cupcake book can add fiber, protein and nutrition. My kids love the Spinach Feta muffins. Made with almond flour and whisked together in minutes, they make a quick breakfast or snack.
- Menu planning with leftovers incorporated in the plan can make it faster and easier to feed your teens. Getting their input on the menu, with the shopping and with the cooking is an important part of teaching them gluten-free life skills.
- If they are techno geeks and like using apps for their phones, have them use gluten-free shopping apps or recipe apps like Cook It Allergy Free.
- My archives of family-friendly gluten-free menus can help you plan weekly menus.
- Inspire your teens with blogs by other teens. Lauren of Celiac Teen and the new blog The Kitchen Generation she has co-created with some non-gluten-free cooks may just be motivation to get your teen into the kitchen.
Finally, you know your kid best. You know what foods they love, what their social pressures are at school and what kinds of food are going to not only fill their bellies, but keep them from cheating on their diet if that is a concern. Feeding kids is always a delicate balance of nutritional needs, personal tastes, and the emotional and social needs as well. So while you are trying to feed your gluten-free teen, be gentle with yourselves and do what you know is the best you can do each day given your own personal challenges and don’t feel guilt when you make the choices that are best for you and yours. There is so much ‘helpful’ advice coming from so many voices and what feels like a lot of judgement from some of those voices. My best advice is to do what you can at your own pace, in your situation and do it with love.
Of course all of the tips and tricks we are sharing this month work for teens, too. Here’s the list for the 30 Days of Easy Gluten-Free Living:
Monday May 2nd Diane , The WHOLE Gang sharing Easy Gluten Free Grocery Shopping Tips
Tuesday May 3rd Iris from The Daily Dietribe sharing on How to Start a Gluten Free Diet.
Wednesday May 4th Heather from Gluten-Free Cat sharing Smoothing the GF Transition with Smoothies
Thursday May 5th Alta from Tasty Eats at Home sharing Make Your Own Convenience Foods
Friday May 6th Elana from Elana’s Pantry sharing Quick and Easy Gluten Free Cherry Vanilla Power Bars
Saturday May 7th Cheryl from Gluten Free Goodness sharing Easy Meals GF Style
Sunday May 8th Megan from Food Sensitivity Journal sharing Gluten Free Baking Undone: Easy Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
Monday May 9th Amy from Simply Sugar and Gluten Free sharing Magic Cookie Power Bars.
Tuesday May 10th Ricki from Diet, Dessert and Dogs sharing Gluten Free Baking Tips
Wednesday May 11th Ellen from Gluten-Free Diva sharing Gluten Free Travel Tips
Thursaday May 12th Kim from Cook It Allergy Free sharing Eating from your Garden for Easy Gluten-Free Living
Friday May 13th Melissa from Gluten Free For Good sharing Gluten-Free Food Rules
Saturday May 14th Brittany from Real Sustenance sharing Healthy Allergy-Free Quick Bread with easy flavor variations.
Sunday May 15th Nicola from g-free Mom sharing Kids Lunch Boxes
Monday May 16th Wendy from Celiacs in the House sharing Fast Food for Teens
Tuesday May 17th Shirley from gluten free easily sharing Your Pantry is the Key to Being GFE
Wednesday May 18th Nancy from The Sensitive Pantry sharing BBQ and Picnic tips and Recipe
Thursday May 19th Heidi from Adventures of a Gluten-Free Mom sharing tips for getting kids to eat healthy, real-food snacks!
Friday May 20th Silvana from Silvana’s Kitchen sharing
Saturday May 21st Maggie from She Let Them Eat Cake sharing
Sunday May 22nd Sea from Book of Yum sharing Gluten Free Vegetarian Burritos
Monday May 23rd Tia from Glugle Gluten-Free sharing
Tuesday May 24th Alisa from Alisa Cooks and Go Dairy Free sharing Wrap it Up-Thinking Outside the Bun
Wednesday May 25th Hallie from Daily Bites sharing Keys to Colorful Cooking
Thursday May 26th Carol from Simply…Gluten-Free sharing
Friday May 27th AndreaAnna from Life as a Plate sharing Tips on Traveling on Day Trips with Kids
Saturday May 28th Zoe from Z’s Cup of Tea sharing
Sunday May 29th Kelly from The Spunky Coconut sharing
Monday May 30th Jess from ATX Gluten-Free sharing 1 Meal 3 Ways, Jazzing up Leftovers
Tuesday May 31st Naomi from Straight into Bed, Cakefree and Dried sharing
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Fantastic post! Not just for teens, but for all of us. We tend to get stuck in our food ruts, and your post has given me some serious inspiration, thank you! (And the memory of those jalepeno popper waffles…mmmmm!)
Your comment made me laugh, Heather! Those waffles were the first thing my daughter made when we got home from the Expo. She was quite taken with Silvana and her recipes.
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Outstanding, Wendy! I love that you started out with the advice to start out where you are now and emphasized the no judgment aspect of all this. As I always like to say we can’t go from 0 mph to 60 mph in 8 seconds. It’s true for adults and it’s even more true for teenagers when it comes to food. They have so much else going on in their lives, including peer pressure regarding food (ones that adults don’t face nearly as much). We just can’t beat them up every day with nagging as they are trying to get well. We have to take it slow. I saw it with my own son. It took time for him to completely get onboard and start eating well, but it happened. I actually nodded my head to everything you shared here. I especially loved used pizza as a delivery system for veggies, letting kids getting involved in the cool toys in the kitchen and apps like Cook It Allergy Free, the wonder of smoothies, and the importance of a delicious desserts from Carol, muffins/cupcakes from Elana, and similar treats or staples from others.
Really great job, dear! You’re going to be a hard act to follow tomorrow!
Shirley
Thank you , Shirley and I don’t think you’ll have any problem following me.
As you point out, it is a process and learning a whole new way of being. With kids, it is as much about building and layering skills and tastes without nagging. It also helps for us to model the way to eat as much as we can. I think our kids do have that advantage. With all the good gluten-free recipes we both try all the time, those kids didn’t stand a chance.
These are great tips, Wendy. I don’t have teens in the house (though my hubby acts like one a lot of the time!), but I would guess that these tips would be useful for just about anyone (I mean, who doesn’t love kitchen gadgets or indulgent desserts?)
Hey, Ricki. Thanks and your dessert recipes would fit right in with my philosophy.
This is a fantastic resource, Wendy! What a super roundup.
Thanks, Cheryl. Your list of quick and easy meals would be a great addition to this too.
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Hi Wendy,
Such sensible advice! I think from the moment people learned I was pregnant I was bombarded with well-meaning tips, from my mother to the cashier at the grocery store. As a parent, you have to do what you know is best for your child. After all, you love them and know them better than anyone else. Cooking together is great fun, and it does give kids a teens a boost in the self-confidence department (and who doesn’t need that?). Great job, Wendy.
Thanks, Tina. The cashier at the grocery store was always my favorite.
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Wendy, this is a great list of tips! I especially love the savory waffles idea. I seriously need a waffle maker.
Yes, Alta. You seriously need a waffle maker.
Great post Wendy! I love your begining advice – so perfect and not just for teens, great for anyone! Like Ricki I don’t have teens in the house and my hubby could qualify (or maybe he is more like an 8 year old). Thanks for the shout out on the book my friend. xo, c
Hey, Carol, your book is one of my indulgent secret weapons. Thank you!
Great tips, Wendy. Gosh, I didn’t realize your son had been SO sick. Ugh, it’s such a nasty condition. Glad you figured it out and got him back on the road to good health. Love the waffle recipes. I printed out your fake rye one when you created that post, but I hadn’t seen Karina’s or Silvana’s. Those are awesome as well. Waffles have always been syrup holders in my house. It’s nice to have some other options! Thanks for the inspiration. =)
Melissa
Yes, Melissa. He is our silent celiac. None of those pesky digestive symptoms. He just gets an inflamed colon and slowly starts to bleed to death. We test him every year and keep a close eye on him because he doesn’t show outward signs of glutening. When he leaves for college, the docs are testing twice a year to make sure he is not getting cross contaminated and not knowing it.
This is just perfect, Wendy! And not just applicable to teens – this is also great for pouty husbands who act like teenagers when they find out they have to go gluten free forever (and yes, that is my lovely Kurt that I am referring to).
I love all of these ideas and I recently got more into savory waffles and LOVE them! I use them for the boys sandwiches a lot, especially since my waffle recipes are far healthier than a lot of the bread you can buy out there.
You have touched on so many good ideas here for ANYONE making the shift into the gluten free world!
xoxoxoxox
k
You have a pouty husband? I guess he hides it well in company. He didn’t even pout when Shelby and I beat him and AndreAnna at pool. I probably shouldn’t include the fact that we were shooting pool in the hotel lounge in a parenting tip post. Oh, well.
Now, now, Wendy. He didn’t pout because HE wasn’t the one who sunk the 8 ball on his team.
Good point. Look who’s pouting now.
I guess the one thing he is really good at is being a good sport. LOL Especially since it was AndreAnna and not him that sunk the 8 ball. He was just relieved he didn’t do it.
He only pouts when he has to watch his friends eat his favorite gluten-full things that he lived on for 35 years… he is just lucky I try and re-create all of his old faves….
Oh, geez! I also meant to send you a great big thank you for your shout out about my App!! I got too caught up in how great your post was. Thanks, my friend! xoxoxo
I love that you talk about starting where you’re at and not trying to completely change everything at once. I think it definitely helps with anyone to make changes incremental so that they can adjust slowly. I think taste buds change too as you eat healthier, so if you try to go from zero to one hundred right away, it doesn’t give the taste buds time to adjust with your pace.
There just seems to be so much pressure, panic, guilt and so much media coverage about feeding kids healthy food. I wanted to add my voice to sanity and supporting a process. Glad it made sense to you, Iris.
Wendy this is amazing. What a great list of tips and ideas, I love it. I’m going to bookmark it and come back to it when I need it. Thank you so much! I especially love your tip about teaching your kids to cook, you’re so right. What a great skill to give our kids.
Maggie, I bet your little ones are already in the kitchen with you and on their way already.
Phenomenal post Wendy! I thank you so very much for what you said about starting where you are. I always tell people that you must “get okay” with being gluten-free first you can gradually improve other aspects of your diet later. I am a prime example of this, as I cheated for the first 3 years after my diagnosis. Once I finally accepted it, (partly due to my young son getting diagnosed), I was determined to make the adjustment much easier on him and I did so by recreating many of the popular mainstream kid foods. Of course I want to take care of his health, but even more so, I need to take care of his self-esteem, it’s extremely fragile at this age. I am a big proponent of taking baby steps on this journey and holding someone’s hand if they need it…you’ve gotta meet people where they are.
Heidi, you are the perfect example of how to move towards whole foods gracefully with children and you are leaving a beautiful record of that journey to make it easier for others.
I had to do a lot of the same stuff with my small children – allow them to have the GF versions of the stuff they were already having and slowly morph them away from the overly-processed crap. Thankfully, they were very healthy eaters to begin with so it wasn’t TOO awful.
Great advice – especially about the gadgets and apps – that generation should just have a smart phone surgically embedded somewhere.
Actually I think one day Shelb will wake up and the phone will be fused to her hip. At least she teaches me the cool stuff and helps me with her hand-me-down iPhone.
This is a great post. All of the things I wanted to say have already been said. So, just read all of your comments again and pretend they are from me. Except that sinking the 8 ball thing. I would never do that. I’m a great pool player. At least, after a glass or two, you know.
xoxo,
Tia
I think these tips are awesome for kids of all ages! I should try some with the husband.
You are an expert in this field, so I’m glad you wrote on it – your daughter looks so amazingly healthy and is so sweet. She obviously loves the newfound gluten-free life.
Wendy, this was amazing because it applies not only to teens, but adults new to the diet as far as making the transition. I’ve always admired how you have the kids involved in the kitchen. Most kids these days don’t get that kind of education in the home. So, I think it applies to ALL kids, too.
My gluten free teen is no longer a teen, but since he hasn’t been gf for long, I/we still need to work on a lot of these things. I would really like to get him cooking this summer. He’s never had a big interest in food. He likes some better than others, but it’s mostly fuel to him. Getting him to put more time into it and fix his own meals is a challenge. Thanks for all the great links in this post. It’s a good resource (both the links and your ideas) that I’ll be coming back to.
Wow, wow and wow. Such great advice! Waffle maker on my wish list as of right now. Thanks Wendy!
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