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Hi, I’m Carrie Saunders, host of The Gluten Free Engineer. As someone with celiac disease (or coeliac, depending on where you’re from!), I understand the confusion and overwhelm that come with it. With a husband and three kids also navigating this lifestyle, I’ve learned the hard way how to make gluten-free living easier, safer, and more enjoyable.
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Fall is one of those seasons that seems to revolve around food.
Football games.
Tailgates.
Band competitions.
Potlucks.
Festivals.
Chili.
Desserts.
And if you’re gluten-free, all of that can sound a little exhausting.
But after years of being full-time band parents—Friday night football games and Saturday competitions—we got pretty good at making fall events work without feeling like we were missing out.
So today I’m sharing the simple game plan we used, what we brought, what we trusted, and how I made sure my kids had food they actually wanted to eat.
This episode is brought to you by Find Me Gluten Free—your go-to app for discovering safe, gluten-free dining options wherever you go! Get your exclusive discount for our listeners at theglutenfreeengineer.com/findmeglutenfree Because dinning out gluten-free shouldn’t be a guessing game!
Quick reminder before we get started on this episode. This podcast is based on my personal experiences and isn't medical advice. Fall is one of those seasons that seems to revolve around food. We have football games, tailgates, band competitions, potlucks, festivals, etc. And if you're gluten-free, all of that can sound a little bit exhausting. But after years of being full-time band parents, which included Friday night football games and Saturday competitions, we got pretty good at making fall events work without feeling like we were missing out. So today I'm sharing the simple game plan we use, what we brought, and what we trusted, and how I made sure my kids had the food they actually wanted to eat. Let's dive in.
Welcome to the Gluten Free Engineer Podcast. I'm your host, Kiri Saunders. In 2011, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, a moment that changed everything. But I was determined not to let it hold me back. With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer the gluten-free lifestyle, breaking down recipes, safety tips, travel hacks, and everything in between to rebuild a life I love. Whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance, or simply choose to live gluten-free, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we simplify the gluten-free lifestyle, make it fun, and prove that you don't have to miss out on anything. Welcome back to the show. Today we're talking about our gluten-free game plan for fall festivals, footballs, and potlugs. So I know when I was early on in being gluten-free, some of these fall events would come up and I would be like, Well, that kind of sounds fun, but what am I gonna eat? I'm sure you could probably relate to this. Sometimes we are going to a football game, we don't know if we'll be able to eat at concession stands. We don't know what we're gonna encounter.
So what I did, let's just talk about football first. For football games and sports games like that, I would typically eat a meal beforehand before I went. And then I would know what those concession stands had, what pre-packaged foods were safe, even if they weren't necessarily nutritious per se, but they at least gave me some fuel if I got hungry because I, you know, ate dinner early to make it to the football game. So we would go for certain types of candies that are gluten-free, like Skittles and Sour Patch Kids and Starburst. I know that's just all pure sugar, but if you're really hungry, it's going to help you in a pinch. There are also other candy bars that are gluten-free. Always double check with the manufacturer before consuming any of these items. I mentioned a few of them already, brand name. I don't expect them to ever have gluten in them, but you should always check just in case because I know some of the candy bars like Snickers and Three Musketeers, etc., you're gonna want to double check that they haven't changed it. One little note, too, before I forget, is that when we're in these seasons of holidays, we want to be really careful about the seasonal candy. So let's say three musketeers, last I checked was gluten-free. So we'll go with that. So three musketeers, if it's in a fun size or a Halloween version or an Easter version, usually those are not as deemed as safe, like their main sized counterpart is. The reason being, whenever those companies are doing their special shapes or special varieties for holidays, many times they run on a different line without the same cleaning behind it. You might have some cross-contact problems. So, for example, I do know, at least last I checked, Reese cups are gluten-free. However, if you get the Reese cup eggs, those are processed on a machine that also processes wheat. So those are not safe for celiacs. So this is why I want to caution you because those fun shapes and sizes that come out during the holidays may not be safe, even though the normal mainstream version of that candy might be safe. All right, let's go. That was a little bit of a scroll on football, but you know, that's what we're gonna find at concession stands as pre-packaged candies like that. Now, I will say, over the past many years of being a band parent, we haven't been a band parent for two years now, but we were, I think, a band parent for nine years total. We were one of the longest ones there. I did see concession stands get more and more healthier options as the years went by. For example, some of the concession stands will have already made baked potatoes, and you can add whatever you'd like to on it. That's obviously naturally gluten-free. So try to plan ahead, have maybe a snack or two in your bag if you need to, and just know that you probably should eat beforehand. Likely you're not going to get a meal at a concession stand, but you probably are going to be able to find some safe gluten-free snacks.
So then, what about those more complicated things? We had banned competitions most Saturdays in the fall, and we were usually coming right off of a football game the previous night and going to ban competition the next morning, sometimes the next afternoon, but usually the kids had to be at school in the morning. So,
what I would do is I actually could pre-make a gluten-free pizza for my kids, put it in the fridge, package it in sandwich containers so it was easy per person that pull out their preferred style of pizza, and then they had a cold pizza for their lunch or for their dinner, depending on when the competition was. Now, one thing that that I did not expect to happen was that the other bandies, other band kids, actually were jealous of my kids for having homemade food at their band competition because they were stuck eating the concessions food for their lunch or for their dinner. So it actually didn't make them feel isolated. They actually ended up with sometimes share their food with some of their best friends because their friends were just jealous. They're like, Oh, that looks so good. So take this opportunity of you have to provide food sometimes and make it more fun for your kids, make it enjoyable. I did pizza because that's one of their favorite things, and it's in some ways a complete meal. You got your starch, your meat, your veggies, so it's a great little complete meal. And it's funny that the kids have really enjoyed it. So bringing your own food doesn't mean you need to bring the boring food, bring the fun food, make it enjoyable for your kids
and for yourself. And then let's jump into potlucks. So this one can be really tricky, it's kind of like a buffet. This is where we can really easily get cross-contaminated. So for us, I usually bring our chicken curried casserole. This is something that's on our website, it's a recipe. You can go ahead over to the glutenfreeengineer.com after listening and search for casserole or chicken casserole, and you will find it. This works because everybody loves it. My kids love this casserole so much. It is very filling. It has your protein, your vegetables, and your carbs in it. It is great for a fall or winter type of meal. We know it's safe. And then we know that if nothing else works with the potluck, we have a full meal covered. Now, many times when we go to a potluck, I'll talk to the guests ahead of time. If they don't already know our family and say, here's what we're bringing, and we need to get our food from this dish first, eliminate cross-contamination. That way we don't have to worry about somebody else getting our safe dish cross-contaminated before we eat. So I usually talk to them, say, hey, we need to either go through the line first or grab our food off of this, and then we're happy to share what's left. There's nothing wrong with asking that. Most people are going to understand that you need to go through the line first. And this is something that a lot of people are just like, Carrie and your kids go to the line first because they just know that if we go through the line after other people, maybe they've cross-contaminated a bag of chips that are gluten-free or something like that, we might get sick. So they understand we're going to go through first and get our food and get it before other people get gluten in the safe items. And then at Potlux, yes, I usually bring dessert too. So I usually bring two things because one, I want my kids to have a full meal. And two, who doesn't love dessert? And everybody seems to love my gluten-free desserts. So I do that to share with my kids. So my kids have a nice fun dessert and they don't feel left out, and then I can share with others and they can enjoy what actually being gluten-free can be, and it can be really fun and really, really delicious. There's been times I have created pumpkin spice cookies, chai cookies, those things disappear like crazy. People absolutely love those. You can also find those recipes on our website, theglutenfreeengineer.com. They're pop in your mouth delicious. Think of a snickerdoodle, but with a little bit different flavor. They're so great. And that can really open other people's eyes, like I said, to what gluten-free living can be like. It can be very, very enjoyable. And then when you're at potlucks or events like this, where there's a buffet of food, this again, I want to go back to going through the line first. And the reason I say this is because there's a good potential of cross contact with serving utensils, and that's one of the reasons why we asked to go first. Let's say somebody scoops out some mashed potatoes that are gluten-free, dollops it onto their food, and then when they do that, they hit, let's say, the stuffing. Roger's gonna pick on Thanksgiving traditional meals. So they hit the spoon in the stuffing, and then they put it back in the mashed potatoes. Well, now you have stuffing crumbs on that spoon, and if you're next or close to next, or at least get the crumbs that made it back into the mashed potatoes, then you're gonna get sick. One of the main reasons why we want to go through first because crumbs can fall from somebody's plate, they can fall off of a spoon or a serving utensil, they can get dipped into food on their plate that's technically clean, but it might have gluten in it, and then it's gonna contaminate something that doesn't have gluten in it. So we want to be safe, we want to go through the line first. Try not to be shy or eat ahead of time if you aren't comfortable with doing that yet. And that's okay too, because in the beginning I was not comfortable advocating for myself and for my children as much and going through the line first.
So, to recap on fall events, what our game plan is is sometimes we eat before we go when that's the easiest method and makes it just more convenient for everybody. We know what our safety packaged snacks are if we're at a concession stand, if we're at a potluck or a festival or something, we want to bring one dish that can serve as our complete meal and bring our own dessert too. That way we feel like we have a complete celebration here. We want to watch for shared utensils and cross contact when it comes to that. And we don't want to force every food situation to work. That's why I want to give you permission to eat beforehand if you're more comfortable with that. And then when you do bring your own food, you want to bring food you're actually excited to eat. That makes things more complete, more fun, and it's gonna make you feel a lot less left out because you're enjoying something you really love to eat. And you're gonna share it probably with some friends who've never tried that gluten-free item that you're eating. So it's a great sharing and way to have those conversations to help people be a little bit more educated with your dietary needs. So just remember, not every event has to feed you for you to enjoy it. And then when it makes sense, bring food good enough that everyone else wishes they were getting yours. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Gluten Free Engineer. If you found value in this story, please share it with someone who might need encouragement on their own gluten-free journey. For more tips, recipes, resources, and even links to my YouTube channel, head on over to theglutenfreeengineer.com. It's your one-stop hub to make gluten-free living simple, fun, and full of flavor. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on an episode. And we will see you next week. The Gluten Free Engineer Podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. I share my personal experiences and stories about living with celiac disease and navigating a gluten free lifestyle. This podcast does not provide medical advice. Always consult with a qualified health care professional for medical questions, concerns, or advice specific to your health.
